St. Martin students pray for deported immigrants

They go about it quietly, but once a month a group of St. Martin de Porres High School students travel from Waukegan to a federal detention center in Chicago to pray for people being deported — that day.

Students go before school and join members of the Interfaith Committee for Detained Immigrants. Often they are the only high school students to participate in the vigils, which typically include praying the rosary as a bus pulls away with detainees headed to the airport.

The teens’ dedication caught the attention of Nancy Polacek, coordinator of the Strategic Pastoral Plan and radio host for the Archdiocese of Chicago. She invited three of the students to be interviewed on her monthly broadcast, “Reflecting Christ’s Light.”

“The Archdiocese of Chicago’s Strategic Pastoral Plan is focusing on teens and young adults this year,” Polacek said at the beginning of the broadcast. “I believe these students really do reflect Christ’s light in what they do.”

Their half-hour interview with Polacek airs at 9 a.m. Nov. 30 on Relevant Radio, 950 AM.

When Polacek asked what moved the students, who are documented, to get up before dawn to attend the vigils and stand out in the cold praying for undocumented people they do not know, the teens said their own personal stories drive them.

“My father was deported,” said Ivonne. “It was really hard seeing my mother struggle and hearing my dad’s stories of his mistreatment in jail. He’s been back for a long time now, but I think of my dad every time I see that bus pulling away. It’s very emotional. That’s why I want to make a change, to make a difference for other families.”

Likewise, Ulises, a junior basketball player, described how his father had come to this country at age 7 from Honduras.

“As a young child, he was split up from his family,” Ulises said, adding he prays for other families separated because of deportation.

Earlier this year, the three students, Ulises, Crystal and Ivonne, wanted to extend their advocacy for immigrants into their school community and the wider city of Waukegan.

They formed a club, “uKNIGHTed 4 Immigration Reform,” and have held activities, including a silent vigil on Belvidere Road in Waukegan, and fundraisers at school designed to draw others into their cause.

“We’re really trying to raise awareness,” said Ulises, activities director for the club. “We want people to understand what’s going on in the world around us.”