In 1847, 116 Baptist ministers from the Boston area signed an anti-slavery manifesto. It was a 5-foot-long handwritten scroll titled “A Resolution and Protest Against Slavery” recently rediscovered at the American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts archive.

Jennifer Cromack, a volunteer historian for the archive, says the long-lost document “offers a glimpse into the emerging debate over slavery in the 19th century in the Northeast.” (AP; July 4, 2025) The ministers announced their stance two years after southern Baptists split from northern Baptists over irreconcilable differences concerning the most significant question of the day: slavery and its abolition. Fourteen years later the Civil War, aka the War between the States, broke out in Charleston, South Carolina, then known as the political heart of the pro-slavery confederate south.

The Boston Baptist ministers risked a great deal proclaiming their stand against slavery. Cromack commented, “That’s become a part of our heritage to this day, to be people who stand for justice, for American Baptists to embrace diversity.”

The publication of the scroll’s discovery came on July 4. Its connections to today’s political controversies are self-evident. The nation’s immigration causes have replaced slavery as preeminent moral questions facing religious leaders and their congregations. President Donald Trump has taken the anti-immigration point position as the ultimate bully in the pulpit. Leadership for human rights embedded in immigration policy and citizenship is unclear and weak.

This week, the heart of Los Angeles was once again taken over by ICE agents in military attire, armed, with faces covered. According to the Los Angeles Times, ICE invaded MacArthur Park in central Los Angeles on horseback and in armored vehicles. A fleet of white minibuses blocked the streets in the Westlake neighborhood adjacent to the park. LA mayor Karen Bass arrived and told community people at the park federal immigration agents “need to leave right now, they need to leave because this is unacceptable.”

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ICE has arrested 1,600 people in Los Angeles between June 6 and June 22. From Jan. 20, President Donald Trump’s inauguration, to June 10, 1,355 people from Colorado have been arrested. A majority of these arrests are civil cases. These include overstaying a visa, asylum seeking, and entering the country illegally for the first time. Civil cases may become criminal cases for illegal re-entry, smuggling, human trafficking and visa or marriage fraud.

In Florida, the first group of immigrants arrived at “Alligator Alcatraz”, detained primarily for civil violations involving illegal entry into the U.S. They have not been convicted of crimes or suspected of criminal acts.

Alligator Alcatraz is located on an abandoned airfield in the Florida swamps. It was built under the authority of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody. Expecting rough weather, the facility uses hurricane-ready tents. The tents contain wire cages with metal bunk beds on concrete floors. The site has 28,000 feet of barbed wire, hundreds of security cameras, and about 400 personnel including National Guard soldiers. There are also the celebrated alligators and pythons in the surrounding swamps.

The site sees 100-degree heat in July along with flash floods. Mosquitos swarm the area, raising worries of mosquito and other insect-borne diseases. The site has limited access to emergency or comprehensive medical care. We, as taxpayers, have set up the site and continue its maintenance at $450 million per year. President Trump stated the site is “a little bit controversial” but “I couldn’t care less.”

The Catholic bishop in the diocese of Venice in Florida, Frank Dewane, issued a statement on July 3 about the detention center: “Observers note that people will be held at the new center in temporary structures, in the heat of the Florida summer, crowded in confined spaces, far from medical facilities and possibly located in the path of hurricanes. I have every hope that for brief stays, the conditions will befit human dignity.”

Given Alligator Alcatraz will hold up to 3,000 people in a hurricane-prone tent city, does the bishop actually believe there will ever be conditions that befit human dignity? At least Bishop Dewane made a statement, as mild as it is.

Catholic Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles led an interfaith prayer vigil in Los Angeles. He stated: “The current administration has offered no immigration policy beyond the stated goal of deporting thousands of people each day. This is not policy, it is punishment, and it can only result in cruel and arbitrary outcomes. Already we are hearing stories of innocent fathers and mothers being wrongly deported, with no recourse to appeal.”

A large majority of migrants crossing our border are inheritors of the depredations of the great European conquest from 1492. Their nations now suffer political turmoil with U.S. foreign policy taking its toll. These migrants do not come here to make war. Most come seeking freedom and a better life for themselves and their children.

As in 1847, the time has come for religious leaders to make their voices heard loud and clear at the U.S. Capitol and White House. Written proclamations won’t do the job. A Baptist ministers’ and Catholic bishops’ march on Washington is a good idea.

Paula Noonan owns Colorado Capitol Watch, the state’s premier legislature tracking platform.