A group of Eastern Washington clergy went to Minneapolis to protest illegal deportations and overly aggressive federal immigration enforcement. Reverend Genevieve Heywood was one of them.
SPR’s Eliza Billingham spoke with Heywood about what she did, what she saw, and what lessons she’s bringing back to Spokane.
This is a transcript. To hear the interview, click "Listen" above.
GH: I'm the Reverend Genevieve Haywood, I'm a pastor at Veradale United Church of Christ, and I also convene faith leaders and leaders of conscience of Eastern Washington and North Idaho.
EB: You went to Minneapolis.
GH: I sure did.
EB: When did you go?
GH: We left on last Wednesday, the 21st. Now what's very interesting and amazing–the folks in Minneapolis are absolutely amazing–they had put out the call just five days before we actually got our tickets and went.
It was six days on Thursday when we got together in this big room at a sanctuary at a local Presbyterian church. They said, yeah, it was only six days ago that they had decided they needed to call the faith leaders to come and stand with them.
They're exhausted, they're struggling to keep going. They needed people of faith to come, and so we did.
EB: And how long were you there?
GH: Til Saturday.
And Saturday, as we were flying home, it wasn't until we landed in Seattle before making the jump back here to Spokane that I opened up my phone and found out that Alex had died.
Some of the faith leaders got that information before we left, and they made the choice to stay. Because we didn't get it in time, we couldn't make that choice. But I know there were people in our group who would have stayed longer. Just absolutely devastating.
Many were concerned because we had so many people out at the march that they would retaliate in some way. I don't know this was the retaliation. I think this was just their usual bad behavior.
And they know they're being filmed. They don't have consequences given to them for their bad behavior. And because it was border patrol, I'm pretty confident that they have practiced this bad behavior on people crossing the border. Because it looked to me like they've gotten away with this before.
EB: What did you see while you were there? What did you do for the days that you were there?
GH: We all had many different things that we did. We had a number of opportunities.
What I did was part of the group that we had four buses full of clergy that went out into the neighborhood that is a commercial district. Lots of restaurants, lots of stores, many of which are closed because of fear. It's a very active ICE area.
And so we went dressed in our clergy selves. We stood in little groups along the road at various different corners. We had our whistles. We had our stoles or whatever identified whatever religious tradition we were out of.
We were dressed really warm, and the locals taught us how to dress correctly. It was very sweet. And while we were out there–my corner with three other clergy was near Target where some of the bad behavior has happened.
Other clergy were further down, and one set of clergy saw 15 ice agents surround a minivan with a pregnant mom, her children, and another adult in the van.
They blew their whistles. They took out their phones, started recording, and whatever, if it was being watched, if it was the noise, whatever the case, or that they were satisfied with the woman's documents, they did leave that family eventually.
Would they have done that without that intervention? Don't know. That's some of what I saw.
I was in a number of different trainings. I was in a group of the sweet, sweet little church. One of the trainings I was in–this little church has been an immigrant church since 1910. It started Swedish and English, and now it's Spanish English.
This little church, it's Lutheran. They took off the prayer rail for the chancel and have made this church a party church, quarterly. (Is it quarterly or once a month?)
They have a dance party in this church, and they even have a disco ball in the hall to allow joy and community.
It also–the benefit of it is all those cars park on the street, and it becomes a very narrow street, and ICE can't get in because there's no room. It's lovely.
Then, in that little church that is just struggling financially to get by, they have three medical rooms in the basement of the church that are staffed by the medical students. This is because when people are injured, they're afraid to go to the hospital. Or when they're sick, they're afraid to go to the hospital.
While we were there in this little church getting our training, getting this information from a panel of, I would guess there were seven people on the panel, who are doing the hyper-local interventions—they were telling us about their day—we went into lockdown because there was an abduction a block and a half away. And in the scuffle of the abduction, people were injured, neighbors were injured, and they were brought to the church.
Other things that I was involved with–the march. The march, I have seen different numbers. Most recently, I saw the number 75,000. Last night's meeting said 50,000. It was a lot of people.
So we were in the march, we were headed down the streets, and it took almost an hour before we actually started moving. And I don't know what the block was that kept us from moving.
We got moving, going downtown. Some of the clergy I was with were just absolutely frozen. They're from Seattle. They've got a little thinner blood. So poor things. We were all cold. So being from Spokane, I was cold too.
So we got into this little restaurant and got some warm food, and then walked out into this mall-type area where it turned out to be a hotel. And so I see these people up at the desk, and I want to ask them what is their experience here in town? What do they have to say about the experience of the people marching?
There's an African-American woman at the desk sitting down, and there's this white, skinny, tall guy standing up kind of behind her.
I ask, and she's like, ‘Yeah, I'm glad they're here,’ or something. And she kind of looks sideways towards the tall, skinny, white guy out of the side of her eye, and I'm getting the vibe that she can't say very much. I asked the tall, skinny guy, ‘So what are you thinking about this?’ And he's like, ‘Well, everybody has their right to express their opinion.’
I'm like, ‘Oh, this sounds like talking points.’ And I ask him, ‘So how is it with what's happening in the neighborhoods around here? How is this for you? How is this for the community in which you live?’
And he's like, ‘I have no problem. We don't ever see them here.’ I'm like, ‘What planet are you on?’
So that was that day, and then we went back. The clergy group that I was with, we went back and we debriefed, and the next day we came home.
EB: And you mentioned trainings.What did you learn in these trainings?
GH: That's really important. Number one, really important that people be trained. Don't be going off with a good idea.
They said, ‘Don't have any ideas,’ which was meaning if you have an idea of what you think could help, do it in a group. It's not that you don't need ideas for how to address this, but don't just go off on an idea.
So we had trainings in how to witness, document, and make noise. This has to do with the hyper-local groups. These groups, having been formed during the time of George Floyd, there were these Signal groups that had already specialized in different ways to address the local community.
And this was so important. That block, whatever block you live on, is what you are called to be the community protector of. And so they taught how to witness.
So this witnessing is being able to look at all directions. Then, have somebody who's documenting. That's with the phone. Now, when somebody's documenting with the phone, they can't be looking behind them. That's why the witness is next to the documenter. And then everybody making noise.
One of the ways they address this on this hyper-local level is through these Signal groups. They send out word. They have a person who is identified as the dispatcher, who people who are in these different groups can call and tell what's going on.
And then the person who's the dispatcher can say to them, ‘OK, this sounds like…’ and they go through how to direct the person that is either commuting. That's the person in the car looking through the neighborhood. Not patrolling. They commute.
Or the people who are on the Signal groups, who, the word has gone out ‘ICE is in your area,’ they go out of their houses. They get that information through the people commuting, adding to the dispatch, the people in the neighborhoods adding to the dispatch, and the dispatch sending out to everybody on the block: Go out, witness, document, and make noise.
EB: And what do you think Minnesota would want people to know? There are lots of different groups of people. So maybe let's start with agencies or local government. What do you think Minneapolis would want police or local government to know?
GH: Yeah. I think for police, this was something I would really love for our police departments here in Spokane and Spokane Valley and Liberty Lake, the rest anywhere, is to look to what the police department has done in Minneapolis.
They had been working ever since the death of George Floyd to try to bring back some trust. And after five years, they were just beginning to bring back some trust. And there's still a long ways to go.
But the police chief has made it his stand to protect and defend the local community. This means he has spoken in solidarity? Maybe that's too strong of a word. He has spoken in support of the local anti-ICE peaceful–oh, my gosh, these are very peaceful protesters in spite of the exhaustion and in spite of…they go singing to places.
So for the police, I think they would ask our police chiefs specifically to consider what it means to protect and defend and decide that now.
Get involved now. Actually, Minneapolis would say that to everything, this is urgent. This is now.
We've already seen things happening in our area. Now is–before it gets any further, it would have been better if it could have been before now, but now is the absolute time.
So they would ask—I think they would advise, not ask, but advise our police chiefs, particularly Spokane and Spokane Valley: Choose now. Talk to your staff, talk to your officers to choose now. Because we have a change, we can change that culture and build back trust. This is an opportunity to do that.
I think they would also ask our city hall are those who represent our cities to choose now. Choose now what your stand is, city council members, Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake, Spokane, all of us. Choose now what your stand is about the expectations of ICE in our community.
Unions! Unions, they would really–we need you unions. We need you badly. We need you now to be part of this. With the help of unions, we have an 89% chance of overcoming this. We really need you involved. And that's what they told us.
So be hyper local. Take care of your block. Do it now and train. Train in nonviolent intervention. Train in whatever opportunities you have. It could be through PJALS, through Veterans for Peace, through a number of different organizations. Train on how to respond as a collective for what we want to see now.
And keep each other safe. Take time.
Oh, that little church I told you about, that sweet little church once a month. This is a Spanish speaking Spanish and English speaking church. They're the ones that have that little medical center in the basement. They're the ones that do these dance parties once, I think it's once a quarter.
Once a month, what they do is get volunteers who offer Reiki massage and acupuncture. Because the stress is extraordinary.
I guess one more thing that Minneapolis would be an example to us is they truly, truly, truly, truly love their neighbor. It's amazing, their hospitality.
On the march there were these little refreshment tables. It was like minus twenty four. And they had water bottles and they had hand warmers. And not only did they have them in packages. No, they had a bucket with them already made to heat–already out of the packages.
They had coats for the clergy that had come. There was somewhere between six hundred and fifty and a thousand of us.
They had tables and tables piled up in mountains by size of coats and long johns and mittens and hats for folks just to take who would come from warmer places. A huge kindness and hospitality. We can learn a lot from them.
EB: Anything else you want to add?
GH: Find out who's doing the work. Many times what people think is ‘I haven't seen anybody feeding people.’
We have tremendous work going in feeding people. Rather than say ‘I don't see anyone doing this. Therefore, I'm going to create a whole other agency.’ Rather than do that, find out the agencies who are doing the thing that you wish you could see happening and ask them, ‘How do I help?’
Ask them. Look for the places that are missing, where the gaps are. Don't assume it isn't happening. Assume that it's just not well broadcast that it's happening. And then say, ‘How can I help?’
