Redwood City Residents Fasting to Encourage End to Deportations

In solidarity with undocumented immigrants who have been deported, several residents of Redwood City and Mountain View have begun to fast.

Maria Marroquin, executive director of the Day Worker Center, started a fast the evening of May 1st—after the May Day march and rally in Mountain View—and will conclude it on May 11th, Mother's Day. She joins scores of other sympathizers of immigration reform who aim to reunite families.

"We are hoping that our prayers get to our savior and to President Obama so that he uses the authority he has to stop the deportations," Marroquin said on Wednesday. "Part of our fasting includes sending petitions not only to Obama, but to our representatives, in conjunction of course of the desire of a fair and just immigration reform for the country." 

Organized by Peninsula Interfaith Action (PIA) and the National Day Laborers Organizing Network, the fasters will sleep in various churches and will be joined by others who have also decided to fast. The first night, Marroquin was joined by Marco Cedillo and Angel Santuario at Trinity United Methodist Church, where they slept.

On Thursday the fasters slept at Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Los Gatos.

Here's a list of the participating churches where the fasters will sleep and hold discussions the following day on immigration-related issues between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.:

• May 3: Second Baptist Church, Redwood City
• May 4: St. Francis of Assisi, East Palo Alto
• May 5: First Presbyterian Church, Palo Alto
• May 6: Los Altos United Methodist, Los Altos
• May 7: Unitarian Universalist Church, Palo Alto
• May 8: St. Athanasius Catholic Church, Mountain View
• May 9: Unitarian Universalist Church, San Mateo
• May 10: Congregational Church, Los Altos
• May 11: St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Foster City

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