Presence at Immigration Court: First UUs Answer the Call to Accompaniment

In the corridors of immigration courtrooms, where anxiety and uncertainty weigh heavily on those facing an uncertain future, a quiet ministry of presence has taken root. FAITH—Faithful Accompaniment in Trust & Hope – began in May as a collaboration between Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, the San Diego Catholic Diocese, and the San Diego Organizing Project, a multi-faith social justice network to which First UU belongs. This interfaith court-accompaniment program represents a powerful act of solidarity: clergy and lay people standing alongside immigrants during one of the most vulnerable moments of their lives. While volunteers cannot change the legal realities that migrants face, or prevent the arrests that sometimes occur at courtroom doors, they offer migrants something equally vital—the reassurance that in their time of greatest need, they are not alone. Through prayer, presence, and pastoral care, FAITH volunteers embody a simple but profound truth: these individuals navigating the immigration system are not statistics or case numbers, but neighbors, brothers and sisters deserving of dignity, witness, and compassion.

Members of First UU have answered this call to accompaniment, joining FAITH volunteers at the Federal courthouse to stand alongside immigrants and observe court proceedings. Among them is Isabella Furth, whose recent reflection for the FAITH newsletter offers a window into what it means to bear witness during these critical moments in our neighbors' lives.


Reflection by Isabella Furth

“There is pain in this world that you can’t be cheered out of. You don’t need solutions. You don’t need to move on from your grief. You need someone to see your grief, to acknowledge it… Some things cannot be fixed. They can only be carried.”
—Megan Devine

“We are each other’s magnitude and bond.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks

The hallway where we wait is dimly lit, with drab walls and dirty brown carpet. It’s hard not to feel its shabbiness reflects a systemic contempt for the people who make their way here:disregard, dismissal, even dehumanization. And yet, in this stark place, tenderness still finds its way through. It appears in a quiet conversation, a gentle nod, a silent vigil. Small gestures of care shimmer against a backdrop that tries to erase human dignity.

When someone is detained and escorted down the corridor toward the elevators, what meets their eyes? A dingy hallway. Masked guards. Volunteers with cell phones doing necessary but intrusive work of documentation. In the midst of that violence, my role is simple: to stand present and unshielded. To communicate, often without words, you are not alone. Someone sees you.

Sometimes a detained person meets my gaze and holds it as long as they can. In those suspended seconds, there is nothing to fix and nowhere else to go. There is only presence — a moment carried together, a quiet acknowledgment that honors the humanity in both of us. That brief encounter becomes a bond, fragile yet profound.

I am a humanist and a universalist. I believe all people — all of creation — are woven together in a vast, living web of interdependence, sustained by the great spirit of life and love. For me, the divine dwells in the spaces between us: called into being by our connections, by shared grief, our common longing, our recognition of the holy light in each other. My prayer is that every person who walks into that hallway will be held and sustained by the spirit of life, that they will feel its eternal and all-encompassing love, even in places that attempt to deny its very existence. 

Gwendolyn Brooks writes, “We are each other’s magnitude and bond.” Her words remind me that what strengthens us is not power or certainty, but the ties we form — the ways we show up for one another, especially in places shaped by hardship. This bond is stronger than the systems that diminish us. It is the quiet work of the spirit of life, stitching connection where the world has torn it apart.

May we continue to be channels of that spirit.


Learn more about FAITH and upcoming orientations.

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