In Sarasota, SURE and Pueblo Unido come together for ‘Disappeared in America’.
By Ramon Lopez
Original Air Date: November 5, 2025
Host: Clergy have been among the most outspoken critics of the crackdown against immigrants, and Sarasota has been a hotspot of religious resistance. Ramon Lopez reports.
[Choir sings hallelujah accompanied by harmonica and guitar]
Ramon Lopez: Since late August, they’ve been at Sarasota’s Payne Park every Sunday evening singing hymns and protest songs, holding signs and praying.
An average of 40 pastors, priests and people of faith and conscience have gathered for the vigils. They’re opposed to President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration policy. And they’re against Florida’s operation of detention centers for undocumented immigrants rounded up by masked ICE agents with the help of Florida law enforcement.
The weekly sessions are organized by Sarasota United for Responsibility and Equity. SURE is a local social justice organization for a dozen local congregations and interfaith leaders.
But this past Sunday, SURE teamed up with El Pueblo Unido Tampa Bay to support the national movement dubbed “Disappeared in America Weekend of Action.” As a result, more than 80 people were on hand this time.
Religious faiths and groups have been among the first to reject the treatment immigrants are receiving.
Reverend Alex Evangelista is a Salvadorean immigrant. The outspoken pastor of Pine Shores Presbyterian spoke at last Sunday’s rally. His message was loud and clear.
Rev. Alex Evangelista
Alex Evangelista: Today, I think we say it plainly. People are being disappeared by policy, by practice, by fear. We resist, friends, the culture of disappearance with visibility. Sarasota is not a bystander. Our sheriff’s office has become one of the most active partners with ICE in Florida, sending deputies to patrol the Everglades detention site. To those who say the law is the law, so is the gospel of human dignity. So is the Constitution’s promise to due process. Let justice roll down like waters. Let it roll through Payne Park and down every street in Sarasota where fear has settled. Let it roll into detention centers and into courtrooms. Let it roll until families are reunited, and let it roll until we do not disappear each other but we bring one another home. Until that day, friends, we will not wait. We will witness. We will organize because the river is rising. We see this, and we intend to be its current. Amen.
RL: He’s not alone in praying for justice, human dignity and the rights of those held in U.S. immigration detention, particularly at the Big Cypress Detention Center, dubbed Alligator Alcatraz.
Since it opened at the beginning of July, Alligator Alcatraz has sparked a slew of controversy surrounding its existence. There are multiple pending lawsuits from environmental and civil rights groups seeking to shutter the detention camp amidst allegations of inhuman conditions there.
Faith leaders and activists have been hosting weekly prayer vigils outside the detention center in the Everglades. They are there protesting immigration policies that they believe are against God’s will. Their efforts have spurred other peaceful vigils across the state, including in Sarasota.
The Roman Catholic Church can be counted on as well. The Pope and parishioners alike have pushed back on Trump immigration policies. At the Vatican, the first American pope said America’s treatment of immigrants is inhuman. Pope Leo strongly criticized Donald Trump’s immigration stance, questioning whether they were in line with the Catholic Church’s “pro-life” teachings.
Bishop Frank Dewane of the Diocese of Venice issued a statement which said in part: “It is alarming to see enforcement strategies which treat all unauthorized immigrants as dangerous criminals.” And he criticized the use of masked, heavily-armed federal agents, and the lack of due process in deportation arrests.
This is Ramon Lopez for WSLR News.
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