Sacred Vigil for Justice at Adelanto Detention Center

Hosted by the California-Pacific Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church Immigration Task Force, standing in solidarity with detained individuals, honoring lives lost, and calling for accountability and justice.

As part of our journey to Annual Conference 2026 in the desert, we will make a sacred stop at another place in the desert: the Adelanto Detention Center.

There, we gather for a vigil of prayer, remembrance, and advocacy. We come to offer our presence and accompaniment to the nearly 2,000 individuals currently detained under inhumane conditions, many living in uncertainty, isolation, and fear.

We gather to remember and honor the lives lost—the three who have died within these walls in recent months, in years past, and the 46 individuals who have lost their lives while in immigration custody or detention. We also remember by name those whose stories call us to deeper accountability, including Rene Goode and Alex Pretti. Their lives are not forgotten.

We stop because faith compels us to bear witness and resistance. We stop to lament the suffering that has taken place, to stand in accompaniment with those detained and their families, and to raise our collective voice in advocacy, demanding accountability, justice, humane treatment, and systemic change.

In this sacred act of  public witness, we declare that every person is worthy of dignity, compassion, and care. We refuse to look away. We stop to remember, to accompany, to speak truth, and to call for an end to detention practices and systems that dehumanize our immigrant siblings.