In July of 2020, I shared a simple idea through online networks — that a huge quilt with 45,000 marks would help those who saw it understand the enormity of our inhumane immigrant detention system that locked up, on an average day in 2019, 45,000 people.
I asked folks to send me squares so we could make that quilt. I received 3-by-3 squares from all over the country and one from Oaxaca, Mexico. Many squares came from New Hampshire natives and the actual assembling of the quilt happened in New Hampshire too. Three local women, Nancy Brennan, Kathy Spielman and Maja Hauck-Smith lent their considerable design and sewing skills to the project. That’s how the 45,000 Quilt began.
The quilt has already traveled quite extensively. A week ago, the City of Chicago opened a display in city hall with an event featuring city and state officials as well as religious leaders. Those of us who sent the quilt into the world from our small state marveled that the work envisioned and assembled here was embraced by those in a multicultural metropolis. We exchanged expressions of pride.
The day after the Chicago opening event, we received news that reminded us again of the policies that ignited the passions that created our artwork. Antony, an African asylum seeker who has been hosted for over a year by the Community Church of Durham, had heard that his case had once again been dismissed by the immigration judge in Louisiana.
As is the case with most asylum seekers, Antony had already spent a significant time in detention. During his time in Durham, he has been virtually under house arrest, an ankle monitor strapped to his leg. The monitor is not only uncomfortable, but at times emits loud and scary sounds. Officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement claim that monitors are necessary so that immigrants don’t disappear though it’s been documented that well over 90% of asylum seekers show up for their hearings.
Antony is a kind man and a talented one. He speaks several languages and is very religious. He loves his family and left his country because he had to. He is a person I would love to have as a neighbor. Antony is continuing to appeal so he can receive asylum.
Way back, when only one panel of the quilt had been completed and exhibited, someone asked me if the quilt would still be relevant if Biden won the 2020 election. I didn’t know how to answer the question. The quilt was created in response to four years of shameless bigotry and scapegoating, accompanied by maniacally cruel policies. People who cared about immigrants had poured their feelings into small quilt squares. I didn’t know at the time the impact the completed quilt would have on viewers. It initially was a vehicle of expression for the creators.
Prior to the opening at Chicago City Hall, I was again asked about the relevance of the quilt. Now that the completed quilt has been shown in several locations and since we’ve had seven months to see how the Biden administration would handle immigration, I have much more to say.
The quilt, like most works of art, is open to interpretations and meanings that the creators didn’t envision. I did not expect the tears that would flow as people encountered the quilt.
I was deeply moved when I received a copy of a video that had been produced by the members of a church in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. where it was displayed for a few days. The church sought out the quilt for their parishioners. Some were themselves immigrants, and the quilt validated their experiences. The quilt was made to protest cruelty to people who looked and sounded like them.
In Florida, a young woman who had sent a square visited the quilt with her mother, a Vietnamese immigrant. On their way home, the mother opened up and told stories her daughter had never heard before. A Boston community organizer, who successfully lobbied to have the quilt shown in city hall in June of 2022, saw the beauty of a diverse, multicultural society in a quilt created by a diverse group of people.
On an emotional level, the quilt is relevant. As a historical document of immigrant detention in 2019 in terms of numbers, it is too. But there is more. Antony’s ordeal continues under the Biden administration. Shouldn’t things be different?
The U.S. is still failing at reforming immigration. It is possible to acknowledge that Biden’s challenge is massive and still be dissatisfied. Inhumane politics begun under the Trump administration have not been repealed. International law is still being flouted as our country is allowing expedited deportations when asylum seekers are entitled to hearings before judges.
We are still spending taxpayers’ money on jailing immigrants and filling the pockets of the corporations that run detention centers when community-based approaches have been proven to cost much less and not further traumatize people who’ve experienced so much hardship already.
The ACLU put out a report in July assessing the performance of Alejandro Mayorkas, the current Secretary of Homeland Security. The report acknowledges some successes, but highlights that Mayorkas needs to do more to rein in ICE agents and sever ICE’s reach into communities where local law enforcement is tapped to assist with arrests and deportations.
Though two of the worst detention centers have been closed, “Mayorkas has failed to seize the opportunity to shrink the ICE detention machine.” It points out that Congress has been asked to fund 30,000 detention beds in the coming year, meaning that the daily average of immigrants in detention will increase.
In addition, though Mayorkas announced he would rebuild the asylum process, he has kept in place a Trump administration order called Title 42 which closed the border because of the pandemic. “Public health experts have made clear that Title 42 has no scientific basis as a public health measure.” Keeping this order in place and more recently allowing expedited removals is not the reform immigrant advocates hoped for.
As the 45,000 Quilt travels around the United States, it educates viewers through the text boards that accompany it. It opens hearts as viewers examine each square. And it encourages conversations about what we really want a humane United States to be like.
The 45,000 Quilt has roots in New Hampshire. People in many locations are seeing it and being challenged to ask the question, shouldn’t things be different?
(Glen Ring is an ESL teacher for adults and an immigration justice activist. The 45,000 Quilt featured during the Concord Multicultural Festival in September and will be hosted by the Unitarian Church of Concord in 2022.)