Michael Airgood felt compelled Wednesday to join dozens of fellow Christians who prayed for peace and called for humane treatment of immigrants during a vigil in Downtown Pittsburgh.

“I’m here because I think what our government is doing to immigrants and people of color is unconscionable,” said Airgood, a minister at Community of Reconciliation Church in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood. “For my own conscience, I need to stand here.”

He brought a sign adorned with a rose and the phrase “There is a higher justice.” It’s a quote from Sophie Scholl, a member of the White Rose Resistance that advocated non-violent resistance in Nazi Germany.

During the hourlong vigil outside of the William S. Moorhead Federal Building at the corner of Grant Street and Liberty Avenue, about 50 people prayed, sang, read from the Bible and held a moment of silence for those who have died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody or at the hands of federal immigration officers.

In recent weeks, immigration officers have detained people in Springdale, Oakmont and Pittsburgh. In Minneapolis, they killed two U.S. citizens — Renee Good, a Colorado native and mother of three, and Alex Pretti, a nurse born in Illinois.

Outside the federal building, blue candles, meant to symbolize peace, sat at the bottom of a flagpole.

Participants placed black ashes on one another’s heads — a symbol of Ash Wednesday, which marks the start of Lent, a 40-day season that leads to Easter. For many Christians, Lent is a time of repentance and fasting.

Airgood, with ashes forming a cross on his forehead, said he would reflect this Ash Wednesday on the wrongs he believes the federal government is carrying out this year.

“We repent even though our government won’t,” he said.

Sister Janice Vanderneck, founder of the immigrant advocacy nonprofit Casa San Jose, was among the vigil organizers. She and others also host a weekly prayer service every Friday outside of the local ICE facility in Pittsburgh’s South Side neighborhood.

“Focusing on the Lenten time, we ask forgiveness for how inhumanely (immigrants) are being treated,” Vanderneck told TribLive. “And we ask for repair, anything we can do to repair the harm that has been done.”

She said she prayed also “for transformation of heart for immigration officials.”

Event organizers urged people to support immigrant communities, donate to organizations that help marginalized people or pray for those in ICE custody.

Paula Nettleship, 58, of Mt. Lebanon has attended several of the Friday prayer services outside of the local ICE site. She held a small candle at Wednesday’s service.

“We are here peacefully and with hope, responding to what we hear and to our faith,” she said, explaining she feels that people can come together to speak up for immigrants.

Linda DeBar, 79, of Bethel Park, said she was particularly concerned to see immigration agents, often with their faces covered, being “so violent and so secretive.”

“What brought me here is I’m deeply concerned about the federal government’s policies and practices about immigration in this country,” she said.

Sister Barbara Finch, a member of the Sisters of Saint Joseph and a co-facilitator of Pax Christi Pittsburgh, said she believed people needed to stand up for their beliefs amid a surge in immigration enforcement nationally and locally.

“We believe Jesus is being crucified today,” said Finch, who helped coordinate Wednesday’s event. “It’s the immigrants. It’s the hungry. It’s the homeless.”

Finch said she wanted the community to come together, regardless of their beliefs, to stand up for immigrants.

“It’s one thing to pray alone in your house, but only God knows that,” she said. “For people to know that I do not want to be complicit in the injustice, I have to stand up and say that.”

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