Up close to a toxic system ...

With leadership from PICO California, some 600 or so folks from all over the state descended on Saturday on the Otay Mesa detention center that the US government is renting from a private contractor to hold migrants. We rather thought we'd improved the signage.

While security was distracted by the redecoration project, about 50 of us moved up the fence around the facility.

They then linked arms and chanted some more after tying kids' shoes to the fence. pic.twitter.com/PQNp93H0KK

— Andrew Bowen (@acbowen) June 24, 2018

From there we blocked the main gate during shift change and received the smiles of visiting family members exiting after visiting prisoners.

The best moment was when women locked within responded with cheers to the chants of the massed crowd on the perimeter road. On this day, what we had to offer was encouragement to sister human beings. The long work remains to reform an asylum and migration system that has become poisonous to us all.

This post lacks my usual photos because, for this day, I was on hand to take whatever risks of detention my participation might involve -- so no photographs. Didn't happen today. The condition of our country will likely demand unfamiliar risks from most all of us in this toxic moment.