Retired minister Bob Perry was one of a half-dozen activists arrested during a sit-in at the Greene County Jail in late August. The event was organized by a group called the ReSisters, one of a few groups that have developed over the last year, to protest the nation’s immigration policy and the county jail’s contract to hold ICE detainees.
Perry said his involvement began with performing clergy visits to detainees, in coordination with the group Abide in Love, who were not involved in the sit-in.
“We were able to help folks,” he explained, “not just with prayer and encouragement, but sometimes with practical needs, able to help some families who were struggling because of (a) breadwinner being detained and that sort of thing.”
He also said they were sometimes able to help detainees find legal help and helped unprepared parents with paperwork to make sure their minor children had legal guardians.
He said many detainees he spoke with were caught off guard and thought they were doing things right.
“They were doing regular check-ins with immigration and thought that they, had some sort of protection from deportation or especially from being put in jail.”
He said his concerns grew overtime, “about what I considered lack of proper treatment in terms of folks being held indefinitely without specific charges; not having an opportunity for bail. And so, when the ReSisters invited me to participate with them in a sit-in requesting that the sheriff release detainees who did not have criminal charges, I agreed to be a part of that.”
August 26, Perry and five others were eventually arrested after the jail’s lobby was closed to the public, and they declined to leave.
“We were expecting to be arrested, booked and released. That was the typical way we understood that trespassing charges were handled. We didn't expect to be held for 24 hours and actually put in jail, but that was the sheriff's choice of how to handle it.”
Perry said they were released with no charges but believes it's still possible he could be charged. Missouri Court records do not currently show any charges. He also said he was told he is suspended from visiting the jail or communicating with detainees for one-year, at which time his situation could be reevaluated.
He said the attention should not be about him or his fellow activists.
“My primary concern is the detainees, and especially those who have no charges against them, no felony charges, no accusations. My main concern is what's happening to those families and the difficulties they're going through, and the extended detention resulting in most of them being deported. That's still my concern primarily is, what's happening to the detainees?”
He said he would like to continue to support those detainees, though right now he is not sure how. His commitment to doing something, though, comes from a deep sense of purpose.
“My involvement in this, I see it as a product of my Christian faith. It for me has been a calling, just as I felt a call to ministry and to being a missionary years ago. You know, I felt like this was something that God wanted me to do. So that's been a primary motivation... just trying to live out what I understand to be my effort to be a follower of Christ.”
In a statement on the issue published in the Springfield Daily Citizen, Interim Sheriff Jason Johnson wrote “Until I can be assured that Mr. Perry can be trusted to follow the rules; I cannot return him to his position as a volunteer... Once the criminal trespassing matter involving Mr. Perry is adjudicated; I am available to meet directly with him to discuss his future as a volunteer with the GCSO...Rest assured, there are still approved volunteer ministers currently active within the jail, who provide weekly ministerial services to the inmates.”