Immigrant families and supporters united Christ's passion with their own sufferings in a Good Friday Way of the Cross devotion that called for immigration reform and family unity.

More than 200 men, women and children prayed, sang and processed 1.3 miles in the hot noon sun March 21 from Dolores Mission Church in Boyle Heights to the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles. Most wore white shirts with the message: "Keep Families Together."

Worshipers were led by two drummers who kept a solemn beat and six men in purple shirts slowly carrying a large white cross on their shoulders.

Migrants, said San Gabriel Region Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala, "carry the cross of a broken immigration system." He called on government officials to address immigration issues comprehensively and with "respect for the human dignity which God gives to each one of us."

Each Station of the Cross focused on such issues as poverty, homelessness, families torn apart by ICE raids, and exploitive labor policies and practices.

Dolores Mission parishioner Gloria Mitchel, 54, prayerfully marched with her 11-year-old son. Carrying an umbrella to shield herself from the sun, Mitchel, a naturalized U.S. citizen, said she worked for many years in factories and restaurants so that her five children would have better educational opportunities. However she expressed her frustration with a bureaucratic immigration system, recalling how in 1992 she applied for documents for her Mexican-born daughters. Some 16 years later, she is still waiting.

"It's terrible to leave my children in Mexico," she lamented. "I feel split in two."

Tearfully, Mitchel also remembered her nephew who at age 17 was shot in the head and killed by border patrol agents in Arizona. She blames the governments of Mexico and the U.S. for not working together to create workable policies.

"It would be good for the two governments to unite and solve the problem," she said. "The salaries in Mexico are too low. People need salaries that support basic needs like food, clothing and housing."

Joining Dolores Mission parishioners were worshippers from Our Lady Queen of Angels Church (La Placita), as well several workers who were apprehended in the Van Nuys raids. Also participating in the demonstration of solidarity with undocumented immigrants and their families were students from Loyola Marymount University, Santa Clara University and Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose as well as several youth from downtown Covenant House.

"People migrate because they are hungry and thirsty," said Jesuit Father Scott Santarosa, pastor of Dolores Mission, as he recalled several of Jesus' last words. "We thirst for justice."