On a recent Thursday evening, on the edge of Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood , scores of parishioners carrying candles made a quiet procession out the heavy wooden doors of St. Jarlath Catholic Church, past the glowing stained-glass windows and around the block.

This special service centered on a prayer , written by the late Pope Francis, for the protection of immigrants : “May we seek a world where none are forced to leave their home and where all can live in freedom, dignity and peace.”

These words were a balm for Vicente, 57, a welder with glasses and a goatee, whose 10-year-old son walked beside him.

Vicente, who’s originally from Mexico but has built a life in the East Bay over the past quarter-century, said the Trump administration’s aggressive approach to immigration enfor

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