In Oregon, a community responds to imprisonment of migrants

Norm and Kathy Daviess stood in the shade of a prison wall topped with coiled razor wire, waiting for three immigrants to come out. It’s become an oddly familiar routine, part of an ad hoc group of volunteers that formed in recent months after the Trump administration transferred 124 immigrants to the federal prison in rural Oregon, a first for the facility.

Section:Gallery

Mon., Oct. 22, 2018

In this Oct. 3, 2018 photo, Navneet Kaur, left, a volunteer interpreter with Innovation Law Lab, hands out towels and toiletries to Carlos Marroquin, right, after he was released from a nearby federal prison at the Dasmesh Darbar Sikh temple in Salem, Ore. Looking on at center, is Victoria Bejarano Muirhead, of Innovation Law Lab.

Amanda Loman Associated Press
In this Aug. 23, 2018 photo, Karandeep Singh, left, a Sikh immigrant from India, speaks with Victoria Bejarano Muirhead, from Immigration Law Lab, at the Dasmesh Darbar Sikh Temple in Salem, Ore. Sikh immigrants freed from a federal prison in nearby Sheridan, Ore., have been welcomed into the temple where they can stay, get food and attend religious services.

Andrew Selsky Associated Press
In this Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018 photo, volunteers wait outside the federal prison in Sheridan, Ore., for a few asylum seekers to be released from custody, months after they and more than 100 other immigrants were brought to the prison. In response, members of the community banded together to provide them with free legal services, transportation, food and lodging.

Andrew Selsky Associated Press
In this Oct. 3, 2018 photo, Victoria Bejarano Muirhead, right, development director at the Innovation Law Lab, shares the news that two more jailed immigrants are expected to be released with volunteer interpreter Navneet Kaur in the parking lot of the Dasmesh Darbar Sikh temple in Salem, Ore.

Amanda Loman Associated Press
In this Aug. 24, 2018, photo, Karandeep Singh, right, a Sikh immigrant from India, hugs another immigrant outside the Dasmesh Darbar Sikh Temple in Salem, Ore., after the man was released from federal prison.

Andrew Selsky Associated Press
In this Oct. 3, 2018 photo, Satyawart, left, and Karandeep Singh, immigrants from India who were recently released from a federal prison in Sheridan, Ore., watch a video on a phone at the Dasmesh Darbar Sikh temple in Salem, Ore. The men are immigrants from India who were recently released from the federal prison in Sheridan.

Amanda Loman Associated Press
In this Oct. 3, 2018 photo, Karandeep Singh, right, and Abdoulaye Camara, both who were recently released from the nearby federal prison in Sheridan, Ore., serve up food at the Dasmesh Darbar Sikh temple in Salem, Ore.

Amanda Loman Associated Press
In this Aug. 22, 2018, photo, a man appears inside the Dasmesh Darbar Sikh Temple in Salem, Ore., where some Indian Sikh immigrants, freed from an Oregon federal prison, have been receiving food, shelter and religious services as they try to connect with family in the United States.

Andrew Selsky Associated Press
In this Aug. 22, 2018 photo, Jagtar Singh, left, president of the Dasmesh Darbar Sikh Temple in Salem, Ore., speaks with Temple priest Gurpreet Singh in front of the temple.

Andrew Selsky Associated Press
In this Oct. 3, 2018 photo, Satyawart, left, and Balvinder Singh, immigrants from India freed from the federal prison in Sheridan, Ore., talk at the Dasmesh Darbar Sikh temple in Salem, Ore.

Amanda Loman Associated Press