Photo by Sarah Anne Hughes.

For the past several Mondays, community members have been gathering at the White House in support of the thousands of unaccompanied minors detained while leaving Central America and sent to the D.C. area to await deportation hearings.

Between January and July of this year, 238 children taken into custody by immigration authorities have been released to sponsors in D.C. That number is 2,804 in Maryland and 2,856 in Virginia. More than 200,000 Central American immigrants live in the D.C. region, according to Stateline.

Mary’s Center, a health non-profit that opened in 1988 to serve immigrant women and children from Central America, has served more than 500 children fleeing from countries plagued by violence like Honduras and Guatemala in recent months at a cost of over $400,000. The center again held a vigil last night to raise awareness about the resources needed to serve this vulnerable population.

“All children in this nation should be treated with dignity. Any child is our child,” Maria Gomez, founder and president of Mary’s Center, told the crowd of around 100 people. “The children who are coming to this country are not coming here just so that they can have a better home or a better meal. They are coming here because they have no alternatives. Either they die or live crossing the border, or they’ll certainly die in their homeland.”

One of those children, identified only as Juan for his safety, said both of his parents were killed in Central America. Speaking in Spanish translated by Gomez, Juan said he came to the U.S. to support his siblings back home.

With tears in her eyes, Juan’s aunt, translated by Gomez, said she’s still fearful but the U.S. is the only place she can feel safe. “The lives in this country are respected,” she said, according to Gomez. “The laws are respected.”

Standing on Pennsylvania Avenue facing the White House, organizers read a list of demands to President Obama including “sufficient funding for kids at the border” and no speedy or unsafe deportations. Members of the crowd, some wearing black tape to represent the children who died attempting to cross the border, placed hearts bearing the names of immigrant children on a banner. A few women held signs reading, “Any child is our child.”

The Central American Resource Center, which has a location in D.C., said in a recent release the “conditions in which these minors are held are distressing.”

“Overcrowding and lack of hygiene are prominent,” the release states. “Detention centers have reached capacity and minors are now being transferred to facilities in other states, increasing the difficulty of being reunited with their loved ones.”

Juan will appear in court today, according to his aunt. “She’s asking to please not deport her nephew tomorrow,” Gomez said. “She knows that, together as a family here, they can really uplift the whole family.”

Mary’s Center will be out in front of the White House again next Monday to lead another vigil.