Oregon pastor and stripper team up to raise money for migrant kids after sweeping ICE raid

A pastor and stripper from Oregon are teaming up in local efforts to raise money for immigrant children who were affected by recent federal immigration raids targeting Mississippi poultry processing facilities that saw several hundred undocumented immigrants arrested.

Rev. Adam Ericksen of Milwaukie’s Clackamas United Church of Christ and Dawn McCall, a stripper who works at a vegan strip club in Portland and who has organized fundraisers for social causes in the past, discussed the initiative in a Facebook video on Friday.

In the short clip, Ericksen said he and McCall were working together to “raise awareness and support for the children in Mississippi who were torn apart by the ICE raids from their families.”

“As an atheist, I know it seems super weird that strippers would do anything with the church for any reason,” McCall, also known as Blu Dawn, said in the video. “However, this is Portland and we keep it weird.”{mosads}

Dawn went on to say that after she and Ericksen learned of the recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Mississippi they felt “pretty devastated over what was happening.”

They said they decided to link up and start an initiative called the “Our Kids Charity Campaign.”

“Because at the end of the day, we are all saints and we are all sinners, and the children of Mississippi are our children too,” Ericksen added.

According to The Oregonian, Dawn will host charity events with other sex industry workers as part of the local efforts for the campaign throughout the next two weeks. Ericksen told the paper he has also encouraged his congregants to donate to the charitable effort as well.

“We hustle for those who right now can’t hustle for themselves,” Dawn told the paper. 

The effort comes after ICE agents arrested nearly 680 undocumented immigrants at seven poultry processing facilities in Mississippi earlier this month. Less than half of those arrested were released later this month.