To interview religious leaders and faithful Americans involved in this massive effort to demonstrate another side of the U.S.–one vastly different from that exhibited in the administration’s rhetoric and policies–contact the Interfaith Immigration Coalition via Lynn Tramonte (latramonte@gmail.com).
Excerpts from “Humanitarians at the border are frustrated with the Trump administration’s ‘fear mongering,’” by J.D. Long-Garcia, America Magazine:
“I don’t buy into the fear mongering of this administration,” the Rev. Robert Mosher, the director of the Columban Mission Center in El Paso, told America. “They’re creating the worst possible picture of things on the border. Asking for asylum is not a crime.”
According to Syracuse University, immigration judges decided 42,224 asylum cases in 2018, a record number. In those decisions, 65 percent of individuals were denied asylum, the sixth year in a row that the rejection rate l has increased.
“We can handle this,” Father Mosher said. “This is a drop in the bucket of what we can do. I hear all this hysteria and it’s exactly how not to respond to this situation. We are capable of responding well.”
In El Paso, a network of 18 shelters receives the asylum-seeking families from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Annunciation House, an organization that has served vulnerable people in the El Paso-Juárez border community for more than 40 years, coordinates with the various shelters to find space for the released asylees. They are always looking for more space.
“We are responding in our own ways to the influx,” said Marisa Limón of the Hope Border Institute in El Paso, noting that the Diocese of El Paso oversees two shelters itself. She described a vast network of volunteers from different faith and humanistic backgrounds coming together to gather clothes and food and providing for other needs of the asylum seekers.
“There’s a beautiful story that’s coming out of all of this,” she said. “People are stepping up and caring for each other. We’re piecing it together and making it work with grit and grace.”
Images of huddled families detained under an El Paso bridge circulated last week. Ms. Limón said that there was no reason for the immigrants, many of whom were likely asylum seekers, to be there. Those immigrants were moved over the weekend. The real crisis is not about security but about morality, Ms. Limón said.
“After the media leaves, after this is no longer a topic on social media, those are still people under that bridge,” she said.
Read the entire article here.
This week, the Interfaith Immigration Coalition is sharing a series of Twitter posts about Americans of diverse faiths who have stepped up to offer support, assistance, and love to families shattered by U.S. immigration and foreign policies. Check #ZeroToleranceForCruelty and #ZeroDollarsForSeparation on Twitter to read these posts. To get in touch with local sources, contact Lynn Tramonte.
The Interfaith Immigration Coalition is made up of 52 national, faith-based organizations brought together across many theological traditions with a common call to seek just policies that lift up the God-given dignity of every individual. In partnership, we work to protect the rights, dignity, and safety of all refugees and migrants.
###
]]>