Asylum Border Enforcement Take Action Toolkits

Action Toolkit: Welcoming Migrants – Spring 2021

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Action Toolkit: Welcoming Migrants – Spring 2021

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Background

There is a lot of news right now about asylum seekers, especially children, who are at the U.S./Mexico border. But this situation did not come about overnight; it has been building for years, exasperated by cruel and inhumane policies and an outdated immigration system that denies our shared humanity. In this moment, it is critical for people of faith and conscience to build awareness, work and pray for justice, and take action in solidarity with children and families seeking asylum.

Service

Individual Impact

Raise awareness about issues facing migrants on social media, amongst your friends and family, and in your faith community. You can start by sharing some of the resources, events, and advocacy opportunities in this toolkit!

Pray for justice for migrant children and families:

Connect to immigrant community-based organizations in your local area that may be welcoming asylum seekers and ask them how you can support their work.

Take the lead from partner organizations who are experts on asylum and in working with immigrant children and families. We encourage you to look at the following organization’s educational resources as well as advocacy and volunteer opportunities:

Donate your miles through Miles4Migrants, a nonprofit organization helping reunite and relocate families. Miles4Migrants uses frequent flyer miles, credit card points, and cash to help people impacted by war, persecution, or disaster start a new beginning in a new home. Learn more and pledge to give here!

Group Impact

Consider sponsoring asylum seekers as a faith community or congregation:

Post-COVID: Participant in an immersive experience with Texas Impact’s Courts & Ports:

  • Organized by Texas Impact and the United States Christian Leadership Organization, Courts & Ports Advocacy Intensive brings pastors and other faith leaders across the International Gateway Bridge to meet with asylum seekers and to hear from legal and policy experts about the impacts of the current administration’s policies.

Build awareness of issues facing migrants through educational events and immersive experiences in your houses of worship and with your faith communities. 

Advocacy

Policy Recommendations

  1. The U.S. government must supply urgent humanitarian resources, medical aid, food, water, and shelter to those at the border.
  2. Detention is not the right answer for a humanitarian situation. The government should release people in need of assistance and allow them to be with family and community while still ensuring they understand the legal process and their obligation to appear in court.
  3. To ensure the process works efficiently and that people understand they need to go to court, government officials must ensure that individuals at the border have legal counsel and community-based supervision and support.
  4. Any and all decisions regarding unaccompanied minors must be based on what is in the best interest of the child. They are children, many of them fleeing for their lives, and we should treat them like children, not like political footballs.

Asks to the Biden-Harris Administration and Congress

  1. The administration should cease using Title 42 to expel asylum-seeking migrants.
  2. DHS and the Department of State should designate TPS status for Haiti and Mauritania and Central American countries affected by recent hurricanes (El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala).
  3. The administration should sign a revised refugee presidential determination of 62,500 immediately.
  4. The administration and Congress should invest in the U.S.’ capacity to humanely welcome and process asylum seekers, unaccompanied children, and immigrants by providing community-based case management, post release services, resources to expedite the reunification process, and ample support to sponsors.
  5. The administration and Congress should develop and launch targeted assistance to address root causes of displacement and migration through a consultative process with civil society organizations, especially those working with LGTBQIA+, indigenous, and Black migrants.
  6. Congress must enact long-lasting solutions to immigration that recognize the humanity and potential of every person, which includes creating a pathway to citizenship. A moral path forward recognizes the need for restoring and strengthening humanitarian protections and creating a way for immigrants in the U.S. to live a dignified life.

Action Alerts

Events

  • Title 42 Week of Action, March 29 – April 2
    • The purpose of the Title 42 Week of Action is to educate the public about Title 42, a Trump-era refugee expulsion policy, and how the Biden administration continues to use it to expel refugees to Mexico and the countries from which they fled. View this Toolkit to learn more and participate.
    • View policy solutions here.
    • Learn how Title 42 impacts Haitian migrants here.
  • LIRS Webinar, March 31 at 4 pm ET – “Our Call to Care: Supporting Unaccompanied Children at the Southern Border” 
    • Tune in to learn more about the influx of unaccompanied children at our border, actions LIRS is taking to support them, and ways you can join us in the work of protecting and welcoming vulnerable children and families. Register here. 

Additional Resources on Welcoming Asylum Seekers and Migrant Children

General Information

Articles and Other Resources