What can churches do to respond to the unaccompanied children immigration crisis at the U.S./Mexico border? Here are five practical ways forward from Matthew Soerens, the Field Director for the Evangelical Immigration Table and the U.S. Church Training Specialist at World Relief. – Paul
In the past several months, tens of thousands of children and teenagers have arrived at the U.S./Mexico border unaccompanied, most of them coming from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Many have fled the horrific levels of violence in these Central American countries, much of it perpetrated with impunity by criminal gangs. Many have been recruited by human smuggling operations, which prey upon these young people's vulnerability. Many already have parents or other family members in the United States with whom they hope to be reunited. Whatever the factors that inform their decision to leave—and despite the tragedy that some die along the perilous journey across Mexico, which many undertake atop freight trains—nearly 60,000 unaccompanied children have arrived already this fiscal year.
As images of these children warehoused along the border have been broadcast across television screens, the response of the American people has been polarized. Fueled by false rumors on the Internet and from some media outlets, many Americans have responded with fear and, in some cases, with vitriol directed at the children themselves. An AP poll found that most Americans want the children deported immediately, without the hearing required by current law to ensure that they are not sent back to danger or even death.
The church's response
While these negative responses have monopolized media attention, local churches and faith-based organizations have been quietly responding to the crisis with Christ-like compassion. After all, our Savior reserved some of his harshest warnings for those who hindered children (Matthew 18:6).
While negative responses have monopolized media attention, local churches and faith-based organizations have been quietly responding to the crisis with Christ-like compassion.
Along the border in McAllen, Texas, Baptist churches have worked alongside a Catholic parish and the local Catholic Charities office to provide food, blankets, and temporary shelter. Though access to unaccompanied minors (who by law are transferred from the border patrol to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services) has been tightly limited in the interest of the children's protection, pastors who have been able to visit the children have had the opportunity to provide encouragement and the hope of the gospel. Baptist pastor Dan Trevino, for example, leads multiple worship services each week for children housed at a temporary Department of Health and Human Services facility at Lackland Air Force Base, preaching to more than 1,000 kids most Sundays.
The church is responding beyond the border area as well: Faith-based organizations such as the National Latino Evangelical Coalition have partnered with the Department of Health and Human Services to operate some of the temporary shelters needed for children awaiting court hearings. While specific locations need to be kept confidential to protect the children, I was able to visit a Church of the Nazarene congregation in Florida recently that are converting part of their facilities to serve as a "Centro de Refugio" for several dozen children.
Not every church is in a position to physically host children in their facilities, and in many cases well-intentioned Christian groups have been unable to access children in federal custody. But there are five ways that any church could provide assistance:
1. Give
While the law requires the federal government to meet a certain standard of care for unaccompanied children in its custody while pending court hearings, organizations like the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, working in partnership with the government, rely upon donations to cover expenses beyond those covered by governmental grants.
World Vision is partnering with local partners to provide "Promise Packs"—backpacks filled with supplies including a blanket, toothbrush, shampoo, school supplies, activity books, and other materials—to children affected by the crisis at the border.
One of the biggest needs created by the crisis of unaccompanied children is indirect: because federal law requires the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement to provide care for unaccompanied children, funds have been diverted from other refugee resettlement programs. Given Congress' failure to reach a consensus to appropriate supplemental funds, faith-based refugee resettlement agencies including World Relief, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, and Church World Service are facing dramatic cuts, which limits their ability to serve newly arrived refugees from countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Burma, and Bhutan.
2. Address Root Causes
As long as Honduras has a murder rate higher than anywhere else in the world (with Guatemala and El Salvador also in the top five) children will be forced to flee. Rates of murder and other violent crime will remain unacceptably high as long as these crimes are almost never prosecuted—which, sadly, is the case. In Honduras, for example, four out of five homicides are never even investigated; justice is exceedingly rare.
While North American churches cannot set governmental policies in Central America, we can partner with churches and faith-based organizations abroad to alleviate violence and poverty.
While North American churches cannot set governmental policies in Central America, we can partner with churches and faith-based organizations abroad to alleviate violence and poverty. The Association for a More Just Society is one example. They work within Honduras to expose corruption and provide legal and psychological support for victims. International Justice Mission does similar work in Guatemala.
3. Disciple
While a recent Public Religion Research Institute poll found that most Christians, across ethnicities and tradition, support a compassionate response to unaccompanied children, a significant minority—fully 39% of white evangelicals—want laws to be changed to allow for their swift deportation, and some of the folks screaming at children on buses were very likely in church the next Sunday morning. A disturbingly high percentage of white evangelical Christians, in particular, think about this situation and the immigration issue more purely from a political or economic perspective. According to the Pew Research Center, just 12% of white evangelicals and 9% of all Protestant Christians say that their views on immigration are primarily informed by their Christian faith.
That's likely because only 16% of white evangelicals and 20% of all Protestants ever remember hearing the topic of immigration mentioned by their pastor. By and large, our churches have failed to disciple those under our care to respond to immigrants as Christians should.
By and large, our churches have failed to disciple those under our care to respond to immigrants as Christians should.
That's certainly not because the Bible is silent on the topic, though. Scripture speaks clearly and repeatedly to the topic of immigration (Leviticus 19:33-34, Psalm 146:9, Exodus 23:9, Deuteronomy 10:17-19, among scores of other passages), commands Christ-followers (Romans 12:13) and church leaders in particular (Titus 1:8) to hospitality (literally, the love of strangers, not just having your friends over for lunch), and also provides instructions for how Christians should relate to governmental authorities (Romans 13:1, 1 Peter 2:13-14)—all themes that ought to inform our response.
One helpful discipleship tool to encourage distinctly biblical thinking about this topic, without immediately jumping into the more controversial questions of public policies, is the "I Was a Stranger" Challenge, a forty-day Scripture-reading plan focused on God's heart for immigrants. Pastors and leadership teams might also benefit from the "Church Leader's Guide to Immigration," which provides succinct answers to many of the most common theological, practical, and legal questions surrounding immigration issues.
"Welcoming the Stranger: Discovering and Living God's Heart for Immigrants" is a nine-session small group curriculum produced by the National Association of Evangelicals and World Relief. There are also a number of useful books focused on immigration from a Christian perspective, whether for group studies or individual learning. I particularly recommend Christians at the Border by Denver Seminary Old Testament scholar Daniel Carroll, Strangers Next Door by Alabama pastor and missiologist J.D. Payne, Immigration: Tough Questions, Direct Answers in the "Skeptic's Guide" series by Dale Hanson Bourke, and Welcoming the Stranger, which I co-authored with my World Relief colleague Jenny Hwang Yang.
A final discipleship tool is The Stranger, a documentary film released this summer by the Evangelical Immigration Table, produced by Emmy-award winner Linda Midgett. The Stranger, which can be downloaded for free via www.thestrangerfilm.org, profiles three immigrant families who are also Christians, putting human faces on the challenges of immigration in the United States.
4. Advocate
Despite broad bipartisan recognition that the current situation of unaccompanied minors is indeed a crisis in need of a robust response, Congress has proven unable to reach a consensus. Members of Congress recently left Washington for a month-long recess after the House and the Senate could not agree upon a proposal to provide additional resources to address the crisis.
While the Senate failed to pass any legislation at all, the House of Representatives' supplemental appropriation went beyond providing funds by significantly amending the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), a law signed by President Bush in 2008 that ensures that children receive a fair hearing so as not to be deported to a situation of human trafficking, abuse, or even death. Pleas from evangelical leaders such as Russell Moore and Leith Anderson and from anti-trafficking organizations like International Justice Mission and World Relief fell upon deaf ears, and the House voted to weaken the TVPRA on Friday evening—though the changes are very unlikely to be passed by the Senate or signed by the President.
Advocacy is also needed to address the immigration system as a whole: one factor that has contributed to the current crisis of unaccompanied minors is the incoherence of our immigration laws. Our system should never rely upon criminal cartels to transport those who have a legitimate claim to asylum, nor should it be impossible to reunite a family except through unlawful entry. The de facto amnesty of the last several decades—where unlawful entry or visa overstays have been frequently ignored because Congress has lacked the political will to create a visa system tied to the needs of our labor markets—has made credible the claims of smugglers that a desperate individual might be able to stay in the United States.
Fixing this system is actually quite popular, but it is not necessarily a top priority for most voters. The church has a unique moral voice to champion these efforts. Church leaders across the political spectrum have affirmed an Evangelical Statement of Principles for Immigration Reform, insisting that Congress fix our broken systems once and for all. One simple way for leaders to advocate is to formally affirm that Statement.
Beyond that, church leaders can watch for town hall events where they can interact with their Member of Congress and express both their frustration at the weakening of the TVPRA and the urgent need for broader immigration reforms. Members of Congress are often willing to meet with their constituents—particularly with pastors who represent a constituency beyond themselves—to hear concerns. Doing so is a fine way to "speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves" (Proverbs 31:8).
5. Pray
After a visit to some of the unaccompanied children in San Antonio last month, Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd urged all Southern Baptist congregations to dedicate a time of prayer for the crisis during a weekend service. Christian Reformed Church of North America Executive Director Steve Timmermans issued a similar call to churches within his denomination.
While not all Christ-followers will agree on a public policy response, we all should take seriously the biblical command to pray "for kings and all those in authority" (1 Timothy 2:2). Ultimately, our hope for these vulnerable children is not "in princes, in human being who cannot save" but in "the Lord [who] watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow" (Psalm 146:3, 9).
Matthew Soerens serves as the Field Director for the Evangelical Immigration Table and the US Church Training Specialist at World Relief. He is the co-author of Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion and Truth in the Immigration Debate. He tweets at @MatthewSoerens.
