Under the Trump administration, executive orders and regulatory changes made the system more restrictive and more vicious. While there is broad bipartisan consensus (over 70% in multiple polls) about the kind of immigration system that we would all prefer, it has not been possible yet to achieve this goal. We have been unable as a country to even pass the Dream Act (which would provide legal options to immigrate for people who entered the country as children), and families continue to be separated both at the border and in the interior of the country through deportations.

READ: With New Executive Order, This Immigrant is Leaving Church Sanctuary After 3.5 Years

One of the key obstacles in moving progressive immigration policies from support to reality is the lack of passion and hope. Non-immigrant (mostly white) evangelical churches lack the passion needed for sustained advocacy for and with immigrant communities. The average American person does not call their members of congress unless an issue is deeply personal.  The topic of immigration has yet to become a matter of personal passion. But if we are attentive to Scripture we know the church is mandated to care passionately for all people. If the Church does not passionately and sacrificially care for all people, we are not living as disciples of Jesus Christ.  Immigrant churches know that they are in the minority and lack hope, which discourages them from advocating.  When immigrant and non-immigrant believers come together in joint mission, non-immigrants become more passionate and immigrants more hopeful

Christians have unique gifts to contribute both to the long-term solution and the support of suffering individuals and families. There are 92 scripture passages in the Bible calling us to hospitality, including Jesus’ own statement of intimate solidarity in Matthew 25:35 – in which he tells us that our reaction to an immigrant person is our reaction to him. In order to address our immigration crisis, we need to be equipped for an effective, multi-layered, and faith-rooted response. The church carries a unique hope for the solution to this national crisis. 

However, Christian leaders need to be equipped to carry out this solution. A bilingual Professional Certificate program jointly offered by Matthew 25/Mateo 25 and the Centro Latino of Fuller Theological Seminary enables immigrant and non-immigrant leaders to equip their ministries to respond in a multi-layered and effective way. The program includes a biblical and theological basis for this work, trauma and resilience awareness, legal and advocacy strategies.  In this program, I have witnessed faith leaders grow in their commitment and courage. Participants have led their churches to get meaningfully involved in the immigrant rights movement. They are creating more holistic responses by moving their congregations to action. 

This professional certificate program is unlike any other as it prepares church leaders and congregations to engage the immigration crisis from a faith-rooted commitment. Churches receive the tools they need to provide a holistic response by getting involved in direct services as well as advocacy for systemic change. 

To learn more about The Church’s response to the immigration crisis program, go to https://diplomadoscentrolatino.org/diplomado-immigration-crisis.

He is a Dreamer who made a minor error at 18 years old when he travelled outside the country thinking that he had permission.  He has kidney issues, and, like countless other detainees, he sees the novel coronavirus coming for him like a freight train. We are inviting people of faith to help us do something about the avoidable devastation that threatens our prisons and detention centers during this COVID-19 crisis.

Please read the letter below to Homeland Security Acting Secretary Chad F. Wolf and consider signing as well as talking to your Congressional Representatives about it. To have your signature added, you can email Alexia at alexia@alexiasalvatierra.com .

Sheltering in place may keep us apart, but it does not have to keep us from coming together on behalf of justice for the most vulnerable. Will you join us?

DONATE: $10+ to RLC Today & Receive “Empty the Tombs of Injustice” Resistance Art 

Dear Mr. Wolf:

We are writing as Christian leaders across the country concerned about our vulnerable brothers and sisters who are residing in detention centers where Coronavirus protections and treatment are difficult to obtain.  Many of them do not represent any threat to public safety; their only offenses were entry or re-entry without immigration documentation. They do not deserve a potential death sentence.

We are asking you to expand the opportunities for alternatives to detention.  We are particularly requesting the humanitarian release of elderly detainees and those with underlying health conditions. We offer the resources of our ministries and denominational structures to be used in collaboration with non-profit organizations and public officials to find placement for these individuals and families with sponsors, temporary shelter and basic services.

“Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.” (Matthew 5:7)

In Christ’s name,

Rev. Dr. Gabriel Salguero, President – National Latino Evangelical Coalition

Rev. Luis Cortés, Jr., President – Esperanza

Sr. Norma Pimentel, Catholic Charities, Rio Grande Valley

Rev. Carlos L. Malave, Executive Director, Christian Churches Together in the USA

Rev. Ruben N. Ortiz, Latino Field Coordinator, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

Rev. Andres Serrano, Director Hispanic Ministries, Reformed Church of America

Pr. Salvador Orellana, Director of Intercultural Ministries, American Baptist Churches

Rev. Ruben Duran, Director for Congregational Vitality, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Rev. Lori Tapia, National Pastor for Hispanic Ministries, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Fr. Antonio Guillen, Missioner, Latino/Hispanic Ministries and Director, Ethnic Ministries | The Episcopal Church

 Rev. Roberto Ochoa, Associate for Congregations of Color &, Ethnic Identified Congregations United Church of Christ

 Marco A. Grimaldo, Deputy Director of Church Relations, Bread for the World

 Dr. Fernando Cascante, Executive Director, Asociación para la Educación Teológica Hispana (AETH), Director of The Justo Center

Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Conde-Frazier, Coordinator of Relations with Entities of , Theological Education, AETH

Vince Gonzales, Mitigation Specialist, National Leader United Methodist Church

Rev. Ismael Ruiz-Millán, Director, Hispanic House of Studies, Duke Divinity School

Dr. Edwin David Aponte, Executive Director, Louisville Institute

Rev. Efrain Pineda Jr., Congreso Red & Vida Church, Founder & Lead Pastor

Iris de León-Hartshorn, Associate Executive Director of Operations, Mennonite Church USA

Rev. Michael Mata, First Church of the Nazarene, Los Angeles

Rev. Lee de Leon, Executive Pastor, Templo Calvario, Santa Ana, CA

Dr. Robert Chao Romero, Assistant Professor César E. Chávez Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies UCLA

Rev. Dr. Alexia Salvatierra, Matthew 25 and Assistant Professor of Intercultural Studies Fuller Theological Seminary

The voluntary committee of asylum-seekers that is cooking a warm pot of stew for everyone tells us that children and pregnant women will be fed first and then everyone else; they tell us that they just feed as long as the food lasts. Some go hungry every meal.

We ask why they give their time to serve the others. “We are family,” they tell us. We tell them that we are Christians, and we are their family members from the North. They are visibly touched and ask if they can work with us in the future — we are the first visitors to say that to them. Fuller students, Biola and Azusa students are with us along with more than 20 pastors. This is the third day in a row that Matthew 25/Mateo 25 leaders and other Christian organizations have been bringing North American “family members” to be a sign of the love of God and to return to tell the story.

The new shelter is 15 miles out of town. We have long conversations with the Uber drivers, who sometimes echo conservative voices from the U.S.: “Mexico only has enough for Mexicans,” they say. Or “Central Americans are unreasonably demanding.” However, they often end their stories with a sigh of compassion. One driver says, “They have experienced criminal organizations that are truly parasites, with no bottom to their stomachs. They are eating Central America. They are destroying children; the mothers have no choice but to run.” He hopes that the migrants whose asylum claims are ultimately rejected, like many Haitians who came last year, will be allowed to settle in Mexico and work. He tells us that Haitians are good workers and have contributed to the Mexican economy.

The mayor of Tijuana wants official recognition by the United Nations of El Barretal as a refugee camp, but Mexico would have to be certified as an official “second country” where a certain level of security can be guaranteed. At this point, no one knows if that is possible.

One discouraged man tells us: “Both of my older brothers were killed by MS13 because they would not join. They told my mother that I am next, so I took my wife and baby to her mother’s house in another town, and I ran. My younger brother and I spoke yesterday; he is considering joining the Mara to save his life, but they will destroy his immortal soul. I don’t know what to tell him. I don’t really have hope that we will be granted asylum here. I don’t even have the money for the fees; the little I had went to my sister’s daughter who is in the hospital.” I tell him to please go to the nonprofit lawyers who visit the camp regularly and share his story, to not give up. I ask him if he wants to pray and he is eager, praying with me in the Pentecostal style. He is a little comforted by the time the pelting rain forces us to pack up our art supplies and leave.

There are a group of hunger strikers near the border. Their demand? For the U.S. to follow our own laws and policies covering asylum-seekers. The San Ysidro border station can process the cases of 300 asylum seekers per day, but they are currently only processing about 50 per day.

The USCIS website states that the first interview for asylum seekers will be within 45 days. There is currently a wait of four to six months. On December 10th, International Human Rights Day, we began circulating a Christian letter for sign on to our representatives asking for more resources and streamlined processes for the San Ysidro Border to process asylum cases. If you are willing to help, please contact me at alexia@alexiasalvatierra.com.

The day after Donald Trump became President-elect, my young friend Jose couldn’t finish his drive to work. Halfway there, he had a panic attack and had to pull over. He knew he wasn’t in immediate danger, yet he couldn’t stop thinking about the possibility of being suddenly detained and deported to a country he has not seen since he was a young child.

After hearing Jose’ story, I read a Facebook post from a kind, Christian woman: “Why do we suddenly need to protect vulnerable people at this moment?” she asked. “How can anyone be made vulnerable by an election?”

As a pastor in this historic moment, my job is to help this sister learn what it means to call Jose our brother.

Since his panic attack, Jose has heard President-elect Trump reaffirm his campaign promise to remove Obama’s Executive Order which guarantees legal status to Jose and 750, 000 other “Dreamers.” The Dreamers are young people who were brought to this country as children and received an education in our public school system. Obama’s Executive Order, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), allows these young people to stay in the United States legally for a renewable two-year period and to obtain work permits, giving them the opportunity to contribute their talents, skills and knowledge as legal employees.

DACA has served to rectify a critically important injustice in our immigration system. As the result of a provision in 1995 immigration legislation, anyone who has been in this country for more than a year without legal status must return to their home country for 10 years before being able to begin any process for immigration. If a DACA-eligible young person marries a US Citizen or has a job offer, they cannot apply for legal residency. Instead, they must return to a country they do not remember for a decade, leaving their home and often leaving US Citizen siblings, spouses and other family members behind.

Over 90% of U.S. citizens polled in 2007 said that they supported the Dream Act – legislation that would create a pathway to residency or citizenship for these young people. Yet despite bi-partisan support, the Dream Act stalled in Congress. As a result, President Obama created a special category of deferred deportation for these young people until the Congress could resolve their predicament.

Many of these young people arrived in this country because their parents had jobs as agricultural workers. Our current immigration system allows for 5, 000 visas a year for all unskilled workers, including all agricultural workers. However, we have imported about 80% of our agricultural workers over the last 200 years of our national history (slavery was a giant program to import agricultural workers). Our immigration laws do not match our actual economic practice.

With DACA rescinded, Dreamers who have given all of their information in good faith to the federal government will become eligible for deportation. Though they are not the “criminals” President-Elect Trump promised to target for deportation, they are much easier to locate. Jose has, in fact, been made vulnerable by an election. So I have been asking his sisters and brothers in the church what it means for us to stand with him.

As a parent, I want my children to be responsible to and for each other. The Scriptures make clear that God feels the same way. Because God “defends the cause” of the vulnerable, Deuteronomy says, “you are to love those who are foreigners,  for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.” Hospitality isn’t just an act of charity. It’s an essential practice to help us remember who we are.

Many Americans do not know very much about the needs, the suffering, or the overall situation of the “foreigners” in our midst. We do not understand how the election of Donald Trump makes Jose vulnerable.

But churches across the nation are making a public pledge to do something about this. The “Matthew 25 Pledge” offers a laundry list of ways to say publicly to brothers like Jose, “We are with you.” From prayer and education, to advocacy, to temporary emergency shelter and legal assessment for those who are facing the threat of sudden deportation, churches are preparing to offer genuine sanctuary to vulnerable sisters and brothers. We will be working in coalition with non-profit legal service providers and immigrant rights’ organizations to respond to the needs of the moment.

Yes, people can be made vulnerable by an election. But vulnerable people can also be protected by being part of a beloved community willing to defend them from harm. This has been the story of faith throughout history, and it is the job of pastors like me to keep telling that story and inviting us to live into it again through the Trump years.

If you or your congregation would like to sign the “Matthew 25 Pledge, ” contact Red Letter Christians.

Most of us know the immortal words of Emma Lazarus in the poem written on the base of the Statue of Liberty.  If a tourist goes inside the center on Ellis Island where immigrants from Europe were processed for entry or refusal, there are copies of historical documents on the wall that tell a very different story.  These documents echo Thomas Bailey Aldrich’s 1895 response to Lazarus’ poem:

Wide open and unguarded stand our gates, And through them presses a wild motley throng–Men from the Volga and the Tartar steppes, Featureless figures of the Hoang-Ho, Malayan, Scythian, Teuton, Kelt, and Slav, Flying the Old World’s poverty and scorn; These bringing with them unknown gods and rites, Those, tiger passions, here to stretch their claws. In street and alley what strange tongues are loud, Accents of menace alien to our air, Voices that once the Tower of Babel knew! O Liberty, white Goddess!  Is it well to leave the gates unguarded?”

Underneath the current immigration debate lies a deeper conversation about our national identity.   Beneath and apart from all the technical questions about the criteria for immigration and the proper response to those who have entered or stayed without authorized documentation lurk questions about our national character and values.  Are we a country whose fundamental orientation is to welcome or are we predominantly suspicious of outsiders?

While I respect and support the separation of church and state, I believe that people of faith and our faith traditions have great wisdom to offer our national debate.  Faith communities have been reflecting on these questions for centuries.  We understand and promote the importance of the rules that keep good order and maintain healthy boundaries.  However, when it comes to the Bible, the number of passages that call for radical hospitality far outweigh those that encourage gatekeeping.  In fact, the great Catholic author Henri Nouwen spoke of the spiritual journey as the movement from hostility to hospitality.  The story of Abraham and Sarah welcoming strangers who turn out to be angels in Genesis 12 is echoed in the New Testament letter to the Hebrews in which the new Christian community is urged to not “neglect to show hospitality to strangers because by doing so, they may welcome angels in disguise.”   The Greek word that we translate as angel in the New Testament means “messenger” and the injunction to treat strangers as if they may be angels recognizes that strangers may well be messengers of God bringing a much needed blessing.  These scriptures remind us that even though our primitive impulse may be to distrust and be threatened by the other, we are more connected than we realize.  The “other” may be as important to our wellbeing as one part of a body is to another, or one long lost sister is to her brother.   This is objectively clearer in the age of globalization and the internet than it was in biblical times.

To shift our orientation towards the stranger from likely threat to probable blessing does not free us from the hard and complex task of determining effective, logical and humane immigration policy.  However, we know that our capacity to develop effective solutions is intrinsically intertwined with our capacity to see all of the relevant data.  As a Lutheran Pastor, I would say that our human sin and brokenness gives us a default towards suspicion, selfishness and greed.  In order to see the contribution and humanity of immigrants accurately, we will have to see them, as the Little Prince said so eloquently, with our hearts.

There are thousands of stories about the brokenness of our immigration system.  However, as a mother, the following story particularly touches me.  I heard a testimony at a hearing a few years ago about a mother who came to this country because she married a citizen.  He unfortunately passed away suddenly before the two years required for their relationship to qualify her for permanent residency.  By the time he died, she had a child who was an American citizen.  She wanted that child to have all the benefits of his birthright so she stayed in this country regardless of her lack of documentation.  By the time that immigration agents came to arrest and detain her (as she was arriving home from work), she had three citizen children – a 15 year old, a 12 years old and a 5 year old.  When they took her away, the children were frantic to find out where she had been taken.  It took a week for their uncle to find their mother, in a detention center near the border.  When he took the children to see her, they were not allowed to hug her goodbye.  They had to be satisfied with touching the thick plate glass that kept them apart.  Upon returning, the 15 year old (who had been a straight A student) fell apart.  He couldn’t stop thinking of that moment and missing his mother.  His grades and his mental health deteriorated.  Our immigration system does not allow minors to petition for their parents except in cases of cruel, unusual and extreme hardship.  The hardship suffered by that 15 year old fellow American is not considered extreme enough to qualify.

Another story that I find particularly poignant concerns the family of a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan.  While he was serving overseas, his Guatemalan-born wife (who came to this country at age 2 and had always thought that she was an American citizen) found out abruptly that she was here illegally when the immigration agents came to pick her up, putting their children in foster care.  Her father, who had left the family years before and was living in another state, applied for asylum and his application was denied.  They came after all of the family members that he had listed on the application.

What does our treatment of these families say about us as a country?  What do we want our immigration system to reveal about us?   Who are we and who do we want to be?  My hope is that the current debate includes more than strategies and technicalities.  In my pastoral counseling training, I learned that a truly healthy person lives with integrity, walking their talk, making their decisions on the basis of their deepest values and beliefs.    In order for my daughter to grow up in a society that is as healthy as it can be, I pray that our national dialogue on immigration overtly includes ample conversation about our deepest values.

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Rev. Alexia Salvatierra, an ordained Lutheran Pastor, is the Director of Justice Ministries for the Southwest California Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  She also consults for a variety of organizations, including World Vision, the Christian Community Development Association, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, Auburn Theological Seminary and Interfaith Worker Justice as well as teaching at colleges and seminaries.  She is a founding member of the National Evangelical Immigration Table and was one of the founders of the New Sanctuary Movement.  She is currently writing a book for Intervarsity Press on faith-rooted organizing and biblically-based public policy advocacy (an alternative model created during her eleven years as the Executive Director of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice of California.)