Immigration | Human Rights

Guadalupe Can Use Some Help Here

Lost: immigrants, 360 children, 545 parents, separated at the border of US and Mexico

O CHILDREN OF MEN! Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other. Ponder at all times in your hearts how ye were created. Since We have created you all from one same substance it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul, to walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land, that from your inmost being, by your deeds and actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of detachment may be made manifest. Such is My counsel to you, O concourse of light! Heed ye this counsel that ye may obtain the fruit of holiness from the tree of wondrous glory. Bahá’u’lláh

This is the article I almost cannot write, each word connotes sadness, and each sentence unveils a travesty of ethics. You may want to listen to Pachelbel Canon in D Major or some other soothing music, light a candle and take a few deep, comfortable breaths.

They struggled to get to America as a last hope

Amongst a sea of sorrow, a particular denomination has been particularly impacted by the policy changes about immigration since 2017. They have become “criminals” in the past three years. Wait — many did not make it that long.

Many came to the US for refuge from the perils of death and torture by domestic, gang, and sexual violence. Most had suffered traumas and physical and emotional wounds before arriving. Some came to relieve suffering from drought due to climate change, crop ruin, lack of food, poverty, and religious persecution.

Mourning the disappearance of children and adults

I’d like to mourn the approximately 9,000 migrants who’ve died trying to cross the Sonoran desert. This figure is an underestimate based on bodies that were discovered, and not all were.¹ Government forensic agents work with families to try to identify remains by DNA and any belongings found. They give closure to grieving family members by giving them a box with perhaps torn pants, and found bones — whatever is left after vultures and other creatures have found the bodies.² It is estimated that vultures can turn bodies into skeletons in 24 hours.³

I mourn the 3,189 unaccompanied minors, who, after being returned to Mexico, were untraceable by families and human service organizations. These are people’s children, young people with dreams for their futures! Of 3,379 turned away between April and June of 2020, 162 were placed in federal shelters for children. Only 36 were found after extensive searching in the U.S., Mexico, and Central America.⁴

My fingers are having trouble typing the next group to mourn: a child has gone missing for almost every day of the year. Three hundred sixty separated children have not been able to be located, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). That’s 360 children missing their daddies, mommies, aunties, uncles, sisters, brothers, cousins, grandparents…At least one child who was a baby of eight months when separated from family is among those whose parents cannot be traced.⁵

Related, though separated, are five-hundred forty-five parents missing. ICE deported an estimated two-thirds of them to their countries.⁶ That means their children are not returned to them and the parents are waiting to hear any news of them (if the parents did not get killed after they were deported).

The US Department of Justice and the ACLU, filed a court document in October of 2020, citing that these parents have not been located. The mistake of these families not being reunited is due to policies of a pilot program in 2017 which did not plan for reunification, if you can believe that.⁷ Though I never say “God forbid”, there is always a first time. God forbid. I’m not even sure that expression fits.

Turning to God and Guadalupe for help

I imagine many of these grieving parents, yearning for the return of their children, and grieving children, yearning for the return of their parents, are also praying, asking help from The Virgen de Guadalupe, their brown-skinned Mother Mary. Guadalupe was named by Pope John Paul II “the patroness of the Americas” in 2002.⁷ (I have a special place in my heart for Guadalupe, because when I was young and in jail for an expired visa in Queretaro, Mexico, being questioned by three huge guards, in desperation and in broken Spanish I talked to them about “Guadalupe”. They got tears in their eyes and released me).

Many of the migrants are from “the Northern Triangle” of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, countries where the majority of people practice Catholicism.⁸ Catholics make up approximately 80% of the members of religions in Honduras, 65–70% in Guatemala, and 57.1% in El Salvador, according to the Center for Disease Control 2017 figures (the most recent I could get, even from calling the CDC). Though some Catholics may have shifted to Protestantism, from the figures it appears that the majority of the populations in these countries identify as being Roman Catholic.⁹

The Catholic immigrants as well as those who identify as Christians and other faiths pray to live to the same one Creator to whom many of us pray when we’re going through fear and hardship. So many of them have met horrific deaths (and God knows what other cruelties, though we’ve heard of some) due to their lives not being valued by US policies. Their paths to cross to the US have been constrained to the most dangerous, forsaken areas of the desert —miles upon miles to walk, their deaths calculated on spreadsheets to deter other immigrants from coming.¹⁰

The thousands of years old tradition of inviting in the stranger

Ruben Garcia says it best. A Catholic who wanted to become a priest, he instead founded and is director of “Annunciation House”. This organization in El Paso has helped hundreds and thousands of immigrants. Mr. Garcia speaks powerfully in this very brief video:

Mr. Garcia notes the inspiration for his organization quoting from the New Testament, Matthew,25:35

I was hungry and you fed me. I was a stranger and you took me in.

This principle goes far as back as Abraham welcoming the strangers to his tent. The hope of many is that our country embraces that principle in the new year. It is time to stop the tone which The “Immigration Nation” documentary showed of government officials kicking over gallons of water volunteers had placed under trees to offer people almost dying of dehydration some hope for survival. Due to lack of water, a migrant shown in the Netflix documentary had eaten from cacti causing multiple thorns to be stuck in his tongue and mouth, which a government paramedic who rescued him helped remove.¹¹

It is time to stop traumatizing children and youth

It is time to stop separating children from family. So unfortunately, 300,000 children have been in family and separated detention in 2019 and their stays have lengthened beyond those legally allowed by a legal decision called the Flores agreement.¹² Families are suing the US for hundreds of millions of dollars for harm to children in detention.¹³

It is time to stop traumatizing children. When children are located who have been in detention, and they are deported, they usually do not access to trauma counseling services in their home country. Their parents must reckon with children who are traumatized, feeling they were abandoned by them when they are too young to understand, acting out, perhaps having been harassed or physically or sexually abused by other detainees, foster children or guards.¹⁴

It is time for harassment, and physical and sexual abuse to stop

It is time for harassment and physical and sexual abuse to stop in border control and detention centers. It is time for justice for those who have been victims of sexual and physical violence. Detainees including children and minors made thousands or reports of being harassed, and physically and sexually abused in detention centers. Most were dismissed.

Though I don’t know if this is widespread, authorities deported some women soon after reporting abuse, and before an investigation was completed. In one case ICE deported a woman three hours after she was raped by three masked men in a detention center, she was sent back to her country of origin on a bus, and later found out she was pregnant. Are not detainees vulnerable, hence prey for some who abuse their power?¹⁵

Help Wanted

Guadalupe needs some help on the ground with protecting these people of the Catholic faith, as do angels of many stripes in heaven. May our taxpayer dollars find relief in not supporting the present and future tragedy any longer. May we remember the cry raised after the Holocaust:

Never again.

There is hope. The new president Joe Biden has visited children in detention and is aware of the tragic circumstances. He wants the US to be a beacon of hope to the suffering, and an example to other nations to take in immigrants and asylum seekers. He plans to increase the number of immigrants permitted to come into the US, a number that was greatly decreased in recent times.

There is hope. Our representatives in the US Congress will be determining which legislation is attended to, and prioritized. We are used to feeling relatively helpless about the treatment of refugees in America. But perchance our voices on behalf of the immigrants might hasten them getting justice and humane treatment. How would we feel if our loved ones were traumatized in detention or disappearing somewhere in the US or who knows where after deportation?

Wouldn’t it be worth it, even if we don’t know the result, if our voices help one baby, child or adult suffer in detention one less day, or many less days or years? Let’s raise awareness in our local organizations and faith communities to follow the ethics that are the foundation of every spiritual traditions.

Resources

Thankfully, there are many organizations and individuals, who work tirelessly as advocates for immigrants. Please see the “Organizations helping migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees” section below. If you feel called, please contact an advocacy organizations that truly would benefit from volunteers, services, or small or large donations, including PPE to help prevent the spread of COVID amongst immigrants.

You may contact your senators and representatives and the White House at links below. If you want to send a letter or post, and don’t know where to start, feel free to send this article, “Can you please help make policy changes in immigration a priority?” We can make a tiny step that together with others’ tiny steps will make a difference. We can do this!

…separating kids from parents goes against natural rights…It’s cruelty of the highest form. — Pope Francis

CONTACT INFORMATION:

The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, DC 20500

The U.S. Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224–3121. They connect directly with the Senate office. You can reach your senator or representative through this link: Congressional Institute.

Organizations helping migrants, asylum seekers and refugees [These terms are defined in the linked article].

Angry Tias and Abuelas of the RGV, Annunciation House, Austin Border Relief, Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services. El Buen Samaritano Migrante Shelters (Sister Denise La Rock Go Fund Me), Every Last One,Global Response Management, Good Neighbor Settlement House, Grannies Respond/Abuelas Responden, Hats for Asylum (MPP shelter for pregnant women along the border), Interfaith Welcome Coalition, Keep Families Together. Lawyers For Good Government Project Corazon, Help asylum seekers with special needs who are stuck in Mexico, Practice Mercy, Resource Center of Matamoros, Sidewalk School for Asylum Seekers. Tahirih Justice Center, Houston, Team Brownsville

Advocacy organizations listed in articles (click on articles): “ Protecting Immigrant Families Partner Organizations” [extensive lists], “How to Donate to Help Migrant Children at the Border,” “9 Organizations Helping Migrant Children that You Can Donate To,” “Organizations helping immigrants in Texas”.

For Further Reading: (Click on title)

Illustrated Version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

“US held record number of migrant children in custody in 2019”, Associated Press News, November 12, 2019

“Unaccompanied migrant children suffer ‘inhumane and cruel experience’ in CBP custody, report alleges”, Washington Post, October 30, 2020

“500,000 Kids, 30 Million Hours: Trump’s Vast Expansion of Child Detention”, The Marshall Project, October 30, 2020