In today’s immigration news: Christians and immigration; children in the Darien Gap; more.
Christian responses to immigration often split along (political) party lines. But is there any religious response that is informed by Christian teaching and history? Catholic Bishop Mark Seitz insists that a Christian response is not “Show me your papers.” but rather “How can I help you in your suffering?”
Speaking with Norah O’Donnell on 60 Minutes this week, Pope Francis called for nations to welcome migrants.
[CBS] “Norah O’Donnell: My grandparents were Catholic. Immigrated from Northern Ireland in the 1930s to the United States, seeking a better life. And I know your family, too, fled fascism. And you have talked about with migrants, many of them children, that you encourage governments to build bridges, not walls.
“Pope Francis (In Spanish/English translation): Migration is something that makes a country grow. They say that you Irish migrated and brought the whiskey, and that the Italians migrated and brought the mafia… (laugh) It’s a joke. Don’t take it badly. But, migrants sometimes suffer a lot. They suffer a lot.
“Norah O’Donnell: I grew up in Texas, and I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the state of Texas is attempting to shut down a Catholic charity on the border with Mexico that offers undocumented migrants humanitarian assistance. What do you think of that?
“Pope Francis (In Spanish/English translation): That is madness. Sheer madness. To close the border and leave them there, that is madness. The migrant has to be received. Thereafter you see how you are going to deal with him. Maybe you have to send him back, I don’t know, but each case ought to be considered humanely. Right?”
Evangelical white Christians differ on immigration. While many support Trump and his anti-immigrant agenda, others focus on humanitarian responses to migrants.
[USA Today] “When Carla Cochrane felt a spiritual calling to the U.S.-Mexico border, she prayed on it….
“’I felt my friends and family were going to be excited for me,’ she said about her 2019 epiphany. ‘But I didn’t get that reaction. It was like, ‘What? Why do you want to go there?’’ …
“White evangelical Christians helped deliver Trump’s 2016 presidential victory in a campaign fueled by his “build the wall” mantra. They favored him again in 2020. Surveys suggest white evangelical Christians are lining up behind him in 2024, even as he calls for “the largest deportation program in American history.”
“But there are signs of fissures. A small, but growing, group of evangelical Christian women like Cochrane are questioning the narrative of “invasion” at the southern border. They’re wondering why lawmakers can’t reform the nation’s immigration laws in a way that could both enhance border security and treat people humanely.”
Catholic Bishop Mark Seitz says Texas has “become a laboratory for the most inhospitable and dehumanizing immigration policy.” A frequent critic of Texas’s extreme anti-immigrant policies, Seitz is the bishop of El Paso, Texas and chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ migration committee. Texas’s latest initiative is an attack on Annunciation House, which provides food and shelter for migrants.
[Houston Chronicle] “Sandy Villarreal, an editor at Texas Monthly, reported how Paxton’s injunction filing ‘is riddled with misinterpretations—oblivious or intentional, who’s to say?—of the stated religious beliefs and practices of a quarter of Texas, including the governor.’ Paxton reportedly attends a Dallas church affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.
Paxton argued that ‘the Annunciation House’s members appear to subscribe to a more Bohemian set of ‘seven commandments,’ including commandments to ‘visit’ people when ‘incarcerated’ and ‘care [for them] when they’re sick,” Villarreal wrote. Paxton quoted a staffer who used the term ‘commandments’ to describe Jesus’ advice in the Gospel of Matthew rather than the Old Testament’s Ten Commandments. The testimony was actually a reference to the ‘seven principles of Catholic social teaching’ in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and worldwide homilies, Villarreal explained. ‘Paxton’s injunction, then, takes issue with the commands of Jesus and Pope Francis, notorious hippies.'”
And in other news
Increasing numbers of children risk the danger of the Darien Gap crossing. Some come with family members, but many are unaccompanied.
[UNICEF] “In the first four months of 2024, more than 30,000 children on the move crossed the Darien Gap, a 40 per cent increase compared to the same period last year.
“Child migration through the jungle of the Darien Gap has become a protracted crisis. Based on the trends observed in the first four months and the regional context, it is estimated that 800,000 people, including 160,000 children and adolescents, could cross the jungle in 2024, with many likely to require critical humanitarian assistance. …
“Of the 30,000 children on the move so far this year, nearly 2,000 of them were unaccompanied or separated from their families. The number of unaccompanied and separated children tripled in comparison to the same period in 2023. The number of children in transit is also growing five-times faster than the number of adults.”
Last week the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments on the floating barrier that Texas installed in the Rio Grande river.
[Houston Public Media] “The full bench of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Wednesday in a case involving a controversial effort by Texas to crack down on illegal immigration. The case involves a floating wall the state has installed on the Rio Grande to keep people from entering the country from Mexico.
“Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the installation of the 1,000-foot floating wall last summer as a part of Operation Lone Star, Abbott’s border security initiative. At the district court level, attorneys for Texas invoked the argument that the Constitution allowed states to guard against “invasion,” in this case by people migrating across the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. The lower court denied the self-defense argument.
“Arguing before the 5th Circuit, attorneys for both Texas and the U.S. Department of Justice largely focused on the question of whether the floating barrier violates the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act of 1899. That law bans the creation of any obstruction of a navigable waterway unless approved by Congress and permitted by the Army Corps of Engineers.”
Immigration news 