Dear People of St. James’,
Shocking images and heart-wrenching reports from the southern border of the US have filled the media this week. The image of asylum seekers, Oscar Martinez and his twenty-three month-old daughter, drowned on the banks of the Rio Grande, brings back memories unbidden of other refugees overwhelmed by the driving currents of severe poverty and violence. The chilling accounts of the appalling and even life-threatening conditions in migrant detention centers where children are being held is the latest chapter in a scandal that has periodically sparked too-short-lived bouts of national outrage.
This is a humanitarian crisis, and we are only seeing the tip of the proverbial iceberg in US detention centers on our side of the border. On Thursday of this week, prior to the July 4 recess, Congress passed an aid package under pressure to deal with overcrowded and filthy facilities and to provide adequate care to those in detention. This will provide some critical funding to alleviate the deplorable conditions in some of the detention centers, but it falls far short of providing adequate migrant protections and caps on how long unaccompanied children can be detained. Though essential, this is but salve on a gaping wound.
In the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, our work of immigrant and refugee advocacy and relief has long been guided by the principles of human dignity and family unity. Each of us is called “to strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being” (Book of Common Prayer, 305). We are called to fight against policies and practices that lead to family separation because the family is the primary unit of human belonging. It is the way we are first given to each other as human beings. A vision statement for our work as a diocese can be found on the St. James’ website, in case you are looking for words and a framework for thinking about this complex topic.
It will be tempting to respond to this humanitarian crisis as if it were a hurricane from the gulf. Respite centers will temporarily be flooded with donations, many of which will not be usable. Border towns will see an influx of eager volunteers for a moment. The energy will taper as soon as the film crews leave. We have seen this pattern before.
St. James’ is called to be part of the relief work and the restoration of lives. As I mentioned last Sunday, we are working with organizations that already have connections in the McAllen area (Episcopal Migration Ministries and Austin Presbyterian Seminary), to discern a constructive path forward to provide relief. The details related to these efforts are still in process, and specific skillsets and passports will be required for the purposefully lean teams going down to McAllen. I am in touch with our Cathedral’s fact-finding team, headed by The Rev. Canon Simón Bautista-Betances, in McAllen this week.
You may feel called to make your voice heard around these issues. The Episcopal Public Policy Network provides excellent resources for Refugee and Immigrant Advocacy: https://www.episcopalchurch.org/OGR/migration-refugees-immigration. There will also be a Border Advocacy and Ministry Webinar on July 2 at 2:30 pm with Bishop Michael Hunn of the Diocese of the Rio Grande. Contact Rev. Eileen for details. Plans are evolving for a prayer vigil at the nearby Hutto detention center, where Proyecto Santiago has long been at work preparing people for asylum interviews.
At the end of the day, lamentation and local, vocal, sustained and sacrificial action are called forth from us as citizens of a different kind of kingdom with a different sort of economy. More to come.
Adelante,
Rev. Eileen
