This week the United Nations announced that the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide has surpassed 70 million. Forcibly displaced: by war, persecution, and conflict. This is the highest number the UNHCR has ever seen in its 70 years of existence, double the level of 20 years ago. And yet, the United States is accepting record low numbers of refugees for resettlement. Canada, a nation with only 11% the population of the U.S., resettled more refugees in 2018 than any other country in the world.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is jailing children as well as adults at the southern border. Asylum seekers who cross the river and give themselves up to border patrol are locked in freezing cells in their wet clothes. Detention centers are overcrowded and unsanitary. The administration announced this week that they would no longer provide soap, toothbrushes, play time, or condiments for the cold bologna sandwiches that pass as meals. A teenage girl and her premature baby were discovered by a volunteer immigrant advocate in a McAllen detention facility. Four severely ill and neglected toddlers were hospitalized after lawyers visited a border patrol facility. This week. All of this happened this week.
The two questions I’m asked most often as an immigrant advocate are: How (or why) did you ever get into this? (a question I hope to address in a future post), and: What can we do? Today I propose five things almost anyone can do: Give. Volunteer. Learn. Vote. Rest.
1. Give. I believe firmly in the idea of giving locally, nationally, and internationally to support the issues that concern you most. Here I offer a few of my favorite agencies worth giving to related to immigration. I encourage you to give to these, or do some research to find the agencies that best embody your own values. I’m told that it’s most effective to choose a few and give generously, rather than spreading your gifts around in smaller amounts. The easiest gift of all: set up your Amazon account to use Amazon Smile, directing a portion of all your purchases to the charity of your choice.
- World Relief
- Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services
- Catholic Charities
- Doctors without Borders
- Compassion International (Sponsor one or more children who live in the Northern Triangle or in countries that are sending or receiving refugees.)
- World Vision
- International Justice Mission
- International Association for Refugees
- There Is Hope Malawi
- Casa de Paz (Denver hospitality house)
- El Refugio (Atlanta hospitality house)
- RAICES (pro bono and low bono legal services, Texas)
- CARA (pro bono legal services in detention centers)
- Annunciation House (El Paso/Juarez)
- Al Otro Lado (legal services in California & Tijuana)
- Preemptive Love Coalition
- The Global Immersion Project (everyday peacemaking)
2. Volunteer. Almost every agency listed above runs on a limited budget and depends on volunteers to accomplish their mission. Contact them and ask how you can help. Teach ESL or citizenship classes; mentor a refugee family; serve at an immigrant shelter. If you speak Spanish, volunteer at one of the shelters near the border, or at a hospitality house near you. By volunteering, you will meet the real live human beings who are directly affected by global conflicts and domestic policy. Relationships change everything. It’s much more difficult to hate or feel ambivalent toward a group of people when you have friends who are part of that group. Look for local agencies where you can make volunteering a part of your regular lifestyle.
3. Learn. Pay attention to the news, but please don’t limit yourself to a single source. Follow the agencies listed above on social media, plus these people and agencies:
- Matthew Soerens
- Jenny Hwang Yang
- Innocent Magambi
- UNHCR
- New York Times
- Wall Street Journal
- BBC
- Welcome.
- Women’s Refugee Commission
- Refugees Deeply
- CRC Office of Social Justice
- American Friends Service Committee
Read books and watch films. Confront your own privilege and challenge your own prejudices. I’m currently reading Waking Up White and finding myself in the story of race, by Debby Irving. It’s excellent. Here are a few of my favorite books about immigration to date:
- The Newcomers: Finding Refuge, Friendship, and Hope in an American Classroom, by Helen Thorpe
- Seeking Refuge: On the Shores of the Global Refugee Crisis, by Stephan Bauman, Matther Soerens, and Dr. Issam Smeir
- Assimilate or Go Home: Notes from a Failed Missionary on Rediscovering Faith, by D.L. Mayfield
- Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion & Truth in the Immigration Debate, by Matthew Soerens & Jenny Hwang
- Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman’s Quest to Make a Difference, by Warren St. John
- Refugee for Life: My Journey across Africa to Find a Place Called Home, by Innocent Magambi
- Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America, by Helen Thorpe
- This Flowing Toward Me: A Story of God Arriving in Strangers, by Marilyn Lacey
A few of the many good films:
- The Good Lie
- Under the Same Moon
- God Grew Tired of Us
- Salam Neighbor
- Rain in a Dry Land
4. Vote. And not just once every four years. Vote in every local election; your locally elected officials are the ones who decide on things like whether or not the local law enforcement will actively support ICE with deportation holds. Vote with ballots, but also with your advocacy. If you follow the people and agencies above, you will be alerted to ways that you can email and call your senators and representatives, often simply by signing onto an email letter.
5. Rest. Finally, for those of us who are up to our eyeballs in immigration advocacy for the long-haul, remember to rest. Self care is a real thing. If you’ve ever played or watched a sport, you know that players take turn resting on the bench while others compete in the game. So it goes with advocacy. Each person needs to take their turn to rest. Come back strong and renewed so you can cover when the next person needs to rest. If we all work ourselves to the bone nonstop, our efforts will not be sustainable. The world will keep spinning without you, and when you come back, the problems will still be there. See my previous posts on Soul Care for ideas on how to care for yourself.
The next time someone asks you what they can do about the mess our immigration system is in, please tell them: give, volunteer, learn, vote, and rest. Do these things as if your life depended on it. Somebody else’s life does.
stand4welcome 