by Joseph Nangle, OFM
Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace
The call of Pope Francis for the world to listen to the Cry of the Poor has several dimensions. One of them, clearly, is that of refugees who wander rootless across the globe, estimated to number some 25 million persons.
That statistic, like all of them that catalog these human tragedies, is staggering. However, the sheer magnitude of such situations numbs the mind. Pope Francis’s seven-year plan calls for a different way of approaching the numbers: in this case seeing through them to the sub-human existence of individuals, women, men and children, with names and histories and yearnings.
We should, however, know something of the numbers — how many people are fleeing from which countries, where are they finding any sort of welcome, how are they being treated/mistreated at the doorways of “safer” destinations. These facts are easily accessed with a search of the Internet. For example, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and other such agencies report that two-thirds of the world’s refugees come from Syria (6.6 million), Venezuela (4.5 million), Afghanistan (2.5 million), South Sudan (296,000) and Myanmar (700,000 Rohingyas). And we have heard of their brutal treatment on the border of Turkey, loss of life in Mediterranean Ocean crossings, rejection by xenophobic Western European countries — and on and on.
For Christian/Catholics who happen to be citizens of the United States of America, the refugee situation on our southern border has to occupy our minds in a particular way. It is scandalous, sinful, a national crime against humanity. Again, we could do a review of the statistics here; they are readily available. But, following Pope Francis’s process, let me refer to Sister Norma Pimentel of the Missionaries of Jesus who has worked in Matamoros on the Mexican side of the border for 12 years. Hers is the Cry of the Poor from that dreadful place. She puts a face and personhood on one place where the lives of hundreds of our sisters and brothers are being destroyed by our country’s policies.
Sister Pimentel has become an icon representing the wonderful people who are endeavoring to do anything they can think of to help these victims of our current illegal Migrant Protection Protocols aka “Remain in Mexico” (euphemism for deportation or exclusion without due process), issued in January of 2019. She works in a makeshift tent city situated in Matamoros, Mexico with some 1500 of the people affected by our inhuman policy. Not one of them has any chance to enter the U.S. legally. And now with Covid-19 a constant threat, Mexico’s National Immigration Institute forbids the camp to accept any new arrivals. So now new refugees are being turned away and have nowhere to go.
Sister Pimentel presents a grim picture of life in this camp. The Cry of the Poor echoes in her words. “They are living in donated tents at the mercy of extreme weather … the temperatures can rise above 100 degrees, and when it rains the downpours knock down their only refuge and leave them in mud pits … Such basics as running water are nonexistent … you have to depend on outside organizations for food, which you have to cook over a campfire … the [camp is] a breeding ground for the virus.”
Sister’s Cry is directed to us. In her heartrending op-ed in the Washington Post this week she pleaded with Americans: “I urge you to not look away from the border in this moment. Do not ignore the suffering occurring here.” And she promises, heroically, “We will continue to help those who are defenseless, whose only real ‘crime’ is trying to seek protection for themselves and their families.”
They are daughters and sons of God, our sisters and brothers, each one.
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Joe Nangle OFM is a Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace. As a member of the Assisi Community in Washington, D.C., he is dedicated to simple living and social change. Joe also serves as the Pastoral Associate for the Latino community at Our Lady Queen of Peace, Arlington, Virginia.
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Thank you for your article!
Today MSF (Doctors without Borders) asked for public comments on the narrowing of Asylum law. Here is my answer, which you are welcome to also use, and it includes the docket number, which you need to be able to post a protest by July 15.
RIN 1125-AA94 or EOIR Docket No. 18-0002
Asylum is not a legal loophole or a way to game the immigration system. It exists because, for some people, home is a death sentence. This proposed rule upends existing US and international refugee laws on the right to seek asylum and would force tens of thousands of people back to face danger and violence.
This proposed rule goes above and beyond the administration’s previous attempts to disqualify survivors of domestic violence and gang violence from protection. It aims to end asylum claims based on gender or gang recruitment, and it would redefine the meaning of persecution and torture. It would eliminate protections for people fleeing violence from non-state actors, directly threatening the lives of many of our patients, as well as hundreds of thousands of other people seeking safety.
Physicians know that Childhood Adverse Experiences (ACES) affects people for the rest of their lives, and puts them at higher risk for many diseases and early death. These influences also can last into the next generation, through epigenetic mechanisms.
Asylum is an ancient concept of respecting the right of people to leave war-torn and violent places, where they are at risk of death and cruel, violent behaviors. Asylum is a ethical way to support people needing moral and physical assistance. Our country needs to return to adherence to the International Bill of Rights, to protection of the vulnerable and innocent, and to willingness to try to stop torture from bad and bullying governments. Our country has become a bully and a cruel source of terrorism in the rest of the world, and we are no longer supporting the humane ethics policies which most of us believe are the basis of our country’s laws and government prior to this administration. We must NOT remove the right to asylum or narrow the reasons for applicants who are fleeing violence!
Martina Nicholson MD
Santa Cruz, Ca
President Trump and his administration are guilty of crimes against humanity. These immigrants on our border are too easily forgotten i.e. “out of sight, out of mind “. Let’s recommit to do everything possible to serve the “least of our brothers and sisters “. Fr. David Engbarth