by Scott Wright
Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace
Ignatian Volunteer Corps
Advent is a season of waiting, a season of hope, a season that reminds us of Mary and Joseph’s journey on their way to Bethlehem, the journey of the three kings from the East to pay homage to the Christ child, and the journey and flight of the Holy Family to Egypt, as King Herod sought to kill the child.
The drama of migration on our southern border lends itself well to the Advent and Christmas story: pregnant mothers, journeying through Mexico and giving birth to children in manger-like conditions of poverty and refuge from police and cartel violence; government authorities harassing them along their route and denying them access to asylum at the border; people of good will offering gifts of service, hospitality, and solidarity in communities across the nation.
What will happen to immigrant families in 2025?
When the second Trump administration assumes power in January, millions of undocumented immigrants will face threats of persecution and mass deportation. In addition to these 11 million undocumented immigrants who have been in the US for many years now, another 2.3 million migrants who arrived between January 2023 and April 2024 will also be affected. Immigrants with parole, temporary protective status (TPS) and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) are also vulnerable to deportation.
Many of these immigrants are crucial contributors to our construction, agricultural, and hospitality economies. Mass deportation of immigrants will have a devastating impact on the labor market, as well as on the tax base of federal, state and local economies. According to the American Immigration Council, immigrants contributed $46.8 billion in federal taxes, $29.3 billion in state and local taxes, $22.6 billion to Social Security, and $5.7 billion to Medicare in 2022. The cost to arrest, detain (on military bases or new detention centers), process, and deport 13.3 million migrants would be prohibitive: $315 billion, or as much as $968 billion over 10 years.
Advent, a season of hope: Border hospitality and local communities
I recently returned from the US-Mexico border, where migrants and refugees journey through Mexico on their way to seek protection and asylum in the United States. Numbers are down along our southern border, due to policies under both the Trump and Biden administrations that have increasingly made it difficult for migrants to apply for asylum. Migrants must wait months on the Mexico side of the border, vulnerable to police and cartel violence, before an asylum appointment might be granted. Many, out of desperation, cross anyway, are detained, and often immediately deported back to the situations of violence and hunger from which they fled.
Migrants and their families who are lucky enough to pass a credible fear hearing are released to a network of churches and hospitality centers on the US side of the border, where they are provided with temporary hospitality, assisted in contacting their relatives, and sent on their journey to pursue protection and asylum. But many migrants have no family in the United States and must rely on people of good will for support in their new homes.
In the past several weeks, El Paso’s Bishop Mark Seitz, chair of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, has promised to continue the commitment of the Church to respond to the humanitarian crisis on the border by offering church properties and parishes to provide shelter. Ruben Garcia, director of Annunciation House in El Paso and a Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace, has promised to do the same, even in the face of persecution. Last spring the state of Texas threatened to close Annunciation House and Catholic Charities and prosecute their staff for human trafficking. In a nation increasingly hostile to migrants and refugees, even the works of mercy are criminalized.
Advent, a season of peace: Preparing the way for migrants and refugees
On this feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patroness of the Americas, we remember in a special way the story of migration of peoples throughout the world.
Migrants from Central America and those who live in South America who must cross the Darien Gap in Panama are fleeing some of the most dangerous places in the hemisphere due to drug cartel and gang violence, police repression, extreme poverty and inequality, and climate disasters. Mexico, too, is ravaged by violence, and migrants are often a target. In the past 10 years, more than 250,000 people have been killed in Mexico, and another 38,000 disappeared. Nor should we forget that the United States, over decades, has contributed to this forced migration through political, economic and trade policies like NAFTA and CAFTA that favor US corporations and local elites over those who are poor – all of which drive migration.
Pope Francis has called on Catholics throughout the world to welcome migrants and refugees and in doing so to bear witness to God’s mercy and compassion: “The tragedy of forced migration and displacement affects millions, and is fundamentally a crisis of humanity, calling for a response of solidarity, compassion, generosity, and an immediate practical commitment of resources.” In his yearly pastoral letters for the International Day of Migrants and Refugees (December 18), the pope has urged us “to welcome, protect, promote, and integrate” migrants and refugees in our local communities and churches.
Advent, a season of joy: The miracle of hospitality and solidarity
On this feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we recall how Mary, the mother of Jesus, appeared to Juan Diego, a poor, indigenous campesino, and offered him the sanctuary of her protection. It was she who told Juan Diego to instruct the bishop to build a church on the site of Tepeyac. In that same spirit, we are invited to do the same: to build a living church of hospitality and solidarity with immigrants and their families in every local community.
As people of faith, we count among our many ancestors Abraham and Sarah who left their ancient home, Moses and the children of Israel in search of the Promised Land, the Holy Family in flight to Egypt in search of protection and refuge – and today, our Palestinian sisters and brothers in flight in Gaza and the West Bank, seeking justice and yearning to live in peace. Advent and Christmas remind us of our longing to be home, to be at peace with our neighbors, and share a common home, where “no human being is illegal.”
Some years ago, during this season of Advent, I remember a night in a shelter I spent with migrant and refugee families in El Paso. Something beautiful happened to us that night, when a migrant mother returned from a local hospital with a newborn to join her two small children. There, like shepherds and wise men and women from old, we welcomed this mother and her baby, along with several families of migrants and refugees who had been released to the shelter from detention that evening. Together we experienced the joy of this season, and celebrated this miracle of life, born into poverty and persecution, a beautiful migrant child in our midst.
Advent, a season of love: Welcoming the Christ Child in every migrant and refugee
The feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe reminds us that the Gospel message is not only one of mercy and compassion, but also one of justice and liberation, as we hear in Mary’s Magnificat. Such a message invites us to take courage, to cast off fear, even as we wait with anticipation and trepidation for the coming year. Yes, there will be challenges, but we worship a God of life, a God of justice, a God of the poor migrant, who says: “Do not be afraid!” Across centuries, Mary’s Magnificat reminds us that nations will rise and fall, but God is ever present.
“And Mary said: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior … For he has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.” – Luke 1:46-55
For hundreds of years, border communities throughout the world have practiced hospitality, long before borders were established, or laws promulgated to exclude and deny the human dignity and human rights of some of the most vulnerable people on our planet. Especially now, the dramatic situation on the US-Mexico border today, and in local communities across our nation, invite us to celebrate the miracle of hospitality and solidarity, of justice and peace, of love for our immigrant neighbor.
May the hope and joy of this Advent and Christmas season fill us with joy and Gospel courage!
Pax Christi USA invites you to consider becoming part of a newly created working group on immigration. We plan to meet monthly to share what is happening in our local communities, advocate for just immigration and humane border policies, and organize effective ways to bear witness to our Gospel faith and, in Pope Francis’ words, “welcome, protect, promote, and integrate” immigrant into their local communities. We hope to convene our first call in mid-January to begin planning how we can support one another. If you would like more information, please email Scott Wright at swright2000@gmail.com.
Here are some resources to download:
- Justice for Immigrants: Post-election FAQs
- American Immigration Council – Mass Deportation: Devastating costs to America
- Migration and Catholic Social Teaching, from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops
- Papal Teaching and Migration, from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops-Migration and Refugee Services