Posts Tagged ‘Border Crisis’
Everything You Need to Know About Unaccompanied Minors at the Border Part 1
A Conversation with Matthew Soerens and Jenny Yang
This week, weâre seeing news reports of another âcrisisâ at the U.S.-Mexico border, particularly related to children, or âunaccompanied minors.â
Whatâs actually happening? What should be happening? And what can followers of Jesus who care about vulnerable children do?
Here, World Reliefâs President, Scott Arbeiter, sits down with Jenny Yang and Matthew Soerens, World Reliefâs in-house immigration policy experts and co-authors of Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion and Truth in the Immigration Debate to help us understand whatâs currently happening at the border.
Quick Facts:
Immigration policy can be confusing and hard to keep track if you arenât familiar with the language. Below are a few key terms to keep in mind as you listen and/or read.
TVPRA: The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. A 2008 law that, among many other elements, governs how unaccompanied children identified at the border are to be treated.
Title 42: A public health law that both the Trump and Biden administrations have cited as a legal justification to turn away asylum seekers because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Migrant Protection Protocols: A Trump administration policy that required most asylum seekers who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border to âremain in Mexicoâ to await their court hearings, rather than being allowed to wait safely in the U.S. for their court proceedings.
Scott Arbeiter is a former pastor of Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin, and the president of World Relief, which is a subsidiary of the National Association of Evangelicals.
5 Ways You Can Help
Last week, we learned that vulnerable children and families are being detained in inadequate facilities and threatened with deportation. If youâre like us, you believe that families belong together, and that this is a grave injustice that we must fight back against. As Christians, and as Americans.
As you contemplate how you can respond to this crisis, here are five things you can do right now to help vulnerable immigrants, both at our Southern border and here in the United States.
A Prayer for Oscar & Valeria
How long must we wait, oh Lord?
For mercy
For justice
For action
How long did Oscar wait?
Valeria atop his back
Holding tight to her daddy.
Waiting
Pleading
Desperate.
How long did it take, oh Lord
For hope to fail them?
To take to the river
Their last attempt
Their final breaths
Taken not by the violence they escaped
But by hope, rejected.
Out of the depths, they cried to you, oh Lord
As we cry out to you now
Save us, Lord Jesus!
My God, my god, why did you forsake them?
Abba Father, where were you?
Abba Father, where are you?
How long will it take, oh Lord
For your people to speak
For your church to move
For your kingdom to come?
How long, oh Lord
Until we let the little children come?
Until our actions,
Match your teachings?
Until we do for the least of these
What we would do for you?
We cry out to you, Lord
Let your kingdom come
On earth, as it is in heaven.
Show us the path of righteousness.
A path that does not end
With a wall,
Or with a river.
But with refuge, and shelter,
Under your feathered wings
Where Oscar and Valeria lie,
Clinging to your promise of new life
Safe,
Together,
Home.
â Francesca Albano
Francesca Albano currently serves as Director of Branded Content at World Relief. With a background in Cultural Anthropology and a graduate degree in Strategic Marketing Communications, she connects her interests in societal studies and global cultures with her training in brand strategy and storytelling. Francesca is especially passionate about grassroots community development and the treatment and advancement of women and girls around the world.
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