Posts Tagged ‘Immigration’
Everything You Need to Know About Unaccompanied Minors at the Border, Part 2
A Conversation with Matthew Soerens and Jenny Yang
Recently we’ve seen reports of another “crisis” at the U.S.-Mexico border, particularly related to children, or ‘unaccompanied minors.’
We continue to explore and understand what’s actually happening, what should be happening?, and what can followers of Jesus who care about vulnerable children do?
We’re continuing the conversation World Relief’s President, Scott Arbeiter, started with Jenny Yang and Matthew Soerens, World Relief’s in-house immigration policy experts and co-authors of Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion and Truth in the Immigration Debate to help us understand what’s currently happening at the border. (If you missed part 1, listen or read to it here.)
Quick Facts:
Immigration policy can be confusing and hard to keep track if you aren’t 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 “remain in Mexico” 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.
Imagine What it Should Be: An Advocacy Q & A
At World Relief, we believe the government has a role in promoting peace and justice while also addressing systemic and structural issues that perpetuate extreme poverty and injustice. Our commitment to advocate on behalf of the poor and oppressed is based on biblical truths and on the example of Jesus. We believe such advocacy is an important witness to a watching world about the character of Jesus. Recently, I sat down with Jenny Yang, World Relief’s Vice President of Advocacy and Policy, and asked her all about advocacy, why we do it and why it’s important.
What is Advocacy?
Advocacy is speaking up with those who are vulnerable to address the underlying causes of injustice and oppression by influencing the policies and practices of people in power. We should love our neighbors on an interpersonal level. But when systemic injustice is at the root of a problem, loving our neighbor means advocacy as well. Advocacy consists of organized efforts and actions seeking to highlight critical issues, influence public attitudes and enact or implement laws and policies. It starts with the reality of “what is” so that a vision of “what should be” can be realized. The ultimate aim of advocacy is to demonstrate the good news of the coming of the Kingdom of God.
What is the Scriptural basis for pursuing advocacy?
Throughout Scripture, we see God move for justice. Time and again, through ordinary people, God brings His vision of justice to a broken world. Moses helped free the Israelites from slavery, speaking boldly before Pharaoh. Esther asked for mercy on behalf of the Jewish people before King Xerxes. Nehemiah went before King Artaxerxes to ensure his people were protected in Jerusalem. Deuteronomy 10:18 says, “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.” Malachi 3:5 says, “I will be quick to testify against… those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice.” If these are the actions God took on behalf of vulnerable people, then these are the actions we must also do to reflect God’s character in the world.
When did World Relief start doing advocacy work?
World Relief has been engaged in advocacy work for many decades. Evelyn and Grady Magnham, the founders of World Relief’s U.S. refugee resettlement program, began conversations with the State Department in the late 1970s to help refugees from Vietnam resettle to the U.S. These conversations led to a partnership between World Relief and the Department of State to resettle refugees with the passage of the Refugee Act of 1980. World Relief has received several distinctions for our advocacy work, as Matthew Soerens was recognized by President Obama as a Champion of Change for Immigration Reform and met with him in the Oval Office to discuss our immigration advocacy work in 2013.
How is World Relief involved in advocacy?
We’re involved in two ways — directly with the U.S. government and through mobilization and education to broader communities. We meet with Members of Congress and their staff to help write policy briefs, organize letters and campaigns and build and work in coalitions to address key issues such as international humanitarian assistance funding, gender-based violence prevention, and promotion of refugee and immigrant rights in the U.S. As we connect with communities and educate people on policy issues, we empower more people to advocate themselves. Through sign-on letters, calling their Members of Congress directly and even working with pastors, we help people raise their voices on important issues.
Can you share a story from your work in Advocacy and how you’ve seen God move to help those we serve?
In January 2017, an executive order suspended most all immigration to the U.S., including green card holders and refugees. In a collective effort to call out inhumane targeting of people groups, World Relief collaborated with prominent church leaders to publish a full-page ad in the Washington Post, speaking out in support of refugees and immigrants. After the national outcry, the executive order was rescinded, although there were subsequent iterations of the executive order targeting smaller groups of immigrants. But this was a key moment where the church spoke, and our voice was heard.
Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.
Proverbs 31:8
Dana North serves as the Marketing Manager at World Relief. With a background in graphic design and advertising and experiences in community development and transformation, Dana seeks to use the power of words and action to help create a better world. Dana is especially passionate about seeking justice for women and girls around the world.
An Open Letter
To the people we serve at World Relief,
We want to express our unwavering support to you and express our deep grief over the events of last week when a group of rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol. The scenes we all witnessed left us feeling sick and unsettled and were reflective of the divisions that the country is facing.
We acknowledge that many of you may be fearful as you witnessed violence, terrorism, anarchy and instability — all resembling the dynamics you left behind in your countries of origin, and which you never expected to face again in the United States. We also acknowledge that refugees and immigrants have often borne the brunt of a hostile political narrative that has discounted or diminished the validity of your story and experience and your tremendous contributions to our country.
We also recognize that at least some of the confirmed perpetrators of the attack espoused explicitly racist and white supremacist views. We grieve that the response from law enforcement to this attack stood in stark and unjust contrast to the violence with which largely peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstrations were met in the past year. We know that you may be seeing and experiencing historical events unfold that are often checkered with racism and bias against people of color. And the American church has been complicit in perpetuating untruths that do not affirm the image of God in every person.
We want to recognize that we as part of the church have often placed an allegiance to a distorted vision of our country over our commitment to God. But, the view of the people we saw at the Capitol building does not represent the view of all Americans. In fact, Christ calls us to be peacemakers and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We know pursuing peace is not a passive act but an active one that seeks the good of our neighbors and our communities.
We condemn in the strongest terms the riots last Wednesday and the scourge of conspiracy theories, anti-democratic misinformation and white supremacy that plague our nation. The continued assault on truth, decency and our basic democratic ideals is not just emanating from the far corners of our society but carried out from the highest levels of government.
We mourn the lives that were lost in the violence and grieve the ongoing trauma that refugees, immigrants and people of color, in particular, experience in this country. At the same time, we commit to continue our work in creating welcoming, just communities where you and your families can find safety and thrive.
We pray for peace, for reconciliation, and for justice and accountability for those who perpetrated the violence in our nation’s capitol last week. We pray for truth, decency and the rule of the law to prevail. We pray that there will be no further bloodshed and that a peaceful transition takes place. And beyond that, we pray that the seeds of division and discord begin to wither in the light of truth.
Most of all, we are praying for you. We are praying for your families to be safe during this time and for you to continue to find a welcoming and loving community that represents the best that this country has to offer.
We do not write today because we have answers to offer but, as an organization that has served over 400,000 people like you and whose staff is composed of many refugees and immigrants, we want to affirm our commitment to continue serving you as best as we can. To that end, please do not hesitate to reach out at any time to any of our staff if you are feeling overwhelmed and need someone to speak with. Please note our list of local offices on our website at www.worldrelief.org/us-locations.
We thank you for allowing us to journey with you and believe we can work together to contribute to the healing this land needs. We recognize you. We stand with you.
With respect and affection,
World Relief
Are We Becoming a Nation of Closed Doors?
Last month, World Relief published a report in collaboration with Open Doors USA. This report explores how persecuted Christians and the U.S. refugee resettlement and asylum process have been impacted by recent changes in immigration policy.
The report found that since 2015, the number of persecuted Christians resettled in the U.S. has dropped by nearly 90%.
While the report focuses primarily on the effects policy changes in the U.S. have had on persecuted Christians, various other persecuted minority groups have also been largely shut out of resettlement in recent years.
As Christians, we believe that all people have the right to religious freedom and that religious minority of any sort — not just those who share our Christian faith — should be protected.
In an article recently published by The Christian Post, Matt Soerens, World Relief’s U.S. Director of Church Mobilization said, “Since the time of the pilgrims, America has been proud of its legacy of opening its doors to those experiencing religious persecution… American Christians must ask ourselves some tough questions. Scripture makes it clear that all believers are part of the body of Christ and that when one member suffers, the entire body suffers alongside it.”
These dramatic changes to U.S. refugee policy, which many American Christians seem to be either unaware of or indifferent to, “suggest that we’ve closed our ears — and our nation’s doors — to this suffering,” Matt writes.
Download the report to learn more.
Both Can Be True
Several months ago, a counselor said something that has stuck with me. She told me, “Both can be true.” I have held onto these words in the past few months as a tangible way to remind myself of the tension and the reality in our day-to-day world.
For the past couple years, my husband and I have been focused on building a business in his home country of Guatemala, seeking to provide employment for local residents. But, due to COVID-19, all of our work was cancelled and capital quickly dried up. As a result, we’ve had to let go of the business. The grief has been so real. And yet, I struggled to know how to feel it in the midst of a global pandemic and economic recession when our family is healthy and employed. But I can be grateful for what I have and disappointed about what I’ve lost. Both can be true.
In June, Rayshard Brooks was killed by police at my neighborhood Wendy’s. The restaurant was later burned down. On the 4th of July, I shared how I can be patriotic and want our country to address her glaring need for real change. Both can be true.
Next week, my kids “start” school. This weekend, we’re building a workspace in our living room. Moms and dads and teachers all over the country are battling a million emotions about this topic. I am allowing myself to rest in the nuanced tension. I can be concerned about my state’s rising COVID numbers and grieve that my kids aren’t going back to school. I can care about the physical health of my community and also about its mental health and economic well-being. Both can be true.
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security issued a new memo impacting “Dreamers,” immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. On one hand, I’m relieved that the administration has (at least for now) decided not to again attempt to fully rescind DACA, which news reports had suggested was coming. On the other hand, the memo means new hardships for DACA recipients, including filing renewals and paying hefty fees every year, rather than every two years, and barring new applicants to DACA, which we’d presumed based on the June Supreme Court decision would re-open. It’s a relief and it’s frustrating. Both can be true.
Too often, we are pressured to reduce life to binary choices with simple answers. Are you for or against? Left or right? Which side are you on?
But we do not have to neglect the nuance. I honestly think it’s inauthentic to pretend we have no doubts, no questions, no wavering or wondering. It’s also dismissive of those around us to assume that because they share one point of view that it’s the sole perspective they have on the issue.
I recently had a conversation with someone who had an influence on my childhood faith. When she heard I’d written a book, she asked what it was about. I tried not to answer. But eventually, I told her it was about immigration and faith. She immediately asked if I was “all about open borders.” I may have sighed.
I can care about reasonable border security and advocate for making a safe place to welcome asylum seekers. I can believe in the rule of law and want to see Dreamers have a permanent solution. I can support people going through the immigration process “the right way,” while also acknowledging that we’ve made “the right way” very narrow and there’s room to make it simpler and more welcoming. These things can all be true.
We benefit from holding the right amount of tension. It’s good that we have more than one political party. It’s helpful that people have different points of view than our own. These push and pull factors in society help us foresee challenges we otherwise wouldn’t, think creatively, and problem-solve together. I believe we have an opportunity to be an example of holding space for the both/and. Sometimes two truths that others may want to be contradictory hold hands and help us to walk forward with strength.
Both can be true.
Sarah Quezada is a writer, speaker, and advocate. She has a master’s in sociology and wrote Love Undocumented: Risking Trust in a Fearful World. She also oversees the fast-growing online community Women of Welcome, a project of World Relief and the National Immigration Forum. She and her husband Billy live in Atlanta, Georgia and are raising two bicultural and trilingual-ish kids. Find Sarah on Instagram at @sarahquezada or her website sarahquezada.com.
COVID and the Issues: U.S. Programs
World Relief currently operates local offices in 18 cities across the United States. Our teams are committed to helping new immigrants thrive by providing vital services and building communities of love and welcome. In addition to case management, our U.S. offices offer English language classes, job training and placement programs, legal services, youth mentoring, mental health services and more.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, all U.S. programming took place in person. But in March, everything changed. As the country shut down, so did our physical office locations, and our teams were forced to find a way to bring their very interactive programming to a virtual space.
Today, in the fourth week of our COVID and the Issues series, we’re talking with Jennifer Foy, Vice President of U.S. Programs at World Relief. Jenn discusses the new needs that immigrants are facing in the wake of the pandemic and how our U.S. teams are adapting to meet those needs. In Chicagoland alone, the staff received 500 phone calls in less than a week from immigrants who had been laid off and needed help navigating unemployment and finding new jobs.
It’s been overwhelming and unprecedented. But, as Jenn discusses, the resilience and creativity that is being birthed out of hardship gives us something to hope for.
Come back next week to learn more about how COVID-19 is affecting food security and nutrition across the globe. To join us in addressing these issues visit worldrelief.org/covid-19.
Rachel Clair serves as a Content Writer at World Relief. With a background in creative writing and children’s ministry, she is passionate about helping people of all ages think creatively and love God with their hearts, souls and minds.
I am a Dreamer
I vividly remember June 15, 2012. It was my little sister’s graduation from the University of California, Irvine, and we were getting ready for her big day. The TV was on in the background, playing either Telemundo or Univision. I can’t quite remember which. When the president came on the TV, we all stopped what we were doing to listen as he announced the DACA executive order. Incredulous, yet overjoyed, we all hugged each other!
I came to the U.S. with my family when I was 14 years old. My parents and younger siblings had received their green cards earlier that year through a family petition that was filed in 2001. I aged out of the process and remained undocumented. Getting the news that I could now receive a work permit and protection from deportation filled me with hope. I felt less abandoned. I was given the opportunity to occupy the spaces that were open to my family members as legal residents.
For weeks, I anxiously waited for the DACA forms to become available, checking uscis.gov every chance I got. Once the forms were finally available, I filed my own DACA application. I googled DREAMer blogs, which helped me put together 100+ pages of evidence that demonstrated my continuous presence in the US from 2007 to 2012. Unlike younger applicants, I couldn’t just submit my school transcripts. I graduated from college in 2007 and had worked multiple jobs between then and DACA day 2012. Those jobs ranged from tutoring, babysitting, helping the family business and volunteering at local schools. I had to provide documentation of all these things and more with my application. I often wonder what the immigration officer’s face looked like when he saw my very organized, yet very messy life in front of him. In the end, I received my first DACA work permit on September 28, 2012.
Months later, a friend asked me to join her as a volunteer at World Relief where she was helping with DACA applications. That is how I first started down the path to helping people like me find ways to get legal status. In high school, I dreamt of being an immigration attorney. Back then It felt like an impossible dream — one that I don’t think I ever even said out loud. I wanted to be someone who could provide accessible information to others in my community who were seeking legal status.
I had been exposed to too many injustices not to do something about it. Too many friends and people from church had fallen victim to scams —so-called notarios — who took advantage of people’s desperation to have legal status, only to lead them into significant financial loss and, at times, facing deportation and family separation.
At World Relief, I found a path to my dream. After going through an extensive training process to become a Department of Justice accredited representative, I was allowed to practice immigration law (with limitations) as a non-attorney. For the past seven years, I’ve had the privilege to do what I always wanted. To top it off, I get to work with an amazing group of people that have become my family.
But then, 2017 happened. That year was the worst year of my life as a reality that had been dormant awoke in me. DACA had given me a false sense of belonging and my mom’s death slapped me back into reality: I am undocumented in this country.
My mom passed away unexpectedly while she was visiting Peru. While everyone else in my family was able to travel to Peru to see her one last time and to mourn with our family, I stayed behind.
Thankfully, I am blessed with amazing friends who love me and knew just how to see me through this terrible situation, but the sting remains. I had to stay behind — an ever-present reminder of my undocumented status. And while my mother’s passing struck me to my core, 2017 was also the year a new presidential administration was appointed in the U.S. This new administration sought to terminate DACA. Over the next three years, the administration would introduce many other immigration policy changes, making practicing immigration law even more difficult than it was before.
Immigration in general is a mess. It seems like every other day there are new policies, new forms, new fee hikes, less options for those with low income, new barriers making it impossible for people to get their papeles. In the five months since COVID-19 hit the U.S. alone, at least 47 immigration policy changes have been introduced, and I feel it all.
All these changes are happening to me, they are attacks to people like me. We are working, supporting our families, doing our best to be considered “of good moral character,” hoping for a pathway to get permanent status. We, undocumented people, we already belong. We just don’t have the plastic card that proves it.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the administration’s attempt to terminate DACA, a temporary victory in this long and arduous battle. While I breathed a sigh of relief, the Court said the administration could still end the program if it were to follow the proper procedures. As anxious as that makes me — for myself, for my friends, for my clients — home is here. I will file as many applications as I can until the end. I will do my best to help as many people as I can to ensure they continue to have protection from deportation and a right to legally work.
I know what life without DACA would be. Hard doesn’t quite describe it, and I don’t want it.
But I have hope. My siblings are US citizens now. I helped with their processes myself! Throughout my years at World Relief, I have helped so many become citizens, and I wish I had kept count! When November rolls around, I hope they all vote. And I hope they remember people like me when they do.
Ana Jara is a Department of Justice (DOJ) Accredited Representative at World Relief, where she has worked for six years. She graduated from UCLA and has worked in the nonprofit sector serving the Latino community ever since.
Five Ways You Can Stand With Dreamers
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion that – for the moment, at least – keeps Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) alive.
While the decision was consistent with what World Relief has advocated for many years, I confess that to me, it came as a very happy surprise. I had been dreading a negative decision, which would have meant that more than 600,000 young people would have been poised to lose their work authorization (and, thus, their jobs) and be at risk of deportation. For many of my friends, colleagues and fellow church members whose livelihoods and way of life depend upon DACA – and for many others who know and love those directly affected – the decision is an incredible relief.
The risk of such an encouraging decision, though, is that we run the risk of moving on too quickly.
The Supreme Court decision, while positive, is not a permanent solution. In fact, the Court affirmed the administration’s authority (this one or a future one) to terminate DACA so long as they follow the proper procedure (which, in this case, the Court found the administration did not follow proper procedure). The only durable solution for Dreamers, and the only way they could become U.S. citizens is for Congress to pass legislation such as the Dream Act or something similar.
The reality is that there is still much to do to continue standing with Dreamers. Listed below are five ways you can stand with Dreamers today.
- Get Informed. We’ve prepared a simple DACA and Dream Act 101 explainer that describes what DACA is, what the Dream Act would mean if passed and what the most recent Court decision means. We also encourage you to check out (and share) the website of our partners at Voices of Christian Dreamers, which includes a collection of first-person stories from Dreamers.
- Give. World Relief and other non-profit immigration legal service providers provide competent, authorized legal guidance and assistance in applying for or renewing DACA (as well as applying for various other immigration legal benefits) and charge only nominal fees. But we can only sustain these ministries with support from individuals like you. Give here to help sustain and grow our immigration legal services network.
- Pray. For many of us, the Supreme Court’s decision came as a surprise – so much so that I’m convinced there was some divine intervention. Millions of people were praying for this outcome, but few Court-observers predicted this result based on the oral arguments for the case. Now is the time to continue praying for Dreamers. This guide from the Evangelical Immigration Table and Voices of Christian Dreamers is a great resource to help you as you pray.
- Advocate. Until a law, such as the Dream Act, is passed into law, there is still a great risk that the administration could try to terminate DACA again. It’s important to let our congressional representatives know that this decision does not mean their job is over. It’s a temporary reprieve, and now, we need them to act by passing legislation. A simple way to urge them to do so is to add your name to this letter to Members of Congress signed by various Christian leaders.
- Direct. If you know any individuals who have DACA, or who think they might now qualify for DACA, it’s really important that they access competent, authorized legal practitioners who can help verify their eligibility. Unfortunately, there are always individuals who are not authorized or adequately trained to give legal advice who prey on those desperate for good news by offering too-good-to-be-true promises of legal status or work authorization in exchange for obscene amounts of money. To be sure you’re getting accurate, authorized advice, we recommend consulting with an attorney who is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association or with a non-profit organization that is recognized by the U.S. Department of Justice – including most World Relief offices and many partner churches to whom World Relief provides technical legal support.
Matthew Soerens serves as the U.S. Director of Church Mobilization for World Relief. He previously served as the Field Director for the Evangelical Immigration Table, a coalition of evangelical organizations of which World Relief is a founding member. He is the co-author of Seeking Refuge: On the Shores of the Global Refugee Crisis (Moody Publishers, 2016) and Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion & Truth in the Immigration
Debate (InterVarsity Press, 2009). Matthew is a graduate of Wheaton College (IL) and DePaul University. He lives in Aurora, Illinois with his wife Diana and their two children.
DACA and Dream Act 101
Photo by EPA-EFE/ALBA VIGARAY
On June 18th, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration from ending Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) — at least for now. This is an answered prayer for hundreds of thousands of immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. For those who may not fully understand DACA and the issues surrounding it, we hope this brief primer will help.
What is DACA?
The short story is that DACA has provided a pathway for children and young adults who came to the United States with their parents to legally obtain a Social Security Number and driver’s license, to work lawfully, and to be protected from the threat of deportation. While their parents either came to the U.S. unlawfully or overstayed their visas, these kids usually had no choice but to come with their parents, and this immigration policy has provided opportunities for those youth who had already been in our country for years. DACA doesn’t offer a pathway toward permanent legal status or U.S. citizenship. It also doesn’t give individuals access to federal financial aid programs. It simply affords them the opportunity to further their own development, provide for themselves and their loved ones, and participate in their communities without fear of deportation.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), announced by President Obama on June 15th, 2012, has allowed immigrants who
- Were born on or after June 16, 1981,
- Arrived to the United States before age 16 and
- Have lived in the U.S. since June 15, 2007
to be eligible for work authorization in the United States and protection from deportation in two-year renewable increments. These individuals are generally called “Dreamers,” named so after the DREAM Act, a piece of legislation first introduced in Congress in 2001 that would afford these individuals permanent legal status (but which, thus far, has not become law).
How many people have DACA?
About 800,000 have benefited from DACA since 2012.
Individuals from Mexico represent the largest number of DACA recipients, followed by El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru and South Korea.
Presently, slightly less than 700,000 individuals are protected by DACA, as some have been eligible to adjust to permanent legal status and others have elected not to renew their status or have become ineligible.
What would the termination of DACA mean?
It would mean that the roughly 700,000 children or young adults who are DACA recipients would –– at a minimum –– lose their jobs, which may mean lacking the income to make payments on a car loan, rent, mortgage or school tuition or to help support their families. It could also mean being sent back to their countries of birth, even though many cannot remember living in any country other than the U.S., where they have grown up.
The White House and Department of Justice announced the termination of DACA on September 5, 2017. Since that time, the Department of Homeland Security has not accepted any new applications for DACA. Individuals who had DACA at that time were told they had a short period of time when they were allowed to renew for a final two-year period.
However, several courts then put the Trump administration’s plans on a temporary hold, such that, for the past year, individuals with DACA have generally been able to renew their status, while no new DACA requests have been considered (including from those who turned 15 years old, and thus would have been eligible for the first time, since DACA was terminated).
What does the Supreme Court’s decision mean for DACA recipients?
On June 18, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its opinion on the various lower court challenges that had been brought to halt the termination of DACA. The majority of the justices agreed that the administration had not provided a legally adequate rationale for terminating DACA. For the moment, this means DACA remains open — though we are still waiting for further guidance from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in terms of the process for renewals and the possibility of new qualifying applications.
However, the decision also makes clear that the current administration or a future administration could still terminate DACA if they provided a legally appropriate rationale. The only permanent solution to the situation of Dreamers is for Congress to pass a new law that would allow them to become Lawful Permanent Residents of the United States, which would be a prerequisite to applying for citizenship.
What is the DREAM Act?
A permanent solution.
The DREAM Act is the name of a bipartisan bill first introduced in 2001 to offer a permanent solution for Dreamers by allowing them to eventually earn citizenship if they go to college, maintain a job, or serve in the U.S. military. The DREAM Act has been introduced repeatedly but has not yet become law.
A version of the DREAM Act was included in the American Dream and Promise Act, which was passed in a bipartisan vote by the U.S. House of Representatives in June 2019. While a related bipartisan bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate, the bill has not been considered by the full U.S. Senate at this time. To become law, a bill must generally be passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate, then be signed by the president.
But aren’t Dreamers here illegally? Why should the U.S. allow them to stay?
While their parents made the choice to enter the U.S. illegally or overstay a visa, Dreamers, who were children when they arrived, did not make that choice for themselves. There’s no place in American law that penalizes children for the action of their parents. For many Dreamers, the U.S. is the only home they’ve ever known. Passing the DREAM Act or similar legislation is an opportunity to fix the law so that Dreamers correct their situation, earn citizenship and remain in the country they call home.
Where can I find more information?
Individuals who believe they may be eligible to renew or apply for DACA should immediately consult with an experienced immigration attorney or a non-profit organization (including many World Relief offices and local churches supported by World Relief) that is recognized by the U.S. Department of Justice to provide low-cost immigration legal services. Visit our website to find a location near you.
To explore the issue of immigration more broadly from a distinctly Christian perspective, we recommend books such as Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion and Truth in the Immigration Debate by World Relief’s Matthew Soerens and Jenny Yang and The God Who Sees: Immigrants, The Bible, and The Journey to Belong by World Relief’s Karen Gonzalez. You can also download a free small group guide, Discovering and Living God’s Heart for Immigrants or the Evangelical Immigration Table’s e-book, Thinking Biblically about Immigrants and Immigration Reform.
I support DACA and Dreamers, but I’m not sure how I — one person — can help. Do you have any ideas?
There are many ways you can help. Here are five simple ideas:
- For starters, consider following World Relief on social media (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) to learn more and share posts you agree with.
- To take action, write your members of Congress urging them to support the DREAM Act. Signing this letter prepared by the Evangelical Immigration Table is a good place to start.
- Write and submit an op-ed or a letter to the editor of the local paper about why you support Dreamers.
- If you have a story to tell about yourself or someone you know who has DACA, consider sharing how it’s helped your or their life on social media. This is a human issue and we need to keep it humanized.
- Finally, provide financial support so that World Relief can continue to provide affordable, authorized, compassionate support to Dreamers and other immigrants in need of competent legal advice.
Love Disrupts: Rodney’s Story
“We are enamored with a gospel that comforts us, but we are rarely drawn to a gospel that disrupts us.”
– Eugene Cho, Thou Shall Not Be a Jerk
Rodney is a husband and a father. He goes to church and home-schools his kids. He loves God and loves others, but when it came to immigration, Rodney felt it might be best if the U.S. stopped allowing more people to come here.
“[I would] see the big headlines saying that an illegal alien broke into someone’s house,” he said, “or [I’d] hear something about MS13 without context. You get to the point where you start to put all people into the same category.”
Rodney was comfortable with his views on immigrants and refugees, that is, until God disrupted his life.
It was a perfectly ordinary Sunday when David Frazier, founder of World Relief Memphis’ Connect English Language Center, spoke at First Evangelical Church in Memphis, Tennessee. Rodney’s son, James, was in attendance, and he listened as David spoke about God’s heart for immigrants. After the service, James returned home and told his dad about David’s message and how it was causing him to question his own views on immigration. Rodney was intrigued so he invited David to come speak to his Sunday school class the following week.
“David really pulled back [the curtain] and showed me the facts about who refugees are and the processes in place in terms of vetting that they have to go through,” Rodney said.
After Sunday school, David suggested that Rodney enroll in an orientation program at World Relief Memphis to learn more.
During one of the first classes, Rodney’s instructor passed out index cards to everyone and asked them to make a list of things they would bring with them if they had to leave their homes. After they made their lists, the instructor told everyone to cross one thing off their lists. After a few more rounds, everyone was left with just two or three things they could bring with them.
“[I realized] this is what these refugees have had to do,” Rodney said. “They’ve had to give up things in order to [find] a better life or escape danger where they were. It just made me think, what would I have to give up?
“[The exercise] opened my eyes up to the fact that the people that are here are not trying to…stay in their own groups,” he continued. “They are trying to learn English, trying to assimilate and trying to get jobs. These aren’t people coming just to get something, they’re coming to learn. They’re coming to contribute.”
After finishing the classes, Rodney felt compelled to volunteer. He signed up to serve on Wednesday nights at the Connect Language Center’s Café English, helping ESL students practice their English by simply having conversations with them. At Café English, Rodney connected with refugees and other immigrants and began to feel a palpable sense of shared humanity with them.
A few weeks later, World Relief’s Mobilization Director, Karen Spencer, asked him if he’d be interested in filling the need for a Roadrunner — a volunteer driver who transports refugee and immigrant clients to and from ESL classes and other appointments they have. Without hesitation, Rodney said yes and began driving World Relief’s 15-passenger van three days a week. According to Rodney, this was simply the next step God had asked him to take, and spending time with clients in the car allowed him to foster deeper connections with them.
“One of the first groups of ladies I [drove to ESL class] came close to my 29th wedding anniversary,” Rodney recalled. “So I asked them to teach me how to say ‘I love you’ in Swahili, which is nakupenda. It was a way to [connect] things from my life [with] theirs.”
After that, Rodney said he and the group of women would say “nakupenda” to each other each time he dropped them off, a sign that a beautiful friendship was forming.
Rodney also got to know the Mto brothers on his drives. They talked to each other about their marriages and hobbies, and as they grew more comfortable with each other, one of the brothers approached Rodney and asked if he would help him learn how to drive.
Rodney admits that he was hesitant at first.
“There was the human instinct [in me] that said maybe this is going too far,” he said.
But he had been asking God to make him open to new opportunities. When he remembered that prayer he thought, “God, I asked you to make me open, so, okay.’”
He picked up some books from the Connect Language Center that would help the Mto brothers study for their permit test and began studying with them. Eventually, Rodney invited the brothers over for dinner after their study sessions and the men became close friends with both Rodney and his son. One night, Rodney even took the brothers out for pizza and to drive go-karts so they could safely practice driving!
Recently, Rodney said that Patrick, one of the brothers, texted him saying, “Big! I’m ready to drive!”
“My nickname is Big Rod,” Rodney laughed, “but he can’t remember the ‘Rod’ so he just calls me Big.”
At World Relief, we often talk about the opportunity for mutual transformation. Because of his willingness to take a leap of faith, Rodney experienced a significant mindset shift and has been blessed tremendously by being a source of friendly welcome for so many refugees and immigrants in Memphis.
“The thing that has gotten me more than anything else,” Rodney said, “is that there are missionaries that are called by God and go to a certain country. I’m being a missionary here. I’ve met people from Columbia, Venezuela, Guinea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I’ve learned these people’s names. I’ve gotten to talk to them, find out about their families, what they like to cook, etc. It’s something that I’ve really enjoyed and it’s ever-expanding.
“It is not so much that you have the ‘skills’ when you come to this job,” he continued. “It’s that you open yourself up to God and say, ‘Take everything that I am, and use me for your glory in this position.’ So, it’s all about being open to God… Be open, and let God use you to be who he created you to be.”
Rodney’s story is a refreshing reminder of what God can do when we open ourselves up to his transformative, often disruptive love. May we all be a little more like Rodney and courageously let that love in.
Nathan Spencer is a former Communications Intern for World Relief Memphis. A recent graduate of the University of Memphis, Nathan continues to volunteer for World Relief as a copywriter.