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Article by Rev. Heidi Worthen Gamble, Mission Catalyst, Pacific Presbytery
August 3, 2019:
Beautiful day at the U.S./Mexico border in Tijuana, Mexico, with kindred spirits serving migrants seeking asylum. Our interfaith delegation visited the extraordinary work of Al Otro Lado and their attorney clinics; a shelter housing 200 migrants by one man who simply had a concrete pad and decided to share; and a soup kitchen run by a Methodist church with a vision to build a shelter for women and children in the near future.
The migrants they serve in Tijuana are refugees from all over the world—Cameroon, Nigeria, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala to name a few—who are being prohibited from their international and constitutional right to seek protection in the United States through oppressive policies such as the “Remain in Mexico” and “Migrant Protection Protocols” by the Trump Administration. These policies require refugees/asylees to put their name on a waitlist (run informally by migrants, not even border patrol agents) in a border town like Tijuana (now he most dangerous city in the world), or forcing the refugee to apply for asylum in another country. Al Otro Lado attorneys are being targeted and some are no longer allowed into Mexico to represent migrants there. And now we are hearing reports that the Administration wants to admit zero refugees in 2020.
No words.
Then—as we crossed back into the United States—we heard the horrifying news of a mass shooting in the border town of El Paso, Texas, allegedly by someone fearful of an invasion of immigrants.
Oh my country.
The deeply-rooted biblical call to welcome the foreigner and love the stranger is a journey of the soul, and of the utmost importance to God. To my white nationalist brothers and sisters who are fearful of this journey: Fear not. There is so much love and beauty and joy and blessing on the other side of our fears.
As the great Sufi mystic Rabia al Basri wrote: “I was born when all I once feared, I could love.”
In partnership with Al Otro Lado, M25 and CLUE have begun an asylum/refugee hospitality ministry here in LA to help with that soul work we need to do in this country. If you’d like to welcome a refugee into your home or church, message me!
#riseforefugees