The Problem with Polemics in the Immigration Debate, Part II

Last post we started talking about some of the complexities about immigration. This post I hope to add a little bit of my own experience of what I have learned from serving the poor, living in Belize, working in Mexico, serving Mexican immigrants in Detroit, traveling to Israel and Palestine, meeting Chaldean Christians with Iraqi heritage, and driving through Dearborn, Michigan.

One thing to keep in mind during this post: All of us come from a certain context. There is no such thing as a completely unbiased opinion since we all have our own experiences which shape the way we take in knowledge and how we try to integrate them to formulate our worldview. My hope is that these small portions of my life experiences show how complex points of view really are. I am not trying to convince anyone of any one side or asking anyone to make any conclusions from my own experiences, but rather show how each person comes from a particular context which shapes the way they see the world and how they form their opinions. In doing so I hope to encourage people to not simply hear the stated opinion of others but to also get to the roots of their experiences which shape the “why” of that opinion. If we do this without empathy we can box people in, “Oh you think this way because of that.” But if we do it with empathy then we can enter into real dialogue. “Oh I never saw things that way. I can see why you may have that opinion. Here’s my experience, have you ever tried looking at that this way?”

Home

One thing my mom can tell you is that I invite everybody over. She has lost count of how many people we have hosted at our house. Those who were just stopping through or those who came specifically to visit. My attitude is generally “Come over… we’ll figure it out later if we have enough room or food… just come over… it’d be great to have you…” When it comes to the practicals and the implications of those decisions, I often don’t pay attention to that. This post tries to tease some of those things out a bit when it comes to immigration.

Serving the Poor

I have always loved Mother Teresa and I knew from around the time of high school that I wanted to serve the poor in some capacity like she did. It is amazing to encounter Christ in the poorest of the poor. The idea is so romantic. And it is. And it is beautiful. But it’s also very messy.

In Detroit, there is a man who comes by the parish asking for just a little bit of money to find a place to stay during the cold winter nights. He’s been coming for years. Each year a new brother comes, there’s a new plead for help. He has a very sad story and I feel really horrible about the way he lives. In the past, he asked for money, and a priest gave him some so he could stay at one of the local shelters. But it turns out he had been kicked out of all of the shelters and was not allowed back in. He’s a cocaine addict. The priest offered to send him for free to a drug rehabilitation center, but he refused. We have been in the park down the street playing soccer while he snorted coke on the benches right in front of us. A priest offered to find him a job and to find him a place to stay. He took him up on those offers and for a time worked the job and lived in the house of a woman for a small amount of rent. But again his cocaine addiction prevented him from keeping the job and so he was fired and then he could not pay rent and was back on the street. Over and over again this priest offered to spend a good amount of money to send this man to a drug rehabilitation center, but this man refused. He still asks for money, and still asks for food, and for a place to stay and constantly guilt-trips anyone if they do not give him what he wants. People offer what they can when they can, but he still refuses to go to the drug rehabilitation center. So the question is, if he continues to ask for money what do you do?

It’s hypocrisy to call yourself a Christian and chase away a refugee or someone seeking help, someone who is hungry or thirsty, toss out someone who is in need of my help.       ~ Pope Francis.

Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. (Luke 12:33)

Give alms from your possessions. Do not turn your face away from any of the poor, so that God’s face will not be turned away from you. (Tobit 4:7)

I whole-heartedly agree with Pope Francis and these Scripture verses, they are part of the Gospel message. The difficulty comes in when just giving what people want does not actually solve the problem but can actually add to it. What do you do if they refuse the help they most need and by giving them lesser means of help it is only complicates the problem? I don’t think these Scripture verses answer this question perfectly and I do not think they’re meant to. Throwing a Scripture verse or even a papal quote related to the situation does not  automatically clear up the complexity of the situation nor it does not give another person the right to judge another’s Christianity to be authentic or not. The question is not if we help them, but how can we give them what will actually be for their good and the good of others. That answer is always more complex.

The same is true with the issue of immigration. There are plenty of Scripture verses that talk about welcoming the stranger, hosting refugees, and taking care of the foreigner. This is the Gospel message and we must do it. Giving a Scripture verse though to proof-text one’s own point of view as if it was as simple as that often becomes a means of shutting down dialogue rather than opening up dialogue. From what I have seen with Catholic disciples on all sides of the issue of immigration is that all agree that immigrants and refugees should be given safety, welcomed, and integrated into a safe society somehow, the question is how? Where? When? By what process? How can we ensure safety for all involved? Scripture can tell us what to do, but it does not speak necessarily of how to do it. We must consult the Word of  God to see how it can inform our decision, but this does not mean that it can be translated 1 for 1 into each and every experience. It can give a guiding principle, but it often does not speak to the specificities that national policy sometimes demand. Pretending that Scripture does is a bit disingenuous and a politicization of the Word of God. This does not mean that Scripture has nothing to tell us about how we should run our public policy, it only means that it does not tell us everything about HOW we manage public policy. This is where the nitty-gritty of human work and dialogue come in.

Living in Belize and Working in Mexico

As many of you know I lived for three years in Belize on the border of Guatemala in a small town called Benque Viejo del Carmen. It is my home away from home. The people of Belize are a part of my family. They are MY people. I only hope that they consider me as one of their own. I would encourage everyone to go to Belize and experience the beauty of the place and the beauty of the people. The three years I had in Belize as a volunteer were the best three years of my life thus far. I never knew I could love other people like I did there. I always hope for the opportunity to visit again. I rarely felt in danger while I lived in Belize and visited Guatemala, I lived in a safe town, but even though that is the case, there are some truths that are hard to ignore. When my family came to visit in 2011 we visited the tiny little island of Flores in Guatemala. A week later on a farm in San Benito the town JUST across the bridge there were 27 people beheaded by a machete. Growing up, I never knew people personally who had family members who were murdered, raped, extorted, kidnapped, robbed at gunpoint, or involved in gangs or drug cartels. But in Belize, I knew many. It’s heartbreaking. Friends and students of mine have had their fathers, their mother, their sister, their brother, their friends, and their nephews murdered. You mourn with them and their families and it’s heartbreaking. It is so surreal. There are no words that can adequately express your sorrow or give any kind of clear answer as to why any of these things happen. But there’s two common sayings that mourners tell themselves to help one deal with it, “this is life” or “This is Belize.”

Belize is not out of the ordinary in Latin America. 42 out of 50 of the most dangerous cities in the world not at war are in Latin America. Four are in the United States (2 of them I have lived in: Baltimore and Detroit). (Click here and here for more information).

Murders in city per 100,000 people	Murders in State/Country per 100,000 people
Guatemala City 101	Guatemala 31.2
Belize City 101	Belize 34.4
St. Louis 59	Missouri 6.1/ USA 3.9
Baltimore 55.3	Maryland 8.6/ USA 3.9
Detroit 43.6	Michigan 5.7/USA 3.9

Belize protects its border from Mexico and from Guatemala and vice versa. Many Central American countries can be strict about who they let into their country and deportation happens pretty frequently (I've been on 2-3 public bus rides in Belize where the police pulled the bus over and a group of Guatemalans, El Salvadorians, or Hondurans were then deported from Belize). Some of those crossing the border into Belize were wanted for murder, rape, drug trafficking, or gang violence and some were guilty of those things once they entered into Belize. Some were trying to escape the violence of their country of origin. How does one know which one is which? It’s not always so easy to know. The majority of the United States is not like a lot of the rest of the world in the way it offers opportunities, the way it views the equality of women, the way public safety is enforced. This does not mean the United States is better by any means, it just means that we do have a lot to offer the rest of the world (as they have a lot to offer us) and we should not keep it for ourselves, but it also means we have to understand that not everyone coming into the United States has the same mentality as to how a society should run (not that all people now in the United States have the same mentality but that there are some worldviews inimical to the way of life that the general public in the US desire).

In the border town of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico right across the river from Laredo, Texas violence soars high. It’s a different world just across the border. It’s amazing how different two places can be less than a mile apart. Border towns are often hubs for drug and human trafficking. In 2012, there were 288 murders in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, but 8 murders in Laredo, Texas. The people of Nuevo Laredo are amazing people and it’s encouraging to see their strong faith. Neighborhoods hold their own Posadas during Advent and their own Stations of the Cross during Lent. They each have their own “base communidad” - base community - within the large parish and do works of mercy together as well as pray as families together. There is a gift these people have to offer. (For a beautiful account of ministry in Nuevo Laredo, click here) There are also stories of great tragedy. I wasn’t there when these things happened, but I heard about the stories of three men being hung from a bridge over the highway and the story of a woman who blogged exposing some of the local crime whose body was left in the public square. Are the borders creating the conditions for this kind of environment to exist? Or are the borders keeping those kinds of behavior out of the United States? I do not know the answers to those questions and I won’t pretend to.

For many of the people I talked to, the US was the "land of opportunity" where one was guaranteed to make it in life, where one could easily get a good job, pay rent, eat food, get transportation, and there would be little difficulty etc... Some literally think that because one is an American they have thousands of dollars in cash at their disposal and they are automatically rich. I had to explain that it's not that easy, it's much more expensive, and it's a lot harder to make it, there’s no guarantee, it could actually be worse in the US if you're starting from zero than if you try to make it in Belize, Guatemala, or Mexico simply because of the cost of living and transportation. This was a hard concept for many to grasp because of the images many of them receive through the media.

Another aspect to add is that many students I know had relatives in the United States. It was not uncommon for a father to leave their family in Central America and go to the United States to get a job and for him to send money back for his wife and children. This kind of set-up separates families and can be a situation that sometimes led to infidelity. In addition to this, the question becomes, is this fair for a host country to be paying those who earn it only for them to send it out of the country? How can the local economy profit if that money is being used elsewhere? But this is also what international charities do to an extent should they be stopped? I don’t think so. But I also don’t know the answers to these questions.

Israel and Palestine

This past summer I had the opportunity to travel to the Holy Land. It was powerful to visit the land that Jesus lived in. It was my first time in the Middle East and it was really impressive to see the way that Christians, Muslims, and Jews intermingled in the city. Yes there were some areas designated for the different groups, but there was a lot of cross-pollination between the different religions and cultures. Jerusalem was beautiful, clean, and well-kept. But as soon as we came to the border into Palestine we saw a huge wall built around it. Once we entered Bethlehem, the world inside was different. The buildings were a lot more dilapidated and some were crumbling. There was a lot trash. The way people dressed was much different than the way people dressed in Jerusalem. We talked to an important Palestinian Catholic official who began to explain some of the problems in Palestine. He explained how they felt choked by the wall and that they were not able to start businesses, that the military was unfair in which houses they went into, that the poverty in Palestine in a lot of ways was due to the fact that the wall separated them from family members and work opportunities. He said it can take up to 3 hours to do examinations for daily crossing the border and you cannot do so without a permit. He explained that sometimes Christians who support Israel do so unquestioningly due to their interpretation of the Bible. These verses are some of the ones that are used…

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they that love thee shall prosper. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions’ sakes, I will say now, peace be within thee. For the sake of the House of the Lord our God I will seek thy good (Psalm 122).

I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you (Genesis 12:1-3).

 For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste (Isaiah 60:12).           

He explained that this reading of Scripture focuses on the land of Israel. But in Christ the promises of the Old Testament are perfectly fulfilled so that all people of all nations, of all lands, shall inherit these promises, not just Israel. Now it seemed to me that there were clearly at least some injustices being done to the people of Palestine. Yet since the building of the wall Israel has seen a 90% decrease of suicide bombers in Jerusalem. Is it due to the wall? Is it due to other factors? Does Israel have the right to protect their people in that way? Is the wall and some of the injustices going on now going to create conditions that could lead to more unrest later on?  I don’t know the answers to these questions, one visit does not make me an expert. I am only stating what I saw and heard and that is very limited. I know that I stand against injustice, but I do not know how best to stop those injustices politically. I simply share this story to show the complexity of some of these issues.

Detroit
Right now I live at a parish made up primarily of Mexican immigrants. The people here are some of the most amazing people I have ever met. Generous, self-sacrificing, loving, helpful, involved, humble, Christ-centered servant-leaders. The culture and faith that they brought with them is a huge gift not only for the Church but for the United States itself. As far as them being good people, they put me to shame. Immigrants are not people to be feared, but people to be treasured. They bring with them a people-centered colorful hospitality filled with life.

“Build bridges not walls.” The church is surrounded by a brick wall. This wall has had two cars crash into it in the past three years. That wall has protected our building from those accidents. There’s a courtyard just beyond the wall. At times there have been people who came into that courtyard to relieve themselves, 1 and 2. If that wall was not there, would that open up it’s use to more occasions like these? I don’t know. Obviously, this is no comparison and it’s not meant to be. It’s just meant to show that in our own ways, whether through fences or locked doors, we don’t let just anybody come onto our property, but that does not mean that we are exclusive or anti-anybody. This is not a defense for the wall or a plea for no walls. It’s just meant to show that there are different perspectives on everything and there is room for reasonable disagreement.

Chaldean Christians

In Detroit, there are a lot of Chaldean Catholics, Catholics who culturally or literally come from Iraq and who pray in Aramaic in some of their liturgies. One of my favorite things in Detroit is visiting a Chaldean liturgy. I do not have a lot to offer on their perspective, nor am I qualified, but I only offer that I know some were frustrated with the previous administration and how some felt that Christians in Iraq had been overlooked and abandoned by the United States, while Muslims were given more liberty to enter the United States. 

Dearborn

Again I do not have a lot to offer on this topic and I am no expert on it. I can only say that driving through Dearborn, Michigan is like driving into a different world. I never knew that a suburb in the United States had multiple mosques, many signs in Arabic, and a street where the majority of women who seem to walk down it are Muslim women in hijabs or niqabs. I know some people who grew up in Dearborn who are concerned that they’ve lost their hometown. And I know that others are happy about the diversity that is present. I am not making judgments one way or another. I am simply noting the diversity and the challenges it brings. I recently had the opportunity to talk with a few Muslims as we were trying to evangelize people at a college campus who were open to it. I think all of them were very respectful and very kind. We entered into dialogue with some of them and still they were very respectful as they represented their points of view and genuinely listened to ours. Many smilingly received rosaries. There was one lady wearing a hijab who said she was not Muslim but only wore this because she knew her parents wanted her to.  There are all kinds of Muslims on all ranges of the spectrum. Now last year a Muslim man was arrested from there for wanting to plan an attack on a large church in downtown Detroit. Our church is large and it is in downtown Detroit. Are there other large churches in downtown Detroit? Yes. But it felt very close to home. Now obviously not all nor even the majority of Muslims are like this. And it's worth noting that his father, a Muslim, was the one who reported him. But if that “one” was successful in what he was planning to do, it does indeed make a difference. We should not pretend that the majority makes the minority insignificant or non-consequential. There are consequences and we are all trying to learn how to understand how to neutralize that minority who are radical.

This is just a hodge-podge of some of my experiences from a very limited point of view and are not exhaustive by any means or stretch of the imagination. I just present this, again, in order to show how peoples’ personal experiences could cause them to make certain judgments about certain things. I do not want anyone to make any judgments or conclusions based on my own experiences alone. I do not even want to do that myself, because if I want an inclusive world, that means I have to try to include other worldviews and try to see how or if I can integrate them with mine in order to come to a more comprehensive conclusion about reality.

The past two posts have been about the complexity of different issues. The next post will try to tackle the Church's role and responsibility in entering into the debate. It’ll be coming soon….