4. REDUCCIÓN DEL RIESGO
5.1 BUENAS PRÁCTICAS DE SEGURIDAD
Comprehensive Immigration Reform?” Immigration Daily, 25 February 2009 refer to Julian Simon’s 1997 book on Immigration which explores ideas of why persons would leave their homeland to come to a strange and new environment when they have saleable human capital which could be used in their place of birth. She concludes that for even those who are already well educated and positioned determine that the difficult move is worth the risk when they consider the potential for greater improvement in the lives and the lives of their families, accessed June 2009, http://www.icl.com/ articles/html.
The Philippines, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Sudan; and human trafficking by which people are sold into slavery.43
Help on the Way
Although the migration of peoples has been a reality throughout the history of humanity, and immigration to the United States a phenomenon that has endured throughout the history of the country, immigration has become a more contentious issue in the present context. Even in that political climate, immigrants soon learn that there is help. Many of the refugees from Central America in the 1980’s had heard the stories of the liberation theology movement which was led by persons in the church in their native countries. Leaders such as Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, who was assassinated in March 1980, helped to strengthen the resolve of these refugees. As a result of this familiarity with the church as liberator,44 many immigrants sought shelter and protection from congregations in the U.S. The undergirding liberation theology, arguably a practical theology, frees oppressed persons who participate in their own liberation. The process involves a hermeneutic of suspicion in interpreting scripture, followed by a challenge to the superstructure that has shaped the interpretation of those scriptures, and a re- interpretation of those same scriptures, pointing toward a new theology and a new social
43 Pew Hispanic Center, “Global Commission on International Migration Report to the United Nations: Dimensions and Dynamics of International Migration,” October 2006, accessed June 2009, http//www.gcim.org/ reports/html.
44 Centro Presente, a community non-profit located in Chelsea Massachusetts sponsored a celebration of the life and work of Oscar Romero in June 2008, with testimonies from participants who had experienced the liberating support of the church in Latin America.
structure.45 Immigrants therefore look to the church, a world-wide body in which they have participated or have received support, to meet their needs for survival and protection in a challenging situation.
Many immigrants, both documented and undocumented, look to the church for assistance in their time of need. For them, strangers in a strange land, the church as a worshipping
community is the one place where they know they can go to experience the familiar and
comforting. It is the one place where they can “sing the Lord’s song,” even in a strange land. In many cases, they do receive support from the church: “Being an undocumented worker is not a crime.”46
In this statement from Resolution 119, 1996, The United Methodist Church reacted to the refusal of the US Government to grant visas to delegates to its 2004 General Conference by reaffirming the stand it had taken in response to the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA). The denomination also encouraged congregations to “seek ways to welcome, assist, and empower the refugee, immigrant, visitors, and undocumented persons in their neighborhood, and to denounce the persecution of the sojourner in the U.S. as prejudicial and racist.”47
Thus, when the factories and fields where immigrants work and the
45 Juan Luis Segundo, Liberation of Theology, (Eugene, Oregon: Orbis Books 1976) 8. 46 Resolution 119, 1996, The United Methodist Church General Conference.
social clubs where they relax with friends are raided, and when enforcement agents surround church buildings, the pursued and oppressed often look to houses of worship to find respite.48
The Sanctuary Movement49
How should the church react to this atmosphere that is inhospitable to many of its
members? One of the ways the church has responded in the past and now seeks to respond in the current context is through the Sanctuary Movement in the decade of the 80’s, and the current New Sanctuary Movement.50 The idea of sanctuary is based on the six cities of refuge built by Moses upon the command of God. These cities of refuge, three beyond the Jordan and three in the land of Canaan, were places where all murderers could flee for refuge. If those accused of unjustifiable homicide could flee to the city of refuge before they were killed, then they could plead their case. Those who killed accidentally could flee to the sanctuary city until the death of the high priest. After his death, they would be free. These were places of refuge, places that helped to secure justice. (Numbers 35: 6-15) This is the model for the sanctuary movement.
Several denominations and faiths have been involved in the Sanctuary Movement, which began in the United States in the 1980’s. The movement originated along the U.S. border with Mexico, in Arizona, and became strong in Chicago, Philadelphia, and California. Part of a
48 “Up to 350 in custody after New Bedford Immigration Raid,” The Boston Globe, 6 March, 2007. Factories were raided in New Bedford, Mass in 2007. The churches in the community came to the assistance of many children who were left without parents and to the aid of parents who were confined in detention centers out of state.
49 Connie Oxford, “No Greater Law: Illegal Immigration and Faith-based Activism,” Gender, Religion and Migration, 275-277.
50 “New Sanctuary Movement: Introduction,” Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations,
broader anti-war movement positioned against U.S. foreign policy in Central America, by 1987 four hundred and forty sites in the United States had been declared sanctuary cities open to migrants from civil wars in the Central American region.
The movement started with several ministers who began bringing Central American refugees into the United States with the intention of offering sanctuary, or faith-based protection from the political violence that was taking place in El Salvador and Guatemala. Many Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish congregations and temples responded positively, offering these refugees social services and advocacy support as well as engaging actively in efforts to change federal immigration policy. These congregations, united under the banner of the Sanctuary Movement, also pledged that they would not reveal the identities of these refugees, even if they were arrested or jailed for doing so. Many congregational leaders suffered as a result of keeping this pledge as they were detained and in some instances jailed, for protecting the identities of refugees.
This effort was not limited to refugees from South America. From the 1980s continuing into the 2000s, there also have been instances of churches providing sanctuary for short periods to migrants facing deportation in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway,
Switzerland, Australia, the United States, and Canada, among other nations.
The Sanctuary Movement was ultimately successful both in changing national policy and in protecting tens of thousands of individuals and families, enabling them to start a new life in the U.S. This movement has been succeeded in the 2000’s by a movement of churches and other
houses of worship, to shelter immigrants in danger of deportation and to protect families facing the violation of their human rights in the form of hatred and workplace discrimination.51
New Challenges Require New Solutions
Despite recent legislative restrictions, immigrants continue to show up at the door of the church looking for help. And though they may not articulate their reasons, many of them have a visceral knowledge of the church as a place to go to for help. They take to heart the church’s claim to be one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.52 Many make their appeal to the church as fellow Christians from the perspective of their membership in this universal family.
The challenges that twenty-first century immigrants to the United States face are not new challenges. While the more recent immigrants come to the U.S. from countries different from those of earlier waves of immigration, they face many of the same challenges faced by
immigrants of earlier time periods, among which is their need to belong (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs). This compelling need often finds itself in tension with the human tendency to reject or hold at bay those who are different, a response demonstrated by many nationals toward
immigrants. Official references to immigrants as “aliens” underscore this attitude of resistance to strangers.53
51 James P. Carroll: “Sanctuary,” House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power (2006), 397.
52
The four marks of the church were institutionalized in the statement of belief adopted by the Council of Nicea in 325.
53Thomas E. Lehman, “Coming to America: The Benefits of Open Immigration,” Immigration Daily 3 March 2008. (www.immigrationdaily.org) discusses the challenges of the mixture of cultures and the resistance demonstrated by those who advocate the preservation of a western European culture even in the face of an increasingly pluralistic society facilitated by modern means of transportation and the globalization of markets.
The immigration landscape is changing rapidly, becoming more challenging for
immigrants and those who help them, including the churches.54 Immigrants face hostility from a nation that often seeks to scapegoat them for its problems.55 The church and other service institutions are under pressure from secular society to conform to prevailing exclusionary attitudes and practices toward those not born in this country, especially those who do not have documents that show the government’s assent to their being here.56
Pope John Paul II, in his prepared remarks for World Migration Day in 1996, confirmed this universal family stance for the Roman Catholic Church. He wrote: “In the church, no one is a stranger and the church is not foreign to anyone, anywhere. As a sacrament of unity and thus a sign and a binding force for the whole human race, the Church is the place where illegal
immigrants are also recognized and accepted as brothers and sisters.” This position is affirmed by other Christian denominations.57
54 The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 included provisions to punish those human service organizations, including churches that provide assistance to persons who could not demonstrate that they were legally in the country. Under current law employers are required to verify the working status of employees.
55 Cara Anaam, “What If Immigration’s not the problem?” The Change Agent, 23 September 2006. Cover Story explores the possible reasons for the angst surrounding Immigration Reform and suggests several reasons for the public’s blaming of immigrants and immigration problems for the difficulties we face regarding wages, health care and other social services.
56
U S House bill HR4437 would require non-profits to check the immigration status of service recipients. 57 The five mainline Protestant Churches, The United Methodist, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church, Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ affirm this position on their various websites under either statements of belief (UMC and UCC) or statements of philosophy surrounding their ministries with immigrants and refugees.
Movement and Mission among Immigrants
Christians hold Abraham’s story at the root of the faith, beginning with God’s call to Abraham to abandon his home and to migrate to another place. Migration was central to the Jewish experience of God. The Hebrews, released from their oppression in Egypt migrated to the Promised Land. Jesus’ final command to his disciples was to “Go into all the world…”58 These stories all speak of movement, migration. Christianity is built on this tradition through the idea of “mission”, which means movement in order to spread the good news. It incorporates the idea of encountering God through the outward movement of the church into the world. The paradox of this missionary movement is that the missionary brings Christ to the stranger, while at the same time recognizing Christ in the stranger.59 Migration is therefore part of Christian
identity and parallels the spiritual journey that estranged people of God take back home to God. In appealing to the church for assistance and support, based on their previous experience of church, immigrant members expect to be treated as belonging to the Christian family.60 For Methodists in particular, the idea of being hospitable to other members of the Methodist family is one that is deeply embedded in the Methodist ethos, where early circuit riders and other
travelling preachers were welcomed into the homes of class and society members for their stays in the area.
58 Matthew 29:16 NRSV (New Revised Standard Version).
59 Gaspar Lo Bianco and Richard Ryscavage, And You Welcomed Me, xi. 60 Appendix A.
However, mainly because of cultural differences, this expectation of being treated as family members has not been realized in many instances in the contemporary American society with its emphasis on individuality, at least not according to immigrants’ understanding of family. As a result, they have in a number of situations formed discrete congregations within and outside of the organized church and special groupings within the church.61 While this arrangement has in the past been an acceptable response to the need to belong and feel welcome, at the same time it sets up a separate and not necessarily equal arrangement regarding the ministry of the church with and among immigrants. For with little more than a cursory understanding of the policies, procedures, and organization of the church in the U.S., with limited understanding of the nuances of the language and modes of communication, and without having access to the centers of power where critical decisions are made, immigrant groups and congregations are likely to remain marginalized, thus experiencing life on the fringes both in the wider society and in the church.62 So while it may well be that the church intends to be true to its nature and mission by being helpful and supportive to immigrant members, because of the lack of cross cultural competence on both sides of the immigration issue, these actions have helped in some ways and hurt in others.
61 In a study of female members of discrete immigrant congregations in Brooklyn New York and Roslindale Massachusetts conducted by the author in 2007, 98% of respondents said that they remained with their immigrant congregations because they regarded them as family and were treated by these congregations as family. The author was one of three researchers studying immigrant churchwomen.
62
This claim is borne out in the findings from the pilot study on “Women in Immigrant Churches” (see note 10 above), which unwittingly revealed that Ghanaian and Haitian immigrant women have taken to heart the claims of the church to be One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic and have appealed to the church for help from the perspective of members of a universal family. At the same time, they experienced hostility and resistance while being helped by the host church.
Since these uprooted persons look to the church for help in this profoundly complex and difficult situation, practical theologians are confronted with fundamental questions at the center of any problem: What then shall we do? How then shall we live? (Browning) or alternatively
What is God doing among us? and What is God calling us to do? (Poling and Miller). These are
the bases of the critical questions at the heart of this study.
Critical Questions
How does the U.S. church respond to the dilemma of living between the legal boundaries set by the state, and the example of Jesus Christ, who calls the church to welcome the stranger, preach good news to the poor, proclaim liberty to captives, and to let the oppressed go free?63
What is God calling the church to do in this situation? How does the church respond to persons
who are part of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church, members of the family of God who are suffering oppression and cannot find a place to survive, or a place to realize their dreams? How does the church respond also to those who are not part of the Christian community of faith?
In the instance of the Elvira Allerando, whom the church shielded from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a story detailed in Chapter One, the church acted according to values espoused in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Not only was a welcome provided for this sojourner and not only was she welcomed into that particular church family, but the faith community also protected her from the arbitrary and capricious enforcement of the current law, as the community did for Moses; as Shiprah and Phuah did for the Hebrew babies; as Joseph and Mary did for Jesus.
If the United States is by definition a derivative nation – a nation composed of
immigrants from other countries in addition to indigenous peoples – at what point does it stop being a derivative nation? To radically change patterns of entry is to change the organic nature of the nation that has at various times been described as a melting pot and a mosaic. To choose which nationals are welcome and which are rejected is to discriminate based on nationality, race, and ethnicity, something that contradicts the historical values of the nation. Is there a place where one could say, “Here, this is America – a new, different or unique place”?
The United States today would be a very different place without immigrants from every part of the world who assumed critical roles in the development of the country - pilgrims, slaves, indentured servants, artisans, seamen, planters, merchants and scientists, rail workers and
businessmen, and artisans and farm workers. This issue is significant because it speaks to the heart of what the nation is and what it has stood for; and to the church it asks the question: How do we respond to these members of the household of God, who are often used, despised, and oppressed? If the church is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic, how should it respond to the
nation’s attempts to limit immigration, criminalize undocumented workers, and separate families?
The issue of immigration is fluid and, while there have been studies of the church and immigration, there is little written on the Church’s response from the perspective of the
immigrant. That is the purpose of the current study.
Dreamscape: Parameters of the Study
In light of the challenges described above, the church faces a crisis that demands analysis and action. Theologian Don Browning claims that, when a religious community hits a crisis in its practices, the community needs to reflect:
The community must re-examine the texts and events that constitute the sources of the norms and ideals that guide its practices…This community …will see its inherited normative sources in the light of the questions engendered by the crisis.