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ROOT CAUSES — Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit to Guatemala and Mexico has concluded. Amid a "blunt response" regarding migration, the administration continued to focus on addressing its root causes, Zolan Kanno-Youngs reports in The New York Times. On Tuesday, Harris and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador signed an agreement aiming to deter migration by addressing the "poverty, persecution and corruption" Central Americans face. "The issue of root causes is not going to be solved in two days. It is not a new issue for the United States to feel the root causes on our shores," Harris said. Addressing root causes is also the focus of a letter evangelical leaders sent last week to Harris, President Biden and members of Congress, reports Jeff Brumley of Baptist News Global. "This response should be holistic in addressing both the driving factors of this migration and the U.S. immigration policies that govern an immigrant’s arrival," the leaders write. FEAR — Omid, a former interpreter for the U.S. military, seldom goes outside after dark for fear the Taliban will find him, reports Austin Landis of Spectrum News. As the U.S. withdraws troops from Afghanistan, pressure continues to build for President Biden to evacuate Afghan allies such as Omid who helped the U.S. in the war — and continue to be threatened. "If the Americans withdraw from Afghanistan even for a minute, I cannot guarantee I can be alive," Omid said. No One Left Behind estimates that a minimum of 300 interpreters or family members have been killed to date. "We have a moral obligation to get them out," said Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Florida), who served in Afghanistan with the U.S. Special Forces. "It also sends a message around the world to our other local allies — in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere — about whether the United States is going to stand with you." RESPONSE — In the Baptist Standard, Waco, Texas, Pastor Amos Humphries responds to Gov. Greg Abbott’s order to pull licenses from facilities that house migrant children. "As diverse as Texas Christians can be, I am confident there is not a follower of Christ in our great state who wants children left vulnerable and uncared for," writes Humphries, pastor of Park Lake Drive Baptist Church. "Let us not departmentalize our faith to Sunday morning worship and turn a blind eye to the needs of the vulnerable children crossing our border."
BLESSING — Blessing Ovie fled Nigeria as an unaccompanied refugee when she was 9, facing unspeakable challenges, reports Brendan Quealy of Michigan’s Traverse City Record-Eagle. Nearly a decade later, with the help of the United Nations and Bethany Christian Services, she says her prayers for a better life are being answered. She now lives in Traverse City with her foster parents and has a 2-year-old daughter — and just celebrated her high school graduation. "Everything is a miracle," Ovie says. At Religion News Service, Emily McFarlan Miller explains how faith-based refugee agencies such as Bethany need to rebuild their refugee programs after four years of Trump-era cuts. "In a lot of ways, it looks like starting from scratch," said Kristi Gleason, Bethany’s vice president of refugee and immigrant family services. BORDER — Alvaro Enciso plants three or four crosses each week in Arizona’s desert borderlands to honor migrants who died making the dangerous trek across the U.S.-Mexico border. The art project, "Where Dreams Die," is representative of a spiritual thread that ties together much of the activism around protecting migrants along the border, reports Anita Snow of the Associated Press. "Protecting migrants and honoring the humanity of those who died on the perilous trail is a kind of religion in southern Arizona where spiritual leaders four decades ago founded the Sanctuary Movement to shelter Central Americans fleeing civil war, and scores of volunteers carry on their legacy today." CÉSAR — For Immigrant Heritage Month, NPR is featuring stories from immigrant communities of color across generations as part of their "Where We Come From" series. This week’s episode spotlights César Magaña Linares, an immigration activist and Temporary Protected Status recipient from El Salvador. In 2018, when he heard the news that President Trump planned to end TPS for Salvadorans, "it was a bit of a fight-flight-freeze response. I didn't even know what to think," he says of learning he had less than two years to figure out what to do before facing deportation. "What I have found to help me cope [with uncertainty over immigration issues] is reminding myself that I come from a country that ... is super rich and something greater than just immigration papers," he said. Thanks for reading, Dan |
