Migrant children at the border deserve compassion

Friday, Aug. 01, 2014

Images of children sleeping under tarps on concrete floors should make us pause to consider what we mean when we say we believe in the dignity of all human beings. Stories of children being threatened with murder should spur us to consider what being pro-life truly means. The very idea that a young teenager would have to choose between a life lived in fear of being killed or fleeing to a foreign country thousands of miles and many cultural differences away should be a call to action for people who have heard the Gospel message to care for the widow, the orphan and the stranger.

Answering that call to action may seem impossible. The reality of 57,000 children being detained at the U.S.-Mexico border is hard to comprehend and discerning a particular course of action takes time, but there are several steps each of us can take to make a difference for the unaccompanied children seeking refuge at our southern border:

ADVOCATE: The Justice for Immigrants (www.justiceforimmigrants.org) and Catholics Confront Global Poverty (www.confrontglobalpoverty.org) campaigns of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops are asking Catholics to call our legislative representative or senator and ask him to do all or any of the following:

* Provide $3.167 billion in Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) funding for FY2015, thereby assuring sufficient funding for the anticipated number of unaccompanied children arriving next year and also for the other vulnerable populations that ORR serves.

* Establish a no-year, $2 billion, interagency Migration Contingency Fund for the Departments of State, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services/ORR, and Justice.

* Increase funding for ORR’s Unaccompanied Refugee Minor (URM) program to assure longer-term care for some of the most vulnerable unaccompanied children who qualify.

* Oppose the Obama administration’s request for “fast track” authority to deport unaccompanied children back to danger, undermining their due-process rights.

* Address the root causes of violence and the lack of opportunity that have compelled children to leave their homes, thereby reducing the number of at-risk children.

*Implement a peacebuilding approach to reduce the violence in Central America.  This approach would include community-based gang interventions, programs to strengthen families, and community engagement and dialogue.  

* Target international assistance in the region to address the security and economic crises in Central America, specifically through proven community-based grants and cooperative agreements.

* Fund programs to ensure robust and safe reintegration of children who have been repatriated back to their home countries.

* Place families with children in alternatives to detention and ensure they receive their day in court to articulate their asylum claims.

ASSIST:  Several Catholic organizations are serving the migrant children directly.  All need additional funds to provide the children with food, clothing, bus tickets, housing, and other needs.  Consider a donation to Annunciation House in the Diocese of El Paso (www.annunciationhouse.org), Catholic Charities USA (www.catholiccharitiesusa.org), or our local Catholic Community Services (www.ccsutah.org), which is providing services to some of the children through its refugee foster care program.

ACCOMPANY:  Spend a moment considering the life of a migrant of any age who is forced to leave the only home they know for an entirely different world, where their future is uncertain and most have few connections. Pray for migrants and refugees worldwide and for an end to the poverty, violence, and war that toss people from their homelands, leaving them at the mercy of strangers.