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Border Crisis Tests Religious Faith — And Some Fail Badly

Border Crisis Tests Religious Faith — And Some Fail Badly

Flamboyant piety has long been fashionable on the political right, where activists, commentators, and elected officials never hesitate to hector us about their great moral and theological rectitude. Wielding the Scriptures like a weapon, these righteous ’wingers are always eager to condemn the alleged sins of others but reluctant to examine their own. They seem to spend far more time on posturing and preening than spiritual reflection. Rarely does anyone call them out on their failures to fulfill their proclaimed devotion because, in this country, that is considered rude.

But occasionally, something happens that separates the people of faith from the sanctimonious fakers. With thousands of defenseless children now gathered on America’s southern border, seeking asylum from deprivation and deadly violence, something like that is happening right now.

Nobody in the House of Representatives is more vociferous about her reverence for God’s word than Michele Bachmann (R-MN) –the Tea Party queen bee who often has said she believes that America is a “Christian nation.” When Bachmann opened her mouth on television about those hungry and fearful children, she demonized them as “invaders” and incipient criminals who could be expected to rape American women and break American laws.

Then there is Bachmann’s colleague Louie Gohmert (R-TX), whose religious zeal is so overpowering that he cannot restrain himself, even during House proceedings – like that committee hearing last month when he proclaimed his belief that anyone who doesn’t accept Jesus is destined for hell. But when the subject is the innocent kids at the border of his home state, most of whom are girls under 13 years of age, Gohmert speaks of “invasion” and urges the governor of Texas to unilaterally initiate a state of war. Like many of his fellow far-rightists, he stokes rumors that these children are harbingers of disease and gangsterism.

So does Phil Gingrey (R-GA), a medical doctor who went so far as to accuse the young migrants of bringing the Ebola virus – seen only in Africa — with them from Central America. And so does Sandy Rios, the religious-right talk-show host who speaks of the “hope” that the Lord bestowed on her, but warns that we should treat the border children like “lepers.” And so does Ann Coulter, the Church Lady who suspects that all those kids, no matter how small, probably belong to the murderous MS-13 narcotics syndicate.

Now among the theological ideas shared by many of these figures is a fondness for the Old Testament, which they routinely quote to justify cruel strictures against gays, women, and anybody else they wish to suppress. At the moment, however, these Biblical literalists ought to be studying the very plain instruction of Leviticus:

“The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”

More recently, Pope Francis laid down a clear edict on the border crisis that springs from his own Biblical understanding, urging Americans to “welcome and protect” the children arriving on our border. (He didn’t mention anything about immediate deportations.) The Holy Father expressed deep concern for the “tens of thousands of children who migrate alone, unaccompanied, to escape poverty and violence…in pursuit of a hope that in most cases turns out to be vain”.

“Many people forced to emigrate suffer, and often, die tragically; many of their rights are violated, they are obliged to separate from their families and, unfortunately, continue to be the subject of racist and xenophobic attitudes,” he said. Francis went on to say that only development and security in their own countries would ever stem the flow of migrants heading northward – and that in the meantime, the rest of us should abandon “attitudes of defensiveness and fear, indifference and marginalization.” Attitudes like those displayed by goons waving flags and guns and “Go Home” signs, who don’t care whether these little strangers live or die.

Where are the real Christians? Where are the true people of faith? They may be found in houses of worship near the border and around the country, where people of all political persuasions realize that they are called to feed, clothe, shelter, and heal God’s children, even when they arrive on a bus without papers. If there is a kingdom of heaven, it is these generous souls who will be admitted when they reach its border.

The hypocrites will be sent somewhere else.

Photo: Republican Conference via Flickr

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Teens Tell Tales Of Traveling — Without Parents — Across U.S.-Mexico Border

Teens Tell Tales Of Traveling — Without Parents — Across U.S.-Mexico Border

By Alfonso Chardy, The Miami Herald

MIAMI — Soon after crossing into Mexico from Guatemala, 17-year-old Ana became separated from the group of Hondurans with whom she had been traveling and wound up alone in a mountain cottage where she was repeatedly raped by strangers.

“They threatened me, saying that if I ever said something about this they were going to kill me,” Ana said amid tears during an interview in a Little Havana home. “The only thing I begged them was not to harm me. The only thing I was thinking was that they were going to kill me. That I was going to die.”

Ana’s ordeal was the most extraordinary in a series of harrowing stories told by minors from Central America, part of an unprecedented exodus of thousands of unaccompanied children crossing the Mexican border into the United States.

Miami is one of 10 cities where the children are being sent for immigration proceedings as border shelters fill up.

Though unaccompanied children have arrived in the United States for decades, the number has reached levels not seen before after 2011 — with the majority coming from Central America, largely Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. The number of unaccompanied children jumped from an annual average of 6,800 between fiscal years 2004 and 2011 to more than 13,000 in 2012 and to more than 24,000 in 2013, according to a November 2013 report from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). About 50,000 unaccompanied children have arrived since Oct. 1, according to U.S. officials.

While each child may have his or her own reasons for making the perilous journey, immigration attorneys and activists who represent the children say the main reason they are fleeing is intensified gang violence in their home countries as well as abuse and physical violence in their own homes.

Karen, another Honduran teen, said physical violence by her own father and threats from gangs propelled her to leave her country. She said she tried to find safety by moving out of her hometown to other parts of Honduras, but she concluded that the United States was the only safe place for her. Gangs in Honduras and other Central American countries are widespread, posing national security threats because they have become efficient criminal organizations similar to the Mexican drug-trafficking cartels.

Interviews in Miami last week with half a dozen unaccompanied minors who reached the United States show that escaping gang violence is a prime factor in the exodus. Some, like Andrea from El Salvador, were also seeking to join parents who had emigrated earlier. But Andrea herself also cited gang threats as the primary reason for her trip. All of the minors interviewed asked that their last names not be published because of the sensitivity of their cases and pending immigration proceedings.

Ana’s fateful journey began in Honduras in February.

“I was threatened by the gangs of Honduras and, because of the gangs, my 17-year-old brother was killed three years ago,” Ana recalled. “The gangs also threatened to kill me if I didn’t join them.”

Ana was the youngest in a group of 12 Hondurans, including adults, who boarded buses and cars to reach the U.S. border.

After crossing into Mexico from Guatemala, Ana suffered the worst experience of her young life — the rape by several men who abducted her after she became separated from her group.

“It was early morning and dark, and when we reached a cottage in a mountain, the men grabbed me after my group disappeared,” she recalled.

After raping her, the attackers left. At sunrise, her group found her and the trip resumed toward the U.S. border.

Karen, the other Honduran teen, is represented by Elizabeth Sanchez Kennedy, staff attorney at Catholic Legal Services in Miami.

In an interview at the Catholic Legal Services office in downtown Miami, Karen recounted her trip.

She also crossed the Rio Grande on a raft one cold moonlit night when she was 17.

She traveled on foot, buses, and vans through Guatemala and Mexico to reach a border point near Reynosa, Mexico, which is across from McAllen, Texas.

Karen said she fled Honduras because her father physically abused her and gangs threatened to kill her.

“I think it’s very important for people to understand that this young lady’s case is a very typical case and that they embark on this very perilous and dangerous journey only as a last resort,” said Randolph McGrorty, executive director of Catholic Legal Services of the Archdiocese of Miami. “She really tried to seek safety in her own country on many different occasions. She didn’t take this journey lightly. She didn’t take it on the promise of a work permit. She took it to save her life.”

In her own words, this is how Karen, now 19, describes the reasons for leaving Honduras.

“I was fearful of my father’s physical mistreatment of me, and fearful of the gangs,” she said. “They killed my cousin and my aunt.”

While many of the unaccompanied children are arriving from Honduras, there are also significant numbers coming from El Salvador and Guatemala.

Andrea, who was 14 when she crossed the border, traveled from Sensuntepque, about 40 miles northeast of the capital, San Salvador.

She said she fled El Salvador because gang members were pressuring her to join. Andrea’s mother, Sandra, said she encouraged her daughter to come to the United States so the family could be together.

“It is very hard for us as parents to expose our children to the dangers of these journeys,” Sandra told reporters in explaining why she had allowed her daughter to come to the United States by herself. “It is not easy for a parent to do this, but it is necessary to keep a family together.”

Andrea, now 15, said that for a month earlier this year she endured hunger, cold, and seemingly interminable walks to finally make it across the border.

“I was very scared,” said Andrea. “I thought I was never going to arrive. That something bad was going to happen to me.”

After being detained in a shelter near the border, immigration authorities released her and she then flew to Miami and rejoined her mother at Miami International Airport.

Andrea said her goal now is to stay in the United States, study hard, and “achieve something in life.”

Photo: El Nuevo Herald / MCT/ Roberto Koltun

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Kerry Urges Central America Cooperation On Child Migrants

Kerry Urges Central America Cooperation On Child Migrants

Panama City (AFP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry reiterated Tuesday Washington’s calls for Central American cooperation in addressing the plight of tens of thousands of illegal child migrants making their way to the United States.

The rapid surge in unaccompanied children making the dangerous journey, most of them from Central America, has prompted U.S. officials to talk of a “humanitarian crisis” and to issue reminders the vast majority of the minors will be deported.

Kerry met with Salvadoran President Salvador Sanchez Ceren and Guatemalan President Otto Perez plus Honduran Foreign Minister Mireya Aguero in Panama City.

“The lives of children cannot be put at risk in this way and we all have a responsibility as leaders to do our part in order to solve this problem, and we will,” Kerry said.

“We obviously understand people who want to be able to do better, to look for a better life. But at the same time, there are rules of law,” he added.

And he cautioned that “there is false information that is being spread about benefits that might be available to these young people who are looking for that better life.”

Kerry declined to say whether the United States would heed calls from Central America for US authorities to focus on reunifying families whenever possible.

Central American authorities yesterday said they would ask Kerry to allow children immigrants to stay if their parents were already in the country.

Since October, 52,000 unaccompanied children aged under 17 have been detained crossing the border, twice the number from the same period a year ago.

President Barack Obama Monday lodged a request with Congress for $2 billion to cope with the tide of undocumented child immigrants.

The sudden flow has injected new venom into the debate between Obama and House Republicans over his calls for a sweeping reform of the U.S. immigration system.

“We understand this problem from all its dimensions and are willing to work together with the US government to look for a quick and appropriate solution aimed at the problem not growing,” Guatemala’s Perez said.

El Salvador’s Sanchez Ceren, meanwhile, said that the problem stems from “people linked to crime” who “deceive parents that upon arrival in the United States, reunification will be a reality.”

AFP Photo / John Moore

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