My Point of View by Jennifer Vogt-Erickson

 

I got a sense of whiplash when I read the bold headline “‘Point them to Christ’” on the cover of the Sept. 3 Albert Lea Tribune, and then turned to the letters to the editor and saw Angie Hoffman respond to my letter with the words, “Build the wall.”

Inclusivity. Exclusivity.

Laura Peña is a pro bono attorney for the Texas Civil Rights Project, and ProPublica recently recounted her tireless work to reunify Carlos, an El Salvadoran father, with his 7-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter after they were detained and separated at the border.

Peña, a former ICE attorney, knows the system well, but she faced months of delays for documentation from the U.S. government on why it was holding Carlos as a suspected criminal. Carlos, who didn’t have gang tattoos or a criminal record, said he was fleeing extortion, and gang members would kill him if he returned.

While Peña eventually won Carlos’s asylum case, most migrants arrested along the border never see a lawyer. The value of the legal representation Carlos received was upwards of $100,000. He is among the lucky few granted asylum despite incredible odds against them.

Hoffman cited Trump administration statistics that “19% to 30%” of adults crossing the border with children falsely claim a family relationship, based on DNA testing. She is partially right — the 19% figure is based on DNA testing, gathered in a small pilot program from May 8 to 10 that tested 84 family units. The pilot program was extended for 120 days, and the administration has not responded to Politifact’s requests for additional information as of Aug. 26. Results should be available soon.

As far as concerns about stopping children from being “recycled” as part of “fraudulent families” crossing the border go, a fingerprint database can effectively catch that activity and help break up rings. Efforts to reduce sex trafficking are so important, and they can be carried out without trying to reduce overall migration to a trickle, so that shouldn’t be used as a justification for banning so many asylum cases or encouraging people to self-deport either.

The purpose of Trump’s harsh border policies, right down to not providing flu shots for detained children, is not actually to stop sex trafficking or protect children. These are pretty lies, benevolent only to the comfortable who believe them. They are no buffer whatsoever for those who are trying to escape violent threats aimed at themselves or their children. They are designed to make poor people give up their right to seek asylum and meet their fate in dangerous places.

What is the state of Christian faith when “Point them to Christ” to many Christians in our area means building a border wall out of desire to keep people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras out? In an Orwellian twist, República de El Salvador means “Republic of the Savior,” and that is indeed where the evangelical Christian-supported Trump administration is pointing.

These are all countries with murder rates five to 12 times higher than the U.S.’s and suffering some of the highest femicide rates in the world. Mexico’s murder rate is almost five times as high as the U.S.’s as well, and people fleeing violence should not be forced to go through the asylum process while waiting there, either through metering at the U.S.-Mexico border or as part of a supposedly “safe third country” agreement.

In his letter to the Galatians, the apostle Paul said, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

No distinctions. The message of the New Testament is radical inclusivity and compassion.

Trump’s border policies are emphatically at odds with this message. Don’t get me wrong, these are incredibly difficult values to practice, and religious values don’t always align well with secular laws, but for people who consider themselves to be Christian, these border policies should at least trigger second thoughts.

Whether a person is Christian or not, a border wall is much less an effective barrier than it is an expensive monument to xenophobia, and billions in military and DHS funds are being diverted to build it.

With full regard to separation of church and state, both the United States and religion can offer something everybody, especially the tempest-tossed, desperately needs: hope. Do we still have the courage to extend our oars for people to grab onto, or are we so broken and fearful we would rather smash our oars on Raquel and her children’s fingers and turn our backs to their fate?

I hang onto the hope that our hearts are so much bigger and better than the Trump administration’s inhumane, anti-American and, frankly, anti-Christian policies toward asylum seekers.

Jennifer Vogt-Erickson is a member of the Freeborn County DFL Party.