Learn, Engage, and Act in Service of Our Borderland Neighbors
This week’s RGBM Now Blog features a resource list to learn more about what’s happening with regard to the border and migration. We encourage you to utilize these resources to learn, events to engage in, and opportunities to act to help us advocate for our neighbors. Learn more and make an impact below.
RGBM Resource Center
Resources to Learn:
Five Ways to Have Better Conversations About Immigration, Wendy Feliz, Suzette Brooks Masters (2021). Greater Good Magazine. Available at https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/five_ways_to_have_better_conversations_immigration
US Give More Asylum-Seekers Waiting in Mexico Another Shot, Maria Verza, Elliot Spagat (2021). The Associated Press. Available at https://apnews.com/article/mexico-health-coronavirus-pandemic-government-and-politics-272453ce5ca8197264e7922151e5f4d6
DHS Announces Expanded Criteria for MPP-Enrolled Individuals Who Are Eligible for Processing into the United States, Department of Homeland Security (2021). Department of Homeland Security. Available at https://www.dhs.gov/news/2021/06/23/dhs-announces-expanded-criteria-mpp-enrolled-individuals-who-are-eligible-processing
Events to Engage:
Webinars: Root Causes of Forced Migration, National Lawyers Guild (NLG) (2021). Available at https://vimeo.com/547258643/b54b444a7c
SAVE THE DATE: 2021 Border & Migration Ministry Summit, Episcopal Diocese of West Texas (2021). Episcopal Diocese of West Texas. Available at https://episcopalmigrationministries.org/bordersummit/
Opportunities to Act:
Policy Corner - Challenging the System From the Ground Up: Using State and Local Pressure to End Immigrant Detention, National Immigrant Justice Center (Webinar on July 13, 2021). Available at https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/5209110475272879375
How to Support the U.S. Immigrant Rights Movement, Allegra Upton (2020). ImmigrationProf Blog. Available at https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2020/12/how-to-support-the-us-immigrant-rights-movement.html
RGBM Cycle of Prayer
We are thankful for the ruling by the Justice Department restoring the possibility of asylum protections for women fleeing from domestic violence and families targeted by gang violence. We pray for swift changes to the system that will allow survivors of violence to have their cases heard quickly. We ask God for healing of the trauma they have endured and for their safety.
As reports emerge of heartbreaking conditions in migrant camps, we again cry out to God. We ask God to open eyes, move hearts, and let the voices of his people be heard. God, have mercy and protect all children in the care of the United States.
We're praying for millions of Dreamers and their families who live with the uncertainty of not having a permanent way to adjust their legal status. May God comfort them in the waiting. We pray that Congress would work together to come to a solution for Dreamers.
We pray for courage for those stepping out into difficult conversations, calling lawmakers, and stretching their faith. And we pray for those in leadership to have ears to hear the pleas of the vulnerable as they make decisions on immigration reform.
Pray this prayer shared by the Henri Nouwen Network with us:
God,
no one is a stranger to you and
no one is ever far from your loving care.
In your kindness watch over migrants, refugees,
and asylum seekers, those separated from their loved ones, those who are lost, and those
who have been exiled from their homes.
Bring them safely to the place where they long to be,
and help us always show your kindness to strangers
and those in need.
We ask this through Christ our Lord,
who too was a refugee and a migrant,
who traveled to another land, searching for a home.
Amen.
Part of our mission is to follow Christ’s example of love, invitation, and generosity, especially to those who are pushed to the margins. Jesus went looking for these forgotten and underserved people, intentionally bringing them back into relationship and community, for God’s glory. We seek to do the same.
May we welcome as freely as Christ welcomes us, without regard for the differences that seem to separate us. All are loved. All are welcome.