Immigration Attorney Visits
Immigration attorney Austin Wahl of Knoxville, Tenn., visits with participants at an immigration summit sponsored by the General Commission on Religion and Race in Omaha, Neb. April 22-24, 2025. (Photo by David Burke)
Great Plains Annual Conference | April 28, 2025
Among the attendees at the General Commission on Religion & Race’s immigration summit was a Tennessee immigration attorney who owes his passion for justice to his time on Micah Corps for the Great Plains Conference.
“Micah Corps was the first time I took seriously that my faith can be put into action for the things that set my heart on fire for the world — in injustices that exist, the hope that exists in our faith community,” said Austin Wall, who spent the summer of 2017 in the Great Plains. “Micah Corps connected me with communities of faith that were for justice, and with secular groups that were working for justice throughout the Great Plains Conference.”
Interns
Austin Wall, left, with fellow Micah Corps member Roe Koech in 2017, credits his service with the church program for inspiring his passion for justice. Wall is now an immigration attorney in Knoxville, Tenn. (Courtesy Photo)
With a bachelor’s degree in international studies and history from Rhodes College and a law degree from the University of Tennessee, Wall works for a private firm in Knoxville and is a member of the Holston Conference church and society board. He sets up clinics for refugees to create powers of attorney documentation and connects congregants in area churches with the help they need.
One case he’s working on is a family from northeast Tennessee whose parents left their children in their car in a Walmart parking lot. The parents were apprehended by ICE agents and taken to a regional facility in Louisiana. The children are temporarily living with the pastor’s family.
“Now in that congregation there’s a family that’s missing both parents, and that’s something that’s so heartbreaking,” he said. “But I felt empowered to do something about it.”
Wall remembers the diversity of his fellow Micah Corps members, from other countries and other states outside the Great Plains.
“I’m not even from here,” he said. “I’m so moved that y’all were so welcoming to someone like me and those all over the place.”
He said it informed his mission, telling himself, “You can do this. You met these people who are doing this in real life, and now I can do it myself.”
Omaha First puts thoughts into action
Not far from the Omaha Hilton where Austin Wall visited, Omaha First UMC was putting its immigration mission into action.
The church’s Immigration and Refugee Action Team approached its foundation board asking for a $100,000 grant to provide support for legal fees and representation. The foundation board agreed to match $25,000, and senior pastor Rev. Morita Truman said $40,000 has already been raised.
Last week, a check for $25,000 was given to the Center for Immigration and Refugee Advancement, or CIRA, to begin assistance for families who are in transition and seeking ways to safely and legally stay in the state of Nebraska and in this country.
Truman told Bishop David Wilson that the church was inspired after the challenge the Council of Bishops gave to individual churches on Epiphany Sunday for prayer and support for refugees.
“I wanted you to know how those words mattered here,” Truman wrote in an email to the bishop.
David Burke
David Burke is a content specialist for the Great Plains Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church.