Eric Gay AP
Texas migrant barrier
Migrants walk past large buoys being used as a floating border barrier on the Rio Grande Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
On Thursday, August 3, the Rev. Franz Schemmel, pastor of the Messiah Lutheran Church in Weatherford, Texas and Chairman of Board of Directors of Texas Impact, the state's largest and oldest faith-based advocacy group, issued an open letter to Governor Greg Abbott regarding the two drowned migrants found in the Rio Grande River near Eagle Pass:
Dear Governor Abbott,
I write as a pastor, a person of faith, and president of the board of Texas Impact—a broad coalition of Christians, Jews, Muslims, and other Texans of faith who affirm the dignity and humanity of everyone. We are outraged at the news of two people found dead in the floating barrier you have placed in the river at Eagle Pass. This brutal tactic and other inhumane steps you have taken under the banner of “border security” are clearly intended to harm migrant people.
No religious tradition among those represented by Texas Impact allows for treating economic migrants, political asylees, or their children and families this way. You characterize migrants as invaders, criminals and enemies of our state. Our faith traditions teach the opposite.
Our religious texts direct us to welcome the sojourner. The Torah proclaims, “you shall not wrong or oppress the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus warns that we will be judged by how we treated the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the sick, and the imprisoned.
Since you Identify yourself as one guided by the teachings of your Christian faith, we urge you to heed the words of scripture. We urge you to reverse your policies at our border. They are bringing danger and death to the most vulnerable of God’s children and creating a blight on the name of our state.
With sincerity and respect,
The Rev. Franz Schemmel
President, Board of Directors. Texas Impact
ABOUT TEXAS IMPACT:
Texas Impact is a religious grassroots network whose members include individuals, congregations, and governing bodies of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and other faiths. Texas Impact exists to advance state public policies that are consistent with the shared values of Texas faith communities.
The non-profit works on a wide variety of public policy issues within the broadly held social concerns of mainstream religious traditions. Texas Impact uses a process of discernment on public policy issues like the processes used by many faith traditions, including Scripture, the wisdom of the faith traditions, current public policy information and data, and the experiential knowledge of people of faith to develop our positions and policy goals.