United Methodists Bring Help and Hope to Immigrants

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The letter from a woman named Susan to our United Methodist Insight email inbox was especially poignant. It read something like this:

“I’m a pediatric nurse and I’m ready to go anywhere to help migrant children in detention. Where can I sign up?”

It broke my heart to have to write back to this eager, compassionate nurse to tell her that the U.S. Border Patrol forbids volunteers from entering detention centers to provide assistance to jailed migrants. Nor does it allow donations of hygiene and food supplies to be given to detainees, as many kind-hearted people recently learned to their dismay.

Susan was moved by a few articles that appeared recently in our weekly e-newsletter. Beyond our small independent faith-based journal, however, there seems to be no end to the horrific headlines coming from the U.S.-Mexico border. Perhaps you’ve seen some of these that have come to my email inbox in the past two weeks:

Nearly 900 migrants found at Texas facility with 125-person capacity: DHS watchdog – ABC News

Migrant kids in overcrowded Arizona border station allege sex assault, retaliation from U.S. agents – NBC News

ICE Just Quietly Opened Three New Detention Centers, Flouting Congress’ Limits – Mother Jones magazine.

‘Help:’ Photos Show Hundreds of Migrants Squashed into Cells, Appealing for Assistance. – NBC News

Management Alert – DHS Needs to Address Dangerous Overcrowding and Prolonged Detention of Children and Adults in the Rio Grande Valley – Office of the U.S. Inspector General

Witness: “Nothing prepares you for the inhumanity of it.”  – The ATLANTIC 

Despair could come easily as this news, accompanied by shocking images, bombards us every day. Yet even before this latest round of  immigrants' inhumane treatment became public, United Methodists were doing all they could do to relieve the plight of people who have come to the United States to escape violence and poverty.

I know that politically the current immigration situation is complex. We can’t simply “close the camps” as one campaign advocates without having places for detained immigrants to go. Furthermore, this week I learned that the U.S. Justice Department has discontinued two facets of advocacy and information in its Migration Protection Protocols intended to help steer people through the complicated U.S. immigration process. (See “In El Paso court, migrants no longer get legal advocates or pre-hearing briefings on their rights” by Julián Aguilar of the Texas Tribune.)

I’m convinced that we face a perilous time when people of all faiths, especially Christians, must engage not only in direct humanitarian aid, but also in advocating politically on behalf of immigrants everywhere. The United Methodist Church and the World Methodist Council both have issued statements of intent calling all Wesleyan adherents to proceed immediately with such ministries.

Since I live in Texas, the border crisis shapes our daily newsfeed. This week's urgent plea from the United Methodist Task Force on Immigration made me wonder what my co-religionists were already doing to help immigrants. Thus I surveyed the websites of annual conferences along the U.S.-Mexico border and collected information from other conference websites and newsletters.

What I found was simultaneously heartening and disturbing. It's heartening because we're already on the ground with direct aid, such as contributing via the United Methodist Committee on Relief to more than 46,000 hygiene kits to immigrant ministries. It's disturbing because as much as we've demonstrated and advocated, immigrants and refugees are still suffering from inhumane, possibly even illegal, practices by our government.

Here are examples of what United Methodists are doing as of the week of July 8, 2019. The names link to each conference’s main website page on immigration. I start with three annual conferences situated along the U.S.-Mexico border: Rio Texas, Desert Southwest, and California-Nevada.

Rio Texas Annual Conference

Rio Texas covers some of the most notorious detention camp sites in Texas, such as Tornillo camp near El Paso, where dozens of youths were detained; Clint, where hundreds of children are being kept in crowded, unsanitary conditions; and Brownsville, where disease outbreaks have been documented.

Rio Texas has a long-established ministry, The Methodist Border Friendship Commission, based in El Valle District UMC. Since 1999, “the Commission has formed strong relationships with the churches, pastors and variety of partnering agencies and ministries serving various ministries including immigrants and refugees in the border area of the Rio Texas Conference, the Eastern Conference of the Methodist Church of Mexico and beyond,” says the conference website.

“The Commission has formed a working Committee of this group to be given the responsibility to use designated funds as needed and serve as our link to the United Methodist response to immigration and refugee programs and ministries of these areas,” the website continues.

Among the ministries it lists is a historic United Methodist site, the Holding Institute in Laredo, Tex., which especially helps migrants in precarious situations such as pregnant women and children. According to the Rio Texas website, “Holding is listed on the map of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees as a member of their official relief network along the US-Mexico border.”

Rio Texas cautions that its immigration response page changes frequently as the situation along the border is extremely fluid. Those interested in helping migrants are encouraged to check back regularly. The page ends with these words: “You may not agree with every approach or action you read here, but hopefully you will find something that sparks your interest or leads you into prayer or action. Please be in prayer for all people around the world who feel compelled to sojourn to lands not their own. And pray for wisdom, compassion, and courage for those who serve them.”

Desert Southwest Annual Conference

Like Rio Texas, Desert Southwest is one of key points for immigration from Mexico. The conference has three major projects: The Inn, a ministry to help migrants and refugees in transition; Arizona Justice for Our Neighbors, which provides legal support for immigrants; and Frontera Wesley, through which campus ministries support DACA students with fellowship and outreach.

The Inn is in constant, critical need of prayers, volunteers, and gifts. The conference website offers online participation forms "to register as a volunteer, to commit to pray for the project, and/or to give money or items in support of this project." A drop-down list on the page details urgent needs; contact Gretchen Lopez at gretchenlokey@gmail.com to arrange large deliveries.

The button for Arizona JFON leads off the conference page to the organization’s website. The organization’s About page summarizes JFON as a “hospitality ministry that welcomes immigrants by providing affordable, high-quality immigration legal services to low-income immigrants, engaging in advocacy for immigrant rights, and offering education to communities of faith and the public.” JFON works to keep immigrant families together.

Frontera Wesley’s button leads to the Wesley Foundation at the University of Arizona in Tucson, which supports DACA students with fellowship and outreach. The Rev. Hannah Bonner is listed as the email contact for campus ministry.

California-Pacific Annual Conference

California-Pacific’s immigration ministries are hard to locate from its main conference page because they appear under a body called the Joint Commission, a coalition of churches in the California-Pacific Conference and Baja California. The best option right now is to download and read the June 2019 newsletter from Tom Pilkington, President of the Joint Commission, which is where the conference name above links. He can be reached at tompilkingtom@gmail.com. Mr. Pilkington writes of the latest project:

“Migrant Feeding Program: There are migrants all along the border who have traveled long distances with little money. The Joint Commission has partnered with UMCOR to help with a feeding facility in Tijuana, very close to the border. UMCOR provided the funds to construct the building including a professional restaurant style kitchen. The facility is now operating and is ramping up to ultimately provide three meals a day, seven days a week to some 300 migrants. What we need most are volunteers to serve the meals. Generally, we need 8-10 volunteers, but we can work with fewer by adding locals to help." If interested, email Mr. Pilkington.

Eastern Pennsylvania Annual Conference

In publicizing the recent Call to Action regarding the plight of migrants, Eastern Pennsylvania Conference's communications director, John W. Coleman, cites First UMC-Germantown in Philadelphia, Pa., as a sanctuary site. Rev. Coleman writes:

"The Rev. Jeania Ree V. Moore, GBCS Director of Civil and Human Rights, cites nine UM churches included in the call to action, which currently are hosting Sanctuary guests. One of those churches is First UMC Germantown (FUMCOG) in Philadelphia, the only church that is hosting two families: Suyapa Reyes and her four children from Honduras (Jennifer, Yeimi, Jeison, & Junior) and Clive & Oneita Thompson from Jamaica and their two children (Christine & Timmy).

"Both families entered Sanctuary at FUMCOG August 28, 2018, nearly one year ago. See “In Germantown, a sanctuary church resists the federal government – again.”

United Methodists are encouraged to send letters, cards and notes of encouragement to immigrants in sanctuary. FUMCOG’s guests can receive mail at the church address, 6001 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia PA 19144.

In other recent action, Eastern Pennsylvania leaders are supporting the General Board of Church and Society’s call to shut down an immigrant family detention center in Berks County, Pa. Bishop Peggy Johnson, a Church and Society board member, co-signed a letter to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf asking for the center to be shut down for humanitarian reasons. Eastern Pennsylvania also has a Rapid Response team that works with other groups on immigration advocacy.

North Texas Annual Conference

Conference communicator Matt Jacob reported this week that “more than 150 clergy and laity spanning six different faiths across North Texas took part in an interfaith prayer vigil July 1, at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Dallas. Representatives from United Methodist, Jewish, Islamic, Muslim, Baptist and Catholic congregations took part in the service in support of detained migrant children."

Located about 500 miles from the Texas-Mexico border, North Texas is involved with a program called Courts and Ports co-sponsored by Texas IMPACT and the American Civil Liberties Union. “Texas Impact staff are leading teams of clergy and laity to the Rio Grande Valley to monitor federal criminal and immigration court proceedings and border enforcement activities on the international bridges," Mr. Jacob writes. "Participants receive training from ACLU staff and create reports that become part of the national record of this chapter in U.S. immigration. … Courts & Ports is open to Texans and non-Texans. Participants must be at least 18 years old and must have documentation (typically a passport) authorizing them to travel freely between the United States and Mexico.”

Read an account by the Rev. Andy Lewis, conference director of outreach ministries, of a visit to the border with Courts and Ports. If you are interested in participating or sending a group from your congregation, email program coordinator Erica Nelson at Texas Impact or download this brochure.

North Texas also encourages United Methodists to:

  • Call or mail a letter to your congressional representatives between now and July 12. Find contact information here
  • Sign up for a congressional visit with your representative in August through Texas Impact
  • Keep up with Dallas Responds respite efforts, in which immigrants en route to new residences are given shelter and food during their layovers in Dallas.

Great Plains Annual Conference

Great Plains Conference, which covers Kansas and Nebraska, recently published these updates of actions regarding immigration:

Three resolutions related to immigration were voted on and passed at Annual Conference in June 2018. Read them here:

What is your annual conference or local church doing to respond to A Call to Action for United Methodists in Response to the Plight of Migrants? Email your reports to United Methodist Insight with “Migrants’ Plight” in the subject line.

Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011. Eastern Pennsylvania Conference communicator John W. Coleman and North Texas Conference communicator Matt Jacob contributed to this report.