The simplest thing you can do to advocate for justice for our immigrant neighbors is to call your representatives and senators on a weekly basis. Tell them you want the Migration Protection Protocol known as Remain in Mexico, which requires asylum seekers to remain south of our border in camps and detention centers, ended. Explain you want the detention centers north of the border closed down. Bear witness to our scriptural call to welcome the immigrant because immigrant status is at the foundation of who we historically and spiritually (Ex. 22:21; Matthew 25:31-45). Tell the stories of immigrants you know. Why? Will they listen? Do they care what you think? Well, as Texas Impact (of which I am on the board) Executive Director Bee Moorhead explains, creating change in the political arena is like trying to push a bus out of a mudhole. We may not have a tow truck or a tractor that can help us. But if everyone gets out and provides a push, we can get the bus unstuck and moving forward again.
That is what happens when we make regular calls to our governing officials. They get to know us and our stories. They start to take more notice. And when a mass of constituents do this, they start to take notice and the needle begins to move.
Maria Robles of Faith in Texas shared another way you can help is to provide accompaniment to one of our immigrant neighbors when they have a scheduled check-in with ICE or have an immigration court hearing. This accompaniment alleviates the fears of immigrants when they interact with immigration officials, allows us to witness what happens when immigrants interact with immigration officials and any injustices taking place, and gives us knowledge we can use to advocate for needed change in the immigration system and our community.
One other way to advocate is to join with the Dallas Area Progressive Christian Alliance, whose board I served on a few years back, for their Good Friday Walk for Justice in which we will walk through the City of Dallas as a prophetic witness to the call to welcome our immigrant neighbors.
The passion to love the vulnerable and seek justice as we follow Christ in seeking our scripture’s vision of the fulfillment of God’s reign and realm in this world (Book of Discipline para. 122) is a major part of what drew me into the United Methodist Church. Perhaps we can join together into this way of discipleship together. It is, at times, thankless and painful. but the reward is oh so great.
May God bless and keep you this week.
Grace and Peace,
Rev. J.D. Allen
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