To the Editor:

I returned last night from a “border immersion” seminar in El Paso, TX and Juarez, Mexico.  We spoke with migrants on both sides of the border, both documented and undocumented.  We brought food to shelters, we spoke with dedicated and selfless advocates and servants, and we met with a lawyer, a judge, a bishop and a border patrol agent.

The takeaways were many and profound. No one is currently being admitted to the United States. Our long-standing policy of providing shelter to refugees seeking asylum from violence and hunger has been terminated (other than admitting white Afrikaners from South Africa). Few migrants have attempted to cross the border since January 20th without going through a designated entry point; most all have been apprehended and criminalized by “trespassing onto a military base” – the new designation of the 60 foot-wide strip of land along borderlands that do not yet have a fence.  We sat in the courtroom as fifty migrants were charged with that crime; all will be deported. ICE is creating an atmosphere of terror. Undocumented families, most of whom live in poverty, are afraid and isolated, rarely leaving their homes. Apprehended families are being put in detention centers under extreme conditions – poor nutrition, no privacy, no exercise, and the lights remain on 24 hours, until they can be processed and deported. Family separation is still happening, with young children being housed away from their parents, who are also separated from each other. The apprehension and deportation process is coldly efficient, and deeply inhumane. Those who serve and care for migrants uniformly refer to the rampant cruelty and human rights violations.

Between 1980and 2000, ten to fifteen million migrants settled silently into our society. They worked hard in our fields, our restaurants, and our construction sites.  They roofed our homes and landscaped our yards, and no one complained. In the largest cities in which they settled, crime rates decreased and violent crimes went down by 36%. They worked hard, they paid taxes, and they contributed to our economy, actually creating far more revenue than it cost the government to provide services. Since 2000, another ten to fifteen million have arrived, also silently, with nearly every one of them fleeing severe oppression, with more coming in during Trump 1 than during either Obama term. And most of what was reported were false narratives, promoted by the current administration, to create fear and promote the inherent racism of Project 2025.

The government is now canceling work permits and parole programs. Migrants who settled peacefully and productively are now being detained and deported. Meanwhile we have 7.2 million unfilled jobs in the US, and the economy is beginning to show the slowdown from losing labor. We have gone back on our word.  And it is being done in your name.