“¿Puedo decir algo más? / Can I say something else?” That’s the voice of “Antonio,” an eight year-old boy, detained with his family in the South Texas Family Residential Center for more than 456 days. He spoke to reporters about his hopes and fears, from the detention center. Antonio doesn’t want to be deported, but he doesn’t want to spend another Christmas in detention either. His voice may be small, but his words were powerful.
Asylum
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“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” (1 John 4:18) Today we celebrate the opportunity to turn a page, as a country, and move toward healing.
All people deserve access to health and safety, not deportation to countries they initially fled because of persecution and violence. The United States must prioritize Black immigrants’ and asylum seekers’ experiences in policies and legislation to build a more just, humane, and equitable immigration system.
Despite the global pandemic which has slowed most international travel, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is accelerating the deportation of Black migrants to countries they fled, retaliating against those who speak out about abuses in detention.
“The administration is using every cheap trick in the book to put people in danger. By empowering ICE to summarily deport members of our communities, the president is pandering to his anti-immigrant base, nothing more. But the impact of an immigration policy rooted in hate cannot be understated: Families will be ripped apart, our neighbors will be torn from their homes, and innocent human beings will be returned to danger,” said Reverend John L. McCullough, President and CEO of Church World Service. “The United States is meant to be a nation of laws and of morals, but under this leadership we are neither.”