Who is a migrant? Migrant is an individual who leaves his or her native homeland due to persecutions, violence, and economic shortages. Millions of people flee their countries, and emigrate to foreign countries seeking refugee or asylum. First of all, Cuban Seventh-day Adventist refugees escaped their homeland because of religious persecutions, and they migrated to the US during the Mariel boatlift, and sought refuge. For example, Ana Rodriguez had to repeat seventh grade three times because the final exam was on a Saturday, the sacred Sabbath day for Seventh-day Adventists. Also, Pastor Moreno’s father lost his job due to the fact that he converted to Adventism (Stepick p. 46). Then, thousands of Haitian refugees escaped their homeland worst dynasty dictatorship of the Duvaliers because of the fact that they suffered oppression and extreme poverty. Consequently, they migrated toward the US (Stepick p. 76). Last, tens of thousands of women and unaccompanied children migrated to the US from Central America northern triangle seeking asylum (Hiskey p. 1). For instance, the northern triangle region of Central America has three countries, and they are Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. It is the most dangerous region in Latin America. Honduras is the most perilous of the three. Conflicts between organized crime dominate the penal system of the three countries (Hiskey p. 3).
Should the host countries receive the fleeing immigrants? Should the host countries protect the fleeing migrants? How should the host countries protect the fleeing immigrants? What should the host countries provide for the fleeing migrants? First, when Pope Francis addressed to the US congress in October, 2015, he said; “we are not afraid of the immigrants because we are immigrants, too. We should see the face of God in those fleeing people arriving at our borders”. Next, an United Nations non-refoulement international law prohibits a host country to send back immigrants to their native countries where their lives will be in danger, so it guarantees a refugee or asylum status to fleeing migrants escaping violence or persecutions. Last, the host countries should provide immigrants a safe place: a sanctuary where they peacefully live.
Jeanette Smith is the head executive of South Florida Interfaith Worker Justice in Miami. SFIWJ is a non-governmental organization. It works for an immigration reform, and advocates for a sanctuary congregations coalition among South Florida’s churches.
How can the houses of worship be involved in the sanctuary movement, or how can they be a sanctuary congregation, and why should they be a sanctuary congregation, and if they are sanctuary congregations; what are sanctuary congregations’ benefits for the community, and why are sanctuary congregations important for the community? How much do sanctuary congregations impact the context of reception for migrants, and how essential is their civic engagement when it comes to social justice for the migrant?
What is a sanctuary congregation, and why are sanctuary congregations important for the community? What are their benefits for the community? Based on SFIWJ guides and/or rules, a sanctuary congregation will protect immigrants. It will house strangers until it will meet them with their relatives, or it will find them a lawyer who will properly represent them. It will provide them with a mode of living, and involve with its protected ones so that they will feel as part of the congregation. For instance, there are seven ways to become a sanctuary congregation. They are long-term, short-term, and supporting a family in sanctuaries, accompaniment, rapid response, training other faith leaders, and private v. public congregations.
First of all, it is a long-term sanctuary. The congregation will host a family, and provide them with the essential mode of living such as a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, food, and childcare. Then, it is a short-term sanctuary. It is just to house people for a few hours until they can reunite with their relatives, or they have a lawyer who represent them. Next, it is supporting a family in sanctuary. It means to support a family, and others’ congregations that help families as well. It economically provides families. It interacts with families so that families feel confident with the congregations. In addition, it is accompaniment. The sanctuary congregations’ members should accompany families to immigration courts. The sanctuary congregations should arrange vigils. Besides, it is the rapid response to families. It basically means to be ready to help migrants when they will need it like taking in and out children of school. Moreover, it is training other faith leaders or congregations. It is to train leaders who will want to be involved in helping immigrants. Last, it is private v. public congregations. It is not only considered the benefits to the immigrants’ families but also the costs to declare a sanctuary congregation.
Based on Woodard’s analysis of private v. public congregations, private Protestants opposes public Protestants. Private Protestants are southern evangelicals, and they are southern Baptists, Methodists, and Episcopalians. Their ideological free will is order and obedience. (Woodard p. 264). On the other hand, public Protestants are northern Congregationalists, Methodists, Unitarians, and Anglicans. Their ideals are pluralism (Woodard p. 270-271). They pursue to improve the quality of life of society (Woodard p. 267). Private Protestants advocate traditionalism while public Protestants look for social change (Woodard p. 281).
What is civic engagement? Why is civic engagement important for the community? What does civic engagement for the society? Civic engagement promotes voluntarism through charities in the community (Stepick p. 2-3). The concept of civic social capital develops four aspects. Those aspects are denomination, generation, leadership, and the context of reception (Stepick p. 8-13). The civic social capital reaches to society in three ways. They are bonding, bridging, and linking. First, it bonds to society by activities. Then, it bridges by volunteerism. Last, it links by involvement in politics in three different perspectives. First, it is in the local area by voting. Next, it is in the national view. Last, it is in the transnational perspective (Stepick p. 251-257).
How much do sanctuary congregations impact the context of reception for migrants? First of all, Cuban Seventh-day Adventist refugees experienced social rejection in Miami. They were Marielitos, and society stereotyped Marielitos as blacks, criminals, and homosexuals. However, they built their congregation as it was in Cuba (Stepick p. 47-48). They internally discriminated themselves because the first generation immigrants were conservatives, and they rejected their second generation because it was more liberal. For example, the first generation people were the congregation’s leaders, and they disgusted to have a second generation leader. Tracy Linares was recommended to lead the youth group, but she was not the kind of leader that the first generation liked (Stepick p. 56-57). On the other hand, Haitian refugees received acceptance in Miami. Thomas Wenski welcomed Haitian diaspora to Miami. He brought a Haitian priest, Monsignor Gerard Darbouze, and a French speaking priest, Charles Jackson, to effectively communicate with Haitians. He founded Notre Dame d’Haiti Catholic Center within St. Mary Cathedral, and advocated to construct Notre Dame d’Haiti Catholic Church. He started social service programs such as English as a second language classes, job placement counseling, health screenings, and legal assistance (Stepick p. 72-75). Last, Central American women and unaccompanied children were detained until they had their asylum hearings before an immigration judge (Hiskey p. 2). If they illegally crossed the US border, they did not have any right under the law to claim a refugee or asylum status. Therefore, it could be denied to them, and they could be deported to their countries of origin (Hiskey p. 5).
How essential is their civic engagement when it comes to social justice for the migrants? In Addition, Latin American Catholic Church has actively been advocating for immigrants. Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM) founded Pastoral of the Human Mobility (SEPMOV) to overlook and protect migrants’ issues. It basically works with NGOs agencies. Catholic Church has been a voice in behalf of the immigrants. For example, the Conference on the Latin American Bishops in Puebla, Mexico in 1979 focused on migrations’ issues, and they looked for how could they help migrants based on the immigrants’ needs of food, shelter, rights, and employment? Like Latin American Catholic Church, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops provides social services for migrants through the Catholic charities Caritas. The Catholic Church bases on “receiving an immigrant is as receiving Jesus” (Phan p. 180-184). One of the proponent of the Catholic Church activism is Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis (Phan p. 187). Moreover, in Jupiter, Florida, a coalition of non-immigrants and immigrants community residents, the Catholic Church, and Florida Atlantic University’s staffs and students lobbied and formed El Sol Resource Center to improve the quality of life of migrants. For instance, St. Peter Catholic Church starts to offer Spanish speaking masses. Also, Catholic charities financially supported El Sol in its first year of operation (Lazo 4-5). El Sol has established social service programs to help immigrants to fulfill the American dream. It assists in job training, counseling, screenings, preventive care, health education, literacy classes, and legal services (Lazo p. 8-9). Ulysses arrived at El Sol as a teenage young man. He started to learn English. He finished high school, and completed college. He currently teaches English at El Sol to others like him (Lazo p. 11-12). Lastly, Reverend Robinson from Grace Lutheran Church in Miami Springs is curious about what is the original involvement in the sanctuary movement? His family in New York provided a sanctuary to a family; consequently, he really knows about it. He knows; what is it, and how does it function? He compromises to promote sanctuary congregation coalition in his annual retreat council in August, 2017. He has informally made a sanctuary among Miami Springs’ churches because All Angels Episcopal Church, Blessed Trinity Catholic Church, and Poinciana United Methodist Church pastors have created a teamwork with him. All of them work together. Maybe based on Woodard’s analysis of private v. public congregations, all of these churches are public because they work together to improve the quality of life of their parishioners.
As you can see, the civic social capital uses bonding to build bridging and linking to the society (Stepick p. 259), and so does the cities of Miami Springs and Jupiter, Florida. The city of Jupiter, Florida is not a sanctuary city, but it does not have any anti-immigrants ordinances (Lazo p. 7). Also, the city of Miami Springs, Florida is not a sanctuary city. Even though both of these cities are not sanctuary cities, both of them work with their communities together for the well-being of themselves. These make the cities of Miami Springs and Jupiter, Florida the best and safest place to live.
Works Cited
Stepick, Alex. Rey, Terry. Mahler, Sarah J. “Churches and Charity in the Immigrant City”. Rutgers University Press. 2009.
Hiskey, Jonathan. Cordova, Abby. Orces, Diana. Malone, Mary Fran. “Understanding the Central American Refugee Crisis”. American Immigration Council. 2016. https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org.
Lazo de la Vega, Sandra. Steigenga, Timothy. “Facing Immigration Fears: A Constructive Local Approach to Day Labor, Community, and Integration”. The Center for Migration Studies of New York. 2013.
Woodard, Colin. “American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America”. Penguin Books. 2011.
Phan, Peter C. Padilla, Elaine. “Christianities in Migration: The Global Perspective”. Palgrave Macmillan US. 2015.
Documenting Outside the Classroom 