On Sept. 29, we marked (celebrated seems the wrong word) the 105th Global Day for Migrants and Refugees. At Mass in St. Peter’s Square that day, Pope Francis noted: “Wars only affect some regions of the world, yet weapons of war are produced and sold in other regions which are then unwilling to take in the refugees generated by these conflicts. Those who pay the price are always the little ones, the poor, the most vulnerable, who are prevented from sitting at the table and are left with the ‘crumbs’ of the banquet.”
For the U.S., a century of not caring who paid the price of corporate exploitation, political meddling and "low-intensity warfare" in Central America has led to a refugee "crisis" (in quotes since the numbers haven't changed so much as how we're handling them) at our southern border. We may worry most about the ones that arrive, but many don’t even make it that far. The group No More Deaths reports 244 migrant deaths just in southern Arizona’s brutal desert border region since January 2018. That’s about two lives lost per week, with grieving families left behind. And those are only the bodies they’ve found. Many, many more are not found. Border Angels estimates that since 1994, about 10,000 people have died in their attempt to cross our southern border.
As poverty, violence and the dramatic effects of the climate crisis increasingly worsen living conditions in Central and South America, the refugee situation at our borders will only worsen. This is a worldwide trend. As of last year, according to new statistics from the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the population of people in the world displaced by conflict or persecution reached 70.8 million — more than double the number recorded in 2012.
The climate crisis has already created millions of invisible refugees and could create up to 1.5 billion more in the next 30 years. But under international law no country is obliged to take them in.
Catholic social teaching says that richer, larger countries that can do more to assist refugees and migrants have a moral obligation to do so. But the United States is not stepping up – last year, the U.S., with a GDP of nearly $20 trillion, took the fewest numbers of refugees in 40 years: only 22,491 people. It was just announced that this year, the limit will be 18,000 (110,000 were allowed in the last year of the Obama administration). By contrast, Turkey has been taking in over 3 million a year, and Lebanon has housed around 1.2 million Syrian refugees in its population of 4.5 million people – one in five people.
Developing countries shoulder a disproportionate amount of responsibility for hosting refugees with the poorest nations hosting 6.7 million individuals, a third of all refugees worldwide. These countries have the least resources to respond to people seeking refuge, when they are already facing structural barriers to development. Turkey, Pakistan, Uganda, Sudan, Germany, Iran, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Jordan all took in between three-quarters of a million (Jordan) to 3.7 million (Turkey) refugees each in 2017, mainly from Syria, Sudan, Iraq, Myanmar, Afghanistan and Iritrea (UNHCR).
Meanwhile, following the administration’s decision to suspend foreign aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador last April, an official with Catholic Relief Services testified that the aid had “helped Central Americans thrive in their own country, providing them with physical security and food,” and that cutting the programs “will create a vacuum for increased instability, poverty and migration.”
Many refugees are victims of war, oppression, gang violence, or domestic abuse and are deserving of asylum, but the Trump Administration is also attacking our asylum laws. Under its “Migrant Protection Protocols” (MPP), it has returned more than 48,000 asylum-seekers to await their court dates in Mexico, a country where kidnapping and assault of migrants is rampant. Over the course of two months, the Texas Observer uncovered multiple stories showing that the program includes no meaningful screening for even the most obvious threats to migrants’ safety and lives.
Then on Aug. 11, the U.S. Supreme Court gave the administration permission to enforce its toughest restriction yet on asylum seekers at the southern border. The Catholic Legal Immigration Network is now suing over this curtailing of asylum-seekers’ access to legal representation. Said a CLINIC attorney, “This is an hour of any asylum-seeker’s life that will change their life forever. If they pass this interview, they get the ability to submit an asylum application. If they fail it, they immediately get deported.”
The International Association of Democratic Lawyers recently issued a report claiming “massive and systematic human rights violations taking place at the United States of America southern border with Mexico.” They conclude that current policies are “not incidental or accidental violations of human rights, but clearly have been planned deliberately in an attempt to deter asylum seekers from requesting protection in the United States.” Another group reports that the U.S. immigration court backlog now exceeds a million cases, while The American Bar Association (ABA) concluded in a recent report on "Reforming the Immigration System" that the immigration courts are facing an existential crisis. They are irredeemably dysfunctional and on the brink of collapse.” The court backlog is on the verge of becoming so large that the government may have to suspend asylum hearings.
The administration’s changes to immigration policies and procedures, including the use of tent courts, the scarcity of immigration attorneys and a backlog surpassing 1 million cases, have led to some judges admitting that they decide certain cases “based on whether the decision would get them fired.”
The Associated Press reports that fake court dates are being issued in immigration court. A board member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association is quoted: “People have been ordered to appear on national holidays, on weekends and even at midnight — when we all know immigration court isn’t operating. They have no way of knowing without going to the immigration court if the date is real or not, spending extensive funds on counsel, and often traveling huge distances.”
On Sept. 13 the U.S.C.C.B. weighed in on immigration again, this time on plans that critics charge will mean the end of the United States as a safe haven for the world’s refugees. Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, archbishop of Galveston-Houston and U.S.C.C.B. president, and Bishop Joe S. Vásquez, chair of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Migration, wrote: “Further reductions in the number of refugees allowed to seek freedom in the United States would be wholly counter to our values as a nation of immigrants. America welcomes refugees; that is who we are, that is what we do. Such reductions would undermine America’s leadership role as a global champion and protector of religious freedom and human rights.”
That’s the state of things today. When the 106th Global Day for Migrants and Refugees rolls around next year, will we be able to say that the Church’s teaching on migrants and refugees is any better known and accepted among Catholics themselves, let alone that our government’s policies come closer to reflecting Catholic values? And will those Catholics who stand with Pope Francis mobilize in the numbers necessary to resist immoral policies and demand justice for refugees and other forced migrants? Time will tell.