Targeting Children
A few weeks ago, we noticed that a lot of new immigration policy changes were impacting children:
Whether with their parents or as unaccompanied minors, kids are spending more time in detention centers than before.
Family members who want to sponsor them are being delayed, denied or detained when they come forward.
….
Family Separation 2.0
For many members of the We Choose Welcome team, 2018 was the year that catalyzed our immigration advocacy… But family separation isn’t gone. Like other forms of immigration enforcement, it has moved from the U.S. - Mexico border to internal areas of the United States.
Dismantling Systems of Protection
In the last few weeks, we’ve observed increased efforts by the Trump administration to destabilize the lives of immigrant children by dismantling the systems intended to protect them.
What Our Immigrant Fathers Mean to Us
Writer, speaker, and Civic Ambassador Ivette Valdez connects her family's Bracero story with the recent losses in our immigrant community and reflects on what immigrant fathers mean to us.
Where Welcome Becomes Practice
Last week, our summer intern, Angela, reflected on her experience at the RCUSA Advocacy Days in Washington, D.C., and what she learned from advocating alongside people from across the country. But those lessons didn't stay in our nation's capital.
Today, she shares how she's carrying them home—into her university community, her hometown, and the everyday places where welcome is practiced.
Choosing Welcome on Capitol Hill: Reflections from RCUSA Advocacy Days
This June we saw the importance of advocacy and using our voices in action in our nations captiol with RCUSA Advocacy Days.
The World Cup is an Immigration Story
As the FIFA World Cup continues to dominate headlines and pop culture this summer, the opportunity for the United States to host has brought immigration into the spotlight– and has reminded us of the immigration story the World Cup has always told.
Players represent adopted homelands. Fans cross oceans and borders for ninety minutes of football. The tournament can only exist because people move.
Wicked: On Oz & Othering
The movie begins with propaganda and a puddle.
The poster lies on the ground: “Our Wizard Declares!” “Enemy of the People.” A scowling green witch hunched over. Then, we are transported somewhere over the rainbow into a field of tulips, children running and singing, “Good News! The Witch! She’s Dead!”
“Invisible” Women
“Invisible” Women gives language to the quiet strength of women the world tries not to see. Women whose hands prepare meals, whose voices hum songs of survival, whose courage endures even when sorrow is ignored.
Is the little I am doing enough?
“God… help them.”
“I’ll try again.”
“Was it enough?”
From a caseworker moving a mom to safety, to a volunteer staring at a hospital bill she knows her new refugee neighbors can’t pay, to a little Congolese girl’s first smile after weeks of silence. This story captures what it means to show up even when the need feels overwhelming.
These are the quiet, persistent threads of love and justice that weave the Kingdom of God among us.
Whom is Rest?
What rest is there for the human condition?
We’re all bumping up against ever emerging mortality-bruising crisis upon crisis upon crisis…
Some of us hid heads in the sand, suffocating senses,
closed to compassion for the suffering outside of ourselves.
The Hands and Feet of Jesus
The people I met at the churches at the border aren’t concerned about the “border crisis” we see on the news. They are too busy being the hands and feet of Jesus.
To my friend with a Ph.D. in Microbiology who works the night shift at Walmart
You know the inner workings
of cells. You have studied the mysteries
of bacteria and fungi like a child
uncovering hidden treasures,
endless delights. And I see you...
God in the Chaos
A world on fire in the rearview mirror of the crowded truck. We were lucky to find escape.
If one can be lucky when their whole life is burned to the ground and they have no choice but to run.
Through Seasons
Like the changing airs of autumn, when leaves convert colors,
let faith carry beauty to appreciate others’ humanity.
As swift night approaches,
let grace make the common holy, transformed by our North Star.
Only in America
(From the perspective of a stay at home mom living in rural New York)
by Emily Baxter, in response to the prompt, "In a world of movement, where is God?"
On Earth As It Is In Heaven
On Earth as it is in Heaven,
Making a Way right through,
Springing forth rivers in dry land,
Quenching the injustice between me and you.