Family Separation 2.0
For many members of the We Choose Welcome team, 2018 was the year that catalyzed our immigration advocacy. Under Donald Trump’s zero tolerance policy, more than 5,000 children were separated from their parents at the border. The images of those kids kept in cages and awareness of the reality they were facing drove us to pick up our phone and call our representatives for the first time ever. National outcry against the policies included evangelical leaders and political allies of President Trump, and the administration eventually backed down, ending the policy. The impact of that advocacy remains active today - a court settlement in 2023 mandated that no blanket policy of family separation at the border could be implemented for the following 8 years.
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. Now, families are being ripped apart in our neighborhoods, at bus stops and churches, during shopping trips and at school drop-offs. While immigration enforcement actions that separate families aren’t new or unique to the Trump administration, the scope, intensity, and virulence of what’s happening now are unprecedented - and vulnerable children are bearing the brunt of the harm.
It’s hard to measure the scope of how many children are affected. In May, the Brookings Institute estimated that between January 2025 and April 2026, as many as 200,000 children in the United States had been separated from at least one parent who was detained. It’s possible that 60% or more of those parents were subsequently deported - many without the opportunity to take their children with them.
You’re reading that right. Based on the best data we have available, tens of thousands of families are being split apart and are now separated across borders. Where there are barriers to obtaining documentation, advocates fear many of the families may have no pathway to reunification.
How long, O Lord? And how do we keep moving forward in the face of such staggering injustice? The truth is, some days we don’t. Grief demands time and attention. Lament is a communal act of worship. Navigating these days requires making space for deep pain and sharing it with others. We cry out to the God who is near to the broken-hearted and beg him to set the captives free. We repent of our part in upholding systems of oppression, and we receive forgiveness from our ever-merciful God. When it is time to carry on, we do so by seeking out goodness and beauty, love and truth - savoring, as Andre Henry described so well this week. Holding onto counterweights, as our friend Shannan Martin calls it.
And then, we look for one step we can take towards justice. One person we can tell what we’re learning about the scale of the wrongs being done to immigrant children and families. One immigrant friend we can check in on, one immigrant-owned business we can support. We commit to developing a holy imagination, determined to build the world as it should be.
Lament. Repent. Restore. This is the way forward, and it’s one theme you can explore with us in the brand new guide we’re releasing next week. We’ve wanted to write about migration through the lens of theology for years now, but we knew we needed to listen and learn a lot first. Sacred Migration: God and People on the Move is our offering from where our feet are now - a gathering up of wisdom from voices we respect that we hope will be a signpost for others on the journey towards a strong and honest theology of migration.
