The joy of Accompanying immigrants
John Sealey, Social Apostolate Coordinator, Wisconsin Province, USA
“With my daughter getting older and my brother’s recent death, my family needs me more than ever…I don’t know what to tell my daughter when she asks me if I will be with her? I wish I could tell her not to worry… that I’ll take care of her and that everything will be alright. That’s what hurts the most, I don’t know if I will be able to protect her and guide her in the right direction.”
These hand-written words are written by a detained graduate of Nativity Jesuit Middle School (Milwaukee, WIS) currently awaiting a court judgment to decide his deportation fate.
12 million other undocumented persons, many studying in Jesuit schools, worshipping at our parishes or visiting our social ministries, live in constant fear of immigration raids at work and home. Even when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is not threatening them, their vulnerable status renders them powerless to exploitative lenders, employers and landlords.
What is most distressing to me is the hostile rhetoric by anti-immigrant groups and politicians who distort this issue for their own political gain by using fear and misinformation to inflate phobias about economic uncertainty, crime, or “national security.” This caustic rancour and brazen racism strips away the humanity of migrants and creates an abusive climate.
Theologian Fr. Dan Goody observes “Despite the physical difficulties of their journey, many migrants say the hardest part are the indignities they experience when people treat them as dogs.”
One of the biggest challenges is educating our own Catholic community who are themselves of immigrant origin but too often lifeless in their sympathy for newer immigrants.
In June 2010, the U.S. Jesuit provincials signed a forceful public letter to elected officials to repair our broken immigration laws by providing a pathway to legal citizenship, legal safeguards for immigrants, greater development assistance (of a non-military nature) to countries of origin. To engage the wider Ignatian Family, they subsequently invited Jesuit groups to endorse a companion letter which echoed the principles of immigration reform called for by the provincials and the US Catholic Bishops. www.jesuit.org/immigrationsignon
When I attend pro-immigrant marches, meetings and prayer services, I am invigorated by the faith and even the joy of immigrants despite difficult ongoing struggles. Their sense of community and self sacrifice for their families inspire me. Walking with them, I feel a deeper solidarity with worldwide Jesuits and Ignatian partners heroically defending displaced people. As our own advocacy efforts in the US transcend our provinces and apostolic sectors I am beginning to realize our potential to effect change. I am emboldened to join this journey in faith and add my voice to their call for a just reform of our broken immigration laws. In prayer, I can more deeply understand what the dispossessed Holy Family must have felt when they were repeatedly turned away. In hope, I pray the door will one day be opened.
John Sealey
Provincial Assistant for Social and International Ministries 3400 W Wisconsin Ave
Milwaukee, WI, USA [email protected]
