Photo by Kevin Bückert on Unsplash
Over the past few days, I have read of people who have legal, though unresolved, immigration standing being drawn out of churches by a buzz on their ankle bracelet and then arrested by ICE (Immigration and Custom Enforcement in the U.S.). I have read about arrest quotas that end up with more than criminal gang members being detained and deported. I have heard about people being turned back from the Canadian border when they did it the “legal” way and left on street corners with no money and no place to go.
What have we done? What have we become?
What are people supposed to do when they are driven from their homes and livelihood by extortion, persecution, and so much more? I think of the regional government expropriation of farmland not far from my home, and the fight that is being waged to resist that. It’s a fight that can be had because the right to do so is protected, and no one is worried about losing their life in the process. If only that luxury was available everywhere. It’s not.
What are people supposed to do when their identity and very existence is considered a crime, and in some places, a crime worthy of death? All the things we protect in Canada’s Charter of Rights can be a pathway to death in too many places around the world.
The authors of ‘From Bureaucracy to Bullets’ write that, “no matter where in the world a person is from, both the idea and the physical space of home is often central to their security, sense of self, and well-being.” I get that. I have home and it is all these things and more.
What I don’t get is when we disparage and denigrate people for knocking on our national door, because they want home, and they couldn’t get it where they were; in fact, it was ripped away from them and any fight was going to leave them not needing a home.
I don’t get assuming they are out to scam or harm us, and somehow that gives us permission to add to the harm they have already experienced. We assume the worst, give them the least, and get angrily offended they are even here. All they want is what most of us have.
Yes, there are some here already who do not have home, and it is a growing emergency. That is not the refugee’s fault. We did that all by ourselves. We could fix it and have abundance left over, if we wanted to. What we can’t do is hide it anymore.
The people who have been driven by violence from their homes far away, show up here and by their presence reveal what we have failed to do for far too long. The answer is not to get rid of them and go back to hiding, but to be motivated by their presence to succeed. People’s lives, and our faith in any goodness in humanity, depend on it.
This, rather than seeing people seeking refuge as threats… rather than decrying their audacity to even ask… rather than denying them the basic dignities of life by pushing them into greater margins of vulnerability… rather than denouncing their efforts to have even a small portion of what we have.
I have seen pictures of people holding banners advocating for mass deportations without any thought about what that means for those being deported. For many, it is certain death. It is ironic to me that we don’t extradite criminals who would face the death penalty in their countries, but we deport people who have committed no other crime than to seek refuge – to seek home – to face death on the streets they fled.
Seeking refuge is not a crime.
Denying an opportunity for refuge might be.
