The following report was written by Meredith Simons of the Washington bureau.

The Department of Homeland Security unveiled a $56.3 billion budget Monday that includes funding for the virtual border fence, E-Verify, and an increase in the number of border patrol officers and intelligence analysts along the southern border.

In a year in which President Obama has spoken about the need to “save what we can” to combat record deficits, some federal agencies are seeing programs trimmed or eliminated entirely, but DHS escaped the budgeting process unscathed. Obama’s budget, which must be approved by Congress before it takes effect, asks for $6 billion more for DHS than the department received in FY 2010.

“Our proposed budget is designed to ensure we have the resources we need to secure America,” said DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano. “We are committed to strong fiscal discipline, eliminating redundancy and investing our resources in what works while enhancing security across the board.”

Obama’s budget allots more money to DHS than it received last year, including billions that will be spent along the southwest border.

DHS officials say they are committed to fighting drug trafficking and cartel violence along the border. To that end, they’ve allotted $4.6 billion to funding 20,000 Border Patrol agents and completing the first section of a virtual border fence, which is being erected in Arizona. The increased personnel funding will allow the department to hire more officers and increase the salaries of those already on staff. It will also boost the number of border intelligence analysts and Border Enforcement Security Task Forces, which combine personnel from several federal law enforcement agencies to combat organized crime along the border.

On the immigration front, DHS has signaled a desire to “strengthen enforcement activities,” particularly targeting “criminal aliens who pose a threat to public safety.” The department has made it a goal to increase the number of criminal aliens expelled from the country by four percent over the next year and dedicated $1.6 billion to that effort. Some of that money will be directed toward the implementation of the Secure Communities initiative, which uses biometric data and a nationwide database to identify illegal aliens as soon as they enter the criminal justice system.

The budget also includes $110 million for the expansion of the E-Verify program, which allows employers to confirm their employees’ eligibility for work in the U.S. online.

On Jan. 11, more than 300 clergy from dozens of religious denominations came from the far reaches of the Houston region in support of a critical moral issue, humane immigration reform.

The local heads of several major religious denominations, including Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, Catholic archbishop of Galveston-Houston; Bishop Janice Riggle Huie of the Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church; the Rt. Rev. C. Andrew Doyle, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas; Bishop Michael Rinehart of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Rabbi David Rosen of Congregation Beth Yeshurun; the Rev. Mike Cole of the Presbytery of New Covenant; and the Rev. Harvey Clemons Jr. of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, along with The Metropolitan Organization, released a Houston Interfaith Statement on Humane Immigration Reform and launched a campaign for reform this year.

All our faith traditions share a fundamental belief that human beings are made in the image and likeness of God and that we must treat every person with dignity, for “the strangers who sojourn with you shall be to you as the natives among you, and you shall love them as yourself” (Leviticus 19:33-34). The interfaith statement includes seven principles that are rooted in our holy Scriptures, our faith traditions and our sense of American democratic values, which include:

• • upholding family unity;

• • creating a legalization process for undocumented immigrants;

• • protecting workers;

• • facilitating immigrant integration;

• • restoring due process and just detention protections;

• • aligning enforcement with humanitarian values;

• • immigration as a matter of human rights.

Immigration reform would make us safer as a nation because it would make immigrants register with the government so that we would know who is here and give us the ability to identify those few immigrants who have committed crimes. Giving immigrants a reason to come out of the shadows would also allow them to feel comfortable cooperating with law enforcement to help identify those who are a danger or a threat.

People often ask, “Aren’t we rewarding illegal behavior by legalizing undocumented immigrants?” The truth is that immigrants are not interested in breaking the law; there simply have not been legal means created for them to do otherwise. As the Rev. John Ogletree, pastor of First Metropolitan Church, stated Jan. 11, “Undocumented immigrants have received an informal invitation to this country.” In other words, because of an insatiable demand by the U.S. economy for both skilled and unskilled labor from abroad, we encourage mass migration to this country. At the same time we have a minuscule number of legal avenues or visas available for these workers and their families, which disrupts the natural flow of what economists call labor and what people of faith know as the right of families to migrate (a right that people have freely enjoyed for thousands of years). We must change the laws so that people are allowed to come in a legal way and to respond to the needs of the economy.

Another common question is: “Aren’t we undermining our economy by allowing immigrants in when they only take jobs away from native-born workers and use welfare?” This is simply not true; immigrants contribute to the growth and prosperity of our economy. Studies by the conservative Cato Institute and the progressive Center for American Progress show that a legalization plan for undocumented workers would add between $1.2 trillion and $1.5 trillion to the U.S. economy by 2020.

We know from research polls that as many as 86 percent of Americans support proposals for comprehensive immigration reform that would legalize undocumented immigrants and require them to learn English and register with the government. Studies by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Texas comptroller estimate 1.45 million unauthorized immigrants are currently residing in Texas, working hard to contribute $17.7 billion in gross state product. This issue is important not just to the religious community but also to the business community, as evidenced in support by the Greater Houston Partnership and Americans for Immigration Reform of sensible immigration reform.

We realize there are different viewpoints on how to solve this complex issue, and we welcome debate and difference of opinion by people of good will. We do, however, have a concern about the study cited by the Center for Immigration Studies in the Houston Chronicle article “Religious leaders’ top wish: passing immigration reform” (Page B1, Jan. 12). This study claims that strong majorities of the faithful disagree with their religious leaders and instead support an enforcement-only immigration strategy. Public Religion Research discredits CIS’ study, saying it “is not based on a scientific random sample of Americans but rather on an opt-in online panel survey.”

We are not calling for an amnesty or open-borders policy such as our opponents might claim.

Our intention is to begin meaningful conversation in our congregations about the important moral dimensions of this issue and to urge Congress to act now.

This article was authored by DiNardo, Doyle, Rinehart, Clemons and the Rev. John Bowie, pastor of True Light Missionary Baptist Church and co-chair of The Metropolitan Organization.

Did you know that there is a whole portion of Southern Texas where U.S. Citizens need a passport to visit? Did you also know that those who live there, in the United States, south of this border need a passport to travel from their region of Texas to anywhere else north? Yesterday, as we left the valley to return to San Antonio, we had to pass through a border patrol check-point where we all had to show our passports and have our van inspected. There are people living south of the check-point who need to pass through the “second border” to travel to any other part of the United States.

During our week along the border, we heard the concerns of residents and advocates who spoke with us about the ways that this second border further isolates the valley region and jeopardizes the safety of people living there.

For example, if there were ever an hurricane to hit the area and there was a need to evacuate, DHS does not guarantee that border patrol and ICE would not be checking papers at the second checkpoint. As a result, the traffic created by the checkpoint would leave people on the highway when a hurricane would hit as well as cause those who either lost or do not have documents to stay behind and risk their lives.

While the vast majority of people in the valley are documented, it is common that families have someone in their family who is without documents. This creates a situation where families would risk their lives to a hurricane rather than risk their families being separated. One can also easily imagine a scenario where in having to leave quickly because of an approaching hurricane someone could their documents behind and thus not being able to leave without risking deportation.

Another consequence of the second border is the increased isolation of the communities to the south of it. The valley has no public hospital, and so a large percentage of children in the area are delivered by parteras, or midwives, in peoples homes. However, the U.S. government is no longer recognizing birth certificates signed by these midwives, making it near impossible for people to acquire a passport and travel despite their status as a U.S. citizens. People in this difficult situation are unable to find work or access healthcare, among other things, because of the complicated and expensive process to prove their citizenship. As a result they cannot leave the valley.

This second border, along with the wall being constructed on the southern border, are further isolating communities that have historically been isolated and rejected. Despite the openness of the geography of the valley, being there gave me a sense of being closed in. As we passed thorough the second border yesterday, a border patrol agent collected our passports and asked us questions about who we were and where we were going. After he returned our passports to us, he asked us to all lift up our feet and used his flashlight to check under the seats with the explanation “You’d be surprised what you’d find!” I was left wondering what he was really looking for.

As I consider all we have experienced these days, I keep going to God with a haunting question: “Why have I been given a life of such abundance and prosperity when others struggle to have the basic needs of life?” I just can’t seem to reconcile myself to this disparity, and it has presented itself to me everyday as we have journeyed along the border.

As we learned about the maquiladoras, the factories that employ Mexicans for low wages and poor working conditions, we were informed that one company manufactures seat warmers for cars. I felt a sickening feeling in my stomach as I remembered an entire family, including small children, huddled around a little fire as they tried to battle the unusually bitter cold temperatures that hit South Texas. What’s wrong with seat warmers? Well, I believe that something is terribly wrong when human beings are unable to have a warm home, and yet they barely get paid a living wage to provide heat for seats in a car. Something indeed is terribly wrong.
I simply can’t get the image out of my mind of those small children shivering in the cold. How I wish we could put aside out political views, misconceptions, and prejudices concerning immigration and remember that there are people, real people, who are struggling to survive each and everyday. When we comfortably sit in our warm cars, there are children who go to sleep in homes without sufficient heating.

As I face this stark reality, I struggle with how I will allow it to make a claim on my life, my choices, my future, and my relationships. These are the questions that are haunting me as I make this journey, and if you have taken the time to read this blog, I encourage you to also consider this unsettling question: What choices will we make in our lives that will enhance, not lessen, the quality of life for all people?

There are so many along the border who are materially poor, but I find myself wondering about how we in the U.S. suffer from a poverty of spirit, a spiritual deprivation, that blinds us to the blatant injustices in the world, cripples our capacity for compassion, and blocks our vision for the common good. It is this that I hope to confront within myself I as return to New York during the coming days. How have I allowed myself to be co-opted by the culture of self-absorption that pervades our culture? What will I do to live as a witness to Jesus Christ and the Gospels? It is my deep hope that the people, places, and experiences from this immersion journey will continue to challenge me, unsettle me, and animate my life. I encourage you to join me on this journey as well…as we work for the transformation of our world.

It has been a full week now since we drove through the maquiladora district in Reynosa, Mexico, where 75,000 factory workers earn roughly $1.50 per hour assembling a wide range of products, many of which are exported to the United States. One company operating in Reynosa is Fresenius Medical Care, a German manufacturer of dialysis machines.

Over the past two months, the New York Times has published a series of articles detailing the experiences of undocumented immigrants who had been receiving life-preserving dialysis treatment at Grady Memorial, a public hospital in Atlanta. Late last year, Grady closed its dialysis clinic and informed those of its patients without documents that it could pay either for them to relocate to their countries of origin (where few would have access to care) or for additional treatment at outside clinics, but for a period of only three months.
When we returned to San Antonio yesterday, I revisited those articles, curious to see if these dialysis machines that ill, impoverished workers may soon be denied access to are in fact the same ones manufactured in the Reynosa factory. To my chagrin, I found that Fresenius Medical Care is indeed at the heart of the Atlanta controversy. In fact, Fresenius operates the outside clinics that Grady Memorial Hospital’s undocumented patients now have temporary access to. The company is currently engaged in a court battle with the hospital over the length of their contract to provide care.

What an unsettling picture of a broken system.

Mexican workers are currently assembling dialysis machines at wages less than 20% of the U.S. minimum. Fresenius Medical Care, who reaps the benefit of this cheap labor, is also currently haggling in federal court over just how long it will be until a group of poor workers, many from Mexico, are denied access to the life-saving treatments those machines provide.

Impressions

Photo by: Catherine Bordeau

So much to take in.

Our stay in the Pilgrim House in San Juan, Texas only suggests our walk here as Pilgrims, perhaps not directly to the Virgin, as many who come here, but as pilgrims in our journey to this land. The border. The Valley.

This land, with its misunderstandings, stereotypes, culture, beauty, faith.

We are pilgrims here, as students and teachers and future pastors, in the midst of complicated issues: immigration, poverty, racism, mistrust, injustice, corruption.

There is nothing straightforward or easy about any of it; our heads are full of impressions and voices and spaces. Yet there is a deep longing and understanding it seems, for justice-and for people. Children. Families. Lives. Hopes.

We are pilgrims here, to see, to listen, to question, to learn, in this land of orange stands, longhorns and palm trees; this land of ranches, fajitas, salsa, beans, and rice; this land of a border, a line, a wall, figurative and quite tangible, yet fluid.

This land where, in some places, there are no streetlights, no electricity, no windows in houses, and a few miles over the river, no water, no sewers —  residents smiling and waving to us as we pass, their hospitality as bright as the walls they have painted.

Impressions.

Candles are lit in a place of prayer in the Basilica where we stay, roses and flowers of every color at the base of an altar. Some pause each day. I get on my knees, and I pray, feeling the warmth of the candles lit by pilgrims. We pray, for God to open our hearts, our eyes, our ears, to the stories of the people we meet, for the work and reality here.

This is a land of beautiful people, a beautiful land, and so complex. A weaving, of culture, music, food, language. A weaving of families, histories, stories.

A weaving of perceived contrasts: of hope and pain; poor, rich; oppressed, oppressor; of hard work and lack of opportunity; formal religion and folklore; informal and formal economy, activism and apathy.

We’ve heard the space of the valley called “fluid;” “on the edge of America;” “the in between place;” “the forgotten land.” However the spaces of the valley are known, it is a land that leaves us with questions and curiosities, hopes and dreams, especially in the people who are working here for change and through the people who take pride in calling this home.

Our new friends here are advocates, workers of justice , researchers, teachers, leaders, people of faith, people living their faith, mothers, fathers, children.

Our new friends in each other are future teachers, scholars, pastors, leaders.

For me, and for all of my fellow pilgrims here, we must remember. We must remember and continue our conversations long after we no longer share two 15-passenger vans across the valley, baskets of chips with all colors and of salsa, and laughter of the children of the colonias, as they chase us with their giggles and their Styrofoam pool noodles in their community center.

We cannot forget the hope and the love that we have seen, and the spirit that is moving in a real way here, in, through, and among, people.

We must not forget.

This is our prayer, as we zip up our suitcases, tuck away our journals, prepare for the drive to San Antonio, and soon return to our homes and our other contexts, far from this place.

Our prayer is that we may remember the hope here and the love here, and continue to learn; continue to call on our God; continue to pray for this journey toward justice for our fellow travelers here.

Before we came, we asked God to open our minds, our hearts, and our eyes.

Our eyes have been opened, our minds full, and our hearts flooded with the love of the people. We are humbled.

Now, we ask God to continue to open and guide our eyes, our hearts, and our minds. We ask God to help all of us to notice, to listen, and to not be silent.

This is sacred space, in a sacred moment in our history.

Let us call on our Lord, together, for change, for something better for these dynamic lands in the valley and the people here.

Their spirits of love, hospitality, determination, and courage go with us, each of them.

Si se puede, con la ayuda de Dios.

When I began this cross cultural immersion experience I had no real expectations for what I would encounter. Although not sure what to expect, I have found this trip to be informative, eye opening, exciting, and challenging.

Immigration, undocumented workers, Border Wall, Tex-Mex, US-Mexico Border, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), and so on were simply terms from news reports. Ohio and Pennsylvania were a world away from where I am now in Texas. How could something so far away affect me at home? How naive I was! I knew that what happens along the border would affect me, even thousands of miles away.

What I have found on this journey is nothing I could have anticipated. The passion radiating from the leaders and speakers we have met evokes a sense of awe and hope in me. The people who live here and the situations I am seeing give a deep sense of strength, hope, and encouragement.

Having grown up as a United Methodist (UM) I took for granted the many programs and activities in which the denomination participates. Through this experience I have found the UM church active in borderland activities, and I continue to be proud that I am a part of a church willing to risk being involved in active resistance to injustice.

I am looking forward to returning home and making this experience real for others, I have learned that whichever side of the immigration debate you are on doesn’t matter. It is not the issue at stake here.

What we need to see as being at stake are human rights and the dignity of people as a people who are valued because they are children of God. Most importantly is the need for people to survive, and because of injustice, they are forced to live a certain way.

There is much that the Mexican people have to teach fellow followers of Jesus – to those who are willing to listen – about what it means to bring the Kingdom of God to fruition on earth.

The Mission of Southwest Good Samaritan Ministries is to teach the love of Jesus Christ by building a renewed sense of wholeness and dignity and by standing with those who are broken, especially among refugees and those who are disenfranchised and displaced.  The Good News of salvation is lived out by addressing spiritual and material needs, including emergency shelter and food, clothing, transportation, legal aid, advocacy and job referral through a cooperative effort with other agencies and religious organizations.

Southwest Good  Samaritan Ministries PART I

Southwest Good  Samaritan Ministries PART II

Southwest Good  Samaritan Ministries PART III

Southwest Good  Samaritan Ministries PART IV

www.swgsm.org

Seeing the face of the God of Jesus in the face and the journey of each of these brothers and sisters–the least of these–makes us feel like we are always in touch with the anguish of the cross but also with the hope of the resurrection.

- Feliberto Pereira, Founder