More than 45 Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) partners are providing care and services to help the influx of unaccompanied immigrant children crossing the southern U.S. border in response to what is being called a humanitarian crisis.
That support is being provided at the request of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement — the government body with whom LIRS has worked as an “advocate and strong partner” for the past decade on behalf of the safety of unaccompanied immigrant children, said Kimberly Haynes, LIRS director of Children’s Services.
LIRS was asked “to expand and engage networks” to help meet the growing needs of thousands of children, including many fleeing “horrific” situations in Central America, Haynes said.
“They are coming because they have no options. It’s die [in their homelands] or die trying [to escape],” Haynes said of the children who are mostly from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
Since October, more than 47,000 children have been caught trying to illegally cross the Mexican border. That number is expected to hit 90,000 by the end of September, according to news stories citing the Obama administration.
Most of the youngsters left their native countries due to extreme poverty, human trafficking, drug cartels, political upheaval, child labor and abusive homes, according to written information prepared by LIRS.
Some 14,000 immigrant children or family members involved with this crisis have received services through LIRS partners, Haynes said, including Lutheran Social Services of Michigan; Lutheran Community Services Northwest; Lutheran Children and Family Services, Pennsylvania; and Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area, Washington, D.C.
That support includes foster care, transitional care, family education, counseling and assistance for families trying to reunite with their children.
LIRS planned to host regional calls with Lutheran agencies and congregations the week of June 22 in five areas where the U.S. government has opened shelters for the unaccompanied children. Those calls aim to “provide awareness and understanding” so LIRS partners “can be engaged when the opportunity comes that action can be taken,” Haynes said.
What Haynes terms “governmental red tape” has limited efforts by LIRS partners to get involved with the care of immigrant children who are temporarily housed at government shelters on military bases in San Antonio and Brownsville, Texas; Ventura County, Calif.; and Fort Sill, Okla. Immigrant children also are being sheltered at a FEMA facility in Nogales, Ariz.
While acknowledging that thousands of unaccompanied immigrant children present a complicated and controversial issue, Haynes says it’s also a crisis fraught with “misconceptions and misunderstandings.”
Instead of coming to the U.S. for purely economic reasons or to take advantage of immigration reform, Haynes says that many of these immigrants are seeking safety. She spoke of “children as young as 2 years old” and a 16-year-old pregnant mother who saw her husband killed.
In addition to the U.S., the Central American immigrants also are fleeing to Mexico, South America and the Caribbean, Haynes said.
As unaccompanied immigrant children make news headlines, LIRS is fielding questions about the crisis. Haynes notes an increase in interest in foster-care opportunities directed to the LIRS “Give the Gift of Family” campaign. For information about that campaign, visit http://lirs.org/fostercare.
“What an amazing gift [foster care] can be to a child coming out of such a horrific background,” she said.
Likewise, the Rev. Dr. Carlos Hernandez, director of Church and Community Engagement with the LCMS Office of National Mission, says the immigrant children’s plight is on the minds of some LCMS members.
The crisis “offers us the opportunity to ‘roll up our sleeves’ and put our mercy pronouncements into action as the Lord commands us to do,” said Hernandez, citing Luke 6:36 and Matthew 25:35.
“We cherish our mercy-ministry partners such as LIRS, our districts, our Lutheran social service agencies and our congregations in regions impacted by this crisis,” Hernandez said. “Plans are under way to move forward with humanitarian solutions that our Lutheran mercy partners can offer. Otherwise, these children will be housed in prison-like detention centers. Our faith active in merciful action will not allow that to happen!”
To help immigrant children affected by this crisis, LIRS suggests:
- joining the LIRS “Act of Love” advocacy campaign at http://lirs.org/actoflove.
- praying for immigrant children and their families and considering how faith guides us in this issue through a Bible study also available at http://lirs.org/actoflove.
Because the immigrant children are minors in federal custody, no means for donating material goods is yet in place. When such a system is available, it will be posted on the LIRS website at lirs.org.
Kim Plummer Krull is a freelance writer and a member of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Des Peres, Mo.
Posted June 30, 2014
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Today Sarah Palin has written:
“Enough is enough of the years of abuse from this president. His unsecured border crisis is the last straw that makes the battered wife say, ‘no mas.’
“Without borders, there is no nation. Obama knows this. Opening our borders to a flood of illegal immigrants is deliberate. This is his fundamental transformation of America…
“It’s the American worker who is forced to deal with Obama’s latest crisis with our hard-earned tax dollars while middle class wages decrease, sustainable jobs get more scarce, and communities become unrecognizable and bankrupted due to Obama’s flood of illegal immigration.”
Missouri Synod Lutherans also should request a Synodical investigation of whether the Lutheran Immigration And Refugee Service RSO has participated in encouraging, promoting, or condoning this latest border invasion of illegal aliens.
The LCMS RSO directory does not list LIRS as an RSO, but that might be out of date. Confirmation?
* Whilst LIRS has promoted its involvement on compassionate grounds, the bottom line is that it has been enlisted to participate in and contribute to illegal activity by both the aliens and federal government which is now engaged in human trafficking. Two Kingdoms, anyone?
* The LCMS, amongst others, has been under direct and constant assault by the feds on separation of church and state issues, e.g. military chaplains, adoption, Obamacare mandates etc. Why is an RSO(?) eager to answer the call of an administration that is aggressively hostile to Lutherans specifically and Christians generally?
* It has emerged that “faith-based” organizations assisting with the illegal alien resettlement are prohibited from any proselytizing. What is the real purpose of LIRS if it is willing to accept First Amendment and religious liberty constraints? What exactly is Lutheran about that?
LIRS is not an RSO of the LCMS. They are an independent inter-Lutheran agency.
If parents of these children can pay $5,000 to $8,000 cash to get each child to the U.S., these parents are not poor. In fact they have more available cash than almost anyone living in rural Nebraska. As a member of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, I do not support providing housing or funds being given to these illegal children at the request of HHS. HHS is not looking out for the welfare of anyone except HHS. HHS only has one goal and that is to increase its power and control over our citizens. These illegal children are being used by President Obama and HHS to shame all Christians into providing for them. The President wants us to see the young children suffering but doesn’t want us to see the older boys that are already part of gangs or the older girls that are already pregnant.
Whenever I try to print the article on this issue, an article is superimposed over it quoting Sarah Palin and speaking against providing help. I don’t know why this article is unprintable. I would like to share it with others. thanks.
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