Refugee Program Grief
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I think it hit us all like a ton of bricks. All of us who were waiting for the announcement. We knew from the past that this was probably coming. But when we spoke out about it, we were shushed and told to not “catastrophize” and “project” our opinion. The Trump administration was just figuring out how to fix all that Biden had broken: the courts would sort it out. Of course, the “worthy” programs would be continued. We just had to get rid of all that corruption and waste.
It has happened. The successful (by all metrics: safe, efficient, cost-effective) refugee program will go from 125,000 a year to 7,500 a year. This was after the system had already been effectively dismantled (even before the courts ruled if it was constitutional or not to do). Not only that, but the previous definition of need not based on race is now replaced by a specified preference for white Afrikaners (at least up to 7,500 of them), who do not meet the criteria for refugee as it has stood since 1980. It has been slap after slap in the face of those who care about this.
As I sit to grieve this, I am struck by how much it hurts personally. Why? I think it is because I have been told my whole life how important it is to help the persecuted Christians who are fleeing. The stories I read growing up. The Voice of the Martyrs. The Christian identification with our brothers and sisters who are suffering. Also, how I have been taught to love my country and be grateful for it. For the freedoms I am given. And in that freedom, the responsibly to then work for the freedom of others. Destroying this program feels completely anti-American to me. It feels like a betrayal of what I thought our country stood for.
In prayer today, I was reminded that God never fails. He will not fail that persecuted Christian who is not able to flee to the USA. He will hear their voice. He will make another way. I can trust in God’s heart for them. That He loves them and knows them so much better than I do. That is a great comfort to me. I don’t need to be the one to save them, nor does my country.
What I am left with then, is grief for my country. My country that denies the American church a chance to serve our persecuted brothers and sisters in this practical and vital way. The grief that it is the white Evangelical Christians that is overwhelmingly (70-80%) supporting this administration, encouraging this and many other unjust policies. We are shutting the doors to the voices of those crying out for help, we are terminating the legal status of those who have fled their countries, and deporting them violently.
Exodus 22:23 says God will hear their voices. He will hear the widow, the fatherless, the poor, and the immigrant that cry out to Him. Verse 24 continues: “My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you (those who oppressed, mistreated, and took advantage of His precious ones) with the sword...” Here, God has their back: He is the big brother. You bully the little brother; he is going to get his big brother to beat you up.
What a rebuke on our country. We who call this place a Christian nation. We who have been given so much spiritually and financially. We know a lot about how God judges Israel, but America is not listed in the Bible. Matthew 25:32 does talk about the end times and when all of the nations will be judged: and America will be one of those. The standard of judgement for a nation that He outlines in the following verses is how they treated the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger (term for immigrant in the Bible), the needy, the sick, and the prisoner. We aren’t doing a good job America.
I grieve for us, as I am an American. I will look for ways to be faithful within a system that is actively working against what I feel called to do. I will not give up talking about ways our government can change for the better. Speaking out against the Trump administration is not anti-American: I think supporting anti-Biblical ways of treating people is.
Ending the refugee program (for all who need it) is clearly against what God has called us as Christians to support, and is a call of judgement for our nation. Unjust deportation policies such as quotas, and ending many Temporary Protected Status (TPS) programs are unjust as well.
I have become friends with a refugee from Syria. She lives in a European country: and thank goodness, because if she had fled to America, she would be one of the “illegals” up for deportation the end of November. TPS for Syrians was repealed in September and goes into effect in November. These people are now part of a quota to be rounded up (with violence if deemed necessary: we’ve seen the videos). These people are what our president calls “Bad Blood, Rapists, Killers, Animals, Not Human (and more).”
Yes, our immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed. Yes, we need a secure border and safe, efficient, and just rules for those who enter. But what we are seeing play out in America right now is not this. Immigrants are being used as a tool to promote fear and anger, a scapegoat for the agenda of the Trump Administration. Legal ways of coming to America, such as the refugee program and TPS were not broken before: they were working well. But often, instead of working to fix what is broken, they are breaking what was working. I believe it is our calling, as Christians, to stand against injustice and dehumanizing rhetoric and actions. To work with our leaders to have creative and healthy ways of fixing what is broken, bringing justice for all. And I will continue to work through the grief I feel.