The lie was a promise to arrest, detain, and deport “the worst of the worst known criminals.” The truth is that most people swept up in mass arrests, detentions, and deportations do not have criminal records. Many are detained going to immigration hearings or check-ins in their efforts to comply with the legal immigration process. Their “crime” is that they have not yet completed the process. Every day there are tragic stories of people suddenly snatched from their families and communities without any due process. What most of these stories share in common is that the people snatched away are people of color. The underlying racism is blatant. Each person and family impacted is unique, and we cannot allow the “mass” nature of this injustice to become normalized or to numb us to the trauma suffered by so many.
Recently I came across an article by Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood that began with the startling words, “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents last month arrested and detained a carpenter named Jesus.”
The story actually referred to a Venezuelan immigrant named Jesus Teran who was detained at his immigration appointment in Pittsburgh on July 8. He has no criminal record and is a valued member of his Catholic church along with his wife and two children. His pastor at St. Oscar Romero Parish reacted to this cruelty by saying:
“Jesus is not someone who should be subjected to this undignified experience that he’s going through,” said Rev. Jay Donahue, senior parochial vicar at St. Oscar Romero Parish. “It’s a shame the way they are treating him; it is inhumane. It’s been inspiring to see the community rally around Jesus and to recognize what he means to our community.”
Rev. Donahue’s words apply not only to Jesus Taran but to the presence of Jesus Christ in each and every immigrant unjustly detained, arrested, and deported. The namesake of the parish, St. Oscar Romero, stood up for the poor suffering people of El Salvador against a repressive regime supported by the US government. Before he was assassinated by a right wing death squad in 1980, he spoke the following words to the soldiers of the regime. They speak to ICE agents, Homeland Security personnel, law enforcement officers, and all those who support the repressive policies they enforce:
Brothers, you came from our own people. You are killing your own brothers… No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you obeyed your consciences rather than sinful orders. The church cannot remain silent before such an abomination. …In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cry rises to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you: stop the repression.
The first video posted below is a recent report on PBS featuring a Jesuit priest reflecting on the inhumanity of the ongoing ICE actions. The second video tells yet another story of an immigrant in Maryland who is beloved by his church and community but who has been torn away from both because of the unjust racist actions of our federal government. What we do to Jesus Taran and all our immigrant sisters and brothers, we do to the Lord Jesus.