Two border walls at the southern border at Tijuana

I recently participated in a weekend with the Evangelical Covenant Church. It was described as an immigration immersive experience. A Migrant Journey: Scripture’s Call to Welcome the Stranger. The weekend was led by Dominique Gilliard (ECC Director of Racial Righteousness and Reconciliation) and Jon Huckins from Journey Home. During the journey, we visited the wall on both the American and the Mexican sides.

The Wall - is now two walls - more on that later. During the time it was only one wall, a Border Church started in 2011, bringing together families from both sides of the border on Sunday mornings where they could worship together, divided by the wall. People would meet at Friendship Park on the U.S. side and at Playas de Tijuana on the Mexico side. It was a beautiful experience involving passing communion elements through the wall and giving “kisses” to their loved ones. Here is a video on the original border church:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES0-EJBAVL0

Since that time that wall has changed and a new wall 100 yards into the US was added with 30 foot bollards. This has effectively closed Friendship Park. Today both walls have rolls of concertina wire at the top and bottom. The new wall is 30 feet high, ensuring that anyone who manages to climb the wall will be met with death, severe injury or permanent disability when they drop onto U.S. soil. There was a stark difference on each side of the wall. On the U.S. side, the walls were plain and very tall. On the Mexico side they were painted with decor (I loved “eraser man” who was trying to erase the wall) and signs of protest.

The border church continues! I had the opportunity to attend a border church service in Playas de Tijuana. We are no longer able to meet our friends at the wall, but these participants are resilient and creative! They had a camera set up and we could see participants on the U.S. side on the screen. I will not forget the lovely service, in Spanish and English, at the border.

During the time when the U.S was still accepting asylum applications, asylum seekers would climb the first wall and wave their arms to get the attention of the border guards to apply for asylum. Sometimes it took days to process the people waiting between the walls. A ministry was set up to assist. Volunteers would bring food, water, clothing, that could pass through the wall to keep people alive and safe while they waited their turn with the border guards. During the Biden administration, an app: CBP one, was set up so people could request an appointment for asylum while waiting on the Mexico side of the border. This eliminated the people that climbed the first wall and waited to talk to the border guards. Upon taking office, Trump eliminated the use of CBP One for asylum seekers, cancelling 30,000 asylum appointments that were already scheduled and 270,000 that were waiting for an appointment.

I hear so often: “Why don’t immigrants just come in legally?” They are trying! People that climbed the first wall and waved down the border guards to seek asylum, people that signed up on the CBP app and waited their turn, all doing their best to follow the legal process. To qualify for asylum an individual must show they are unable or unwilling to return to their home country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion. We are now violating both our own laws and international laws by denying individuals the right to seek asylum in the United States.

I’m interested in your comments. What do you think we should do?

Let other countries take all the burden of asylum seekers?
Have asylum seekers return to their countries and risk death or abuse for themselves or their children?
Do our part to share in the solutions and welcome the stranger to our borders?
Contact our legislators and ask for meaningful immigration reform that meets the needs of our country as well as the immigrants and asylum seekers.

What would Jesus do? As Christians, is it OK to turn our backs on those “strangers” in need?

I welcome your comments as we wrestle with this very real issue in our country.

My Visit to the Wall

My Day at the Detention Center

Immigrants