To Act Justly
During this past week, I received a document from the USCCB explaining their proposed reform for the US Immigration Detention System. Within this lengthy document, I found a story from a family detention center in New Mexico entitled, Don’t Take My Sweater. “The center is located in a desert-like arid climate and landscape, with temperatures reaching 100 Fahrenheit or more. One little girl, around two years old, always wore a bright pink and black sweater, which was, as her mother told it, her favorite possession. The little girl feared that if she took off the sweater, it would be taken away. The image of this little girl, overheated because she wore her favorite possession and feared its loss, shows the vulnerability of little children and their mothers in a restrictive setting and how unsuited families are to live in prison-like facilities.”
After reading this, I was reminded of the women I have met through AWE who are living with the Women Religious of a few different congregations in Baltimore. I have met and visited with some of these asylum seekers in a couple of different settings. My sense is that they are at peace even though they are anxious while waiting for legal appointments, other necessary preparations and their final court hearing. Once they settle into their new AWE housing, they seem to feel safe and ready to move along into a new phase in their journey to America.
The fear described in the family detention center story is not apparent, their possessions remain intact and children’s toys are untouched. All are free to come and go from their new homes. Members of their home community, AWE colleagues, and other volunteers arrange medical and legal appointments, religious opportunities, along with cultural and fun activities.
Women interested in pursuing more education are able to attend English classes, community college, certified nursing assistant programs, or other career based courses. People who have come to us from abuse and terror need the warm welcome that I have felt during my visits at the AWE events and residences.
Reflecting on this contrast between how Asylee Women Enterprise and US Immigration System respond to new comers in our country is a call for me to press for the closure of Family Detention Centers in our country.
By opening their communities to the Asylee Women, I believe that the Religious Sisters in and around Baltimore have taken to heart the passage of Leviticus 19, “If a stranger lives with you in your land, do not molest [her]. You must count [her] as one of your own people and love [her] as yourself.” Many lay people have also responded with the Prophet Micah’s call, “only this, to act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with your God.”
Ethel Howley, SSND A.W.E. Board of Directors