So, today was hard. It didn’t start that way, but it certainly got very difficult. Today all of us interns went to Lumpkin, Georgia to visit an immigrant detention center owned by CCA, a privately owned corporation. We were with El Refugio, a hospitality house down the road from the prison, and they do amazing work to pump some hope into a dehumanizing place. A lot of things today hurt me, but the things that God is doing through El Refugio and all the volunteers that go through there encouraged me not to lose faith and to have hope that things will get better.
I got the chance to visit with a man that was being detained, and at first I was a bit nervous. I didn’t know who this person was, if he spoke English, or if he would even want to talk to me. I got less nervous as visiting time got closer and I learned more about immigration as well as the type of work that El Refugio does. When they finally allowed us to walk through the metal detector, I began to feel my anxiety course through me, but it dissipated quickly. Angela and I walked into the visiting room and it looked exactly like it does in the movies: cinder blocks and panes of glass splitting the room in half with telephones on either side of the glass. We stood awkwardly waiting for someone to enter the room, and finally we met our guy.
His name was Miguel. As I should be used to by now, God threw something at me that was completely unexpected. He was my age. We graduated high school the same year. The main difference between us was that he was born in Mexico and came to Georgia undocumented when he was five. That meant we had very different lives, different opportunities, different consequences for our actions. But for the moment, the only thing between us was a pane of glass.
We talked about school, family, traveling, immigration laws, and a ton of other stuff with the hour that we had to speak with Miguel. It was difficult to involve all three of us in the conversation because the room was loud and the phone speaker was very quiet, but we managed quite well. Just to look in his eyes made me fully aware of the human side of the immigration fiasco that I had never considered before. I felt the hurt welling up in me, but I held it at bay. The time was up before I knew it and the processing began immediately.
I knew this kid had not committed any violent crime, yet he was locked up in the penal system. I am all kinds of heart broken knowing that people like Miguel are being victimized, dehumanized, and being subjected to injustice at the hand of a system that I and every other tax-paying American keep running with our tax dollars. It is not right that people are using detained immigrants to make a buck, but it will continue until the people demand change.
It seems pretty hopeless. Profit is being prioritized over humanity. Families are split apart. Valuable resources and time is being wasted. Sometimes it is really hard to see where God is working in a situation like this but He is certainly there. He works within us to give us the strength to tackle these issues, He works between us to help us to know Him through our interactions with others, and He works through us to spread His love to those who feel lacking. He overcomes the barriers when we cannot, and all he asks is that we love Him and each other, act justly, and stay humble. These things will always challenge me, but it gives me indescribable hope that God is here, He is with us, and He calms us even when the storm rages on.
To learn more about immigrant detainment and immigration law here in Georgia, check out this article from Creative Loafing and this fact sheet from Detention Watch Network.
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8
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