Immigration

Join Us in Our public outcry

The United States, is a nation founded, dominated and shaped by immigrants. Less than 3% of today’s US population identify with some form of Native American ancestry. The rest of us have an immigration story, whether we know it or not.

President Donald Trump’s grandfather, Friedrich, came to this country in 1885 to avoid serving in the German military. White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller’s great grandparents fled anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire in the early 20th century. The founders of our country wrestled with the challenges of national unity in a diverse nation. They debated the appropriate role and timeframe for immigrants to achieve full citizenship, and voiced concerns that foreign influences might threaten American institutions. But they always saw this country as a haven for refugees, and many expressed their views in biblical language.

Our faith traditions call upon all of us to embrace and embody our immigrant roots, to welcome immigrants, to treat immigrants fairly, to see our own fate as being inextricably tied to the fate of all immigrants, and to ensure basic necessities such as shelter, personal dignity, and belonging, for all.

The Constitution established a system of checks and balances to safeguard this country against tyranny and protect individual liberty. Today, our safeguards and protections are being brutally dismantled, and our own humanity diminished, as false rhetoric about the nature and intentions of immigrants supplants the language and narratives of our faith traditions. Each time an elected official or appointee of the administration refers to immigrants as “criminals,” “murderers,” “monsters,” “killers,” “gang members,” “illegals,” or “aliens,” they promote baseless fear and encourage senseless violence. The more often these lies are repeated, the more effort it takes to debunk and defang them, even when we don’t accept them. The only way to counter this attack on our neighbors is to answer falsehoods with truth.

Faith Commons has brought together clergy in the Dallas area to protect and defend law-abiding immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers and to defend the rule of law for all Americans. We are bringing attention to the ways the Trump administration’s policies contradict the values and obligations of our faith through initiating and participating in public events such as press conferences, open letters, vigils and demonstrations. We invite all who are committed to fighting falsehoods against immigrants, and the ways in which those falsehoods are being used to undermine the wellbeing and promise of our nation, to join us in our public outcry.