The Rev. Paula Jackson commented on our first story about the House of Bishops visiting the border between Arizona and Mexico to find out more about the issue of immigration. Jackson relates the tragedy for families and the human side of the “issue”:
Next week I must accompany a beloved parishioner, a mother and her young children, back to Guatemala by order of the US government. Her husband who abandoned her here several years ago promises to kill her when she returns, but she lost her appeal for asylum. Her children know no life but in the US. Even worse, one of the children was born unattended when they had just arrived in the US and has no birth certificate or documentation of any kind. After increasingly frantic efforts since March, we still have no travel permit for a 7 year old to go with his mother. It seems he will be stranded here, without a country or a family, and no rights anywhere. We are appealing for clemency from the State Department but there is so far no response. I can name several families in our parish who could easily fall into the same or a similar tragedy. How is this inhumanity protecting our national security?
Photos of the family by Paula Jackson.