Isabel and Mother's Day

Update

While in Pittsburgh, in addition to seeing my family, taking some time off, and enjoying the cool weather, I am visiting with churches and other organizations to share stories about my time on the border.  Yesterday, I went to First Presbyterian Church in Duquesne, located in a town right outside of Pittsburgh.  They are helping to sponsor my year as a YAV.  Duquesne Presbyterian Church, located in the third poorest town in Pennsylvania, has a small but vibrant and diverse community.  

When my family arrived, a group of teenagers were practicing a miming that they are planning to present at a local church next week.  One of the most beautiful and humbling things that I witnessed was a small mission program that the teenagers have set up, called Angel Treats.  They were sitting in youth group one day complaining that they didn't have any money, so someone told them to get a job. When they replied that there weren't any jobs, they came up with the idea to start a chocolate business.  They received a $30,000 Self-Development of People grant to start a business, and it has taken off from there.  

The reason that I call it humbling is this: people so often think of mission as something that you do for other people in other places--we go on mission trips to build houses in Mexico, we go to teach English in another country, we go to spread the word of God, often forgetting about our own local communities and the needs that are close to home.  These wonderful people recognized their own need and a need in their community and ran with it.  

When I applied to do the YAV program, I was originally thinking of going overseas, but then I realized that there was so much need in our own country, that I decided to stay in the United States.  And once I started thinking along those lines, I started wondering if I shouldn't try to find something in Pittsburgh or in Beloit, my local communities.  I ended up deciding to follow my passions to Tucson, and I am glad that I did, but hearing about Angel Treats was a good reminder for me about not forgetting our local needs and the creativity that can be inspired through community.

While at Duquesne, I shared a story in the Minute for Mission time, that I will repost here now:

Isabel and Mother's Day

As yesterday was Mother's Day, there is one related story in particular that i would like to share.In Tucson, the federal government runs a program called Operation Streamline, a zero-tolerance border enforcement proceeding. Every weekday at the federal courthouse, 70 to 80 migrants are tried for entering the U.S. without documents at a place and time not designated by the government. Instead of everyone having an individual case, up to 80 people are tried in the course of 1-3 hours. It is meant as a deterrence program, to keep people from crossing through the desert and although most of the people in the courtroom are first time crossers, there are many people with prior records.

The case takes place in a tiny courtroom, with Border Patrol and U.S. marshals patrolling the aisles.  The migrants sit on the left hand side, scrunched in 9 to a row on uncomfortable wooden benches.  Their hands and feet are shackled, shoe laces and hair bands removed.  Most wear the same clothes that they were found in while in the desert.

There is a row of benches in the courtroom that are reserved for the public, but they usually sit empty. This day, however, a group of  women sits silently, watching the proceedings. They don't speak, or really even move, except to bring a little girl that is with them to the bathroom.

As the proceedings near the end, a woman named Isabel is called to the front.  She wears a bright pink shirt with a pocket on the right breast.  Her arms and feet are shackled, her shoelaces removed, her hair shows the indentation of an absent pony-tail holder. The judge gives her 35 days in detention, and the previously silent women start chatting amongst themselves. As Isabel is led out, she waves at the women, trying to keep a smile on her face. The little girl that is with them looks on.

"Say hi to your mommy" one of the women says in Spanish to the little girl.

"Hi mommy" she says and waves with a smile.

Isabel is ushered into a hallway that leads to her holding cell.  She will be in detention for another month before being deported to Mexico.

Her daughter, who is likely a U.S. citizen, will be without her.

What we talk about as "immigration issues" are peoples lives, peoples stories.  These "issues" have faces.

So, on this Mother's Day, I bring you this story, as a representation of countless mothers who are torn apart from their children, of countless families that are destroyed by failed immigration and foreign economic policies.

As human beings, and especially as people of faith, we are tied up together in a web of humanity, which is so often forgotten and tossed aside, as in the case of Isabel.  So, on this Mothers Day, let us remember Isabel and her family and let us give thanks for our mothers and the women in our lives.