Standing with our Immigrant Siblings
December 2024
To members and friends of Church of the Trinity MCC and our wider community:
In this season of celebrating family, the birth of the Christ Child and the lights of hope, peace, joy and love, we also find ourselves in a season where these values are being violated right before our eyes.
Recently, we have learned that the incoming administration intends to eliminate a longstanding policy of not grabbing people (children and families) from schools, hospitals and houses of worship. This signals an intent to be careless as legal immigrants may well be swept up with illegal ones under the veil of “going after the bad guy.” We must resist this deadly and cruel policy because it is morally wrong and defies all human rights to dignity and fairness.
MCC Founder, Rev. Elder Troy Perry, said yesterday,
“The Trump administration has just announced that they are going to have ICE go into schools and churches where immigrants gather, to make arrests. This is a first in the USA to have a government that is willing to send federal agents into our worship service.”
MASS DEPORTATION will cause the following harms to families, to our own integrity, neighborhoods, communities and our country (articulated by Rev. Dr. Nancy Wilson):
It will create an atmosphere of fear. We are told in scripture that “perfect love casts out fear,” and we will need to perfect our love in the coming days.
Hatred and violence towards immigrants, legal and undocumented, will be the deadly result.
Mass deportation goes against our values as a “nation of immigrants.” This country is only strengthened by those who come, work and live and enrich our communities.
It goes against our understanding of fairness and justice.
According to almost every economist, it will damage our economy. We depend on the labor of undocumented immigrants for our everyday needs, and for starting small businesses.
Children will be traumatized as they are separated from their parents, or deported to a country where they will likely be endangered or impoverished.
To our shame, the world will see our country betraying its foundational commitments to freedom, justice and compassion.
As people of faith, who are part of a community that has been traumatized by fear and hatred, we call upon us to NOT LET THIS STAND. In this season where we say we care about families and where we tell the story of a family that had to flee for their lives to another country to escape terror, we must decide if loving our neighbor is just a sweet platitude, or something we will insist on right here, right now.
Standing for Justice,
Rev. Elder Lillie Brock
Rev. Collis Laton
JT Priar