BROWNSVILLE, Texas (ValleyCentral) — Faith leaders and education advocates held a march Saturday to show their support for asylum-seekers and the asylum process.
Organizers said their faith led them to participate and show support for those who are suffering.
Rally attendees said they don’t want immigration issues and asylum-seekers used as pawns in political negotiations. Recent talks on Capitol Hill have centered around tying foreign defense aid to stricter immigration enforcement.
“The program of asylum is in grave danger of … bartering for money for war for Israel and Ukraine or money for war in general,” said Alma Ruth, one of the demonstration’s organizers.
Ruth said she’s not in favor of open borders, or letting everyone come into the country, but she said she feels a moral responsibility, because of her faith, to protect refugees and asylum-seekers.
“It is extremely important that as a society, as America, we do not forget the importance of immigration as enriching our nation. Instead of demonizing and dehumanizing the other. The one who’s different from us,” Ruth said.
Educators from out of state said visiting the border is a good way to help better understand the people they serve. William Davis works as an advocate with multilingual families in Charleston, South Carolina.
“A lot of our children and students in school end up coming through these ports and so a way for us to understand their stories,” He said. “Just be with them as we teach them through our school systems is to see where they’re coming from, where they were literally living and staying before they end up in our care in South Carolina.”
Saturday’s event was put together by the Practice Mercy Foundation, a faith-based nonprofit. Organizers said the asylum system lacks the infrastructure it needs to run properly.
They said there’s a lack of will to implement a fair and humane system. Attendees said the money spent on detention would be better spent fixing the system.
“Immigration processing, visa applications, issuing visas, process asylum seekers and migrant workers who would like to travel back and forth,” said Stephanie Madison, a project manager visiting the area from Clemson University.
After the Brownsville event, participants walked across the Gateway International Bridge into Matamoros. The groups held another prayer event on that side of the border to show their support for those waiting in Mexico.
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