In Canada, the United States, and across the world, newsreaders are being inundated with stories about our most vulnerable neighbours who are being persecuted. In particular, it is migrants with precarious status who are being singled out and targeted. Images in the news of young men bound in chains, lined up and loaded into military planes and sent back to countries some of them have never called home, are deeply frightening. 

In the U.S., the current administration has introduced new and untested approaches to migration policy, including sweeping executive orders that impact individuals with irregular status and those who assist them. These policies raise serious concerns about their implications for human dignity and rights, prompting deep reflection on how we uphold justice and compassion in our response to migration.

It is concerning that many of these policies intersect with faith communities and religious life. For example, one executive order eliminated the ‘sensitive location’ designation that had previously protected worshippers and students from arrest while in churches or schools.

The organization I work for typically focuses on social and environmental justice in Canadian public policy. However, what this most recent news cycle has made clear is that the rights of migrants and refugees and the responsibility to protect them transcends borders. The challenges they face do not stop at national lines, and their rights as refugees and migrants cannot be bound by countries. 

We need to look with compassion on those who come to our borders in search of opportunity and safety. Migrants and the organizations that advocate with them have called on the Canadian government to repeal the Safe Third Country Agreement that bars individuals from seeking asylum in Canada if they arrive  through the United States, and vice versa. Despite the name of the agreement, this arrangement does not truly provide “safety” for the people concerned, particularly for racialized minorities with precarious status. 

It is important to clarify that prioritizing compassion for those arriving at our borders does not equate to disregarding the government’s authority in managing national borders and immigration policies. While we recognize the right and duty of civil governments to regulate and oversee immigration, this responsibility must always be carried out in a manner that upholds human dignity and honors all people as bearers of God’s image.

We cannot be silent when our faith is used to spread messages and policies of hatred and division. Government policies need to uphold the dignity of every human being, regardless of where they were born. We may not know the specific circumstances of each migrant’s journey, but we do know one thing: they are not “aliens” or “animals.” They are children of God, our neighbors, and deserving of our love, respect, and compassion.

We know that Jesus himself was a refugee, carried in the arms of his parents as they fled persecution. The Bible urges us to welcome the stranger and treat them as we ourselves would like to be treated: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me… ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’” (Matthew 25:35 and 45). 

As people inspired by faith to work for justice, this is a call to action, and we must answer it. 

Photo by Ekaterina Belinskaya