https://time.com/4155651/christmas-story-refugees/

From Time, Dec. 2015:

As our eyes fall upon the familiar manger scenes scattered throughout our churches and homes this Christmas season, it is hard not to think about the millions of people from that same manger land who are seeking refuge from terror and oppression now 2,000 years later.

Where will they go? Who will give them shelter?

As Oliver Willis with Media Matters tweeted: “if only we had a seasonally appropriate story about middle eastern people seeking refuge being turned away by the heartless.”

This less-than-140-character comment has inspired thousands of words in response, many of them from conservative Christians attacking Willis for committing a grave offense against the Christmas story. “Christmas is about Christ,” they insist, “not Syrian refugees. The holy family was simply returning to Bethlehem for a census.” Factually, these critics are right. But they miss the much larger point of the 

The Christmas story is not about a refugee family, but it is about a family seeking refuge. Ordered by an occupying government to travel by foot for days on end so that Caesar Augustus could count the number of people under his order, an expectant mother at the peak of her pregnancy is forced to undergo the single most dangerous experience of a first-century woman’s life not at home, but away in a manger.

It was a fiercely political environment through which they wandered. Why should we pretend like it wasn’t?

. . . .

I believe the Christmas story should open our eyes and our hearts to those most vulnerable in our midst. To those whose only hope is to travel by foot and inflatable raft for days in search of a livable life—many of whom look very much like the Middle Eastern Mary, Jesus’ mother.

. . . .

When Jesus is asked how one inherits eternal life, he responds with the story of the Good Samaritan. The most startling part of the story is that in Jesus’ time Samaritans were perceived similarly to American Muslims today.

Imagine the Pope, when asked how one gets into heaven, answering with a story about a young Muslim from Syria. This is the story Jesus tells.

Jesus tells us to welcome the stranger, to feed the hungry, to go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor. Jesus asks that we treat all of humanity with the same love, kindness and generosity that he modeled throughout his life.

The Christmas story reminds us of a family struggling under the yoke of an oppressive regime. Of a God who became human to take on our struggles and strife and to embody divine love, whose light shines on all. As he tells us, whatever we have done for the least among us we have done to him.

As followers of Jesus we are called to welcome the strangers of our time. To return the care shown by the Good Samaritan to today’s marginalized communities. And to open our hearts and our doors to those seeking refuge this Christmas season, whatever their religion.

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Read the complete article at the link.

Rev. Jones’s words are as true today, even in the middle of a pandemic, as they were in 2015 when she wrote them.

Unfortunately, the sometimes perceptive, occasionally tone deaf, WashPost Editorial Board chose Christmas Day to exhibit the latter quality, basically “buying in” to the myth that 140,000 (or 200,00, or even 1,000,000) refugees seeking asylum at our Southern Border are somehow going to destabilize our nation and throw it into a tailspin. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/biden-needs-to-restore-american-values-to-immigration-policy-without-triggering-a-border-surge/2020/12/24/d1b60100-43d7-11eb-975c-d17b8815a66d_story.html

According to this specious reasoning, that justifies an indefinite extension of the current regime’s cruel, bogus, and illegal refugee bans, including “Let ‘Em Die in Mexico” by the new Administration while it “cautiously figures things out” (something the Obama Administration never managed to do over eight painful years of botched asylum policies). I call BS! In this situation, every day of unnecessary delay in ending the regime’s racist policies endangers human lives and mocks our claim to be a “nation of laws.”

I repeat the words of my Round Table friend & colleague Judge Paul Grussendorf, a man who has first-had experience with refugees at all levels of our system and who, unlike the Editorial Board and the nativists, has “walked the walk and talked the talk:”

In the early days of this administration there was much hype over the “migrant caravans” composed mostly of Central Americans from the “northern triangle” countries, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, that were “invading” our country — the old “barbarian hordes” trope that is a favorite of every totalitarian regime. In fact the numbers of each such “caravan” for the most part would easily fit inside a typical college stadium. (Current demographics demonstrate that even if we admitted all of them as potential workers and residents, the U.S. would still experience labor shortfalls in the near future and they would not supplant the decline of our native-born population.)

Judge Grussendorf has forgotten more about asylum and refugee law and practice, and the humanity they serve, than the Editorial Board or the nativist alarmists (“modern day chicken🐥 littles”) they mimic will ever know. 

We’ve survived four years of a maliciously incompetent regime that thrives on disorder, lies, corruption, promoting human misery, inequality, racism, and has intentionally sought to undermine our democracy. Refugees actually bring to the table hope, courage, skills, self-sacrifice, values, and the same ideals on which our country was founded. Indeed, “saving ourselves by saving others” was the theme of one of my first post-retirement essays in 2016. https://immigrationcourtside.com/saving-child-migrants-while-saving-ourselves/

We actually have both the legal tools and the professional expertise readily available to treat asylum seekers and other migrants fairly. The last two Administrations have basically either failed to use existing mechanisms properly or, as in the case of the regime, actively worked to disassemble that which works. 

Reversing these disgraceful trends isn’t rocket science. We can institute and apply the correct legal standards in a fair and reasonable manner. There are loads of folks out there, many in them in the private or NGO sector, who know how to work with refugees, make fair determinations, resettle those who qualify, and institute humane alternatives for those who don’t fit within our current system. Since the regime trashed our international humanitarian obligations, many trained refugee and humanitarian professionals are more than ready to resume using their skills and expertise in refugee matters that was so stupidly, immorally, and improperly “shelved” by the regime.

It might not happen on January 21, 2021, but it could and should happen within a short time thereafter with the right folks in change and a concerted effort on the part of the Biden-Harris Administration to put them in place where they can solve the problems. Getting our asylum, refugee, and Immigration Court systems functioning needs to be a national priority of the highest order, right after COVID relief and economic help! It’s a critical part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s overriding commitment to racial and social justice!

Not surprisingly, refugee crises and the need for a strong, competent, lawful response seldom, if ever, come upon us in “in the best of times” when we are completely prepared. Refugee crises almost always come to a head during times of war, natural disaster, famine, revolution, or worldwide economic depression and disorder. The UN Refugee Convention sprung from the aftermath of WW II and Cold War, hardly stable times in history.

We can and must make carrying through on our legal and humanitarian obligations to the most vulnerable humans in the world, even in difficult and challenging times, part of our obligation to “show Christ-like love in word and deed” regardless of our religious affiliation, if any. 

Christ never asked his followers to do what was easy, profitable, ego-satisfying, or non-threatening — he asked others to follow him in unselfishly taking risk, believing in a better world to come, and “putting it all on the line” for humanity. Those are noble principles that all should be able to agree and act upon.

Merry Christmas, and Due Process Forever!⚖️🗽👍🏼

PWS

12-25-20