As the Trump administration continues its immigration crackdown, more people are stepping up to help migrants. Asylum seeking migrants on Tuesday will get some new allies to help them ward of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents carrying out mass deportations.
The latest effort comes from members of the faith-based community, including San Diego’s Catholic Diocese. They are rolling out a new pilot program for a ministry called “FAITH, which stands for “faithful accompaniment in trust and hope.”
That word “accompaniment” is key because FAITH ministry is organizing people to stand side-by-side with migrants and their families during immigration hearings.
During Monday’s announcement of the ministry’s rollout at the San Diego Diocese’s Pastoral Center, roughly 50 volunteers who plan to help support asylum seekers during their immigration hearings were blessed.
Linda Wagner felt compelled to volunteer.
“I’m hoping to make it less scary. If I was a migrant standing with a judge in front of me, and ICE behind me, I would want someone somewhere to stand with me,” Wagner said.
The new ministry is all part of an effort to make sure migrants know they’re not alone and hopefully cut down on immigrants making asylum claims being arrested by ICE outside immigration courtrooms, like what happened in June when an Afghan national, with documents supporting his claims he helped the U.S. military, was detained outside a San Diego immigration courtroom.
“Asylum seekers came to this country legally. There was due process policies in place allowed them here,” said Dinora Reyna of the San Diego Organizing Project who’s working with FAITH. “For agents to make their own decision and take people away without repercussion, seeing those contradictions was heartbreaking.”
The FAITH pilot program is a continuation of what started about six weeks ago on World Refugee Day. Faith-based leaders, along with San Diego Bishop Michael Pham, did a sort of test run in federal court on June 20. They say all cases they observed were continued, and no arrests were made.
They’re hoping that precedent continues.
“We need to step forward because it’s important for human beings to be respected for their dignity,” Pham said. “That’s why the church teaches us to care for each other.”
It’s personal for Bishop Pham, not only because some families at the diocese were impacted by a raid in March at an El Cajon paint company but also because he says similar enforcement efforts are part of the reason why, as a teen, he and his family fled from Vietnam’s regime.
“Were very oppressive,” Pham said. “Did the same raids as what we saw here and scenes going on. That’s why it takes it to another level.”
The volunteers go through an orientation process to make sure court etiquette is respected and that they don’t get in the way of law enforcement or the asylum process.
Right now, it’s a pilot program until the end of August. The diocese says depending on its success, it could be extended.
Migrants can request and schedule support for their court date or find a volunteer at the federal courthouse.