Únase a nosotros para orar e interceder por una reforma inmigratoria justa, y también por la reconciliación en los EE.UU.
Viernes, 22 de marzo de 2013

Si usted se encuentra en Minneapolis:

Para mayor información comuníquese con Jesus Purisaca Ruiz, jpurisaca001@luthersem.edu, (612) 735-6198 or (612) 825-6864 x565

Descargar un folleto informativo en Inglés o Español.

Co-patrocinado por:

El Centro Simpson para la Diaconía Publica; Amistad sin Fronteras de Park Avenue; La Puerta Abierta; Peace and Hope International

Wherever you are located, please join with us on Friday, March 22 to pray for immigration reform and reconciliation in our country.
If you are located in Minneapolis, gather with us at:

For more information, contact Jesus Purisaca Ruiz, jpurisaca001@luthersem.edu,
(612)735-6189 or (612)825-6864×565

Download an informational flier in English or Spanish.

Co-sponsors:

Simpson Center for Servant Ministries; Amistad sin Fronteras of Park Avenue; La Puerta Abierta; Peace and Hope International.

The Complexity of Modern Immigration

When most people think about immigration, they picture an Ellis Island situation.  Immigrants line up, the government checks them out, and in they come.  What people don’t realize is that immigration has changed completely in the last century.  There are now hundreds of pages of laws detailing who can enter the country, for what reasons, and in what circumstances.  There are almost 40 different types of visas, and still most of the people in the world do not qualify for any of them.  Even simple stuff – getting a student visa or a green card for your spouse – means filling out long forms and providing very specific supporting documentation.  Then you get to the really complicated stuff: visas for political asylum, for victims of domestic violence, for victims of trafficking.  Cases like that are often challenging even for experienced immigration attorneys, let alone people trying to file for themselves.

Training Immigration Advocates

If we are going to guide immigrants through this labyrinthine system, we need to get familiar with it ourselves.  At IMMIGRANT PATHWAY Institute (IPI), we bring in presenters who specialize in these and many other areas of immigration law.  The goal is that students will, after getting some hands-on experience, be able to handle the simple stuff and know how to identify and refer out the complicated cases.  If our students are going to provide immigration advice, however, they need to know more than just the law.  The training has to touch on how to set up a legal practice, legal ethics, case management software, working with volunteers.

Added to all of that is the perspective we bring to the issues: we are a Christian organization motivated by a biblical mandate to serve immigrants and dedicated to working through local churches.  We help prepare our students to do immigration legal ministry by bringing in devotional speakers, leading lunch-time discussions on applications for ministry, and talking about applying biblical ethics to immigration practice.

As you can probably tell, we spend a busy week together.  I’ve been through the training 3 years in a row, and I know that I’ll keep learning in year 4.

Bethany Anderson
Solidarity
Fullerton, CA

Why did you come to IPI?

I have a desire and calling to be a legal advocate for my immigrant neighbors.

My husband and I live in an immigrant neighborhood and I work with unaccompanied minors in detention.  Through college, I got connected to a local community church development organization where I met a young man named Sergio. I became close to his family, we helped him graduate high school, and we were beginning to think about college when I realized that he was undocumented. It did not seem fair to me that this young man, who has spent most of his life here in the States, who came to know the Lord through our teen center and who desired to work in that very same teen center as a volunteer, did not have the same rights as me.  I looked into the law a little bit and quickly realized how complicated and inefficient it actually is.

What did you learn at IPI?

The devotions in the morning were extremely impactful and encouraging to me.  I feel like I have even more resources to articulate my passion and heart for the immigrant and the church’s role in advocating.  Also, a deeper understanding of the law is invaluable for my future and ministry.  This was definitely worth my time and effort.

What is in your future?

I plan to become fully accredited and opening a legal ministry in partnership with my current organization, hopefully local churches, and Immigrant Hope.

Helping people through the process of understanding God’s heart for the immigrant, our opportunity to engage in relationship, and the undeniable need for advocacy and reform is the biggest challenge we face.

Do you have advice for others who are beginning to learn about immigration?

Read and know scripture! It is crucial to have a biblical and Christ-centered perspective on this issue.  Share a meal with an immigrant; build a relationship, learn, share, develop an authentic connection – it is key! Learn about the basic brokenness in the law, and prayerfully consider how God is calling you to respond.

We have a call to share the gospel and immigration gives the church an opportunity to grow in depth as we engage in the suffering of real people.

 That’s what a prospective partner asked when we proposed developing IMMIGRANT PATHWAY Institute. My answer was simple: We started IPI because we need to build our legal capacity to serve the immigrant community!

The last time there was major legalization program, 7 million undocumented immigrants lived in the U.S. Only 1.3 million accepted the government’s generous offer of permanent residency. A reason for the low number was our[1] lack of capacity to legally advise these people. In order to not repeat that failure we must prepare for the coming law change that is inevitable. For us, one of the three keys is to train gospel-focused, government-recognized immigration counselors!

As we surveyed the country, we found only one location that offered the 40-hour training in one week[2]. They only had 30 slots for trainees per year!  At that rate, we would not truly be able to build the kind of legal capacity that would make a difference.   One other component that was missing from all other trainings was a Biblical basis and gospel emphasis. One of our values is to offer compassion with a gospel purpose!

Volunteer-run, church-based ministry

Immigrant Hope has a desire to start 30 new centers within the next five years. Because we hope to run our centers using volunteers, we calculate that we may need to have four trained people to serve at each center.  Few volunteers will be able to work 8-to-5 every day. Thus, we need a ready pool of trained people to draw on, and the existing training just wouldn’t meet that need.

So the reason that we started IPI is to create a pool of gospel-focused, government-recognized immigration counselors! Our value is also to assist the church to be able to impact their community, to serve the vulnerable and make disciples side-by-side.

[1] Immigration advocates

[2] We focused on the 40-hour training in one week because it would be easier for volunteers to participate. A few other organizations offered the equivalent training, but over several months and in different cities.

This  spring, 36 students and 13 volunteer presenters from a variety of organizations, faiths, backgrounds, and states across the country gathered at Trinity International University outside Chicago to learn about immigration law and discuss how to serve the vulnerable immigrants living in all of our communities.  This month on our website we are going to feature blogs, stories, and pictures from some of the staff and students involved in IMMIGRANT PATHWAY Institute (IPI) 2012.  Before we get to that, though, you could probably use some background.

What is IPI?

IPI is a 40-hour immigration law class specifically designed for people who work with low-income immigrants through churches and non-profit organizations.  It was created by Immigrant Hope and World Relief to train the staff at our faith-based immigration resource centers, but we hope that it will serve hundreds of people from other organizations as well.  We have had two sessions-July 2011 and May 2012-with 74 total students.

Why did we create IPI?

Immigrant Hope, and World Relief for that matter, have plenty of work to do just  offering legal services, why are we spending type and resources training legal staff?  Doesn’t anyone offer the training you need already?

Well, the answer is a little bit involved, but I think it’s important to understanding what we’re trying to accomplish here, so bear with me.  When normal (read: non-attorney) people like me want to offer immigration advice, we need a specific certification that requires a certain level of training.  It needs to be much less expensive/intensive than law school; churches and non-profits don’t have anything near the kind of time and money necessary for that.  It needs to cover every kind of case that we might encounter, but should focus on the simple, family-based cases that we will typically see serving low-income clients.  It needs to cover legal ethics and how to run a law office.  Very few trainings met all of those requirements.  Only one covered all of them in a single, week-long class, and it fills up quickly.

Equally important is the biblical component; only IPI is designed for faith-based organizations, includes daily devotional speakers, and features discussions on biblical ethics in immigration practice.

Ultimately, it is fruitless to set up church-based legal counseling centers if the workers cannot easily get the training they need to flourish.  IPI has met that need, and given us a great venue for identifying and developing future leaders and partners.

Stay tuned through September for more blog posts from me and Alex (our Executive Director) about the class, stories from some of our favorite students, and more!

by Dr. Alejandro Mandes

This article originally appeared in the Cedarville University Torch, Spring-Summer 2012.  The article is adapted from the address Dr. Mandes gave at the G92 Conference at Cedarville in October, 2011.

When Jesus says, “Open your eyes and see the harvest,” that’s your invitation to join Him in His work.

To understand my response to immigration, you need to understand a little more about me. I was born in Corpus Christi, Texas (I had the boots to prove it), and raised in Laredo, just across the border from Mexico. When we were young, my friends and I would swim across the river to play with the Mexicans on the other side. When we skipped school to go watch movies, we’d cross the border into Nueva Laredo so we wouldn’t get caught. I spent an important part of my life living on the border, and I can’t see the Mexicans I played with as anything other than cousins and friends.Another stream that flows into my life is The Navigators. I came to Christ through that organization, and to this day I bleed the Gospel and the Great Commission. In college, I studied social work — justice and compassion run very deeply in me. And then I went to Dallas Theological Seminary for both a master’s degree and a doctorate in ministry.

I am convinced that justice and compassion go hand in hand with the teachings of the Bible.

A Compassionate Example

Nothing is more instructive to me than seeing how Jesus demonstrated justice and compassion. John 4:7–40 helps us understand His theological point of view as He ministers to the Samaritan woman at the well.

“How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” she said. At that time, everyone knew Jews had no dealings with Samaritans.

Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God.”

Earlier in the chapter, Jesus told his disciples on their way to Galilee that he had to go through Samaria (verse 4). And this is where He intentionally began breaking every cultural rule. He’d sent the disciples into town to buy food, so He alone was waiting at the well to speak with this woman — a Samaritan … a sinner.

When the disciples returned, they seemed annoyed that Jesus was talking to her. In verse 35, Jesus rebuked them saying, “Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.”

A Divine Call

Are we any better than the disciples? Do we have a point of view that causes us to overlook people?

There are several reasons — theological, sociological, cultural — why the disciples couldn’t see what Jesus saw. One key consideration was geography. Samaria was in their promised land. “We are the chosen people, and they’re on our land.” Beyond that, God had instructed His people to be separate from the cultures around them that worshipped other gods

Bonhoeffer acted on these three principles:

1. Help the state be the state God has ordained. In other words, speak to the issues that must be spoken to with biblical compassion and biblical justice.

2. Aid the victims of the state. In Bonhoeffer’s context, it meant standing by the Jews. In our context, it’s acknowledging that an immigrant, even an undocumented worker, is my brother. It means recognizing that the immigration system is unevenly applied. While most recognize the need for a new law, politicians argue over who should get the credit. As a result, politicians have failed to pass laws that give immigrants some legal status. This vacillation exposes immigrants to abuse. Organizations like Immigrant Hope assuage the pain by sharing the Gospel, providing legal advice, and showing compassion.

3. Put a stick in the spokes. Don’t simply bandage the victims under the wheel, but put a stop to ongoing injury. Bonhoeffer chose to oppose the state by becoming part of a plot to kill Hitler, which ultimately got him killed. We are nowhere near this point on the immigration issue, but Bonhoeffer’s actions show he was willing to defend with his life what he knew was right.

A Ready Harvest

The United States is already the world’s third largest mission field. In 2006, the 300 millionth American was born. According to statisticians, it was a Hispanic male living on the border of Texas. Seventeen of the 20 largest American cities, and our four largest states, are already majority-minority. The American Church can no longer afford to ignore the “Samerica” that is growing around us.

People often ask me, “Why are the immigrants coming?” The Bible tells me exactly why: “He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:26–27).

For all of the missions effort in Mexico — for the billions of dollars given, lives invested, buildings raised — the percentage of professing evangelicals in that country is 4 percent, according to Christianity Today. Yet a 2012 Pew Hispanic Center report suggests that when Mexican immigrants come here, that percentage increases to 13. Imagine the increase if the Church began to intentionally reach out and show them Christ. God is at work.

In the book of Philemon, Paul encounters a runaway slave. Paul responds by loving him, sharing the Gospel with him, and discipling him. He sends Onesimus back with a letter — part of God’s eternal Word — that exhorts Philemon, because of love, to treat this man like a brother (verse 16), and to charge Paul’s account to repay the man’s past debts (verse 18).

When the Church has shown this type of love, then we truly can say we have done all that we could do.

Dr. Alejandro Mandes is director of Hispanic ministries for the Evangelical Free Church in America and the executive director of Immigrant Hope. He lives in San Antonio, Texas, with his wife, Julie. He received his B.A. and M.S. from The University of Texas at Austin and his Th.M. and D.Min. from Dallas Theological Seminary.

Sections

• Give Me Your Taco
• Show Me Your Green Card
• Debrief with Jesse and the Disciples

 Give Me Your Taco

Jesse was touring with His disciples Billy, Jerry and Joel. One day he sent them into Wal-Mart to get some food for their evangelistic swing.  While they were gone he met an undocumented man standing at the day-laborer corner eating some tacos and looking for work.

Parody on John 4

Jesse went to him and said, “Hola, amigo, can I have one of your tacos?”

The hombrelooked down, then in broken English said, “Why are you talking to me, and why do you want some of my tacos? The only time your kind of people talk to my kind of people is when you want us to work for you. We stand on this corner and people laugh and spit at us. You people call us ‘illegal,’ ‘wetbacks’ and ‘Messycans’…so why do you now call me ‘amigo?’  And now you want my tacos, señor?”

Jesse said, “if you knew who asked you for your taco you would have asked me and I would have given you food that would give you eternal life.”

The hombre said, “Señor, are you feeling okay? You are standing on our day-labor corner and don’t have any food in your hand to give life. How can you give me food that will help me live forever? You need to get out of the sun, señor. We don’t need your invisible food.”

Jesse said, “If you would ask me, I would give life to you.”

The hombre no longer looked down but directly at Jesse. “Life? We don’t need the kind of life your people offer. We have holy rollers and hallelujah people come to this corner and talk to us all the time about eternal life. They tell us we need to go to their churches to get right with God. They tell us we should not be here, then they take us to their home to cut the grass, take out their trash and paint the walls. In their house they treat us like we are invisible, but we see what they are watching on TV and the kind of magazines they are reading. Sometimes they get drunk and send us away without paying us. Is that the kind of life you are talking about?”

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Show Me Your Green Card

Jesse said, “Show me your green card.”

The hombre said, “I don’t have a green card.”

Jesse responded, “You have said well you don’t have a green card. You have come to this country illegally five times.”

“Señor, are you a curandero? We are so confused about religion and where should we go to church.  Los Americanos tell us to go to their churches but then they treat us like we are basura. Some of their radio evangelists call us thieves and criminals and then they want us to convert and go to their church.  We are crying out to God because we live in fear.  We are only here to help feed our families and live a quiet life.”

Jesse said, “I came that you might have life and have it abundantly. If you come to me I will save you and guide you. I know your pain. I was an immigrant in a foreign land as a child. I was rejected by my own religious people. I have overcome. I can feed you. I can give you true security. I can make your load light. I can give you real eternal life.”

At that the undocumented hombre dropped his taco, saw Jesse as the Savior and ran to tell his compañeros that he had found the Son of Mary and Joseph of the Bible on the corner at Wal-Mart.

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Debrief with Jesse and His Disciples

Billy, Jerry and Joel came out of Wal-Mart and saw Jesse talking to the man. They said, “Why are you talking to this ‘wetback?’ They shouldn’t even be here. You might be breaking the law just by talking to them. They are hated and it will be bad for our public relations.”

Jesse said, “I have public relationships you have no knowledge about.” (Joel wondered, “did he find a PR agent we don’t know about?”)

About that time a large group of people were coming around the side of the Wal-Mart toward Jesse when Jesse said to the disciples, “lift up your eyes and see the people who are made in my image. This is what the Great Commission is all about. Sometimes a little compassion opens doors for the good news in ways no seminary training or PR will ever get you.  If you want to reach people for the gospel, you are going to have to talk to lawbreaking sinners. You were once lawbreaking sinners. Quit looking down on them! Turn off the TV and radio talk show hosts and get a life.  I came to seek and save the sick and not the healthy.  These people need me and they know it.”

The people all sat around Jesse and he gave them the food the disciples had bought in Wal-Mart and taught them, in perfect Spanish, about security, peace and eternal life. By evening they were all saved and they lead Jesse to their trailer park. They shared with Him their meager foods of lengua, chorizo, menudo and home made salsa (not the fake stuff they sell at Wal-Mart). Then Jesse healed all the people that were brought to him.

The disciple marveled that he cared about these undocumented people. Jesse told the disciples, “I came to seek and to save that which is lost. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” Jesse told the disciples that they needed to care for all people, including the undocumented.  Finally Jesse said to the disciples, “all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).

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Alejandro Mandes serves as the Director for Hispanic Ministries with the Evangelical Free Church of America.  He earned his doctorate at Dallas Theological Seminary and a Masters of Social Work at the University of Texas.  He has helped to begin various ministries serving immigrant communities for the Evangelical Free Church, including the GATEWAY theological education program and Immigrant Hope.

It came in the form of an illegal. Miguel Angel came with a slight limp to gate A47. He looked like a man carrying the pains of life like a sack of concrete. He settled in next to me and kept holding his ticket right up to his face as if staring at it would change the words into a language he could read. I offered to translate it for him and then assured him he was at the right gate. I knew then heading to the cave would be sin because this man was ready to burst. He asked me what country I was from. I told him I was a Texican… He said I was funny and lucky. After a little time I found out he was a believer. He came illegally ten years ago but now had an employer that could “pull some strings” to get him in and out of the country legally since he had some very special skills – a horse trainer. With his employer’s help he gets to go home for a couple of months to be with his family and then must come back to work.

When not working with the horses, he moonlights as a roofer. He said it is hard work and few want to do it, so his Hispanic friends can always get work. He said he was sad because yesterday he lost one of his charges to a freak accident, a young man who had just come from Mexico. Miguel said he had to beg the roofing company for money to send the body to the family in Mexico. They pay so little and act like they don’t know you when problems happen.

As the older man, he said he tells his young illegal charges, “Vivimos en tierra prestada” (we live on borrowed land). We must work harder than Americans because they are the owners while we are just borrowers. We must behave better than them. We must be more trustworthy than them. At any time what we have borrowed may be taken back. In this, he was not just talking about being picked-up by the immigration service but death itself. He went on saying, “while we are in this borrowed land, we must be a blessing. No matter how they treat us, we must work hard for the dear ones we have left. Be a blessing to your employer. Be a blessing to this land.”

It reminded me of Jeremiah 29:7 “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.” We are all exiles living on borrowed land.
When we got to the next airport I took Miguel Angel to his gate. I knew that the Lord had sent me an angel; I also live on borrowed land. I must be a blessing while I have the time. Adios Compañero, que Dios te cuida.

This award was created this year by the Guatemalan Government, with the purpose of recognizing those individuals that have been advocating for the Guatemalan immigrants within the US. Some of the ways we can help them is by looking for legal aid when they are either detained or in the process of deportation (although we know and respect the laws of the US); or when a family losses a loved one does not have funds to send the body back to Guatemala; we also try our best in providing information and resources to the community; as well as coordinating donations and aid to projects that benefit Guatemala. This year, is the first time these awards have been given. Seven individuals within the US were honored by receiving it!

Who awarded it?

It was awarded by the Guatemalan Government; some authorities, like the Secretary of State (Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores) as well as the Sub-Secretary were present at the ceremony, representing the President from Guatemala, Alvaro Colom who granted these awards.

What precipitated it?

For me, everything started when suddenly the immigration issue became very “delicate” in this country; I recall, what seemed to me, hearing God calling me to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute”-Proverbs 31:8, it was like an order. I started getting involved more and more within the Guatemalan Community in Chicago, through this, I was elected to represent nine states within this country. Since then I was participating in different activities, trainings, and experiences in which I was able to help people. In all of these I was granted with the highest honor: to be a representative of our God and Savior; I was able to make opening prayers in some of the meetings held with authorities from the government; but I have to mention that for me, the most exciting meeting was when I had a business meeting with the president from Guatemala, my greeting to him was Number 6:24. I was almost in tears when I finally said to him”: May the Lord have mercy on you, and give you and the country you command His peace” that was a divine experience, God is good!