June 20 has been designated as World Refugee Day. On this day, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported that, for the first time since World War II, the number of refugees worldwide has surged past 50 million. At the end of 2013 there were 51.2 million people who had been forced from their homes worldwide. This is six million more refugees than the UN reported at the end of 2012. The increase is caused in large part by the war in Syria, where 2.5 million people have become … [Read more...]
Christmas Hope
The Christmas story is a migration story. Not the story of Joseph and Mary having to return to Bethlehem for the census, which resulted in Jesus being born there. And not the story of Jesus, Mary and Joseph having to flee from Herod’s order to kill all newborns, which set them on the road again. Christmas is the celebration of the greatest migration story of all time, when God migrated to earth, in the person of Jesus. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us.” (John 1:14) The … [Read more...]
Kino Border Initiative in Story on Migrant Deaths in the Desert
The Kino Border Initiative appeared recently on a news story about migrant deaths near the Arizona-Sonora border. It was produced by Fusion, which provides English-language television programming with a focus on Latino viewers. To watch the video, please click the following link: http://fus.in/1j0qRmb … [Read more...]
Pope Francis as Prophet
“Immigrants who died at sea, from that boat that, instead of being a way of hope was a way of death”. These words were part of the homily given by Pope Francis on July 8 of this year, when he celebrated Mass on the Italian island of Lampedusa. Not far from Sicily and the closest Italian island to Africa, Lampedusa has become a destination for tens of thousands of refugees seeking to enter European Union countries. On Wednesday, October 3, less than three months after the pope’s visit, a … [Read more...]
War on Immigrants Replacing War on Drugs
In an effort to address the serious overcrowding in prisons in the United States, the federal government is ratcheting down a bit its War on Drugs. Recently US attorney General Eric Holder announced new sentencing directives for low-level drug offenders charged with crimes that aren’t gang-related or violent. At the same time, the government has embarked on an unprecedented campaign to criminally prosecute undocumented immigrants crossing the border. As a result there is a new wave of … [Read more...]