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Refugee, immigration issues highlighted at ecumenical events
Volunteer "asylum seekers" await their fate in a WCC workshop.
Photo: Jennifer Riggs
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Workshops were held at WCC Assembly, U.S. Ecumenical Advocacy Days
Imagine showing up for a workshop only to be handcuffed and segregated in a corner of the room. That is what happened to several participants in a session on refugee detention and warehousing during the World Council of Churches' 9th Assembly Feb. 14-23 in Brazil.
In a simulation exercise, these volunteer "asylum seekers" were "arrested" upon arrival at "JFK Airport in New York City" and taken to an "immigration detention center."
Workshop participants learned that 20,000 non-criminal non-citizens, many of them asylum seekers, sleep in U.S. detention centers every night.
Rev. Simote Vea of Tonga played the role of immigration officer. Tall and burly, "he was very threatening and effective," said Jennifer Riggs, Director of Refugee and Immigration Ministries for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a workshop leader. The workshop also included a speaker on warehousing of Palestinian refugees, and Riggs spoke briefly about CWS/IRP's Durable Solution for Displaced People program.
Riggs, a member of the CWS/IRP Committee and CWS Board of Directors, attended the Assembly at the request of CWS and the WCC's Global Ecumenical Network (GEN) on Uprooted People, led by former IRP Director Beth Ferris. GEN also sponsored workshops on "Trafficking in Human Beings: New Forms of Slavery" and "The Migration Gamble: Journeys of Hope and Risk."
In addition, uprootedness was the topic of one of 22 "ecumenical conversations" at which the Assembly's nearly 700 delegates from 348 member churches offered their input for shaping the WCC's agenda between assemblies, which are held about every seven years.
 Presenters at the detention workshop were Torsten Moritz, Seta Hadeshian, Naboth Muchopa, Simote Vea, Jennifer Riggs and John Ball. Photo: CCME |
Participation far exceeded expectations at workshops on immigration and refugee issues held during the fourth annual Ecumenical Advocacy Days, March 10-13 in Washington, D.C.
Ecumenical Advocacy Days is sponsored by more than 30 faith-based groups, including Church World Service and several of its member denominations. This year it drew more than 900 Christian activists from across the United States for plenary lectures and worship, topical "tracks," and public policy advocacy visits to Capitol Hill.
Two identical workshops on comprehensive immigration reform drew standing room only crowds totaling nearly 200 participants.
"Over and over, people said they wanted to know how to influence U.S. policy to treat immigrants fairly, humanely, and with dignity," said leader Sean Mariano Garcia, Senior Associate in the Washington, D.C.-based Latin American Working Group. Garcia reviewed the state of the immigration reform debate in Congress and prepped participants on points to raise with their elected representatives.
Garcia's workshop also featured ways churches can get more involved in U.S.-Mexico border work.
At Ecumenical Advocacy Days, CWS/IRP Washington Representative Joan Maruskin led another workshop, on "Refugees and Displaced People in Africa." It drew more than 50 participants -- over twice the expected number.
"I was impressed with the number of people very concerned about refugees," she said, "especially that the U.S. Refugee Program functions properly and that African refugees are cared for appropriately and allowed to enter the United States."
Participants included a woman who, as a result of learning about African refugees, planned to approach her church about co-sponsoring a refugee family.
For a copy of the asylum detention simulation, e-mail cfouke@churchworldservice.org
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