Rabbi Doug Alpert of Congregation Kol Ami in Kansas City joined more than 20 rabbis, cantors and activists from across the country on a human rights delegation at the U.S.–Mexico border in late March, where they met with asylum seekers, immigration attorneys and advocates directly impacted by the Trump administration’s immigration policies. The delegation, led by HIAS, the global Jewish nonprofit that protects refugees, and T’ruah, the rabbinic human rights organization, spent three days in El Paso, Texas, Ciudad Juárez and neighboring communities.
This was the second time Rabbi Alpert participated in a “human rights-border-immigration trip” with HIAS and T’ruah. Last summer he traveled to the Tijuana, Mexico,-San Diego border. He said he has participated in these trips because of the many human rights and justice issues with which he is concerned, “nothing should resonate more strongly for us as Jews than seeking an open, compassionate immigration policy.” The rabbi pointed to the statement “Do not oppress the stranger/love the stranger for we were strangers in the land of Egypt,” which appears several times in the Bible.
“The stories of present-day asylum seekers coming from Central America, Southern Mexico and elsewhere in the world have, in the past, been our Jewish stories,” Rabbi Alpert said. “If we cannot connect with and feel empathy for present-day asylum seekers then we have lost a sense of who we are and our most deeply held Jewish values.”
The group toured the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral, New Mexico, an immigration detention facility where gay and transgender detainees recently alleged abuse, and Casa Franklin in El Paso, run by Southwest Key Programs, the country’s largest operator of shelters for migrant children, which is under investigation by the Department of Justice.
They also traveled into Ciudad Juarez to tour a shelter that houses hundreds of asylum seekers; met with immigration advocates at the Hope Border Institute and Las Americas Immigration Advocacy Center; held a prayer service at the border wall; and visited Annunciation House, which runs a network of organizations and volunteers that shelter thousands of asylum seekers every week, who have been released en masse by ICE.
In addition, the group crossed the border on foot, and witnessed some of the hundreds of asylum seekers being held by U.S. Customs and Border Protection under the bridge at the Paso del Norte crossing. Rebecca Kirzner, HIAS’ director of grassroots campaigns, said the United States is treating asylum seekers as if they are criminals, although they have committed no crime because seeking asylum at a port of entry in the U.S. is legal.
“It is a moral outrage, and an affront to not only our American values, but our Jewish values,” Kirzner said. “The people that we met on this delegation deserve to be welcomed with compassion, and instead their human rights are being denied, and they are treated with hostility, violence and neglect. As a people who are called to welcome the stranger, the Jewish community will advocate unceasingly for the rights of asylum seekers at our border and everywhere.”
Rabbi Alpert agrees with Kirzner.
“The crisis at the border is a humanitarian crisis, not a security crisis,” he said. “Those who come into our country seeking asylum do so under long-established, long-standing federal law and international law.”
Rabbi Salem Pearce, T’ruah’s director of organizing, said, “In the face of the deep injustice being perpetrated at our border, we have also seen the goodness and humanity that has risen to respond to it.”
“People who are providing shelter and legal assistance on both sides of the border are living out the values of welcome and compassion,” she said. “It is a reminder to us that even in the face of darkness, there are people who bring light. As Jewish clergy members, we went to the border to bear witness and left inspired to help our communities respond to these human rights violations.”
The delegates, who traveled from California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington and Washington, D.C., returned to their hometowns with the resources, information, and first-hand accounts to help raise awareness and activate their local communities on behalf of asylum seekers. Rabbi Alpert believes the most important pieces of information he brings back to the Kansas City community are the stories of asylum seekers and the work being done by heroes at the border.
He said he believes the crises in Central American countries that cause families to leave their homes “to make a long and dangerous journey to seek a better life” are not being sufficiently addressed.
“U.S. drug policy and drug use here in the States puts money in the hands of gangs in those countries who are perpetuating violence against their own. Climate change has also caused severe drought conditions that have exacerbated already impoverished conditions,” Rabbi Alpert explained.
One of the places the group visited was an ICE Detention Center.
“To a person, the 18 rabbis and one cantor were shocked and mortified by the conditions at this ICE Detention Center,” Rabbi Alpert said. “(The U.S. is) holding men seeking asylum, men who are living in prison conditions and yet have committed no crimes.”
The group also went to the border wall at Sunland Park, New Mexico.
“The wall does nothing to prevent people from crossing the border illegally,” said Rabbi Alpert, who noted those who cross illegally do so in much more remote locations. “Rather, it only serves to isolate an impoverished community in Juarez.”
One story Rabbi Alpert wants to share is about a woman he met at a migrant center in Juarez.
“She spent over a month traveling up to Juarez with her baby to seek a better life in the United States, free from the threat of violence and poverty. She broke her shoulder on the first day of her journey, and yet, rather than turning back, she continued on her dangerous journey to seek a better life for herself and her child,” he said.
On what Rabbi Alpert described as “the hopeful side,” the group met Ruben Garcia, the director of Annunciation House in El Paso. He has been working for the rights and protection of immigrants for 41 years.
“When 1,000 asylum seekers are about to be released on to the streets of El Paso with nowhere to go, he, more than anyone, finds places for them to stay and food to eat.”
They also met Rabbi Ben Zeidman of Temple Sinai in El Paso. His shul provides 1,000 meals a week for those seeking asylum coming into the El Paso area.
“Annunciation House, the Hope Border Initiative in El Paso, HIAS and T’ruah are doing compassionate and meaningful work; all against a constant barrage of cruel policy against the most vulnerable. Here in Kansas City, work for vulnerable immigrants is being done by the Migrant Farmers Assistance Fund and its director Suzanne Gladney, and of AIRR-Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation.”
