Shame and immigration policy

The US Embassy in Honduras has been posting messages on Facebook to try to persuade people not to leave for the US. But the way they do it shows a real lack of understanding of the situation of the poor in Honduras, as well as the Honduran advocates of human rights and of the care of creation. The last US Embassy post read:

"No permitas que las falsas promesas te hagan emprender un viaje peligroso al norte. No vale la pena arriesgar tu vida y la de tus seres queridos." 

"Don't let the false promises make you take up a dangerous trip to the North. It is not worth it to risk your life and that of those you love."

What blindness and insensitivity - and hardness of heart, as a friend reminded me.

There has been a rash of migrations from our parish, here in the hills of the department of Copán. I am not sure why, but I do know that there is at least coyote in one of the villages of the parish and she has at least one assistant in another village. 

I often try to dissuade people from leaving – citing the dangers of the journey and the insecurity of getting into the US. But I understand a little of what they are experiencing – continuing poverty, lack of response of the government to the effects of last year’s hurricanes, the lack of work, the corruption, the alliance of some politicians with drug traffickers, and more. There are some who leave because of the violence – domestic violence and the violence of retaliation. I think there may be more leaving because many do not expect a decent coffee harvest, because of the heat and lack of rain in the region, due to climate change. In other parts of the country people leave because of the threats of the gangs and of drug traffickers or because of threats to those who work for justice or to protect their lands from international corporations or greedy Hondurans. 

The pastor has delegated me three times to baptize those making the trip – once a teenager, and twice a child going with a parent. But I know there are many more. 

But I also hear the stories, often horrible.

One young man made it once but was deported. He tried again but was left without a guide in San Antonio. He decided to turn around and go back to Honduras. Without money, he walked most of the way, often walking 90 kilometers a day. 

I also heard of three cases of people being kidnapped and held for ransom in Mexico, near the border. Thanks be to God they have been released, but the pain of the families is evident. I prayed with the parents, sister, and wife of one man and his child being held for ransom – surprisingly just after baptizing another child, grandson of the father of the one being held for ransom. 

Trying to frighten people from fleeing shows, I believe, a lack of sensitivity to the real suffering of the people here in Honduras.

A poem of a Somalian woman graphically reveals the truth about migration. Here are a few lines of the poem, “Home” by Warsan Shire. The complete poem can be found here.

no one leaves home 

unless home is the mouth of a shark 

you only run for the border 

when you see the whole city running as well 

your neighbors running faster than you 

breath bloody in their throats 

… 

no one leaves home 

until home is a sweaty voice in your ear 

saying- 

leave, 

run away from me now 

i dont know what i’ve become 

but i know that anywhere 

is safer than here

She has more wisdom, more understanding, and more compassion than the embassy of the country I am from. 

I won’t, at this time, write about what the US must do. Wait for a later post. But pay attention to voices like Warsan Shire as well as to a recent statement of a group from the Central American Catholic church. You can read it here, but I hope to be able to translate it soon. 

And remember that the Holy Family had to flee because of the threats of Herod, the king who served the Roman Empire.

From the Cathedral of St. Lazarus, Autun, France