“I don't care if you die”

“I don't care if you die.” The U.S. government repeats this message to immigrants every day, reinforcing it over and over. Policies flip, and explanations flop. But one message remains consistent. “I don’t care if you die.” 

For our God of truth, facts matter. And the government’s callous disregard for immigrant life is a matter of factual record. Last week, an immigrant named Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejía died of COVID-19 in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center. That is a fact. 

This death and with many more that will follow were preventable. That is another fact. 

For two months, as the pandemic escalated, advocates and attorneys all over the United States asked ICE to release immigrants from detention centers. The government agency responsible for processing immigrants received a flood of lawsuits, advocacy statements and letters pleading for detainees to be let go before the coronavirus could work its worst. 

The government could release the immigrants without legal repercussions. Letting them go would be a simple, cost-effective and pragmatic approach to protecting immigrants who, like U.S. citizens, were made in God’s image and who, according to international law, have rights, too. And the government would not lose jurisdiction over their cases. No matter what, immigrants must attend their hearings or face deportation. 

ICE’s cruelty is so extreme, federal judges have ordered detainees to be released in order to protect their lives. A federal judge in Miami cited “cruel and unusual punishment” to order ICE to release hundreds of immigrants. Another called ICE’s retention of immigrants during the coronavirus pandemic “unconscionable and possibly barbaric”. 

The immigration advocacy community is not seeking to further its own agenda during the COVID-19 pandemic. Quite the contrary. Advocates hope to protect the lives of both immigrants and enforcement officers who work in ICE detention facilities. This is not coincidental. More than 40 employees in the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia contracted COVID-19.      

Only one COVID-19 death among immigrant detainees after so many weeks of pandemic might seem like a great success. But “success” would not account for the cruel context of immigrant’s exposure to the coronavirus. The mortality number is so low because of deportation. Instead of providing sick immigrants with medical attention they desperately need, ICE has shipped them back to their countries with the COVID-19 symptoms—not only denying them care, but also exporting their disease.

Sadly, the “I don't care if you die” policy approach is not confined to ICE. In the past two months, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has expelled to Mexico and other countries thousands of unaccompanied children. Fellowship Southwest partner Pastor Rosalio Sosa, who operates 14 refugee shelters in Mexico, has seen an increase in unaccompanied children arriving at the shelter in the middle of the desert in Palomas, about 100 miles west of Juarez and El Paso. 

What bothers Sosa is the border patrol’s practice of returning children to Mexico through a different port of entry than where they arrived. This intentionally exposes them to Mexican cartels. Christians have disavowed this practice, creating an outrage that led to approval of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act in 2019.

The government also inflicts cruelty and inhumanity on immigrants through its Migrant Protection Protocols, better known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy or the “Unwelcoming Our Neighbor” policy. This policy requires thousands of refugees to live in huge tent camps and crowded shelters for months on end as they progress through the U.S. asylum process.

The policy is so heinous, immigration judges resigned, and asylum officers protested their discomfort and resigned for the sake of their consciences.

Don't be shocked if immigrants question U.S. Christians’ professed love, not to mention their belief in God and profession of faith. Don’t be surprised if an immigrant asks: “How can you be an evangelical and love immigrants? I thought you guys hated us.” Don’t be surprised at global hostility toward U.S. Christians who remain silent while their government allows immigrants to die.

God commands people to love the stranger and welcome the neighbor. For God’s sake—or at least God’s reputation—it’s past time to stop the U.S. government’s “I don’t care if you die” policy.

Elket Rodríguez is the immigrant and refugee advocacy and missions specialist for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Fellowship Southwest.