Refugee pastor: Migrant Protection Protocols do not protect, but harm
By Elket Rodríguez
A pastor who fled Central America because of religious persecution now feels like a pawn in U.S. politics.
Because of the U.S. government’s Migrant Protection Protocols—also known as MPP and “remain in Mexico”—he languishes just south of the U.S.-Mexico border. Based on the persecution he and his family endured for their Christian faith, he hopes they will be granted asylum in the United States. But because of MPP, they must wait out the process in Mexico.
"I feel like they are using me and my family," said the pastor, whose name, nationality and location will not be revealed because of security concerns.
"As a Christian, I tell you this is unfair," the pastor stressed. “Migrant Protection Protocols” is a cynical title for a policy that doesn’t “protect” migrants and is not a “protocol,” he said.
"They (the U.S. government) force us to live alone in one the most dangerous cities in the world,” he added. Northern Mexico is a haven for organized crime. Part of the Mexican drug cartels’ current business plan calls for kidnapping asylum-seeking refugees and holding them for ransom.
Because of the U.S. and Mexican governments’ response to COVID-19, immigrants forced to live in tent camps and shelters all along the U.S.-Mexico border must wait until July 20 for immigration courts to resume hearing their cases.
"This is a strategy the government is implementing to use us as scapegoats, so that Latin Americans desist in coming to the United States," he said. Refugees and their advocates have noted U.S. officials repeatedly said they want to make immigration to the United States so difficult and repulsive, Central Americans and other refugees won’t even try to seek asylum.
The U.S. government has postponed the MPP hearings three times during the COVID-19 pandemic. Immigrants such as this pastor report each delay has deepened uncertainty, despair and personal risk.
The pastor has waited more than a year for his fate to be decided. During the pandemic, the government has postponed his case four times.
"It is quite frustrating," he said. “Other migrants have hearing dates for November of this year.”
As he waits, the pastor helps a local church distribute food to other immigrants. As he serves, he questions the alleged biblical foundations of MPP.
“From a Christian and biblical viewpoint, it is unfair. Immigration has been around forever,” he said. "Jesus' family had to migrate to protect him and take him to a safe place."
Two thousand years after Jesus’ family fled Palestine for Egypt, refugees have rights recognized by the 1951 United Nations Convention and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. These rights—created to mitigate the atrocities of Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and dictatorial Spain after World War II—are being decimated by the U.S. government, the pastor observed. He also believes the current U.S. president “despises migrants."
"When he talks about love and protecting the children, we see it as hypocrisy, because under the bridge (U.S.-Mexico border) we see hungry families, exposing themselves to the rain to have the same opportunity to live as this man," he said.
Similarly, U.S. Christians are hypocritical when they “speak of abortion all the while families and children are suffering and being mistreated," he added.
The pastor and his family continue to live in hiding, protecting themselves from the dangers of Mexico. He doesn’t know how or where their journey will take them, but he is sure "God will do justice.”
Despite the hardening of the situation along the U.S.-Mexico border, Fellowship Southwest continues to take care of asylum-seeking immigrants. If you would like to support Fellowship Southwest’s relief and shelter ministries on the border, click here.
Elket Rodríguez is the immigrant and refugee advocacy and missions specialist for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Fellowship Southwest.