We are approaching the fifth anniversary of a deeply troubling moment in our nation’s history. On Wednesday, August 7, 2019, over the course of just a few hours, approximately 600 federal agents detained 680 people working in food processing plants in the small Mississippi towns of Canton, Carthage, Forest, Morton, Sebastopol, Bay Springs and Pelahatchie.
It is true that immigration, as a matter of public policy, is complex. It is also true that undocumented immigrants sometimes commit horrible acts of violence, just as native-born citizens sometimes do.
However, the people arrested that day almost five years ago were at work. They were moms and dads, toiling hard to care for their families when their lives and their children’s lives were upended. This was an act of government muscle-flexing against some of our most vulnerable neighbors.
Five years later, I wonder how these families remember that day and the subsequent weeks.
None of us who were on the outside looking in can begin to know the depth of pain and fear those families experienced and still experience. It was a traumatic day for many dear and good souls. It is a day the rest of us would do well to recall, with repentance for the dehumanizing words and actions of many in our own nation concerning immigrants.
People of faith might spend a moment, five years later, in solidarity with those who were arrested by reading the story of Jesus’ family– asylum-seeking parents fleeing political violence– in Matthew 2:13-23.
It would be good for us to repeat Leviticus 19:34 with and to our children and friends– “You shall love the immigrant as yourself.”
We should also recite Leviticus 25:23, the heart-stopping reminder that since all the land in the world belongs to God, in God’s eyes, we are all immigrants.
In the days immediately following the workplace raids of August 7, 2019, I wrote a small, simple hymn based on those words from Leviticus 25:23, a song of solidarity with immigrants. It is to be sung to the familiar hymn tune, “Gift of Love,” (“Though I may speak with bravest fire, and have the gift to all inspire…”) :
“La Canción de Bienvenidas”
En los ojos del Dios,
Todas personas son inmigrantes.
En los ojos del Dios,
Nosotros todos somos inmigrantes.
Todo el mundo,una familia;
Todas personas,son bienvenidas.
Bienvenido,todo el mundo,
En corazón y brazos del Dios.
Bienvenidas,todas personas,
Bienvenidos,todo aquí,
Por en los ojos del Dios,
Nosotros todos somos inmigrantes.
“The Welcome Song”
In the eyes of God,
All persons are immigrants.
In the eyes of God,
Immigrants all, are we.
All the world is one family
All persons are welcome.
The whole world is welcome,
In the heart and arms of God.
All persons, welcome;
All are welcome here.
For, in the eyes of God
We are all immigrants.
Singing this song softly or other gestures of solidarity could be a small way to remember that painful day when so much disruption and fear were inflicted on so many.
These were among our dearest and best, not to mention most hard-working neighbors. The pain we inflicted on them was intended to make a political point.
The events of that day stand in opposition to the walls-down, arms-out spirit of Jesus, who was once an immigrant himself and who lived as he died and died as he lived— arms out as wide as the world.
After 45 years of pastoral life, during which he served churches in Georgia, North Carolina,Washington DC, and Jackson,Mississippi, Poole retired in 2022. He is the author of eight books, including The Path to Depth (Nurturing Faith Books, 2022), as well as numerous published articles and the lyrics to three hymns.
