Reflecting on our journey through the borderlands, I am reminded of the Undocumented Christ in Eagle Pass, TX. The Undocumented Christ is a large crucifix that was found floating in the Rio Grande and seized by the Border Patrol. The symbolic power of the crucifix reminds us that Christ is present in every migrant who is exiled from their homeland and that our faith was born from the reality of the cross. From the moment of death and despair arises the hope of the resurrection. These migrants cross over the Rio Grande carrying their resurrection hope and are baptized into new life in a new land. It serves us well to remember that Christ is present in the crucified migrant who comes to our land bloody and beaten, but with the hope of a God that defends the lives of the poorest among us.

Undocumented Christ at Our Lady of Refuge, Eagle Pass, Texas

Likewise, from our meeting with Proyecto Azteca, we were reminded that access to health care, education, and decent housing is a human right, not a privilege. Reality on the border means that many people have been denied access to this basic right. Many residents of the colonias live far below the poverty line and are often excluded from access to health insurance and basic housing infrastructure like electricity and running water. While public discourse in America defines these items in terms of economic privilege, our faith is clear that health, education, and safe housing are human rights and must not be stolen from the poor and manipulated by the powerful.

Las Colonias in Hidalgo County outside of San Juan, Texas

It was also a blessing to see the efforts underway by churches working together to serve to the needs of refugees, but I was struck by one question repeatedly asked by people we spoke with. Why are the churches so silent? We preach that all people are made in the image of God. Our faith teaches us that the Reign of God demands dignity and equality. It demands that we care for the alien and the stranger in our land. So why are the churches so silent? Why are the churches complicit with the sin of militarizing our border, with harboring the myth that “those people” are not welcome because they broke an unjust law? Whose side are the churches on, the Empire and its walled borders, or a faith that teaches us we are all united as one people under God?

Matthew Beach