February 6, 2025
Dear Friends and Colleagues in Ministry,
Hospitality, welcome, neighborliness. These are core biblical values as reflected in these Scripture passages. While these values do not translate into specific national policies, they should shape our attitudes and conversations. They should provide some broad parameters for morally acceptable practice.
The new administration has made border security a top priority. To that end, they ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to begin raids to locate persons in this country without documentation. The goal is to deport them. While the administration has spoken of focusing on undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes, they have also talked often of mass raids and mass deportations.
Let me be clear: secure borders matter. Hospitality, welcome, and neighborliness do not mean the erasure of national borders. And listening to the voices of immigrants, migrants, and refugees, there is a great deal of fear and concern. Too much of the rhetoric surrounding the issue of secure borders is demeaning, denigrating, and dehumanizing. Such rhetoric around immigration feeds hatred and dehumanization. As followers of Jesus who hold values of hospitality, welcome, and neighborliness, we must stand against dehumanization. We can support more secure borders without denigrating others and furthering misstatements about immigrants, migrants, and refugees.
Seeing every other person as someone created in the image of God is a moral and theological issue. Standing against dehumanization is a moral and theological issue. I understand that these are also issues with political dimensions, and I will always recognize them. Yet, we must risk speaking even if others may narrowly politicize our moral speech. We must not lose our moral voice.
To every Michigan United Methodist congregation working with immigrants, migrants, and refugees, know that I appreciate and support your ministries. You are offering hurting people help and hope in being hospitable, welcome, and neighborly. You are doing the work of Christ. Many in the Michigan Conference have been working to put together resources for our churches in the midst of a changing environment for ministry with immigrants, migrants, and refugees. This letter is an invitation to explore those resources. If you have additional questions, please get in touch with your district superintendent.
One of the disturbing changes made by the new administration is the shift in ICE policy away from honoring sensitive areas such as churches, schools, and hospitals when engaging in immigration raids. Values of hospitality, welcome, and neighborliness would allow for the preservation of such areas in our society. All people should be able to worship without fear. People in need of medical care should not be concerned that seeking such care may put their families at risk. Children should be able to learn without undue anxiety.
Let me again be clear. The former sensitive areas policy allowed for the apprehension in such places of undocumented persons for whom a warrant for committing a violent or other heinous crime had been issued. The values of neighborliness, welcome, and hospitality are also consistent with public safety. Persons who have committed crimes should be held accountable for their actions. We grieve with all families whose lives have been affected by a violent crime committed by persons who are undocumented or whose lives have been upended by illegal drugs smuggled into the country. Public safety matters and is part of a just and compassionate society.
And it remains true that undocumented persons are no more likely to commit violent crimes or be drug smugglers than other persons. To generalize from those persons who have committed such crimes and speak as if every undocumented person in this country is a violent criminal or drug smuggler, or, what seems rather common these days, to impute collective guilt on broad swaths of the immigrant population, is dehumanizing and demeaning.
It is a challenging time for hospitality, welcome, and neighborliness. Yet, as followers of Jesus, we are called to live these values no matter the circumstances. May we do so with courage, wisdom, and kindness. May we do so prayerfully. May we do so together.
Grace and Peace,
David Alan Bard
Michigan Area Bishop