This semester at Elon, through a class in the religious studies department, I had the opportunity to intern with Faith Action International House, a social justice organization located in downtown Greensboro. I came into this class and the resulting internship expecting to learn a lot, meet new people and take critical looks at what it means to be a Christian in today’s rapidly changing world.
What I did not expect was to be confronted with very real injustices that are occurring not just thousands of years ago in the Bible, and not just across the world and in presidential policy debates, but right here in our neighborhood.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) centers are used to hold undocumented immigrants. According to ICE policy, individuals are held based on suspicion of visa violation, illegal entry or unauthorized arrival. The practice of detaining undocumented immigrants in these centers began in the United States in the early 1980s, but was made mandatory by legislation passed in 1996.
Historically, these detention camps reach as far back as World War II, when Japanese-Americans and other “suspicious” immigrant groups were forced to relocate during the war.
On any given day in the United States, approximately 31,000 non-citizens are held in about 250 immigration detention centers nationwide. In 2011, the average length of stay in one of these detention centers was approximately 27 days.
But many people do not live to see their stay come to an end. Dozens die while inside the centers from neglectful treatment or as a result of the inadequate access to health care. In some severe cases, inhabitants of these detention centers are never even allowed outside.
While it would be easy to write this off as another far away political issue that will never penetrate the safety of our Elon "bubble," what if you knew that there is in fact an immigrant detention center right here in Alamance County, located in Graham?
How many students here even know this exists? Would it be any different if someone you know ended up there, a mere 20 minutes away from our picturesque campus?
Whether you belong to one faith, many faiths or no faith at all, I think most of us as Elon students can agree that a part of our own individual value systems include the idea of human dignity. How then can we sit by as people coming to this country seeking refuge and the chance of a better life are wronged and mistreated?
Many other universities in the nation have begun visitation programs to centers like the one found in Graham. What would it take for Elon to step up and do the same? How would our world change if we could only look at these people as neighbors, friends in need of assistance, rather than strangers?
With the upcoming presidential elections, immigration has once again been pulled into the spotlight of public policy. Because of the increased and often negative attention given to issues involving immigration during elections, citizens are left with muddled ideas about the immigrants themselves. Are they nuisances draining our economy? Invaders diluting our culture?
This division between citizens and immigrants not only divides our borders, but also divides our very notion of freedom in America. At what cost do we draw this line so that only some people can express their natural rights as human beings and only citizens have a share in the rights we take for granted as Americans?
Immigrants founded America in the first place, trying to find religious freedom. Why can’t we embrace the different cultures that just want to share the American dream?