Last year, 98% of voting members at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly passed the AMMPARO Strategy to accompany children fleeing violence and persecution in Central America. Today, the Administration took away a legal and safe path for some of those vulnerable children to find safety in our country.
Our church is present in the communities children flee through our companion churches and partners in Central America. We know the faces and stories of Central American children trying to find a path to safety. We are active in the U.S. through our ministries and through the work of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. We have seen how lives are changed when the conditions are created for all people to live in safety.
“I have heard what it is like to try to make the journey to the U.S. through Mexico from young people who lived it. Children face a dangerous terrain, criminals, corrupt police, and innumerable other dangers” Mary Campbell, AMMPARO Program Director, said. “Today’s decision to end a program that provided a safe and legal way for children to find safety in the U.S. will harm the children and families God calls us to serve”
We join LIRS in their concern over the misguided decision to end the Central American Minors (CAM) Parole Program.
You can read LIRS’s parole statement here: http://lirs.org/press-inquiries/press-room/statement-lirs-condemns-end-cam-parole/
