The last major effort for Comprehensive Immigration Reform was in 2013. I remember boarding buses from Villanova and Cabrini in 2011 and 2013 to rally on the Mall in Washington and to lobby our Members of Congress. Reform seemed possible and almost attainable in those years. A Comprehensive Reform Bill passed the Senate but died in the House. Since 2013, however, the fight over immigration legislation has become more and more contentious, to the point where it seems unattainable. I have returned every year for the last 10 to meet with staff in their wood-paneled offices on Capitol Hill. However, we can’t even get citizenship for Dream Act holders through Congress.

In general, Americans regard immigration positively. A 2022 Gallup Poll has 70 percent of Americans saying that immigration is a positive force. Why then is comprehensive reform so hard?

I believe it is the picture of chaos that is portrayed daily in the news. While many Americans say that immigrants should “get in line” or “do it the right way,” I think that when they say these words, what many mean is that they are aghast at and fearful of the lack of order they see in pictures. When they say “build that wall,” I think what they are expressing is the need for a system that is functioning better. (I admit, many say these words as nativists, but I believe most are open to immigration but upset at the chaos they see.)

I think it is obvious that the system is broken. Although we have poured money into militarizing the border and into enforcement, a similar investment has not been made into the system for processing applicants. The numbers of immigrants are overwhelming the process. In addition, because the allotment of visas in the various categories bears little relation to both the demand and the need, more and more migrants are resorting to seeking asylum to skirt the broken immigration system. However, the asylum criteria were basically devised for the post-World War II reality, not for the new drivers of displacement: climate change, gangs, drugs, and corruption. However, asylum seems a better alternative to legal migration.

We know that we need to increase visas based on employment needs in the U.S. We know we need to make it easier for talented immigrant students, who graduate with desirable skills, to create a career and life here. We know we need to make the processing of applications more streamlined and quicker, eliminating the years-long, even decades-long wait. We know we need to match the needs for necessary workers in construction, nursing, elder care, child care, agriculture, etc., to the eager supply. We know we need to have companies stop hiring undocumented workers under the table. And of course we know we need to address the legal status of millions of undocumented immigrants living in the country. While solutions to all of the above needs are hard and complicated, they are not impossible to make progress on.  

We also know that as long as conditions in the sending countries are dire, there will be migration. Addressing the conditions in other countries is less under our control. We pay lip service to addressing the root causes of migration. Biden allocated $4 billion to the Northern Triangle but anyone who travels to those Central American countries can see that long-term conditions of lack of jobs, poor governance, drug cartels, and climate change need more than $4 billion. I have visited the highlands of Guatemala each year for 17 years, and I can see that for every two steps forward, there are 1 ½ steps back, optimistically. But at times I do see communities where youth are getting vocational training and young men and women are advancing their education. When they see hope and opportunity, they have less reason to migrate. In a community where job opportunities are present, health care is affordable, and schools are functioning, I see few people leaving to migrate. But most communities do not have those conditions, or in enough concentration.

So where does that leave us? I wish that I would see more national politicians addressing the issue positively and working across the aisle to make incremental progress on the difficult but possible aspects of the broken system. I wish that business leaders spoke more forcefully about their needs and supported solutions. I am encouraged when I teach about immigration, as I have done each semester, that the attitudes of most students are open-minded and favorable towards migrants. But I wish that more voices and stronger voices discussed the need for immigrants and the great benefits our country has derived from immigrants. Each of us needs to raise our voices.

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These are the kind of decisions that thousands of immigrants must make every day as Homeland Security is going after many people who have lived and worked in the US for many years in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, but are undocumented or on Temporary Protected Status or seeking asylum or on a particular visa that is revoked.

Two Cabrini University graduates who have spent much of their careers working with communities of immigrants shared stories of the anxiety and fear and stress that these communities face every day.

Cabrini University alumni and friends meet each month to learn about and discuss social justice issues. The June meeting was led by Robin Larkins, class of 1985, and Meghan Hurley, class of 2007.

Robin has had a long career with Cabrini ministries and currently is the co-founder and executive director of of Spring Community Partners in Dobbs Ferry, NY – a suburban community just north of New York City. The organization particularly focuses on serving the growing local immigrant community and helping parents navigate the complex systems to help their families succeed and to advocate for their children.

Meghan works for CATA, the Farmworker Support Committee in South Jersey and southern Chester County. She is currently the Policy and Advocacy Organizer. She also served as a volunteer after college with the Holy Child sisters in Peru.

Following the discussion, the 50 alumni participants wrote or called their US Senators who are now debating the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” This budget reconciliation bill will increase funding for immigration enforcement from the current $34 billion to a proposed $200 billion. Funding would come from many sources, but especially by cutting social services such as those funded by Medicaid and SNAP.

If you are interested in learning about future discussions, please let the Cabrini University CAVS Mission and Service Committee know by adding your name here: https://bit.ly/cavs-ambassadors .

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“Life changing” is the phrase often used about immersion trips. Thousands of Americans – some estimate 1.6 million college students annually – participate in immersion experiences and mission trips each year. But in fact for most college students, it’s unclear what changes they make in their lives, still less how their experience helps to improve the lives of the people they visit. What happens when North Americans return from countries like Guatemala? Are they more informed about the root causes of the migration crisis at our southern border? Do they take action to improve conditions in Guatemala so that indigenous people are not compelled to migrate because of violence, poverty, or hunger? Students at Cabrini University have found one way to address the issues they see in Guatemala. Since 2009, upon return, they speak about the root causes of poverty in Central America with their elected representatives. They use their power as U.S. citizens to advocate for long-term development assistance to improve conditions in Central America.

Lobbying to address root-causes of poverty

The picture above is of a group from Cabrini University who went on an immersion trip to San Lucas Tolimán, Guatemala, and then returned to advocate with their legislators about continuing aid to Central America. They met with congressional aides to their senators and representatives in order to address the root causes of poverty that they experienced there. While in Guatemala they saw the need to counter the effects of climate change, expand youth training for productive jobs, improve maternal and child health care and nutrition especially in the first thousand days of life.

In lobbying, the students draw upon the resources of Catholic Relief Services, the official international development agency of U.S. Catholics, and present the conditions they have seen first hand in San Lucas in order to give their views in person in the U.S. Capitol. Few Congresspersons and their aides have had the opportunity to work alongside people in poor communities like the remarkable people of San Lucas Tolimán and to develop long-term relationships.

These Cabrini students can bring their experience and stories to Congress and explain how long-term foreign aid can make a difference that allows a community to work its way out of poverty. 

The students explain how the San Lucas community has grown the Juan Ana coffee business. The students tell the story of how the community coffee business started with early help from Father Greg Schaffer‘s family but how it is now winning national awards for quality. The students relate how the Women’s Center is training many women to become entrepreneurs, how many young people are learning skills in the building trades, and how the parish school has sent students on to become valuable educators, healthcare practitioners, accountants, and others. The point the students make is that the community, with some outside support, over time is thriving in many ways.

The impact

Since 2009, 11 classes, totaling approximately 150 students, have made about 450 presentations to the foreign affairs aides of their Senators and Representatives in Washington. At the present time, as our country is focused on migration from Central America, the students keep making the case that focusing on the root causes that drive people to leave their homes is a more effective means of addressing the crisis. In the past few years, the current administration has proposed to cut the budget for foreign aid by more than 30 percent and denies the effects of climate change in Central America. These students counter those claims with their own first-hand experience in San Lucas. Each year, Congress has rejected the administration’s foreign aid budget proposal. Students leave the offices and say: “Our voice matters.”

Background

Cabrini’s immersion experience is part of a 3-credit academic course on global justice. The trip occurs in the middle of a semester-long course. In the 6 weeks prior, students learn about the history and culture of Guatemala, US military involvement, the civil war, the growth of the San Lucas Tolimán mission and Fr. Greg’s vision, current successes and challenges. During the trip, the students reflect each night on what they have learned through the lens of Christian Social Teaching. In the 6 weeks after the trip, they learn the issues and legislation they will be supporting in their congressional visits. At the end of the course, they travel to D.C. to speak with their representatives’ foreign policy aides.

• See also https://archive.ph/mSDMc

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Fourteen Cabrini University faculty learned from a master teacher of social justice, who, by his own admission, said he could read only on a third-grade level. David had spent 25 years on the streets of Philadelphia, homeless. He is now a staff member at Project HOME,

In all that time, David resisted social workers’ requests because he felt they were not sincere, that he was just a case number. He resisted until an outreach worker from Project HOME repeatedly sought him out at his place of residence on Benjamin Franklin Parkway, where he lived with two dozen other men, often in refrigerator boxes at night and on the streets during the day.

At Project HOME, David said he found home and he found love with this community. “Whenever they ask me to speak, I jump at it because I am speaking for the 23 people I lost out there,” he said, referring to his fellow homeless people, his friends, who have died.

By spending the day with David and other Project HOME staff members who have experienced hunger and homelessness, Cabrini faculty learned from and begin to develop relationships with people who have lived what we teach about. It is part of what Cabrini faculty do to make “An Education of the Heart” not just something we teach about but what we try to live ourselves.

This experience is part of a three-day immersion experience in which faculty try to deepen our commitment to the University’s Mission and make it more real in our lives. Over the course of a year, a cohort of faculty spend time together in three three-day experiences. In this, the second of three experiences, we try to do what we ask our students to do in ECG 200: go out in the community and learn from those who experience obstacles in life. For this, David was our teacher.

And so in early January, before school began, the cohort came together again for intensive study, discussion, and experiential learning. We slept seven to a room in bunkbeds. We cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner together. We reflected, prayed, and worked together. At the beginning, because we taught in different departments and worked in different buildings, we sometimes only knew each other in passing. But by the end, we were learning about challenges each of us faces, laughing together, and recognizing each other’s snores.

In addition to the moving encounters with David and other people who were formerly homeless, we took on the SNAP Challenge. SNAP, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, is a government program that provides low-income people with a small amount of funds to improve nutrition and family security. For the three days, the 14 professors formed into two families. We were allocated $4.40 per person per day for our food budget. Each family had to sit down and discuss its unique needs, taking into account not just food preferences but special dietary restrictions. We then had to plan nutritious meals–breakfast, lunch, and dinner, over the three days.

Our shopping trip to Acme was an exercise in trade-offs. Often nutritious fruits and vegetables had to be put back because they broke our budget. We looked for slightly bruised fresh produce because they were cheaper. Finally, we went through the check out line, coming in almost to the penny of our allotment.

On the last day of our immersion experience at the Aquinas Center in South Philadelphia, we explored the underlying causes of hunger and homelessness and determined how to advocate with our state and federal government for policies that would reduce the conditions we saw. As the 115th Congress begins, Cabrini faculty are preparing to be even more “engaged citizens of the world,” as the university mission statement calls us to be. We determined to exercise our citizenship by advocating for legislation that will benefit our fellow citizens whom we met during these three days.

More photos

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Eight years since Justice Matters launched, I got the opportunity to pull my thoughts together about where I think we stand. Those of you who have been companions on the journey may be interested in this article “‘Justice Matters’: A Multi-faceted Implementation of Catholic Social Teaching across the Curriculum.” The thesis: Course work, experiential learning, and a variety of curricular and co-curricular opportunities must be pursued in order to cultivate students’ dispositions and develop their desire to pursue a commitment to social justice.

Read the article here.

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A second highlight of the year occurred when Pope Francis issued his encyclical On Care for Our Common Home (Laudato Si’). These two events of Fall 2015 had a significant impact on the world and our consciousness of climate change and commitment to systemic and personal change.

They formed the backdrop for the 11 faculty on our trip to northern Ghana with CRS. We focused on WASH – water, sanitation, and hygiene in northern Ghana – and CRS’s partnership with the local governments and other parties to improve water-related issues in these poor rural communities.

As we travelled northward in Ghana, individuals spoke to us about the effects of climate change and issues the communities need to address to increase their resilience in the face of changing rain patterns, the impact on crops, and water availability. A recent CRS article summarizes what Ghana is facing: “Currently, Ghana is seeing increasing temperatures, declining and variable rainfall totals, rising sea levels and more extreme weather patterns.” As we travelled to various communities, we saw the problems communities faced and learned of efforts to combat climate change. The quality of the land, to begin with, shows little apparent ability to retain water. This picture shows what the land looks like.

Dr. James Montgomery, associate professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Studies at DePaul University and a member of our trip, reflected on the effects of climate change on the Ghanaian people and how precious water and land are to them.

Montgomery explained how important the quality of the soil is for poor rural areas that struggle to produce sufficient food amid a changing climate. He stressed the importance of building up soil quality: “Soil security provides economic security, promotes public health, and provides climate change adaptability and resilience for a fraction of the cost of other types of initiatives.” He observed how little organic matter was present in the soil. More organic matter results in an increase in the storage of water in the soil. “We’re talking about the moisture available in the soil to grow those crops. Composting will build up the organic matter content, not only to provide the nitrogen and carbon and phosphorus but to store the moisture the plants need to grow.”

Ghanaians in these poor communities are doing their part to face climate change. Other blog entries on this site document how the communities we visited are drilling wells to obtain water. We saw how the people were collecting rain water and building eco-friendly latrines. We sat with community educators who explained how the children were learning how to use new hygiene practices. And we witnessed how these communities were increasing their economic capacity through savings and internal lending groups. All these are positive actions these people are taking.

But the global forces of climate change are beyond their control. Pope Francis calls our attention to how climate change is affecting the availability of water in areas such as Ghana: “Water poverty especially affects Africa where large sectors of the population have no access to safe drinking water or experience droughts which impede agricultural production” (Chapter 1, para. 28). When water availability is diminished, poor people who depend on agriculture are impacted most directly.

Pope Francis challenges the global community to a more forceful response to climate change and how we are affecting “our common home” and people such as those we met in Ghana.

Vanessa Tobin, CRS senior technical adviser for water, explains some systemic options the global community must take to meet the challenges:

“The major challenge in water governance is to align water use with demand at levels that protect the environment and to support and enforce effective legislation. People, who should pay for water, pay very little. Yet, the poorest in developing countries can pay up to 40% of their income for this basic necessity. Groundwater extraction must be regulated, and polluters should pay.”

As each of us went home, we reflected on how our teaching, our research, our advocacy, and our personal lives must change as a result of what we saw and learned in Ghana. I, for one, returned to Pope Francis’s encyclical to think about the key concepts of the common good, our one human family, and our purpose on earth.

“What is the purpose of our life in this world? Why are we here? What is the goal of our work and all our efforts? What need does the earth have of us? It is no longer enough, then, simply to state that we should be concerned for future generations. We need to see that what is at stake is our own dignity. Leaving an inhabitable planet to future generations is, first and foremost, up to us. The issue is one which dramatically affects us, for it has to do with the ultimate meaning of our earthly sojourn.” (Ch. 4, para. 160)

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I was able to spend several weeks in Brazil near the Amazon where I first learned about forced labor and child labor. Before then, I barely had thought about how our goods were produced around the world. A turning point of sorts occurred when I met with former slaves who had been rescued and were learning new trades to support themselves. I looked into the eyes of teens who had been rescued from forced child labor, child slavery. These were the young people I met and spoke with.

The eyes of these young people, no longer enslaved, have haunted me over the past decade. I show these images in class often, and each time, I keep their photos on the screen long past the words I have to say.

Before visiting the northwest  region of Brazil, I knew little about contemporary slavery. But while there, my mind was introduced to how many workforces there are throughout the world that rely of enslavement – from charcoal production in Brazil, to technology production in China, to extractives in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Practically all areas of our daily lives have some connection to goods and services produced in part by forced or slave labor, often by children and teens.

But I also learned how Catholic Relief Services has long partnered with key fighters against slave labor including the Pastoral Land Commission, Reporter Brasil, and many local organizations doing brave work on the ground. Brazil during the 2016 Olympics continued its focus on preventing and eradicating slavery.

In Ghana recently while with 11 U.S. faculty members learning about water, sanitation, and hygiene, I learned of a new turning point in CRS policies about child labor. Our instructor was Dr. Philip Darko, the CRS water expert with us. He was showing us a latrine a village constructed for their school. He made a casual remark about CRS’s prohibition against child labor. I said, Wait a minute. Could you repeat what you just said.

He repeated what he said so I could make this video clip.

All CRS contracts, he explained, and now even all CRS partners’ contracts, must be vigilant about child labor. In this case in Ghana, Dr. Darko emphasized that CRS broke its contract with a contractor when it found out the contractor violated the CRS provision and was using child labor. CRS’s policy is to protect children from physical and psychological abuse and exploitation and strictly prohibits the use of child labor.

This policy requires all staff members to receive training and to be proactive in protecting children. Furthermore, the protection of children must run through all programs and work, whether it is emergency work with Syrian refugee children or development work such as the construction of latrines in Ghana.

For me, the 2006 trip to Brazil was a turning point in my awareness of contemporary slavery. Over the past decade we have seen Americans’ awareness of contemporary slavery, human trafficking, and child labor grow. Certainly, the presence of conflict minerals in our electronics was heightened by Provision 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which attempts to get corporations like Apple to clean up their supply chains and prohibits the use of children in mining minerals.

Sometimes, with major international violations of human rights, it’s hard to see progress. But looking back over 10 years, we can see a growing movement about whether our supply chains are tainted by child and other forms of forced labor. With policies like CRS’s prohibition of child labor and the growing movement to prohibit child labor, hopefully we will be able to see more young people around the world have productive futures free of slavery.

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Then we flew up to Tamale and spent the night. Then we drove to Bugeya and spent the day and a night.

Then we drove for three hours to Kpatia and spent the day and night. Then we drove back to Tamale where we spent three days at a conference at the University for Development Studies. Then back to Accra, Brussels, Chicago, and Philly.

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For the flies to die, the pipe has to be built precisely, and when he found contractors cutting corners, he fired them. That is the kind of dedication Darko has, as 11 of us U.S. faculty members followed him around Ghana for a week. A native Ghanaian, Darko has a Ph.D. in hydrogeology, applied geophysics and environmental geology from Charles University in the Czech Republic.

When Darko saw a loose bolt on the school water pump, he met with the community water pump committee to get to the bottom of this problem. Each community has a committee that meets regularly to make sure the pump is functioning properly. We spent some time at the school pump to watch how it was used. In the picture below you can see a man filling a large open basin. I guess that it holds about eight gallons, which would be about 65 lbs. I tried to carry a five-gallon container up a steep hill in Guatemala last year. Failed! Too heavy. Yet a woman came and with the help of another person to lift it to her head, she walked away carrying the open basin on the top of her head! This is clean water.

In addition to water from a pump on top of a bore hole, rain water is captured in tanks during the rainy season. You can see the tank and the pipe from the roof in the video above.

The campaign against open defecation and for hand washing is receiving major attention throughout the region. Goal 6 of the Sustainable Development Goals is to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. As part of the faculty group we were fortunate to have three engineering professors who shared an interest in WASH issues: Dr. James Montgomery, associate professor of environmental science at DePaul University; Dr. Jessica Wilson, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Manhattan College; and Dr. John Scharf, the Roberts-Nix Professor of engineering at Carroll College.

UNICEF’s Country Director of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene made this startling statement: “One in five Ghanaians uses Ghana as a toilet.” It is much worse in the north where we were. At the current rate of improvement, it will take Ghana 500 years to be rid of open defecation. As many as 4,000 Ghanaian children die each year of diarrhea. According to UNICEF, one in five Ghanaians has no access to improved toilets and from 70 to 89 percent practice open defecation in the north where we were.

Stopping open defecation is not just an engineering problem; it is a problem of changing long-held human practices. “We are providing the facilities, building new toilets and all that in all communities, but at the end of the day, it is also going to depend on our own behaviour and attitude, because there are places where you have the toilets, but the people are not using it,” a government official explained.

This is why our contingent also included a psychologist, Dr. Derise Tolliver, associate professor of psychology, DePaul University School of New Learning; an industrial hygienist, Associate Professor Dr. L. Faye Grimsley, of Xavier University of New Orleans; and a public health expert, Kelly Parsley, chair, public health sciences at Carroll College.

Attitude change is difficult, according to WaterAid in a report on open defecation. But we saw that educating children in the schools about the importance of latrines and hand washing may be an important approach. This is a major thrust CRS is taking by means of private money that is funding the Integrated Sanitation, Hygiene, and Nutrition (I-SHINE) Project. I-SHINE is a comprehensive project that works to increase school attendance and retention by improving water, sanitation, and hygiene to schools, households, and communities. We saw I-SHINE in action, and from what we saw, progress is being made. We met with boys’ and girls’ health clubs, community groups managing their own water and sanitation, and teachers and district officials involved in community health.

The communities we visited are in the forefront of the effort. The cooperation of community, local governments, and CRS seems to be working, and there is no denying the passion of people like CRS’s Dr. Philip Darko to bring about important change.

Signs and other media bring home the message:

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Kelly Parsley, chair of public health sciences at Carroll College (Montana) and chair of the Lewis and Clark County Board of Health, came to that conclusion after visiting villages in the northern region of Ghana and speaking with girls as they reach puberty and experience menses.

“I know that the idea of purchasing a disposable pad for these girls as they go through their periods seems extravagant and seems like a luxury, but when we think about the independence that comes for a young woman, because she’s able to stay in school, get a good education, perhaps get a good job or go to college, we are looking at something very fundamental in improving these communities,” Parsley said.

She said she was really impressed with the determination of people in the villages she visited to keep girls in school. The villages are building latrines with changing rooms for girls and hope to add a method for girls to dispose of pads properly. The latrines are pit latrines that over a three-year span can compost the human waste. Disposing pads in the latrines would make composting more difficult. These villages have also added wells at the schools to provide clean water. (There’s interesting innovation going on around the world such as micro-enterprise businesses in India that make organic tampons.)

The villages Parsley visited were part of 138-village project where Catholic Relief Services is working with the local health and education departments to improve water, sanitation, and hygiene.

The cost of menstrual pads is an obstacle for girls to stay in school. One pad would cost a girl or her family the equivalent of 25 cents. This is in a region where where people are at or below the level of extreme poverty in which people earn $1.25 a day or less. If a girl goes through two or three pads a day and if her period may last up to seven days, it is easy to see how unaffordable menstrual pads can be. But free tampons or pads are controversial.

All over the world in poor countries, girls tend to not attend school on those days when they are menstruating. This leads to falling behind in school and, for some, dropping out.

Parsley was further encouraged by what she saw. The latrines that the villages built were clean and had private rooms for girls’ and boys’ toilet and an additional room for for girls for changing and cleaning.

“What we know in public health, the better their chances of economic independence later on. All of our efforts about menstrual hygiene are really about independence, the economics of that community, a better educated family for the next generation, so all good things are coming from this work,” Parsley said.

Parsley compared her culture and the experience of American girls she knows who often go through puberty privately and discuss her coming of age with just a small group of friends and her mother. Here in Ghana Parsley found communal support.

“The girls told us they were proud to get their periods and that they felt very supported by their communities, and I love that is the kind of community relationship and family relationship that they come from,” Parsley said.

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