Loving Mercy: The Story of an Immigration Advocate

Stories from the frontline: Sharon Proctor is an Adventist church member living near the US Mexico border. This is her personal experience.

I was introduced to immigration and border issues in the fall of 2011. My husband showed me an article about an artist in Tubac, AZ who goes to Sasabe, Mexico every week to teach art classes to grade school students. He thought I might be interested in learning more about what she did and what I could do to help. I was interested! The next day we drove to Tubac to find out more. A lady named Roberta Rogers was very willing to tell me about helping the kids in Mexico. She also told me about the Green Valley Samaritans. When I got home, I looked up their website and found this: “ We welcome all who want to participate. To learn more, attend a meeting on Monday at 8:00am”. They were meeting that Monday morning! I thought I would go, then I wavered, but decided I would . . .

On Monday morning I was there with about 40 other people. They explained all the ways they try to help migrants. They go on several searches a week into the desert with water, food, and medical supplies in hopes of finding someone who needs help. The Samaritins do water drops in remote areas. They sit through Tucson court proceedings called Operation Streamline, to show support for migrants. They take clothing every Tuesday to Nogales, Mexico to the Comedor, and aid station. The Comedor offers two meals a day to migrants that have been deported from the U.S. I was interested in going to the Comedor, but was upset at myself for not bringing my passport with me. That afternoon when I was gardening in the back yard, I was thinking about how much I would like to go to Mexico the next day. It finally dawned on me that I DID have my passport with me. I had just renewed it and asked for the small credit-card-sized passport to carry with me at all times. I had it! Now all I had to do was persuade my husband that I would be “safe” in Mexico. Lonnie was fine with me going!

That trip to the Comedor changed my life! We helped feed migrants. We cleaned tables after breakfast, hauled bags and bags of clothing to put on the tables. After eating, the migrants came back several at a time to choose items that they needed: jeans, socks, a jacket, etc. I listened to their stories. Heartbreaking stories of being torn apart from families. I could hardly comprehend the anguish most of these people had endured. My heart was broken . . . I would not sit back and do nothing.

I came back determined to learn more about border issues. I read several different books from different perspectives. I studied all 40+ Bible verses that have to do with how to treat immigrants. I researched our U.S. History and learned about the theological and political ideology known as Manifest Destiny, the Mexican-American War, the Gadsden Purchase, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and much more. I felt sick! How could something so heartbreaking be happening right in front of me and I hadn’t been paying attention? Don’t I value and care about all human life? Now that I know, what am I going to DO about it? So many of the problems in Mexico and Central America have been caused by U.S. policies. Finally, a bumper sticker in my own church parking lot said it all: “Don’t’ believe everything you think!” I was starting to figure it out. I wanted to see the world through God’s eyes instead of my own. “God please show me how to be a part of the solution instead of part of the problem.”

I met Noah in April of 2015 at the Comedor. He was 27 year old, married to U.S. Citizen with two young daughters who were also citizens. He came to our country when he was three months old, but had never been naturalized. He is not in a country he knows nothing about with little chance of ever living in the United States (his home) again. I listened to his story and could only tell him how sorry I am for his situation.

I met Miguel Vasquez. He looked so much like my son I could hardly keep from staring. He is a 25 year-old with four children living in Mesa, Arizona. His wife is a U.S. Citizen and he doesn’t know anyone in Mexico. Miguel came to this country as a very young child and doesn’t remember ever not living in America. He is the sole supporter of his wife and children, and I couldn’t listen to his story without tears running down my face. How can I be here to cheer these people up when I feel so terrible for their situation?

Last Christmas I held a newborn baby at the Comedor. His mother has been raped in the desert 9 months earlier. She called home to see if her family would welcome her with this unanticipated addition to the family and they immediately said “Yes! Come home!” We purchased her a bus ticket to be with them.

Raoul was one of my first encounters back in 2012. He was 41 years old and had lived in Bakersfield, CA. Married with five children, he had been working for 10 years as a supervisor for a company that cleaned out asbestos. On a Friday during his lunch break he went to the courthouse to update his Employment Verification paperwork and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement picked him up on the spot. I met him at the Comedor where he had not even had a chance to contact his wife yet. She had no idea where he had been since she said good-bye to him on a Friday morning. I was beside myself. That afternoon I frantically called an emailed California senators. Still no reply . . .

I believe that when God said in Jeremiah 22:3 “Do what is just and right . . . do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless or the widow,” He meant it. And in Malachi 3:5 “I will be quick to testify against . . . those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless and deprive aliens of justice.” He meant that too! One of my favorite quotes from Thoughts from the Mount of Blessings is this: “Christ tears away the wall of partition, the self-love, the dividing prejudice of nationality and teaches a love for all the human family. He lifts men from the narrow circle that their selfishness prescribes; He abolishes all the territorial lines and artificial distinctions of society. He makes no difference between neighbors and strangers, friends and enemies, He teaches us to look upon every needy soul as our neighbor and the world as our field.” (pg 42)

I know my view may not be popular. I know that many of my friends feel uncomfortable even talking about the subject. But it can’t get much plainer to me. I will stand with the immigrant and the refugee. I will do as Job did when he plead his case before God in Job 29:16, “I look up the case of the stranger”. Or as the International Standard Version states, “I diligently inquired into the case of those I didn’t know. And I love the way The Message says “I championed the abused aliens.”

When Jesus talks about separating the sheep from the goats in Matthew 25, He is talking about all the people that think they are His true followers. It is a parable about the end of time and how He determines who will spend eternity with Him. He says nothing about what day of the week they worship, what they eat or drink, but he addresses how we treat the down-and-out. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the Kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ the King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did to the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” Matthew 25: 34-40

If I transport an “undocumented” immigrant who is hurt or dying to a hospital, I risk being arrested or imprisoned. I sure hope someone comes to visit me there . . .