What Will Become of 50,000 Children If Their Parents Are Deported to Haiti?

Dear friends,

This week was Vacation Bible School at my church. Spending my evenings teaching Bible stories to an extremely energetic group of children was good for my soul, even if I’m still feeling a bit exhausted.

My day job keeps me adjacent to American politics, where people jockey for power, money, influence and legacy. But Jesus says that if we want to be great, we shouldn’t look to kings, presidents or other politicians: we should look to children (Matthew 18:1-4).

Jesus then underscores his deep concern for children with some of his harshest words of judgement: anyone who causes these little ones to stumble, He says, would be better off drowning with a millstone around their neck (Matthew 18:6).

We know, sadly, the sort of things that cause children to stumble. When children are harmed – intentionally or not – at a small age, the wounds can stay with them for a very long time, sometime with a generational impact. And there’s probably nothing more traumatic for a child than being indefinitely separated from their mother and father, the individuals who, in God’s good design, are supposed to be there to protect, nurture and provide for them.

That particular concern for children is at the center of a letter sent last week by more than 100 evangelical leaders – including several principal leaders of the Evangelical Immigration Table as well as ten different national denominational leaders and scores of local pastors – to Members of Congress. The letter notes that, when roughly 330,000 Haitians lose legal status in the coming days, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will be insisting that they return to Haiti even as the U.S. State Department insists that their 50,000 U.S. citizen minor children should not travel to Haiti “for any reason due to the risk of crime, terrorism, kidnapping, unrest, and limited health care.”

What then, these evangelical leaders ask, will become of these children? Who will care for them?

It seems unlikely, in the midst of partisan gridlock, that legislation to extend Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and prevent this crisis for vulnerable children will pass the U.S. Senate. It also seemed unlikely it would pass the House of Representatives – but it did, in April, with bipartisan support.

I don’t know that my telephone call to my U.S. Senators will make the difference for these American children of Haitian parents poised to be deported to a country facing a stark humanitarian crisis, but I’m certainly willing to try, and I’d ask you to do so, too. That’s especially strategic if you happen to live in Alaska, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas or Utah. This tool makes it very easy to make a phone call.

And, also, please pray – for a solution for these children and their parents, for lawmakers, for the beautiful country of Haiti which is in a state of emergency and for the witness of the church at such a time as this.

In Christ,

Matthew Soerens
National Coordinator, Evangelical Immigration Table