Welcoming refugees
a moral imperative
June 20 marked Refugee Day, the 18th time the United Nations-designated day has been observed. This year's celebration comes as a record number of people are forcibly displaced around the world -- 42,500 people a day flee their homes because of conflict and persecution. World Refugee Day recognizes the struggles refugees face while fleeing violence and celebrates their invaluable contributions to the societies of which they become a part.
This year's celebration feels particularly poignant, as the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the entire U.S. refugee resettlement program continue and the crisis at our southern border worsens. Families are being separated and loved ones face long waits to find shelter and safety.
This year, I reflect on how my faith has taught me to welcome the stranger, stand with the vulnerable and love my neighbor. As a father, pastor and co-founder of Canopy Northwest Arkansas, an organization helping to resettle refugees, I am proud to demonstrate these values in my life and weekly sermons. It is also because of those values I am deeply disturbed by recent anti-refugee and anti-immigrant sentiment espoused by some of our lawmakers. It sends an unwelcoming and mean-spirited message of exclusion to refugee families.
In January 2016, Canopy Northwest Arkansas was founded at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. More than 50, from all over Northwest Arkansas, were at that first meeting, from many faith backgrounds. Together, we wanted to provide refugees with a good, safe home here in Northwest Arkansas.
Since then, we have welcomed more than 150 refugees to Northwest Arkansas. Just last month our congregation co-sponsored another refugee family from the Congo. Our team spends their days with them as they settle into life here, join us for worship on Sundays, find jobs in our community and connect to school, and are slowly learning English while they participate in Interfaith Youth Camp this week.
As members of Congress celebrate World Refugee Day and Immigrant Heritage Month, I hope they reflect on how the United States -- and Northwest Arkansas in particular -- can continue to be a welcoming community for refugees and immigrants.
World Refugee Day reminds us our community is home to many refugees waiting to be reunited with family members who remain overseas. We must not close the door on those most in need by dismantling the refugee resettlement program. Congress should hold the administration accountable to ensure we resettle at least the 30,000 refugees we promised to welcome this year and commit to resettling at least 75,000 refugees next year.
Refugees are mothers, fathers,and children. They are doctors, teachers, lawyers, business owners, craftsmen and musicians. As the world seeks solutions to the largest displacement crisis in history, with more than 25 million refugees worldwide, we have a moral and legal obligation to people seeking a chance to rebuild their lives and create a better future. These refugees, now our neighbors and friends, are no different than our Biblical ancestors who were once refugees who found welcome and were called to do the same.
The Rev. Clint Schnekloth
Fayetteville
California experience raises
doubts about jail options
Jail alternatives? That's a cry from every small, growing area as the tsunami of jail-life hits their area.
Riverside County, Calif., 1965: No bail, or any release program. We took headcount by having prisoners roll onto their stomachs and we walked on their backs and counted. Every space taken with bodies.
There was resistance to build by the board of supervisors. All the programs and thoughts by Jon Comstock (guest writer, June 17) undertaken and more. I got a diversion housing program started for alcohol and drug arrestees, with counseling. Road camp facility started. It all costs money and time. And in late 1970s, the board still had to look at a study for a massive jail facility that was going to possibly cost 10 times as much as in 1965.
The Presley Jail Center opened in 1989. You do not want to know the cost.
Hardin Hanks III
Fayetteville
Editorial on 06/21/2019