A mother’s love
By Megan Lagerberg
As Mother’s Day approaches, I’ve been reflecting on all the things that having children has taught me. I’ve learned patience. I’ve learned empathy. I’ve learned to pick my battles. And I’ve learned how powerful a mother’s love for her children can be. I would do anything to make sure my little girls are safe. Anything. If the lives of my children were being threatened, either by war or violent criminal gangs, I would do whatever was necessary to keep them safe. Even if it meant fleeing my country and seeking asylum in a neighboring nation.
I can speak in hypotheticals. It’s one of the luxuries I enjoy living in the United States. But this is the reality that thousands of Central American mothers face. These women and their children travel from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras to the U.S. border seeking asylum in our great nation. They are fleeing from the threat of rape, murder, and extortion by criminal gangs called maras. These women and their families are forced to pay the maras a tax for living in their neighborhoods or face the threat of violence. Many of these women have already been the victims of rape. Many of them have witnessed the murders of friends or family members. These women have already sought the protection of local authorities, but to no avail. Many have already attempted to escape the grasp of the maras by moving to other locations in their country, only to be tracked down and further abused.
And so they travel thousands of miles by car and on foot, to the United States border to plea for asylum to save their lives and the lives of their children. But here’s the kicker: the only way to apply for asylum in the United States is to be physically present in the country.
You might be asking yourself “why can’t they just get in line and apply for legal immigration?” The answer is because it can take months, even years to become a U.S. citizen and the process is complex. Here are the four steps for naturalization:
1. Be 18 years or older.
2. Be a lawful Green Card holder (a legal permanent resident).
3. Have been in the United States for the last 5 years consecutively.
4. Be able to show that you have lived for at least three months in the same state or USCIS district where you currently live.
Notice that one of the requirements is to be a lawful green card holder. To apply for a green card you have to be sponsored by either a family member, a fiancé(e), or an employer. If you’re a woman seeking asylum and you don’t have a family member, employer, or future husband in the U.S., how do you obtain a green card? There are special cases that can make a person eligible for a green card, one of which is by obtaining asylum status.
But wait, you can’t apply for asylum status until you’re in the United States.
Can you see the conundrum here? Can you see why thousands of women and children cross our nation’s borders undocumented every year? Can you see why policies like threatening (and apparently already implementing in some cases) to separate children from their families for illegally crossing the US/Mexico border are so abhorrent?
Next time you find yourself grumbling about illegal immigration, take a moment to reflect on what some of these people are going through. Ask yourself, what would I do in their situation? And if you’re Christian, ask yourself, “what would Jesus do?”
Megan Lagerberg is a freelance graphic designer and the Creative Team Lead for Mormon Women for Ethical Government.
