Fasting and praying to keep immigrant families together
SALT LAKE CITY — A 9-year-old girl looks out the window every night, asking when her father is coming home; a college student weeps because her mother is in a deportation center.
These heart-breaking stories of family separation and others like them are what Dae Joong Yoon (DJ) and Rudy Lopez hear at every stop on their way from Vancouver, Wash. to Washington, D.C. as part of the Fast for Families bus tour, Yoon said during the March 8 stop in Salt Lake City.
The two men were among the original group that fasted for 22 days last fall on Washington D.C.’s National Mall to bring attention to the impact that current immigration laws have on families, and to urge Congress to pass comprehensive immigration legislation.
"This is not all politics. This is about children’s lives," said Yoon, whose mother was born in North Korea; the family waited 13 years to be reunited, Yoon said.
"As I grew up I saw the pain, the scars of family separation," he said, adding that the children of immigrants want to say good-night to their parents when they go to bed, and to have their parents there when they come home.
Today’s immigrants "are here for the same reason many of our ancestors came to this country," Yoon said. "We are caring for our children, and we work for America."
The immigration system that forces the separation of parents and children "is inhumane and we’ve got to fix it," he said.
The Fast for Families bus tour is visiting 75 congressional districts, including a March 10 stop at Utah Rep. Chris Stewart’s office, to urge constituents and legislators to act on immigration reform. They began their fast on Ash Wednesday and will end on April 9 in Washington, D.C.
"We’re here because we love America and because we know that by passing comprehensive immigration reform, we make this country stronger," Lopez said. "We’re asking everyone to fast the whole day every Wednesday throughout Lent, or at least one meal, because every sacrifice matters, because it’s through that sacrifice that we connect with the suffering that’s happening throughout the country through the families that are being separated."
He also asked people to pray, "because fasting without prayer is just going hungry," he said, requesting that people pray for those suffering under the broken immigration system and also "for the hearts and minds of those in Congress. … We know that they want to do the right thing."
The Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City, was among the religious and government leaders who welcomed fasters to Utah.
Comprehensive immigration legislation reform is long overdue, Bishop Wester said. "Many are suffering, living in the shadows. We accept immigrant labor with ‘Help Wanted’ signs, but then we put out ‘No Trespassing’ signs when it comes to the immigrants’ individual needs. We accept their taxes, but give them very little in return. This is not just; this is not American."
Studies show that many Catholics are open to immigration reform, given certain conditions, Bishop Wester said. "The problem is … to ignite all of us and to put this at the top of our agendas. That is what our fasters DJ and Rudy and so many others are doing. They are doing so much to heighten awareness and to get us into action. … I encourage us all, especially as so many of us enter into this season of Lent, to join our fasters in whatever way we can to help them succeed, to help us all succeed, to help our country succeed. Together we can make immigration reform a reality."
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