Hello my friends,

Today I want to focus on an issue that is deeply important to me. The mistreatment of immigrant children by our country that claims to be "Christian." I have included some resources below if you are wanting to engage with this issue on a practical level.

Recommended Resources:

​-Kids In Need Of Defense. This organization helps raise funds and provides resources for migrant children's legal defense. It is especially helpful since the current administration has cut funding for the legal defense of unaccompanied migrant children.

​-Unaccompanied Children Program. The Acacia center for justice has some incredible resources as well as critical updates and information on how to get engaged in helping migrant children as well as so many other immigrant needs.

​-Administer Justice. This organization helps resource churches to help provide tangible help for immigrants and their families.

​-Evangelical Immigration Table. I have signed up for this organization's newsletter and have found them to be very dedicated to the rights and needs of our immigrant community. They have many other resources on their website as well.

The Season of Advent begins November 29th. If you are looking for a daily devotional for advent, I recently wrote one. You can read more about it below.

$20.00 Solace: The Birth of Hope in a Time of Longing This devotional is an ebook, crafted as a daily scripture readings and reflections that begin on the First Sunday of... Read more Get it now!

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When Did Jesus Say, “Let The Little Ones Defend Themselves In Court”?

More and more migrant children all over the nation, some as young as two years old, are having to represent themselves in immigration court.

On Monday, September 28th, 25 children sat in an immigration court in Harlingen, Texas awaiting their hearing before a judge. A caseworker sat and quietly explained to the children who everyone was in the room, from the interpreter to the judge behind the bench.

According to a reporter present, among the first to appear before the judge was a 13-year-old Honduran boy named Angel. He didn’t have an attorney.

Asked whether there was a reason he couldn’t return to Honduras, Angel told the judge, “My mom and almost my entire family are here. It’s too dangerous to go back.”

But that wasn’t enough for the judge, who told the boy he did not qualify for asylum. “Would you like to request voluntary departure, or should I issue a removal order?” The judge asked.

“I don’t know,” Angel replied before bursting into tears. He stared ahead stoically and continued to cry, eventually saying: “I have no one. I have nothing.”

“I understand, but based on your answers, US immigration laws are very strict,” the judge concluded, and gave Angel until the end of the month to appeal his deportation order.

Hundreds of unaccompanied migrant children who were detained trying to cross the southern border or whose families were picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement are being held in shelters operated by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is tasked with the care of unaccompanied migrant children, the reporter said.

In March 2025, the Trump administration terminated most of the federal Legal Services for Unaccompanied Children Program, which funded organizations providing legal representation and legal orientation to unaccompanied migrant children. The American Bar Association says that action put representation for roughly 26,000 children at risk.

More recently, the situation became even more serious. In November 2025, according to the Senate Finance Committee and immigrant-rights organizations, the administration began withholding payments to organizations representing unaccompanied children. By July 2026, the Senate committee said more than $65 million was being withheld for legal services already provided, and the federal contract supporting the network expired July 31.

The government had a federally funded system specifically designed to provide these children legal representation, and the Trump administration substantially disrupted and ultimately replaced that system.

All while claiming to “uphold Christianity” and “uphold family values.”

Our country is treating children this way. In the name of Christianity. In the name of patriotism. It is inhumane, cruel, and has absolutely nothing to do with human dignity let alone Jesus, who said “whatever you do unto the least of these, you do unto me."

Whenever I write on this subject, I will always have a few callous comments that come up, so I want to address them here.

The first I’ll hear is, “Blame the parents, not our government! They never should have brought them here!”

To that I would like to say, a toddler didn’t decide to cross a border or choose the circumstances that brought them here. Their parents didn't choose their country to be torn apart by war, famine, and disease. I often wonder what I would do for my children in desperate situations like those. Out of situations like that, children can end up in immigration proceedings where they are expected to understand an extraordinarily complicated legal system on there own.

Currently, the Department of Justice explicitly says that immigration judges cannot appoint an attorney or guardian ad litem for an unaccompanied child. The child can therefore be left to obtain representation through private or pro bono resources or proceed without a lawyer. But how? How can a child do something like this on their own?

Making a child bear the consequences of a situation they had no control over and forced to navigate a complex legal system is inhumane. It is so callous to blame people you don’t know for circumstances you can’t even fathom.

The second comment I’ll receive often is, “If they just self deport they wouldn’t have to go through the legal system and get deported.”

This kind of heartless logic again just skips over the fact that these are children who can’t simply decide for themselves where they will live and arrange their own return.

An immigration removal proceeding is a legal proceeding against the individual child. Where is a child supposed to go when the country of citizenship may be a place they barely remember if they remember it at all. A place where they may have no parent, guardian, home, meaningful support network. A place that might be be incredibly unsafe and violent.

The United States can have immigration laws. That is not in question here. It can enforce its borders. That is not in question here. But it can and should retain human dignity, rights, due process, and recognize the reality that a two-year-old should not have to advocate for themselves in a complex removal proceeding in the unfamiliar circumstances they are already experiencing.

For me, it isn’t just that our government is treating children this way. It is that those who claim to follow Jesus continue to support the government treating children this way and even cheer them on as they do, treating all immigrants as if they are subhuman creatures that need to be eradicated from our society.

It’s not just the callus cruelty of our government, it’s the callous cruelty of the hearts that continue to cheer it on.

If we can’t even unite around the issue of children never deserving to be treated this way, then I’m at a loss of how we will ever find common ground.

This isn’t a matter of a “political opinion.” This is just inhumane. And it certainly doesn't have anything to do with Jesus.

"Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the orphan." -Isaiah 10:1-2

Prayer*

Loving God, in your infinite compassion, we seek your divine protection for refugee children who are often alone and afraid.

Provide solace to those who have been witnesses to violence and destruction, who have lost parents, family, friends, home, and all they cherish due to war or persecution.

Comfort them in their sorrow, and bring help in their time of need.

Show mercy to unaccompanied migrant children, too, Lord.

Reunite them with their families and loved ones.

Guide those children who are strangers in a foreign land to a place of peace and safety.

Comfort them in their sorrow, and bring help in their time of need.

Show us how we might reach out to these precious and vulnerable children.

Open our hearts to migrant and refugee children in need, so that we might see in them your own migrant Son.

Give us courage to stand up in their defense against those who would do them harm.

For this we pray through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

*This prayer was adapted from the beautiful prayer written by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.​

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