A Story of Welcome and Belonging

Here is a story that will make you proud to be a United Methodist, and, we hope, moved to help. 

A few years ago, several parishioners in west Arkansas arrived at their United Methodist church one Sunday morning to find three men sitting on the steps, waiting for the doors to open. It turned out that the men had escaped dangerous conditions in Haiti, and ended up in Arkansas via Ohio, where they had sought work but could not find it. Open jobs in food processing plants attracted them to Arkansas, and the emblem of the United Methodist Church is what attracted them to that place of worship. They recognized the UMC flame logo from mission volunteers in Haiti, so they had faith that Methodists would welcome them.  

Over the next months, the men, who had legal work permits, worked hard at their jobs — usually manning the 10-hour overnight shifts — and lived with 15 others together in a cramped home until they could afford to move into their own apartments and bring their families to Arkansas. Soon, these Haitian men and women, through hard work, saved enough to move into homes that they have now begun to decorate and make their own. They remain loyal, extremely active members of the church, and many of the children are in local schools or daycares while some have even joined sports leagues with their new neighbors. In short, these families have become valued members of both church and community.  

It is a true American-dream story. Or it was until a few weeks ago. 

One family received an official letter notifying the wife to report to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Little Rock at 8:30 one August morning, quite soon after the federal government ended Temporary Protected Status for Haitians.  This was concerning as the family was already set to have an asylum hearing to determine their status at an ICE court later this fall. 

At that point, the west Arkansas minister contacted our own Rev. Heather Rose. Fortunately, MigraWatch had recently trained several members of our church on how to accompany legal immigrants to their check-ins, so we were able to share a lot of the information we had learned with the minister and two other friends who drove the wife to Little Rock to accompany them.  

The five spent a full day in Little Rock, having to travel from the ICE office to the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) office on Aldersgate Road, where agents put a monitor on the wife’s ankle and told her that she must return with her husband two days later with all of their paperwork. This was worrisome, so the entire group returned for another stressful day. Fortunately, they once again were allowed to return home with travel restrictions and ankle monitors. If you’ve not seen these bulky, pieces of metal strapped around a person’s ankle, be thankful. It’s heart-breaking.  

Only a few short weeks later, however, the couple, who have two children — one born in Haiti and the other here in the U.S. — were summoned again with minimal notice. This time, leaving their children with a friend, the couple drove themselves to Little Rock.  At mid-morning, their preacher texted us that the husband had been detained. His wife, who speaks limited English, was alone in Little Rock with only the keys to their vehicle (practically useless, as she does not drive) and no details about her husband. 

Two of the west Arkansas church members were on their way to pick her up and retrieve her vehicle;  but because it would be an hour or two before they could get there, we offered to go to her and again, thankfully because of the MigraWatch training, knew the questions we needed to ask ICE: what is the detainee’s alien number (“A-number”)? Which detention facility is he being taken to? Where will the case be heard?  

We did not immediately know what vehicle they were driving, so, even after looking through windows of parked cars, we did not find her in the parking lot when we first got to the ISAP location. Therefore, we rang the bell at the always locked door, announcing via intercom that we were looking for her. 

A woman responded with a surprisingly chipper, “Just a sec. I’ll be right there.” She opened the door a few minutes later, told us she was gone, handed us a sheet of paper with the Roosevelt ICE address and answered none of our questions which she explained are given only to family. (We fear that people are whisked into the ICE system with no one knowing anything.) 

When we finally found the amazingly composed but obviously devastated wife, we hugged her tightly and then returned with her to the ISAP door, where we talked with the same agent. With  questions we had written on a piece of paper that we gave the wife, the agent took her inside without us. After about 10 minutes, she returned with all of the requested information. It was on a form which we thought could have been given to her automatically and said that “based on allegations that you are unlawfully present in the United States you have been arrested by ICE.  You will be scheduled for a hearing before an immigration judge to respond to these allegations.”  The form indicated the judge in Louisiana.   

We took her and her car home with us, and very soon the lovely couple from her church arrived. shared their difficult search for a lawyer for the family. In fact, the only one they found who would take on a new immigration case is in Tennessee, so not the most convenient for them or the attorney. The church friends are now helping the family plan for the worst case scenario, which is that one or both parents will be deported, with or without their children. The family is committed to staying together, whatever it takes, and however long it takes. 

So here is the ask. The amazing people at this small west Arkansas church have already raised $3,000-plus to help with legal expenses. They have partitioned off half of their fellowship hall to be a nursery, where church members have volunteered to sit for 2-3 hour shifts so the mother can keep working and earning money while her husband is in detention. But, no doubt, the expenses will be great if they all have to travel back to Haiti, a country that remains dangerously violent and marked by extreme poverty.  

We hope members of FUMC Little Rock will help. If you are willing and able to contribute to the fund the west Arkansas UMC has set up for this family (and others, if that becomes necessary) please contact Haley (hjones@fumclr.org) and she will make sure your money reaches the church’s special fund. 

These times are unlike any we’ve seen during our 60-plus years as U.S. citizens. In conversations Kent has had with attorneys who work in this area, this is an unprecedented chapter, not seen in this country since the beginning of World War II when our country put Japanese-American citizens in concentration camps. It makes us so thankful to belong to the community here at FUMC, where we are encouraged to be holy disrupters, and we are truly inspired by the new friends we’ve made at the church in west Arkansas and the true work of the Lord that they are doing.  

Thank you for reading this story and for any assistance your are able and willing to provide. 

Julie and Kent Holt