International Religious Summit on Migration

 

 

We Are All America

On April 27 and 28, 2023, Sr. Rosa Linda López Rocha, Missionary Catechist of the Poor, who currently serves in the Hispanic Ministry of the Diocese of Wichita, received an invitation to participate in the International Religious Migration Summit (CUMIR) by Dr. Douglas Interiano. CEO and director of Proyecto Inmigrante ICS, Inc., in Dallas, Texas.

The Evangelical University of Salvador was the venue for CUMIR 2023, where Christian religious leaders, public officials and authorities from different higher education academic institutions, and other special guests met. They were discussing and reaching agreements for the benefit of a regulated migration. 18 delegations representing their respective countries participated of the Summit. The CUMIR Summit ended with the following declaration:

DECLARATION OF SAN SALVADOR

FOR REGULATED, SAFE AND HUMANE MIGRATION.

 

BACKGROUND ON THE INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION RELIGIOUS SUMMIT (CUMIR by its Spanish

acronym) 2023

 

In the wake of the tragedy in which 53 immigrants lost their lives in San Antonio, Texas, religious leaders from diverse congregations and members of the Immigration Interfaith Committee of Proyecto Inmigrante ICS, Inc. decided to take action to prevent future catastrophes. As part of these actions, the first Binational Migration Summit: We Are All America was convened in Grand Prairie, Texas, on August 26, 2022. During the summit, a series of conclusions was presented. The most significant of these conclusions was: to ensure regulated migration, ensuring the fundamental global rights of migrants in countries of destination, origin, transit, and return, and advocate for a humanitarian migration agreement for migrants who lack immigration regulation and who are currently living in the United States.

 

WE,

Religious and civil society leaders from Belize, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Canada, South Korea, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Spain, the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Portugal, and El Salvador, gathered on April 27-28, 2023 at the Evangelical University of El Salvador, San Salvador, to commemorate the first International Religious Summit on Migration: We Are All America agree and reiterate our willingness and commitment to join efforts to promote a new vision of safe, regulated, and humane migration. Furthermore, united by our firm commitment to strengthen the necessary frameworks for the international cooperation and protection of our migrants.

 

 

OBJECTIVES OF THE CUMIR 2023 DECLARATION

To generate participation and cooperation among scholars, religious leaders, diplomatic delegations, and civil society organizations; to strengthen international collaboration among the mentioned sectors; to ensure the safety, respect, dignity, and protective guarantees of migrant communities in countries of destination, origin, transit, and return.

 

CUMIR 2023 COMMITMENT STATEMENTS:

 

1. We recognize the need to:

 

• Promote the fundamental global rights of migrants in transit and return.
• Affirm that human mobility and migration are phenomena with a long historical tradition that encompasses all continents in the world.
• Reinforce that the Bible emphasizes the principles of kindness, compassion, and justice towards strangers and foreigners regardless of their origin, language, culture, and religion.
• Accept that international migration is a multidimensional phenomenon that requires the commitment and collaboration of different agents and sectors, such as government agencies, diplomats, religious leaders, scholars, entrepreneurs, and those responsible for the education sector.
• Acknowledge the historical and structural factors that have had, and continue to have, an impact as obstacles to equitable development that trigger migration from Latin American countries.
• Emphasize the principle of shared responsibility and commitment to intervention policies for undocumented migration.

 

1. We emphasize the importance of:

 

• Promoting the safety and security of migrant communities on their way to the U.S.- Mexico border, the right to human mobility, and access to due process.
• Highlighting the need to recognize the right to migration.
• Acknowledging the need to promote legal frameworks that respect the defense of migrants’ human rights while also respecting the migration laws of the countries of origin, transit, and destination.
• Stressing the role of diplomatic personnel in fostering and establishing dynamic communication between the government sector and the churches in immigrant communities.
• Recognizing that the main factors motivating migration from the Northern Triangle are poverty, insecurity, violence, climate change, family reunification, and the search for better opportunities and quality of life.
• Raising awareness of and addressing the factors that increase the vulnerability of migrant These factors include indigenous ethnicity, gender (especially women), age (migrant minors in particular), and irregular migratory status in the countries of destination.
• Becoming aware of the growing ethnic diversity of the migratory flows of Haitians, Africans, Afro-Mestizos, etc., and the need to develop public policies sensitive to such differences both in the countries of origin and in the countries of transit and their shelters.
• Acknowledging and advocating for the right to no-migration and for the State to develop public policies that guarantee security and the generation of labor and educational opportunities so that people can remain in their countries and/or communities of origin.
• Raising awareness on the issue of unidentified migrant deaths and the need to enhance technological tools and means to locate, identify, and repatriate them to their countries of origin. Acknowledging the fundamental role of the youth as a sector particularly affected by the various causes that lead to migration and their commitment as agents of change to    achieve a safe, regulated, and humane migration.

 

III. We highlight the need to:

 

• Promote assistance and legal migration protection for migrants who are victims of smuggling and trafficking, organized crime, child exploitation, and trafficking of unaccompanied minors.
• Recognize the importance of respecting and ensuring the right to education of migrant minors both in the countries of destination and in the countries of origin when they are deported with their families.
• Address public policies in transit countries that increase the risk and vulnerability of migrants to avoid a repetition of the tragedies that have been occurring in recent years, including in migrant detention centers. Develop opportunities for returnees so that when migrants return to their country of origin, they will find opportunities for progress and development.
• Involve the higher education sector to address migration issues, including training professionals with expertise in migration rights.
• Promote the responsibility of religious leaders to protect the human rights of migrants and law enforcement.

 

1. We commit ourselves to:

 

• Promoting access to a more efficient process of seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border and protecting the fundamental rights of refugee or asylum seekers from authorities at the U.S.-Mexico border according to applicable international law.
• Joining efforts with all sectors involved to break down the language barrier in the migration process and work towards providing quality translation and interpretation services in the language of the migrant to ensure a fair migration process.
• Promoting and advocating for the repair of the current U.S. immigration system to provide humanitarian legal immigration benefits to migrants residing in the U.S. without regular status, such as immigrants protected by TPS, DACA recipients, agricultural and essential workers to create avenues for safe, legal, and orderly migration.
• Inviting all countries and entities involved in migration and human rights to form a united front in search of better global migration policies.
• Summoning all Christian entities knowledgeable of the biblical message of migration as lived by the people of the Old Testament, as well as Jesus Christ himself, to support the common cause of migration.

 

1. We are firmly committed to creating a network of international institutions to monitor the implementation of the agreements reached at the International Religious Migration Summit: We Are All America. / We are firmly committed to creating a network of international institutions to monitor the implementation of the agreements reached at the International Religious Migration Summit: We Are All America.

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This non-legally binding declaration is a compilation of the contributions made by attendees and experts during the first International Religious Summit on Migration: We Are All America. The Summit is based on respect for the fundamental rights of migrants and better cooperation between international institutions that safeguard the human dignity of immigrant communities and migrants in transit.