At the United States Southern Border, refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants are looking for a place to find safety. They are asking one thing of our nation – to accept them with open arms. While this is a basic request, our policies do not represent what our morals say. Our faith teaches us that all immigrants deserve basic human dignity, and that we should love thy neighbor, despite their country of origin. Trump administration programs like the Migrant Protection Protocol puts people in danger in Mexico while they await their asylum and immigration hearings in the United States, thus stripping them of their dignity. To learn more about this specific administration order, watch these interviews where we spoke to two specialists from the field.

Imelda Maynard is the Senior Staff Attorney at Catholic Charities of Southern New Mexico, located in Las Cruces New Mexico. She specializes in immigration and holds her J.D. from The University of Oklahoma.

Dr. Alejandro Olayo-Méndez, S.J. is an Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work where he works on issues surrounding humanitarian aid and migration processes.

Follow @NETWORKlobby on twitter for more updates about MPP and other immigration policies