Working With People We Disagree With on Core Issues

In my new book, Organizing America, one point I make is that everyone is flawed and we have to work with what we have. One chapter is on Daniel Berrigan, the antiwar priest. Berrigan was of course a hero in so many ways. Few did more to stand up against the Vietnam War. Berrigan was also amazingly brave on supporting AIDS patients when almost all of society demonized them. Berrigan also thought abortion was an equal crime to My Lai and he used his radical tactics to attack abortion clinics as he did draft boards.

Today, we often demand ideological uniformity in our allies. What this means is that we have no allies and atomized social movements consisting of 15 people who think exactly like we do. DSA is often a great example of this, as a few core people drive everyone away who doesn’t fit their sleeve tattoo mode of politics, by which I mean you display all your positions prominently and if someone only agrees with 80% of them, they have no place in my movement.

Well, that’s not realistic if we are ever going to take back this country from the horrors of the present. I thought of this when I read this profile of Pope Leo’s first bishop in the United States. Michael Pham is Bishop of San Diego. I have no question that he is deeply opposed to abortion and many other social issues liberals hold dear. He is also leading a righteous struggle for the rights of immigrants, which has included confronting ICE agents.

“The more we speak out, the more people will understand what we’re facing,” Pham said as he entered the building.

What it means to bring the teachings of Jesus to an American immigration court isn’t clear.

The Catholic Church — like many religious institutions — has lost influence over the past few decades. Its congregations are divided on the issue of immigration, and even how involved the church should be in the debate. Church leaders like Pham are attempting to thread a needle: providing visible support to migrants without becoming entangled in partisan politics.

“The kingdom of heaven is” at stake in the church’s efforts to bring more dignity to migrants facing potential deportation, Pham said.

Before Pham was installed in July, he led clergy members from a cathedral Mass to immigration court, where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents lining the hallways scattered, witnesses say. Pham, other clergy members and faith-motivated volunteers have since expanded the effort into what are now daily vigils to offer support to migrants during their immigration hearings. They want to be a visible witness of God and, Pham said, restore dignity to the experience of migrants in a country and church that are full of migrants.

Several bishops across the country are following suit.

One marched with a group of protesters to ICE headquarters in Detroit. Another prayed outside the new immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as Alligator Alcatraz. The diocese in Orange County, California, has launched its own program to send witnesses to immigration hearings.

….

Pham’s visit to the courthouse in early August ended quickly when he learned the in-person hearings for the morning were over. A few days later, a priest in Pham’s diocese hustled past a half-dozen immigration officers with masks, guns and protective vests, and into Courtroom 4.

An attorney for a woman whom the government was attempting to quickly deport had requested that a priest attend her hearing. So the Rev. Hung Nguyen, who came to the U.S. as a refugee from Vietnam, took a seat on one of the wooden benches in the courtroom and alternately bent his head in prayer and jotted notes.

The woman’s lawyer told the judge that she was ill and that the government hadn’t informed them about the expedited deportation.

The judge set a new court date for three weeks later. Nguyen stood to escort the woman out of the courtroom. She smiled weakly at him.

When the door opened, masked ICE officers quickly surrounded and detained her.

Immigrants’ rights advocates drew closer with iPhone cameras recording. The tense cluster of people moved down the hallway to the elevator. The woman appeared in shock as Nguyen and a second priest stood to the side, but in her line of sight.

The priests said that they want to be visible to frightened people leaving court and hoped that she would look at them rather than the ICE officers, even if for a few seconds. They wanted to “let her know she is not alone in that moment,” Nguyen said.

As they waited for the elevator door to open, a masked officer ordered an advocate who was recording the interaction to move away. The advocate responded that it was the officer who should move.

Stand back!” the officer said. “I’ve got a gun!”

As the elevator doors opened, the activist yelled to the officers guiding the women away: “Repent!”

Like, yes, that’s exactly what we need. These people are doing amazing work. And if they don’t support my positions on other core issues, well, we can have that fight another day. Open attitudes toward change is what we need, not the certainty that your path is the only one.