Church-run asylum shelter accused of breaking federal immigration law

It started with a letter.

“The Department of Homeland Security has significant concerns that (Shelter and Services Program) funding is going to entities engaged in facilitating illegal activities,” it read.

The letter was sent to the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande two weeks ago, according to church leadership, and six other churches, including a ministry in Brownsville, Texas, and the Episcopal Dioceses of West Texas.

The “illegal activities” in question are “encouraging” immigrants to cross the border, transporting “illegal aliens” and “harboring, concealing, or shielding” them from authorities, according to the letter.

It notified the church, which is based in Albuquerque but runs a migrant shelter in El Paso, that more than $265,000 in funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will be withheld until all church leaders sign legal documents swearing they had no knowledge of illegal activity, and all asylum seekers’ names and contact information are handed over to the Department of Homeland Security.

The Department of Homeland Security could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The letter arrived as Trump steps up his immigration agenda, with threats of mass deportations, rumors of migrants being housed at military bases and attempts to end birthright citizenship.

Bishop Michael Hunn of the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande said they have only sheltered those asylum seekers brought to them directly by Customs and Border Protection agents. And, after policy changes during the Biden administration followed by the actions of President Donald Trump’s administration, the church hasn’t sheltered anyone at all — because nobody is coming across.

Federal authorities say the number of people crossing the border illegally in the El Paso Sector, from southwest Texas to the Arizona line, has plummeted — from a peak of 2,700 a day in 2022 to 50 people a day now. And those who do come across illegally are no longer able to get asylum, instead being deported immediately or, if from a non-neighboring country, detained until they can be returned to where they came from.

For that reason, CBP said, they are no longer utilizing shelters along the border to house migrants seeking asylum.

“I’m insulted by the insinuation that we have been involved in anything illegal or immoral,” Hunn said in a YouTube video responding to the Department of Homeland Security, which has gotten more than 8,400 views. “We in the Dioceses of the Rio Grande have been practicing our constitutionally guaranteed faith.”

Hunn called the demands for the identification of asylum seekers “ironic,” saying the federal government — having brought them to the shelter in the first place — already has the names, contact information, and more, on file as a part of the asylum seeking process, which involves lengthy interviews, applications and court hearings.

“Letters like this will have a chilling effect on the practice of Christianity,” Hunn said. “Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger, loving our neighbor— is the practice of our faith. It’s not just what we do on Sunday.”

Hunn told the Journal, “This is not and has never been a political thing for us.”

“We’re just following Jesus’ teachings to love our neighbor and to welcome the stranger and care for those who are in need,” he said. “... We’re supposed to somehow be immigration enforcers who check ID before we give somebody a sandwich or a can of beans.”

The church is in talks with its lawyers, Hunn said, and are uncertain what its next steps will be.