Father Jim’s Reflections, September 2025

by Rev. Dr. Jim Warnock

Recently I saw a Facebook post from Bishop Doug Sparks, my Bishop from the Diocese of Northern Indiana where I remain canonically resident. He’s concerned about a proposal to build an immigrant detention center in his diocesan territory. It would be located about an hour away from my former parish, so it feels a bit personal. The center is being called “Speedway Slammer” after the Indianapolis Speedway.

Such juvenile nicknames dehumanize the people held in these federal facilities. Bishop Sparks has been in contact with Bishop Tracy Malone, Resident Bishop of the Indiana Conference of The United Methodist Church, who shares his concerns as do I.

Bishop Malone has written this to his people. “We recognize the complex-ities of immigration systems and the responsibilities entrusted to civil authorities. We understand the tensions communities face in navigating safety, law, and compassion. Yet our call as disciples of Jesus Christ is unwavering: to affirm the dignity of every person, to stand with the vulnerable, and to speak truth in love.”

The Bishop has offered five ways to think about this issue. I wholeheartedly recommend them because they focus on our common humanity and our commitment to respect the dignity of every human being.

• Contact your elected officials: Urge them to pursue transparency, accountability, and policies rooted in compassion and justice….
• Pray without ceasing: Lift in prayer all immigrants, refugees, and those impacted by our nation’s immigration policies. Pray also for those in posi-tions of authority—that they may lead with wisdom, empathy, and moral courage.
• Reject Dehumanizing Language: Speak out against rhetoric that strips people of their dignity. Language matters. Let ours be rooted in love, truth, and the affirmation of sacred worth.
• Educate and Equip Your Congregation: Engage with trusted resources, stories, and testimonies that illuminate the realities of detention and displacement. Let education lead to empathy, and empathy to action.
• Partner in Solidarity: Connect with ecumenical faith partners and advocacy organizations that walk alongside immigrants and refugees. Offer tangible support. Be a presence of hope and healing.

From an award-winning poet comes a humanizing story of immigration told through the lens of undocumented, unaccompanied children and the poems they write.

“Heartfelt … a surprisingly uplifting call to reform an unjust system.” —Publishers Weekly

At a time when Episcopal leaders and immigration advocates nationwide are coming together to present a strong voice for justice and compassion, Morehouse Publishing, an imprint of Church Publishing Incorporated, is pleased to announce the publication, in October, of a gutwrenching yet inspiring book about the children caught in the crossfire.

Seth Michelson has entered the places most Americans will never see: the locked rooms of undocumented children held in maximum-security immigration detention centers, many of them in isolation. Drawing on over two decades of experience working with migrant families and undocumented minors as their teacher, Michelson brings their harrowing stories to the page.

Through poems and stories that have emerged from Michelson’s writing workshops, we hear from the children in their own words, including survivors of war, cartel violence, and family separation. We learn the harsh realities of young people who were desperate to escape the violence and poverty of their home countries and encountered in America another kind of cruelty. Readers go behind the bureaucratic walls of a broken system—from inside one of the most restrictive maximum security detention centers in the United States to the facility in Dilley, Texas, where the tragic death of 20-month-old Mariee Juarez made front page headlines in 2018.

According to Jimmy Santiago Baca, founder of Cedar Tree, Inc, and author of A Place to Stand, Hope on the Border “will touch the very core of your heart and awaken it to the injustice perpetrated on the most helpless and innocent, and in that awakening is a call for us to get involved to stop, in any way we can, what is happening all around us daily…. Unlike anything I have read, the beauty of this book is Michelson’s depictions of the individuals who, in every account, reach out to us for mercy and understanding.”

Seth Michelson is an award-winning poet and professor whose work bridges literature and advocacy. He has authored and translated over sixteen books, and his contributions have been recognized with fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulbright Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation. His work has been published internationally, appearing in English and Spanish in Argentina, Mexico, England, and more. He currently teaches at Washington and Lee University in Virginia, where he is the chair of Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Michelson speaks on topics ranging from immigration policy, family separation, mass incarceration in the United States, the militarization of the border, and more.