For months now, the governors of Texas and Arizona have been transporting immigrants and asylum seekers to Washington, D.C., New York City, and Chicago. Most recently the governor of Florida transported via plane a group of immigrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard. Local communities in these cities have rallied together, greeting immigrants and asylum seekers with support and welcome clearly illustrating the welcome that is possible.

What the governors of these states seem to have forgotten is that their political stunts are upending the lives of real people. The asylum seekers and immigrants are simply individuals, children, and families who are fleeing danger and persecution and who have come to the United States seeking refuge and solace. And instead, they are met with cruelty and immoral treatment designed to dehumanize immigrants and instill fear and hatred toward them. The right to seek asylum is a well-established international legal right and more to the point it is our moral duty to offer asylum to those who seek it.

Our faith exhorts us over and over to provide a welcome to the sojourner, inviting each of us to open our hearts and our communities by loving our neighbor. This means each of us using our skills and resources to offer a warm welcome to these new arrivals. Many of our UCC communities and congregations are doing just that, pulling together resources and living out their faith with a warm welcome. Another way you can help is by joining us in urging Congress to fully fund communities with the resources they need to ensure new arrivals have access to food, clothing, shelter, legal orientation, medical care, dignified transportation, and other case management services. The real mark of a country’s values lies in how they treat the most vulnerable, and as asylum seekers arrive they deserve to be treated with dignity and humanity.