Blog

Our church family at Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church in Millersville, MD wanted to share how simple and satisfying it was to partner with Lutheran Immigrant and Refugee Service (LIRS) in hosting a Refugee Sunday .  More, we wanted to share how that simple act led to a big reward. Our Outreach Ministry initiated Refugee Sunday by reviewing the information about immigrants and refugees on the LIRS website. Using it as a foundation, we authored weekly paragraphs for about... Read More

FAQs: Families & Children at our Border The situation for children and families on our southern border is complex and changing rapidly. To help you better understand what’s happening, LIRS has put together a list of answers to some of the most common questions. Please keep in mind that new information is coming in constantly from our legislative and programmatic experts, and we will do our best to update the content below as new information is confirmed. Why are... Read More

Last week LIRS hosted a webinar, bringing together community leaders, policy experts, and service partners from across the country to discuss the family separation crisis and answer questions from our supporters. The webinar featured a number of noteworthy speakers -- Abel Nunez (CARECEN), Claudia Munoz (Grassroots Leadership), and Cory Shindel (KIND) -- and offered key updates on legislation, action items, and the situation on the ground. For those of you who... Read More

Supreme Court Ruling Reflects Troubling Pattern in America Today, the Supreme Court has upheld the third iteration of President Trump’s executive order, effectively banning individuals from five Muslim-majority countries, as well as North Korea and Venezuela from entering the United States. At the same time that Americans are trying to understand how their country separated families at our southern border , the Supreme Court has dealt immigration advocates another blow, ruling... Read More

As children and their families flee extreme violence in Central America, our government has failed to offer critical protection by deferring their asylum requests. Instead, families are being confined to detention centers. What is family detention, and who is being held? Family detention is the practice of holding immigrant families with their children in prison-like detention centers. These families are largely  asylum-seekers , fleeing their homes from extreme cases of... Read More

June 20 is World Refugee Day. In 2018, during the worst refugee crisis in human history, World Refugee Day takes on even greater importance in the United States. At LIRS, we are taking this opportunity to celebrate our champions – from refugee leaders and service partners to advocates and supporters like you. With over 65 million people forcibly driven from their homes by conflict around the world, our work has never been so important. Which is why we need you to continue to be a... Read More

Before "Zero-Tolerance" We Called It "Betraying Family Values" Since Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the State Department’s new “zero-tolerance” border enforcement policy, the issue of family separation has exploded in the headlines … but it’s not a new concept for LIRS. For more than a decade, LIRS has been monitoring and advocating for children and families seeking asylum at our southern border, and we wrote the book on the... Read More

For more than 5 years, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service has celebrated World Refugee Day with our annual Migrant and Refugee Leadership Academy ("the Academy") in late June. Each year, the LIRS Academy equips former refugees and migrants with advocacy training, media training, and the tools to tell their own unique story. Historically, this event has concluded with networking activities in Washington D.C, during which Academy participants visit members of Congress to... Read More

As part of our mission to stand with refugees and migrants, LIRS works to empower refugees and LIRS network partners to engage in advocacy on both local and national levels. Our network partner, Lutheran Services of Georgia, recently took part in a fantastic grassroots effort – sponsored in part by the LIRS Local Migrant and Refugee Leadership Academy initiative! Last month, staff from Lutheran Services of Georgia and several refugees from the community participated in the... Read More

Sending Hope Behind Bars This spring, offer comfort to families in detention   In partnership with Amnesty International and RAICES, LIRS is collecting hand-written cards from activists like you to send to families detained at Berks County Residential Center. As one of the few family detention centers in this country, Berks holds men, women, and children in prison-like conditions while they await immigration trials.  With your help, we can send these families a message of... Read More