Sid Earnheart sees the presence of God in immigration advocacy

Sid Earnheart is an immigration attorney and advocate for Texas Impact. He also has a ministry degree from Perkins School of Theology. Hear how he merges all three perspectives.

Listen here, read the transcript below, or click here for the full video version.

George Mason:
Welcome to Good God, conversations that matter about faith and public life. I'm your host, George Mason. As we continue in our series on immigration and trying to make this a human story, not just one about national borders and laws, and all of that. We have someone, who has a really diverse experience with this subject matter. We're delighted to welcome to the program, Sid Earnheart. Sid, glad to have you with us.

Sid Earnheart:
Thank you, George. It's really just an honor and a privilege to be here. Thank you so much for having me today.

George Mason:
Well, you're very welcome. I want to introduce you by saying that for people who wonder if they should just find a career and stick to it, Sid is an example of someone, who has just kept finding ways that road has turned. You've kept all the things that you've done because first of all, you're a lawyer and you're also a seminary graduate. One of those people that actually has put the Baptist and Methodist together because you are a Baylor grad and you're also an SMU grad.

George Mason:
That's an extraordinary active piece in Texas to be able to do that. But your legal training led you to do litigation work in oil and gas for a while, but ultimately, you must have had something of a tug of ministry because you went to Perkins School of Theology and then you ended up working in this space of immigration law and of advocacy and that sort of thing. Can you tell us a little bit about that journey?

Sid Earnheart:
Sure. So my journey started, I would say, in terms of a ministry recall, as at least we would describe it on the Christian side. I know this is an interfaith podcast and interfaith organization. I very much appreciate that. Let me just say upfront, I will do my best to talk in an interfaith context and I apologize in advance to any of our interfaith friends out there, just know I'm doing best to limit my, I guess, shall I say if I talk about any exclusively Christian concepts, if there were such a thing, I apologize in advance for that language. How about that?

George Mason:
Sure.

Sid Earnheart:
I would say though for me personally, my call really started when I was younger. I thought ministry for me would be maybe a secondary career. It just found me, I think, a little bit earlier, maybe than I was anticipating. A few years after law school, I was enjoying the legal work that I was doing, but I found myself just asking God, maybe what God wanted from me in my life and how I could better serve others.

George Mason:
Great question to ask.

Sid Earnheart:
That's sort of how we... or I guess I should say how the process started and then from there, it definitely took a good amount of time. I started going to seminary part-time at night and still practicing law during the day. So over the course of a number of years, I completed my degree at Perkins. I guess really what led me into this space was during my pastoral internship at Perkins. I did part of it with a church in the Houston area with the United Methodist Church. Then I also did part of it with an organization out of Austin called Texas Impact.

Sid Earnheart:
With Texas Impact they immediately put me into the immigration space. My first weekend, actually of my pastoral internship, I got in a car with their congregational outreach director, Scott Atnip. He picked me up at my house and we took an eight hour drive from the Houston area down to the Rio Grande Valley. They had put together an advocacy intensive along with a couple of pastors from the Dallas area for about 100 pastors from all over the state of Texas.

Sid Earnheart:
They had brought them down to learn more about what was happening under what I would call at the time, the remain in Mexico, or the MPP, the migrant protection protocols. This was in the fall 2019. They had brought pastors down so that they could see for themselves and take back to their congregations the stories of people, of migrants that were at the border that were being forced to remain in Mexico in order to have their claims for asylum process. Then from there I'll say about a month later a smaller group of about 30 to 50 of that group went to Washington DC, where we talked with every publicly elected official from the State of Texas.

George Mason:
This combines in your work with Texas Impact and you continue to practice law and you continue to relate to various organizations, including being the executive director of a group called Justice for Our Neighbors, which is in North Central Texas in immigration ministry of the United Methodist Church. You're combining all of these things. So I think one of the questions that you might be uniquely gifted to answer is while we can argue about the legal status, for instance of people who cross the border, while we can talk about the economic impact of the labor force and what they can offer, or whether they're taking jobs or how we manage all of that, whether we can talk about culture and how this can be either a gift of diversity, or it can be a threat to a more traditional culture in the United States, where is God in this would you say Sid?

George Mason:
When you do your work, faith animates what you do. So how do you say, "Okay, somehow I see there's a spiritual factor in all of this. This is where I think God is?" Can you talk through that a little bit with us?

Sid Earnheart:
Sure, man, you're absolutely right. I guess I would say in terms of how you, I guess contextualize the question and it's a great question. I would say for me, where I see God in this is, well, I mean the short answer is everywhere. It starts really just with the simple and basic understanding, that God created all of us. We're all a part of God's creation. It comes from this place that God loves all of us. From my perspective, we are called both to love God, and then both also to love our neighbors, if you will as we love ourselves.

Sid Earnheart:
I would say that part of our calling is also to be stewards of God's creation.

George Mason:
Oh, nice.

Sid Earnheart:
In doing so I think we find ourselves in this place, really this imperfect place where we are trying to wrestle with these concepts... and I've heard some of the other podcasts that you've had and some of the factors that you mentioned. The economics, the nationalism, if you will, the cultural aspects. From that religious perspective, I would say one thing that congregations or houses of worship that we really understand well I think is this mission component. But when we're looking for what I would describe as transformation inside of our communities, when we're looking to transform the world, if you will into, I guess you might say either the image of God or looking for what God is looking for our world to look like, I would say, when we're leaning into that, that's where I think that there's and this applies to beyond just immigration [inaudible 00:08:41] in a big picture sense.

Sid Earnheart:
I guess that's where our congregations fall short, I think. We really understand this missional component well, but in order to get to transformation, we're missing this step, I would say. It's this justice component. Without justice, I don't think you can get to transformation.

George Mason:
Walter Brueggemann who is a great theologian and a friend has this wonderful line. He says, justice is figuring out what belongs to whom and giving it back. I think at the very basic level, dignity is one of those things, humanity itself. That there are a lot of people who are coming to our border, who have been stripped of a sense of their being valuable children of God, like everyone else. They have been treated poorly and they have felt somewhat abandoned.

George Mason:
Ironically, the vast majority of them coming, as we understand, identify as Christian and increasingly as evangelical Christians from Central America is something I think a lot of people don't realize is true. So these are not people who should be necessarily objects so much of our pity and charity as sisters and brothers, maybe even of the same faith that we should be welcoming in a way that is even transcending our national obligations.

Sid Earnheart:
Absolutely. I don't know. I couldn't have said it better myself. How about that? I absolutely agree with you and you're absolutely a 100% correct. Yes.

George Mason:
Now you talk about the transformation of our own church communities and how important justice and advocacy are in that respect. So I think if I understand what you're saying is I'm a pastor and one of the things you would want me to do is probably to engage our congregation and a personal hands on engagement in this process. So that by that engagement, we can ourselves be transformed. Do I read you correctly?

Sid Earnheart:
Yes and that may sound... how about this? I know that pastors are over worked and overburdened right now and I am not trying to, I guess, add to it in that sense. There's a lot in the world, especially in the last couple of years. But I would say it, I guess like this, look, so much of advocacy work I think is more... so first I said the word advocacy, I think a lot of people think of it like a four letter word. Like it's a bad word that we're going to run away from. You're probably envisioning either some kind of marches or chance or protest and holding up signs, things of this nature.

Sid Earnheart:
I would say, you know what, there is some of that if you're interested in that. We can offer that to you on the advocacy side, but much more often than not. Advocacy is just telling, I would say, knowing who to tell and knowing how to tell the story of the work that so many of these people and congregations are already doing.

George Mason:
As a lawyer, you are often called an advocate by profession, but for people in the pew, they should know that the word in the New Testament for Holy Spirit is often also advocate. Jesus says, "I will send you another advocate, a counselor, a comforter." If you start thinking about how you could be the presence of God as an advocate, it really involves this standing alongside of someone. This asking how you can help and being part of the solution instead of being indifferent.

George Mason:
So what are some of the ways that through Texas Impact and your work with Justice for Our Neighbors, you engage congregation, Sid, in this work?

Sid Earnheart:
Great question. I would say first it starts the very much in a local context. I know that while obviously Texas is a huge place, and we're talking about, especially if there are people who are primarily from the Dallas–Fort Worth area that are listening and watching here. I know that the border or the Rio Grande Valley is a good number of hours away. I will tell you that there are ways in Dallas–Fort Worth that you can easily get plugged into that involve working with immigrants who were in some cases 24 hours ago down in Rio Grande Valley.

Sid Earnheart:
Some of that work looks like, so for example, so with Justice for Our Neighbors, what we are neighbors what we are is an immigration ministry of the United Methodist Church that provides low cost legal services or free legal services for immigrants that are in primarily the Dallas–Fort Worth community, but around north and central Texas. Beyond there are a number of other also that do the same thing. If you were looking for other types of work, for example, a number of immigrants, especially the asylum seekers, once they're being processed, we've seen a number of immigrants that actually travel through the Dallas–Fort Worth Greyhound bus station.

Sid Earnheart:
If they're going somewhere in the Eastern United States, what's happening is they will ride a bus all night, typically from Brownsville or McAllen. There are many stops along the way. They're sleeping on the bus. They might have their children. They have very little other than either whatever they were able to carry or bring with them and then what some of our wonderful organizations down in the valley have given them. I would say that there are opportunities to help along the way as they're on this journey to their final destination somewhere inside of United States.

George Mason:
So probably congregations could identify a specific ministry like that and organize teams of people who would be volunteers. We have people, of course, who serve in the Stewpot and serve people at lunch. Well, they could serve at the Greyhound station too. They could be part of that. But there's also, I think through these organizations probably ways of people becoming better informed and becoming advocates for the political process and the change of policy too. What are some ways they could do that, Sid?

Sid Earnheart:
Absolutely and thank you. So one way that it can be done is through like another organization, I work with Texas Impact. They developed a Courts & Ports program is the name of the program. What it does is it takes small groups of people. It's usually eight or fewer at a time. Most of them are from the same congregation, but sometimes we have multiple congregations coming together. They come down for between two and three days to the Rio Grande Valley and you come and you learn more. You get educated more about what it looks like to go through the asylum process.

Sid Earnheart:
You learn more about the migrants who are showing up at our border. You have interactions with people who are actually going through the process. Then part of that education, which you alluded to as well is we want you to take that piece and we want you to come back and tell those stories of your own personal experiences to the congregations that you are from. We want you to go and talk with your public officials as well, and talk with them about what your experiences are.

Sid Earnheart:
Because right now we get so much information, no matter which side of the news you read as I'll call it. Wherever it is, wherever you get your source on. There's so much that is, I guess I'll say an inherent bias that appears to be built in. We want you to come down and get the information unfiltered, and through your own personal experience. Because we find that when we are talking about advocacy, especially when we're talking with our public officials, there is no substitute for you having that personal experience and bringing that [inaudible 00:17:28].

George Mason:
One of the most heartwarming and heartbreaking moments I saw was when my friend Imam Omar Suleiman was down at the valley. There were kids being separated from their families during the child separation policy. They were on a bus and Omar is about six foot four and dressed in black clothing, clearly dressed in Muslim garb. Yet you could see he is holding his hand up to the window, pressing it against the hand of a child who had no connection but was scared to death leaving behind a family. That moment just sticks in my heart and in my mind. I think that the actual going in person and being present and seeing the human beings that are being affected by these policies, are just important to our own sense of passion about it.

Sid Earnheart:
You're right. Exactly right and they're important to our humanity. I think it really fuels that understanding that we were talking about earlier, where we understand that we are all created by God. These are our brothers and sisters. There are people who in many cases have just gone through what I hope say are more traumatic experiences than you and I will ever have to go through. They've just been through some of the worst situations and are escaping some of the worst situations that you can imagine.

Sid Earnheart:
I guess, one of the ways that we, I'll say fulfill our faith, that we show our faith is by being able to welcome, to restore some of that dignity and that respect that you talked about earlier in the program.

George Mason:
I think if we ever stopped to think about the fact that we didn't get to select our family when we were born or what country we were born into. Yet when we look often at people who are coming to our border, there may be a sense that there's some sort of entitlement that maybe we have a little more of the image of God in us than they do in them. All you have to do is actually say that kind of thing out loud, and you just automatically know it's not true.

George Mason:
But it's that unconscious bias as it did that we have to uncover by somehow having these kind of conversations, meeting people, really challenging ourselves and our unconscious biases about these things.

Sid Earnheart:
You're absolutely right about that as well. I guess I would say it like this, as you step out of your comfort zone for anyone who's on the edge and thinking or continues to hear more about the suffering that's happening right now for migrants. That are happening for just people that are showing up at our borders in any kind of context, or even some of the suffering that immigrants who are when we're talking about waiting on legal status and then this legal limbo inside of our own communities. That is, I guess I would just say how we... what do I want to say here, George? I guess I would just say like this-

George Mason:
There's a frustration that builds in you when you're really seeing their plight. It makes you impatient to just sit by and do nothing.

Sid Earnheart:
You're absolutely right about that. As that kind of frustration builds, when you start just taking that first step, and I know it can be the hardest in some cases. You start to form that relationship and I guess I would say those barriers are broken down. You start having this relationship and in terms of uncovering your own biases, as you were talking about, you literally have the experience, or at least I would say I did, of having those literally breaking down inside mentally.

Sid Earnheart:
You are realizing, "Wow, here are my biases." As I'm meeting these families, as I'm meeting this person, as I'm hearing their stories. Then you really start, I really feel like having this true connect. You really just I think anyway, feel the presence of God in those moments, in those relationships.

George Mason:
So what would be a typical story of someone that you would be working with as an advocate?

Sid Earnheart:
Oh, there are so many. So two general context, I guess I would say. Some of the advocacy work and I would say some of the most important, especially under, well, I'll say now once again, current procedures and protocol or regarding advocacy for asylum seekers at the south Texas border. A typical story would probably involve you hearing about a family that is escaping violence from their home country. It could involve either a family member already being murdered. It could involve without going into too much detail, obviously, but it could involve some type of sexual assault. It could involve extortion.

Sid Earnheart:
Any number of threats of violence or actual real and experienced violence to one or multiple family members is probably where I would start in terms of a background. Forcing a family that was in many cases were small business owners where they were, in many cases were like you alluded to earlier, Christians and have been forced to flee their homes.

George Mason:
So Sid, there are legal services and there are immigration services and there are church ministries and there are all of that. You've described a circumstance with many people who are coming to our borders that they have been through some horrible traumas in their lives. Is there any trauma work being done with people who are coming to us? Any trained folk who are able to help give them a safe place to work through what's happened to them emotionally and socially?

Sid Earnheart:
That is a great question. So what I'll say in a general sense, and I'll come back to that is what you're describing is, so what happens we know that there are processes and procedures for someone to come and claim asylum in the United States, but when the government stops for lack of a better term, what happens then? That's where the work of NGOs or non-governmental organizations, or what will probably call nonprofits comes into play. So I would say that's where people of faith are needed. That's the kind of work that, I would say, we know how to do. We understand how to do better than any government ever could.

Sid Earnheart:
That's where I think that in terms of organizations working together, it would be much more beneficial for both the government, for our local communities, for asylum seekers or anyone who is coming through this process, if we were all communicating and working better together. Now, to go back to your specific question, yes, there are people and our organizations that do provide some support for people who have been through traumatic experiences. But I can tell you that if you have those skills and abilities, we always need more.

George Mason:
I mean, it does seem like we need a trauma force. If someone is out there and train social workers or counselors who are looking for some way to have more meaningful work, it may be that we need to develop this kind of trauma force that we would be an aid to. If you could put a team of people, legal and religious and economic and trauma all around a person, a family, it would be a much more holistic, better way to go about it than just passing them off from one thing to the next.

Sid Earnheart:
You're absolutely right about that. When you're saying that George, that I guess reminds me and I think you may have had someone previously talk a little bit about this. There is a way I would say it's more of, I guess, a way that congregations can actually adopt, if you will, can actually sponsor immigrants and families. I would tell you that when you said that team word, that's what triggered that for me. So many congregations and just houses of worship have professionals who maybe can't devote their entire life's work or their entire career to doing something like this.

Sid Earnheart:
But when you're talking about bringing in and what kind of resources each congregation has, there are many that are in a position to where you can provide this kind of team of care, if you will. That covers the basis that someone is going to, I guess I'll say they'll need, but also, I mean, it goes beyond just basic need. I mean, we are all called, going back to that original premise of us all being God's children and how we're called to treat and love one another.

Sid Earnheart:
I mean, what if rather than these indignities that we're seeing migrants suffer when they're coming to our borders, what if we, I guess, flipped it on its head and what if we welcome them like they were royalty? I mean, that's just a thought, I guess, in terms of just imagine what that scene looks like at the south Texas border as opposed to the current scene. I mean, hear this, I'm not going to tell you that I think that's realistic.

George Mason:
Maybe not exactly, but when Germany decided a few years ago to welcome a million refugees from Syria and elsewhere from civil wars and the what, they may not have done it just perfectly, but there was an incredible change in spirit of those refugees when they got off of buses and trains and there were people standing in those stations with signs that said, "Welcome to Germany. We're glad you're here."

George Mason:
Now, can you imagine if we had people at the border of the United States who with all the chaos going on, we simply were there to say, "We are here to say, we love you and welcome." That's an extraordinary thought.

Sid Earnheart:
You're right about that. I mean, I think in a lot of ways, I mean, it would change the entire dynamic, I think. I mean, and here's why I guess I would say something like that might change the entire dynamic because then all of a sudden, you'll start getting reporters. You'll start getting press down there that are talking about groups, that are doing things like this. I think when you start seeing and experiencing, and when ideas start getting planted in our heads, that's when they really start growing, I feel.

Sid Earnheart:
Once they start funneling through our minds, that's really, when I think God can start going to work on our minds and our hearts. Imagine then let's just keep going down this path a little bit, if we also had information for where they were going and had set up places where whether you're going to... I'll make this up... Nashville, Tennessee, Buffalo, New York, anywhere, Deloit, Iowa, and there were already people in place, congregations in place that were ready to welcome you. [inaudible 00:30:34] "This is how things are done in our community, or really these are the resources available to you."

George Mason:
Well, I think you have planted some of those ideas in our head today, and I hope that it's inspired some people to think about what they might do in getting involved. I will just, once again, remind people that you work with Texas Impact, which is an ecumenical organization of people in Texas who are seeking the common good. One of the aspects of Texas Impact is this Courts & Ports program that they can look into. The other organization is here more locally and that is Justice for Our Neighbors. People could look that up as well.

George Mason:
Sid, thank you so much for joining us on Good God and for being an example to us of somebody who's found a place of real meaning and mission in life. We are grateful for you.

Sid Earnheart:
Thank you so much, George, for having me. I really enjoyed this conversation. Thank you for allowing me just to talk a little bit about the work that we're doing. Thank you so much.

George Mason:
Terrific. God bless you.

Sid Earnheart:
God bless you too. Thank you so much.

Speaker 3:
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