Jesús Romero helps immigrants get out of the shadows

Jesús Romero is the director of the ISAAC Project, a San Antonio-based organization that can help churches become more involved in immigration aid. Hear his story as a first generation immigrant and advocate for the cause.

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. And in our continuing podcast series on immigration, I am delighted to welcome to the program today Jesus Romero, the director of the ISAAC Project, ISAAC being an acronym that stands for the Immigration Service and Aid Center. And of course, Isaac has a biblical connotation as well. Jesus, right?

Jesus Romero:
Right.

George Mason:
So welcome to the program, Jesus. And we're delighted that we can talk about you and the work that you're doing. And I'd like to just begin by asking you, first of all, how did you get into immigration work?

Jesus Romero:
Well, I got directly involved when I was a professor in central Texas, I was teaching Spanish at Howard Payne University. And I was also a pastor, a local pastor of a small Hispanic church. And we were praying, I'm talking about 2006, around 2005, 2006. And we were praying about what the Lord wanted us to do as a church. And we felt very, very called to get involved in social justice and those kinds of ministries, but we didn't know exactly what. And then it was one of those situations where it was sort of a perfect storm because at the same time that we were praying as a church, I was also doing some readings and studying the Bible along the lines of welcoming the stranger, all this happening at the same time that my next door neighbor is getting in trouble because she's about to be deported because some scammer was in charge of doing her paperwork and all her immigration process.

Jesus Romero:
I was just marginally aware of those situations. And then also at the same time, I get to meet somebody who was very crucial in my life and in our ministry, Pastor Alex Camacho in north Texas, who was, again, unknown to me. He was already doing immigration ministry out of his church in McKinney, Texas since about 1988, I think. So he was already doing it. I was not aware that churches, nonprofit organizations that did not have lawyers on staff could actually provide immigration legal service. I became aware of that process through the Department of Justice, back then through the Board of Immigration Appeals. And again, a perfect storm where we just felt that the Lord was very gently, but very firmly leading us into serving our community that way. So we learned about the process of becoming recognized and accredited by the Board of Immigration Appeals, went through the process and opened our doors of for the first time in central Texas of what was called Baptist Immigration Services of Brownwood. And we were there for less than three years before we moved to San Antonio, so that's how it started.

George Mason:
Let's just stop there for a moment. And let me just reflect with you about, as people are listening to this, I think you use the language, a perfect storm and what that really suggests is that there are a lot of things coming together at once, that if only one of those things had happened, maybe nothing would've come to pass, but becoming spiritually sensitive to what is going on around you and within in you is part of this discernment process, isn't it, of how maybe God is at work in the world and how we should be alert to that and be willing and sensitive to make a move, which is a very sort of biblical way of thinking, isn't it?

Jesus Romero:
Yes, yes, sir. And I forgot one component of the perfect storm. The fact that both my wife and I are first generation immigrants. So without being aware of the issues everybody was struggling with, there was already a measure of compassion for those who were also strangers, just like we were.

George Mason:
Wonderful. Okay. So the next thing that I want to highlight from what you said is that you actually became an authorized organization through your church. I don't think a lot of people know that that is possible, but that's one of the dimensions of ISAAC's work, isn't it, is to help congregations and organizations to formalize this work. Can you say a little more about that?

Jesus Romero:
Yes. So the area of immigration law is the only area of law where the United States allows people who are not attorneys who went to law school and pass the bar to actually practice law. And the reason why that is, is because it's a matter of practical issues. There are not enough immigration attorneys in the United States. We always have an influx, a constant influx of immigrants year after year. Even the judges and the people in the system, we just don't have enough. And so back in the mid-eighties, the government realizing this, put together this process, just so as long as you go by the book, if you are a religious, social, charitable, nonprofit organization, you can apply for what is now called the Department of Justice Recognition and Accreditation Process.

Jesus Romero:
It means that if a church wants to do this, then they apply for their recognition, the recognition of the organization. And then the accreditation is for the individual staff members who will be providing legal services to immigrants. So recognition and accreditation, two things that go together in order to apply and qualify and be it granted this recognition and accreditation, you have to be a 501c3 organization. You have to show that your staff has adequate knowledge. That's how the statute says it, just adequate knowledge of immigration law and procedure, which means training, not going to law school, but training and going to seminars and webinars that are geared to people like us, the nonprofit people, people of faith to be able to do this work.

George Mason:
Well, to do this work, I think some people might think on the surface, at least, why would churches be engaged in this work? Why would religious organizations that have a duty to nurture a religious community, to preach the gospel, to educate members in the scriptures and all of that ... Earlier you said that you felt that the Lord was leading your congregation toward more of a social justice emphasis and this would be one of those things. So if you were talking to people out there who have an idea of the church as being one thing, but that this may be challenging to them as to whether they're straying from their mission, what would you say about how this, you understand this to be actually integral to the mission of a church?

Jesus Romero:
Absolutely. And not only that, George, we consider the ISAAC Project's work really to be about evangelism. It's just that it's a different kind of evangelism because we're not going out to the world to share with them the love of Jesus Christ, the world actually comes to us. And I think sometimes the mistake that we make in the body of Christ is separating what's spiritual from everything else. I do agree that we do have a command from the Lord to go out, preach the gospel, make sure that people know, God know who Jesus is, that there's salvation in him. But we have people in our society who are suffering in so many different ways and I think it's also part of the mandate for the body of Christ to reach out to them and to love them and provide to them the very things that they need.

Jesus Romero:
In that way, we gain their trust. We gain their love. They give us an opportunity to love them. Providing legal immigration services, in many cases is just the tip of the iceberg. And once you have the friendship and the trust of immigrants, then that leads to other conversations that may lead directly to people being told about the love of Jesus Christ more directly. But the ISAAC Project, when it started, as it was explained to me, it was our effort out of Texas Baptist to love the immigrant community, love the strangers among us and in practical ways. Maybe not by coming to them directly to preach about Jesus, but just to love them by providing a very, very needed service, and then let the Lord take it from there and see where it leads us.

George Mason:
Well, and that's an important thing to keep in mind because sometimes people get the idea that the only reason we actually care for people in human need is for the ulterior motive of being able then to give them a Christian witness and convert them to our faith. And that creates suspicion in people's minds, where if you have the idea that part of your mission is simply out of the love of God, out of your Christian faith or whatever faith is yours to care for people in their need as human beings, then people can relax and be served by your organization without fear of what comes next, the other shoe to drop, as if it's the transaction that's being made somehow.

Jesus Romero:
Correct. Yeah. Correct.

George Mason:
So you have a way of saying, I think, very interestingly that you believe that this work is both Romans 13 and Hebrews 13. Now, I think that would be a nice thing to help frame for people, because when you look at those passages, if people understand what they mean, then they'll understand the debate that goes on about this at times, right? So share with us this Romans 13 and Hebrews 13 idea.

Jesus Romero:
Right. So it's one of the issues that we continue to debate, that apparent contradiction between having to obey the authorities and obey the laws and at the same time showing hospitality to people, because you never know if you're entertaining angels, which is something that we should keep in our minds as people of faith, as Christians. And let me say that we have been able to navigate that from the beginning simply by making sure that the work that we do is completely within the confines of the current US law. So what we do is helping people come out of the shadows. And we serve about 80 families every year.

Jesus Romero:
It means that we were able to get mom and dad together finally, everybody with papers, everybody able to live their lives openly without being in the shadows, being second class citizens, being subjected to scammers and that kind of thing. We've been able to do that. And so when anyone demands any reason or any explanation, we always say, well, you're a Christian, right, so you have appreciation for the law and you want to obey the laws, but that's exactly what we're doing. We're helping every single immigrant who comes to our doors, comes to our organization get out of the shadows and be legal.

Jesus Romero:
If you're on the side of the law, then you should be on our side. And the reason why we're doing this is because there's a need, there's a national need for us to do this, not only to represent them and file paperwork on their behalf, but also to represent them in immigration court. Judges actually get very happy you when they see people from the nonprofit world, because they know that most of the time the immigrants who come to their courts come without any representation and that doesn't allow the system to work well. So I think we've been able to navigate that quite well up to this point.

George Mason:
What do you say to people who are of a religious bend, Christians often take this point of view that, yes, we're commanded in scripture, as in Deuteronomy, to love those who are foreigners, because you, yourself were once a foreigner in Egypt. This is words that were given to Israel, of course, but the church reads them as if they are to us as well. And so then we say that it's up to us to welcome the strangers into our spiritual communities. But we think that there are enough immigrants who have come into this country already, and we should limit immigration. And our community should not be promoting or encouraging immigration when our national interest is at stake. And we should in fact, build walls and limit immigration and those sorts of things.

George Mason:
Do you see a contradiction there spiritually, or how do you talk to people like that? Let me put it this way, I see a contradiction in that it feels to me that we have put national interest before our spiritual interest, but I'd be very interested to hear your position because obviously we want to respect the law at the same time.

Jesus Romero:
Right. Well, I was the language professor for 28 years. I taught Spanish. I have a lot of appreciation for language and I try to be very careful as I speak and as I write about the language, I use the words that I use. And every time at the ISAAC Project and myself personally, when we talk about government, I always, for a long, long time, I've used the word Caesar all the time. And there's Caesar and then there's the kingdom of God and we belong to the kingdom of God. We also live materially within the United States of America and there's government. There's Caesar. So what we need to make sure that we understand that our primary allegiance is to God and to the kingdom of God, and to God as king.

Jesus Romero:
We're not revolutionaries. We don't go out seeking the overthrow of anybody but we need to keep in mind that there's this fear of seizure, there's this fear of the kingdom of God. When those melt or fuse, it all becomes very confusing, all the things that you were alluded to before you ask the question, putting up the wall and all those things, all those things are highly, highly debatable. And I think I agree with you. All those tenets of Christian nationalism really get in the way of the body of Christ, actually showing love the way the Lord Jesus Christ expects us to. And so whenever we can very respectfully, but very firmly, we have to combat them because they just confuse. They confuse us and they keep us from showing our love. And Christianity is essentially about loving well, loving God passionately, and then loving our neighbor as ourselves. And the neighbor includes the stranger, includes the immigrant.

George Mason:
And what we find is when we begin to do this, is that is a deeply embedded central concept to Christianity, but also to other religions too. And I think in immigration, we find especially common cause with lots of other people beyond Christianity, which is a great benefit in the work that we do in interfaith, as well as in our Christian work too.

Jesus Romero:
That is correct. I think immigration ministry, as far as I've seen is it may be the most equanimical ministry that you will ever find. We have good connections with pretty much everybody, even our Jewish friends, our Muslim friends, and then everybody who's doing this within the Protestant church. And of course the Catholic church, who are pioneers in this kind of [inaudible 00:20:52].

George Mason:
Absolutely. Now, if we are talking to people in congregations, who would say, okay, this is very interesting to me. I did not know that we could get involved in this work because we are here in Dallas or in Houston or in Austin or Fort Worth, or in Levelland or in Athens, Texas, or somewhere like that. Where do we start, Jesus? What would be a way to say, okay, we might not be ready yet to do everything, but where do we begin?

Jesus Romero:
Okay. That's an excellent question. And well, most of the churches that we've helped, and we have six churches that we've helped become organizations like us three in Texas and three outside of Texas. In fact, the ones in Texas, one is in Dallas and the other one is in Fort Worth, the third one is in El Paso. The way to begin is may not be, George, jumping directly into immigration legal services. Most of the churches doing this, they're already been in the process of doing something because they've already being called to love their immigrant community. So you will find them already teaching ESL classes, for example, English as a second language classes, Maybe teaching citizenship classes. If they do that very well for a season, then I think it's inevitable that they will be called to do this because it's the next thing to do.

George Mason:
Right.

Jesus Romero:
When they do that, when they're at that point, we can help them because is we can actually train them. That's the other thing that we do. We have what we call our summer institutes on basic immigration law, except that this year, the one in the summer happened in the fall, but we've been doing this for 10 years. So we will train the church's staff, prepare them for accreditation with these institutes that are basically a 40-hour institute or seminar on basic immigration law. That doesn't really get anybody ready to open their doors or do any kind of thing, it's just preparation for applying, because it's one of the main, main requirements.

Jesus Romero:
People have to have 40 hours of training on basic immigration law, which is pretty much family-based immigration law. And then another 20 to 40 hours of shadowing, which the ISAAC Project is very willing to help people do, if they're willing to come to our office in San Antonio. And anybody who wants further help, we can help them from beginning to end, just putting the application together. We need more people in the body of Christ, more churches doing what we are doing.

George Mason:
What would be a typical story of someone that a congregation might help in a situation like this?

Jesus Romero:
Well, I guess the clearest example that would come to mind would be the young people. We know them as dreamers and the government created a process that them DACAs because they get deferred, it's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. And so these are young people who came to the United States unlawfully through no fault of their own. We have nurtured them, educated them as a country, and they're valuable people. Now there's relief for them that, at the moment, is being fought in court, but there is relief for them. We serve dozens of DACAs, dozens of young people who came to us from the beginning and then have to renew their DACA every two years. So those are the people that anybody could see. Well, these young people are certainly worthy of our help and our effort.

George Mason:
So I think summarizing this conversation a bit, you don't have to have a grand philosophy of immigration policy. You have to have a heart for people who are immigrants, who are caught in the midst of this changing and contentious debate in this country, and they are human beings. And so if your faith leads you to care for people, especially those who are feeling in many cases, dehumanized by the systems that they find themselves in, but are our neighbors and among us, then this is a place that you can go, the ISAAC Project, isaacproject.org. And you can begin the process of learning how better to care for these neighbors.

Jesus Romero:
Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much. Very well summarized.

George Mason:
Wonderful. Well Jesus, thank you so much for all that you do for this work. And we pray God's blessings upon you and that many who have heard will maybe be part of that perfect storm because of this podcast, that somehow God might be speaking to them to become involved.

Jesus Romero:
Thank you very much, George. I appreciate the opportunity and it's been an honor.

George Mason:
Thank you so much.

Speaker 3:
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