Kathy Hersh is a member of Miami Friends Meeting. She is a writer and filmmaker. Her experiences as a journalist based in Latin American in the late 70's had a profound impact on her life's work and led to her convincement as a Quaker in 1990. She produced a documentary in 1983, THE NEW UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, about the church sanctuary movement in the 80's. It's relevance to today's immigration crisis on the U.S.-Mexican border has resurrected its usefulness as a consciousness raising tool.

In March 2018, Morena Mendoza and her son, Antonio, fled their home in El Salvador fearing for their lives. They joined a caravan of migrants that walked hundreds of miles to seek refuge in the U.S.

When they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border on April, they were detained and separated. Morena was sent to an immigration detention center in San Diego, where she was imprisoned for three months, and Antonio was sent to a shelter in New York.

Kristin Kumpf is the director of AFSC's Human Migration and Mobility. 

On Feb. 15, President Trump declared a national state of emergency – the day after Congress passed a funding bill that includes both a dramatic increase in immigrant detention and $1.375 billion for wall construction.

The appropriations bill passed by Congress increases funding for deadly immigrant detention and the militarization of our border communities. And the fact that the president is also circumventing congressional oversight to get billions more for his border wall is outrageous and illegal.