“My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours. We belong in a bundle of life.” — Archbishop Desmond Tutu
In July, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 49,571 people. This was the highest number of immigration arrests in a single month during President Trump’s second term. More than half of those arrested had no criminal convictions or pending charges. Fewer than one in four had been convicted of a crime.1
Forty-nine thousand five hundred seventy-one.
When numbers get that large, it’s easy to lose sight of what they mean. One arrest feels personal. Fifty thousand becomes just a statistic.
But ICE does not arrest statistics. ICE arrests people.
One of those arrested was a 36-year-old Haitian man who worked as a cook and supervisor at a restaurant in Key West. He left Haiti after receiving death threats and was waiting for his asylum claim to be processed. His manager described him as a hardworking family man who had never been in trouble with the law.
Then he was gone. He had coworkers. People depended on his paycheck. Someone appreciated his sense of humor. Someone noticed when he didn’t come home. This is how a statistic becomes a person again.
The Jewish philosopher Martin Buber said we experience life in two main ways: I–It and I–Thou. We use categories to make sense of the world, but they can be harmful when they hide the real person in front of us.
Think about the word illegal. A visa can expire. Someone might cross a border without permission. A person may not have legal immigration status. These are all legal situations. But a human being cannot be illegal.
When we turn a legal label into someone’s identity, we erase who they are. We let our grammar do the moral work of disappearing them. We stop asking how long they have lived here, why they came, if their children were born here, who they love, who depends on them, or how many years they have tried to work through our broken immigration system.
The label makes us think we know everything we need to know. This is how dehumanization starts. Before people vanish from our communities, they vanish from our words. Neighbors are called “illegals.” Families become “cases.” People are called “removals.”
Then we add words like "our country," and "our communities," as if the borders were natural, as if anyone knew in advance who belonged where. We operate as if the cartographers hadn't drawn those lines through Indigenous lands, through geographies built by centuries of forced migration. The grammar of “illegal immigrant” can only exist inside a grammar of “legitimate citizen,” and that legitimacy was historically constructed through genocide and enslavement. The deportation regime doesn’t fall from the sky. It sits on a foundation.
We need to say clearly that what is happening is morally wrong. This does not mean countries should have no borders or immigration laws. It also does not mean everyone who enters or stays without permission should be allowed to remain. Immigration policy is complex, and good people will disagree about some parts of it. But just because it’s complicated doesn’t mean we can ignore what’s right and wrong.
A government can enforce laws without scaring communities. It can focus on real threats instead of going after people who have built lives here. It can respect due process. It can see that separating parents from children and removing longtime neighbors hurts more than just the person being deported.
Legal authority does not make every exercise of that authority just. Our own history should have taught us that by now.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu spent his life confronting a government that had made dehumanization legal. Apartheid had statutes, courts, police and bureaucracies. It issued documents. It created categories. It decided who belonged where.
Tutu answered that machinery with the ancient African wisdom of Ubuntu. A person is a person through other persons. My humanity is bound up with yours. Ubuntu does not ask whether we are connected. It tells us that we already are.
That is why removing someone from a community is never as simple as relocating one individual across a border. Human beings put down roots in one another. A parent disappears from a dinner table. A restaurant loses a cook. A congregation loses a member. A construction crew loses a coworker. A child waits for someone who isn’t coming home.
A web tears. When we become indifferent to that tearing, something tears in us too.
So what can we do? We start close to home.
Find out what immigrant families in your community are experiencing. Learn which organizations offer reliable immigration legal help. If a family loses a wage earner, help with groceries, rent, childcare, transportation, or school pickup. If your congregation has immigrant members, ask what support would actually help instead of deciding for them. Support journalists and advocates who track what happens to people after detention.
And speak up. When someone reduces a human being to “an illegal,” gently put the person back into the sentence. When elected officials celebrate arrest numbers without acknowledging the lives behind them, ask harder questions. Call members of Congress and demand that they finally do the difficult work of creating an immigration system that is orderly, humane and worthy of the people whose lives depend upon it.
None of us can personally repair decades of congressional failure. But we can refuse to let political failure become permission for further moral failure.
Nearly fifty thousand people were arrested in July. We cannot know all their names. But they have names. They have people who love them. They have histories, fears, favorite foods, inside jokes, responsibilities, regrets, dreams and people waiting for them to come home.
There is a person there.
A neighbor.
A parent.
A beloved.
A Thou.
Seeing them is where our spiritual work begins. Standing with them is what comes next.
We are in this together,
Cameron
Reflection Questions
Where have you noticed language making it easier for you to think of a group of people as a category rather than as individual human beings?
What changes in you when you imagine one immigration arrest not as a statistic, but as an empty chair at someone’s dinner table?
Who in your community might need your presence, resources, voice or solidarity right now?
A Prayer for the Day
A Prayer: Keep Us Human
Spirit of Love, Keep us human in a time when people are being turned into numbers. Do not let repetition make us numb. When we hear fifty thousand, help us remember one. One parent. One child. One neighbor. One frightened person wondering what comes next. Hold those who have been taken from their families and communities. Hold the children waiting for parents, the spouses searching for information, the coworkers staring at an empty station, and the neighbors who are afraid that tomorrow someone will come for them. Give courage to attorneys, advocates, clergy, organizers, journalists and ordinary neighbors who are standing beside them. And give us the moral clarity to recognize cruelty even when it arrives carrying official paperwork. Keep our hearts tender enough to grieve. Keep our eyes open enough to see. Keep our courage strong enough to act. Remind us that another person's dignity does not diminish our own. Their flourishing does not threaten ours. Their humanity is bound up with ours. May we become people who refuse to look away. Amen.
Spiritual Practice: Put a Person Back in the Sentence
Pay attention to the language you encounter today. Notice words like illegal, alien, deportee, migrant, criminal, foreigner. Notice what happens inside you when you hear them. You don’t need to police every word or correct every person. Simply notice when language begins to obscure the human being it supposedly describes.
Then deliberately put a person back into the sentence. Instead of reading only about “50,000 immigration arrests,” find one person’s story. Learn their name if it is publicly available. Learn where they lived, what work they did, whom they loved, and what happened to them. Stay with that story for a few minutes.
Then do one thing that moves you from attention toward solidarity. Find a reputable immigrant-support organization in your community and learn what it needs. Perhaps they need money. Perhaps volunteers. Perhaps people willing to provide transportation, accompany someone to court, deliver groceries or help a frightened family understand where to turn.
Don’t try to solve immigration today. Make one relationship harder to erase.
Ubuntu teaches that we become human through one another. So practice becoming human today. See someone. Learn their story. And if they need someone beside them, stand there.
Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…
My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.
September 1, 2026, 12:30-1:30pmET - Book Club in The Commons - FREE - We are reading our next book, “I Eat The Stars” by Sarah Wilson. We will meet each Tuesday for 6 weeks. It’s such great fun. I hope you will be a part. All are welcome! RSVP HERE.
September 8, 2026, 12:30 - 1:30pm ET, ONLINE EVENT with NY Times Best-Selling author and journalist, Sarah Wilson!!! Sarah has just published her latest book I Eat The Stars: How to Live Fully and Beautifully in a Collapsing World. Join us for this one hour conversation where we will talk with Sarah about how we face collapse, how we find beauty and who we can become in these challenging times. Scholarships are available. REGISTER HERE.
September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.
September 14, 7-8:30pm ET ONLINE EVENT - I’m delighted to share that Dr. Margaret Wheatley is releasing a newly updated edition of her beloved book Perseverance: A Companion for the Journey this October. Written for those committed to serving the world with compassion in difficult times, the book offers daily wisdom and practical guidance for navigating grief, anger, exhaustion, and uncertainty while remaining rooted in love, courage, and presence. Meg and I will be in conversation to explore what perseverance looks like in this moment of history and how we can sustain ourselves for the long work ahead. I hope you’ll join us for what promises to be a deeply meaningful conversation. REGISTER HERE.
September 17, 2026, 7-8:45pm ET - I will be joining Jackie Sussman for an online session on practicing eidetics as a part of our “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination” monthly series. Eidetic Imagery is a powerful tool for pastors, denominational leaders, coaches, and spiritual directors working with others, and for individuals seeking deeper integration and healing in their own lives. Jackie is a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, and has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During this session, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.
October 6, 2026 - 7-8:30pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - Matthew Fox and I are teaming up again to launch a series called Journeying with the Mystics. The mystics have always emerged in times of uncertainty. They appear when old certainties are crumbling, when institutions no longer provide easy answers, and when people find themselves longing for a deeper experience of the Sacred. Join us for an 18-session exploration of the teachings of St. John of the Cross, Thomas Merton, Hildegard of Bingen, Kabir and Rumi, Meister Eckhart and more. This is more than a lecture series. It is an invitation into a living spiritual journey. REGISTER for the first session HERE!
October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.
November 10, 7-8:30pm ET - I’ll be joined by theologian, writer, and professor Dr. Debra Rienstra for a special ONLINE conversation on Refugia Faith. In ecology, refugia are small places where life survives amid disruption, pockets of resilience from which life can eventually regenerate and spread. Debra invites us to consider what this might mean spiritually in an age of climate instability, political turmoil, institutional decline, and profound uncertainty. What if our congregations, communities, relationships, and even our own lives could become refugia, places where courage, compassion, beauty, wisdom, and possibility are protected and cultivated for whatever comes next? I hope you’ll join us for this timely and deeply hopeful conversation. REGISTRATION COMING SOON!
Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…
I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.
My dear friend, Rev. Shawna Bowman has just launched a new podcast with musician Jennifer Knapp called “My Wise Friend Podcast.” They talk about it this way: “You might know Jennifer from her years as a touring musician and songwriter, weaving stories and songs together across the country. You might know Shawna from their work as an artist, speaker, and community leader exploring the intersection of spirituality, justice, and creativity. While our daily work looks different, we share a deep love for real talk, deep questions, and finding wisdom in unexpected places.” I am so excited about this! I hope you will check it out and support them. https://www.patreon.com/cw/mywisefriendpodcast
I’m delighted to celebrate the upcoming release of Wisdom Church: Abundant Life for Aging Congregations by my colleague, Rev. Dr. Anna Hall. Rather than seeing aging congregations as communities in decline, Anna invites us to recognize them as communities rich with wisdom, purpose, and possibility. Her book offers a hopeful vision for moving beyond anxiety about the future and embracing the unique gifts of older adults as beloved children of God. If your congregation is navigating these questions, this is a resource well worth reading. You can preorder the Kindle edition now, with delivery on August 17: https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Church-Abundant-Aging-Congregations-ebook/dp/B0HBXGYTWC
Starting again on September 7 for every Monday, 12pm ET - ONLINE WRITING GROUP - My dear friend, Meryl Marshall-Daniels, is leading a writing group open to all. This is a simple and spacious writing circle for people who want time to listen inwardly and put words on the page without overthinking, performing, or polishing. Meryl offers a prompt designed to invite reflection, imagination, and attunement to what is already alive within you. The practice honors writing as a way of listening, of letting images, memories, questions, and insights surface in their own time. Learn more here.
If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.
https://apnews.com/article/border-immigration-customs-enforcement-data-statistics-f07f56a34bda225e5afa356781ac1740