Casa De Paz: A Home That Love Built
IN 2012 SARAH JACKSON FOUNDED CASA DE PAZ, a nonprofit helping immigrants and their families confronting immigrant detention. Her book “The House that Love Built: Why I opened My Door to Immigrants and How We Found Hope Beyond a BrokeSystem” was published in 2020.
Photos and Story by Giles Clasen
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IN 2012 SARAH JACKSON FOUNDED CASA DE PAZ, a nonprofit helping immigrants and their families confronting immigrant detention. The Casa started as a place for families to stay while visiting loved ones in the Aurora,
Casa de Paz has grown to meet the needs of individuals who have been released from the ICE detention center. It provides released individuals a safe, homey place to stay for a short period until they can be reunited with family or friends.
The impetus of the organization is to reunite families. Casa de Paz also has a visitation program, which has turned into a pen pal program due to COVID-19. Volunteers are writing to 80 individuals at 10 different ICE detention centers around the country. Casa de Paz is funded primarily through membership fees to participate in the Volleyball Internacional volleyball league, started by Jackson.
Recently, Jackson co-authored a book with Scott Sawyer about her experiences forming and growing Casa de Paz, called “The House that Love Built: Why I opened My Door to Immigrants and How We Found Hope Beyond a Broken System” (Zondervan, 2020).
The following interview was edited for clarity and length.
HOW CASA DE PAZ WAS FORMED
Starting the Casa was a total accident. I was working at a church in Colorado Springs 12 years ago. Immigration wasn’t a blip on my radar. I was the senior pastor’s assistant. One of my responsibilities was to [manage] his email each morning before he got to the office.
One morning, there was an invitation from Catholic Charities. They were putting a group of pastors together from Colorado Springs to go to the U.S. border to learn about immigration-related issues. It didn’t pique my interest.
Once again, I didn’t think about anything immigration related back then. I looked at the dates and realized there was a conflict.
I was responding to Catholic Charities to say, “Thanks, but no thanks,” when the words “all expenses paid” caught my eye. Immediately I was intrigued. I was curious if I could go on the trip and report back to my pastor. It was a selfish desire. I just wanted a free trip to Mexico.
I reached out, and they said, “Sure, come on down.” Of course, once I was [at the border], the experience changed my life.
[On the trip] I met people on both sides of the border. I met asylum seekers who were fleeing violence and persecution. I also met individuals on the Mexico side of the border who had just been deported.
I asked myself, “Is this how I would want my family to be treated? Is this how I would want to be treated?” The answer every single time was, “No.”
When I came back from that trip, I knew I couldn’t forget what I had just witnessed. I wanted to be part of creating a better response when immigrants come to the United States.
For the first year [after the trip] I was learning. I was asking questions. I was going to events in Denver, a rally, or a protest, or an immigration movie night.
Still, I was fighting that little voice telling me, “Do something, do something.” I was just thinking, “No. no, no, no.” I was comfortable and didn’t want my life to change.
Eventually, I was exhausted from saying, “No.” Finally, I said, “Fine, what am I supposed to do?” I moved to Denver to try and do something impactful.
A PLAN BORN OF FAITH
My faith had everything to do with the move. The scripture that became real to me for the first time in my life was “to love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, and your mind,” and “to love your neighbor as yourself.” I was lying in bed, and it just clicked.
For the first time I realized, last night I was hungry, and I found food for myself. I was thirsty, and I found something to drink. If I claimed to be a follower of Jesus’s words, I couldn’t ignore that my neighbors do not have the same privileges.
Once it clicked, I realized I was either going to be the kind of person who lives out the things that she believes, or I was going to fake it through life, and I didn’t want to be a faker.
When I moved up to Denver, I still didn’t know what I was going to do. I didn’t know anyone. I just knew there was an immigrant detention center. I moved about five minutes away from that center.
Every month, I went to the prayer vigil/protest that was put on by the American Friends Service Committee. At one protest, someone mentioned the name “El Refugio,” a hospitality house in Georgia, which is a house about a mile away from the detention center.
[El Refugio] lets families spend the night when they are driving in from out of town to visit loved ones who are locked up. I knew right away that is what I was supposed to do.
I knew it for two reasons. One, you’re reuniting families. Second, I thought, “Oh my gosh, this is going to be so easy. All you have to do is get a house and let people stay with you.”
That was the birth of Casa de Paz. Originally, it was just going to be a house to let people stay while they are in town visiting loved ones in detention. Here we are, eight years later, and we have added the Post-Release Support program and the Visitation Support program.
RUNNING OUT OF MONEY
I started everything with my savings account. I didn’t actually get a home because I couldn’t afford one. The apartment that I rented was $545 a month, which I thought I could afford on my own. I found a different job and went to a part-time schedule so I could start the Casa.
Eventually, I did run out of money. I was eating at soup kitchens and getting my groceries from pantries. I didn’t have a lot of money, but I made it work.
I remember after two or three months of paying for things on my own dime I was getting desperate. I didn’t have a dollar to my name, and I had rent coming up. That is where the idea of starting Volleyball Internacional came from.
I needed money and I needed it fast. I didn’t want to ask people for help. At that time the Casa was such a new concept. I am not even sure I believed in it. I was doing it, but I didn’t believe in it enough to ask people to donate their money. I figured I had to find a way to make it happen.
I figured, I like playing volleyball. People have to pay to play in a league. I might as well start a league, charge people to play, and any profit we make would help pay for Casa de Paz.
UNITING FAMILIES
My work is important because if I was separated from my family, I know I would appreciate people coming next to me and helping me reunite with my family. If I or one of my family members were caught in our immigration detention system — I can’t imagine the pain I would be in. I would not stop at anything to be with my family. I want the same thing for other people.
When my brother was diagnosed with cancer last year, my mom got on the next flight so that she could be with him. They were living in Germany at the time, and she crossed an ocean to be with him. She didn’t have to wonder if she could make that flight. She didn’t have to worry if she had the right paperwork.
That is a privilege that my family has. I want a world where it isn’t a privilege to be with your family.
NEEDED IMMIGRATION REFORM
I think as a community we should create immigration policies that are more humane and more dignified. This must include not locking up folks that are fleeing war and violence and persecution.
We also need to stop using for-profit prisons. When you consider the fact that the majority of immigrants are detained in for-profit prisons, and there is a financial aspect to all of this is, it’s purely disgusting.
Immigrants arrive at our border and are greeted with handcuffs. Then corporations make more money the longer the detainees are held. It incentivizes detention over care.
We need to take a hard look at why we detain people and understand the motives at play. We’ll see that a lot of that motivation is financially based. The other motivation for detention is systemic racism.
ALTERNATIVES TO IMMIGRANT DETENTION
We need to have a real conversation about alternatives for immigrant detention. Alternatives do exist. They work. But they don’t make people rich because they cost pennies to the dollar. Let’s have a look there.
Alternatives include ankle monitors. I call them ankle shackles. People can be released and monitored. They can check in with their ICE Officers. This is one of a few alternatives to detention programs, and they work. They work. People are released on them, now. Not the majority of people, currently.
One of the arguments against this is that if you release someone, they won’t show up for their immigration hearings. But a lot of these claims are false.
The research shows that more than 90 percent of individuals do show up for their immigration hearings.
Some studies show it is more like 95-to-97 percent of individuals. These alternatives save us money and are more humane. It should be an obvious choice.
If I’m being honest, right now, I don’t see a path forward to immigration reform. Right now, I see the United States taking steps back, and not just little steps, in the way that our country treats immigrants and in our policies.
NEW CRUELTY UNDER THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
I want to be clear that immigration detention centers didn’t just pop up under the current administration. Immigrant detention centers have existed for decades.
The cruelty that I have seen is definitely heightened under this current administration. From the beginning, we heard the message the Trump administration wanted to send, “Build the wall.” “Keep them out.” They are doing everything that they can to keep immigrants and asylum seekers out.
A NOTE ABOUT THE REMAIN IN MEXICO POLICY
BASICALLY, THE REMAIN IN MEXICO POLICY SAYS when an asylum seeker comes to the border and presents themselves lawfully to an asylum officer, we now deny their legal rights.
Every human being has the right, the legal right, to come to the United States and at least ask for asylum. They’re not always granted it. In fact, the majority are denied asylum and deported. But they can at least ask for it.
Under the Remain in Mexico policy, which was put in place by the current administration, asylum seekers are basically told, “Okay, you asked. Now you have to wait on the Mexico side of the border until your case moves through the courts.”
They’re cut off from legal support. They’re there for months, just sitting ducks.
One of the policies I am referring to is the “Remain in Mexico” policy (see sidebar).
We have 50,000 asylum seekers waiting at the border. They’re very vulnerable when they’re in these groups of asylum seekers waiting in Mexico. They’re exposed to the elements. They may not have shelter.
Worse, they’re exposed to people who would prey upon vulnerable populations. They are vulnerable to people who may sexually assault them or kidnap them for sex slavery. Or just steal from them. It’s not uncommon for an asylum seeker, stuck in Mexico, to have a violent crime committed against them.
That is why I am not optimistic about the future. I keep seeing hurt individuals in a system that is treating them worse, and worse, and worse. We aren’t treating people with dignity and respect and affirming their humanity.
LEAVING DETENTION FOR A HOME
I want people to know that what you have is enough. You don’t need to go get the shiniest, newest whatever.
We started with a tiny one-bedroom apartment that had roaches, mice, and bed bugs, but it was enough. Then, we moved to a home that had multiple bedrooms, no mice, no roaches, and no bed bugs, and that was enough.
You already have what it takes to be a good neighbor to someone. You already have what it takes to be a good neighbor to an immigrant.
It is important that individuals leave the detention center and come to a home. They’ve been in these immigrant detention centers for months, sometimes years.
There is nothing colorful or cheerful or warm about it. [Detention] is sterile. It is unwelcoming. It is cold. It is a prison.
We have an opportunity to invite people to something that is the complete opposite of the detention center. We can give them something welcoming. They can feel like they are at home, even if just for a short while.
There have been guests who have stayed with us, and they have walked into the home. Not just one, not just two, not just three but a lot of guests. They have walked into the home, stopped, and looked around and said something to the effect of, “I feel the love that is in this place.”
And I love that. I love it. That keeps me going.
To learn more about Sarah’s book visit Zondervan’s website https://www.zondervan.com/9780310355625/the-house-that-love-built/■