Hi, I’m Pastor Rod Parsley, and today I’m in McAllen, Texas, at our nation’s largest border patrol facility. I’m here with these great pastors from all across America. We’ve just toured that facility, and I need you to understand that I am both humbled, hurt, outraged. It was Elie Wiesel that survived the Holocaust, won the Nobel Peace Prize, who first said, “I swore to never be silent wherever and whenever men and women endure suffering and humiliation.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter most.” I won’t be silent ever again. Our times demand it, our history compels it, our future requires it, and today in McAllen, Texas, and across the U.S.-Mexico border, God is still watching.

I’m outraged not because of this facility, not because of these border agents, who are men and women laying their lives on the line every single day to preserve the rule of law in the United States of America. I’m outraged at three decades of inaction from Washington, DC, and that they have created and continue to exacerbate this humanitarian crisis. While you’re on vacation, in 104-degree weather, the border agents are here. And I can tell you I have been in many prison facilities across the United States, state and federal. I have never seen a better facility than this facility. So, what you’ve heard is not true. These people are being cared for. We talked to several of them. All of them said, “I’m happy here. I’m well treated here. I’m fed here. I’m clothed here. I’m safe here.” And it’s time for the United States Congress and the Administration to end the gridlock. Fix this crisis. I’ve built many buildings in my day. What these men and women need could be taken care of in 30 days for facilities and everything they need, but we’ve been three decades waiting on you. Our wait is over. You will either solve this crisis, or you will no longer have our vote to have the opportunity to fix this crisis. Enough pointing the finger, enough blaming the other side of the aisle. Get off vacation and come fix this crisis or stop using it for your political gain. Look, regardless of your personal view on this very, very polarizing issue, what I witnessed are human beings that urgently need God’s love in every area of their lives. The men, the women, the children who have come to our nation’s border are in desperate need of care in facilities that are obviously, sincerely struggling to cope with the scale of this humanitarian crisis. Jesus calls us all to love, to serve our neighbor, all our neighbors, wherever they’re from. I see with eyes wide open neighbors that need our help. The question isn’t how these men, these women, these little boys and girls and infants made it to this spot in McAllen, Texas, but it’s clearly how we can meet their needs and this critical issue at our doorstep. Each one of them is uniquely made in the image of God Himself and has inherent dignity. They have inherent value, and they need our help.

I don’t presume to have all the answers—none of us do—to these very complex issues, the problem of illegal immigration, but I do know that the staff and the men and women that I met today are doing an overwhelmingly incredible, godly job in this very difficult situation. They’re doing it with grace. They’re doing it with compassion, and I’d like to thank the border agents who accommodated our visit here, today. They’ve dedicated their time, their talent to serve this great nation, and they deserve all of our thanks and a commitment to support them. They do not need our condemnation. Make no mistake about it now. What I saw today constitutes a vast humanitarian crisis in the United States of America. I’ve responded to such emergencies efficiently, effectively through our work with Bridge of Hope, throughout my 40 years of public Gospel ministry. What’s frustrating is the knowledge that the United States Congress and the Administration could be doing so much more to address this crisis than they have done to this point or for the last 30 years. It deserves our compassionate action, not Tweets and not photo ops for election purposes. I was deeply touched by meeting many of these folks. I was heartbroken to see so many eyes looking at me, as I feel Jesus would have looked at me, so many of them, so well taken care of. Many of them were smiling and waving at me. They were holding up peace signs to me. It’s heartbreaking, and I don’t understand why no one in Washington, D.C., is heartbroken. Maybe you’re heartless. So, I ask you, today, do everything you can.