Event Announcement: What does immigrant hospitality look like? A live conversation with Anton Flores about his new book, "Welcome, Friends."
Please join Anton Flores and I on August 5 at 7:00 PM EST for a discussion about his two-decades of experience building community with immigrants and refugees. Register below.
It takes courage to write about immigrant welcome and hospitality at a time when immigration policies have perhaps never been harsher, when enforcement agencies move with a speed and violence that feel sharper than in recent memory. And yet maybe this is exactly when we need stories like these the most—stories of hope, endurance, and community.
Anton Flores-Maisonet’s new book, Welcome, Friends, offers exactly that: a vision rooted in courage and human connection, drawn from two decades of walking alongside immigrants in Georgia. His is not a story that fits easily within the loudest narratives about religion and borders. While so much of what passes for “faith” in public discourse today calls for walls and deportations, Anton’s work speaks from a place of love, relationship, and radical hospitality.
Just days before President Trump’s inauguration, Anton and I traveled to Chichén Itzá in the Yucatán Peninsula. We went not just as tourists, but as friends seeking time to reflect and prepare for what we sensed would be a heavy season ahead. There, walking among the ruins of a once-great civilization that Anton’s late son, Eli, had been fascinated by, we were reminded that the volatility of history is always present, and that survival often comes through adaptation, resilience, and networks of care.
Now, months into the Trump administration, Anton’s book returns us to the fundamentals: showing up, sharing meals, opening doors, making room. These simple acts, he reminds us, are not just kind gestures. They are practices of resistance. They might even be holy, even for those of us who may not consider ourselves religious.
As someone who long ago rejected the extreme conservatism of my evangelical upbringing, I haven’t necessarily found more compelling answers on the secular left. But what Anton reminds me—and many others—is that faith, at its best, still holds immense public power. His book moves seamlessly between devotional and manifesto. It offers vivid vignettes from his years of accompaniment, questions for further reflection, and an urgent call to resist through relationship-building.
We’ll also hear about how Anton’s work has evolved over the past six months of the Trump administration, specifically his accompaniment work with immigrants who are attending immigration court hearings in downtown Atlanta.
This will be my first time hosting a public conversation centered on faith, and especially on hospitality. I hope you’ll join us. Bring your questions, your doubts, your curiosity. Bring someone who might not usually attend something like this.
There will be plenty of time for Q&A, and even more space to think together.
The event will be held virtually on Zoom at 7:00 PM Eastern on Tuesday, August 5. This is my first time hosting an evening event, rather than a midday event, in the hopes that people who are not normally able to join will have the opportunity.
About the Book: Welcome, Friends. Welcome, Friends, published by Story Sanctum Publishing, is a book shaped by open doors, shared meals, late-night tears, and the unshakable belief that love crosses borders. In these pages, Anton Flores-Maisonet weaves powerful stories of welcoming immigrants—from the grief-soaked silence of detention centers and immigration courts to the everyday grace of a welcome table set for strangers who become friends. With the clarity of a social worker, the tenderness of a father, and the conviction of a faith-rooted activist, Anton invites us into the sacred work of radical hospitality. Read Anton’s ongoing writing at CasaAlterna.org.
About Anton Flores. Anton Flores-Maisonet is a writer, spiritual director, and co-founder of Casa Alterna, a community of radical hospitality with immigrants. Anton lives with his wife, Charlotte, at the Atlanta Friends Meeting, where he serves as Friend-in-Residence. His life and work are shaped by grief, grounded in faith, and sustained by a hope that welcomes-even in the hardest places.
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