The Rev. Loyd Divinagracia encouraging parishioners with EPISO after meeting with Lower Valley Water District Board in Socorro, Texas

In their town of 30,000, EPISO leaders from Socorro, TX learned that ICE bought three warehouses for $123M to create one of the largest immigrant detention centers in the country, threatening to detain 8,500 people. Refusing to accept this, they organized hundreds of residents, ultimately scaling back detention center plans and postponing the construction start date.

Working with three Catholic parishes, EPISO leaders and priests brought the mayor and 120 parishioners together to discuss how the proposal would exacerbate their already unreliable water pressure and sewer backups. Many parishioners were immigrants themselves or had family affected by immigration enforcement.

Leaders organized house meetings with 75 residents, sharing firsthand accounts of water shutoffs hitting a local dialysis center and shutting down school bathrooms. On May 28, 40 leaders packed a Lower Valley Water District board meeting to urge opposition to the detention center due to their moral outrage and the severe impact the center would have on their already inadequate water infrastructure.

The same organized parishes that secured water and sewage infrastructure for Socorro in the 80s are continuing to fight for water access and the dignity of their neighbors. EPISO leader Maria Estella Padilla (middle in photo below with Alicia Mossman and Gerardo Cruz), who was part of that fight decades ago, testified at the May Water District board meeting (quoted in El Paso Matters):

I’m completely opposed to detention centers on so many levels, on a human level, ethical, moral, our faith, we just don’t believe in that. The way we’re treating them, it’s just abhorrent...But on a practical level, we don’t have water...

and we have several issues at our house. The most common one is the pressure.”

Rep. Veronica Escobar brought together the water district director, engineer, mayor, and Acting ICE Director David Venturella — the first direct conversation between ICE and local water officials on the project. Facing organized residents and an infrastructure case they couldn't ignore, ICE announced the postponement of the center’s opening by 18 months and reduction of plans to include a training facility and significantly fewer detainees.

Bishop Mark J. Seitz's pastoral letter against mass detention and deportation supported leaders’ momentum. As Bishop Seitz wrote,

...the current national campaign of mass detention and deportations is a grave moral evil, one which must be opposed, with prayer, peaceful action and acts of solidarity with those affected."

EPISO is continuing to educate residents about the detention center and ongoing water concerns, and encouraging local government officials to protect their water and community.

Inside the Parish-Led Fight Against a $123M ICE Facility in Texas, Religion News Service [pdf]

Socorro Catholic Churches Unite Residents Over ICE Detention Center, Water Concerns, El Paso Matters [pdf]

Pastoral Message on Mass Detention and Mass Deportations in El Paso, Bisop Mark Seitz, The Catholic Diocese of El Paso [pdf]