Click here for West/Southwest IAF Key Victories in 2024

60 Nebraska Entities, Organized by OTOC, Convene at Capitol to Support Positive Immigration Reform

Diverse rural, urban, agriculture, health care, hospitality, education, construction, business, labor, faith, immigrant & community groups urge action

OTOC_Immigration_Press_Conference.png

[Excerpts from Press Release]

“This effort was built upon hundreds of conversations, as well as longstanding relationships across our state and across many different sectors,” said Denise Bowyer, a leader with Omaha Together One Community, a 30-year old organization made up of community and faith institutions. “It has been truly inspiring to see the strong alignment on forward-looking solutions from so many perspectives. There are striking common themes in our communities that illustrate the need for workable solutions that uphold our values and move us forward together.”

“Immigrant Nebraskans have long been part of the fabric of local families, communities, and workplaces. Together we build the good life, but unfortunately our federal immigration laws are decades out of date, which creates instability for families, children, communities, employers – for all of us,” said Bryan Slone, President of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce & Industry. 

“Now as baby boomers are retiring, we’re seeing workforce strain across sectors and unfilled jobs that impact each and every Nebraska industry, and each and every one of us for the services and infrastructure we need to count on. Trends indicate we’re only at the beginning of this challenge and urgently need positive solutions for Nebraska’s future.”

“The economic, social, and cultural contributions of immigrant community members are vital to Nebraska’s future”, said Lina Traslaviña Stover, Executive Director of Heartland Workers Center, and OTOC Leader. “Immigrants play a key role in supporting Nebraska’s agriculture, manufacturing, and service industries – which are essential to the state’s economy – as well as so many other health care, education, and community roles. Immigrant Nebraskans enrich local communities. Developing systems that provide attainable legal pathways for migration is crucial for ensuring Nebraska’s community and economic well-being.”

Read more

St. Margaret Mary, COPS/Metro Leverage Commitments on Police Substation

After organizing the vote in 2022 to secure the funds necessary to build a new police substation in southeast San Antonio, COPS/Metro leaders at St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church hosted a community feedback meeting and leveraged commitments to address homelessness, mental health services, and neighborhood services.

Public Voice Their Thoughts on New Southside Police Substation PlansNews4SA  [pdf]


In Missions Stadium Deal, COPS/ Metro Secures Living Wages, $500K in Relocation Aid + $34M for Infrastructure From Developer

Concrete Community Benefits are Now Included in Tax-Funded Downtown Project

Thanks to the intervention of COPS/Metro, concrete community benefits are now part of a partially tax-funded Downtown Missions Stadium project, thus creating a fairer deal for San Antonio residents, including those who will be relocated in advance of construction.

“When we look at this experience, we are keenly aware that doors were opened, conference rooms were made available and seats were placed at the table for billionaires, millionaires and developers,” said [COPS/Metro] leader Father Jimmy Drennan, referring to Missions investors, such as Weston Urban co-founder Graham Weston, a one-time billionaire."

COPS/Metro had been in negotiations with elected officials, city council members, city staff, Weston Urban, SAISD officials, institutional leaders, community leaders, and local residents.  COPS/Metro's complete statement and press can be read below:

Read more

COPS/Metro Fights for Community Benefits in Missions Baseball Stadium Deal

More than a year after closed-door talks began around a proposed stadium that would displace thousands of low-income residents, the City of San Antonio held its first public hearing.  COPS/Metro clergy and leaders decried the secrecy of negotiations and displacement of low-income families, while questioning whether the plan would actually come at no cost to taxpayers. 

Leaders presented Council a list of demands: community benefits that would ease the transition for thousands of Soap Factory Apartment residents, guarantee a place to return upon completion of the development, include provisions for affordable housing as part of the redevelopment and ensure living wages for workers involved in the project.  Councilmember Pelaez responded from the dais, calling the list of demands "not unreasonable requests" and urging their consideration by Council.   

According to the San Antonio Express-News, "city officials pushed the vote back a week [to next Thursday] because of sharp questions about the deal from the public and some council members."

[Photo Credit: Jessica Phelps, San Antonio Express-News]

Council Vote on Ballpark Deal Pushed to Sept. 12 after BacklashSan Antonio Express-News

'Kicking the Community Out': Proposal for Missions Ballpark Development Draws Criticism, ConcernSan Antonio Express-News [pdf]

City Council Makes Added Demands to Downtown Ballpark Deal That Will Displace RentersSan Antonio Report [pdf]  

COPS/Metro Testimony Starts at 48:59City of San Antonio Special Meeting 

 

 


Vatican Visit Deepens Relationships

On Wednesday August 29th, a delegation from the West/Southwest IAF met again with Pope Francis at his Vatican residence, Santa Marta. 

Despite his hectic schedule, the Pope spent 90 minutes with the group in a conversation filled with humor and wisdom. They discussed the organization's expanded organizing efforts in the region and deepening of the Recognizing the Stranger congregational strategy with the immigrant community. 

The conversation soon delved into the responsibility to organize relational power and cultivate a healthy politics.

“Power is fleeting,” he said. ‘You either take it or lose it. It is more comfortable to lose it, but it is more problematic. If you take it, the future is more secure.” 

The delegation emerged with his firm support for our network to engage with the Pontifical Commission for Latin America to foster organizing in the Americas, South and North, an initiative that originated from our network’s first visit with the Pope in 2022. 

We closed with a favorite prayer of his from St. Thomas More, which ends with: “Grant me O Lord a sense of good humor.  Allow me the grace to be able to take a joke and to discover in life a bit of joy, and to be able to share it with others.”

Pope Meets with U.S. Leaders on Immigration After 'Grave Sin' CommentsAngelus News [pdf]

El Papa se Reúne con Líderes de EEUU para Hablar de Inmigración Tras Comentarios sobre el “Pecado Grave”, Angelus News [pdf]

Pope Francis Meets with Leaders of the US Organized CommunitiesVatican News [pdf]

El Papa Recibió a los Líderes de Comunidades Organizadas de Estados UnidosVatican News [pdf]

Houston Rabbi Travels to Rome for Meeting with Pope FrancisJewish Herald-Voice [pdf]

A Way of Life Flavoured by GospelL'Osservatore Romano [pdf]

 

Read more

In Midst of Ceiling Collapse, DAI Tenant Leaders are at Center of Fight to Improve Apartment Conditions in Dallas

[Excerpts]

You have to wonder what would become of the residents of Kendall Villas without advocates like Dallas Area Interfaith pressing the city on their behalf.

....city staffers were aware that many of Villanueva’s neighbors had concerns. A code compliance supervisor had talked to residents in April at the behest of Dallas Area Interfaith. The nonprofit said residents relayed stories about raw sewage leaking onto walkways, electric stoves sparking and mold in bathrooms. Based on their photos and video, and what I saw in person, I believe them.

DAI met again with city officials in May. The concerns persisted into June, when DAI hosted another meeting with city workers at Kendall Villas. A code compliance officer surveyed Villanueva’s collapsed ceiling, according to DAI representatives who were there.

DAI member and Kendall Villas resident Yazbeth Esquivel, 35, helped organize neighbors who had concerns. A handful of complaints trickled into 311 in May, and more than 30 came into the system at once in June....

[Photo Credit: Michael Hogue, Dallas Morning News]

Bad Landlords Make Dallas Housing Miserable. Why Can't City Crack Down?Dallas Morning News [pdf]

¿Porqué Dallas Permite Que Propietarios Tengan Apartamentos en Malas Condición?Dallas Morning News [pdf]


Washington Post Recognizes 'Going Public' by Michael Gecan

[Excerpt]

Before Barack Obama brought a spotlight to the term “community organizer,” Gecan had been one for years, guiding communities on how to work with politicians to fix problems. “Going Public” (2012) is his account of putting these principles to work in a New York City neighborhood where a housing crisis had left the area in such decline that it was once described as “the beginning of the end of civilization.”

Local leaders, with Gecan’s counsel, spent years embracing their collective power to fight for the change they wanted, holding civic leaders such as Ed Koch and Rudy Giuliani to account until the community’s goals were achieved with the building of thousands of new homes.

Gecan’s tale of dogged persistence in the face of political bureaucracy offers an inspiring look at what citizens can do to make a difference in a democracy. 

7 Great Political BooksWashington Post  [pdf]


600 Tulsa Leaders Engage Mayoral Candidates on Non-Partisan Agenda

ACTION Leaders Propose "Institutional ID" Program as Path Forward After Passage of Anti-Immigrant HB 4516 

[Excerpts]

16 faith groups and advocacy organizations turned out for ACTION Tulsa's Mayoral Accountability Session on July 28 inside Trinity Episcopal Church.

"I think this might be the first of its kind in this kind of format," Sheyda Brown from Terence Crutcher Foundation told 2 News....

Maria de Leon from Tulsa Lutherans in Action introduced the “institutional ID” strategy, saying people are nervous since the passage of Oklahoma House Bill 4156 criminalizing undocumented status. A first offense would be punishable by a fine of up to $500 and one year in jail; a second offense carries a felony punishment of up to two years in jail and a $1,000 fine.

HB 4156 is currently on hold due to a federal judge’s order. But Oklahoma is appealing, and de Leon said people are afraid to engage...

“families are scared to take their kids to school or to report crime.”

All the mayoral candidates expressed support for an unofficial ID program. 

[Photo Credit: Terence Crutcher Foundation / Black Wall Street Times / Facebook Livestream]

ACTION Tulsa Mayoral Candidate Program Draws Crowd of 500+, KJRH 2 News [pdf]

Mayoral Candidates Discuss Support for Grassroots Immigrant ID ProgramPublic Radio Tulsa [pdf]


Community Hospital & 'TB Cottages' COPS/Metro Rescued Are Now at Forefront of Fight Against Diabetes


The Texas Diabetes Institute - recently cited by the New York Times in a groundbreaking expose of San Antonio's Latino amputation crisis - largely exists thanks to COPS/Metro.  During the early 1990s, when the local Lutheran hospital filed for bankruptcy, COPS/Metro built the political will for the City of San Antonio to purchase the hospital.

[Excerpts]

People in the neighborhood “were afraid of losing (the) only health-care facility, and others were concerned about the negative economic impact,” Ermis said....

Community groups such as Communities Organized for Public Service, or COPS, and Metro Alliance worked with city and county leaders to purchase the property and build a new health care facility there. A study determined that “diabetes was the No. 1 health issue for that (area’s) population,” Ermis said.

....These are now in use as offices of the Texas Diabetes Institute, which opened May 9, 1999. Operated by the University Health System, the community health resource offers a range of treatment and education services.

[Photo Credit: Conservation Society of San Antonio]

One-Time 'TB Cottages' Converted to Help Tackle DiabetesSan Antonio Express-News [pdf]


CCG Celebrates 5 Years of Growth & Advances for Working Families

Over 300 leaders of Coloradans for the Common Good (CCG) celebrated 5 years of organizing for the common good. Leaders shared stories of how this work helped them grow and develop, celebrated numerous achievements in improving conditions for working families, and committed to continue working together in the future.

"I remember when there were just a few of us around a table," B'nai Havurah member and CCG leader Zeik Saidman, "and to see all those people and institutions in the room together makes me very proud."

Some of the wins highlighted included expanding pandemic workplace protections to 50,000 grocery store and meat packing workersobtaining $29 million in rental assistance funding in the 2024 Denver city budget, and raising wages for hourly school employees to some of the highest in the country.

"Through this organization I have been able to stand as equals with the people who run my school district," said JESPA President and CCG leader Zander Kaschub; "that is something I never thought I could do as a food service worker who was angry about what I was seeing happen to students and my colleagues."

[Photo Credit: Simone Schiess Photography]