About 100 gathered for a civic academy organized by Austin Interfaith leaders from the Equal Justice Center and Congregational Church of Austin; guests from San Antonio RAICES and the UT Austin Longhorn Institute for Latin American Studies explained the dangers children are fleeing and the legal and political challenges they face today. Two Central American youth who had recently arrived shared powerful testimonies about what they fled.

Two months prior, Austin Interfaith issued a call to action after a public presentation at the Travis County Commissioners Court. Since then, the City of Austin unanimously passed a resolution "welcoming" the children to Austin and ordering City staff to identify unused resources for them.

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Asserting that anyone under 18 years must have an attorney and should never be subjected to expedited processing, hundreds of bishops and clergy from every major religious denomination in Texas denounced proposed changes to the Trafficking Victims Act of 2008 and called on the White House for a better approach to the humanitarian crisis at the border.

In El Paso, San Antonio, Houston, Austin, Fort Worth and Dallas, religious leaders preached about the crisis at the border, organized relief efforts and held press conferences reminding the White House and Congress of the Judeo-Christian admonishment for nations to "show kindness and mercy to one another, not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner or the poor (Zechariah 7:9-10)."

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Bishops, and clergy from congregational members of Border Interfaith and El Paso Interreligious Sponsoring Organization (EPISO), are calling for additional protection of the tens of thousands unaccompanied Central American children that are at the Texas border.

In a press conference in El Paso, Bishop Mark Seitz walked through a letter signed by hundreds of clergy and addressed to the President and to Congress, that details specific recommendations. Clergy leaders want the White House to preserve the protections established in the Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Act of 2008 for those that arrive on our border seeking refuge, provision of legal assistance to any minor under 18 years of age, and attention to the religious needs of the children and family by granting clergy access to US Border Patrol detention facilities and the US Office of Refugee Resettlement.

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