One LA Leaders Educate 1,000 & Launch Immigration Strategy
In the first three month of the year, One LA leaders engaged over 1,000 LA County residents through fifteen 'Know Your Rights' civic academies hosted by member institutions. In partnership with One LA member Neighborhood Legal Services of LA, leaders educated participants on the the implications of recent presidential executive orders including the enforcement of immigration regulations, as well as the Muslim and Refugee Travel Ban. "Train the Trainer" seminars have also been organized to teach institutional leaders about the civil and due process rights to which all US residents are entitled, regardless of immigration status.
The newly re-energized Immigration Strategy Team is now crafting a vision / action plan they will take to LA County and state-elected leaders to ensure that all families, including blended immigrant families – those with US citizens and unauthorized immigrants – are protected and treated fairly. This task force also plans to challenge unconstitutional orders and implementation practices by federal immigration and other law enforcement agencies.
EPISO/Border Interfaith Clergy To Immigrants: You Are Not Alone
Civic academies put together by the El Paso Interreligious Sponsoring Organization (EPISO) and Border Interfaith are drawing upwards of 50 parishioners per session eager to learn how to use their civil rights to protect family members from deportation.
Read moreValley Interfaith Priest Concerned That SB4 Can Empower Cartels
Following a press conference in which leaders of the Texas IAF Network of Organizations joined the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops to oppose the anti-sanctuary cities bill, SB4, Fr. Kevin Collins of St. Eugene's de Mazenod Catholic Church and Valley Interfaith in Brownsville had more to say.
"If you cannot trust the police, who can you turn to?" Collins argues that one unintended consequence of SB4 becoming a law is that organized crime will become more powerful if community policing is diminished by lack of trust.
Read moreTexas IAF Network Joins Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops in Stand Against Anti-Immigrant Bill SB4
Said Bishop Joe Vásquez, on behalf of the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, "We reject the premise that persons who are merely suspected of being undocumented immigrants should be rounded up by state and local police agents."
"This bill requires local police and sheriff's deputies to enforce federal immigration laws as if their job of maintaining public order and the public safety weren't difficult enough as it is," said John Elford, senior pastor of University United Methodist Church and member of Austin Interfaith.
Read moreSouthern Arizona Religious Leaders Sign Joint Statement Opposing Discrimination
More than 60 Southern Arizona religious leaders gathered on short notice to sign a joint statement expressing opposition to presidential executive orders banning the admission of select refugees and calling for the construction of a border wall.
Initially convened by Catholic Bishop Gerald Kicanas, with support from Southern Arizona Interfaith and Pima County Interfaith Civic Education Organization, clergy from Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Sikh backgrounds participated in the preparation of the joint statement. 105 religious leaders from 57 congregations ultimately signed on.
Read moreMOC Confronts Deportation & Eviction Threats to Immigrants
Fierce winter rains were not enough to stop over 300 leaders of Marin Organizing Committe from convening to discuss the dual threats many immigrants face: deportation and loss of housing.
Read moreCOPS/Metro & Allies Protest Detention: "Let Our Babies Go"
More than 50 COPS / Metro Alliance leaders and allies assembled outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office in San Antonio A protest the continued detention of thousands of immigrant women and children in Texas. About 2,200 detainees, mostly women and children, are detained in two facilities in Texas -- Dilly and Karnes, some for as long as one year. Protesters brought baby shower balloons, socks and diapers to the ICE office to represent the children held in detention. Leaders from Texas UU Justice Ministry, Interfaith Welcome Coalition, RAICES and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network called on ICE to transfer detainees to family members in the US who can pay for their housing, food and assistance.
Border Interfaith Teaches New Citizens the Mechanics of Voting
At St. Joseph's Catholic Catholic Church, Border Interfaith leaders brought in voting machines for a hands-on lesson on the mechanics of voting. Click below for video in Spanish.
Read moreAustin Interfaith Challenges Candidates for Sheriff
150 leaders of Austin Interfaith gathered for an evening delegates assembly that soon transitioned into a nonpartisan accountability assembly with all primary candidates for Travis County Sheriff. Candidates were limited to timed responses to questions about the processing of undocumented immigrants and cooperation with ICE, workforce development for people before release and face-to-face visitation for prisoners. Most candidates responded yes to each of the questions.
Austin Interfaith Calls for Compassion in Sheriff's Race, Time Warner Cable
Border Interfaith & EPISO Join Pope Francis for Mass
Invited as honored guests by Bishop Mark Seitz of the Diocese of El Paso, leaders of EPISO and Border Interfaith traveled to the US levee to celebrate mass with Pope Francis during his historic visit to Ciudad Juarez on the border. They were included in a "small contingency of the faithful" to greet him as he approached the river's edge from Ciudad Juarez to deliver a special blessing and prayer for the safety and security of immigrants in their search for a better life.
Before departing to the levee, leaders joined US Catholic Bishops and Cardinals for a special gathering in which they reported local action around immigration, including work around the recent increased presence of State Troopers in El Paso County.
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