Voice Your Support for Bi-Partisan Dream Act

The Dream Act of 2017, S. 1615, was recently introduced in the Senate as a bipartisan effort, sponsored by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL). It is intended to protect immigrant youth who entered the United States as children and know America as their only home. The bill offers qualifying immigrant youth “conditional permanent resident status” and a path to full lawful permanent residency and eventual citizenship. This bill would protect numerous youth, including the estimated 780,000 individuals who received temporary relief from deportation and employment eligibility through the Department of Homeland Security's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

The young people S. 1615 seeks to protect are contributors to our economy, veterans of our military, academic standouts in our universities, and leaders in our parishes and communities. As Catholics, we have long supported DREAMERS as we believe in protecting the dignity of every human being, especially that of our children.

We ask you to renew your support for DREAMERS by urging your Senator to co-sponsor S. 1615. You can do so by sending the following message:  

Dear Senator,

As a person of faith, I stand with the U.S. Catholic Bishops and write to express my strong support for the "Dream Act of 2017" (S. 1615). The young people protected by this bill are contributors to our economy, veterans of our military, academic standouts in our universities, and leaders in our parishes and communities. As Catholics, we have long supported DREAMERS as we believe in protecting the dignity of every human being, especially that of our children. Among those protected by this bill are Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, a program that has benefited over 780,000 young people. DACA has ensured that recipients are able to live their lives free of the anxiety that they could be deported at any time to a country they do not know and separated from their families. We believe immigrant youth deserve continued protection and a path to citizenship.

I urge you to:
•    Support and co-sponsor S. 1615, the Dream Act of 2017; and
•    Continue to work towards larger legislative reform of our immigration laws.

The faith community stands with you in support of the DREAM Act of 2017, S. 1615, and vows to work with you to reform our immigration system in a humane and common-sense manner.

Thank you.

Training Develops Social Justice Advocates at Our Universities

By Monica Cruz, Director of the Ettling Center for Civic Leadership, University of the Incarnate Word

I have had the wonderful opportunity to serve as a member of the Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Committee (JPIC) for the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word for nearly 2 years.  Our committee has hosted several educational and inspiring presentations to understand the importance of creating a sustainable environment, Laudato Si and understanding the plight of victims of human trafficking and refugees around the world.  

Another important area of JPIC is to develop the advocacy skills of members who wish to increase their civic participation on important social justice issues.  Last summer, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Changemakers gathering sponsored by the Marianist Social Justice Collaborative.  During this event, we were asked to commit to develop a project or initiative that we felt was important to further develop leaders who understood and embraced social justice causes in our community.  As someone who has taught State and Local Politics courses and serves on the CCVI JPIC committee, I was inspired to commit to developing a Social Justice Advocacy Training for university students.  I had been playing with this idea for quite some time but my involvement as a member of JPIC propelled me into action to develop this training for students that focused on Texas public education and finance—an issue that the students selected to focus on.  

The 3 day training took place during spring break with the first two days in San Antonio and the third day with a trip to the Austin capitol.  Students from 6 colleges in San Antonio gathered to become knowledgeable about school finance and curriculum development; more knowledgeable about the public policy process for education; and more comfortable speaking and advocating about these issues in the community and in government through the lens of social justice. Students critically analyzed Senate bill 3, the school voucher bill and learned how the idea of equally distributing public school vouchers to children in Texas did not necessarily translate into achieving equity in our schools.  

Robert Cavazos, a student from the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) who participated in the training stated, “All of us recognized how important, and unfortunately how rare it is, for college students to engage in local and state politics and advocate for social justice. We considered what we can do to further our training and advocacy experience beyond this spring break conference. We felt the burden of responsibility that UIW instilled in us through an emphasis on Catholic Social Teaching; and with the tools of social justice advocacy now at our disposal, we are ready to make our public schools and our communities better through our willingness to care.” 

It was truly inspiring watching these students walk through the halls of the state capitol advocating for equity in our public schools.  We hope the experience gave them the tools to continue as social justice advocates on issues affecting the most vulnerable in our community for years to come.   

Students Organize to Create "Sanctuary" Campuses

Students at over 50 colleges and universities planned to walk out of class Wednesday to push their schools to adopt “sanctuary campus” policies to keep undocumented students safe from deportation.

The protests come amid fears that President-elect Donald Trump, who rallied supporters with his attacks on immigration, will make good on his pledge to deport millions of undocumented immigrants once in office next year.

Students and activists are particularly concerned about his plan to “immediately” repeal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, President Barack Obama’s 2012 executive action that protects young people from deportation and allows them to work if they meet certain criteria. Over 700,000 people have DACA status and an estimated 600,000 more are eligible.

The idea of campuses as safe havens stems from sanctuary cities, an unofficial designation for cities where officials limit cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Trump has threatened to cut all funding to sanctuary cities, but several have vowed to continue their policies.

Students, faculty and alumni have also circulated petitions in the past week, calling on administration to designate sanctuary campuses at more than a dozen schools, including Yale, Brown, Stanford, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Massachusetts-Amherst and University of Southern California. 

The petitions list several demands that vary by institution. (Read Movimiento Cosecha’s list here.) These include calls for universities to refuse to release information on students’ immigration statuses, limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities and bar them from entering campuses.

A sanctuary designation might not have a significant effect on ICE tactics, but it could have a “symbolic impact.” 

“It sends a message to all immigrant students and students who have immigrants in their families that the university is an inclusive community, that the goal of the university is to educate and promote an engaged citizenry for the future and that we do that without regard to citizenship status, without regard to immigration status,” César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, said.

continue reading HERE 

Living Laudato Si - Sustainability at UIW

UIW Solar House 

This month we want to share with you some of the great work being done by the Sustainability Office and the Ettling Center for Civic Leadership at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, TX.  Last year the Sustainability Office collaborated with a group of engineering students to build a 100% energy efficient solar house on campus!  The house achieved the highest LEED rating: platinum level.  This building now houses the Sustainability Office and is open for tours and as a learning laboratory on campus.  There is also currently a new project in the works utilizing wind energy for water desalination, which would increase the availability of clean drinking water.

 

The UIW student government and the Ettling Center partner together on a program called Sustainability Scholars, where students work on projects around campus and other sites in the city such as community vegetable gardens and butterfly gardens.  One project taken on by a sustainability scholar has been the “mariposa project” educating about the importance of butterflies and teaching how to grow and increase the presence of native plants that butterflies need to grow and survive. 

Around campus there have also been improved recycling efforts, increasing the presence of recycling

bins around campus and ensuring that the bins themselves are made of recyclable or reused materials.  A number of water fountains around campus have also been converted to fill up reusable water bottles and encourage students to not drink out of plastic water bottles. 

UIW students work to expand
community garden space

Sustainability is also a topic that is incorporated into the curriculum, and that is incorporated as much as possible into the building standards of all new UIW buildings and renovations.  Two school wide events that happen each year to get students active in sustainability are Earth Week and Recyclemania. 

Thank you to the many students, staff, and faculty around UIW who are living Laudato Si each day through increased education and action to care for our common home!