Hundreds Gather to Protest Texas Senate Bill 4

On Monday, June 26th hundreds gathered in front of the US Federal Courthouse in San Antonio to protest Texas Senate Bill 4 (SB4).  The Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word have publicly opposed SB 4.  Present from the Congregation were Srs. Jean Durel, Marichui Bringas, Martha Ann Kirk, and Elizabeth Riebschlaeger.  Also present was the Archbishop of San Antonio, Bishop Garcia-Siller.  We are grateful for their prophetic witness and presence, standing in solidarity with our undocumented sisters and brothers who seek refuge in our communities.  Sr. Elizabeth wrote the following report about the experience below.  

In front of US Federal Courthouse in San Antonio, hundreds gathered to protest the recently passed Texas Senate Bill 4 (SB4) signed into state law by Gov. Greg Abbot. SB 4 criminalizes the tradition of "seeking sanctuary," making cities who choose to name themselves as "sanctuary cities" subject to prosecution.  Becoming a sanctuary city can include adopting policies that prevent local law enforcement from collaboration with federal officials in identification, detention and deportation of undocumented residents.  SB 4 also removes the value of "sanctuary" as a protection in the presence of disputable and unjust civil laws that threaten the civil and constitutional rights of persons in residence. San Antonio, like others in the USA, is by culture, history, tradition, and disposition a sanctuary city. Hundreds from San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Houston and surrounding communities manifested their public endorsement for sanctuary civic policy as Federal Judge Garcia began hearing arguments in the legal challenges to SB 4 inside the Court building. 

(Photos and Report by Sister Elizabeth Riebschlaeger, ccvi) 

Sanctuary Prayer

Sanctuary Prayer: (by Jane Deren, PhD)

Who offered the stable for the birth of a child?  

Who offered refuge in Egypt when the family had to flee?  

Who welcomed them there?  

Who will offer sanctuary to the immigrants in our communities 

as they face roundups, as their human dignity is ignored?  

Who will welcome and protect them?  

Who will choose love and inclusion over fear?  

Who of us will recognize a holy family, 

a mother, a child?  

Who of us will remember Christ’s words: 

“I was a stranger and you welcomed me; 

What you do for the least of these, you do for me.”  

Amen 

4 Ways Your Faith Community Can Prepare for Sanctuary

By Rev. Alison Harrington

We call upon our congregations and communities to go beyond talk of loving our neighbor to revolutionary love, living our faith and values by opening our doors and hitting the streets to create sanctuary alongside marginalized communities to stop the violence and seek justice in all that we do. Here’s how we can prepare while the newly elected administration moves in.

1. SIGN THE PLEDGE TO RESIST DEPORTATION AND DISCRIMINATION.

Making this public commitment sends a strong message of resistance to the administration that our faith communities will not stand by while our friends, families, and neighbors continue to live in fear as targets of hate crimes, incarceration, and deportation. 

Our pledge also sets an example of powerful, values-rooted resistance for people of faith and moral conscience who are struggling to discern the right thing to do in this moment. And most importantly, it is a promise to marginalized communities that we will work alongside those in the struggle to ensure the dignity and human rights of all people.

When you add your name, make sure to mark whether your faith community is interested in playing a role in the Sanctuary Movement so we’ll be able to connect with you to hear what your community needs, and equip you with strategies, stories, trainings, and opportunities to take action.

2. CONNECT WITH LOCAL SANCTUARY COMMUNITIES, IMMIGRANT RIGHTS GROUPS AND COALITIONS.

We’re in a new era of organizing because of the elected administration’s extreme racist, discriminatory, and anti-immigrant policy proposals — but these are deep-set issues our communities have been fighting against for a long time. 

Connecting with groups that have experience working within immigrant and marginalized communities, and are led by people in the struggle, is a necessary first step to creating powerful and sustainable local coalitions that can plug into the national movement.

Here’s a list of pro-immigrant faith groups, or you can do a Google search for local immigrant rights groups in your city or state.

3. PROVIDE SPACE IN YOUR HOMES, HOUSES OF WORSHIP, AND COMMUNITY CENTERS FOR HEALING, EDUCATING, AND ORGANIZING.

Depending on what the needs are of our local communities, and what happens after Inauguration Day, Sanctuary may be needed in a variety of contexts.

But immediately, we can create safe spaces anywhere for people to heal, learn, and organize:

Offer up the literal spaces of our churches and community centers for gatherings, forums, office space, and organizing work. A lot of crucial organizing work happens on a shoestring budget. Any resources we have to support that work can mean the difference between success or failure. One of the easiest and yet most powerful things we can do in this moment is provide childcare for community meetings — childcare is costly and yet vital for the participation of parents at meetings.

Just remember: Opening our spaces to community groups to meet and strategize does not mean we are invited into that space. Unlock the doors, turn on the heat, and move out of the way. There is, of course, times in which we may be invited, but we must wait for those invitations and have upfront conversations with folks about expectations. 

White allies can create sanctuary space within your communities for white people to engage in talking about White Supremacy. Over half of white Americans voted for the President-elect, including a surprising number of white women and college-educated white men. We will need to consider smart outreach and ministry strategies to dismantle deep-rooted racism and xenophobia within our own circles and communities.

Create and respect the sanctuary spaces of marginalized and underrepresented people. All of those directly impacted by systems of violence and oppression must have their own space to heal and find wholeness within circles of love and support where their life and experience is centered and shared.

4. SET UP A RAPID RESPONSE TEAM FOR IMMIGRATION RAIDS THROUGH SANCTUARY IN THE STREETS OR THE PROTECTION NETWORK.

Sanctuary doesn’t just have to be a specific space or region, it is also a way of being. Communities banding together and looking out for one another can be a powerful way to provide each other with sanctuary.

Pro-immigrant communities and organizations have been setting up loose networks to watch out for each other for as long as they’ve existed. More recently, people have been using and setting up these networks to watch out for and respond to immigration agents ripping people apart from their communities.

Immigrant communities almost always have informal mutual aid networks among themselves. Intentionally listening for them, and finding ways to support them when invited to, is one of the best first ways to become a part of a local rapid response network.

Formalizing these networks in times of duress is part of how the Protection Network in Arizona was born from extreme anti-immigrant hostility, aspiring to provide legal support, trainings, a common defense fund, and a rapid response system.

Creating sanctuary everywhere isn’t easy, but it becomes easier when we remember a lot of what we need already exists in the love and connection we have for one another. The more we can build on that, the better we’ll all be.

(Original article and additional resources can be found HERE)

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 

A Brief Overview of Sanctuary Cities

What are sanctuary cities?

A sanctuary city is a city that shelters undocumented immigrants. According to apsanlaw.com, these cities "do not permit municipal funds or resources to be applied in furtherance of enforcement of federal immigration laws." In these cities, local and state government employees are often instructed not to inquire about one's immigration status and told not to report undocumented workers.

In some sanctuary cities, if an undocumented immigrant is caught committing a crime, say driving without a license, they will be ordered to serve jail time or pay fines, but will then be let go, according to the Washington Post. Since there is no official designation for sanctuary cities, policies vary across the board.

Which U.S. cities are considered sanctuary cities?

According to the Washington Times, more than 340 U.S. cities are considered sanctuary cities. Some of the larger cities that have vowed to continue protecting undocumented immigrants include New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Austin, according to Remezcla.

Why do U.S. cities choose to shelter immigrants?

For the most part, cities that shelter undocumented immigrants have diverse, liberal communities. Many of these cities recognize deportation as the "wrong punishment" for undocumented immigrants, thus constituting a breach of civil law. It is often said that sanctuary cities encourage undocumented immigrants to work with local authorities without fear of deportation so that law enforcement can identify and arrest real criminals. A CNN report shows that chiefs from the country's largest police departments and police groups, such as the International Association of Chiefs of Police, support sanctuary cities because they help officers and communities to combat crime.

(Information gathered from Policy.Mic)

Faith and Immigrants’ Rights Leaders Call for End to ICE Raids

Washington, D.C. – Just days before the Christmas holiday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials announced their plans to begin raids on Central American families, many of whom fled to the United States after facing extreme violence, persecution and poverty. Faith leaders from across the United States immediately responded in a statement on Christmas Day, offering sanctuary to those looking to fight their deportation orders and seek shelter from the raids. Shortly after the new year, ICE raids began in several states, netting 121 individuals and prompting immigrants’ rights groups to increase national know-your-rights campaigns.

Today, faith and immigrants’ rights leaders joined together to call on President Obama and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to immediately put a halt to the raids. They reiterated the faith community’s offer of sanctuary and shared stories of communities and individuals impacted by the raids.

“Our country is at its best when we are most welcoming. Women and children fleeing unspeakable terror should find the tools they need to live with dignity in the United States,” said Marielena Hincapié, Executive Director of the National Immigration Law Center. “Instead of promoting safety, the Obama administration has punished those who have put their faith in a system that has instead been prioritizing expediting deportations. This goes against our values and heritage as a nation.”

“We people of faith have learned that the laws that govern immigration in the U.S. are not only unjust, but they discourage us from living out our faith imperative to love and help our neighbor with particular concern to those who suffer most,” said Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño, United Methodist Bishop for the Los Angeles Area. “We stand together on this day to oppose ICE raids on Central American families, to offer sanctuary to these families, and to renew our commitment to working for immigration reform in this country.”

Adding to the faith community’s call for an end to the raids, Rev. Alison Harrington, Pastor at Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Arizona said, “The U.S. government is once again violating their own asylum laws and international human rights standards. Human lives are on the line and our faith traditions are very clear that our salvation is dependent on what we do in this moment. In this moment as people are running away from horrific violence, the gift that we as religious leaders and as congregations have to offer is the gift of sanctuary. The movement won’t stop until there is not one more family living in fear of deportation.”

 “The sanctuary movement offers a moral framework and prophetic voice to build inclusive and welcoming communities in the midst of harsh, unjust and immoral immigration enforcement actions that are terrorizing the community,” said the Rev. Noel Andersen, National Grassroots Coordinator at Church World Service. “We are now calling on the White House and DHS to stop the structural sins of raids and deportations. Instead, the administration should focus their resources on providing much needed legal assistance for these asylum seekers and humanitarian aid to address root causes of migration.”

http://cwsglobal.org/call-for-end-to-ice-raids/

TAKE ACTION:  

Contact the White House and Homeland Security and demand an end to the raids.  #Not1More 

1. Call the White House at 1-866-961-4293. You can also call the White House Comment Line directly at 1-888-907-2053.  Here's a sample script:

"I'm from City, State, Congregation/Community and as a person of faith, I urge President Obama to immediately STOP plans to deport Central American children and families.  These individuals are fleeing violence and should have access to legal counsel so that they can apply for asylum and protection in the United States."
 
    2.  If you can’t get through on the phone email is the next best thing. http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact.
 
    3.    If you “tweet”, send the President a message: @POTUS #STOPDeportations of Central American children and families. They are fleeing violence & have a right to seek asylum #Not1More