SOLIDARITY DINNER & FORUM ON IMMIGRATION
Saturday, April 28
Solidarity Dinner:
6:00 -9:00 pm, Santa Lucia Parish Hall

Forum on Immigration:
9:00am-1:00pm, location TBA
Please join us. Your invitation is forthcoming. Keep informed of details at: on this site and by following us on facebook.

Tickets, available February 1, can be purchased via mail, in person at:
Casa Teresa, 815 Myrtle Ave., 79901, 915.533.4675.

We are honored to announce that the 2012 Voice of the Voiceless Award recipient will be:

JAVIER SICILIA: Mexican journalist, poet, and activist

JAVIER SICILIA: Mexican journalist, poet, and activist

On March 28, 2011, Sicilia’s son, Juan Francisco, a university student, was massacred with several other students. In response to the killing of his son as well as the tens of thousands of others that have been killed in Mexico’s war on drugs, Sicilia launched a movement of peace known as El Pacto Por La Paz that expressed itself through national cara- vans that gave a public platform to victims and their families. In selecting The Protestor as its 2011 Person of the Year, Time profiled Javier Sicilia as among those international activists calling for radical change in their home countries. For his courageous witness and uncompromising commitment to be a voice for the tens of thousands affected by the violence in Mexico, Javier Sicilia will be presented with our 2012 Voice of the Voiceless Award.

“We also call for an end of the criminalization and the systematic repression of Juárez youth, and also an implementation of a true culture of legality beginning with the authorities, police and military forces,” said Ruben Garcia, director of a immigrant support organization, Annunciation House.

ANNUNCIATION HOUSE presents an:

Immigration Forum -SATURDAY, APRIL 2ND, 2011

Catholic Daughters Hall
801 Magoffin Avenue

There is no cost to attend.

Translation will be provided./ Habrá traduccion.

Light refreshments will be served

The Forum will explore the reality facing the immigrant in both Mexico and the United States, offer new ways of conceptualizing immigration, and outline the communal imperative to work for immi-grant justice – to bring the immigrant down from the cross.

8:00 AM REGISTRATION

8:45 AM WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

9:00 AM PRESENTATION: THE REALITY FOR THE IMMIGRANT IN MEXICO

• Friar José Raúl Vera López, OP: Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico

9:30 AM PANEL AND QUESTION & ANSWER:

• KIDNAPPINGS, RANSOME, TORTURE, & THE GANGS AND CARTELS

• Presenter: Rev. Pedro Pantoja: Director, Belén, Posada del Migrante of Saltillo,Coahuila, México.

• THE VIOLENCE IN MEXICO – THE NEW IMMIGRANT

• Presenter: Ms. Elizabeth Flores: Director, Pastoral Obrera, Diocese of Juárez, México

10:15 AM PRESENTATION: DYING TO LIVE: A NEW IMAGE OF IMMIGRATION

• Rev. Daniel G. Groody, C.S.C: Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame: Producer of the Documentary: Dying to Live – A Migrant’s Journey

11:00 AM PANEL AND QUESTION & ANSWER:

• DEATH IN THE DESERT

• Presenter: Ms. Kat Rodriguez: Program Director, Coalición de Derechos Humanos, Tucson, Arizona

• DETENTION & DEPORTATION

• Presenter: Kathleen Erickson, RSM: Sisters of Mercy Justice Team West-Midwest Regional Community and Co-founder of the Omaha Immigrant Detainee Accompaniment Program

• LIVING IN THE UNDERGROUND

• Presenter: Anonymous Undocumented Immigrant

12:00 PM PRESENTATION: THE IMPERATIVE: FREE MY PEOPLE

• The Honorable Jose F. Rodriguez -Texas State Senator

12:30 PM QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Migrant Posada Belen, Ac, Humanity Without Borders, Ac,  Justice Border, Ac

Reports in PDF format

• 5th ReportEnglish
• Quinto Informe – Español
• 6th Report – English
• Sexto Informe – Español

SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 2011
6–9 PM
The Amistad Center
of Santa Lucia Parish
518 Gallagher Street
El Paso, TX 79915
Dinner Ticket: $50

All proceeds support the work of Annunciation House.

ANNUNCIATION HOUSE
815 MYRTLE AVE, EL PASO, TX 79901,
915-533-4675
contact Voice of the Voiceless

BELÉN, POSADA DEL MIGRANTE
Located in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico, Belén, Posada del Migrante has offered hospitality to more than 40,000 immigrants, largely Central and South Americans. Together with two human rights organization it hosts, Belén, Posada del Migrante boldly advocates against the kidnapping, extortion, sexual abuse, and murder of migrants by criminal organizations and the simultaneous complicity of public officials. In the context of impunity, Belén, Posada del Migrante, was an outspoken critic of the 2010 massacre of 72 migrants in San Fernando, Tamaulipas.

OUR KEYNOTE SPEAKER: BISHOP RAUL VERA
Bishop José Raúl Vera López, OP has been a bold defender of human rights throughout Mexico, especially of those of the indigenous and the immigrant. He speaks out against the kidnapping of immigrants and the Mexican government’s inability to disarm drug cartels.

For Mexicans fleeing violence, the United States offers no refuge.

by Susana Hayward

LINK

Watch El Pasoans talk about their city and the continuing violence along the border.

We extend to you and all residents of our border community an invitation to this call for justice and a request to join with Bishop Armando Ochoa of El Paso and Bishop Ricardo Ramirez of Las Cruces, in the celebration of this special Mass.

For years now, the hope has been that Congress would find the courage and leadership to pass a just and comprehensive immigration reform law. U.S. Catholic Bishops have been relentless in calling for immigration reform legislation and been at the forefront in advocating for the human rights of immigrants and the undocumented. But the reality is that not only has Congress failed to act, but the Federal Government has been aggressively pursuing an enforcement-only immigration policy that has created a vacuum into which cities and States have stepped in to pass their own anti-immigrant laws. This was vividly demonstrated by the recent signing of Arizona’s SB1070 law. In the name of national security, terrorism protection, and the war on drugs, the real intention of laws like SB 1070 is to persecute the immigrant.

The failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform, the implementation of an enforcement-only approach to the immigration issue, and the onslaught of hostility toward the immigrant in the media has led to growing violence against the immigrant. This violence takes the form of immigrants dying in the desert, families torn apart by immigration raids, the criminal prosecution and jailing of undocumented immigrants who only seek to feed their families, increased trafficking of immigrants, and employment exploitation. For the US/Mexico border, this has meant increased fire-power with calls for even more border agents, the deployment of the National Guard, drones, detention facilities, and the general militarization of border communities. The policy of enforcement and more enforcement in an environment in which the immigrant is vilified and demonized is turning neighbors into enemies. The fruit of enforcement-only policies was seen on June 7th with the shooting death of a teenager on the banks of the Rio Grande, and on May 25th with the death of a 35 year old man in San Ysidro, and on July of 2009 with the shooting death of a Border Patrol agent in Campo California.

There are thousands of undocumented families living in hiding in El Paso, Las Cruces and surrounding communities. Many border citizens have come across undocumented immigrants and have gone out of their way to seek ways of helping and assisting what most of us know to be primarily good and decent human beings. All of us know of families living in hiding, living in fear in our midst. The hostility against the immigrant has led many people to see the undocumented as disposable people – individuals of no account. It falls on each community to define for itself whether it will permit there to be disposable people. We invite you to join us for the Mass so that as a community we can affirm that no life is or can ever be disposable.

Set aside Wednesday, July 14 at 7:00 PM and commit yourself to joining in this expression of justice. We ask you to circulate this announcement among your contacts and encourage friends and family to participate in calling for an end to violence against immigrants and for the passage of just and comprehensive immigration reform.

The Mass will begin with a procession that starts in front of Sacred Heart Church on South Oregon Street and proceed to the Placita de Leones, which is located at the intersection of Santa Fe Street and Calleros Street.

LINK

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