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.

Full Repsonse to ruling – PDF
ANNUNCIATION HOUSE PRESS STATEMENT REGARDING THE RULING IN THE CASE OF SHOOTING DEATH OF JUAN PATRICIO PERAZA

El Paso, TX – July 29, 2008 – U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard P. Mesa delivered a verdict late last Friday in the case of Cesar Peraza Barraza and Ramona Irene Quijada Soto versus the United States of America, regarding the 2003 shooting death of Juan Patricio Peraza, at the time a 19-year-old national of Mexico, by Border Patrol Agent Vernon Billings.

The ruling concluded that Billings’ use of deadly force was justified, and that Peraza’s tragic death, therefore, did not result from negligence. Annunciation House, however, views Magistrate Judge Mesa’s decision as deeply troubling and bearing significant consequences for the El Paso and greater border community.

Indeed, in places like El Paso, where the harsh realities associated with grinding poverty and immigration are a lived experience for most, and where the ubiquitous presence of the Border Patrol figures prominently in daily life, it is of the utmost importance that matters pertaining to both are treated with meticulous care.

It is nevertheless clear that, in Juan Patricio Peraza’s case, this did not occur.

The trial evidence presented to the court was shaped to a significant degree by the numerous actions and violations of fundamental Border Patrol policy and investigative procedures that transpired before and after the shooting—such as staking out a homeless shelter, failing to ascertain basic information before applying deadly force, the removal of witnesses from the scene before they could be questioned by the El Paso Police Department (EPPD), and the failure to gather information at the crime scene.

Article Launched: 02/12/2008 12:00:00 AM MST

The lawsuit by the parents of a Mexican teenager who was shot and killed by an El Paso Border Patrol agent in 2003 was postponed, court documents showed.

The civil trial in the suit filed by Cesar Peraza Barraza and Ramona Irene Quijada Soto, parents of Juan Patricio Peraza, against the U.S. government was to have started last Friday in federal court in El Paso. The case, which will he heard by a judge, not a jury, was postponed because of a scheduling conflict, lawyers involved said.

Story by Louie Gilot

LINK

The parents of a Mexican teenager who was shot and killed by an El Paso Border Patrol agent in 2003 will seek to convince a federal judge that the shooting was not justified at a civil trial starting Friday.
From “Pro Immigrant” Blog