EL PASO — The empty warehouse was about the size of a Costco, 125,000 square feet. Ruben Garcia didn’t love the location, but time was short and he needed to sign a lease. “We need all the chain-link fences removed,” Garcia told his legal adviser, Jerome Wesevich, last week as they toured cavernous halls and… Continue reading Ruben Garcia has sheltered migrants in El Paso for over four decades. With a crush at the border, he now needs a warehouse.
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Black Lives Matter: Annunciation House’s Commitment to Work for a More Perfect Union
In the midst of an unprecedented moment in American history, the Fourth of July is an opportunity to reflect on the complicated origins of this country. This is the date on which a very imperfect people commenced the journey to form a more perfect union based on the truth that all human beings are created… Continue reading Black Lives Matter: Annunciation House’s Commitment to Work for a More Perfect Union
Memorial Mass for Juan Patricio Peraza Quijada
At about 8:40 AM on February 22, 2003, Juan Patricio Peraza Quijada, a 19-year-old man staying at Annunciation House, found himself standing in the middle of San Antonio Street facing a semi-circle of Border Patrol Agents with their handguns drawn. One of those Agents shot and killed him. In El Paso, Juan Patricio has become… Continue reading Memorial Mass for Juan Patricio Peraza Quijada
Nazareth House: High Turnover Hospitality
Background: Since the summer of 2014, when the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began detaining large numbers of Central American migrants along our southern border and releasing them in El Paso, Annunciation House has been providing temporary hospitality and travel assistance in a new site called Nazareth House. Each week, we receive anywhere from… Continue reading Nazareth House: High Turnover Hospitality
The Crisis of Moral Integrity
From our director: “Amid the cacophony of voices vying for ear space on the “immigrant crisis,” few have succeeded in identifying the real crisis–the crisis of moral integrity. Whenever and wherever human beings suffer, it is the moral integrity of those around them–they are called neighbors–that leads people to respond and help. It is the… Continue reading The Crisis of Moral Integrity
Who Will Defend Young Men of Color From So-Called Self-Defense?
[This essay was first posted in December 2014.] An officer spots a young man with brown skin on the street. The young man is immediately believed to have committed a crime, although there is little to implicate him in the moment except for his skin color. When confronted by law enforcement, he does not cooperate.… Continue reading Who Will Defend Young Men of Color From So-Called Self-Defense?
Declaration of Immigrant Rights
We are a nation of immigrants. The country we inhabit belongs first and foremost to the indigenous nations and peoples who first lived, and continue to live, in this land. All the rest of us are immigrants, or the descendants of immigrants. We come from Mexico and the Philippines, from Central America, Ireland, Ethiopia and… Continue reading Declaration of Immigrant Rights