DACA
Image via Dhanya Addanki/Sojourners
Each holy sacrament — baptism, eucharist, confirmation, reconciliation, marriage, holy orders, anointing of the sick — is a way for Catholics to show that we are with God, and God is with us. And we are with each other.
Photo courtesy John Gehring
Earlier this week, I participated in civil disobedience for the first time. Forty Catholic sisters, priests, and other lay Catholic advocates were arrested in the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building in solidarity with young undocumented “Dreamers.” These immigrants, brought to this country as children, are living in fear of deportation after the Trump administration ended an Obama-era program that offered them protection. Congress now has to find a solution. About a third of all House members, including Speaker Paul Ryan, and a quarter of senators are Catholic. More than a 100 Catholics, including Dreamers, showed up for a rally and press conference outside the Senate building, urging lawmakers to act.
Image via Dhanya Addanki/Sojourners
“Giving legal status to Dreamers is not a political issue. It is a moral issue,” said Father Tom Reese, a Jesuit priest and popular Catholic columnist. “It is time for the people who worked in that building [pointing to the Capitol] to realize this is a moral issue, this is a justice issue. And the political gamesmanship must stop.” He was arrested shortly after.
Activists and DACA recipients at 'Walk to Stay Home,' Feb. 15, 2018. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday dealt a setback to President Donald Trump, requiring his administration to maintain protections he has sought to end for hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought illegally into the United States as children.
Rally in Times Square, New York City on Feb. 18, 2017. a katz / Shutterstock.com
If we don’t see you
In the mother pulled away from her child
In the father dragged from his home
In the child shivering in the detention center
Then we don’t see you at all.
FILE PHOTO: Protesters calling for an immigration bill addressing Dreamers in the Hart Office Building. Jan. 16, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
It’s not always the case that the gospel is at stake in a Senate debate. But this week it is. Starting yesterday, on Ash Wednesday, the United States Senate engaged in a debate with enormous moral stakes for who we are as a nation, and it is the moral obligation of Christians in this country to get involved.
Image via C-SPAN.
"The parable of the good Samaritan is one that has been used over and over again to welcome strangers," Pelosi said. "Samaritans were not friends to the person that the Samaritan saved. But he was a man of justice."
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) (C) attends a news conference with Republican leaders on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 18, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
Blues legend Robert Johnson, the story goes, made a deal with the devil and sold his soul on a Mississippi highway to play virtuoso guitar. House Speaker Paul Ryan’s musical tastes reportedly lean more toward Metallica than the Delta blues, but he faces a crossroads of his own that will test whether he will trade in his values to the nativist wing of the Republican Party or do what’s right for young immigrants.
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“Maria Rocha, a teacher in San Antonio, Texas, says it's gut wrenching, but she's trying not to show it in front of her third-graders. … It's even harder, she says, because some of her students are also at risk of being deported.”
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Youth Initiates from the United Church of Santa Fe walk the trails along the Arizona-Sonora border. Photo courtesy Rev. Talitha Arnold
People of faith and other advocates across the country are calling for a permanent fix for the 800,000 young people at risk of losing their DACA status if Congress doesn’t reach a deal soon. In one Santa Fe, N.M., congregation, those calls are coming from the youth group.
DACA recipients and supporters protest for a clean Dream Act outside Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Jan. 22, 2018. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
There is enormous public support for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) from the American people. According to a poll released by CBS News in the past week, “nearly 9 in 10 Americans (87%) favor allowing young immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally as children to remain in the U.S.” This number includes 79 percent of Republicans, 92 percent of Democrats, and 87 percent of independents who favor the policy.
Today, Lopez-Marquez is at Presbyterian Medical Services, Santa Fe Family Wellness Center, where he’s the only male social worker on staff who’s also bilingual. He is also an after-school folklorico dance instructor for Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. Between counseling and dance, Lopez-Marquez works with 180 youth in New Mexico; his work permit through DACA makes all that possible.
Since the Trump administration announced in September that it was bringing DACA to an end, nearly 16,000 DACA recipients have already lost their protections. DACA is set to formally expire on March 5, but the process has already shortchanged benefits for many, with up to 122 more young adults losing their protections each day. While Democrats and Republicans go back to the drawing board on DACA, here are eight stories to catch you up on the fate of Dreamers and DACA recipients.
Image via Roger Netwon/Youth Today
It’s not just the Dreamers who stand to lose if there are no new legislative protections put in place: It could have hefty economic consequences for states like North Carolina. Patrick McHugh, economic analyst for the progressive research and advocacy organization North Carolina Justice Center, said the Cato Institute (a libertarian think tank) predicted that ending DACA could cost North Carolina $7.8 billion in the next decade alone.
Photo by Rebekah Fulton / Sojourners
Throughout the week, faith leaders and DACA recipients — young immigrants who were guaranteed protection from deportation under an Obama-era program, since rescinded by President Trump — have urged legislators to refuse a vote on a spending bill to fund the government if it does not include a Dream Act. Trump said he would sign the current version of the bill, up for vote in the House as soon as Thursday evening. That version does not include protections for DACA recipients — a potential make-or-break piece that could force a government shutdown Friday.
DACA rally in front of the White House Sept. 5, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
A U.S. judge in San Francisco temporarily barred President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday from ending a program shielding young people brought to the United States illegally by their parents from deportation.
On Dec. 12, members of the Washington, D.C., community gathered at St. Peter’s Catholic Church for a Mass celebrating the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patroness of the Americas. Bishop Mario Dorsonville-Rodriguez used the homily to remind the congregation of the legacy of Our Lady, and also that Christ calls Christians to be the voice for the voiceless and the face to the faceless. And that in this current climate, that means standing with our immigrant sisters and brothers, and fighting for their safety and rights. He urged the U.S. to protect Dreamers and pass a Clean Dream Act before the end of 2017.
As Congress faces a Friday deadline to fund the government, some Senate Democrats are considering blocking the spending bill unless Republicans agree to a bipartisan Dream Act, which would grant conditional residency to immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children and meet several other requirements. The Trump administration ended the Obama-era executive program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, in September, putting the decision to protect the 800,000 immigrants under the program in the hands of Congress. To encourage their lawmakers, many Dreamers and supporters are bringing the dreams of those awaiting a clean Dream Act straight to the Capitol.
Image via Shutterstock.com/Ververidis Vasilis
We thank you for thousands of sisters and brothers
Who seek education, who love this good land.
For they are a blessing to us and to others;
May we reach to offer a welcoming hand.
Image via USC Dornsife Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration
An interactive map, courtesy of USC Dornsife's Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration, illustrates estimated numbers of populations who are DACA eligible, and numbers of actual DACA recipients by congressional districts. In the aftermath of the abolishment of DACA, the Department of Homeland Security has set a deadline for all individuals eligible to renew DACA by Oct. 5.