What does it mean to build power? Build a civilization of love?
That was the central question at the Catholics in Communion national convening at the end of July. Our Associate Director of Education and Advocacy, Jessica Ornelas, had the privilege of representing Kino alongside over 65 immigrant rights, faith-based organizers focused on the central themes of protecting families and communities from detention and deportation, promoting and protecting civic participation in elections, and strengthening formation in Catholic Social Teaching. During a time of uncertainty, PICO California’s Executive Director, Joseph McKellar, calls us to “Practice our faith courageously” and reminds us that “We have power”. He proclaims we must “Stand with and for those standing in darkness”. When we have fear, we must “Take a step forward, instead of back remembering the Holy Spirit is with us”
Solidarity in the Kino Network
At the beginning of August, we welcomed back professor, cultural anthropologist, and co-editor of Voices of the Border, Tobin Hansen. He accompanied students from Regis High and Gonzaga Prep School destigmatizing myths around migration and encouraging students to describe more clearly people’s dignity, humanity, and personhood. In their next steps, Regis High School is excited to write an article of their experience for their school newsletter. Gonzaga Prep looks forward to hosting an origami workshop where they will share takeaways from their experiences at Kino, discuss the meaning of the butterfly as a symbol of migration, and display them widely in their school hallway.
Call to Action:
Defend:
Over the past month, KBI continued to observe inhumane conditions in detention centers across the U.S., ranging from medical neglect to invasive strip-searches. Additionally, as people continue to be deported to southern Mexico and Central America, they confront immense dangers riding on top of freight trains to avoid extortion and abuse by criminal groups and the National Guard. Our team recently returned from visiting several partners in southern Mexico, as well as monitoring the conditions of one of the Mexican government’s reception centers. Please read our special update below.
In light of this we call community to:
- Oppose the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act for FY2027: We urge communities to vote against this funding measure, which allocates further resources to harmful detention facilities and interior immigration enforcement practices that separate families.
- Register to vote!!-It has been 50 days since a masked ICE agent shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52 year-old Mexican father of 3 who lived in the United States for 35 years and was on his way to work. His son, Ronaldo Salgado urges: “Check your voter registration if you need to, make a plan to vote and keep showing up, not just this November, but in local, state and federal elections moving forward”. JUSTICIA/JUSTICE!!
Accompany:
- Read this “Parish Toolkit: Supporting Immigrants in a time of need” to learn crucial “Know Your Rights” information for immigrants, emergency preparedness planning resources, and accompaniment and educational resources for parish staff and volunteers.
- Volunteer to pick up children and youth from school if parents are impacted by immigration policy.
- Drop off food to migrants at their home who are fearful of leaving their home.
Share:
- Please read and share our special update, “The Humanitarian Impact of Deportations to Southern Mexico” and “Banished to the South: The Human Cost of Deportation” in collaboration with the Washington Office on Latina America (WOLA) and the Fray Matías Human Rights Center from our trip to Southern Mexico to understand more of the perilous conditions migrants endure.
- Please share widely this community explainer that describes the details of voluntary departure and the rights you are entitled to- “What am I Signing when I Sign my Deportation”
Pray:
This past August 14th was St. Maximilian Kolbe’s feast day. He was a Polish Franciscan priest who volunteered to die in place of a father at the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. A man he never met, but willingly took his place. He proclaims: “Let us remember that love lives through sacrifice and is nourished by giving. Without sacrifice, there is no love”. We do not have to go as far as offering our lives to martyrdom. However, we must ask ourselves: How can we be small martyrs each day? How can we defend the lives of those who are detained and live with fear of family separation? St. Maximilian Kolbe reminds us “The most deadly poison of our time is indifference”. How will you move from “contemplation to action”? How will you say no to violence?
- Prayers for Justice + Peace – Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership
- Our Lady of Sorrows Feast Day and Novena-The Dorothea Project will be praying a Novena invoking St. Francis Cabrini, patron saint of migrants, and making calls to legislators to share the news of the upcoming action day and uplift dignified treatment of our immigrant neighbors.
“A church that doesn’t provoke any crises, a gospel that doesn’t unsettle, a word of God that doesn’t get under anyone’s skin, a word of God that doesn’t touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed – what gospel is that?
—Archbishop Oscar Romero
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