Throughout the day, we’ll be featuring 3 pieces for you to consider for prayer, study and action on this anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero. The pieces were pulled together and formatted by Pax Christi USA National Council member and Romero biographer Scott Wright. To learn more about Romero, click here. For an excellent archive of resources on Romero, visit US Catholic’s website by clicking here. To see the Prayer component of this resource posted earlier today, click here. To see the Study component, click here.
Today’s third piece focuses on ACTION, and invites you to support the “Call for Residency for Central Americans and Haitians with TPS.”
ACT
March 24, 2012 marks the 30th anniversary of the Sanctuary Movement as well as the beginning of a national campaign to grant residency to thousands of Central Americans and Haitians with Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Below is a letter written by leaders of the Sanctuary Movement. Please help spread this letter and call. Go to http://www.share-elsalvador.org/2012/01/an-invitation-celebrating-30-years-of-the-sanctuary-movement.html
“On March 24, 1982, the second anniversary of the assassination of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, five Berkeley congregations declared public sanctuary simultaneously with the Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Arizona.
“Over the next decade, more than 500 congregations and thousands of people stood in solidarity with our Central American sisters and brothers seeking political refuge. The Sanctuary Movement challenged unjust immigration policies and the U.S. foreign policies that fueled the exodus. We thought and acted locally and globally. We crossed borders and made covenants in search of the Common Good. We were transformed.
“At the heart of the public sanctuary movement: the refugee, and their story of suffering, struggle, faith and hope in the face of persecution and grave injustice. The Central Americans’ suffering and courage inspired millions to defy the federal government’s policy of criminalizing and summarily deporting Salvadorans and Guatemalans…
“Today, the challenges facing immigrants, workers, and the 99% are more daunting than ever. Yet groups across the country and the globe are fighting back. In the U.S. students have fought for and won the Dream Act in Maryland and California. Young people, unions and people from all faiths from Wisconsin to Egypt, from India to Spain, from Chile to Israel, are spotlighting the grave discrepancies of the ‘haves” and the ‘have nots’ and the politics of greed. The cry that “A New World is Possible” echoes across borders and inspires movements.
“One concrete effort is a new, national campaign to grant residency to Central Americans and Haitians who currently have ‘Temporary Protected Status.’ These 300,000 brothers and sisters have been in the U.S. for ten to twenty-five years and are a great example of hard work and dedication to their new home; their children are going to school and college, they are starting small businesses, they are paying taxes, they are an asset to the community…
“Join us… sign on and promote the Call for Residency for Central Americans and Haitians with TPS.”
I remember
walking from theCapitol to the White House 20 yrs. Ago in a snow squall hoping to wake people to the situation in Central America!
I can’t walk anymore I trust that there are young people who can carry the banner!
So what does this mean – like the Mexican billionaires who ‘dump’ their poor upon the native U.S. population – we choose to accept our multi – national Corporate Entities first destroying & then ‘dumping’ the refugees from the fouled water & land & politics they have created upon once more the U.S. population ….. while the Bush’s & the Kennedy’s & the newly Rich Clintons vacation in sunny & roomy Dubai ….