NOVEMBER 3 AND 17- Border and Immigration Issues

November 3, 2011

Father Sean Carroll, SJ

Speaking on

THE KINO BORDER INITIATIVE

Father Sean Carroll is the Executive Director of the Kino Border Initiative.

The Kino Border Initiative is an innovative and cooperative effort between six major religious organizations that strive to accompany migrants and communities affected by the consequences of migration. The KBI is strategically located in the twin cities of Ambos Nogales (southern AZ and northern Sonora), which is a major port of entry and deportation for migrants in the southwest.
ONE MINISTRY, THREE DIMENSIONS -Humanitarian Assistance: On the Mexico side of the border, the KBI offers immediate assistance and pastoral accompaniment to migrants who have been deported from the US. At the Centro para Atención a los Migrantes Deportados (CAMDEP), the KBI offers meals, basic medical assistance, and clothing to the recently deported. At the Casa Nazaret shelter, the KBI offers safe room and board to unaccompanied women and children who are otherwise extremely vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. 

-Education & Formation: In local parishes on each side of the border, the KBI offers workshops and leads discussions on local border reality in light of the Christian faith and Catholic social teaching. We have also curriculum appropriate for short-term immersion groups from parishes, high schools, and universities.

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November 17, 2011

Speaker Jennifer Allen

Speaking on SEARCHING FOR JUSTICE AT THE BORDER

Jennifer Allen is the former founding Executive Director of the Border Action Network.  As of January 1, she becomes the Interim Director of the Southern Border Communities Coalition.

The Border Action Network (BAN) is “Building the Voice for Human Rights across Arizona.”

Border Action Network was formed in 1999.  It works with immigrant and border communities in southern Arizona to ensure that their rights are respected and their human dignity is upheld, and that their communities are healthy places to live. BAN is a membership-based organization that combines grassroots community organizing, leadership development, litigation and policy advocacy.

During its first three years the organization was run entirely by volunteers. Since then it has expanded to four staff and more than 500 members. Through the years, Border Action Network has built relationships and launched campaigns that have resulted in the prosecution of border vigilantes, agreements with local police departments against enforcing immigration, training and engaging immigrant families in the political process and the struggle for comprehensive immigration reform, and developing protocols for border enforcement practices that uphold constitutional and human rights.

The Southern Borders Coalition was formed in early 2011 and following is the press release announcing its creation.

“Today, border organizations and community leaders announced the formation of an unprecedented coalition to assert the rights and interests of the communities that often fall casualty to our country’s border policies.

More than six months in the making, the Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC) has officially launched with more than 60 signatories from San Diego to Brownsville.

“It’s critical that we organize and coordinate our voices along the border if we are to have an impact on the national level,” states Christian Ramirez of the American Friends Service Committee, one co-chair of the SBCC.  The coalition, which is broad-based and includes everything from environmental to faith to business organizations, is based around a formal agreement that identifies the common goals of the parties.

Under the agreement, the parties are focused on four overarching goals:

1. Work to ensure that border enforcement policies and practices are accountable and fair, respect human dignity and human rights, and prevent the loss of life in the region.
2. Promote policies and solutions that improve the quality of life in border communities.
3. Advance a positive image of the border region.
4. Support rational and humane immigration reform policies affecting the border region.