Annunciation House holds convocation
Dozens of immigrant rights activists along with political and spiritual leaders gathered at Annunciation House Saturday evening.
The home has provided help and support for immigrants for more than 35 years and Saturday evening organizers held a convocation to call for action on immigration.
The event was also a celebration for those who are a voice for immigrant refugees.
“We are here tonight to stay united and to raise our voices and to make sure we tell the rest of the country that immigration reform is a mandate from the people of this nation,” said the guest speaker, El Paso County Judge Veronica Escobar.
Escobar began the convocation with a call to arms.
“For far too long we have been working toward the elusive goal of immigration reform,” said Escobar.
The county judge says changing immigration laws must begin at the grass roots level even down to the language people use describing the recent immigration influx along the Texas border.
“We heard everywhere, the situation being described as a crisis and the only crisis that existed was the crisis for the families separated and having to go on an excruciating journey across the desert to find relief–that was the crises,” said Escobar.
Fernando Garcia director of the Border Network for Human Rights said that having no work, no education, and no future is why immigrants make the painstaking journey to cross the border illegally.
Garcia said people must take a stand to protect the rights of immigrant refugees.
Bishop Mark Seitz of the Catholic Diocese of El Paso told the crowd everyone is family.
“He never says that we ought to take care of just ourselves, that we ought to serve only those who can pay us back, that we ought to simply look to our own needs and be blind to those around us,” said Seitz.
The convocation also had a petition for concrete and specific action on immigration.
First on the list of actions is that congress legislates just and humane immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship for all undocumented persons living in the U.S.
Not everyone agrees. Opponents of this action say those crossing the border should do so legally regardless of their circumstances.
