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| Volume 3, Issue 6 -- March 17, 2006 |
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From the JPIC Office On March 7, I went to an immigrant rights rally on the west lawn of the Capitol Building. There were an estimated 40,000 people, mostly immigrants, gathered to oppose HR 4437, the newest in a series of anti-immigrant federal legislation. There were flags from all over the world, but mostly from Latin America. People held signs that read, “I am Not a Criminal or Terrorist,” “We are Americans too,” and “Welcome the Stranger,” Those words ring true, and it was inspiring to see so many migrants speaking the truth. The spirit was peaceful but with a clear and strong message: “We are here to stay.” So why are people upset by HR 4437? Here are the main harmful effects should the bill become law, according to “Network: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby.”
HR 4437 has been passed by the House and its companion bill is being debated in the Senate. It could come to a vote as early as March 27. After more than 10 years of the United States trying to tighten and “secure” the border with Mexico, more migrants than ever are crossing the border and dying trying to do so. More Border Patrol agents, higher and thicker fences, and high-technology surveillance equipment have not been the answer to limiting migrant flows into the United States. Deterrence is not the solution. We must create immigration policies that recognize the invaluable role of migrants in our economy as well as their social and cultural contributions. We can no longer implement economic policies, such as NAFTA, and then ignore and reject the migrants when they reach the U.S.-Mexico border looking desperately for the jobs they lost as a result of free trade. HR 4437 is yet another piece of misdirected immigration policy that will only cause migrants to go deeper into the shadows of our communities. While picking our fruits and vegetables, building our houses, and manicuring our lawns, they will not be afforded their right to proper health care, education for their children and other basic securities we take for granted. I was inspired at the rally by watching and listening to the thousands of migrants courageously coming out of the shadows and denouncing HR 4437 and all immigration policy that does not respect their human dignity. I hope Congress was listening. Please read the Action Alert to see what you can do to help defeat this legislation in the Senate.
Message from the Border
By Columban Father Bill Morton Thank you to all the people who continue to prayerfully support the people living on the Lomas de Poleo mesa near the Texas-New Mexico-Mexico border. This struggle for land and dignity, which really began more than 35 years ago, has continued in its present, intense phase since May 2003 and continues as I write. After the death of Luis Guerrero on August 19, 2005, at the hands of Pedro Fuentes Zaragoza’s vigilantes, the people unified and continually protested. With the help of the Columban JPIC office and all of you, we achieved an intervention on behalf of the governor of Chihuahua, Jose Reyes Baeza. Zaragoza’s guards were removed, the gates were kept open and many people began to rebuild and improve their homes and live free of harassment. In November 2005, the municipal government of Ciudad Juarez, under the direction of Hector Murguilla, began to directly intervene in the situation, attempting to convince the residents of Lomas de Poleo to accept relocation by the city housing authority. The city claimed to have gained ownership of about 20 acres of land on the eastern end of the mesa and offered families 500 square meters and 500 cinderblocks if they would agree to move. Rumors were rife that families were getting cash as well as other benefits, but to the best of my knowledge, these remain just rumors. It appeared that Lomas’s group of residents, Asociacion Civil, was assisting the city in this relocation attempt, even though the leaders denied it. There continue to be accusations that Faustino Oliveras and the Asociacion Civil board of directors also had been bought. I don’t know if this is true or not. What was clear to everyone was that the city was acting as an agent for the Zaragoza family, achieving what the Zaragozas had failed to achieve with violence, threats and mayhem: the people’s ceding of their rights to their land and accepting much smaller parcels from the city. During this time, we began to have meetings inside the fenced area at Dona Terre’s old store. We fixed up the building and are considering it a community center. Some of the nongovernmental organizations that helped support the people said we needed a more central place where everyone had a voice where meeting were not dominated by Faustino, although Asociacion Civil members were always welcome to attend. At the same time, Carlos Avitia, the lawyer from the Agrarian Attorney General’s Office, has continued to work against incredible odds to realize the intervention of the Mexican federal government and the annulment of the Zaragoza family’s land titles. He continues to encourage the people to maintain possession of their land, emphasizing that neither the Zaragozas nor the city government have the wherewithal to dislodge them legally. Another lawyer who works with the El Paso del Norte human rights group in Juarez has been offering Lomas residents courses on their constitutional and civil rights. He says the better the people are informed, united and committed to each other, the more difficult it will be for them to be removed from their land. These workshops are offered every second Sunday in the Dona Terre community center. The intervening Sunday meeting will be a general meeting to discuss the land situation and other community events. This morning on March 13, sitting in the sun outside our mesa chapel, Jesus de Nazaret, I was sharing with a group of students from the University of Dayton. That’s when Juan Jose, the director of the primary school just behind the chapel, drove up and asked me to come to the school and speak with him. When the students left, I did so, and was happily surprised at the nature of his request. He wanted to know if we could help him build a little house inside the fence of the school’s campus to house a family who could live there for free in exchange for providing security for the school. The school has recently acquired some computers and printers and he is afraid they will be stolen. If we have the resources, we will gladly help build the house of pallets and straw. The very existence of the school in the middle of the Anapra, which was built with federal money and is registered with the federal government, is an ongoing sign of life and hope. It is also an additional legal argument that the Zaragoza family, despite whatever titles they may have, long ago abandoned this land and have forfeited their rights to reclaim it. So, overall, does the situation look good? No. But, then again, neither did the situation on Good Friday. We believe that God loves justice and can make water flow in the desert. We believe that in spite of corruption, impunity, greed and violence, there are still some government officials who actually strive to act in accord with the law and justice. We know that the group, though smaller, is more united and more committed to continuing in the struggle for the right to the Lomas residents’ land. In the end, God wins. We await the rising to new life. Migration Cardinal Roger Mahony calls upon Catholics to fix their eyes on Jesus and enter with him into the spirit of those 40 days in preparation for the celebration of the Easter mysteries.
MAKING ROOM The Gospel proclamation for the First Sunday of Lent (Mark 1:12-15) tells of the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness preparing for his ministry of announcing the good news of the Reign of God. As we begin our Lenten observance this year, we would do well to fix our eyes on Jesus, to enter with him into the spirit of those 40 days in preparation for the celebration of the Easter mysteries. At the close of the 40 days, Jesus moves from the wilderness to Galilee. From that point forward, it seems that he is nearly always surrounded by people. Crowds gather around him. Whole groups follow him. They press in on him. We might say that people were always “invading his personal space.” We also know from the Gospels that Jesus took time for himself, time away from the throngs, in order to pray. But the Gospels most often portray Jesus together with others. Those 40 days in the wilderness were devoted to praying, fasting, and undergoing the harshest kinds of temptation. But the 40 days can also be understood as a period of intense preparation, a time for Jesus to make room in himself for all those he would meet in the course of his public ministry, for all those who would draw near to him, come to him, plead with him, ask him for mercy and healing and help. Our Lenten practices, whatever they may be, are much more than pious devotions. Whether our practice takes the form of “giving up” dessert during Lent, redoubling our efforts at prayer, increasing our contribution to help those in need, fasting, or abstaining from meat, they are all to be understood as a Spirit-assisted effort to empty ourselves of all that would stand in the way of being filled to overflowing with the light and life and love of God. Do we really have room enough for God? So many of us live amid so much clutter, so much noise. We travel through life at breakneck speed. Lent is the time to empty ourselves not only of the seemingly never-ending stuff, sound and speed in our lives, but also of our pettiness, our prejudice, our anxiety, our fear. It is an opportunity to make room, not only for God, but for those who come our way. How open is our door to those who come to us? Is there room enough in our hearts and our homes for those in need? To take up our Lenten practice this year in the Spirit of Jesus Christ, we face a unique challenge in this call to make room for God. In recent months and in different parts of the world, we have seen the escalation of strong sentiments against immigrants. These sentiments appear to be mounting in our own country as well. How might our various Lenten practices such as prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, our effort to empty ourselves so as to make room for God, relate to the complex reality of immigration, especially in the face of increasing hostility toward immigrants? Pope Benedict XVI’s first Encyclical Letter, Deus Caritas Est (“God is Love”) is helpful to us here. Writing on love as the heart of the Christian faith, our Holy Father says:
To the question: “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus’ answer is clear. As his disciples, we are called to attend to the last, littlest, lowest and least in society and in the Church. This Lenten season, join me in committing our Lenten practices to making room for the stranger in our midst, praying for the courage and strength to offer our spiritual and pastoral ministry to all who come to us, offering our prayer and support for the ones in our midst who, like Jesus, have no place to rest their heads (Matthew 8:20). Genetic Engineering Bill HR 4167 was passed on March 8 by the House of Representatives on a 283-139 vote. The bill, which creates the National Uniformity for Food Act of 2005, addresses a range of food safety and labeling issues, including those with implications for genetically modified foods (GMOs). There is no national law requiring GMO foods to be labeled, and HR 4167 would eliminate any state and local laws that exist. This is of grave concern because research proves that GMO foods can cause an increase in allergies and other health issues, not to mention the moral and ethical debate of artificially altering the natural genetic makeup of food and organisms. The article below outlines the bill in more detail the bill. To see how your U.S. representative voted, go to http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll032.xml. For further action you can take, see Action Alert below.
BILL MAY UNDO STATES’ RULES ON SAFE FOOD WASHINGTON, Feb. 28—The House is expected to vote Thursday on a bill that would pre-empt all state food safety regulations that are more stringent than federal standards. The measure would require uniformity on warning labels and set standards that would affect a wide variety of state regulations. According to the National Uniformity for Food Coalition, whose members include trade associations, supermarket chains and food manufacturers, different laws in different states confuse consumers. “The citizens of all states deserve the same level of food safety,” the coalition’s Web site says. “Food cannot be safe in one state and unsafe in another.” But critics of the measure—including state departments of agriculture, state food and drug officials, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the California attorney general and a long list of consumer advocacy groups—say it would gut all state regulations, including food safety investigations and sanitation standards for restaurants. In some instances, they say, the bill would replace regulations with nothing because there are no federal standards. In particular, the bill would pre-empt California’s Proposition 65, a 1986 law that requires consumer notification about contaminants known to cause cancer or birth defects. The California law, which led to the reduction of arsenic in bottled water and lead in calcium supplements nationwide, has prompted the Food and Drug Administration to tighten federal standards over the years. Most recently, the state has required warnings for pregnant women about mercury in certain fish. Erik D. Olson, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said: “What the bill would do is assure the lowest common denominator of protection. Cheaper food that has poisonous chemicals in it is no bargain. They are being responsible and protecting citizens when the federal government hasn’t done its job.” In a letter opposing the bill, the Association of Food and Drug Officials, an organization of state regulators, said that proponents of the bill had misinterpreted it and that it extended well beyond uniform labeling. “Under this bill,” it said, “a state cannot have any law, not just a food law, which is not identical to the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.” The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture also opposes the bill. In a letter to members of the House, the president of the association, J. Carlton Courter III, said the bill “threatens existing food safety programs,” including milk, retail food protection and shellfish sanitation. About 80 percent of food safety inspections in the United States are conducted at state and local levels. The industry says that critics are mistaken and that there would be no impact on many of these programs. States, it says, would be free to seek exemptions. “The legislation addresses only food safety tolerances and warning label requirements,” said Stephanie Childs, spokeswoman for the Grocery Manufacturers Association. “It does not relate to other state labeling requirements.” At a news teleconference on Tuesday, Ben Cohen, a senior attorney with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said that because hearings had not been held on the bill, “the food industry is free to give their interpretation.” “Different people have read it differently,” Mr. Cohen said. The bill, introduced by Representative Mike Rogers, Republican of Michigan, has 226 co-sponsors from both parties. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce approved it, largely along party lines. Economic Justice Preface and Explanation Each year before Easter, Christian communities around the world gather in public places to recreate the story of Jesus’ passion. In dramatic public liturgies we remember who we are as people of faith and why we believe that even the greatest of evils will not have the last word. Often, in the retelling, this central story is cast in a contemporary context and serves as a powerful critique of social sins in our own times—sins that mirror the powers and principalities responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus in the first century. That is what we, who would be disciples, are called to do—to apply the message of the sacred story in our own lives, times and places. It is what we attempt in this Economic Way of the Cross. We know that powerful political and economic forces, in a macabre mirroring of Jesus’ journey to the cross, are dealing death in our world by war and by working to the benefit of a privileged few while millions of people live and die in a debt and in dire poverty. We touch, feel, and live the pain of these many excluded ones, and we see the brokenness of the Earth. Because we are a global church, we are compelled to be in solidarity, to respond. We have witnessed the horror of war and can taste the frustration of unending drudgery. We know that the institutional roots of this suffering are painfully close to home—in government, in transnational corporations, in international financial institutions, in the set of transnational agreements that give shape to economic activity around the world, and even in our own religious institutions. To some of these institutions—often staffed by dedicated and well-intentioned individuals—we come in prayer to name our common guilt, to ask in public for pardon, to call for repentance and transformation. But also present in our community are signs of hope—those organizations and institutions that nurture solidarity and action for justice. To some of them we come as well—to pray for courage and strength on the journey toward a better world.
To read and download the complete Economic Way of the Cross, please visit the Religious Working Group on the World Bank and IMF website: www.sndden.org/rwg/ewoc-05/ewoc-05.pdf Action Alerts
Economic Justice Action Alert
Migration Action Alerts Over the next few days, the Senate Judiciary Committee will be “marking up” legislative proposals. The Judiciary Committee Chairman, Arlen Specter (R-PA), introduced his “Chairman’s Mark” (The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006) on February 24. It is critically important to actively engage the Senate at this time. Your senators need to hear from you that only comprehensive legislation will fix the ills of the current system and that an enforcement-only approach is ineffective and unacceptable. Click here for more information and to contact your senator:
Genetic Engineering Action Alert Contact Us
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