Immigrant advocates hope pope’s Mexico trip opens border dialogue

As Juarez, Mexico prepares for a visit from Pope Francis on Feb 17th, advocates for immigrants in nearby El Paso see this as an opportunity to promote the message that migrants need to be treated with love and compassion instead of having doors shut in their faces. Noting that the pope is coming to Juarez to highlight the plight of immigrants, Melissa Lopez, the Executive Director of the Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services expects that this will open a dialogue about migration on the border. “I hope his visit highlights that people have rational issues for migrating to the U.S, it’s not a decision that’s made lightly or easily,” she said. “I hope he brings a voice for the most compassionate. And at the end of the day, God calls us to love people regardless of their immigration status.”

Another El Paso group, Las Americas Advocacy Immigrant Advocacy Center, has been helping asylum seekers who have traveled from as far as Cameroon and Central America by providing them legal representation.

Disminuye el número de católicos en Cd. Juárez

CD. JUAREZ — Pese a que la religión católica sigue siendo la que más se profesa aquí, el número de católicos ha disminuido considerablemente en los últimos años. Esta ciudad fronteriza cuenta con una población de 1.3 millones y el 69 por ciento se consideran católicos, pero de acuerdo con el Instituto Nacional de Estadística Geográfica e Informática (INEGI), la religión católica ha decaído en Juárez. Hace apenas 10 años, un 82 por ciento de la población profesaba ser católica. Según María Olivares quien lleva abrazando la religión católica desde hace 50 años, esto se debe a los escándalos por los cuales ha pasado la iglesia católica.

Juarez prison workers expect pope’s visit to have lasting impact on inmates

When Pope Francis arrives in the borderlands on Wednesday to celebrate afternoon Mass before thousands at a freshly built altar and pavilion called “El Punto” on the old Juarez fairgrounds, the pontiff will also make a stop at the Cereso state prison to visit several hundreds prisoners and their families. The prison, known as the Centro de Readaptación Social para Adultos No. 3, has a reputation as a rough facility for hardened criminals and in the past has experienced several riots and killings. On Wednesday, a group of Cereso prisoners will greet “el Papa” with a special song when he arrives at the prison doors at about 10:30 a.m. It is his first stop along a 25-mile human chain leading from the Juarez airport to the site of the Mass at El Punto. As in his visits to prisons in previous tours of U.S. cities like Philadelphia, Pope Francis is expected to bring a message of love, hope and forgiveness to the Cereso inmates and their families.

Las maquiladoras de Juárez no están obligadas a dar un día feriado para la visita del Papa

CD. JUAREZ – Se esperaba que todas las dependencias de gobierno y de la industria maquiladora tendrían el 17 de febrero libre para celebrar la visita del Papa Francisco, pero ahora la organización encargada de coordinar las 360 maquiladoras dice que no es un día feriado para los 260,000 empleados del sector. Algunas han optado en dar el día 17 libre a cambio por otro día feriado. Otras han decidido seguir abiertas como cualquier día normal de trabajo. La Asociación Mexicana de Actuarios Consultores, organización que se encarga de coordinar las empresas maquiladoras, ha decidido que el día de la visita del Papa no es un día feriado para los empleado, sino que es decision de cada empresa dar el día a sus trabajadores para que ellos tengan la oportunidad de atender a la misa masiva.

Volunteers practice linking to form human wall for pope's visit

Thousands of El Pasoans, Juarenses link up to create human chain along pope’s route

JUAREZ — El Paso resident Rafael Sañedo, 21, drove cautiously down several Juarez city streets on a recent Sunday as he headed toward San Lorenzo Plaza to rehearse his part in the 25-mile-long human chain that will greet Pope Frances when he arrives in Juarez Wednesday to deliver a historic Mass at the old Juarez Fairgrounds, called El Punto. “Juarez has changed a lot throughout the years,” said Sañedo, a pet store employee, who has not crossed an international bridge from his home in El Paso into Ciudad Juarez for the last decade. The last time he visited Juarez was to see his grandmother before she died. “She was the only reason why we even came, so after she passed away there was no reason for me to come back,” he said. Several weeks ago Sañedo had a change of heart when, after attending Mass at Saint Mark Catholic Church in east El Paso, he heard an announcement asking for volunteers to help form a human wall, referred to as lLa Valla.

Casa del Migrante ofrece un rayo de esperanza a los deportados de EU

CD JUAREZ — La primera vez que la Patrulla Fronteriza aprendió a Oscar Abel Yáñez Dorame cruzando la frontera por el desierto de Sonora en Arizona tenía apenas 10 años. Aunque no tenía intención de cruzar la frontera a estados unidos, unos hombres desconocidos lo llevaron a él y un amigo de la misma edad al monte y lo obligaron a punta de pistola a cargar una maleta llena de marihuana y cruzar el árido desierto sin provisiones ni agua hasta llegar a Arizona. “No tuve opción, yo tenía mucho miedo de morir en aquel monte”, dijo Yáñez, de 21 años de edad, recientemente desde la Casa del Migrante en Cd. Juarez, donde consiguió albergue después de haber sido deportado de un centro de detención en El Paso, TX por segunda vez. El caso de Yáñez es muy común para la Casa del Migrante, un albergue en área de satélite, que recibe cerca de 5880 migrantes por año, dijo Blanca Rivera, administradora de la Casa del Migrante.

‘Mexican Black Friday’ struggles to compete with U.S. deals in border towns

CD. JUAREZ– People gather in the electronics section of Walmart two weeks before Black Friday with their shopping carts still empty, going in circles among the store’s sales staff, who today wear red T-shirts announcing “the cheapest weekend of the year.”

As they tell shoppers that the price for the 60-inch flat-screen TV in front of them is the lowest they will ever see, someone with a microphone urges shoppers not to wait until Black Friday to do their Christmas shopping: “Forget about the long lines, ‘the good weekend’ is here.”

El Buen Fin, dubbed the Mexican Black Friday, took place from November 13 to November 16 this year. In past years, El Buen Fin has rung up to 197 billion pesos in sales, according to the Confederation of National Chambers of Commerce (Conacaco), This year was expected to bring in between four to eight percent more. While El Buen Fin has been successful in most parts in México since its inception in 2011, it hasn’t had the same success in border cities such as Cd. Juárez where shoppers have access to U.S. Black Friday sales.

Juárez muestra su nueva cara gracias al Turibus

CD. JUAREZ – Si quieres saber cuáles son los edificios mas antiguos e importantes de esta ciudad fronteriza, el recorrido del Turibus es para ti. Con el fin de atraer el turismo y de hacer que los propios juarenses conozcan mas sobre su ciudad, la empresa Turibus Juárez se dio la tarea en 2014 de llevar a cabo una iniciativa de empresarios locales. Arturo Quiñones, gerente general de Turibus Juárez, dijo que la compañía representa una manera de regresar a la ciudadanía un poco de lo mucho que ellos han recibido. “La idea nace realmente en esos viajes de negocios, que se hacen al interior de la república donde allá ellos tienen su turibus y este grupo de empresarios dice bueno, ‘¿Por qué en Juárez no?’”, dijo Quiñones.

The U.S. and immigration: Where are we now?

By Amanda Guillen, SHFwire.com

WASHINGTON – The United States has long thought of itself as a melting pot, mixing cultures and customs from countries around the world. But it has often resisted adding more ingredients to the stew. The history of immigration laws dates to the first in 1790 that allowed free white immigrants to become citizens after two years of living in the U.S. With comprehensive immigration reform still a matter of political and social debates, an important turning point in the history of how the United States arrived to its current deadlock can be found a half century ago. Oct. 3 marked the 50th anniversary of the Hart-Celler Immigration Act of 1965, the historic law that changed the cultural makeup of the United States.

Undocumented women exploited in the shadows

Griselda Reyna, never imagined she would be fleeing a group of armed men who had just kidnapped and murdered her two sons. 
She knew she would be killed if she stayed in Ciudad Juarez. And that would leave her three young daughters without a mother. 
Reyna, 42, grabbed her daughters, a trash bag full of clothes, and never looked back.  She has lived in the United States since July 2013. She worries every day about being deported, separated from her children, and if she would survive a return to Mexico. Reyna is among millions of Mexican and Central American women who’ve fled to the United States, seeking refuge from deadly violence or economic insecurity.

Chart showing undocumented immigration trend

Rise of undocumented immigration slowed after Great Recession, analysis shows

By Jeffrey S. Passel and D’Vera Cohn of the Pew Research Center

An estimated 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants lived in the U.S. in 2014, according to a new preliminary Pew Research Center estimate based on government data. This population has remained essentially stable for five years after nearly two decades of changes. An estimated 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants lived in the U.S. in 2014, according to a new preliminary Pew Research Center estimate based on government data. This population has remained essentially stable for five years after nearly two decades of changes. The recent overall stability contrasts with past trends.

‘Patel Motels’ spreading Indian entrepreneurship throughout the U.S.

When Paklal finishes his breakfast bowl of cereal, he quickly cleans up his area, slips on his tennis shoes, picks up a broom and a jug of Clorox and rushes to join his parents to help clean some 30 rooms in a San Antonio hotel. The 19-year-old native of Surat, India, and his parents earn three dollars for each room and doing the laundry brings in some extra money. On rare occasions if the hotel is very busy, they average about 70 rooms a day. In addition to their pay, they are allowed to live for free at the hotel, which is also owned by a native of India. Their dream is to join him and the thousands of other Indian entrepreneurs and own their own motel.

Socioeconomic status of Mexican immigrants on rise as total numbers decrease, UNH study shows

DURHAM, N.H. – As comments about the nature of Mexican immigrants to the United States have flashed in the headlines, new research from the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire finds migration from Mexico to the U.S. dropped more than 50 percent in the last five years and that those migrating tend to have higher socioeconomic status, are older, and are more likely to be women. “The number of immigrants from Mexico has plunged in recent years,” said Rogelio Sáenz, a policy fellow of Carsey. “And who is coming has also changed. They are better educated, speak better English, are older, less likely to be men and more likely to be U.S. citizens.”

The research uses data from the 2008 and 2013 American Community Surveys to compare the demographic and socioeconomic profiles of Mexican migrants who migrated in the five years prior to each survey. Between the two surveys the volume of migration fell from 1.9 million to 819,000, a drop of 57 percent.

You may be surprised to learn where thousands of immigrant children are 1 year after border surge

By Jonathan A. Capriel– SHFWire.com

WASHINGTON — The number of unaccompanied child immigrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexican border has dropped dramatically since last year’s humanitarian crisis levels. But senators were still arguing what caused the surge Tuesday during a Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee hearing. Meanwhile, many of those unaccompanied minors still do not know if they will be deported or allowed to stay in the United States. A year later, tens of thousands are still navigating a maze of government agencies in hopes of receiving asylum. About 22,000 children still await their day in immigration court, Juan Osuna, director of Executive Office of Immigration Review for the Department of Justice, said.

A permanent inspiration, Father Solalinde

El Paso — Mild-mannered, soft-spoken Mexican Catholic Priest Alejandro Solalinde Guerra might quibble over being considered “a living saint” or a “hero,” but even he wouldn’t disagree with thousands of supporters around the globe who call him a rebel because of his fearless grassroots work on behalf of poor defenseless migrants and victimized women in Mexico and Central America. His human rights advocacy has raised eyebrows among the powerful in his country and the hackles of Mexico’s elite politicians from his native state Oaxaca all the way to Los Pinos. In the past, death threats forced him into exile in the U.S. for a while. Even that hasn’t silenced or slowed the 70-year-old Solalinde. “The most important thing (for me) is the human race,” said Solalinde last month at a symposium for “Justice for Migrant Youth,” held at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.

Historians chronicle lives, dreams of Mexican braceros in U.S. labor program

EL PASO — Emilio Solis Pallares,92, sits at his home in Fabens, Texas, listening with surprised amusement to his own voice for the first time 12 years after his story was cataloged along with the tales of hundreds of other bracero farmworkers as part of a national program by the Smithsonian Institution. “Yes, that is me and the story still remains true,” said Solis, who labored in the cotton of fields of Tornillo, Texas, for 15 years in the 1940’s and 1950’s as a member of the federal Bracero program, which recruited 4.6 million Mexican citizens to work in agriculture in the United States. Solis’ story was just one of more than 900 interviews conducted by the Institute of Oral History at the University of Texas at El Paso. More than 3,000 oral histories of braceros can be listened to online at the Bracero History Archive. Emilio’s oral history can be found here.

El Paso urged to issue city IDs for up to 50,000 undocumented residents

EL PASO, TX – Following in the footsteps of other cities with large immigrant populations, El Paso advocacy organizations are pushing city officials to consider issuing municipal IDs to residents who lack documents. “No one wants to have the feeling of being without identification,” said Guillermina Gina Núñez-Mchiri, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Texas at El Paso, raising her right arm and waving her Texas driver’s license. “Or the feeling of not being able to say ‘this is me, this is who I am.’”

Supporters of the pro-ID movement say that the city-issued IDs would help between 40,000 to 50,000 local residents who lack legal documents such as driver’s licenses or birth certificates. Immigrant advocates said the Municipal ID Program will help local law enforcement and emergency services personnel quickly respond and identify people who lack legal identification. The program is designed to help those who face challenges when trying to obtain identifiable documents such as the homeless, transgender individuals.

Despierta temor y esperanza el nuevo puente internacional Tornillo-Guadalupe

TORNILLO, TEXAS — Después de una década de narcoviolencia el Valle de Juárez, que se extiende de Cd. Juárez hasta Guadalupe a lo largo de la línea fronteriza, ha perdido casi el 90 por ciento de su población. Ahora con la inauguración del nuevo puente internacional Tornillo-Guadalupe residentes del poblado Doctor Porfirio Parra, mejor conocido como Caseta, temen que su ciudad esta punto de convertirse en un pueblo fantasma. “El temor de mis vecinos es que nos dejen en el olvido al inaugurar el nuevo puente”, comentó Martha Alicia Guerrero, 36, madre de cuatro niños y voluntaria en la cafetería de una escuela en Caseta llamada, “La Ley 6 De Enero”. Se estima que para septiembre se inaugurará el nuevo puente internacional, unas 40 millas (64 kilómetros) al este de El Paso, Texas.

Reies Lopez Tijerina: A dedicated defender of his people

EL PASO — Dust filled the desert air as helicopters swarmed over the mountains surrounding Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico, in search of La Alianza leader “El Tigre” and some 20 of his followers after they stormed the Rio Arriba county courthouse earlier that summer morning. Reies Lopez Tijerina and his men failed to exercise a citizens’ arrest warrant against district attorney Alfonso Sánchez on June 5, 1967, but the courthouse raid became one of the most important events in the long struggle by Mexicans to regain lands taken from them in 1848. Lopez Tijerina became one of the most influential and controversial Chicano movement figures in the mid 1960’s to early 70’s. “Lopez Tijerina was recognized world-wide for his investigations and political activism on behalf of the owners of land in the Northern parts of New Mexico who wanted to retrieve lost land in violation of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848,” said Dr. Dennis Bixler, Director of Chicano Studies at the University of Texas at El Paso. El Paso Times: Reies Lopez Tijerina, NM Chicano movement figure, passes away at 88

According to Bixler, Tijerina is labeled as the most influential figure of the “Indiohispano” movement along with other important Chicano leaders such as Cesar Chavez of California, Chicano activist Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzalez of Colorado and Jose Angel Gutierrez, founder of Partido de La Raza Unida in Texas.

Website to track border deaths by law enforcement officers wins startup grant

Washington, D.C. – A Spanish-language website and database to document incidents of undocumented immigrants killed by law enforcement on the southern border of the U.S. is among four media startups to receive a $12,000 grant from J-Lab. EncuentrosMortales.org is the idea of D. Brian Burghart, editor and publisher of the Reno News & Review, who created FatalEncounters.org, a crowd-sourced database attempting to track police use of deadly force in the United States. EncuentrosMortales.org will collect public records and media reports of undocumented people killed during interactions with law enforcement officers. “I’m very excited to be able to move forward with EncuentrosMortales.org. Law-enforcement-involved homicides along the U.S. border is an important and underreported issue, and I hope we can bring together technology, languages and volunteers to get a much better idea of our government’s activities,” he said.

Border policies hurt parents, children split by citizenship

People say immigrants need to come to the U.S. legally, but I don’t think they know what that means. For Jorge and Lourdes Reyes becoming legal residents was not like a Hollywood movie with the American dream picture-perfect scenario. Historically, people traveling through Mexico into the U.S. could just walk over national boundaries without being asked to present any type of documentation. It was that way for much of North America’s history until relatively recently. Today we find people who are culturally, economically and ideologically tied together being separated by a border fence no higher than 21 feet tall.

Republicans start year with challenge to Obama’s immigration plan

The Republican dominated House opened the year with votes to fund the Department of Homeland Security and attack President Obama’s executive action granting legal status to “dreamers,” and an estimated 4 million undocumented immigrants. The House voted 236-191,on January 14 in favor of funding the Department of Homeland Security with a budget of $39.7 billion, but added amendments which would overturn President Obama’s latest executive order to grant an estimated 4 million undocumented immigrants lawful permanent residency in the United States. Also, it aims to strike down Obama’s 2012 policy that granted work and lawful residency in the U.S. to another 600,000 persons. Cecilia Muñoz, the White House Domestic Policy Director, speaking in an on-the-record press call January 14 with R. Gil Kerlikowske, Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said that among the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., those that were brought as children to the United States and who do not know any other country are equally subject to deportation as those who have been convicted of serious crimes under this bill. The bill, according to Democratic leadership and a few conservatives, may not pass through the Senate, which may jeopardize DHS’s chance of receiving funding before the Feb.

Dual language education system expanding in border schools seeking to close learning gap

EL PASO — Martha Briseño and Bella, her five-year-old daughter, sit only a few inches apart from each other, but a set of words, letters and sounds hover like a wall between them. “Look what I can do mommy,” Bella said. Briseño responds to her in Spanish. Somehow, despite the differences, two languages clash and unite simultaneously. “Yo quiero que sea una niña bilingüe, que hable los dos lenguajes con fluidez (I want her to be bilingual, to speak both languages fluently),” Briseño said.

Decades of helping migrant farm workers leads to founder of El Paso shelter meeting the Pope

EL PASO – When Carlos Marentes decided to help migrant farm workers who slept on cold sidewalks in Downtown El Paso he never imagined it would one day lead him to meeting the Pope. Marentes, who opened El Centro de los Trabajadores Agrículturas Fronterizos (The Border Farmworkers Center) in 1995, was one of three people selected from the U.S. to take part in the World Meeting of Popular Movements conference at the Vatican in late October. The conference was an open discussion about poverty, unemployment, loss of homes and land that affect people around the world. Marentes was surprised to receive an invitation to the conference. “I was meeting the pope,” Marentes said.

Immigrant rights advocates bring protest, Aztec dance, prayer to free detainee in El Paso

El Paso – Alexi Cruz may not have realized he had friends in this border community until he was on the verge of being deported. Cruz, 24, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who has lived in the U.S. since he was 14 years old, was detained in early November by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after his car broke down on the way to Arizona. He was on his way from his home in San Antonio to see his mother in Arizona because authorities had apprehended his sister. His wife, Anayanse Garza, said that Cruz sought help after his car broke down in New Mexico near the Arizona border and was questioned by law enforcement officers about his residential status. The Border Patrol was called to pick him up.

El Paso marchers join global protest against kidnapping of Mexican students in Ayotzinapa

EL PASO—With their fists raised in mid-air, more than 80 persons including students, and teachers, marched through downtown streets shouting out against the kidnapping and suspected killing of Mexican students in Ayotzinapa in the state of Guerrero. They started the march Friday, November 21,at the University of Texas at El Paso, ending at the main doors of the Mexican consulate. “Who has the leadership, the students or the government that killed them!” they shouted. Photo gallery: El Paso march, vigil demands justice for Mexican students
En español: Marcha en El Paso da grito de apoyo a Ayotzinapa
Voces / Commentary: Condenan en El Paso la muerte de los estudiantes y la corrupción en México

Different groups gathered in this march. The students came from the organizations Ayotzinapa Sin Fronteras and the Master of Social Work Student Organization.

Marcha en El Paso da grito de apoyo a Ayotzinapa

EL PASO — Con los puños en el aire, más de 80 personas — un combinado de estudiantes, maestros y gente local — caminaban por las calles del centro de la ciudad pegando gritos de protesta, desde la Universidad de Texas en El Paso hasta las puertas del consulado mexicano. “Haber, haber, ¿quién tiene la batuta? ¡Los estudiantes o el gobierno que ejecuta!”, gritaban. Fueron varios los grupos y facciones que se juntaron en esta marcha fronteriza. Por el lado estudiantil, Ayotzinapa Sin Fronteras y la Organización Estudiantil de Trabajo Social tomaron las riendas de reunir a alumnos de la universidad.

At 80, El Paso folklorico pioneer Rosa Guerrero still lets faith guide her steps

EL PASO – Dressed in a bright orange jacket adorned with a necklace and a crucifix pendant, Rosa Guerrero flashes a warm smile, projecting the trademark youthful spirit and upbeat stamina that belie her approaching 80th birthday. “Age is just a matter of the mind,” Guerrero said as she sipped her cranberry and orange juice drink, a mix she concocted herself. “If you don’t mind, then it doesn’t matter.”

Guerrero’s long resume in the professional dance world has not weighed her down. An avid dancer in all types of genres, a dance teacher of students that range in age from two-year- olds to 100-year-olds, and an ambassador for Mexican folkloric dance, her love for dance is evident in the rhythm of her hand gestures and expressive nature. “I started dancing in my mother’s womb,” Guerrero exclaimed as she sculpted a simple dance move with her hands.