None of those involved in housing and feeding the migrants wants to talk too much about the politics that led to their arrival in Sacramento. Avoiding politics doesn't mean ignoring those in need Trejo says all the congregations caring for the migrants are doing so out of a desire for "a world where people are seen with dignity and respect." And she says that as a Catholic woman, service like this is the best way she can demonstrate her love of neighbors. "The work with the migrants has allowed us to create a vessel for people in the community who are tired of seeing the humanity of immigrants being stripped away," she says. For her and the scores of people who've since volunteered to help, it's a deeply meaningful experience. Trejo says someone there familiar with Sac ACT's work called to ask if she could help figure out what was going on.
The office building where the migrants were originally dropped is home to the administrative offices of the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento. Latin American migrants flown from Texas to California were dropped off at an office building that houses the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento without anyone telling the diocese they were coming. Speaking in Spanish, he described a harrowing journey of more than two months walking, jumping on buses, hitching rides, and crossing border after border: On a recent Thursday afternoon, the migrants gathered at Parkside Community Church in Sacramento to pick up English language workbooks.Īmong them was a 21-year-old Venezuelan named Opher, who asked to only use his first name because he fears for his family's safety given the political instability in his home country.
It has meant shouldering unplanned costs of time, energy and money for the coalition - all the result of the country's polarization over immigration. Since the arrival of the 36 new Sacramento residents, a coalition of congregations - Jewish, Christian and Muslim - has come together to help them settle in. A community comes together around unexpected guests Ron DeSantis who chartered the planes to send them from El Paso to Sacramento to make a political point about immigration policy.Ĭalifornia's Attorney General Rob Bonta says individuals from Latin America who were dropped off in Sacramento had documents purporting to be from the Florida state government.Ĭalifornia Attorney General Rob Bonta met with migrants shortly after their arrival in Sacramento in June and found that they had documents "purporting to be from the government of the State of Florida and its 'Voluntary Migrant Transport Program,'" according to a press release issued by his office.īonta has since opened an investigation into the circumstances of the migrants' arrival to determine what, if any, laws DeSantis or others may have violated. But authorities in Texas aren't the ones who flew the migrants to California. They had claimed asylum after crossing the border in Texas.
Ironic perhaps, that it was exactly 36 immigrants from Latin America who arrived in Sacramento over the course of a few days in early June. "There should be one law for the stranger and the home-born," she says.
"Our most important holiday is Passover," she says, "and from that holiday - and over and over in the Bible - we're taught that because we were strangers in the land of Egypt, we have a special obligation to help the stranger."Īlfi says that 36 times in the Torah, Jews are commanded to love the stranger, help the stranger, and care for the stranger. Up First Uprooted: How climate change is reshaping migration from HondurasĪlfi says the religious imperative for her congregation was clear.
0 kommentar(er)
