We must address the underlying issues that would cause children & families to flee 2,000 miles to come here.
But our immediate priority must be ensuring that they are treated with kindness once they are in our care.
Here are some ways to help the most vulnerable & desperate:
Annunciation House is a volunteer organization that offers hospitality to migrants, immigrants, and refugees in the border region of El Paso. Donate here: annunciationhouse.org/financial-dona…
Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services is a legal service provider for free & low-cost immigration services in West Texas & New Mexico. DMRS provides legal services for unaccompanied minors on the border. Please donate: dmrs-ep.org/donate/
La Posada Providencia provides food, basic needs, and shelter to immigrants and asylum seekers in the lower Rio Grande Valley. To help the shelter in the RGV, please donate: lppshelter.org/ways-to-give/d…
Angry Tias and Abuelas of the Rio Grande Valley provides basic needs for the health and safety of asylum seekers and migrants across the RGV. To help, please donate: secure.actblue.com/donate/atargv
Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center provides legal services to El Paso's most vulnerable immigrants. To support their important work, donate here: las-americas.org/en/other-suppo…
Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative provides free and low-cost legal services to immigrant families. To help support their work and build capacity for organizations in the Houston area, please donate here: houstonimmigration.org
Kids in Need of Defense advocates for the rights of unaccompanied migrants & refugee children. KIND provides attorneys to represent children in immigration court at no cost & helps reunite families. Please donate here: supportkind.org
RAICES Texas, Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services provides legal and social services for families and children including pro bono representation, case management, and resettlement assistance. To support donate here: raicestexas.org/ways-to-give/d…
Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, Humanitarian Respite Center provides shelter and basic needs for refugees. Find ways to help here with humanitarian needs and to make a donation. You can select the contribution to go to the center: catholiccharitiesrgv.org/Donations.aspx
Human Rights Initiative of North Texas provides legal services in various immigration proceedings, social services, and human rights education in North Texas. Support HRI's mission to donate:hrionline.org/give-lively/
You may know of other organizations helping asylum seekers, children and families who have fled the most dangerous counties in the world, now strangers in a strange land. Please feel free to add them here and THANK YOU to all who are trying to help those in need at this moment.
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To address the underlying causes for the current level of immigration & asylum requests at our border AND ensure that we have a fair, predictable and lawful system to process immigration applications and maintain the integrity of our border with Mexico, we must
1/7
Rewrite our immigration laws to reflect the priority of family reunification, the contributions of millions of hardworking Americans who lack documentation and status in this country, & our desire to ensure a safe, legal path to come to this country;
2/7
We must also prioritize Mexico & Central America in our foreign policy. This region that we are connected to physically, culturally & through our families is always an afterthought at best in our foreign policy, a priority only when there is perceived crisis.
3/7
It may have escaped your attention, but a three-judge federal panel described TX Congressional districts as a “racial gerrymander.”
Meaning: Black & Latino Texans were drawn out of districts to diminish the impact of their vote.
Makes you think you didn’t want them to vote!
And here’s something those of us who live in Texas know: while Abbott can’t keep the lights on or the water running, he’s damn effective at keeping people from voting (one ballot drop off location per county in the midst of a pandemic! Voters at TSU waited up to 6 hours to vote.)
This voting rights bill is critical for America’s democracy, but nowhere will it do more good than Texas. Through racial gerrymander, voter ID and hundreds of polling place closures we’ve become the most voter suppressed state in the country. 1/5 nytimes.com/2021/03/03/us/…
The only way we get real democracy in Texas, where more than 7 million eligible voters didn’t vote in 2020, is for the Senate to pass this & for President Biden to sign it. (It will also help the 42 other states where more than 250 voter suppression bills are pending.) 2/5
It picks up where the 1965 Voting Rights Act left off, eliminating gerrymandering, reducing the influence of dark money, mandating automatic voter registration & early voting, restoring voting rights to returning citizens and making it harder to delete voters from the rolls. 3/5
Been tweeting RESOURCES threads for different Texas cities w/ links for those who need assistance or want to donate. They’ve been made better by folks adding their own resources in the threads. (Austin, SA, Houston, DFW, RGV, etc)
What other TX cities would you like us to list?
These are great suggestions, we are on it! And keep em coming.
OK, just posted San Angelo, College Station/Bryan, Temple, Corpus Christi, Abilene, Ballinger, Brownwood, Coleman and Eastland. More on the way!