Category: -Updates-

ACLU of San Diego

ACLU of Southern California

Adonai Community Church, Lake Elsinore

All Saints Episcopal Church, Pasadena

All Soul’s Episcopal Church and Preschool

Alliance San Diego

Arlington United Church of Christ, Kensington

Arlington United Methodist Church, Riverside

Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles

Beacon Fellowship

Bend the Arc

Berkeley Methodist United

Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Perris

Bethel Congregational Church United Church of Christ, Ontario

Black Alliance for Just Immigration

Buena Vista United Methodist Church

California Council of Churches

California Domestic Workers Coalition

California Health 4 All Coalition

California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance

California Immigration Policy Center

Causa Justa :: Just Cause

Centro Cristiano Roca de Refugio, Perris

Centro del Inmigrante in Riverside

Centro Romero Border Ministries, San Ysidro, CA and Tijuana, BC

Chinese Community United Methodist Church

Christ the King Catholic Church, Pleasant Hill

Christ the Lord Episcopal Church, Pinole

Church of the Good Shepherd, Berkeley

Claremont Congregational United Church of Christ

Claremont School of Theology

Claremont United Methodist Church

Comite Civico Del Valle, Inc.

Concord United Methodist Church

Congregation B’nai Tikvah,

Council of Mexican Federations

County of Los Angeles Human Relations Commission

Covenant Church-Spanish, Riverside

Day Worker Center of Mountain View

Day Workers Center of Pomona

Del Centro Legal Center TODEC, Perris

Drug Policy Alliance

East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy

East Los Angeles Community Corporation

Educational Opportunity Program, University of California, Berkeley

El Buen Pastor, Redwood City

Faith Alliance for a Moral Economy

Fellowship Church of Monrovia

Filipino Migrant Center

First Congregational Church of Berkeley

First Congregational Church United Church of Christ, Perris

First Presbyterian Church, Oakland

First Unitarian Church of Oakland

First United Methodist Church of Alameda

First United Methodist Church of Ontario

Glide Memorial Church, San Francisco

Greater Richmond Interfaith Project

Hearts Leap North Preschool

Hebrew Union College, Los Angles

Hispanics in Philanthropy

Holman United Methodist Church, Los Angeles

Holy Names University Social Justice Forum

Iglesia Fuente de Vida, Perris

Iglesia Pestecostal Eben-Ezer, Perris

Iglesia Presbiteriana Hispana High Street, Oakland

Iglesia Rios de Agua Viva, Rialto

Innerchange Order

Interfaith Center for Worker Justice, San Diego

International Longshoreman’s Union

Intersections International, New York, NY

Jewish Community Relations Council

Justice for Immigrants Campaign-Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino

Justice for Immigrants Coalition of Southern California

Justice Not Jails

Kehilla Community Synagogue

Kensington Unitarian

Khmer Girls in Action

Korean Resource Center

Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance

Lafayette United Methodist Church

Latino Roundtable of Pomona and San Gabriel Valleys

Latino Youth Retreat of the Methodist Western Jurisdiction

Latino/a Roundtable of Pomona and San Gabriel Valley

Los Angeles Filipino American United Church of Christ

Lutheran Office of Public Policy, Sacramento

Mariachi International of Mexico

Martin Luther King March, San Francisco

Mills College

Ministerios Cristianos Rey Jesus, San Bernardino

Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project

Mobilize the Immigrant Vote

Montclair Presbyterian Church, Oakland

Mt. Diablo Unitarian Universalist (Walnut Creek)

NAACP of Pomona

National Convocation of Jail Ministry Chaplains

New Hope Covenant Church

Newman Center at University of California, Riverside

Northern California-Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ

Notre Dame de Namur University

Oakland Catholic Worker

Office of Hispanic Affairs- Diocese of San Bernardino

Orange County Congregation Community Organization

Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, Chino

Our Lady of Hope Catholic Church, San Bernardino

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, Rancho Cucamonga

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, Riverside

Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley

PICO California

Pine United Methodist Church

Plymouth United Church of Christ, Oakland

Pomona Economic Opportunity Center

Presbyterian USA Mission and Justice Committee

Rialto United Methodist Church

Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Rancho Cucamonga

Sacred Heart Sisters

Saint Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church, Sun City

Salvadoran Consulate

San Bernardino Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church

San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations

San Francisco State Intervarsity Christian Fellowship

Santa Rosa – VIDA

Second African Methodist Episcopal Church, Los Angeles

SHARE Foundation

Sisters of Holy Name of Jesus and Mary

Skyline United Church of Christ

Southern California-Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ

Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Los Angeles

St John’s Presbyterian Church, Berkeley

St, Paul’s Episcopal Church, Oakland

St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Oakland

St. John’s Episcopal Church, San Bernardino

St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church, Chino

IM4Human Integrity was in San Luis Obispo February 12th presenting on findings from the People of Faith Root Causes Pilgrimage to Honduras and Guatemala.  Over 60 people were in attendance at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of San Luis Obispo which had been one of the co-sponsors of the Pilgrimage. The event was attended by the Fellowship’s Social Justice Committee, students from Cal-Poly and Cuesta College, a staff member of Congresswomen’s Lois Capp’s office, and other community leaders.

Rev. Rod Richards of the Fellowship shared these words of introduction:  

“We, humans, can become very attached to the lines that we draw on a map.  There’s an implication that not we, but God has etched the outline of our states and countries into the very dirt and dust and rock.  But our borders are lines on a map; lines that haven’t been there so very long at all; lines that have changed and will change…

No, I don’t mean to say that immigration issues can be easily solved if we all just agree that country borders are just lines on a map.  I understand that those lines, once drawn, take on all sorts of political and economic and legal meanings that matter.  I don’t mean to say that we can ignore the real-world implications of the meanings that we have attributed to these borders, the human suffering that takes place as a result, the economic and political implications, the security risks…the list goes on.

 But spiritually speaking, and ethically speaking, and humanly speaking, as we seek solutions to the problems we face, we do have to keep that in mind, that these are lines on a map.  We must remember that those borders have no inherent regulations and requirements; they are lines on a map that humans have drawn.  Those lines have shifted many times, often at a very high and brutal cost.  The Earth and Sea and Sky know nothing of those lines.  We, humans, made them up and there is nothing inherently wrong with crossing them.  Because we made them up, we can decide together what to do with them.  Because we made them up, we should never allow them to tell us who we are; because we made them up, we should never allow them to distort or damage our respect and compassion for each other as human beings.”

Being a self-identified “nation of immigrants,” we are called to respond with sane and compassionate immigration policies based on our ideals rather than to react with simplistic, militaristic proposals fueled by our fears. 

Our laws cannot enforce compassion, but every religion and ethical system I know of calls for special consideration for the stranger; the traveler; the outsider in our midst.  We are here to call for a new day; a new way that will respect the inherent worth and dignity of each human being and recognize the fact that our family ties—the ties that bind the human family—run across any and all of the lines we may draw.”

IM4HumanIntegrity staff shared the Root Causes of the flow of young people and families from Honduras and Guatemala, including:  neoliberal economic policies that promote extractive industries such as monocrop agri culture, mining and large scale dams; state and gang violence, and  US policies of intervention and military aid in the region.  She urged the audience to urge the US towars a posture of “co-responsibility” for migration by addressing root causes as well as extending support and protection for immigrants once they arrive.

The groups shared their appreciation:

“There was so much to think about. These huge and complicated problems are clearly too big for any one of us, but together we can maybe make some difference.  Thank you for providing the big picture and showing possible ways to go.”