 Good morning. My name is Rebecca Flores and I reside here in the city of San Antonio. As you know, last Sunday in the cover of his office, Governor Abbott signs in a bill 4. And that is going to have a huge effect on all of us, all of us who are people of color. And it's going to take us back to those days when we saw racism and we felt discrimination. And if you look at all of us here, a bunch of us went through that period of discrimination in the state and in the city. And we know what it looks like and it looks like we're going back to those days. And so we are here as a community to resist Senate Bill 4. And so first up, I would like to have Justin Tullius, who is an attorney for RISES, come up and explain to us what SB4 includes. Good morning. Thank you, Rebecca. My name is Justin Tullius. I'm an attorney with the Organization RISES, in which we provide immigration legal services to low-income families, refugees, and children throughout Texas. SB4 is anti-immigrant and anti-democracy. It's one of the most anti- immigrant bills ever passed by a state in history. And it's going to criminalize and lead to increasing separation of families in which parents who are undocumented have no route to legal status currently under a broken immigration system, even when they have US citizen children born here in San Antonio, or are married to US citizens. SB4 does two main things. It forces local law enforcement agencies to honor detainer requests by ICE. And that's something that even the federal government says is voluntary. Police chiefs and sheriffs can be charged with a class A misdemeanor if they don't honor requests by the federal government to hold immigrants without a warrant. And if SB4 goes farther, it allows local law enforcement officials to ask about immigration status prior to arrest. This means police have the power to ask anyone they pull over for speeding, or near me anyone they encounter about their immigration status. This will lead to rampant racial profiling and civil rights abuses. Most importantly, this law does not go into effect until September 1st. Our communities must know that, and we must hold our officers accountable to the law. We've called on Sheriff Salazar here in Bear County to refuse to honor ICE detainer requests and we continue that call on him. Now until September and after that. The fight is not over. We're calling on our elected officials and law enforcement agencies to refuse to comply. We call upon our community to keep fighting back and the fight is now over. Thank you. Next on our list is Minna Perales, who is the director of litigation for Maldef. If you would like to come and tell us what Maldef is doing. Thank you. Everybody, good morning. My name is Nina Perales. I'm the vice president of litigation for Maldef, the Mexican American legal defense and educational fund. If you were following the news this week, you saw that the state of Texas sued Maldef on Monday before we had a chance to sue them. But we are looking forward to meeting Texas. It is unconstitutional and we are pleased that the opportunity to be able to mitigate this issue in part of Texas in the federal court. We are honored to stand with the city of Austin and with Travis County and to be able to defend immigrants and all Texans who believe in the law and the Constitution. Thank you very much. Thank you. We always look to Maldef for our leadership and the other courts and I'm sure we'll be successful as you've been successful in the past. Thank you so much for being here. As you can tell our opponents and our enemies are powerful and they're rich and they control the highest positions in the state and in the country. But we have our own power. Look at Maldef and look at all of us and we intend to use it. Arby Urpado, who is a community organizer and she's going to speak on the effects of Senate Bill 4 in our community. This is for estar aquí muchas veces para apoyarnos. Thank you for the community. The organizer with Raíces, Bill is anti-immigrant and anti-democracy. Esta ley es anti-immigrante y es anti-democrata. Es una ley racista y no nos vamos a dar por vencidos. Vamos a seguir luchando. This law creates fear as an undocumented, as a previously undocumented immigrant person. I know we shouldn't let our fear freeze us. We should let that fear turn into energy and passion to fight for our rights of ourselves. This law also creates public safety issues. Immigrants and undocumented communities will be scared and less likely and willing to report crimes. They'll also be less likely and willing to find health care and services that they need for them and their family to be safe and helping. It could also lead to racial profiling, police brutality and violence. We're here to tell our community. Estamos aquí para decirle la como nuestra comunidad indocumentada e inmigrante. No se dan por vencidos. Vamos a pelear por ustedes. Estamos listos para luchar y para resistir esta ley racista. Esta ley anti-immigrante, esta ley anti-democrata y no nos vamos a rendir aquí. Estamos por ustedes. Únense a la causa. Únense a una organización que va a pelear por sus derechos y que va a pelear contra esta ley y no nos vamos a dar por vencidos y vamos a resistir. Gracias. Next up is Sister Jane Slater, who is the Chancellor of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, and here to read the statement. I'm Sister Jane Slater, a Sister of Divine Providence, who currently has Rebecca said is I'm serving as Chancellor of the Archdiocese. I'm going to read the statement from Archbishop Gustavo Goff, CSCF. I am very disappointed and saddened that Governor Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 4 called the Anti Sanctuary Cities Bill into law in a private ceremony last Sunday. The Texas Catholic Bishops carefully analyzed and strongly opposed as before, as it made its way through the legislative process at the Capitol in Austin, and we are very concerned about the law's impact on local law enforcement agencies as they are now tasked with enforcing federal immigration provisions. In San Antonio, elected cynic officials and leaders of our law enforcement entities have almost universally spoken about the negative consequences this legislature will have on the relationship between the immigrant community and our peace officers. That trust built up over a long period of time by much hard work through the efforts of many will be quickly negatively impacted in a very profound way. This law does not protect the rights of immigrants. Strengthen immigrant families are in any way strengthen our communities. This newly signed legislation is a step backwards from just and humane immigration reform, which the Catholic Church has consistently called for. Next up is Olga Garza-Kaufmann, who is a member of the Interface Welcome Coalition, and she's here to read the statement from that coalition. Thank you. We of the San Antonio Interface Coalition stand with those oppressed, opposed to the anti-sanctuary bill signed by Greg Abbott on Sunday in private. This law is wrong-headed and suggesting that its measures will reduce crime as our law enforcement professionals clearly have affirmed. This law undermines the well-being of families in our communities and children in our schools as business owners, faith leaders, and educators have clearly affirmed. As the country of immigrants, let us reach out to come for those who arrive on our shores and our borders weary from strife in their homelands. As a compassionate nation, let us welcome those who seek peace and who wish only to join us in building a nation of peace. We are here to send a message out that San Antonio is a compassionate city, and as strongly as we can say, we are saying no to SB4. No to SB4. Because whether our San Antonians know it or not, this law, if it becomes effective, is going to affect everyone. The other night, I was listening to the City Council B session. One of the things I learned is that the WIC program that provides food for infants and children is down. We're going to be adjusting our budget because we're not getting the reimbursements from the government for WIC. And the city staff person in answer to a question said that the moms were not coming because they're afraid. And soon you'll hear from one of our leaders in the area of domestic violence who will tell you what's happening as far as calls to the police department. The other night, a couple of us, as the SB4 was being discussed, there were several women sitting down talking about our faith. And out of conversations like that came out the idea that there are a lot of good people in San Antonio, many organizations that you see behind us, they all have done something on immigration. Todas estas organizaciones han hecho algo en emigración de varias maneras. Pero no hay una organización que como que organiza y las junta todas. These organizations behind me are organizations that have whether it's educators, as community organizations, as arts organizations, as educational places have been doing work on immigration. But there is not one group that only focuses on immigration. We have molded it and we're grateful for their help. They are our lawyers. We have right. We're welcome for their help because they do the law. We need the community. So we decided to form a coalition. We called it coalición pro-immigrantes, pro-immigrant coalition. Y unas dos mujeres se fueron a Facebook a invitar amigos y amigas. Antes de 24 horas tenianos más de 100 personas, todas líderes, todos líderes y varias organizaciones. Las personas que están aquí en este mañana son líderes de muchas organizaciones que se unen a decir apoyamos al inmigrante. Y algunas de ellas les van a decir un poquito de su organización y como el impacto que la SB4 va a ser a ese grupo. Primero quiero llamarle a Terry Byers. I would like to introduce a group of people who will be giving a short statement from the point of view of their organization. And the first one is for educators, for teachers. And that's Terry Byers with the San Antonio Alliance of Teachers. Terry, good morning. The San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and support personnel stands in opposition to this law. It will promote racial profiling and discrimination against both immigrants and citizens. Given that over 90% of the students in SAISD are Hispanic, the Show Me Your Papers law will have a huge negative impact on our students and their families. On a personal note, I wanted to share that I am a 10th generation descendant from the Spanish land grant. And as I tell my children and as I tell my family and friends, you can't tell the difference between me and a recent immigrant. That we will be stopped as well and we will be questioned as well. 10th generation or not, it doesn't matter. We are of color. We stand vulnerable to this law. Thank you. Dana Schneider from Unite Here. Hi, good morning. Buenos dias. My name is Dana Schneider. I am the organizing director for Texas for Unite Here, which is the hotel and restaurant employees union. I'm going to read our statement. Unite Here stands in opposition to as before and the shameful men who created this racist immoral law. Shame. Unite Here is a union of immigrant women and men who stand up bravely for the rights of their children and for the rights of their families. Shame. Unite Here is a union of immigrant women and men who stand up bravely for a better life for themselves and their families. We reject these efforts by Trump and Abbott to strip us of our humanity and to force us into the shadows. We pledge to stand with the true majority of Texans who celebrate our diversity and who love their neighbors to resist this attack on our communities. We will continue to fight until Abbott and his agenda of hate is defeated and dignity, humanity and love triumphed. Unite Here stands in opposition to as before and the shameful men who created this racist and immoral law. Unite Here is a union of women and men and men who stand up bravely for a better life for themselves and their families. We reject these efforts by Trump and Abbott to strip us of our humanity and to force us into the shadows. We pledge to stand with the true majority of Texans who celebrate our diversity and who love their neighbors to resist this attack on our communities. We will continue to fight until Abbott and his agenda of hate is defeated and dignity, humanity and love triumphed. Thank you. Patricia Castillo with a peace initiative. The peace initiative stands for putting an end to abuse through community efforts. We address issues of domestic violence in our community and as before, nomás no. This sends people into hiding. This sends people into danger. This makes our community much more vulnerable. This creates an environment of hostility at withstand. Our families do not deserve. Our families need to feel safe. They need to know that to provide them the services that they deserve as a community and as families to be safe and to be violence free, our children to be growing up in environments where the violence is flourishing and is damaging and destroying their families. We cannot have that. And so SB4 has got to go. We cannot have that lay here in San Antonio in Texas in the United States. We cannot have it. My name is soy Patricia Castillo. Soy la directora de la iniciativa de paz en donde educamos sobre la violencia doméstica y aquí en nuestra comunidad rechazamos la SB4, la rechazamos rotundamente y estamos con los inmigrantes de nuestra comunidad para protegerlos para ayudarlos con los servicios que ellos merecen y que van a recibir en nuestra comunidad porque en el refugio te van a recibir. En la oficina del fiscal te van a recibir. Los policías te van a recibir y protegerte y ayudarte. Por favor no se escondan, no huyen. Búscanos porque ustedes van a recibir los servicios que merecen. Eso es lo que estamos aquí con este mensaje para toda la comunidad de habla hispana y todos los inmigrantes que viven aquí con nosotros. Somos nuestros vecinos y los vamos a ayudar y los vamos a apoyar y santuario, sí, violencia, no. They're not here yet. I'd like for you to be an ayanse Garza with vecinos the mission trail. This is a collective statement by the vecinos the mission trails today. Hoy es un día importante para todas personas de conciencia que van a vamos a tomar una posición en contra de la sd4 y una posición en contra del bloqueo de los de las ciudades santuarias. Vamos a actuar. No vamos a cumplir con los ataques que usan que van a suceder en contra de los derechos civiles, derechos humanos y en contra de los indígenas. Por qué los pueblos indígenas, por qué? Esa tuvieron nosotros como los pueblos. Hamos estado aquí desde muchos años y nuestras jornadas migratorias son evidencia que nosotros no somos migrantes en nuestro propio continente. En la sd4 no es una ley. Ese bloqueo en contra de las ciudades santuarias no es una ley. Tenemos que decirle por su nombre son ataques hacia los derechos de las personas que murieron para reconocer y proteger durante miles y cientos de años sus derechos y es una puerta abierta al odio y el racismo institucional y darle una sd4 en la mesa. Y cuando haces eso se tiene que preparar para su para su para su hambre, el hambre de destruir las vidas y eso no es el proceso. Es un ataque no solo en contra de las comunidades vulnerables es un ataque hacia nuestra humanidad. Es un ataque en contra de nosotros. Nosotros quienes luchamos en contra de la sd70 y legislación similar a esta sd4 sabemos como va a impactar. Va a causar un espiral fuera de control hacia abajo para la economía va a callar a los víctimas de la violencia y abusos va a darle campo a la corrupción política a todo nivel va a aumentar la violencia y va a aumentar el miedo de existir en esta comunidad. Los humanos no somos ilegales pero aún así existe un entrenamiento hacia los oficiales la policía y los sheriff o cualquier persona que nos va a detener de cómo sistemáticamente identificarnos por nuestro perfil racial y atacar nuestros derechos civiles y nuestros derechos humanos. Imagínase eso no tenemos que imaginarlo porque eso ya ha sucedido. La sd4 no es una ley esa es el bloqueo no es una ley es una manera sistemática de corruptar nuestros la protección hacia nuestros derechos. No es suficiente decir que los víctimas de estos ataques se defienden que conozcan sus derechos nosotros también las como toda la comunidad todos los instituciones organizaciones individuos de conciencia nosotros los pueblos tenemos que hacer nuestra parte y tomar una posición de no cumplir y de no participar en esta destrucción la historia marcada ha sido marcada por actos hermosos de de protesta y esas actos hermosos de protesta han permitido que nuestra humanidad florezca a pesar de este tipo de ley y violencia institucional tenemos que decir que estos ataques paran aquí no van a tomar más vidas no van a robarse el futuro de las siete generaciones desde aquí porque nosotros también somos esa séptima generación nosotros ahora es el tiempo nosotros no vamos a cumplir porque esto para aquí que si quisieran más información para organizarse para defender sus barrios para organizarse para defender sus familias para simplemente documentar el abuso o reportar abusos por favor háblenos los vecinos de Mission Trails al dos diez cinco noventa y seis noventa y uno noventa gracias Hola Sanchez Esperanza Peace and Justice Center All morning long I have come like all of us even you as Mediodistas with so much hurt and sadness anxiety frustration fear of being overwhelmed being overwhelmed yes on Sunday we saw Abbott sign a hateful bill as before but our state of Texas our government at the state of Texas our government this US government has been for the last six months sending and pushing forward this culture of hate culture of violence culture of selfishness and individualism they're wanting us to go back to we've talked about it it learns 1930s the truth is we are living it they have come after immigrants they have come after any dark skin person black brown Asian Arab native they have come after all working class and poor people no matter what their color they are coming after women and their rights to our bodies they continue to attack and we cannot work alone we cannot work alone we cannot agree to this culture of violence I'm asking we need to understand that the attacks is to focus and attack our most vulnerable communities which is everyone around this circle including you as Mediodistas they don't want us to focus on the one percent so they demonize and attack the most vulnerable and we say no simple or be they lo que sea no we love you to bear witness be witnesses and that means not just giving us a 30 seconds sound by tonight that means going and doing deeper investigations tell the stories of how immigrants are under the detention centers that exist today and let's compare them to Nazi Germany but tell the stories and tell the stories of that seventh generation dark skin Latino or Arab or Asian they too deserve the story please all of us and all of us here we need to work together and look at how quickly a hundred people with less than 24 hours got together but you can't the community cannot depend on us to do the work all of us have to be out on the streets all of us have to be knocking on doors all of us have to have these house to house gatherings to share the stories to understand so let's rego por favor all of us together vamos a ganar and it's gonna get worse before it gets better so don't give up gracias with the San Antonio Progressive Alliance the video Progressive Alliance is humbled to be here gracias thank you thank you thank you to all the immigrant community for what you do for San Antonio and America the San Antonio Progressive Alliance condemns this racist xenophobic economically irresponsible bill that is as before it is built on a false solution to systemic problems the political theater of scapegoating immigrants ranks dark clouds and follows a historical pattern it should be political suicide in San Antonio to stand against immigrants our elected representatives must take a stand to counterbalance this counterbalance this no watering this down, no equivocating it is very clear and simple it can even be politely said I stand against as before when you stand against as before you make a stand for the constitution you stand for sound economic policy and you stand up for San Antonio's families tell your friends we may not have the national but we can have the local thank you Domesticas Conidas first of all we organized domestic workers these are women that do the housework that clean your home take care of the elderly and disabled and care for the children in your home they care for what is most precious to you this work is done by immigrant women and we all know what effect this is having on that community now I ask that you as an employer of domestic workers join the fight go to domesticemployers.org check out the sanctuary campaign sanctuary begins at home we are asked to leave that woman that takes care of what is most precious to you we ask employers to join the fight these women are rendering a tremendous service to you women to follow their careers to be able to expand your minds because you are confident you give this woman your key to the home this is how much you trust her you trust her with your babies send up for her too you need her and we need you go to domesticemployers.org check out the sanctuary begins at home campaign and join the fight it is well it is very much needed we need you so join it thank you the final group is professors of our lady of the lake university today I am speaking on behalf of the RASA faculty at our lady of the lake university I am the program head of the comparative mexican-american studies program when governor avit signed sp4 into law he not only authorized racial profiling and undermined public safety he ripped a hole in the delicate moral fabric that binds us together as a civic community our elected officials have failed us by putting their morally corrupt political agenda before the public good right now we are caught up in a very narrow argument one that I believe defiles the very idea of the sanctuary city which is a sacred concept with deep historical roots sanctuary means providing those who are in need with a place of safety and protection in times of crisis today the most vulnerable among us are immigrants and refugees with the passage of sp4 our elected officials have inaugurated the shadow city the shadow city is a place dominated by fear mistrust and alienation do we want to live in a city and state where all residents are included where civic civil and human rights are protected and where our differences are respected or do we want to live in a place where some people are forced to live in the shadows it is time to take a stand against sp4 and the many other racist and discriminatory policies that have been thrown at us from above what we know from our long history of struggle as Mexican Americans is that solutions come from below and not from above it is time to reclaim and defend the sanctuary city and repair the moral contract that makes a civic community possible and uphold our principles and shared values as a community that respects differences and protects the vulnerable the Jewish community Mr. Dan Klein who is going to read a statement thank you very much I'm on the social action community at Temple Bethel and and I just attended a conference on consultation on conscience and the Union for Reform Judaism is the largest Jewish organization and they have issued several proclamations and discussions about refugees and immigrants in this country Jewish tradition is clear on the treatment of immigrants as Leviticus commands when strangers sojourn with you in your land you shall not do them wrong the strangers who sojourn with you shall be to you as the natives among you and you shall love them as yourself for you are strangers in the land of Egypt this principle is acting 35 times in the Torah the most repeated of any commandment our own people's history as strangers living in others lands reminds us of the many struggles faced by immigrants today the Union for Reform Judaism and the Central Conference of American Rabbis recently passed a resolution encouraging reform Jewish congregations to protect the lives and well-being of undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation by adopting a plan that would be one or more of the following providing sanctuary in the form of temporary shelter within their facilities providing legal assistance to fight deportation cases and providing material financial or educational support to at-risk individuals and we stand in solidarity with Interfaith Welcome Coalition and especially Raises for all the wonderful work they are doing to protect these people to move thank you thank you Mr. Klein if anybody wants to join the coalition just send an email to RebecaFlores at gmail.com RebecaFlores.com for the media that's still here and I want to extend a very special thank you to Charlotte and as San Antonio who has videotaped all this so if we want to multiply the conference let us email let us send Facebook messages to our friends and you do it by going to www.nowcastsa.com www.nowcastsa.com thank you very much for coming rest and that will work