 Before we say our prayer are the people here who've not been here before we would like to meet you So please if you're here, I think they stand up Ruthie Douglas I attend UPC, and I'm just terribly grateful for the work that you're doing Maria Trevino and I work for a just for our neighbors, and I'm so glad to be here and get to meet everybody Dr. Carles while it is hold the tree and take the tree in church, and I'm here exploring I'm Derek planting up with UTSA social work. Hi, I'm Jessica Brown And I've been a list active you remember recently my three kids can't busy But I work at Trinity and I have a background in immigration studies my master's degree, so Issue close my heart Hello, I'm Tatiana Hecker, and I'm with the Episcopal Diocese of Texas along with those two lovely ladies And I work in world's missions, and so we already have a lot of initiative working With the surrounding immigration Not only in the border area, but also in Honduras and Mexico and Guatemala And so we wanted to see how we can better connect with what's going on here Okay, so anyone else I'm like the row I'm from here at first press been before but it's been a while just kind of recombining to the And he is the husband of rare player who does lots of work for us It's nice to be introduced as the husband of someone I am Ann Schaefer, and I'm here with my friend Robin Beresford. We're from Fredericksburg And we would like to create a Connection in Fredericksburg and already I have a couple of churches that are gathering things for the interfaith Welcome to all the shins backpacks Okay Okay, I welcome all of you who are here those who have been here many times before and those who are new Thank you for joining us and being with us this day To oh one more thing Two of our leadership group are going to be Responsible for our prayer today But I want y'all to know that if you have a prayer that you would like to say Please email it to me or Mary Grace and we will put you on the agenda Because we would like to have other people say prayers as well Terry's going to do the slides for me On March 30th several of us went to Crystal City to the site of the concentration camp Where Japanese Americans and others from many countries were held from 1943 to 1948? We met with seven of the detainees and many of their descendants Who came on a pilgrimage to protest the repeating of history with our immigrants today? Sister Denise was invited along with the Buddha Buddhist priests from California We had a better picture ever, but we didn't have the picture of the priest with her so We also went with these pilgrims to the Dilly the Dilly concentration camp to protest Our prayer is words addressed to the detainees in Dilly by a Japanese descendant Followed by the drums that they used to talk to the Dilly detainees This picture and the drum video are taken by Norma Martinez with Texas Public Radio Her post is linked on our tiny cc site They will be coming back in November second on November 2nd plan to go. It was powerful Today And right now we are going to say go to the families and to the world that we are here to fight for you Our message is Families and children take heart Take heart. We have not forgotten you. We think of you every day We are fighting for you here, and we are fighting for you back home and every one of us who is here today We represent hundreds and thousands of people who are She's been attending our meetings for quite some time that she is our guest speaker today And she is representing reform Immigration for Texas Alliance Rita Rita To talk a little bit about Rita is Rita is Stamps for reform immigration for Texas Alliance or la alianza de tejas por una reforma migratoria And we consider ourselves the voice of immigrant and border communities But we also work with communities in Houston and Dallas Lubbock. So really we really are a statewide organization now So like I said, we're an alliance of community-based organizations and we were formed in 2009 To protect and advance the rights of immigrant communities in Texas We have allies in business religious and law enforcement sectors throughout Texas And it is a project of the border network for human rights out of El Paso So you could say that our our headquarters are in El Paso We have our goals are to connect Texas communities to share struggles hope and successes To build capacity with the within the immigrant community to engage and impact the immigrant Immigration debate to share strategies and resources to educate Texans on comprehensive immigration reform and to impact state and national policy In immigration through collaboration with local regional and national stakeholders So we do work at the state and the national level our structure is Community-based we have a an executive committee composed of organizations of representing diverse regions from across Texas and the executive committee decides and implements priorities And sets the agenda and usually this is done every two years because we do a lot of work at the Texas legislature And I think that's one of the reasons Rita was founded was to Once all the anti-immigrant bills started coming out or moving east from Arizona I think that that's what this organization was formed and The border network for human rights at facilitates and coordinates the Rita process So they really do make sure that we we have some funding and they're able to to convene at least At least every year to to plan and coordinate our actions for the state State League and also in Washington That here a list of a community Executive committee members representing different organizations I think I'm the only one that sits the person because I don't really have an organ I mean immigration is my passion, but I don't really have an Organization that I work for or represent So I would really like for maybe the interfaith welcome coalition to join our executive committee and Organizations that are on the executive committee have more than one person. So they all kind of take turns Joining the meetings or setting the word out and it's it's a really good It's a really good a format so that not just one person is stuck with all the Rita Jobs that come up So I'm here maybe to invite you guys to to join our executive committee and help us Continue planning our strategies for for our statewide immigration work Here's a list of participating organizations and we do have some from San Antonio mall that has always been very active we have prices and Then of course we have Texas organizing project from from San Antonio. So so we do have a lot of organizations that work with us and Provide information. We we have a conference call every two weeks And then we try to have at least one summit Somewhere in the state at least once a year. Sorry, but I can connect and plan some actions and You get things going especially right before the state legislature or during the legislative session our strategies Our strategies are to build grassroots power through community organizing leadership building and to engage immigrant communities in in our organizations and we do have a lot of immigrants and DACA students that that work with with Rita We build relationships with key and diverse allies including business law enforcement and faith organizations And So Rita was starting in 2009 that was before I came along But it's main goal was to share right to share human rights committee model with Red Scouts organization to build community capacity And they still do that a lot especially West Texas They do a voter registration engagement and and turnout and and started building a Narrative to combat anti-immigrant of policies in 2011 It was really when I joined Rita and so I participated a lot of the planning of some of the marches and actions that we did in Austin and 2011 was a great year I'm sorry to say not anymore, but that was when we had SB 9 The anti-sensory city spiel and it was defeated twice by coalition that included Rita in the regular session and a special session And the key elements that used that were used to defeat this anti-immigrant law was The message came beyond immigration it included the Texas Business Association and we pointed out how This anti-immigrant policies working in laws are going to affect the economy in Texas And we had the Texas Business Association join with us We had Hispanic evangelicals which were which is still today are a very strong partner with Was Rita because they do work a lot with immigrant communities and that's that's who they they minister to and that's that's their their flock and Then individual communities like it's San Antonio Houston Dallas all throughout the Valley all throughout the state so in 2017 we started the bringing Texas together Model to promote dignity respect and rights for all and this is some of the actions that we did in in In 2017 during that legislative session. We did law enforcement panels We we did a day of action in Austin We mobilized for house and Senate hearings and we made a lot of individual visits to state senators and state legislatures and we had press conferences on economic impact of SB4 and then we did in 2018 we did a together Juncos caravan and That was a bus caravan from March 30th through April 12th that went to different parts of Texas They did not come through San Antonio, but that is being planned for 2019 So that's one of it the the projects that we're working on this year is getting the second part of the Caravan part two going and there's some Lace to the articles that that will they came out about the caravan Moving forward as I mentioned we want to do the Texas together caravan to the interior of Texas So we would like to to go We missed Lubbock and then moved to San Antonio Austin all the area hill country, etc We want to build a stronger community agenda and We did have a Statewide meeting this year and it was in San Antonio at the Raisa's office And I was really glad that some of the interfaith welcome coalition people came because they helped us set the agenda for For the next legislative session and we did have an action in In Austin or March 14th. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go. I was I was at a conference for For my work the one that pays my bills So I was really sad that's the first one that I've ever missed We're trying to engage Asian Black Brown immigrant partnerships And then we want to continue building a relationship with our law enforcement and the business and faith organizations Which I think we have strong relationships with some of them But not all of them throughout the state and we're in the process of leadership building up within the immigrant communities So our my my purpose here, I think I mentioned before will you please join us? Become a part of Rita. I would like to see the interfaith welcome coalition become part of the executive committee Since this organization touches all different issues within the immigration the backpacks, you know the The hell but at the detention facilities company People to court here is all you do tremendous work And I think we would like to hear more about it learn about it so that other communities can also become engaged in this areas you can also join our action network and it's We're on Facebook, so that's one way and we have Twitter account at Texas Rita and Help us implement the human rights model in immigrant communities We have and we need more allies help us get more build more allies. We have conference state-wide conference call every two weeks like I said and we plan Whatever is is we get a report from a lot of our partners from all this gives us the legislative report because they're like on the ground there We gave reports from Houston Dallas was happening in their area and then we plan right now we're in the process of Doing the work that needs to be done in the legislature, but we're also planning a statewide summit We like to have a statewide summit every year right after the legislative session So we're planning one in June and I would like to see the San Antonio So I'm lobbying for that, but I need some of those help So if you want to if you if you want to talk about joining The executive committee of Rita. I hope that you You decide to do so and then if you have any questions Here today to answer any that you may have or I'll try Thank you Yes Yeah, there's several and I think most of the ones that we've gone over in the in the Social Action Committee advocacy committee we're in and Maldives keeps up keeps us informed of all of those So yeah, we are and I did go to the March 14th They they on the hill, but I know they had a long list of the The bills that they were gonna look that they were looking at and who they were going to talk to Yeah, but your list looks very similar to our list Thank you so much. Oh, but I did make a note so we can look that over at the at our leadership group and Decided that's the right thing for us didn't have that stronger connection between Rita and IWC Looking at our ministry reports, maybe this is appropriate to step right into advocacy after Rita's talk Sister Pat. Do you want to update us? Actually, man is going to get oh wonderful Matt Lomar is as tall as me Morning everybody Hold me to what we talked about so that I don't drift off We are the advocacy committee is In observing what's happening in Austin. What's not happening in Austin? We've kind of taken a position that we want to Recommend that the members of the interfaith welcome coalition focus on bills that impact Children and particular bills that impact regulation of detention centers Licensing for people who can't get on the grounds of schools because they don't have license and insurance Just some of the most absurd things that one would think common sense would dictate but But it does not so I'm going to read kind of a proposition we have we're gonna Send this information to all who are on the listserv for with with the approval of the group So It begins the following bills at first reading Seek to enhance the well-being of unaccompanied children who cross the border alone and those separated from their families They attempt to infuse common decency into the care of detained immigrant children in government custody who are being Traumatized by this experience simple measures like monitoring basic demographic information about these children Investigating when they report abuse Allowing them to contact their parents Guardians and not detaining them for longer than necessary to facilitate a suitable placement should be supported by all Texans slash American citizens Especially those who share our faith in God as the source of all creation We ask all people of faith and goodwill to conduct to contact your legislators and encourage their support of the following House bills and so what we're intending to do is to make this Available in some format online, but then to send it to the membership With information that will include, you know how to find out who your legislator is if that's an issue that you yet need to resolve Who the chair of the particular committee where that bill is? resting hopefully not dying Currently who and so our recommendation is that you will contact both your representative and the chair of the committee and sort of put the pressure that this is a Bill of concern because it impacts the well-being of children and children should be our highest priority especially as people of faith We will also be drafting a letter to Media here in San Antonio, but I think we're probably going to expand that to beyond San Antonio That will coincide with this effort to really emphasize that there is an opportunity For the Texas legislature to pass bills that will safeguard the well-being of children It's not happening We need this to happen. We had an expression in our meeting that you know some of the bills It'll be banging our head against the wall trying to get them to move but some bills It's worth a little bit of a bruise on your forehead. So that's what we're emphasizing did I miss anything in a report, okay All right, great. So look for that in your email. Please respond to it Please take this opportunity the session ends at the end of May so there's a short time left to to make that impact and We will hopefully get that out to you before Before the end of I'll say next week is this week is rapidly eroding Right so some of our local representatives Diego Bernal Meners they are some of the authors of some of these bills. So that gives you a real opportunity to say Is it something you want us to get alongside you and to help push? Because after all we have a particular niche and we should Leverage that every way we can okay anything else Yes And So I'll try and repeat what you asked so everybody understands Is our committee focusing anything on expanding capacity of Placement sites would that be a fair way? We are not I don't think that means we can't but I think Yeah, I think that's that's research that has yet to be done Obviously capacity is an issue in so many different dimensions of this but Yeah, asking for children not to be detained and they're not having a place for them to go does Create kind of a quandary first not detaining them in the first place might be the solution, but But yeah, I think that's a worthwhile Dimension to this that we have to pay attention to so we will put that on our agenda. Did you get that down, sister? Anybody any other questions hope Spears anxieties No, okay Community involvement, I would just like to announce a word of gratitude to a biting presence Lutheran Church, which is recently been hosting us in Airport backpacks and supplies and they have just They've also just formed a committee to assemble the backpacks force and it's going to be meeting for the first time this week So yes, they can get out of my dining room Oh And Travis Park Collaboration yes No We'll have a more elaborate report We I know we're all just curious as we can be and with many many questions about the best station in the best station Area and all that's going on there. So it's a little out of order, but it's coming right You think from collaboration Oh Yes, our volunteer appreciation dinner at Laurel Heights United Methodist Church, and that's another community Faith community involvement. It's greatly appreciated. So mark that on your calendar. We'll be sending out invitations up in early May late April or early May Raising do we want to say anything about fundraising? Okay, then Sister Susan now we're getting into news Good morning, sister Susan Mika with the Benedictine sisters and our Two of my helpers are here today Nina raise your hand and Ruben in the back there and As part of our membership in the interfaith welcome coalition We try to put together the articles the news articles and we're following the court cases So if anyone doesn't have a copy Maybe you can raise your hand and we can still try to see if we can get you a copy. I think we have enough there so In our monasteries in Bernie, I always just have that just for perspective so this time I put some of the articles at the beginning and What we try to do is go through the various Newspapers that we have subscriptions to and document these things for all of us and I would appreciate too If any of you are using this in certain ways I've been writing down as people are speaking some of the different things that they're saying and if you're using our Materials in a specific way. We would love to know about it Earlier in the year We were able to secure a grant from the Conrad Hilton fund for sisters of $18,000 for the backpacks and so now we have to you know say what You know, how are we documenting all of these kinds of things? I mean we gave the 18,000 straight to our treasurer here and That helped like minimally in a way But for 1,575 backpacks, but you know, of course in them the whole It's a sliver, but it's what we can do So as you know, the news has gone off the rails with all of the articles that are happening Just in the last few days and of course the minute we publish this it's out of date But we do our best so So just to lift up, you know, some of the different kinds of things this migrant surge I think they just published the numbers. I think was 103,000 that came across in March We documented here about the Carnes facility Holding women now and I think we heard on the call We also participate in that family detention call every two weeks that the numbers are very low, but Carnes now went over to being with women instead of the way that it had been with originally with women and children and then men and children and now just back to single women so and then that article there a hundred oh a hundred eight thousand five hundred undocumented released in the last three months Then just some of the articles of Brownsville The San Antonio situation on the next page and we tried to document about the city. Thank you You know with all of the different things as we're saying Everybody has their peace that they're trying to do and Catholic Charities Many much of this has been on the news here in our area I know some of you are from out of town and You may have not have seen all of those different stories, but our newspaper really has picked this up quite a bit it's been on the front page and You have subsequent stories and then the next page this Eagle Pass bus company that had been charging migrants very steep fares $75 instead of their usual $25 to be transported from Eagle Pass up here to San Antonio and then the next article there The next day in our paper the city called on that Aguila Express company to stop overcharging and so then it seemed like they started also using another Bus company and so anyway, so like we just see our Ministry here is documenting just you know saying this is what is going on And thank you to the city for raising those questions on all of our behalf family separations This is just like startling startling It says the Justice Department said in a court filing late Friday April the 5th that it will take at least a year to review about 47,000 cases of unaccompanied children taken into government custody between July 1 2017 and June 25th 2018 the day before the US Judge Dana Sabrah halted the general practice of splitting families and then he ordered that those children in government care had to be reunited with their families and I think they're The latest news say about a hundred still were trying to be reunited and then last month he was the one that held the government accountable for families that were scheduled before his June 26th order and asked the government to submit a proposal for the next steps and So Kudos to him, you know, he stepped up He felt that he had to do something and get involved and so it just shows you What one person can do especially a judge and we're counting on our legal system to help us with all of this And then a judge just ruled also About trying to keep the asylum seekers to remain in Mexico. He said that would not that that was not something that should happen And then we just documented about the migrants that were being held under the bridge They're in a holding pin in El Paso and and some of you may have seen that when Beto award had his Rally that day. He was very near to that area. So I think it also helped to raise national Awareness about what was going on there in El Paso and that then, you know, some of that eased a bit Then the other area there the US cutting off humanitarian aid to Guatemala Honduras and El Salvador This was right after they had just agreed to continue the aid So it it's just, you know, part of that chaos that's going on under all of this And then our Pentagon has agreed to take a billion dollars from their military personnel account to build part of the border fence so and then the next two pages are just again many of the the law the court cases that We continue to follow and then our second our last two pages are a lot of the things The Tino puts those out as part of some of the city stuff. We try to look at the IWC The website et cetera and try to you know put things together for you there in one page You know one page handouts so that if your church or your group or your Person can do anything you have many many opportunities there to help us So and I would just ask to like if you have given our handouts to any Specific place. Let me know because like we're kind of documenting that as well so that We can let people know that our work makes a difference to a lot of people. So thank you Susan in your work does indeed make a lot of difference to a lot of people If you're making a report somewhere, this is the perfect place to sort of get the latest statistics are that You say it's not quite up to date But it's it's more up to date than a lot of things we can find and we know the date on it It's printed on the page. So we know when those figures came You know we're Um Moon is not here. She's probably accompanying someone for a sanctuary update. Let's see But Steve oh, this is what we just all been very curious about and Jen has asked you know today To assist with the bus station report and where do they go? There is For the bus station We have a little bit of a station. It's like a do it. Yeah Tina's going to go first and just let you know what the resource center is and fill in all those Sure well as many of you Frequent in the bus station may know in the last since last since last December ish and we've had people come in for me go past kind of Without travel plans and that's been an ongoing issue and then we started to have really a big influx as of That last week of March, which I don't even know what they were A lot of people start to show up and so You know cities agree with us to open up sheltering or any influx and First night we asked our part. They can help us Come on over and we sheltered some people on that Thursday the next Friday ended up being Almost as I mean probably more chaotic than the third to the day before so by Saturday our city leadership decided they needed to really coordinate efforts to open up a resource center and assist with sheltering Kind of in a bigger in a bigger and also like the bigger picture of what what to help assist people who are traveling, you know during this time so we've been in operation since 1 to 4 Okay, since March 30th We haven't this is the kind of thing that you know the city can't do when we ask everybody in the city for help So Center City Development Operations Department that deals with the city properties in the downtown for they had applied Site that the city owns that is right next to our bus station in that parking garage It was a former Quiznos And that is where it's a city. It's a city property that we're going to try at least it To somebody else so they allow us to use that property. That's first the ccdo Then the Department of Human Services who Really, you know, they're they're experts on how to provide services to Maybe sent when your residents are they they coordinate with the food bank They put it for hope so they they know how things get done as far as getting clothing to a place about getting Food delivered to a place. So they they also sent staff and coordinated all of All the food bank relations to have poppies are at the resource center So that was also a really great help the staffing has been amazing because they do a very good job of Having people there making sure that People want to volunteer. They have a person to talk to Kind of give them shifts and provide that that kind of support, which is really needed You know coordinating support is really it's really helpful In the beginning our main idea was that we would Help with some travel planning with people Provide them some food According to sheltering and of course Travis Park has been very instrumental in this they've been very very generous with offering their space every night and we've averaged about 60 to 70 people a night being sheltered at Travis Park and So that's that's been really great. They've opened up their doors to us and allowed us to have people there our staff there had some San Antonio fire department Officers there so they could do the they call fire watch Overnight and so that's been really great. We've also tried to with with the assistance of the Travis Park staff Provide some of the services that people ask for at the church, which are maybe showering like people We want to take shower even they've been in the customs of our Protection custody where they weren't allowed to take shower. There's no availability And so they're released a couple of days after that and then they come up here and you're three or four days in and done shower So yeah being able to make that happen. It's also been very helpful when we can make that happen The other part of it, you know our assistance with travel many of the people that are coming to San Antonio Don't intend to stay here. They're trying to travel somewhere else to be reunited with family members So a lot of them all they need is a cell phone to talk to somebody So we've had some support from our IT department giving us cell phones to use and also laptops for us to be able to search on the internet for different travel options and printers and all of the internet support We need a location. That's all provided by the city of San Antonio IT department that our Metro health department. They provided us with Initially it was just ENTs, right and Then they then they found another space for us right next door immediately next door to the to the former Quiznos And they open up kind of a makeshift clinic there And so now we have doctors that volunteer both from Metro health and UHS and some other people in the community And we accept donations for the kinds of over-the-counter medication that people need because a lot of people are coming, you know With colds and that kind of thing We've had a few other more serious cases of illness for kids and had quite a few kids Especially referred to the hospital one of the chicken pox scarlet fever So there's been a few more serious cases, but we're glad to have doctors there on staff to be able to provide that assistance For most of the day our hours We might be shifting this but they have been six to ten six o'clock in the morning tonight We're basically running like three shifts of people through there every day And our doctors kind of Ported their own schedule to do that as well We've had a lot of support on the on the medical side from donations that are made by St. Mark's for Gift cards that provide that we're not that we're able to use to pay for prescription medication The people get prescriptions with wondering how we're going to pay for them So we get these visa prepaid cards and also the IWC just just generously donated A visa card for us to be able to pay for those prescriptions for people and get something in their hands so that they can You know have some medication before they take their trip So it has been like a lot of different efforts and a lot of people doing doing work that's assigned out to them kind of you know So we have experts that do these things and it's been really great to watch them Just kind of you know say okay Here's our basic heat and how how you go about filling that out and making that happen It's really up to you one of the things I think that's important to recognize about this effort is that this is not a declared emergency so this makes a difference for the city because In a declared emergency we get federal and state support for funding you'd be able to open one of those really big Centers and have all had it you know completely staffed with paid personnel since this is not stated. This is not a paid. I'm sorry a declared emergency Almost all the support has been volunteer help so That's kind of why we seek Donations and we seek volunteers to help and we do have now volunteer coordinators that all of our volunteers are Routed through a DHS staff member human services staff member And those are Jenny Garcia and Joe and Kike and they are the ones who are now taking people's Information and kind of telling them these are our shifts and these are our needs We also have the food bank is coordinating all of our donations of supplies of food and clothing So that we don't have our space our very limited space overwhelmed with all the generosity of people wanting to donate things so that's been really wonderful as well and A couple of other people. Yes, good. Well We have we have two calls a day To do cover the ball today for you guys Yeah Kind of the cherries has been Amazing. Yeah, well, they pay for a lot of tickets people people who don't have the money the resources to pay for their tickets to go Especially far, you know, if you're going to New York with four people and you want to leave tomorrow First of all, there's usually not any tickets available right now And if you do get them as my volunteer travel for new people now, they might be nine nine hundred thousand dollars even on a bus so Without the support of the donations that has a church would be able to get that done people who just ended up being here To three days five days and no way of being able to move on to where they want to be So They have been able to also coordinate the financial donations for that Catholic charities And then the gift cards are being coordinated by St. Mark's at the church we had as as mentioned before we did coverage of of what we've been doing and Also media coverage of what was going on in equal past with the transit operators there We received a lot of a lot of there was a lot of stories been told to us by my friends about how much they were paying to get up here When we first started to talk to people about this from March 30th I'm great for the first week. We heard many many stories of people said they were being charged a hundred dollars per person to travel on a van From equal past to here So for them is four or five people it's $400 that they were being charged and they basically around the center No money to go anywhere else or to buy anything else Sort of shocked to know that you could travel much further for $400 just from equal past to San Antonio so I was very appreciative of our of our city's public affairs department and really taking the lead on helping guide the journalists towards that story and as a result the Operator wasn't shut down Our recent stories have been number one that that particular operator I give express Charged to people what they say they're going to charge them which was around $25 flat fee to bring them inside of 410 That's what they've been charging everyone else in equal past and Secondly that there's a new band service that all that charges $20 flat fee and they are that they also will bring people from equal past So those things at the very least are some positives that We're keeping people from being exploited. I think that's also very important to recognize Anyone have any questions about the resource center? No, that was great that was incredibly comprehensive and I just have to say that you know the support from DHS in the city has been Absolutely incredible, but I just want to remind everybody. This is what the Interfaith Welcome Coalition has been doing Day in and day out week in and week out. This is just what we've been doing on steroids Okay, it's the same services the same populations the numbers just exploded and that's what necessitated the city coming in So if there's a silver lining to this it has really there's a big light shining on the work that we always do so And You said everything that needs to be said about the resource center the collaboration has just been incredible Between the resource center and the Interfaith Welcome Coalition Of course our piece of it is what we always do is when travel arrangements are made for Families who are over at the resource center the IWC volunteers make sure that you know We have a comprehensive list of everybody who is going to the bus station Who's going to be traveling on Greyhound and we make sure that everybody gets over to the bus station for their buses And the other thing we've been doing is you know We still have our families from Dilly coming, you know And when they arrive and we get them taking care of with all the support that we give them We've been taking them over to the resource center for that hot breakfast that hot lunch that the food bank has been providing You know and also taking advantage of all the donations of clothes and shoes and different things So it's um, you know, it's just been such a such a godsend You know, I think that sister Susan mentioned the the transition that's happening at the family detention centers Carnes Aren't those numbers are really low We're getting maybe one to two people from Carnes and that has transitioned from family to just women the population in Dilly went down to almost zero and We were only getting like the numbers today. I mean anywhere from 40 to 60 individuals I mean, that's just 20 20 some families, but the ministry has changed so much We're getting Families from multiple locations now throughout the day and obviously Well, the Brownsville bus that brings the releases from the gallon comes three times a day and sometimes that bus has 20 30 plus Families on it. So we receive them and take care of them and from different every time You we're doing this constant scanning around the bus station because you know everywhere we look There's another group. There's another family, but the big influx has obviously been the releases from Eagle Pass the two vans Starting it doesn't seem to happen before three usually but from three o'clock on up until ten o'clock There's just wave after wave of people who are being dropped off For Eagle Pass and and what and so we IWC has been staffing the bus station every evening until ten o'clock So it's just been, you know a tremendous effort by our volunteers and we You know, we greet those people we figure out what they need Do they have tickets? Do they have resources to buy tickets? Most of them do not most of them come with the clothes on their back and so We will take them over to the resource center at that point and they'll start working on travel plans and an overnight hospitality and That reminds me. I wanted to say a word about about Travis Park, United Methodist It's not just what they're doing now with overnight hospitality I think you are all aware that they have given us space a basement room for all of our supplies a second floor room for all of our overflow and we keep overflowing and overflowing and so you know and and when We overflow the bus station, you know the days when we have a hundred to two hundred people at the bus station I'll just give them a call and it's like yeah bring your bring your late departures over here And you know, we take them to the playroom. We take them to the base and it's so so so Travis Park is just You know, I don't really keep track of numbers. I mean, that's Jane's job But I always like to give you in the month of March just to give you an idea. We handed out 2206 backpacks Because of all the different diverse populations who are coming to the bus station and if they need backpacks if they need meals if they need maps we Everybody there are families. We take care of everybody who arrives at that bus station and sister Denise is back today Any questions Volunteer supply Where it needs to be or is it still a serious shorty to volunteer? I think there's Always I don't want to say sure. There's always a need for volunteers I mean people have been have been stepping up and you know, we've managed to have at least two sometimes more volunteers In the evening The one thing we don't know is is this our new normal? I mean how long We're going to have to sustain this effort You know because it is a challenge to staff the bus station from, you know 9 30 in the morning until 9 30 10 o'clock at night. So yeah, the need for volunteers Even for volunteers who are not available Pardon if volunteers are not bilingual. Do you still need them? Yeah? We always have to have at least one Spanish speaker at the bus station and and Ideally someone who's had some experience at the bus station But but yeah, we're really putting a call out for volunteers and and Yeah, I wanted to mention Clemencia Prieto She's she's been like a force of nature covering the evening hours questions Director of the San Antonio Department of Human Services is Melody Bullsby They're kind of our point people like they're on call each one alternates every day of the week So Edward Gonzalez and Jessica the lady now our assistant C manager now and she oversees human services. I think also A mental health so she was a former head of mental health and now she's Overseas both departments and she's she's really been the one who said okay. This is what we're gonna do Because when I showed up that one Thursday, I mean it was chaos It'd be better. It's okay guys This sounds very trying The shoelace pop the shoelace We don't we're not getting shoelaces in as donations and Got several gentlemen coming in without the shoelaces sounds very simple Could we get dilly to give up to give us the shoelaces that they confiscated? Now We actually did get a pretty generous supply of shoelaces donated. So yeah, and that is a critical item nothing tried about it The families that are coming from Eagle past how long are they on the Mexico side typically and what's their typical? They're never detained I guess but how long are they in a limo period maybe on the Mexico side? Yeah, I don't don't really ask all You know, we don't have like a systematic way of asking those kinds of questions They don't really can ask how long they're in detention on the US side I mean like you know, I go to the ask sometimes it can be a conversation and some people were were part of the the caravan that arrived into Las Vegas and we're at the We're there for a significant amount of time Maybe to come in at the part of entry and other people were more recent arrivals So they didn't stay as long, you know I've heard stories of people who said that they basically got from what they might have to be as many as a week And other people said they've been walking and taking the bus I mean start taking it the top of the train right for two months. So it does vary But almost all of them are coming with the small kids So not a very comfortable journey either which way dangerous for the kids Yes, if this is the new normal, how do we make this kind of partnership with the city and everyone? Yeah, you know, I think the most important thing that we've discussed that the first step would be finding a partner who could do overnight sheltering, you know Consisted basis and figure out how that can be done With somebody who would you know possibly be Like contracting with the city to do that. So, you know, but that kind of that kind of arrangement is probably good But the thing we'd be seeking first long-term, I know there's there's been several different initiatives by the nonprofits to Open up temporary sheltering spaces around town So there's a way to coordinate support for any of those initiatives would be great I mean, I don't talk about it before and Bryce has talked about it also in the past And Catholic Charities is also talking about it too. So, I mean, there's at least three people who organizations who have talked about Expanding the capacity of overnight sheltering for this for this particular group of people You know, we have our usual homelessness support services, but you know It would be adding people to the courtyard basically that haven to have people stay And those facilities so that that's one important component We don't know about the the need for the kind of support the resource center provides There is another National organization called travelers aid and they do this kind of thing in other cities They have talked to the executive director. She sent me an application of kind of their guidebook One of the things that they require Yes, one of the things that they do require travelers aid is they they partner with 510 C3 entities Who are interested in providing these kinds of services? I think nationally, but they but she told me is a lot of support comes from the United Way so It would be just identifying somebody who's interested in doing that kind of work and then joining with the national organization He does it that both does Houston have travelers aid offices, but San Antonio does not So if anybody has a by one C3 that's interested in that kind of work There's actually a meeting scheduled on Monday with all of the players who are involved in the resource center in the city And it's decided moving forward So So one of the things about Yes, but the Red Cross support Usually is accessed only when there's So the current data part is what's missing in having those resources directed to this particular One of my concerns when We started getting such an interest from processing centers as opposed to the tension center Processing centers the families are not offered vaccinations and We already have problem brewing in our country with our own citizens of not being vaccinated against the communicable diseases and I was wondering having listened to the strong health components At the resource center, would there be any chance of setting up a vaccination program for those people who don't have documented Shows I think that's an important question and probably one that's better addressed by people at Metro health is they do their more specialist immunization The one thing that it's important to remember People that are at the resource center is they're using up there for very long They're not there for very long, you know, it's like 24 to 48 hours people are getting people are out number two And it's probably true more for Mexico than I don't know for Central American countries of Mexico people tend to get back vaccinated Pretty uniformly so Right, and I don't know what the policies are in those countries And you don't and you don't want to do is over vaccinate people here because if they Over vaccinate people you don't want it to keep giving kids shots, right if they've already had them That's why I've been told about vaccination and that's it other conversations have had with the immunization department is that they don't they they are concerned about Vaccinating people who've already been vaccinated Because that's a that's a problem. So I mean, you know, some of these things if they're longer term concerns, they're best addressed Where the person arrives at their destination city and they can have the ability to get records to them instead of under this transitional moment where they're like have a hundred things on their minds and You know back to their kids is probably One of the things that's been a great collaborative in ordinary times It's been with right uses their folks at the bus station to explain the next steps in the process which is so important and When I was there Friday night The right uses people were doing the things that we do from IWC because it was desperate But I'm wondering if we've been able if they've been able to continue And do that kind of service and maybe other people add to that service because you know Crisis of getting here and all that's happening is important But boy that next step and understanding the importance of it and being familiar with the dissolves are extremely important So I don't know if that's been able to continue by rice's or by other people. I mean people pay attention no matter how Conflicted in frightened they seem they pay attention to those folks because they know it. This is vital to their survival here Right, there are uses volunteers are a constant presence at the bus station and they do that legal counseling They've done it before they're doing during and they'll do it after American Gateways has also stepped up Both of those organizations are doing legal counseling But yeah, that that's just a part of the bus station ministry that works so well Yeah, we seem to have a lot of legal volunteers who are in town right now And so we've had a lot of requests to come in do talks that yet last night We had a couple nights we actually had a group of law students on our supervision of their professor from St. Louis University Law School So they came and did some we've had a couple of other private attorneys That are associated with the local immigration bar come in and do these same kind of talks So it's been nice, and I think people really want to be able to be involved and I think it gives people a good opportunity to kind of Touch the earth in one way actually feel like you are there. So it is it's valuable Car in a big passenger bus dropped off in the airport And Barbara led me a couple packs backpacks And one was a young cabana It was lucky she hadn't been shipped back to the island because Mexico was shipping all the cabanas back to the island And I gave her the backpack She took out The bager a little bag And she wouldn't let it go but she kind of broke that She hadn't had touch active touch War And I've never really realized that that while we take care of these children These women have been through that And just those little things that we do Is gone Do you also provide some type of spiritual support for People coming in So I see and over here Very quietly that and has been and has been very instrumental in recording some efforts to have people come and visit in the evenings To provide spiritual support I think it's been a pretty a great comfort to There Even if it's just someone to sit and talk with those people about their experiences You know see people who've gone and just kind of sit there staring at the walls being nervous to actually having a conversation You know smiles on their faces You know parents who are usually pretty much very concerned about Where they're going to be and where they're going to take their kids and the kids are off You know the corner playing with balls and coloring crayons and all that kind of thing But you know the parents They haven't had that really doubtful talk to anybody else other than their other fellow travelers So it has been it has been a tremendous service I have to be able to coordinate that Probably the way I don't know if we have a point person for that. Maybe it should still be yeah for And No, I was just Going to acknowledge the efforts of the interfaith welcome coalition and our volunteer coordinator carolina berrera Ann and and denise reached out to her and she put together a pool of Pastors and priests and ministers and sisters who were willing to do the spiritual support And and that's something that could very easily be sustainable Just just to add to that that sister elizabeth an sent out a note an email to all of the sisters And the archdiocese asking if they'd like to have a spiritual accompaniment And the other day when I was there Three sisters arrived and they just went around to start to talk to them. So yes Second question is union provided for those who are willing to speak No, I don't know about They don't have a need to go somewhere else that wants you to settle here in san Antonio or texas or don't really know where they want to stay That it's really rare There I think I ran across one guy today. He said i'm gonna stay here in san Antonio. I was like, all right How much does it cost to rent a place Really depends Right But yeah, typically it's very rare because people come and they know they're going to arrive with somebody that they know And and that's what we try to figure out when we're talking to them, you know Where they they're figuring out where they're going to go from san Antonio Where do you have someone who can take you in for a little bit and help help get on the feet? So that's been typically what we're seeing So it's kind of like Do you know where they work? Yes, that is exactly what happens No, no, typically people they just need to get their to get a phone that works what happens is a lot of people have They bring phones with them but the phones will work in It through mexico But once they get to the us our our networks our cell phone networks will allow them So maybe to get someplace where they can make a phone call or use what's up What's up get a wi-fi and they can start what's happening people You're in there and they talk to them and say i'm here in san Antonio, texas or like we're san tony texas Then we start to talk from there about how they're going to get there and and a lot of people You know, they just they just need to have an ability to get a hold of somebody, you know and also it's important For some of you know the person that's been kind of in communication with them throughout the trip to know that they got Because it does happen where people get separated and we still we see that you know here and there As anybody who starts doing this kind of work you start to get involved in all the stuff that happens in these journeys So yeah, it's important to have the ability to talk to somebody right you know We give out a little piece of paper that has some versions of the phone numbers on it One of those phone numbers is my phone number But it goes to the point where they Once the folks get to where they're going to the destination Miami and Charlotte or New York A lot of times, uh, they've been so overwhelmed with information They're a little confused about what next steps they have to do whether it's reporting to 10 days on the briete or Or actually have questions regarding their Tributum And uh, I get a call on that what I've been doing is Looking up Catholic Charities or some other pro bono legal aid Impassing that information I would Suggest that maybe we ought to consider some type of on this follow-up Either us opening up an 800 number that we operate or Or something to provide that last piece of information on what to do next Because you know, they're under an order of deportation if they don't file 589 and if they don't go report to their meeting Iced to come out with the enforcement removal operations and they will ask the question Here who has papers So there's collateral damage Just a thought I don't mind taking the calls or anything. Thanks to my good friend Jim Fred, have you seen have you seen the the pink sheets that are Isis? Uh, no, I have not That addresses exactly what you're talking about in the sense that I'll give it to you. Yeah. I mean it really summarizes next step You know ice ice check in calling for a court date. So they make sure that Well, sister Denise actually put her number on the map sheet so One last question Well, I was just gonna say one point years ago We had talked about the possibility of having those rubber bracelets with the 1800 number on because they have So many papers and the papers get lost and shuffled in there's so much information But if you give them all a little rubber bracelet with the 1800 number as long as somebody's meeting the number That's a really good place to keep it. So Thank you Just so for our city and and and all of you and all of our volunteers too you can You can help people or you can arrest them for paying on the sidewalk same amount of Money and effort and time maybe Close Just quickly on the airport we had a meeting with the new airport duty manager and Deborah Atchin from ice and Let's see Joe Pendleton overnight shelter person and David King one of our Daily team leaders last week and I feel like it was a very fruitful conversation We have friends where we don't think we have friends I was so pleased when Deborah Atchin told her Duty manager If these people weren't here you would have to hire someone to do what they do And that's very true. That's very true um Let's see Jane is not here today, but we all know she's been making millions of backpacks Overnight hospitality Joe and john would y'all like to Eric, uh, can I give you a little time? Would you like to tell us about Travis Burke? Or is there anything you want to add? I mean, I'll let you do it after these guys, but I think that's something I should have asked you Well, the month of march was kind of normal We had we sheltered during the month of march up until march 30th. We sheltered a total of 48 families in a combination of La Casa de Maria Marta Casa Nacho Our overnight host families and a few hotels Then march 30th everything changed and The first night that we saw this is more than we could handle among our Our shelters and our families. We had we were expecting 40 something, but it turned out to only be 21 And medicine square presbyterian opened its doors to house those those 21 that night And then the next night is I think they said the Travis park opened its doors for the for the next night and then the city stepped in And it's a wonderful way so And ever since the city stepped in we've gone on vacation to Borneo So so grateful for the organization and so grateful for the response It feels like this goes back three years that this has laid the groundwork for this very week And i'm just so proud of our city and so proud that iwc has forged this Relationship with the city and so glad that tino didn't leave us About overnight hospitality. So truly uh the casas have been closed since uh since March 30th, uh, we're taking a breather. So any questions? Eric voked reverend Eric voked is uh the minister at Travis Park United Methodist It's it's um as john said this is a continuing partnership and I think it's really beautiful When we all bring what we can and i'm grateful that the location and the proximity that space that we have at Travis Park can be a resource I hope you'll keep talking to us about other dreams you might have You know, we've been we've had a little bit of conversation of are there ways that we could Adapt our facilities to be a better resource Over the long haul and so interested to have those kind of conversations with any of you Yeah, mostly I just want to say thank you and um let me know or uh, I have to Say our associate pastor gavin rogers has been a big part of coordinate. He's the one who's on those twice a day conference calls and so Yeah, thanks again tino and and everyone that's it really feels beautiful. It feels like this is what The reigning the kingdom of god is um was about and so um, I'm excited to do that more With all of you. Thank you to kerry curtley. She's back here who's been helping to provide food, right? along with folks from um from Travis Park and Like I said gavin and I are available to talk. There are more things that we can do so thank you Okay, terry. We have some reports from collaborators Collaborators come to the front. Yes, thank you. I couldn't remember how we did this I would usually do this far if you have a collaborator to report come on up here and we'll just let you pop up and Say what you have to say and You more fast Did we have an essay stand Yes Good morning, everyone. My name is daniella. I'm with the migrant center for human rights and I have really great news for you The reason why me the legal assistance here and not serving me the executive director It's because she is in dc right now talking to members of congress Uh, right what's happening right now is they have the a i la sorry English second language That's the american immigration lawyers association. They're having an event in dc where they're basically These attorneys from all over the country are going to talk to members of congress about specific issues what they're seeing on site What's happening and basically telling them what has to happen in policy So some of the goals that they have For and specifically science goals is to talk to them about the processing delay right now that we have Um So basically people are waiting for a long long time just to get to get to meet the judge And a lot of the reasons for this is because there's not enough judges out there That are attending these cases and also sometimes what we see happening is when people are in detention We work specifically for those of you who are in neutralization We work in a specific offering legal services to people in detention center at piercele That's only 65 miles away from san antonio. So the right on the corner and What we see happening some of the concerns I've erased was The medical conditions and the sanitary conditions people there are getting sick And so they they're putting quarantine and they can't meet their judge So then their their court hearing gets delayed and this just sums up and adds up to the already growing processing delay for their court hearings So this is an issue that she wants to bring to the policy Uh to the people at congress. Another issue is Judicial independence. So what does this mean? Basically the immigration judges are appointed by the attorney general on their the department of justice So this means that they are basically on their own agenda They need to follow what the executive tells them to do And that is so for example if our current president is saying that they have a cap and the amount of immigrants That you can let in they have to do that because that's their boss and you do what your boss tells you to do So this is something that has to be taken down out of the executive and that's something that they want to raise awareness And third due process at the border as we've seen from the news people are being returned Are being denied due process at the border They're really being able to apply for asylum and this is a huge issue because if you're not able even able to explain Why you're here in the first place and go through the due legal process Then pretty much it shows you how the the whole system is not functioning correctly so This is something that she wants to raise awareness awareness. I'm just talking to right now actually at this time every point in time Talking to members of congress about this so That's that's for what's happening right now. Some of the community events that we have we've had yesterday with the eco center from the alamo college Um, we were there yesterday was a movie screening of the movie icebox Which tells the story of a board named oscar and how basically he is detained Up the border and how he is unable to face the immigration process and it just calls attention to the the importance of Of organizations like the migrant center show and giving people the opportunity to understand the legal process and be represented And be able to explain their case to the judge In a more effective way So, uh, it's a fantastic movie. I know we have some people from trinity and utsa I would love to talk to you guys about maybe organizing another screening to reach more people reach members of the community engage the student community there I think would be a nice opportunity and yes, um, a few more announcements Right now the community that we're working on we have two cases from angola Cases from uh, the public of the congo and so if anyone knows of anyone who speaks kikongo Please hit me up. We also have someone that speaks kiche So if you know anyone who might be able to to help us with that, we would really appreciate it and any questions Yeah, thank you very much for your time I forgot to Remind our uh collaborators that our announcements are two minutes and I hate to do that on the second person But but I'm gonna have to do that Hi everyone. I'm may broder and I run the raise his bond fund. Um, this looks like the one we submitted the last But basically, um What we have this month If you know people who've been affected by the raids in north texas It was the largest raid in over a decade in alan texas in the dallas-forward area our attorneys from our dallas and fordward offices were on the ground doing Legal intakes and our bond fund has been working around the clock to get people out of jail as fast as possible um, so I had some members um that I sent but um But it wasn't on that slide so I can look them up and send them out to the listserv So if you know anybody in the dfw area who's also working with people who might have been affected by those workplace raids, they're there um Please give one of those numbers a call and those are our legal offices in dallas who are doing um Free consults for people who've been affected and then if they are bond eligible We really want to pay that bond as fast as we can Um, and then our bus station update we talked for a long time about that What we need is weekend volunteers. So if you know any spanish-speaking Volunteers who can volunteer through our legal aid project at the bus station. Um, let us know and One of the successes that we had yesterday We met mariella who coordinates that project for us She met somebody who'd been released from carns whose husband was in joe quarterly detention center in houston And he was sitting there with a bond for $12,000. And so because we were we had that legal aid project of mariella's work at the bus station She referred him to our bond fund and we're getting that bond paid on tuesday. And so that we know there's other Just another day, uh, we know there's hundreds of cases like that So it's really important that we're there every day including weekends So if you are able to come on weekends and help us out, we would love that And uh, you can email volunteer at reyesays texas.org Thank you Hello, i'm with immigrant hope. My name is karna hannett. I do live here in san antonio, but our organization is based out of Minneapolis, minnesota. We're part of the evangelical free church of america. We're a non-profit organization that works with The doj we offer the the 40 hour trainings for people that are not attorneys or i mean attorneys can Obviously come as well We offer these trainings three to four times a year In different areas in the country. We do have urns united states. Sorry We uh, we have one here here in san antonio Our next one's coming up at the end of the month in in minneapolis if you want information on that I can still get you that but the other thing we're also doing is we're looking at The possibility and of course hearing all of these things that we've heard Of starting the center here in San antonio that would house a our our legal center, but also Open it up to some of the things that we've just been talking about today. So i i've got I would love to hear from people or get contact information. I have some brochures if you're interested Go to our website. It gives you more of the Ideas and things that we do and i forgot to say that one of the other things we do is we walk through A church who's interested in opening a resource center in their church We have seven of them open in the united states and three in the process Waiting in the piles with a lot of paperwork. So We're gonna have ten pretty soon and we'd love to talk to you about that if that's in something that would be something I'm just gonna say don't run out too soon at the end of the meeting because we do want to talk with you. Thank you Thanks, i'm still tom hager. I'm still flunking retirement The last three months I was here asking for your help Today i'm here to say thank you for your help three and a half weeks ago 17 folk from the state of maine came And lured from you served with you travel spark church Both put them up and put up with them And what you did to their lives and their home church has been transformative you dropped this little pebble in a pond The state of maine's biggest newspaper last sunday had a major op ed about you And what you're doing the elected state rep who was a part of that team of 17 Had a four page major piece sent to her constituents and all of the elected people in the state of maine There was a major news article about you in one of the other weekly newspapers and at first perish in yarmouth The sunday when they all got home and were still numb And dopey and not clear about how to tell their story The congregation received a special offering There's a check for seven hundred and twenty one dollars on its way And so you have touched lives One of the things I do better than recognizing old friends in a room like this is forget their names And so I can't thank you personally for the gifts you shared But thank you personally For the gifts you shared and to make it tangible Presbyterians do sacraments in lots of funny ways And so to your co-chairs a tiny Token a sacrament of our gratitude. It's a little thing that simply says those who say it cannot be done Should not interrupt the person doing it Thank you so much We're gonna have to get an officer It's our speaker next month next month. Oh, man. It's our speaker next month. Good. I'm afraid I just saw him in the end Just for our neighbors, man. Love wire will be here next month any other uh additional information or questions or My gosh, so much has happened this morning And I'm really glad that you were all here to be a part of it to hear what's been happening to add What you've been doing to The mess they were all experiencing this month. Yes, Tina I was looking to see somebody else to see that could answer my question What's happening to the men that were coming to the bus station? I mean to the airport There were men with babies little children And Would do does anybody know what happened to the men at Carnes did they did I hear they went to florida somewhere or They were transferred Their population is down to zero and it's now women at Carnes instead of instead of fathers They Yes We just someone know where the men and children from Carnes were transferred to Oh, they were released You know We need five microphones, so Terry Oh The announcements that you've heard from our collaborators are available all month and they that's tiny cc Number is where you can access them and it will be It will be included on our next email to you so that you can link to there Anything else? Thank you very much. Have a good night. If you if you're a volunteer of ours, you're welcome to volunteer at the bus station. There'll be a training tonight