 Exhaust is part of the loving and this poem, it's a blessing prayer and I saw it to Irish Illinois, I saw it perfect. One of my favorite Irish writers is John McDonoughy. He has a book called To Bless the Space Between Us. It's a book of blessings. So we use that for mothers that have been exhausted, and maybe they're free from that and they'll tell us the secret. When the rhythm of the heart becomes haptic, time takes on the strain until it breaks. Then all the unintended stress falls in on the mind like an endless, increasing weight. The light of the mind becomes dim. Things you could take in your stride before and they'll become laborsome events of will. Weirdness invades your spirit. Grouding begins falling inside you, dragging down. The tide never valued has run out. In your own room, that unsure ground. Something within you gets closed down and you cannot push yourself back to life. You've been forced to enter empty time. The desire to drove you has relinquished. There is nothing else to do now, but impatiently learn to receive yourself. You get forsaken in the race of days. At first your thinking will darken and sadness take over like a listless road. Little unmoved tears will frighten you. You've traveled too fast over false ground. Now your soul has come to take you back. Take refuge in your senses. Open up to all your small miracles you rushed through. Become inclined to watch the way of rain when it falls slow and free. Imitate the habit of twilight. Taking time to open the realm of color that falls through the brightness of day. Follow on alongside the silence of the storm until its calmness can claim you. Be excessively gentle with yourself. Take clear of those vexed in the spirit. Learn to linger around someone of ease who feels they have all the time. Gradually, you will return to yourself having learned a new respect for your heart and the joy that dwells far within the storm. Another one I could not resist is from Education for Justice, which is an Africa secret. It's been effective for a very long time, especially comes out of the Jesuit tradition. And this is a prayer for May 20th, which is International Missing Children's. Now it's on my calendar. The leadership chose this because we had many tragedies out on the border river. And as you know, we had a child who drowned this week. Contact with his parents and the friends of his parents. And there's so many missing children in so many ways that you can even know that on either side of almost any form of existence between them. Their own son was missing in the temple. He experienced the pain and suffering of a parent weeping for her child, looking printedly for the lost one. Here are the cries of too many parents whose children are missing in an unsafe world. Christ, you are the shepherd who would not give up looking for even one small lost lane. It's solace to those who have searched long with heavy hearts for the missing child. For the lost children, we pray that somehow, in their suffering, they too may be given hope to hold on to, that they be given comfort in the dark nights. Rescue your children, God, father and mother of all. Rescue those who have been taken from homes and schools. Lost on refugee trails. Separated from families in conflicts. Through the weeping and bringing only compassion forward. Through the weeping and bringing home our children. I have just a couple of announcements. One is we have recently reprinted our brochure with updated information and there are copies on the table. If you have some in a tract rack at your church that are outdated, please get some new ones and replace them. And if you have tons someday while you're watching The Big Ben Theory or something, cut those little squares with our logo off the front and give it back to us and we'll use them for stickers on various things that we do. I guess that was one announcement. Our guest today is that low-wanner. He is the executive director of the San Antonio area. Jay Phan, justice for our neighbors. There he is. There he is. Please have a welcome, Matt Lowman. We have a lot of good people here so I want to make one different vote. If you're frantically trying to take notes during this time, most of the notes can be found on 20.cc IWC 2019.05. Matt's presentation along with other notes and location. We had a San Antonio tip. Justice for our neighbors was a speaker back in 2017, I believe. That has become the executive director since then. We really are glad to have these speakers. It's a real honor to be here and I wasn't here in 2017. But I wanted to share, what's that? I may start singing now. Does that project over there? I'll take it from memory. To begin with, and let me begin with my goal in life, which is to be on a quest for coherence, which is not always easy, especially right now. I'm also someone who is really influenced by the Golden Circle, Simon Sinek. Remember that sort of phenomenon? Start with your why. Today I'm starting with my why that I want to share before I get into telling what's happening with Jay Phan right now. My why I'm doing it is really important, and I think it's probably going to resonate with everybody in this room. But I begin with this. I'm a Gen Xerousope. Movies are how I experience the world. And Schindler's List, the end of Schindler's List. We can't show that a little bit because it just didn't work out right. And the number of the scene, they've just liberated the camp, maintained his escape, and he's approaching the gentleman. And they give him a gift and thanks for what he's done for the people. And he has this kind of meltdown at the end. And he's melting down because he realizes he could have done more. Ben Kingsley's character says, you know, the talent says if you save one life it's like saving the world. And it's not enough. He's just, they embrace him. And you know, he tries to remind them that generations will live because of what you did. But he realizes he wasted so much. He could have done so much more. I realize we're also trying to focus on self care and the work we do. But we want to leverage more people to have that sort of attitude that Oscar Schindler had, or at least this is presented in the film. I'm sure that never actually, good place in the way it's presented. But it's an important starting principle. There's just a whole bunch of information. And I thought this really helps to tell that story. And so what they do is try to respond to the people dying who are circumventing the ports of entry and being inspected when they come in because likely they know they're not going to have a favorable outcome. I like the deaths in our area. The Austin 68 is what's listed from water control in the last 21 years. And so if you imagine that we're only barely scratching the surface on the people that are really by nature, by our policies, by all these things, it compels us. And so I go back to that Schindler. We've got to do something to make sure there are no more deaths. That's the theme in Arizona. That's the theme in Brooks County. We've got to do something to make sure there are no more deaths. That's the theme in Arizona. That's the theme in Brooks County. That's the theme in Arizona. That's the theme in Brooks County. It's part of the narrative that we're all part of. If you could advance this slide. Oh, let me add those. Go back one. Those red dots represent where bodies have been found and the blue dots represent where water stations have been deployed. And we were talking to the advocacy committee and so here I go. Got it readable. It's script. But we were talking to the advocacy committee about how to subversively get people engaged and then give them opportunities to deepen their conversion experience. And so this would be one opportunity that's part of our South Texas context and that's a tremendous need and that we could all touch people who are in desperate circumstances. Okay, now I'll move forward. We all know these statistics, too. The numbers of people that are coming across the border that are dehumanized in that process. The people that each one of you who do ministries at the bus stations or at the airports encounter. These are people who we've got to be a voice for their human dignity. And for the common good that is eroded when we allow people to be treated like that. So that's part of the story. That's no more degradation. Next slide, please. Sure. Up through March, yeah. Yeah. And those have only gotten larger if you've been watching. I know this is a lot of information, but our mission is to help people that are stuck in the shadows who their legal status prevents them from being fully alive. I just highlight that Texas has the second-largest number that has had circumstances. People whose security as a human being is threatened by their legal status as a immigrant or a non-immigrant. I think numbers tell a part of the story. The Rio Grande Valley has about 104,000 if their stats are accurate, so there's a large portion there. It's hard to know what the actual numbers are in any particular community, but we know that there are a significant number of people who are compromised because of that situation, and so helping to shed light and ring people out of the shadows is part of what our organization is about, and part of what all of our organizations are working towards. So if you can move forward. And then I just... No more, no more, but we do want more faithful citizens. There are 152,000 people according to this database now there's a caveat that some of them shouldn't naturalize. They could jeopardize their legal permanent residency if they did, but many people who could be facilitated to advance their security by becoming U.S. citizens and then being able to participate in the political process in a more meaningful way. And so this is something that needs to be... It is being addressed with, you know, everything we can do to advance that, to accelerate that is part of why we're here. So now we'll move on to J-Fun. So Justice for our Neighbors and I have to be credit to Abel Vega who is over there, he's a member of the Rio Texas Conference staff and he put together this slide I've adapted it a bit, but I just love maps and they really spoke to me. And it helps to give you sort of the visual of what's happening for J-Fun. It began in 2014 just in terms of getting the 501c3 status and building a board and kind of that portion of the story of this ministry and it wasn't until 2016 that they began to take cases and those were primarily family-based immigration cases some humanitarian relief the circumstances were different then and so focus on other things hadn't become a priority as of yet. Uncourt is listed up there not a Methodist Committee on Relief, they were just here doing a tour of the South Texas area from Laredo to Del Rio just a couple of weeks ago because they're investing a lot of their resources in the response to this migration disaster and so they're one of, we were born out of Uncourt Justice for our Neighbors the ministry was born out of the Committee on Relief that helps refugees to resettle and recognize that they need to have specialized resources for people that need to adjust their status to become full participants in the American society and so that birth J-Fun nationally about 20 years ago but over 20 years ago and then recently there's been a great proliferation because of what everybody is living through right now so we're at the point right now and if I was being hurried and disoriented we were just awarded a substantial grant by Uncourt to take the services that we're delivering in San Antonio and begin to offer those services in the border region as well and that was based upon some needs assessments that were done I mean watching the evening news but also the knowledge that there just aren't enough resources in that area every partner that we spoke with that was the number one we need attorneys, we need legal services for the people living here not just for those that are in that transition that we see on the evening news that we hear about going through respite centers wherever they might be but for those people that are living in the Colonies who don't have anywhere they can go they may have a safe available that they have very few options in terms of affordable legal services so that's part of our future that began a few weeks ago once the award was made there's data on the next slide that shows not yet but that shows kind of what we've done since 2016 and where we're going I will say we began offering removal defense services about six months ago through another grant from UMPOR if you think we're UMPOR dependent so do I so we're working on diversifying our funding streams but it is a blessing to have them and to have them so committed to this ministry across the whole border they're giving about a million dollars this year to different ministries that are responding in creative ways but the legal services obviously given the situation is one of the most important investments that they're making and so when they came to the border a couple weeks ago we went on a little delegation to visit the other sites we started at Travis Park I see Eric over there and we then made our way to Laredo, Eagle Pass, Del Rio to kind of see what's happening see how we could be involved in helping support how they could be involved in helping support take this grant and stretch it so that we can make support available there and so what we're planning to do and what we've really gotten started I've got three recruits if you will for our border legal mission court but we're going to take what was in the grant and spread it across all of those communities by recruiting missionaries, legal missionaries both attorneys and non-attorneys the non-attorneys would get training they would know your rights they would do navigation services for people to find so for those that are in that transition situation they would be providing in that moment when you get to Chicago these are the organizations that you should contact because you need to have an attorney your chances of having a successful asylum determination are significantly increased if you have legal representation and so that would be a part of what their mission is really helping I come out of a community organizing background and so they I'm infusing that on to this role but I'm not naming it but I think the people that will we've got two VISTA reps VISTA ends in the other June and I'm going to say keep your same desk at that church and we'll just start paying you from this God is providing God is demanding that we keep up but God is also providing a legal director a project managing attorney approved and so now it's just a matter of getting signatures on so we're really in an explosive growth period right now we will continue to offer services in San Antonio and we will never step back from that we're going to be our long-term goal is to be one J-FON for the Rio Texas Conference which is that shaded map and there are seven districts in the Rio Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church right now we're in three we just began offering services in Corpus Christi an attorney, a case manager and we'll be hiring a receptionist there very soon and that's a desperate need down there they have very few immigration attorneys who charge market rates and market rates are not affordable for people that don't earn a decent living yes yeah so it's a big conference I don't know Georgetown is in the right so Georgetown is in the next conference north that's headquartered out of the Dallas Fort Worth area but because Georgetown is so close to Austin they've been minding the clinic and the clinic model used to be what J-FON spread and butter was we've discovered in the last several months last year at least that people aren't coming to church clinics for immigration services at least not ours I don't know what it is that there's fear about coming to anything that's got immigration on the name and understandably so people are sitting outside courthouses and waiting to apprehend people there's no reason to believe that churches will be any safer which is a sad statement in terms of the color of the circles I just love those I know they have a meaning for Able they don't have the same meaning for me Austin is its own separate J-FON and they're working through some stuff but we are delivering services now in three, well two and a half we've actually been doing consultations at the border just on an ad hoc basis but now we'll be able to actually dedicate resources we're hoping to have four attorneys one, two four and then two corresponding we'll call them circuit riders we'll call them DOJ credit directors if we get the accreditation we'll call them whatever we have to but they're going to be doing the outreach in peace and really and one, I'll share this in Brownsville we met with Mike Seabird who many of you may know and we were doing kind of the next level of needs analysis or gap analysis and he said somebody needs to curate the stories that's not happening in all situations they're being shared with us on a daily basis and there's just no bandwidth to curate those stories and that really struck a nerve especially for our subversive activities and so leveraging resources you know how many of you were at that event an incarnate word in the fall where they're talking about trauma and immigration we have video video at Nowcatch just saying what's that? there's video at Nowcatch just saying okay so that one woman who does the creative writing am I running out of time? no there are people she said you can see is the whole thing I was going to go in for the name of the professor who did the creative writing with Rwandan refugees but I think that would be the avenue we might pursue is to leverage universities that have these wonderfully trained people that can just work with migrants to capture their story as a therapeutic intervention and to help us curate this in a respectful and dignified way then again you can help get below people's scales on their eyes and into their hearts okay so this is what J.Fon has done up to this point full cases this confused me at the beginning I'm not an attorney but you can have one person with multiple cases so that's why they don't match up a number of people with a number of cases with that's work we've had 52 clients thus far the goal for the grant was 50 clients in the year so I told our attorney she can pick the rest of the year off the Bahamas whatever but she's she's been just phenomenal she recruiting missionaries she was one without us having that in the job description per se she's so dedicated to these people she spends most of her time at pierce all she's actually down in the right at real grand center right now defending the asylum case against the worst judge in the 10 to 20 region she told me she was leaving yesterday so say a prayer that this asylum judge has mercy she's been granted two really once she first came on share this we have to do 15 cases that's what the grant stipulates and she thought for a second I don't have to win 50 cases do I because I have to win I'll have to do like 500 cases or more and I said no you just have to represent 50 people to meet the but it was an important observation that she's defending people that are going to lose with her best effort they're going to lose because of the way the system is backed against them and that's terrible and that's where the advocacy piece that needs to happen the might circuit just overturned the the remaining Mexico government said we're going to make remaining Mexico the district court said the right and that the might circuit is supposed to be liberal overturn that so that is not the most positive news but it just demands that we be more faithful in our citizenship no they overturned injunction on the Trump administrations but they reinstated the policy at least temporarily there was some speculation they all get overturned again but I think the next court would be the Supreme Court and I can't see that happening honestly so okay so this is just another depiction of that where we're focusing our resources our phase one expansion already began in Corpus Christi we're hoping to have at least two attorneys there by the year's end and several case managers and then along the border again we're hoping to have this losing roughly 12 people deployed who will be providing both representation consultations the attorneys and then the I'm calling outweach education intake facilitators clunky and not great circuit writers is more fun but they'll be they'll be going from partner ministry to partner ministry to partner ministry helping to address the needs of people that have legal concerns and need to be connected with their next destination okay I think that's everything that's the last five okay so any questions and thanks for asking questions in the middle well my target and this will sound terrible my target is young people because they don't have responsibilities so I can underpay them and stretch that further at least that's my I've had a few not so young people who said they'd be willing to do it or I don't think they knew it for I didn't give them the final figure I just said it was not a living wage we're working to secure housing for people so that it's more like I come out of the Catholic tradition a JBC experience where you live in community and then you're going out and doing your ministry and then there's support to do theological reflection and the creation of that experience and then the self-care support so all those components are being woven together right now so that we have opportunities but like I said the people need a pass that I sort of softly recruited already increase in their pay from this to the rest so I'm good about that but they live there already and this is their ministry whether they're getting paid for it or not so I don't feel as bad our goal is to raise more money and raise that I do feel somewhat bad about that but if we're paying if we're providing a place to live support from the church and linking them with the church and I'm not answering your question I'll give you more details in the eyes for and then I think that's unreasonable for somebody that wants to be involved in this that has has the freedom to do that so new law school grads are where we're targeting and doesn't have to be college grads you could be a DOJ rat without a college degree I'm not going to go into DOJ for us but there are some experts here who know what that process is although I'll also say the sad news Casa Lipper, Proyecto Libertad as everybody knows them down in Harlingen they've been around for about 30 35 years they do they were DOJ accredited or DOJ recognized for about 35 years they're exactly they're not sure they're reapplying for their accreditation because they don't think they'll be able to meet the standards so if they can't meet the standards we might just have non-DOJ accredited case managers who are trained but not accredited working with an attorney closely so that we maintain quality legal services but it's seeming less likely we'll be able to take advantage of that program through the government that allows people or not, attorneys to represent people that's it sorry one more question do you have opportunities for volunteering yes and the volunteers get training? yes they will and actually our grant stipulates recruiting 20 volunteers for the mission grant we'll probably recruit more than that but as curating the story that's where I want to focus the training and the volunteers so that we're leveraging who's down there who's able to do it and giving them the training and now so as you're here today I'm Janice from Laurel Heights United Methodist Church how did we begin to touch with you or the office to refer people to you for your services? that is a wonderful question when we have a phone we need a statement because our phone system has been on my side since I arrived so we're in the process of transitioning to a different phone system that I hope will make it easier we're looking to get a 1-800 number, a toll free number that would be essential scheduling so that people could contact us we could find resources wherever they are and I should say this and the attorneys in the room notice that just because we'll do a consultation it doesn't mean that people have a case but we'll at least give them the information that they shouldn't allow themselves to be taken advantage of by unscrupulous does that answer your question? I'm meeting with AT&T tomorrow but to finalize that number is 2108471249 the legal services are providing the first level legal services at the district club instead of at the level of the need of fellow attorneys well we just filed with the Fifth Circuit we just filed with the Fifth Circuit yesterday the individual was silent, was denied and so yes we could probably start first thank you for all the work that you do my question is how do you decide which legal defense cases to take? I don't she's at capacity other places that are at capacity but her focus first of all is Ben Pearson so she does rounding in the detention center not a good answer for that she takes the ones that she thinks have the most merit I know that's not always leaving those who don't have the best case to defend themselves which makes them even more it's not that I don't know what her actual process is I know we provide discrimination we provide the services free she determines who we're going to take based upon what capacity she has and I do know that the case having merit or having the likelihood of being successful takes on a real clearly not going to win and she's only one too it seems to have merit doesn't mean they're going to win but she is trying to take the ones that are going to have the best chance I may be misquoting her but I think that would be probably a good discussion for Park is Christie where is the office? it's going to be at the district office when they finish renovations we're currently taking appointments so not actually having office hours yet but we are doing the appointments so first and foremost for now there's another church that's offered actual office space so we're looking at that in the interim while they finish the renovations on the district office I'm from a presbyterian church I remember the district office it's even better not like castorias or something like that doing some work in the colonias too okay we're looking for people to be on our advisory council down there early on at the beginning you made a remark that said something about naturalizing could jeopardize their LPR status could you explain a little bit what you're saying there would an attorney want a true statement I don't want to speak as an attorney do you mind if I take a crack or some type of a felony law in your LPR and then you seek to naturalize it's my understanding that that could not only lead to being denied the right to naturalize it could also end up in our status so if you have that if you have criminal conviction I have that's just in the real grand ballot there are some circumstances that it is better to say that I would be our status if you have film leads or other things but there's a big push in that oh sure absolutely I was not I probably should have been more specific my apologies naturalize and lose your LPR status that way my understanding is if you have that conviction when you try to reapply for your LPR they can also run spiral quickly so if you have an aggravated felony don't even think about becoming a lawful citizen don't even think about it so at the citizenship workshop that's coming up this Saturday at SAC issues to work through with people who have eligibility to naturalize at least on paper that if you have an aggravated felony conviction don't even think about it now is it true it starts at 9 he's going 8 to get free tacos it should go to about 1 or 2 citizenship information workshop this won't be valid until like thanks you ever come across this one or know anyone right now you're having conversations with citizenship workshops some of you are pretty straightforward this is not only for our long-distance long-distance DUI but for our characters the address of the office in San Antonio 3510 Gallo Hardwood for those who made a corpus Christi 3510 Gallo Hardwood any other, I know we need to wrap up I've been given, okay another organization an update on another organization that is part of our mission Lina I'm going to put you a little bit externally reports this is the time for reports of the different industries that we do that you never think about this had our advocacy meeting at 9 o'clock which has become our usual time and we're looking at the Texas legislature and virtually nothing on immigration as you know and a number of really other issues that are quite in two years so we started to focus on the 2020 election what can we do in lead up to the elections in order to make a difference in the way people think and our prayer today was to look at these wonderful stainless windows here and how heartily they speak to faith and drop people into faith and one of the things that we looked at are numerous ways that we want to bring the message and move from hearts of stone to hearts of flesh as we call to have a Lord by promise and faith people throughout the ages and so we looked at the wonderful resources that Elizabeth from the Baptist Federation has bringing in terms of using labyrinth art exhibits and various places that tell the story of immigration today in a way that captures the mind in the heart and also to use stories I was just brought up by a man and I had set the minutes of our in between meeting to Mary Grace and she sent this interfaith welcoming to me one-minute miracles with pictures and short stories by different of our volunteers especially during the time when we had our last crisis and we had all people living in sleeping and working in all the rest of it at the midnight church and their power plant we have many people involved in the ministry in a variety of ways whose hearts have been touched by the realities of people's lives so we keep capturing those finding ways to distribute them certainly use our Facebook and our website and any possible way that we can get into different places than tell the story we also want to be very much aware of what are possible solutions what are the ways forward we are surrounded by so much changing information we have got the accurate things in people's minds that can inform the judgment as well as just to take it off from the website of the Hope Warder Institute down in El Paso which is what we see down there today as well as in El Paso the thing of this one player is simply about a guide to a sign of the war we just had about 18 questions about lawyers and the sign of war issues and they're huge but this was so helpful both in terms of a vocabulary process and the more we can find visuals like this and those ways of taking complexity and being true to the complexity thought in a way that people can grasp and can explain as well as support one of the best ways in which we advocate and do bring people towards the law ways to do justice is by our ministers we have a whole incidental whole list of them up to before and not every ministry fits every person as we well know it's one of the ways that people start to ask questions and start to wonder what these are great gifts that we can hear from the communities that we serve so look out for your email for the Facebook for the web page and we'll be updating you as we do these different ways of telling your story and moving parts and if you want to belong to the advocacy committee out here in the corner please show your email I'm such a mess up when it comes to all this stuff they have to forward in you can call me you can do this too but it takes longer because I'm using someone in that computer trying to run my life I think we're on to some really powerful things in the way that we want to tell the story in the way that we're going to move parts in the future ideas that are beyond that are right handed in the face seeming out to me and it's also Grace do you have anything to say we have I just wanted to announce about our lunch groups that work at various churches and prepare 50 double meals in brown bags and bring them to the bus station almost every day but there are still some days that they don't bring them if you think that your church might be interested in hosting a lunch group let me know or let Don Silvius know she's not here today and we'll set you up at my church we do it with eight people everybody brings carrots or bread or cheese or cookies or ziplock bags and we do it in an hour and drive it down to the bus station so it is a good first step for someone who wants to help and doesn't know how I would also like to ask you to either pick up an invitation to our volunteer dinner that's on the table out there we hope that everyone has received some by email and please RSVP so we can have a play for you it seems like a collaboration we want to see yes our guest speaker next at our next meeting is sister Pam Rukansky she's out in the valley right now and we're going to be learning about some of the ministry there she's very active in Eskin for years and one other note is that we could use somebody back here with me and a semi-tinky person can be trained usually to surroundings and people process things like during the meeting I have an involved here from somebody I've made that is donating money I think they came having here this is the kind of thing that we could use another person back here or slowly it's sick thank you many taken now I'm raising let's just say I did talk with Jean Halman our treasurer there is a financial report on the table we didn't feel like it was necessary for Jean to tell you what's on the paper because you can read that for yourself but as you see we do have money but we're spending a lot of money I'm not sure if there's anyone here who's going to talk about backpacks but the last time I looked at our backpack and there were speeches about maybe three or four days ago we had already delivered 11,000 backpacks so if you extrapolate that to you that's going to be close to 36,000 and so we are going to have to raise money eventually and if you have a church group that accepts grants or if you know where we can write a grant to receive money this ministry please you know so the next one is Sister Susan Mika with her white police eyes for those who are new Sister Susan Mika with the Benedictine sisters and our monasteries in Burney and what we've been able to contribute to the coalition is every month we try to put together a number of the articles it's not every article but many because it helps to document what's going on and I know not everyone has subscriptions to all of these and like in order to pull them off and read the whole article you have to have this subscription oftentimes and Ruben it helps me and Nina right here and if anyone doesn't have a copy could you just raise your hand and we'll run around and see if yes make sure the one's got a copy as we just go through the first article that we have on there we just put I don't like these words that the customs and border protection uses but you know these are some of their press releases and all that they put out so we have you know again how many people are crossing into our areas and so some of the earlier slides up there were just like one our area but these of course are talking about all of the different areas as well the second article there Judge gives Trump official six months to find every child remember Judge Dennis he's a U.S. District Judge out of the San Diego area and he gave the administration six months to identify every child that they separated as part of that zero tolerance policy so you know we've said before he single-handedly has taken on this and is making these judgments and I pray for him every day because I mean he's made such a difference in this whole area of the children and the White House asked Congress for $4.5 billion in emergency spending that was new this week as well I'm just going to keep on going because there's so much that we have in this time but you know you can read all the different articles that we put down there Trump is wasting our immigration prices many of you read and this was his op-ed in the New York Times the other week if you give a chance to read the whole thing it's his he's just pretty awesome he puts so much into everything that he writes but he's talking about like what can we do out of this crisis it's sort of you know some of the things that can be done could be done with this instead of wasting so much time about what we're talking about here this next article this was in our paper just yesterday or so immigrants contribute billions to the San Antonio economy so we felt it was really important to put that in all of the different ways that immigrants are helping in our economy here instead of using all the negativity the family separations the Homeland Security to test DNA of families at the border in cases of suspected fraud this is supposed to start any day out I haven't really heard whether it's actually started trying to test the DNA to see if these children are the children of the people that they're accompanying so when we say unprecedented it just keeps on taking a meaning in a sense and then the detention centers you've heard that we're establishing two more detention centers like tent cities and so this is just an article from the Texas treaty talking about that and then we have a picture there once going up in El Paso and the other in Donna and we go down along the Rio Grande so another person has died and a company immigrant person has died 16 year old in our government's custody and then the last article on that page a pediatrician who treated immigrant children describes a pattern of lapses in medical care and shelters this is info publica and one of our Benedictine sisters that we work with in Alabama she knows this person that has been writing some of these stories we encourage you know we wanted to put this out there because a lot of people don't see this but this person is trying to again document what's going on on the medical side you know here we're talking about a lot of the lawyer stuff that there's a lot that goes on there too on the medical side the next page you know Cory Booker and House Democrats introduced most ambitious bill yet to try to curb immigration detention ICE is holding $204 million in bond money and some immigrants may never get it back you know this is one of those things we were talking about in our advocacy committee meeting too when the case is closed the bond is supposed to be returned so how do we find out how many cases have been closed and then have those bonds been returned and you know I think people like Fred and others like please help us try to find out some of the answers to some of these times questions some of you that are new you know a while back a person put out like a go fund me page to raise like $1,500 for a bond and raise $20 million actually for ICE's in the bond funds and so those funds have been expended over time I don't know if anyone's here from ICE's but you know to say how much has been expended it's supposed to be returned the money is supposed to be returned and sister Pat reminded us that it's supposed to be with interest when the case is closed so we just continue to document you know that this is what's out there John Kelly the former chief of staff joined the board of the company operating the largest shelter for unaccompanied migrant children and that he was part of that library company and now he's gone on to that board so under asylum seekers the pope donated $500,000 for migrants stranded in Mexico and it says in there that through the Catholic Church's Peter Pence fund it's taken up I believe it's in June every year that they're going to be distributing among 27 projects and 16 dioceses from some Mexican religious congregations that asked for help so as you know he feels very strongly about all of this and then these next two are about whether or not asylum seekers are going to have to pay a fee in order to apply for asylum and so this was a new wrinkle that just came out this article is made the first in 2017 and so we'll just continue to follow that it's never been done before and you know I don't think any amounts have been set but you know just let everyone know that this is what's happening and then this court case on the bottom there about keeping the asylum seekers in Mexico was already mentioned so we'll go into that but then developing stories we have at the back there slowdowns at the border ports of entry could cause Texas billions you've seen that perhaps on the news where the trucks are so backed up and I know from where many years ago on the McElidora these trucks are going back and forth every day across those bridges in order to bring things into our border parts and then go on to other parts of the United States so as the slowdowns happen it adds hours and hours and hours to those truck drivers lives and then things can't get across in a timely fashion and we were working with the McElidora factories they have everything down to like this delivery on time it's a very process that minutes count between getting across and then transporting things like from here all the way on 35 into Minnesota I guess so you know how some of those kinds of things go so this is very concerning to so many of the businesses and the companies that we work with also and then just Trump naming Mark Morgan, former head of Border Patrol to lead ICE and then this last article on that page Trump administration proposal would make it easier to deport immigrants who use public benefits that concept's been around for a few months now and tightening up to see where that's going to go and the last article that we put on here as you know the work that 18 sisters and many other groups do is around shareholder activism and so the geo group which is the one that runs the facility at Harnes had their annual meeting about two or three days ago now and the Jesuits and many other groups that had bought the shares in order to be able to file the shareholder resolution under this second little star there we have what the resolution asks of the company it's called like the be at resolve so it says specifically the proposal be resolved stated shareholders request that geo report annually on its website to investors beginning in September 2019 on how it implements the portion of the policy that addresses respect for our inmates and detainees including you know what they're aware of around human rights and metrics to assess human rights performance including any process for independent outside verifications of such metrics and how the remedy shortcomings in their human rights performance this actually passed so this is like a miracle in itself because usually our resolutions I think I've reported to you before the first year we had to have 3% the second year 6% the third year and every year there after 10% so we don't know the vote because they didn't actually announce how many shares were voted but they just said that more shareholders voted for the proposal than against it and then they usually have 3 to 4 days to actually report the numbers to the securities and exchange commission which is the one that governs our work so we don't have that yet but we know that it passed whatever that means and then someone sent me an article this morning that is in Newsweek that the private prison company Geo Group says activists pose a risk to the bottom line so now we're a risk to the bottom I have reported I think at the last our last meeting that you know several of the banks including JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo had said they were not going to finance any more expansion facilities for the private prisons so now the company is filing this with the powers that be that say that we are risk to their bottom line and it's true in many ways I guess we are but it's going to be Newsweek today online so we'll put that in this portion you know before we make it into the PDF and send it to those that you know ask us for that and also to you know put it on the website sister Sharon and others help us get it posted so so that's it in the nutshell so thank you here for the San Antonio Sanctuary Network company with a team just quickly because there's some new people here with this court this group of volunteers does is we basically we'll go with asylum seekers to their different appointments it could be check-ins it could be court it could be their ankle shackle monitoring appointments and we're there to hold space we're there to think of it in terms of the whole sanctuary second pair of eyes second pair of ears to just help the process because it's very nerve wracking for them it's very intense so if you're interested or church or organization that is interested I'd be more than happy to go present to your to whatever group even if it's in the home anything because it's not only about volunteers it's about people being informed as to what people are having to go through okay so there's that and any changes here in Sanctuary is that one big change the last couple of months is there's been a lot of last-minute calls or the ice agent will call the asylum seekers that you need to come in now they don't have a card in San Antonio it's difficult to get from one place to another with mass transit and so it's very stressful and they're basically bullied into you don't come then you can get deported and so of course they call me 7 o'clock in the morning I have to go I have to go so I'm like okay I'll get there as soon as I can so if there's anyone who loves that sort of early morning adrenaline rush talk to me we can work together on this and they're so appreciative they know that I just got you out of bed and here you are and here we go and that's happening more often than not so that's one thing another thing is we're going to have a little gathering this Saturday at the Presbyterian University church so some of you know that we have three people in Sanctuary in Austin and they were just denied they're basically being told you're going to get deported so there's still in Sanctuary the safety of two different churches in Austin two are adults and one is a child and so there are expenses to be in Sanctuary there's food, there's clothes, there's medicine and different things, cell phone so we're going to have a fundraiser type of event where it's not only just information it's also time for people to come together and share their experiences or their ideas through music through poetry through art so that's happening this Saturday at the Sanctuary University Unitarian University church and it's something different because we're also going to have a lawyer there to ask to express what's going on all things immigration and then also to ways for other people to get involved but it's also time for us to take care I mean there's something in the form of art that allows you to release what you're experiencing for us so we've got a question for our guest and I will give you Mimi, I'm there Sister Denise, do you have something and why don't we think you've got time Sister Denise Barbara Eagles John and Joe I do have some numbers for backpacks in April 3,401 the year today for the bus station has been 8,616 8,616 year today 2,400 the airport total for the year so far is 3,312 and for the month of April is 996 things just keep moving and changing and everything else the detention center numbers are down but the numbers from Eagle Pass are way up so we've been working a lot for evening hours getting our volunteers to cover the evenings also for the people coming through but also the Eagle Pass people being dropped off so I guess the biggest news is really about Eagle Pass and Delta Rio we've been in communication with Eagle Pass and they've been doing some sheltering down there and we've worked very hard with them for them not to drop off people after 10 at night so the shuttles are aware of that and they get scolded every once in a while and so that's helpful instead of disrupting the whole shelter Delta Rio there's a group down there that's been in touch and they're trying to visit they have a nice coalition of many different places down there and they're trying to get in order because they've heard that there's going to be lots of releases in Delta Rio up till now so recently they've been bringing a bus each day from Delta Rio to Homeland Security Border Patrol bringing a bus load to Eagle Pass to release an Eagle Pass but half the press that in addition to the bus that goes to Eagle Pass will be dropped off in Delta Rio but they're going to start transporting people from McAllen to Delta Rio to be processed by Border Patrol so since there's an overwhelming number they figure that Delta Rio Border Patrol needs more work so it's going to be two to four buses a day that are going to go from McAllen all the way to Delta Rio so I don't know how it's going to work I mean why you transport those people all those hours there's very little transportation I mean a lot of express is there so they can shut all up here but they're so busy with all their bands in Eagle Pass so I don't know how that will work and there is a breakdown there the Stripes Gas Station has a place where the breakdown comes through so it's really I don't know how that will affect everybody but we'll probably see our numbers even go higher and the cities continues to do amazing job running the research center Catholic Charities help people with their tickets and the family will drive in so it's been a great experience having all those groups work together without any Pushford Eagle Awards okay she gave you the backpack number so it's getting pretty high there at the airport but I just wanted to mention too that with Pearsol a lot of times they're coming they're being dropped off in a van you know like an immigration van or something at the airport without any notification and so recently we had like eight I saw the guard taking eight he passed us up and he goes these aren't yours don't worry about them we had our own people that we were helping our own families and so we said okay and then we see four of them later just you know wandering around the airport looking at monitors and totally lost so I went up to them and talked to them and they had nothing one newest confirmation number the others didn't know anything so we got the airlines to help the American Airlines got we eventually got them all out got them tickets but it was just it was just like we didn't even know they were coming and I'm just glad I saw them because then they would have missed their flights and everything else so we we need to look into that and also we haven't had any any arrivals from Carnes at the airport in May they're just adult single adults right okay but they've been few and far between that's basically it and I do appreciate wanted to give a shout out to the city resource center that's processing the families that are just dropped off you know in front of the bus station they're actually they're calling us now that they're bringing somebody and so it's so helpful because we need to know that and have enough backpacks and they're so appreciative when they get there so that's all I have every time I think of Joe her email addresses Joe Mama so that's very like that's what she is, she's mama to a lot of folks it has been some week since the IWC has began taking over the operation as a shelter overnight shelter at Travis Park up until I watched that five times two months ago the city handled not only the city the resource center but also the overnight shelter and they asked us if we could take that over how could we not and we have been recruiting volunteers and orienting volunteers every night for the last week and a day and it's been an awesome week, it really is just to see that the volunteers going on work scheduling and being there for their orientations and since we're creating this as we go it's just awesome to hear the wonderful ideas that bubble up from the volunteers ideas that we I wouldn't think of because I'm dealing with the basics and so I really appreciate the fresh ideas and creative suggestions offerings to give you an idea of numbers prior to the end of March when the numbers shot through the roof we weren't averaging about 100 to 125 overnight people per month since March 29 over a month ago we've sheltered 2,540 quite a job for just a little over a month this is a Travis Park yeah it's a Travis Park Methodist Church two blocks away from the bus station which is the ideal location because it walks it from the bus station we do orientation is offered an hour before any volunteers first shift so if you volunteer, if you sign up to for the 7 to 10 shift the orientation actually begins at 6.30 so there's a kind of speaking showing around orientation for an hour the rest of it is hands on and I'm drama there was one night there was there was one night the night when we had the highest number up to that point we had been saying about 50 overnight at the shelter each night the night that it shot up to 165 at one night we had one volunteer that was being oriented that night and I thought what are we going to do with one volunteer but I you know sold you forth and Chilean pay showed up unannounced unscheduled they just showed it to see what it looked like see what's going on they went to work immediately took charge and it was awesome another person Methodist minister showed up to pray these was to say about a whole lot of praying well yeah a whole lot of praying went on but not the kind she had in mind so she so it worked out it worked out so things like that just have gone on all week it's just been awesome so I'd be surprised if all of you haven't received some email about the need for volunteers if not several emails coming from all different directions and the response has really been wonderful almost too much to even respond to in a timely fashion but we're adding we still need overnight people from 9.30 at night until 7 o'clock in the morning that's the most difficult well it's listed as 8 I keep hoping that people could leave at 7 it's listed as 8 it's kind of crazy so it's the most difficult for people to commit to I think but you do get to rest you do get to sleep you're not the only one and once everybody's asleep and before they all wake up it's a piece of cake, right? but we're adding another shift and the other shift the new shift is early morning from 6.30 to 8.30 we know that there are many who simply can't do the after volunteering late at night or overnight but there are a lot of early birds so we need four volunteers from 6.30 to 8.30 so that we can continue sheltering the families that have early morning departures one other thing we have a father and a son Santos and Garrison who arrived I don't know, wouldn't they? it's been a month arrived about a month ago and spent time with Chilly and Peggy and then went to we had to go out of town they went to another volunteer's home and so they've been sheltered they don't have a sponsor and this is just the most difficult thing to deal with we are desperately searching for a sponsor preferably outside of Texas and they'd like to go to California and we are looking in casualties it's helping us to look but if anybody has any connections with faith communities or people who want to sponsor a family a big job please let us know let me know before Joe, before you speak Eric Eric Travis Park is the church that has opened their doors to establish the shelter and my understanding is we need an actual paid staff and that job description I'll put on Facebook yesterday or the day before but one of the things I've seen that has been so inspiring for me because I've worked in non-profit work my whole career and that is that we have all of these different groups that are coming together in an unbelievable way of service and so Patrick Jerry's Travis Park and the city of San Antonio I believe are working on getting that paid staff position and so it's going to happen back in 2017 and Eric the city of San Antonio it's been a heart-to-lean effort and I'm so grateful for all of you who have served in lots of different ways it's a big volunteer ask to do all these overnights and to do it well to provide real hospitality and safety for folks and that's really what we're seeking to do and that hopefully we can ease so that we will still meet volunteers for sure but we can hopefully ease some of that volunteer burden by putting together this paid position so you may know the right person who could work an 11-hour shift a few nights a week and it pays I believe we're looking at $15 an hour that person needs Spanish but you might know the right person so I'll try to put this on the IWC Facebook page it's already there so check out TravisPark.org slash appointed we're hoping to get some of these hires done in the next several days and start hopefully in the next couple of weeks the money in hand which of course we can always pray for that too but really grateful for the partnership of cafeterias and the city of San Antonio to help pony up uh TravisPark.org sorry so we're called TravisPark Church and our website is called TravisPark.org so T-R-A-V-I-S-E-A-R-K which is the name of the park across the street .org and slash employment is where you can find the application so basically all that women said but I just wanted to say that and do share that because we'd love to get the person who found two or three people to TravisPark because this is a big deal to open up I think I saw 80 people I was sober Joe but I see it every morning and I don't have that many people coming seeing the church we're glad to offer what we can what we can is always changing I just wanted to mention too that we've run into a fairly significant plumbing problem and so we have moved from the third floor down to the basement where we're also doing our ministry with our street friends I think logistically we're going to be able to work it all out but so we're narrow-sheltering folks hasn't for last night in the fellowship hall downstairs and so we're trying to work on the plumbing issue but we just keep moving forward and now I'm John from the Mennonite church we're working on triaging specifically pregnant mamas out of the shelter every night so they can come and stay in our hospitality house where they can take showers and be a little bit more comfortable but I want to also note that if Joe hasn't sold it to you yet it is a wonderful opportunity to volunteer with a good friend or a group of friends I mean this is a finely tuned volunteer operation and it is really exciting to do and you get to meet a really diverse group of people from the city and various things and it's just a how many folks have done this already have they done look at this and give a thumbs up it was a great experience alright so write down that Joe Mama at email address and get in on this this has also allowed us to do longer term sheltering for folks after spending time with that family who lost their baby in the river they were here at Methodist hospital we were uncovered talking to social workers that there's a whole bunch of medical emergencies that are coming up from the border and families are stranded in that hospital waiting for their children and what not so we're posting a couple families here long term and the social workers are saying that this is a regular thing so if anyone knows folks I don't know the medical center very well but if anyone knows faith communities or folks who'd be interested in doing hospitality up in that area because of the transportation back and forth between here and the medical center it takes a little bit but that's a beautiful outgrowth of all of this incredible collaboration and we talked about some of the miracles that are happening and I think we have to recognize the miracle of the collaboration that's happening in our city it is really really fabulous spending one night with a woman who works in the library and a guy who works in a head start and a guy in our church who four years ago was a crazy survivor list with his guns and I found Jesus he wants to help the immigrants and then someone in the city who works in the drilling he drills underneath sidewalks and we're all just hanging out all night showing people the bathroom and what not and you just see this image of this beautiful collaboration it's really it's really miraculous so we have to give we have to give this okay we really want to hear from our collaborators so if y'all can just kind of make your way up here so we can get through this fast is there anyone who would like to make an announcement about their organization Sarah I'm so glad you're here today just this whole thing about the volunteer I really really would like us to work with Anne Helke and all of the churches that are here I agree I see that this would be a magnificent way to extend our work that every church is approached to provide that number of volunteers each night so we can do that so we're not just depending upon the same people all the time I think we need to outreach to those churches it's going to have a variety of children's activities things that you can purchase if you're looking for Mother's Day gifts as part of our Mother's Day fundraising efforts we will be there that's going to include in ABAPresca we will also have some food available today if folks would like to join me in conversation about some of these issues after the meeting is done or buy some food to take home to support us in our efforts or do it with the tamed individuals up here as well so I want to mention just a couple of things very briefly and I am going to pass around a newsletter sign up if anyone has a lot of our newsletter wants to receive it we're going to try to send one out next week with some of the announcements some of them are going to be repetitive with the great announcements that IDC put together for you there are announcements of our organization as well as an internet voice story and a public policy announcement and then we might have a few hard copies of some of our past newsletters here at Blackshift so one case that's really important to people are aware of this matter of an amass this is where the attorney general basically decided that immigrants who cross the border without documents and who are seeking asylum are not going to be eligible for a bond before an immigration judge are going to be relying on ICE to release the property not only problematic issue a number of months ago but I encourage you to read to understand more about the ICE parole bond determination but this is a big concern it's under litigation right now they're having rumors that some of the judges are starting to apply it even though it's not supposed to be active for 90 days so I encourage people to be aware of that can I suggest a show of hands how many of you know that the immigration courts are not independent of the court and of justice okay so one of the things that we've advocated for as well as a lot of larger national groups Toyota Prius out in this near parking lot does anybody have a Toyota Prius? 2 in R and G license plate this is I'm sorry because there's such good clothes we have to break and make this announcement Toyota Prius if you think that you are parked right close to the door please park off are we okay? so if you can if you are interested in lunch today if you speak to me afterwards I do want to mention also that you have volunteer opportunities for people who have language skills people who have medical skills and then of course lawyers law students for work so please speak with me we have a weight list right now for our services of about 25 people those are individuals that we currently cannot help as much as we want to because of our capacity in our funding so we had an aside on win for those of you who do get our newsletter we did a case appeal last month we have a win from one of those cases and I just want to share this letter that I received yesterday I know you have shared time this letter came in yesterday from the lady who won a pilot and she says Glory to God I won my case at the end of April and I want to thank you infinitely today, tomorrow and forever to you and your colleagues for all the work that you do and to your family and I want to read this letter because I think that applies to all of you as well and your support of our work and support of immigrants in our community so we need to appreciate the words and we get them because of Matt said earlier you know it's not all cakes and roses I do also want to thank and she's not here yet but our volunteer legal assistant Day Yellow who spoke in that previous meeting she's been with us for about three months now she's going to be moving on because she needs to find paid employment to make you know her role, her help and then I want to let folks know as well that we have a national day of action today to call your members of Congress to encourage them to not support this additional 4.5 billion in funding the number to get off hold of your member of Congress is on our Facebook page I just posted before coming to the meeting so if any of you don't have Facebook and you need that I can try to look it up for you today but we encourage you to get involved in that and that's it I'm Nate and I work at RAISES our announcement this month is about our Pachanga happening next Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m. at our 802 Kentucky Avenue office and we're going to be talking about everything we do, I'll be there talking about bonds that's what I do and I hope to see you there and there will be food and drinks and it should be a good time so thanks a lot a couple of announcements or at least one we have a volunteer appreciation dinner at Moral High Jury Methodist Church on May 17th at 6.30 at your RSVP and there is the email address for you sending your RSVP we want all of you who are invited we want you to come this has been a hard year of work on each of you and what you do every day because you are truly an inspiration so we hope that you will RSVP for this event and come and join us in celebration of the work we've done is there anything else? okay sorry I forgot to do this but you can just look over here May 18th first university New York Terry University Church at 10 o'clock the regular meeting and also the site and release press conference is going to be next week which means that the city is beginning this new policy of citing the people that we explained to you before okay I'm not sure it's Wednesday night or Thursday night it sounds like the DA is speaking of it on Thursday and in the morning this Saturday is the general meeting not this Saturday but the 18th but this next week press conference we're fixing it now it should have been CIT thank you thank you all for being here and for being involved in the work that we're doing they had an exciting time so thank you very much see you next month