Urge Congress Use the Power of the Purse to Pressure DHS to Care for Immigrants

The Sisters of St. Agnes add our voice to NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice calling on Congress to end the inhumanity of the US current treatment of refugees and immigrants.

Inspired by the Gospel and Catholic Social Teaching, we honor the dignity of every person. As Pope Francis said: “These are not mere social or migrant issues… Migrants are first of all human persons.” We affirm the sacred human right of all people to seek asylum.

Join us in calling on Congress to:

Reduce Funding for Deportation, Detention, and Border Militarization and Support Funding for Refugee Resettlement and Asylum

When determining federal appropriations for FY 2020, we urge Congress to reduce funds for CBP and ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations. Refuse to provide any additional funding for a border wall; instead allocate resources to support refugee resettlement and access to asylum.

Keep Families Together and Invest in Alternatives to Detention

We call for an end to family detention this year, by December 2019, and urge Congress to increase funding for less costly, more efficient, community-based alternatives to detention.

Exert Robust Oversight over Detention and Uses of Federal Funding

We urge Congress to require additional inspections of ICE facilities, ensure ICE publishes public weekly reports, and create a detention ombudsperson to strengthen oversight. Congress should also prohibit federal funds from being used to: enforce Muslim or refugee bans, deport or detain DACA, TPS, or DED holders, and carry out immigration enforcement operations at “sensitive” locations including schools, churches, and hospitals.

Add your voice to the call!

International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples

“Today, August 9th, honors the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. We celebrate this day to raise awareness of the needs of Indigenous peoples worldwide, in recognition of the first meeting of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations that was held in Geneva 37 years ago, in 1982.

We are living in a time of climate crisis. As a groundbreaking report by the UN recently noted, “the health of ecosystems on which humans and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever.”

Much of the answer to solving this climate crisis lies in the wisdom and knowledge of Indigenous peoples who have long fought at the front lines of environmental threats. Indigenous communities able to draw on traditional wisdom to find solutions that have the potential to help restore our planet. Unfortunately, due to their dependence upon the earth, they are also among the first to face the direct consequences of climate change.”

Tell the Justice Department that Christians Oppose the Death Penalty

Recently Attorney General William Barr directed the Trump Justice Department to bring back the barbaric and ineffective death penalty, and immediately schedule the first five federal executions in 16 years.

There are many reasons why Christians and churches across the country oppose capital punishment: DNA testing proves hundreds of innocent people have been sentenced to die. It is expensive. And the racial disparities within the system are the very height of injustice. Above all, we know that it is simply immoral. Christians are called to forgive, to embrace grace, and quite clearly to follow the command, "You shall not kill."  

Add your name to stand with Christian leaders around the world: Tell the Justice Department that Christians oppose the death penalty!

Statement from Pope Francis.

“Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good.

Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes.  In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state. 

Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.

Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”, and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide”.

Address to Participants in the Meeting organized by the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, 11 October 2017: L’Osservatore Romano, 13 October 2017.