A SUMMER OF ACTION

- LEADERS WIN MILLIONS FOR INFRASTRUCTURE -

 In July, EPISO/BI leaders in Canutillo scored a major victory for sewer infrastructure, working with county commissioners and El Paso Water to dedicate 2 million dollars in ARPA funds for a sewerage project in Canutillo. Additionally, leaders from Montana Vista worked with their state legislator and EP Water to advance the second phase of their sewerage project this February. Both of these wins were decades in the making. Says EPISO/BI leader Suki Perez, "We've worked for years, knocking on doors in the heat and in the cold to get people organized."

 - FIGHTING FOR FAMILIES -

When the City of Socorro and TXDOT proposed an arterial connection to I-10, EPISO/BI leaders and residents immediately raised concerns that lower income families would be displaced.  After a year of negotiations, TXDOT expanded the number of route options from three to six.  Now, leaders are advocating for the route that minimizes impact on families, avoiding the displacement of those who are elderly and on limited income.

- IMPROVING PUBLIC SAFETY -

With accidents rampant and neighborhood property damage through the roof, over 100 leaders from St. Thomas Aquinas met with two city council members and their county commissioner to press for speed bumps.  Leaders won commitments for traffic calming measures and continue to organize for safety in their neighborhood. 

- THE STATE OF EL PASO: A CIVIC EDUCATION SERIES -

Fr. Rafael Garcia shares the work Sagrado Corazon (Sacred Heart) has done to welcome immigrants, and how churches can strengthen their own efforts to "welcome the stranger." Sagrado Corazon is the newest member of EPISO/BI. 

Earlier this spring, EPISO/Border Interfaith leaders expressed an interest in learning more about issues in our community that impact all El Pasoans. The issues they identified were Education, Immigration and Health/Mental Health. Leaders stepped up and conducted research actions with different people in those fields. On June 13, 2024, 50 leaders gathered to discuss the state of education, and on August 22, over 100 gathered to learn more about immigration in El Paso, to volunteer and to take action to improve the lives of immigrants on the border. Read a brief summary of what we are learning so far. 

For those interested in a fall reading group on the topic of immigration, please reply. We'll start with chapters from the book, Everyone Who is Gone is Here, by Jonathan Blitzer. 

Next in the Series...

Join us for a community conversation on the state of

Health and Mental Health

Weds, September 25, 2024, 6:30 - 8:30 PM

Christ the Savior Catholic Church

5301 Wadsworth Ave, El Paso, TX 79924

 

GET OUT THE VOTE! -

VOTER REGISTRATION TRAINING

On Monday, September 9, 6:30 PM at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, become deputized to register voters. The training will be conducted by the El Paso County elections department and will last 1 hour. Our voter registration and turnout efforts will be strictly nonpartisan. 

To participate, you must register to attend.

THE STATE OF LOCAL ELECTIONS

On Thursday, October 10, 2024, 6:30 PM at St. Thomas Aquinas, we'll teach what is on the ballot locally, including bond measures, as well as distribute nonpartisan information on candidates for office. Come with a team from your institution to help us get out the vote!

- RAISING FUNDS FOR OUR FUTURE -

EPISO/BI leaders are beginning an individual investment campaign, with the goal of raising $25,000 over a 12 week period. We are looking for people who can invest according to their means on a monthly, recurring basis, or one time. Your investment will help us train a new generation of leaders and organizers. Help us spread the joy of public life!

 


EPISO/BI Leaders Fight for Alternatives to Avoid Displacement in Socorro

EPISO/BI members who live on Bauman Road in Socorro have been working tirelessly for over a year to keep their homes from being demolished. The City of Socorro and TXDOT have been planning to construct an arterial connection to the 1-10 that may run through their homes.  Leaders and neighbors are calling on the City and TXDOT to choose a route that affects fewer families, and avoids displacing those who are elderly and on limited incomes.

[Excerpt]

Neighbors in Socorro are fighting against a road expansion project that they say would end up demolishing about 100 of their homes.

The road expansion project, called Arterial 1, would connect Socorro Road to Interstate 10 by turning a two lane road into four.

There are different alternatives to the project but community advocate Lorena Silvestre, the leader of the El Paso Interreligious Sponsoring Organization (EPISO) says one would affect more residents than the other.

"One of them ...pass[es] along the Bauman Road and Vineyard Road and then alternative two and three goes further down to Clint," said Silvestre.

Longterm Socorro Residents Concerned That Road Project Could Displace Them, KTSM [pdf]

Socorro Neighbors Unite Against Road Project Threatening Their HomesKFOX14 [pdf]

Read more

EPISO/Border Interfaith Stands with Annunciation House

Leaders of EPISO and Border Interfaith join with a large and united group of organizations across El Paso in opposing Attorney General Ken Paxton’s attacks on Annunciation House, an organization that has been tirelessly serving migrants for decades. Migrants and those who serve them should be treated with dignity and respect, not scapegoated and persecuted for short-term political gain.

EPISO and Border Interfaith represent a broad-based coalition of churches, schools, nonprofits and neighborhood associations. Leaders from across our organization have been active volunteers with migrant shelters in El Paso and know first-hand the invaluable support that Annunciation House and others offer migrants on their difficult journey.

Statement in Support of Annunciation House, Most Rev. Mark J. Seitz, Bishop of El Paso

Catholic Church Will Not Be Intimidated by Ken Paxton's Threats to Annunciation House, Bishop Seitz SaysEl Paso Matters [pdf]


County, Philanthropy to Leverage $900,000 in Direct Cash for Families

In their final court meeting before the holidays, the El Paso Commissioners Court voted unanimously to move forward with a proposal to invest $500,000 in American Rescue Plan Act dollars into Up Together, a direct cash assistance program for families in need. Up Together’s approach recognizes that people living with low incomes are already taking actions to improve their lives and invests in their initiatives with unrestricted dollars. 

The philanthropic community, including the Woody and Gayle Hunt Family Foundation, had already agreed to match the county contribution with $400,000, putting the combined total to $900,000.

Read more

Pope Francis Receives EPISO/BI, SWIAF For Return Visit

On Thursday, September 14, 2023 a delegation representing leaders and organizers from across our broad-based organizing network, the Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation, were invited for a return visit by Pope Francis to his home in the Vatican. 

The Pope first met with our network last October, and last week, without missing a beat, he reiterated his understanding of our organizing as the conversation began.

"Your work is atomic,” he said. “You go atom by atom, little by little, moving forward. Like water moves forward, which becomes a river, and soon pervades everything it touches.”

He mentioned that on October 4, he will be issuing a companion to his encyclical Laudato Si, which will serve as an “examination of conscience” of our stewardship for the environment since the release of the original encyclical. He applauded efforts to reign in destructive corporate behavior and to promote efforts like Community Lighthouse pioneered by our sister organizations in Louisiana to protect our communities from the effects of climate change.

Fr. Ivan Montelongo represented EPISO/Border Interfaith and the Catholic Diocese of El Paso. He shared with the Pope more about on our collaboration on the diocesan phase of the synod. 

In 2022, EPISO/BI and the Diocese of El Paso worked together to train over 300 parishioners from 40+ institutions to carry out the synod, using the format of "house meetings," as a model for the church to listen closely to the experiences of individuals and families, particularly those excluded or on the margins.

Fr. Ivan will return to Rome at the end of the month as a delegate to the global synod, a month-long process of prayer and discernment for the Church led by Pope Francis.

In a recent podcast, Bishop Mark Seitz said the synod is not just another "project" that must be completed and we "get back to our life."

"We can't just do things from the top down," said Seitz. "The Holy Spirit wants to make the whole people of God a priestly people, and that means that everyone is involved."

In a video message Pope Francis prepared for leaders from our network in February, the pope said, "My heart rejoices when I see the pastors, priests and laity — leaders in their communities — together with civic organizations meet to discuss the best ways to overcome serious situations of injustice suffered by the excluded. I encourage and strongly urge you to continue to do so."

------

Pope Meets US Leaders Patiently Building Culture of SolidarityUS Conference of Catholic Bishops / Catholic News Service 


Pope Meets West/Southwest IAF Leaders Building 'Culture of Solidarity'

[Excerpt]

When Pope Francis told a group of U.S. community organizers that their work was "atomic," Jorge Montiel said, "I thought, 'Oh, you mean we blow things up?'"

But instead, the pope spoke about how the groups associated with the West/Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation in the United States take issues patiently, "atom by atom," and end up building something that "penetrates" and changes entire communities, said Montiel, an IAF organizer in Colorado and New Mexico.

Pope Francis' hourlong meeting Sept. 14 with 15 delegates from the group was a follow-up to a similar meeting a year ago. Neither meeting was listed on the pope's official schedule and, the delegates said, both were conversations, not "audiences."

"It was relaxed, it was engaging," said Joe Rubio, national co-director of IAF.  "Often you don't see that even with parish priests," he told Catholic News Service Sept. 15, garnering the laughter of other delegates.

Pope Meets US Leaders Patiently Building Culture of SolidarityUS Conference of Catholic Bishops / Catholic News Service [pdf]

Read more

EPISO/Border Interfaith Leads Outcry Against City of Socorro Project That Threatens to Demolish Local Homes

[Excerpt]

“Our community has heard from hundreds of residents who are opposed to this route, and many have just learned in the last few weeks that their homes may potentially be lost,” said Lorena Silvestre, a leader with EPISO/Border Interfaith and local resident. “Of the three routes proposed, this one clearly hurts the most people who are elderly, Spanish-speaking and on limited income. These are families that built their homes with their own hands.

We do not accept the argument that this is the “best route” to alleviate traffic. This is just the route [City of Socorro] thinks people will not fight back. They are wrong.”

[Photo Credit: Corrie Boudreaux, El Paso Matters]

Socorro Road Plan Causes Fear, Confusion for Residents, El Paso Matters

Socorro Residents Reject Displacement Amidst Texas Department of Transportation’s Arterial Project 1El Paso Herald-Post [pdf]

Socorro Residents Rally to Save Homes from Looming Infrastructure ProjectKFox14 [pdf]

Siembra Plan Vial Incertidumbre en SocorroEl Diaro de El Paso [pdf]

Residentes en Socorro, Texas Temen Que Sus Hogares Sean Destruidos Para un Proyecto de CarreteraUnivisión


EPISO, Valley Interfaith Work with Legislators to Block Substandard Border Housing Bills

EPISO and Valley Interfaith teamed up to successfully oppose two bills that would have undermined the Model Rules for Development that govern real estate development in counties that border the Texas-Mexico border.  The Model Rules for Development have been a critical tool that our organizations fought for over 30 years ago and which have limited the development of substandard housing lacking access to sewer and clean water lines, drainage and roads.

Read more

Texas IAF Stands Firm with Legislators That Voted Against House Bill 5

Two Years of Texas IAF Opposition Leads to Reforms to Limit Giving School Money for Corporate Tax Breaks 

The Texas Senate and House passed a compromised version of HB5 that still fundamentally represents misguided economic development to the benefit of out of state corporations that would come here for other factors anyway.  This perpetuates a corporate welfare state which Chambers of Commerce and industry groups could never prove otherwise.

However, a 2-year campaign by Texas IAF and allies led to some major reforms in HB5 compared to the now defunct and failed Chapter 313 program.  When these tax abatement deals are proposed at local school districts, there will now be a fair fight for taxpayers and public school supporters concerned about corporate welfare.  HB 5 Reforms to Chapter 313 include:

Read more

Texas IAF: Allow Gun 'Raise the Age' Bill to Be Heard on House Floor

Less than a day after a bill that would raise the age to legally purchase semi-automatic rifles unexpectedly passed through Committee, Texas IAF leaders learned that Representative Guillen (from Rio Grande City) appeared to be actively suppressing House Bill 2744 from being heard on the floor.  Delayed submission of the Committee report resulted in the bill missing a crucial deadline for it to put on the Calendars schedule for Thursday -- the last day to hear new bills. 

Leaders from across the state held an emergency press conference calling on Guillen and the Texas House Speaker to allow the bill to be heard, and for Calendars.    

“Guillen and Burrows should...let the representatives vote their conscience on the House floor. Overwhelmingly, Texans support increasing the age limit of when people can buy assault weapons,” Rev. Minerva Camarena-Skeith from Central Texas Interfaith asserted. 

“We’re very, very angry at what’s going on, with them holding this bill hostage,” Valley Interfaith leader Rosalie Tristan of Raymondville told the Rio Grande Guardian

"How many more children have to die before we act?" demanded TMO leader Bishop John Ogletree. 

[Photo Credit: Blaine Young, Texas Tribune]

'Raise-the-Age' Gun Bill Misses Crucial Deadline, Texas Tribune [pdf]

Valley Interfaith: Guillen is 'Actively Suppressing' Assault Rifle Age Bill from Reaching House FloorRio Grande Guardian [pdf]

Raise the Age Gun Bill in Peril as Texas House Deadline LoomsKXAN [pdf]

Lubbock and Valley Legislators Block Assault Rifle Age Limit Bill, HB 2744, from Reaching the Floor of Texas HouseTexas IAF [pdf]



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