Tag Archives: Central America
Faith Leaders Pledge to Offer Sanctuary to Immigrants Facing Deportation
In the last month, the number of congregations offering to provide shelter to immigrants has more than doubled across the country to 450.
“I think a lot of the faithful in the coming years are going to be compelled to follow the mandates of their faith rather than the law of the land.”...Read More
Guatemalan Mom, Son Win Surprise Victory for Sanctuary Movement
The pair took sanctuary in an Austin church eight months ago, hoping to avoid deportation back into danger at home.
Immigrant experts say pressure from an Austin church and others in the sanctuary movement may have prompted an unusual form of relief for a Guatemalan pair....Read More
Report: Mexico’s Border Crackdown Sends Migrants into Dangerous Territory
Deportations along Mexico’s southern border more than doubled between 2013 and 2015, forcing migrants into remote areas where many are robbed or exploited....Read More
Poem: ‘Rice and Beans’
In the Observer's June poem, Patti Radle remembers streetwise preacher Father Lorenzo Rosebaugh, who ate with the people he served....Read More
‘A History of Violence,’ a Plea for the Comprehension of Terror
Salvadoran journalist Óscar Martínez’s harrowing new book is a plea for comprehension of the terror that drives people from Central America to the U.S....Read More
The Things They Left Behind
When migrants die in South Texas, the objects they leave behind hold clues to their identities.
In the fall of 2013, Observer reporter Melissa del Bosque and I visited Baylor University’s forensics lab, one of several Texas labs that handles the remains ...Read More
McAllen Catholic Church Continues to Open Its Doors to Central American Migrants
A year later, most of the TV cameras and politicians have moved on. Some of the volunteers have gone home and donations have dwindled. But the need is still the...Read More
The Borderlands, So Far from Austin
Many a Lone Star politician has made, or boosted, his career by treating border communities as a theater of operations, where the normal rules don’t apply....Read More
The Things We Feared, 2014
As the year 20 and 14 draws, blessedly, to a close, let us reflect on that one thing that brought us together: fear. This was a year that saw a succession of fr...Read More