Links for Helping with the Immigration Crisis in South Texas

Not your usual Ways of the World essay.

We are – as many of you are, too, probably – very concerned about the throngs of Central American children coming across the Texas border.  Yesterday, July 10, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, called our attention to the work on this crisis issue by various bodies of the Church.  Her specific emphasis was on advocacy and policy.  She also certainly feels compassion for the kids themselves, and she urges us to pray and give as well.

As we read her published statement in a daily email from Episcopal News Service, we were moved to check on the website of Episcopal Relief & Development for possible news of actual relief efforts.  As many of you know, the Geranium Farm are long-time supporters of ER-D's work.  Sure enough, they are helping get resources to the relief center being run in McAllen, Texas, right on the border across the Rio Grande from Reynosa, Mexico, and between Brownsville and Laredo.  St. John's Episcopal Church is pitching in at the center, which is located at Sacred Heart Catholic Church and being managed by Catholic Charities.  At least one of the local Baptist churches is also participating and possibly other churches.

Here is a link to Episcopal Relief & Development, where you can make a monetary donation to that work: https://www.episcopalrelief.org/press-and-resources/press-releases/2014-press-releases/responding-to-central-american-migrant-crisis.

If you want to send supplies directly to the center, here is information from Sacred Heart Church: http://sacredheartchurch-mcallen.org/immigrant-assistance/ .  This includes the address of the drop-off center and an itemized list of what they need; it's pretty basic daily-living stuff for adults and little kids.

Here is a link to the Diocese of West Texas, which has posted pictures of the work and in-kind donations that are being provided.

Finally, today's New York Times ran a strongly worded op-ed by an unlikely group of immigration reform advocates: Sheldon Adelson, CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, Warren Buffet, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, and Bill Gates, Chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and a founder of Microsoft.  These three, who begin with the disclaimer that they don't have common political perspectives, strongly urge the Congress to get its act together on immigration reform legislation.  This presently appears unlikely to happen before the November election as everyone wants to run away from the hot-button issue before constituents vote.  But those little kids down there in Texas and the adults who sent them need some clarity.  So too, as Adelson, Buffett and Gates argue, do the graduate students from abroad working hard at our universities, and others anxious to come here legally or to regularize their current status as residents of our country.  Contact your Representatives.  While the Church's advocacy work helps, constituent contact will count too.

Please respond somehow.