<p>HOPE BORDER INSTITUTE</p>
<p>BISHOP OSCAR CANTU, DIOCESE OF LAS CRUCES</p>
<p>BISHOP MARK J. SEITZ, DIOCESE OF EL PASO</p>
<p><strong>A Betrayal of Leadership. The Need for a Moratorium on Deportations.</strong></p>
<p>Jesus taught that law should be at the service of human beings and communities (Mk. 2:27). Jesus showed that leadership is about transcending petty divides, defending the vulnerable, and guaranteeing human dignity.</p>
<p>The devastating news that the Trump administration has rolled back basic protections from deportation for young immigrants is a betrayal of the law&rsquo;s greater purpose, a betrayal of leadership&rsquo;s duty to protect the innocent, and a betrayal of the compassion the President Trump promised Dreamers.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Our border communities know the contributions, hopes and character of our Dreamers, forged in a climate of endless anxiety, uncertainty and political turmoil. Nearly one million strong across the country, Dreamers are leaders in our parishes, graduates from our schools, veterans of our armed services, and first responders who have provided brave service in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.</p>
<p><a href="http://mailchi.mp/hopeborder.org/statement-on-daca-rollback?e=769ec8d8fd">READ MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
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<p>Press Release</p>
<p>August 31, 2017</p>
<p>The State of Working Florida 2017 finds that, while Florida&rsquo;s economic and employment levels have recovered from the Great Recession, levels of economic security have not improved. The report shows that increases in the share of low-wage employment and the persistence of wage disparities for women and people of color after the Great Recession enabled an uneven economic recovery and fueled greater income inequality. In 2015, 26.6 percent of all Floridians were either poor or near poverty. This means that more than a quarter of Floridians earn income that is 150 percent or less than the federal poverty line.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Increasingly in the United States, workers and their families are not able to achieve this security, especially minority households. This pattern is particularly prevalent in Florida, where more than a quarter of working families remain near or below the poverty line,&rdquo; said Ali Bustamante, Ph.D., JSRI economic policy specialist and principal investigator on the report. &ldquo;Moreover, the impacts are disproportionate across racial lines and place the heaviest burden on the state&rsquo;s most vulnerable.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;As a social justice research and action group, JSRI aims to spotlight the issues, in hopes that civic, political, and business leaders, as well as advocates, nonprofits, volunteers and residents, can help to relieve stress and reverse this troubling trend,&rdquo; said Fr. Fred Kammer, S.J., J.D., executive director of Loyola&rsquo;s Jesuit Social Research Institute.</p>
<p>Research finds that the scarcity of good jobs in Florida has eroded economic security due to downward pressures on wages and incomes. In 2016, Florida&rsquo;s median wage of $16.03 was the lowest median wage the state had experienced in 11 years. Additionally, in 2016, 1 in 5 Florida workers, or 20.1 percent of the workforce, was paid at or below $10 an hour, the highest share of low-wage workers in the past 11 years. Between 2005 and 2016, 44.5 percent of all new employment in Florida was in low-wage jobs, accounting for nearly 1 in every 2 jobs created. Of the 883,000 jobs created during this period, more than 392,000 paid $10 an hour or less. Data also show that people of color and women in Florida experience more severe levels of economic security due to the prevalence of disproportionately lower wages.</p>
<p>The prevalence of economic insecurity in Florida is reflected in the low incomes of typical households, which have not recovered from the Great Recession. In 2015, Florida&rsquo;s median household income was $49,688, $5,630 less than it was in 2007 (in 2016 inflation-adjusted dollars). Low household incomes have also contributed to rising inequality. In 2015, the bottom 90 percent of income earners in Florida took home 64.2 percent of the income earned in the state, the lowest amount in 11 years studied.</p>
<p>The report concludes with a recommendation that Florida&rsquo;s leaders make strategic public investments and policy changes that improve the economic reality of all workers and their families. Increasing the minimum wage, promoting union membership, improving enforcement of existing anti-discrimination laws, implementing transparency in pay structures, and increasing educational spending are some key initiatives that Florida policymakers should consider.</p>
<p>Research for the State of Working Florida 2017 was conducted by the Jesuit Social Research Institute (JSRI) at Loyola University New Orleans in partnership with the Center for Labor Research and Studies and the Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy (RISEP) at Florida International University.</p>
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<span class="maroon"><a href="https://jsri.loyno.edu/sites/loyno.edu.jsri/files/JSRI-state-of-working-fl-2017_0.pdf">READ REPORT HERE &gt;&gt;</a></span></h2>

<p>by Nicholas Mitchell, Ph.D.</p>
<p>The Guidelines for the Study and Teaching of the Church&rsquo;s Social Doctrine in the Formation of Priests states that people are required to denounce unjust situations, which includes describing social evils in their totality.[1] Following this maxim, we must recognize that on August 12, 2017, Heather Heyer was murdered during a White race riot, when a member of the racist mob tried to kill scores of people with a car&mdash;a preferred tactic of recent terrorist attacks in Europe. In addition, Deandre Harris was nearly beaten to death in a parking garage. They were the victims of one of the most consequentially destructive ideologies in human history&mdash;White supremacy. From the Americas to Africa and Asia to Europe, the historical record shows that everywhere White supremacy has spread it has brought havoc.&nbsp;</p>
<p><a href="https://jsri.loyno.edu/real-threat-white-supremacy">READ MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>

<p><span style="font-family: Verdana;">The Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Florida, Jesuit Social Research Institute (JSRI), and Program for Immigration Religion &amp; Social Change came together to produce&nbsp;</span><a href="https://jsri.loyno.edu/sites/loyno.edu.jsri/files/Recovering%20human%20face-0317-final%20final-carUFL.pdf"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Verdana; vertical-align: baseline;">Recovering the Human Face of Immigration in the U.S. South</em></a><span style="font-family: Verdana;">&nbsp;in October of 2016. The effort was made possible by a grant from the Carnegie Foundation and with religious leaders throughout the country giving insight into inclusive immigrant practices (namely, Ann Cass Williams; PJ Edwards; Michael Mata; Alexia Salvatierra; Msgr. Dan Stack). Today, JSRI released the supporting documents to host a presentation in your own community.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><a href="https://jsri.loyno.edu/sites/loyno.edu.jsri/files/Recovering%20the%20Human%20Face%20of%20Immigration%20PowerPoint.pdf"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Recovering the Human Face of Immigration PowerPoint</span></a></p>
<p><a href="https://jsri.loyno.edu/sites/loyno.edu.jsri/files/Recovering%20the%20Human%20Face%20of%20Immigration%20Script%20for%20PowerPoint.pdf"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Recovering the Human Face of Immigration Script for PowerPoint</span></a></p>

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July 31st is Black Women&rsquo;s Equal Pay Day, the day that marks how long into 2017 an African American woman would have to work in order to be paid the same wages as her white male counterpart was paid last year. Black women are uniquely positioned to be subjected to both a racial pay gap and a gender pay gap. In fact, on average, black women workers are paid only 67 cents on the dollar relative to white non-Hispanic men, even after controlling for education, years of experience, and location.</div>
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<strong>Why does this wage gap exist for black women?</strong></div>
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Pay inequity directly touches the lives of black women in at least three distinct ways. Since few black women are among the top 5 percent of earners in this country, they have experienced the relatively slow wage growth that characterizes growing class inequality along with the vast majority of other Americans. But in addition to this class inequality, they also experience lower pay due to gender and race bias.</div>
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<a href="http://www.epi.org/blog/black-women-have-to-work-7-months-into-2017-to-be-paid-the-same-as-white-men-in-2016/?utm_source=Economic+Policy+Institute&amp;utm_campaign=82917e119e-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_07_28&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_e7c5826c50-82917e119e-55871785&amp;mc_cid=82917e119e&amp;mc_eid=7b9221669f">READ MORE&gt;&gt;</a></div>

<p>By Rev. Kevin Wildes, S.J., Ph.D.</p>
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America is once again facing questions of health care policy and law. Six times in the 20th century &mdash; beginning with the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt, a progressive Republican, and ending with that of Bill Clinton, a conservative Democrat &mdash; America tried to address the issue of health insurance for all people. Six times we failed. Important progress was made during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, when Medicare and Medicaid became part of the U.S. health care system. For more than 100 years, the United States has struggled with health care issues, considering (and reconsidering) who should benefit and how much. The issues have only gotten more challenging over time.</div>
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Health care is a double-edged sword, in practice and in politics. On the one hand, the U.S. health care system is a complex set of policy issues that shape the daily health care realities for millions of people. On the other hand, these policies have real, immediate impacts on the lives of men and women when they or their loved ones are sick and vulnerable. People don&rsquo;t think of their health care in terms of group insurance or a pool. They think of it as &ldquo;my&rdquo; health care. And this mindset has colored the debate for more than a century.</div>
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<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/health-care-again_us_59723102e4b0f1feb89b430c?utm_content=bufferbbbe5&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=facebook.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer">READ MORE &gt;&gt;</a></div>

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By Fred Kammer, S.J.</div>
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Over the past 50 years, Medicare, Medicaid, and other measures moved our health care system closer to the Catholic principle that health care is a natural right rooted in the sanctity and dignity of the human person. &nbsp;</div>
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Most recently, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 added protection of that right for more than 24 million Americans[1] &nbsp;who still did not have affordable and comprehensive care and protected 52 million people with pre-existing medical conditions. Now, the American Health Care Act, passed on May 4 by the U.S. House, and the Better Care Reconciliation Act, introduced in June into the U.S. Senate, have threatened not just to roll back the ACA and its protections but to deny coverage under the ACA and Medicaid to 23 (House) or 22 (Senate) million Americans. It also will upend insurance markets, savage state budgets, drive up unemployment, and badly impact rural communities.</div>
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Senators promised that their bill would be different from that of the House, and President Trump termed the House Bill &ldquo;mean.&rdquo; The Senate, however, kept most of the terrible House provisions and their negative consequences[2]:</div>
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&bull; Tens of millions of people lose health coverage.</div>
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&bull; Millions of low-income adults lose Medicaid expansion.</div>
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&bull; Medicaid for seniors, people with disabilities, and children is capped and cut.</div>
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&bull; Tax credits are cut and premiums raised by thousands of dollars for many older people.</div>
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&bull; Individual market premiums rise by 20 percent for 2018.</div>
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&bull; Insurers can drop coverage for maternity care, mental health, and substance abuse.</div>
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&bull; Opioid addiction coverage is cut by billions of dollars.</div>
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&bull; Survival of rural hospitals dependent on Medicaid is threatened.</div>
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&bull; Employer and individual mandates to purchase insurance will be ended.</div>
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<a href="https://t.e2ma.net/webview/7clkq/0494c35167ab42b1d6a79a4bf343f5e8">READ MORE&gt;&gt;</a></div>

<p>By Joseph Kenny</p>
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Sitting down with an immigrant who has come to America for a better life was eye-opening for Sister Joan Klass.</div>
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Sister Joan, who attended a &quot;Catholic Teach-In on Migration: Creating a Culture of Encounter&quot; June 26 with six other Sisters of the Most Precious Blood, said her group was impressed with the immigrants who attended and gave testimony during discussions in a small-group setting. &quot;We really are impressed the immigrants are putting themselves out there,&quot; she said. &quot;It added a very special dimension to the evening.&quot;</div>
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The woman she spoke with had fled a rural area of Mexico because of economic pressures that made it difficult for her and her husband and young child to survive. The trek across the border was treacherous. &quot;They went through a terrible time, separated from their child,&quot; Sister Joan said.</div>
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A study led by Center for Economic and Policy Research economist Mark Weisbrot estimates that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) put almost 2 million small-scale Mexican farmers out of work, in turn driving illegal migration to the United States.</div>
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<a href="http://stlouisreview.com/article/2017-06-30/encounter-immigrants?utm_content=buffer9a6cf&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer">READ MORE &gt;&gt;</a></div>

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WASHINGTON&mdash;Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice, Florida, Chairman of the U.S. Bishops&#39; Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, has provided a more detailed critique of the Senate &quot;discussion draft&quot; health care bill, dubbed the &quot;Better Care Reconciliation Act&quot; (BCRA).</div>
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&quot;Removing vital coverage for those most in need is not the answer to our nation&#39;s health care problems, and doing so will not help us build toward the common good,&quot; said Bishop Dewane. &quot;For the sake of persons living on the margins of our health care system, we call on the Senate to reject changes intended to fundamentally alter the social safety net for millions of people.&quot;</div>
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The BCRA was introduced in discussion draft format on June 22, 2017, and is the Senate&#39;s working heath care proposal. Bishop Dewane again highlighted the need for lawmakers to withhold support for provisions that would harm poor and vulnerable people, including changes to Medicaid, in the June 27 letter. He also stressed the need for protections for the unborn in the bill, indicating that &quot;[s]afeguards pertaining to the use of tax credits for plans that include abortion face steep challenges,&quot; and that the BCRA &quot;needs to be strengthened to fully apply the longstanding and widely-supported Hyde amendment protections.&quot; &nbsp;Bishop Dewane also noted that coverage for immigrants and conscience protections were lacking in the BCRA.</div>
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&quot;The BCRA&#39;s restructuring of Medicaid will adversely impact those already in deep health poverty,&quot; warned Bishop Dewane. &quot;At a time when tax cuts that would seem to benefit the wealthy and increases in other areas of federal spending, such as defense, are being contemplated, placing a &#39;per capita cap&#39; on medical coverage for the poor is unconscionable.&quot;</div>
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<a href="http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/health-care/letter-to-senate-on-better-care-reconciliation-act-2017-06-27.cfm">READ MORE&gt;&gt;</a></div>

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Recently, 43 disabled protesters were arrested outside of Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell&#39;s office, and the clips went viral on social media. Since then, activists have kept up the pressure on the Republican health bill with similar actions across the country. For this short documentary, The Atlantic traveled to the heart of the disability rights movement in the San Francisco Bay Area to learn why some people with disabilities fear the Republican health plan. Mary Lou Breslin of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund says cuts to Medicaid could ultimately cost 3 million people with disabilities their freedom, and erode &quot;40 years of hard won gains by the disability rights movement.&quot;</div>
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This documentary was produced as a project for the USC Center for Health Journalism&rsquo;s California Fellowship.</div>
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<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/533001/the-disabled-fight-for-health-care/">WATCH VIDEO &gt;&gt;</a></div>