What to do After Welcoming?
By Rafael Gacía, S.J.
Moral dilemmas force flexibility and creativity and reveal the fact that human laws are never without exceptions. One of these relates to the plight of migrants and refugees—the recently arrived and those established in our communities.
Fourth Texas City Passes Ordinance Limiting Payday Loans
The El Paso, Texas City Council approved an ordinance to regulate payday and car title loan businesses. El Paso is the fourth city in Texas to adopt such an ordinance after Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio. The ordinance limits payday loans to twenty percent of the borrower’s gross monthly income and auto-title loans to either 3 percent of the borrower’s gross annual income or 70 percent of the vehicle’s value. The ordinance limits installments to four and rollovers and renewals to three.
So Help Us God
Life, Death, and Voting Rights in the Texas Colonias
By Michael Seifert
I was invited to come forward and so I walked through a high-vaulted room filled with attorneys. Three black-robed judges looked down at me from their seats high above us all. The judge in charge, a stately looking woman, smiled and welcomed me. Another woman came up and made me promise to tell the truth. The Whole Truth. I did so promise, and I took my seat.
Contradictions on the border
<p>The U.S.-Mexico border is a crucial place of encounter. It is the only place in the world where the developed world literally comes face to face with the underdeveloped world. This place is like no other where the boundaries that separate “us” from “them” become blurred. It is a place where one easily becomes confused, not quite clear on whether one is stepping on U.S. or Mexico territory. Here the dominant anti-immigrant rhetoric and the rationale for “enforcement only” policy is naturally contested.</p>
Ignacio Volunteers embark on a journey to border
by Anna Alicia Chavez, JSRI Migration Specialist with reflections from the group
Capitol Comments: The Death Penalty is a Respect Life Issue!
By Andrew Rivas, J.D., Executive Director, Texas Catholic Conference, Member, JSRI Advisory Board
In a 2002 Pew Research-sponsored presentation at the University of Chicago, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was asked if he thought the use of the death penalty would ever lead to the execution of an innocent person. His answer was “…of course it will. I mean, you cannot have any system of human justice that is going to be perfect.”
A Beacon of Hope on the Border
By Fr. Edwin L. Gros, S.J., Pastor, Sacred Heart Parish, El Paso, Texas