Hóla Casa San José Amigos,
We’re opening this message with another episode from Our
Story, because it’s very special this week.
Our story, episode 10: “Bartolo”
This
story is especially meaningful to Casa San Jose, not only because it is about
the beloved foster son of Monica Ruíz, our Community Organizer, and friend of
former staff member Grace Muller. It has also captured international attention
through the journalists at Public Radio International’s The World (broadcast in
Pittsburgh every weeknight at 8 on NPR-WESA radio.) We heard it on June 1, and it is available and best told here.
Please read and/or listen!
Your
help is still needed:
Casa San Jose will
be holding a Listening Session with our immigrant community to answer questions
about their legal rights, welfare of children, and best practices. This
will be on Sunday, June 18, St.
Catherine's Church, 1810 Belasco Avenue, Beechview, around 2 pm (after
Mass.) We are in need of volunteers who
would be able to help serve refreshments and play games with the
children. If you are able to help, please email Sister Valerie at srvalerie@casasanjose.org.
Political action:
Please attend this public meeting: Public Transportation is Not a Checkpoint - Don't
Criminalize Transit Riders! June 15, Liberty Room, Human
Services Bldg., 1 Smithfield St, downtown.
(We’ve discussed this issue before, but this is the
first meeting we’ve sponsored.) This summer, Port Authority plans to have armed
police officers checking fare payment on the T.
We believe that this will intimidate and profile immigrants who are
already being harassed by ICE. We demand
that the Port Authority delay implementation of this policy until we have a
public process, a commitment not to work with ICE, and civil (not criminal) procedure
for "fare evasion." Coordinated
by Casa San Jose, Pittsburghers for Public Transit, Thomas Merton Center, and
the Alliance for Police Accountability.
PICC (Pennsylvania Immigrant and Citizenship
Coalition) is focusing on tuition equity this month– which
refers to the great disadvantages facing undocumented youth who want a college
education. Under current PA law,
undocumented students cannot establish Pennsylvania residency for higher
education regardless of how long they have lived in the state, and therefore must
pay out-of-state tuition rates. They are also excluded from state financial
aid. Rep. Peter Scheyer in the PA House introduced HB1042, the
Pennsylvania Tuition Fairness Act to correct this
inequity, and is looking for co-sponsors.
Please contact your PA legislator in the House (find them here) to ask that they
be a co-sponsor, and to show your support.
Good talking
points are given here.
Did you know you
can also find and contact your
elected representatives directly through Facebook? Even easier!
More news:
Our Youth Community Organizer, Jeimy Sanchez-Ruíz,
has won the 2017 Catherine Graham Servant Leader Award
at Carlow University. ¡Felicitaciones,
Jeimy!
In April, 1,470 economists, including many Nobel
Prize winners, wrote an open letter to the President and congressional
leaders emphasizing the great value that immigrants bring to our country, and urging them to fix the immigration system so that it reflects “the rich
history of welcoming immigrants to the United States.” Thank you to the professors from the
University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, and Duquesne University who signed it.
(Listed in this link to the letter.)
Suggested if you’d like to read or hear more:
An Underground College for Undocumented
Immigrants from The New Yorker, May 22, tells the moving story of two sisters, having grown up in
the suburbs of Atlanta, and their determined and difficult fight to get a
college education.
Faces of Migration,
from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, each week shares inspiring and
moving stories of people who have come to the US to flee violence and poverty
and pursue hopes and dreams, and who have made significant impacts on their
communities.
Famed humanitarian
organization Doctors Without Borders describe in a detailed and riveting report the
plight of Central Americans who are migrating as they flee the horrific
violence in their countries.
Thank you for
joining us.
