Podcasts about texas interfaith center

Weekly Witness Live continuing the “Gearing Up: Announcing Texas Impact Faith Priorities for the 2021 Legislative Session” series. This episode focused on Human Rights and Immigration, featuring  Rev. Krystal Leedy, Texas Interfaith Center for Public Policy Pastoral Fellow Mike Seifert, ACLU of Texas Policy and Advocacy Strategist Cindy Johnson, UMC General Board of Church and Society Board Member

MCALLEN, RGV - Following a visit to the Rio Grande Valley faith leaders and clergy from across Texas are now heading to Washington, D.C., to advocate for a change in immigration policy.More than 100 members of numerous religious denominations spent two days in the Valley recent. One of the highlights of the trip was visiting with asylum seekers in Matamoros, just across the border from Brownsville, Texas. The asylum seekers, mostly from Central America, are hoping to start a new life in the United States.Frances Knipp hails from Louisiana but now lives in Dallas. She participated on the Valley tour. “I cannot speak for the whole group but I think the purpose (of the visit) is to bring a moral voice to this issue, the immigration crisis and how we treat the children of God,” Knipp told the Rio Grande Guardian.“We live far away from the border. Dallas is an eight hour drive and so we needed to come here and see and witness. Some of it is witnessing, some of it is praying for the people. Some of it is meeting other people who care and want to help.” The two-day trip was organized by the Texas Interfaith Center for Public Policy. Sponsors included U.S. Christian Leadership Organization, North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church, North Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, San Antonio Regional Justice for Our Neighbors, and American Civil Liberties Union of Texas.

MCALLEN, RGV - Community leader and former Catholic priest Michael Seifert gave a homily to around 100 faith leaders from across Texas who visited the Rio Grande Valley recently.The two-day trip was organized by the Texas Interfaith Center for Public Policy to help clergy learn more about U.S. immigration policy.Seifert’s homily came towards the end of the trip. He told the faith leaders that when he did his theology studies he was “always struck by this notion of the transcendental love of God being made categorically present in Jesus of Nazareth. That is a nice way to think about that. This big, big thing becoming very, very specific. Then I came to the border and found that specificity almost every single day of my life.”Seifert has lived in the Valley for almost 30 years. Speaking of the region, Seifert said: “It is an incredible place to be, it is a lovely place to be. It is also a challenging place.”During his presentation, Seifert played a body-cam video showing a Department of Public Safety officer stopping a car because a brake light was not working. A young couple were in the car with their baby. “She is a classic girl from Brownsville, polite, respects authority,” Seifert said. When the DPS officer learned the young man did not have the required paperwork to be in the country legally he contacted Border Patrol. Seifert said the young woman threw up when the scale of what had happened kicked in. “Deportation is like a nuclear bomb. It is an extraordinarily awful experience that has all kinds of collateral damage,” Seifert said. Seifert said that under international and national law, asylum seekers have a right to have their application reviewed if they set foot on U.S. soil. However, he said, the Trump administration has prevented this from happening by putting up road blocks in the middle of international bridges. “So they cross the river,” Seifert said. The coyotes who help migrants cross the Rio Grande have a simple message, according to Seifert. “Once you cross the river, keep walking until you get to this thing called the Border Wall. Sit down there and wait and the Border Patrol will come along and you surrender to them. So, Trump’s Border Wall does not slow immigration. It is a lighthouse. It is home plate.”

Join us this week as Beaman Floyd, board president of Texas Interfaith Center for Public Policy discusses recent trends and implications from the midterm election in Texas. 

This month, hear from Texas Impact and Texas Interfaith Center staff about the ways your faith community can get involved in the reentry process, plus learn more about the Texas Interfaith Center's new initiative, Reinvested Communities. Staff will also give an overview of Texas Impact and the Community Partners Recruitment Initiative. Introductory and Outro music: "Ashton Manor" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

A brief introduction to the Texas Interfaith Center For Public Policy's official podcast. For more details, please visit our website.