Houston Peace and Justice Center Statement on Immigration Crisis

Houston Peace and Justice Center Statement on Immigration Crisis 

For many years, the Houston Peace and Justice Center (HPJC) has been supportive of the immigrant community in Houston.  We have become friends with many immigrants, both documented and undocumented, and know them to be wonderful people who make important contributions to our community and state.

We have opposed raids by ICE that have torn families apart and resulted in the deportation of hundreds of thousands of people. 

We have opposed local police being involved in enforcing federal immigration laws through the 287(g) program.

We have supported attempts at the federal level to reform the immigration laws of this nation to keep families together and provide a pathway to legal status for the undocumented immigrants in the nation.  

We have supported the executive actions of President Obama – both DACA and DAPA – which help keep families together.   

We believe that the recent actions by the Trump Administration to speed up deportations of undocumented immigrants to be both immoral and unnecessary.

We consider the Mexican people to be our neighbors and friends.   We strongly oppose the building of any wall between Mexico and the United States.  A wall is antithetical to everything we believe in.  Rather than building walls, we should be building bridges with people of other countries.  

We will continue to support the immigrant communities in Houston and Texas and will strongly oppose efforts by both state and federal officials to harm those communities.