Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission estimates that nearly 10,000 migrants, mostly from Central America, were kidnapped between September and February in a growing trend that has Church officials concerned.

The just-released report says 9,758 migrants were kidnapped as they made their way north through Mexico to the United States. Most were abducted by organized gangs and ransomed for an average of $2,500. All told, the report estimates that ransoms over the six-month period, which were paid by relatives in Central America and in the United States, totaled about $25 million.
(more…)

CRS photojournalist and communications officer Sara Fajardo reports from her visit to Guyana:

If Ansel Watts’ life were a novel it would be listed under three categories: adventure, tragedy, and redemption. When he was 23 he stowed away on a Miami-bound ship that set sail from his native Guyana. After 7 overheated days of no light, his only meals bread and water, the ship stopped. He peered outside and saw palm trees and beaches dotted with luxury hotels. “This must surely be Miami,” he thought to himself and climbed ashore. But Ansel miscalculated, it was one stop too soon. He’d landed in the Bahamas, still an ocean away from his intended destination.
(more…)

Communications Officer Sara Fajardo is traveling in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, reporting on CRS programs and sharing her experiences with us.

One of the children of Batey II in Mao, Dominican Republic. The shantytown recently launched a campaign to help resolve conflicts. Photo by Sara A. Fajardo

Batey II is a shantytown right outside of the city of Mao in the Dominican Republic. Around a 1,000 people live in the one-room shacks made of scrap tin and plywood. It’s comparable in size to three U.S. city blocks. Moonlight is the only light shed here at night. Water comes from holes dug deep into the ground, protected by no more than a rubber tire at the mouth.

Rosalba and I arrive at the Batey’s CRS sponsored conflict resolution center located along the community’s only strip of road and greet the Batey’s leaders. Maria is sweeping a weekend’s worth of dust from the concrete floor, Daniel is outside shooting the breeze with a handful of locals.
(more…)

Communications Officer Sara Fajardo is traveling in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, reporting on CRS programs and sharing her experiences with us.

Leaving Haiti I handed my passport to the same border guard who had taken down my info when I entered the country. He wrote my name, the date, my nationality, and passport number in an old fashioned ledger and checked the box for departure. Exiting Haiti, unlike every other country I’ve ever been to South of the U.S. was absolutely free.
(more…)

Communications Officer Sara Fajardo is in the Dominican Republic reporting on CRS programs and sharing her experiences with us. This is her report from Saturday, Feb. 21, delayed because she couldn’t get an Internet connection.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, while the D.R. has one of the highest GDPs in Latin America. CRS partner Solidaridad Fronteriza (Border Solidarity) works to build legal venues for commerce and immigration between the two countries. Photo by Sara A. Fajardo

It cost me $25 to leave the Dominican Republic and $1 to enter Haiti.
(more…)

Communications Officer Sara Fajardo is in the Dominican Republic reporting on CRS programs and sharing her experiences with us. This is her report from Friday, Feb. 20, delayed because she couldn’t get an Internet connection.

At 6 a.m., an hour before the first stirrings of twilight, my traveling companion, Rosalba and I stood by the banks of the Massacre River looking across to Haiti. It’s market day and on such days the Dominican government allows Haitians to enter freely into Dajabón to sell and purchase wares.
(more…)

Communications Officer Sara Fajardo is in the Dominican Republic reporting on CRS programs and sharing her experiences with us.

A six-hour ride through cities, rice fields, and shantytowns on a bright blue and yellow Caribe Tours bus and my traveling companion Rosalba Gómez and I find ourselves in Dajabon. We are picked up by our partners from Solidaridad Fronteriza (Border Solidarity) on the standard mode of transportation in this town, motorcycles.
(more…)

Nancy E. Thoerig of Mount Savage, Md., a town about 150 miles west of Baltimore, wrote a letter to the editor of her local paper in response to an opinion piece it ran on immigration. She felt the article did not clearly represent Catholic teaching on immigration. So she did her homework, consulted the website of the Maryland Catholic Conference, and wrote a great letter in response. We’d like to share it with you:

To the Editor:
Cumberland Times-News

Eileen Steele’s commentary (“Some things need discussing,” Aug. 26 Times-News), in which she says “the Catholic Church has a wrong-headed approach to the illegals,” though she gives no elucidation as to what offends her, caused me, a cradle Catholic, to wonder: What is the crux of the church’s teaching on immigration; and how does it fit into the political debate?

Probably the best source I found to answer questions is the Maryland Catholic Conference (www.mdcathcon.org), informed by bishops O’Brien, Wuerl and Saltarelli of Baltimore, Washington and Wilmington, respectively, to advocate for public policy and pastoral interests in Annapolis and on Capitol Hill. The MCC, the site summarizes, aims to keep before our legislators “moral and religious dimensions of secular issues” and “values of the Gospel as norms for social and political life” and to promote “peace and justice.”

“Undocumented immigrants are persons with dignity,” the bishops state in their document titled “Where All Find a Home;” and they call us to learn about the immigration system, reasons people migrate, and needs of immigrants and their families: “Our American ideals call us to participate in the public debate; our Catholic faith urges us to do so with charity.”

Read the rest of Nancy Thoerig’s letter.

Catholic Relief Services is participating as a partner this week in the 2008 National Migration Conference , which concludes today in Washington. The conference is co-sponsored by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops/Migration and Refugee Services (USCCB/MRS). More than 850 people from across the country (and beyond) attended the event, which explored the national debate on immigration and the need for comprehensive immigration reform.
(more…)