by Hope Border Institute & Most Rev. Mark J. Seitz, Bishop of El Paso
The Hope Border Institute is proud to partner with Faith in Action and more than 315 faith-based and civic groups and leaders, including twenty Catholic and Episcopal Bishops from El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, and the U.S., in calling on President-elect Biden to fundamentally change U.S. policy toward Central America to address the root causes of unemployment, climate change, corruption and violence driving people north.
Border Observatory
SITUATION REPORT: PANDEMIC AT THE BORDER
Isolated from other major urban centers, the COVID-19 pandemic took its time arriving in the El Paso-Ciudad Juárez region. Once it did arrive in mid-March, it became apparent that our community was particularly vulnerable. A month of lockdown gave way to a premature reopening of the Texas economy and the willingness of state political leadership to sacrifice essential workers collided with the effects of economic inequality, a historically chronic lack of investment in healthcare, and tightened immigration enforcement at the border.