Dear Fathers:

One of my happy memories is the time I spent serving on the board of directors for the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.  I actually served two terms.  My first term was just prior to my entry into seminary in the early 1980s when the program was then called "The Salvadoran-Guatemalan Refugee Program" and was just turning into a more broadly-based program for all immigrant rights.  I was a graduate student at the University of Washington at the time and deeply involved in refugee resettlement work.  My second term was in the mid-1990s straddling my assignments as pastor of St. Mary of the Valley in Monroe and the parishes and school of St. Edward, St. Paul and St. George in South Seattle.

 I am not in touch with the program any more.  However, I would like to draw your attention to a very thoughtful question-and-answer information sheet they put out on President Obama's announcement on administrative changes regarding immigration enforcement.  This material is in both Spanish and English in a simple front-to-back format so you might want to print this out and make it available to parishioners as well as key volunteers involved in your social ministries and outreach programs.  Click below to read:

+Bishop Joseph Tyson

http://nwirp.org/UDocuments/Announcements/CommunityAdvisoryDeferredAction06-18-2012-EnglishSpanish.pdf