Breakfast Host: Compassionate Community Care
Welcome/Reading of Interfaith Statement: Michael G. Pappas, Executive Director, SFIC
Reflective Moment: Father Donal Godfrey, Chaplain, University of San Francisco
Topic: Humanizing Immigration
with USF Law Professor Bill Ong Hing
and CARECEN San Francisco Executive Director Lariza Dugan Cuadra
Facilitated by SFIC Board Member Tessa Rouverol Callejo
Faith Journey: Ignatius Bau, Independent Public Policy Consultant
Topic: Humanizing Immigration
Please join us for a timely and important conversation on immigration issues with Professor Bill Ong Hing, a national immigration expert, law professor, and author, and Lariza Dugan Cuadra, a local and national community leader and director of the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN SF), facilitated by SFIC Board Member Tessa Rouverol Callejo.
The speakers will discuss the current political climate, the underlying root causes of migration today, how mass detention and deportation separate immigrants and their families, the unique role of the faith community historically and currently, and the issues that are most significant for our immigrant community members. They will address the danger and impact of highly polarizing, racially charged, and dehumanizing narratives that depict people who migrate as a threat to community health and well-being, rather than human beings seeking a new life for themselves and their families and/or asylum as they flee violence and other drivers in their countries of origin.
Our speakers will help us to see the opportunities for welcoming and supporting migrants in our local community and moving towards a more just, and humane set of policies and practices that align with core tenets in our many faith traditions.