The tensions between the U.S and Venezuela have only intensified as the U.S. uses political, economic, and escalating military strategies to target the Venezuelan government, who they accuse of corruption and drug trafficking into the U.S. This has caused immense hardships against the Venezuelan people; however they continue to stand strong and urge for just and lasting peace.
In her 2024 book Sanctuary People: Faith-Based Organizing in Latina/o Communities, Dr. Gina Pérez, Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Oberlin College, presents a practical political strategy to cultivate safety, trust and belonging in all communities. It includes both physical sanctuary, where sacred space becomes a place of refuge, and a broader commitment to accompaniment and public advocacy.
Here Dr. Pérez reflects on the Catholic Church’s Year of Jubilee of Hope. Pope Leo XIV frames migrants and refugees as “messengers of hope”—a powerful challenge to the stigmatizing narratives that characterize migrants and global migration in our world today.
Dr. Pérez also highlights essays by two young IRTF student interns who are living out their commitment to “welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating the most fragile, unprotected and vulnerable…” By participating in acts of accompaniment and collaboration across faith and secular communities, they credit IRTF with playing a significant role in their formation to become leaders in a new generation for social justice. Student intern Lucia reflects: “IRTF has been an indispensable part of discerning the world I want to live in, the role I will have in that, and the way I hope to go about it.”
This article by The Guardian illustrates how the act of protesting is despite the societal scepcism that often dominates its image a very powerful thing to indulge in and that historically proves to reshape the political landscape.
The Ohio Immigrant alliance published an article exposing ICE's "Operation Buckeye" a large-scale immigration enforcement operation carried out by ICE in Ohio, how violently it has been carried out and how the numbers expose a methodology of profiling and arbitrary enforcement.
This underlined by quotes and reports of the episcopal clergy, civil and human rights activists and indigenous leaders
This article by npr delineates how the trump administration is systematically seizing immigrants legal options by taking away their temporary protected status
This article by CovertAction Magazine provides an elaborate overview of Honduras' recent electoral history, its many struggles with this very crucial democratic procedure and the very recent electoral disaster.
This article from NACLA provides insight on the Trump administration's contradictory polices. Occurrences such as the bombing of fisherboats in the Caribbean are contrasted with the pardon for fomer president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted in US federal court for trafficking tons of drugs into the US.
This digital report by Andrew Trasher explores the nature of ICE's 287(g) agreements with local law enforment forces enabling the agencie to build a "deportation army." The report highlights the extend of ICE expansion by signing areements with different kinds of law enforcement entities, reaching from state prison systems and highway patrols to fish and wild life agencies. Most importantly it emphazises the fact that this quiet mobilization is what makes this widespread deportation action possible in the first place.
A recent article published by The Guardian elaborates on the criminal history of former president of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez who was pardoned by Trump. It casts light on a long history of US support for him and shows how the US deliberately looked away during Hernandez's years of eroding democratic institutions and building the narcostate in Honduras.
ICE released new detention data. Austin Kocher breaks down the data and discusses why the composition of people in detention with various criminal histories matters politically and legally.
