___ House in El Paso (I'm forgetting the name) sent a certified letter to the El Paso INS field office, informing them of their actions (though obviously not the details.) It was part of the principle of the org. They weren't denying that they were breaking the law. It was an honesty thing.

Pretty sure I know where you're talking about, though the place we worked with most was in Brownsville. When I first got involved, I was living in a place in Georgia and we made bus trips every few months to that area to bring people up and give them some basic language and culture skills (and start their INS proceedings, for whatever good that was. Mostly we connected them with the Canadian gov.) Later, when I was back in Milwaukee, it was more about counseling and being a voice to hear who gave a shit.

Man, we should talk more. I'm so out of touch with that world these days and I feel bad about it.

Mostly we connected them with the Canadian gov

Yeah, pretty much all the transports dad did were en route to Canada, where they could get political refugee status. US wouldn't recognize them as political refugees. Goddamn Regan and Ollie North and all that shit. El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala. Keep in mind, I was only "involved" because my dad was doing this and I was a kid, though I supported it.

ok, I've got to google, because I can picture the storefront in El Paso, but am still drawing a blank.

We had a Salvadoran Sanctuary family in my church in the 80s.

Oh, that was easy: Annunciation House: [link] It's really an amazing group. Don't remember the priest's name.

Remember Torque? He was from Brownsville. I remember this because he was so surprised, when he told us at the F2F, that I knew where Brownsville was. "Of course I do! The sweetie whose mom died on Real World Boston was from Brownsville".

Yes, I learned U.S. geography from MTV.

There was/is a church that splintered off from the catholic church here in Rochester NY. They are apparently in the process of forming their own, new church. The pastor was removed because he was letting women perform eucharist/doing ceremonies for gay people, and doing a lot of community outreach, and 1/3 of the parish followed him (or rather started doing their own thing and he followed them!)

[link]

Hah! I wish it would have come up, Java, because I could say a lot more about Brownsville but mostly I'd be really interested to know how much public awareness there is of the detention facilites there.

Man, the world, she is small. As if I didn't need the reminder after this summer's trip to the other side of the world. At least 3 examples there alone.

OK, have people seen the Kay jeweler commercial with the couple in the cabin/house and the storm coming? ANd when she turns to hold him, he's all "I'm right here. voice drops And I always will be." Given the setting, I swear I thought this was a for a new thriller/horror movie. creeps me the fuck out. stupid jewelry commercial.

every kiss begins with kay...

Which reminds me, for no particular reason, Linux is lynn-ux or lye-nux? I guessed the former and then switched to the latter after hearing other humans. Now I'm hearing the former again.

We have a steering committee meeting to make a product recommendation at 8am tomorrow morning. My boss has not yet seen the final product comparison spreadsheet. He said he'd call me to talk about it. Where? He doesn't have my number.

I've already worked 33 hours this week. If I go in early, either I take the world's longest (and most boring) lunch, or I leave shamefully early. I know he wants me to limit my hours, but I'd still feel like an awful skiver.