The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship intends to double its efforts on advocacy. For the first time, CBF plans to hire two full-time staff members working in this area, one as director of advocacy and one as congregational advocacy manager. Advocacy work…
Fellowship Southwest issues urgent call for volunteers in Brownsville
Fellowship Southwest has issued an urgent and immediate call for volunteers to serve migrants at an immigrant respite center and welcome center in Brownsville, Texas, deep in the Rio Grande Valley across the border from Matamoros, Mexico. That Fellowship Southwest-supported…
What happens after Title 42?
The Biden administration has begun preparing to end Title 42, the COVID-19 order that authorizes the rapid expulsion of migrants, primarily to Mexico, on May 11. The administration will impose penalties for those who enter the U.S. without inspection while…
In a dusty Mexican border town, Fellowship Southwest offers refuge for those fleeing cartel violence
There are no easy days for migrants stranded in Mexico while seeking asylum in the United States. The challenges they face are treacherous and seemingly limitless, including the constant threat of kidnappings and murder by prowling cartel members, gnawing hunger…
Fellowship Southwest adds immigration legal aid component
A ministry that provides low-cost legal services to immigrants has found a new home with Fellowship Southwest. Immigration Service and Aid Center, known as ISAAC, has been housed in the Baptist General Convention of Texas Christian Life Commission since 2010….
Maston Foundation immigration retreat opened my eyes
How do you put into words an experience that changed mindsets, transformed hearts and inspired hearts? It is challenging to express, but a recent T.B. Maston Foundation retreat on immigration truly had a profound impact on me. I knew little…
A true account of one migrant’s journey north
Anyra Cano, director of programs and outreach for Fellowship Southwest, recently interviewed a young man from South America who was released from a U.S. immigration detention center. To protect his identity, that man is identified here as “PR.” PR,…
CBF, Fellowship Southwest and BJC join in appeal to DHS to stop harassing Sikhs seeking religious asylum in U.S.
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Fellowship Southwest, Baptist Joint Committee and 160 other civil rights and faith groups are demanding American border agents be forced to stop confiscating religious items and other personal property from migrants seeking asylum in the United…
When a Mexican cartel kidnapped a Baptist pastor, they got more than they bargained for
A Mexican cartel got more than it bargained for earlier this month by kidnapping Lorenzo Ortiz, an American pastor who operates shelters for asylum seekers and other migrants south of the U.S.-Mexico border. His abduction at 6 p.m. June 2…