We seek to address immigration issues & justice for immigrants.
Immigration Survey: Click Here to Take the Survey and Share your Ideas on Improving our approach to immigrants!
World Day of Migrants & Refugees:
Support & Participate in Mass (in Spanish) !!
Pope Francis initiated the last Sunday of September as World Day of Migrants & Refugees, a day to recall and pray for the many people whose lives have been affected during these years of crises, upheavals, violence, and intense poverty.
Immigration Survey: Click Here to Take the Survey and Share your Ideas on Improving our approach to immigrants!
At St. Francis Parish, these last few years have seen a rapid growth in the Hispanic portion of our community. Our St. Francis Parish welcomes your contributions to help through our Immigrant Assistance Fund here!
If you are seeking legal assistance contact the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center in Ypsilanti – MIRC – (734-239-6863) www.michiganimmigrant.org
Our parish also works collaboratively with Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights (WICIR) who provides assistance to immigrants whose family members have been detained and/or deported as a result of raids by the U.S. Immigration Enforcement and Customs Agency. The assistance includes legal assistance, counseling, housing assistance, and help in locating the family members who have been detained or deported.
The vast majority of these undocumented immigrants/individuals are here solely to work hard in order to support their families. Now, globalization, which promotes the free movement of capital and corporations across borders, but not labor, has contributed to the forces driving migration. There are some “work visa” programs, but, the programs do not begin to satisfy U.S. employers’ demand for unskilled, low-wage labor.
“In the Church no one is a stranger, and the Church is not foreign to anyone, anywhere. As a sacrament of unity and thus a sign and a binding force for the whole human race, the Church is the place where ‘illegal’ immigrants are also recognized and accepted as brothers and sisters. It is the task of the various Dioceses actively to ensure that these people, who are obliged to live outside the safety net of civil society, may find a sense of brotherhood in the Christian community.” – Pope John Paul II for World Migration Day, 1996
The U.S. Catholic Bishops have stated that the only humane solution to the immigration issue is Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation. The Life, Peace and Justice Committee of St. 
Francis supports the work of WICIR.
Have you ever thought about what it would be like to be involved in an
immigration raid? To have family members deported? What happens to them? What happens to those they leave behind? What is the long-term impact on children involved?
Earlier this year, 2020, the St. Francis Life, Peace & Justice Committee read and discussed the book “Separated: Family and Community in the Aftermath of an Immigration Raid“ by William D. López (Lopez). The book is about an immigration raid that occurred here in Ann Arbor in November 2013. It uses this raid to show what immigration enforcement looks like from the perspective of those who experience it.
In May 2017 St. Francis hosted…
“If you hold my hand, no one will be able to take you away from me.”
By taking a close look at an immigration home raid that occurred in Washtenaw County, this presentation asks you to consider who is affected by immigration enforcement, in what ways, and what we, as Catholics, are called to do about it.
Parishioner, William López, talked about his work, which focuses on the effects of immigration raids on Latino families and communities. William Lopez received his PhD in Public Health from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. William López is a University of Notre Dame alumnus, and the event was supported by the Notre Dame Club of Ann Arbor.
Questions? Contact: St. Francis Parish Office (734-821-2121) justice@stfrancisa2.org
For more information see:
Michigan Immigrant Rights Center in Ypsilanti – MIRC
Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights