Dallas faith leaders denounce heightened immigration enforcement in D-FW – Dallas News
Staff Writer
Standing before a gathering of interfaith leaders, the Rev. George Mason invoked the words of the late Pope Francis on Saturday, urging federal officials to recognize the “deep moral concern” reverberating through immigrant communities nationwide, including in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
“Migrants, he said, and refugees are not pawns on the chessboard of humanity,” Mason said during a news conference organized by an advocacy arm of Faith Commons, an interfaith group he founded. “Each migrant has a name, a face and a story. It’s not just about migrants. It’s about our humanity.”
Mason’s remarks outside Kessler Park United Methodist Church in Dallas come amid a broader national reckoning over the Trump administration’s approach to immigration, which has included expanded deportations, restrictions on asylum claims and efforts aimed at limiting legal immigration.
It also comes in response to recent enforcement actions against immigrants in North Texas, including the case of Neri Jose Alvarado Borges, a 25-year-old Venezuelan asylum seeker who was deported last month.
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Recent reports of immigrants in D-FW facing enforcement actions prompted the news conference, where Mason announced the group would begin holding regular vigils outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Dallas office. The office, which oversees North Texas and Oklahoma, recorded more immigration arrests than any other ICE field office in the country last fiscal year, according to federal data.
Among the cases drawing the group to speak publicly was Alvarado Borges, who sought asylum in the U.S. after fleeing Venezuela, where he feared he would be kidnapped or killed for protesting that country’s president, Nicolás Maduro.
Alvarado Borges worked at bakeries in Lewisville and Dallas at the time of his arrest, the owner, Juan Enrique Hernández, told The Dallas Morning News.
Homeland Security Investigations officers arrested Alvarado Borges in late February. Just over a week later, an immigration judge issued a final order of removal, and on March 15, he was deported to El Salvador on a charter flight, according to Dexter Henson, an ICE spokesperson.
Henson said in a statement Monday that Alvarado Borges illegally entered the United States near El Paso in April of last year. The statement says Alvarado Borges was subject to removal proceedings as a result.
Henson did not respond to questions about Alvarado Borges’ background or his asylum claim, including whether he had a criminal history. A complaint filed by a Border Patrol agent in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas lists no prior criminal or immigration history. The agent noted the complaint was filed for the “limited purpose of establishing probable cause” and did not include “each and every fact known to me concerning this investigation.”
Alvarado Borges’ name was listed among nearly 240 men sent to El Salvador’s Center for Terrorism Confinement, a maximum-security prison where visitation, recreation and education are not permitted. Henson did not respond to questions seeking confirmation on whether Alvarado Borges was being held at the facility.
“As faith leaders, we cannot keep silent while innocent neighbors are illegally abducted, detained, and disappeared,” Rabbi Nancy Kasten, Chief Relationship Officer at Faith Commons, said in a news release.
Speaking at the news conference, the Rev. Eric Folkerth, a pastor of Kessler Park UMC, said the local stories of “harm being done” to immigrant communities in D-FW “demands accountability of our government to due process for all people.”
“The Bible says we should treat and welcome the immigrant, not harm them. Some Americans don’t want to hear that, but that’s what the Bible says,” Folkerth said. “The Bible says we should treat immigrants under the same law as we do citizens. Some Americans may not want to hear that, but that’s what the Bible says.”
Chase Rogers is a breaking news reporter at The Dallas Morning News. He grew up in Granbury and studied journalism at Texas State University in San Marcos. Before joining The News, he reported for the Austin American-Statesman and the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. He can be reached at 361-239-6527 and Signal at CRogers.95.
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