Diario reports this morning that Rafael Martínez, 40, a Salvadoran who was deported by the U.S. through Juárez, lost his arm yesterday after he fell from a train at the crossing downtown at Carlos Amaya and Ramón Alcázar. The train apparently rolled over his arm when he fell. His arm was amputated at General Hospital. He said he had jumped onto the freight train hoping to hitch rides back to El Salvador.
Diario also reports this morning (for full story click here) that Renato Ascencio León, Bishop of the Diocese of Ciudad Juárez, at a binational mass held yesterday near Anapra dedicated to those migrants who have died trying to achieve the American Dream, criticized recent changes in deportation policy in the U.S. He characterized such policies as the repatriation of Mexicans through desert areas of Presidio-Ojinaga, where there are few avenues of transportation, as "xenophobic," and criticized what he indicated were lukewarm responses by federal officials in Mexico. In the Mexican "government there are apparently no leaders who truly defend the plight of our migrant brothers," he said, specifically including the Foreign Secretary of Mexico (Patricia Espinosa).
Armando Ochoa, Bishop of El Paso, told reporters he thought, from media reports, that migration reform in the U.S. is important, but not a top priority this year for President Obama.
Ricardo Ramírez, Bishop of Las Cruces, asked God to forgive the rejection and treatment suffered by migrants who enter the U.S., as well as the racial prejudice and poor conditions they are forced to live with. He also prayed about the difficulty the community has in realizing we are all equal and the fear it has in reaching out to migrants to lend a helping hand. He said that for the Lord there are no borders, and therefore the eucharist is the moment of greatest unity in the community.
"The deaths (of migrants) have their roots in the insensitivity of the powerful who create structures that carry injustice within them," he said.
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