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September 15 marked the beginning of Latino Heritage Month which, commemorates the contributions of Latino/a/e/x people in the United States through October 15. This year, the celebration carries a paradox: We are asked to honor communities that are simultaneously being targeted by increasingly bigoted rhetoric, rhetoric that reflects a growing acceptance of racism and xenophobia aimed at Latino communities. That bigotry has poisoned and divided some of our church communities, where people are being targeted for arrest, detention, and deportation. When we refuse to confront the bigotry within our own congregations, we silently assent to the policies being carried out in our names. Even now, Salvadorans are being held in suspense over Temporary Protected Status as the administration looks to remove the protection, just as they did for Haitians. We have already seen the suffering this administrative violence produces: Thousands of people are no longer allowed to provide for themselves and may be removed at any time under policies aimed at the country’s most vulnerable communities. Many pastors and Christians have bravely stepped forth to pray, protest and care for these communities. Yet we have also seen a worryingly muted response to the ongoing campaign against our neighbors, as the administration has moved to target people more quietly. The Department of Homeland Security is enrolling local and state police, renovating jails and prisons, and expanding administrative targeting. We must remain steadfast, confronting not only the attitudes within our congregations but also the broader effort to normalize the targeting of Latino people in our society. This Latino Heritage Month, we have the opportunity to boldly declare that our faith rejects any attempt to separate us from our neighbors or withhold the love God demands we show them. Then our words and actions must match. –– Rev. Moya Harris and Chad Stanton, Sojourners P.S. We are continuing to build an intentional community of people looking to live out their faith in our Sojourners Faith and Practice Forum on Mighty Networks. Please consider joining us.
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Here’s a look at what happened this week: There were significant developments around U.S. democracy and the upcoming midterm elections. U.S. democracy has reached its lowest levels in 50 years, according to a new global report tracking democratic performance around the world. The Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance's annual Global State of Democracy report tracks democratic performance across 173 countries and draws on data going back to 1975. In the report, the United States stood out for how far its democracy declined between 2020 and 2025. The Supreme Court’s three-sentence ruling in USPS v. California on Monday evening put an end to Donald Trump’s attempt to disenfranchise millions of elderly, disabled, military, rural, Native American and other voters in the 2026 midterm elections who depend upon vote by mail to cast a ballot. “In this decision, the Supreme Court has made clear that the 2026 midterm elections must not be disrupted by the Trump administration’s efforts to implement an unlawful new mail-voting system mid-election,” Tianna Mays, legal director at Democracy Defenders Fund, said. “The Constitution does not give the president unilateral authority governing federal elections regarding mail voting or any of the other schemes the administration has cooked up to rig the election.”
The Trump administration’s deportation regime continued its cruel work. U.S. immigration officials have deported people from countries throughout Latin America to African nations like Liberia in recent months. It's part of a growing strategy in President Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown: shipping deportees to distant countries where they have no connections at all. A newly released report from the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general confirms that some immigrants detained at Florida's now-closed "Alligator Alcatraz" were held in outdoor metal cages no bigger than a phone booth, in some cases for more than an hour at a stretch. It's the first time any government agency has acknowledged that these cramped enclosures existed at the South Florida Detention Facility. The watchdog's findings echo, though in more measured language, a report Amnesty International published in December: After interviewing detainees and touring the facility, the human rights group concluded the cages were used as punishment and amounted to torture, a finding that later prompted a congressional inquiry. A Minneapolis Baptist church, joined by congregations across the country, is asking a federal court to hold the government in contempt after learning it had been spied on during protest-related activity on its grounds. The revelation came from court documents that surfaced in mid-August in a separate case, one charging 15 people with obstructing the administration's immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. Those documents showed that federal agents had run an undercover surveillance operation targeting groups that had organized protests earlier this year. According to the filings, Homeland Security agents surveilled the church on four separate occasions, including one instance in which an undercover agent entered the building itself.
In foreign affairs, there were significant developments all over the world. CBS News has obtained new and exclusive photos that reveal the extensive damage Iranian missile and drone strikes inflicted on multiple U.S. positions across the West Asia, showing wrecked buildings and vehicles. A newly released report from the Defense Department's inspector puts the resulting "equipment losses" at up to $3.7 billion, including damage to nearly 60 aircraft. The report, the first of its kind mandated by Congress, also states that U.S. Central Command recorded Iranian strikes hitting American bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Jordan. Protesters around the world are taking to the streets over soaring fuel prices and rolling blackouts, as the prolonged U.S. war with Iran drives up energy costs globally. Less wealthy nations are absorbing the sharpest hit, both to national finances and household budgets. As fuel prices climb, so does the public frustration, since many can no longer afford gas and are increasingly unable to carry out essential daily tasks. Continental Resources signed a memorandum of understanding Wednesday with Venezuela's state oil company to develop a massive crude region in the South American nation. Continental founder Harold Hamm has been a Trump supporter and donor. Hamm made more than $1 million in donations to the Make America Great Again political action committee from 2023 to 2024, according to the nonpartisan OpenSecrets. Rescuers in a remote part of Sudan kept searching Wednesday for miners still missing after an informal gold mine collapse, hampered by a lack of proper equipment, as the confirmed death toll climbed to 82, local officials and activists reported. Survivors said the collapse struck the al-Zara gold mine near Nuhud, a town in West Kordofan province under the control of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which has been at war with Sudan's military for more than three years. Tear gas filled the streets of Kinshasa, the DRC's capital, on Tuesday as police confronted hundreds of demonstrators protesting proposed constitutional changes that opponents fear could clear the way for President Felix Tshisekedi to pursue a third term. The unrest compounds a difficult stretch for the country, which is simultaneously battling a fast-moving Ebola outbreak and continued fighting in its eastern provinces.
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SojoAction is currently calling for an end to the blockade against Cuba. Please sign on. This Tuesday Powered By Faith will hold a National Clergy Call to Protect the Vote. We invite you to join the call. The Charles F. Kettering Foundation presents, “This Day” Live: The Next Realignment, a conversation amongst leaders about the current democratic shift. We invite you to attend on Oct. 19 at the Howard Theatre.
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Someday We’ll All Be FreeBeing constantly under siege is tiring, to say the least. Our bodies remain in a mode of hypervigilance. Seeing others treated as less than human, over and over again, does something to your psyche. Whether through written words, sound bites, images, or even smells, our bodies react on a cellular level. This is why we breathe. We breathe to live, to be reminded that we are human, created in the image of God. We breathe to renew our spirits, and to renew the cycle of respiration, on a cellular level and as an organism. We breathe to be renewed by the Spirit of God. We hold on, through our faith, to see what the end will be. Faith is what sustains us in the midst of trouble. Faith is what helps us to hold on so that all people might be free. I have faith that this, too, shall pass. I have faith that God will continue to use people to bring justice to the land. I have faith that, just by each of us showing up to do what God has created us individually to do, we will all be free. I'll end this with this beautiful piece by the late Donny Hathaway entitled "Someday We'll All Be Free.” May this song bring you some hope today. –Rev. Moya Harris, Senior Director of Programs, Sojourners
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The Truth and Action Roundup is compiled by Sojourners staff: President: Rev. Adam Russell Taylor
Senior Research Associate: J.K. Granberg-Michaelson
Digital Content and Community Specialist: Kassandra Tapia
Chief Program and Impact Officer: Bryan Epps
Political Director: Chad V. Stanton
Senior Program Director: Rev. Moya Harris
Education and Engagement Program Manager: Cortnie Brooks Mobilizing (SojoAction) Fellow: Alyssa Parker
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