Watch video as Democratic members of Congress hold an immigration forum at the U.S. Capitol on March 29, 2017, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern time, to discuss the impact of Trump administration immigration policies on children and families.

A Mennonite Church in San Antonio has become a living nativity scene, sheltering hundreds of refugee mothers and children who fled violence and poverty in Central America. Immigration officials delivered more than 500 asylum-seeking women and children to the church after a judge in Austin ruled that Texas could not license the detention centers where they were being held as child care facilities. The refugees were delivered in waves, some arriving at 2 a.m. Monday in a driving thunderstorm.

Carrizo Springs, TX -- Dimmit County Commissioners rejected a proposal from Stratton Oilfield Systems that would have turned a former “Man Camp” into a privately operated detention facility similar to those in Karnes and Dilley which are used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain asylum-seeking mothers and children. After heated opposition and even heckling from Dimmit residents and refugee advocates, Dimmit County Commissioners unanimously turned down the proposal, becoming the second Texas county in June to reject a federal family detention center.

Catch up and get ahead with news about C.O.P.S. Metro Alliance; Zika Virus; Otherness + The Train to Crystal City and The Big Give. C.O.P.S Metro:

Catch up and get ahead with the Edge for the week of Sept. 7 Texas school funding system punishes poor districts

In this video, Jorge Montiel of COPS/Metro Alliance examines the business of immigrant detention, and follows the money coming from and going to the private prison companies, Corrections Corporation of America and the GEO Group, Inc.

The Edge: news that may have flown under your radar, a look at what you can expect people to be talking about next week and the links to share it all.

A June 24, 2015 Congressional visit investigating conditions for refugee families in private prisons in Texas culminated with a protest by dozens of women calling out in Spanish for freedom, chanting ¡Libertad!

Faith-based groups, lawyers, community leaders and elected officials nationwide are imploring the federal government to release asylum-seeking mothers and their children who are being held in prison-like conditions in South Texas. 

Immigration detention, which is non-criminal custody while awaiting deportation or right to stay, has become one of the fastest-growing and least-examined types of incarceration in the U.S. Because of reports of severe abuse of detainees, including minors, the US Commission on Civil Rights will examine equal protection concerns and Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement treatment of adult and minor detainees in representative detention facilities under federal law.