{"id":307880,"date":"2026-05-25T12:14:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T12:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/307880\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T12:14:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T12:14:37","slug":"voice-of-voiceless-awards-honor-recognize-border-advocates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/307880\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Voice of Voiceless\u2019 Awards honor, recognize border advocates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>EL PASO, Texas (<a data-ylk=\"slk:KTSM;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ktsm.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">KTSM<\/a>) \u2014 Annunciation House brought back its \u201cVoice of the Voiceless\u201d Awards program after a six-year hiatus.<\/p>\n<p>The event was held Saturday, May 23 at St. John Paul II Catholic Church (formerly Santa Lucia) in El Paso\u2019s Lower Valley.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img w-full w-full h-auto\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/aol_ktsm_articles_935\/759f8df08898c73020a9976f63937784.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Photos by Edith Montero\/KTSM<\/p>\n<p>The awards honored individuals who have demonstrated \u201cexceptional courage, advocacy and commitment to justice in the border region,\u201d a news release said.<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s honorees were:<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Voice of the Voiceless<\/p>\n<p>Bishop Mark J. Seitz\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Teacher of Justice<\/p>\n<p>Cristina Coronado\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Witness on the Border<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese individuals have each played a critical role in advocating for human dignity, justice, and the well-being of communities across the border region.,\u201d organizers said.<\/p>\n<p>The return of the Voice of the Voiceless Awards reflects a renewed commitment to uplifting stories of resilience, advocacy, and solidarity in the border region, organizers said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am so privileged to be here with many, many amazing El Pasoans who volunteer their time, give of their love, energy and passion to Annunciation House,\u201d Escobar said.<\/p>\n<p>Escobar said that these are \u201cdeeply dark times\u201d for the United States right now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAmerica is a country of immigrants, and these are really deeply dark times,\u201d Escobar said. \u201cWe are seeing a lot of anti-immigrant sentiment, a lot of bigotry, a lot of racism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd while, yes, we are a nation of laws, we should also be a nation of compassion. And Annunciation House reminds us about that compassion and our shared humanity,\u201d Escobar continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd tonight\u2019s event is a celebration of that,\u201d she added. \u201cI am incredibly honored to be recognized tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Michael Aboud with the El Paso County Republican Party issued the following statement:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnnunciation House took federal tax dollars and used some of those to move illegal aliens to different parts of the USA without documenting who those people or where they went, arguably illegal activities. Now, they are promoting and probably giving money to one of the least effective members of Congress in the country, all of this during an election cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ktsm.com\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) \u2014 Annunciation House brought back its \u201cVoice of the Voiceless\u201d Awards program after a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[111408,111407,111406,138,140,139,498,2569,111405],"class_list":["post-307880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-annunciation","tag-awards-program","tag-border-region","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news","tag-ktsm","tag-veronica-escobar","tag-voice-of-the-voiceless"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}