Immigrant Justice

U.S.-Mexico Border Fact-Finding Panel
Sponsored by El Tribuno del Pueblo / People’s Tribune, Sept 17
Third of a series engaging People-to-People Fact-Finding

These presentations are designed to allow community members, workers, legal advocates, migrants and others to share information about how immigration and border policies affect the rights and way of life of the people involved. The series of panel discussions continues through late October. Contact lauracortezgarcia@gmail.com with questions or to sign up for the next panel on Oct. 1. They are intended to contribute to the ongoing work of building connections with communities along the U.S.-Mexico Border. We are moved to action by current immigration policies that separate thousands of children from their parents, that allow Border Patrol agents to injure and kill people with impunity, and that allow border walls to desecrate pristine ancestral lands of indigenous people.

This third 90-minute Zooming to the Border panel focused on the how border wall construction impacts local communities and how it contributes to border deaths. MC’ed by AFCS’s Pedro Rios it included organizers from California/Tijuana, Southern Arizona, and the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.  

1. Norma Herrera, Rio Grande Valley Equal Voice Network, representing 10,000 families on both sides of the border, talked about the Texas area of where 15 miles of the wall is being built. It includes a national wildlife refuge and a Yalui village and cemetery. They were blind-sided when the clearing and building began. Customs and Border Patrol ignores all that they have asked but they haven’t given up their resistance.
2. Laiken Jordahl, Center for BioDiversity, formerly with National Park Service but quit when they wouldn’t let him talk about the border wall. Live in Tucson and talked mostly about the Oregon Pipe National Monument area. Pictures he showed from last year were beautiful. Now there is a solid 30-fit wall of concrete and steel. Hundreds/maybe thousands  of saguaro cacti have been demolished, some more than 300 years old. It is in the middle of O’odham land. He also showed devastating pictures of birds and deer who are confused and dieing. The entire ecosystem is destroyed. He talked about how the REAL ID Act passed after 9/11 allowed the federal laws to be waived in order to do harms like this.
3. Ana Martha Rodriguez, a Kumeyaay person from 60 miles east of San Diego, talked about the new wall recently built there, about the separation of families plants, and animals. Border Patrol lied to them about the explosives and other invasive actions that were to happen to the communities there. She also said all sorts of federal laws had been waived including the Endangered Species act & Native Heritage act.
4. Daniel Watman, friend to UUJMCA, spoke next. Dan coordinates the Friendship Park binational garden right at the Tijuana/San Diego border. On UU Borders trips, he has talked with us and sometimes we have gotten to volunteer with him at the garden, pulling weeds or picking plants and herbs for the weekly meal that is served after Border Church each Sunday. He has been a Spanish teacher for many years in San Diego, now teaches Spanish for Via International, which has a cross-border approach. I was fortunate to take a class with him recently, nothing like making friends across the border to learn the language and a little about the culture at the same time. Learn more about his cross-border cafe work at http://viacafe.org.
   Dan gave the history of the current wall at Friendship Park, built primarily in 2008-2009. He was part of a coalition back then to try and stop it from being built. Now he is part of a coalition to build a truly binational park at that location. Sign the online petition for the park:  https://www.buildthatpark.org.
   He believes that the border areas get better when people get to know each other across cultural barriers. Border Patrol is planning to build a second 30-foot wall that will extend into the ocean and he documents all that Border Patrol is doing. There and also east of Tijuana into Otay Mesa region. He often posts his reports on Facebook page as Daniel Watman. Email him at dan.watman@gmail.com.
5. Alejandro Ortigoza, born in Puebla, Mexico, now works/volunteers with a group to search and find bodies of people who have crossed/tried to cross in the Arizona desert. He told several heart wrenching stories. The new wall makes it even harder to cross than before; many more people die. They will not stop coming if they have lost hope where they are.

Additional Resources for Further Learning:

Intercept article about the arrests of the O’odham land defenders

Southern Border Communities Coalition:
Videos/Facts About the Militarization of the Border

Please leave a comment before deadline of February 10! Then leave another comment! Thank you.

Click on links below from ILRC (Immigrant Legal Resource Center) to leave comments. 

DIGITAL TOOLKIT FROM ILRC

DHS seeks to increase the filing fee costs for many immigration benefits. Among the proposed fee increases is a naturalization application 83% increase, lawful permanent resident application 79% increase, and DACA renewal application 59% increase. Additionally, if this rule comes into effect, it would establish a new $50 fee for all asylum cases, making the United States one of four countries to charge people for asylum.

USCIS has reopened the fee schedule public comment period until February 10th. Help us fight back against this attack on fairness, equity, justice and affordability by urging your followers to submit a public comment before the deadline! Sample tweets and Facebook posts can be found below with accompanying graphics. 

SAMPLE TWEETS (click to download Twitter graphics)

• Don’t let DHS burden the public *and* bolster ICE! Submit a public comment today against unprecedented immigration fee increases and a subsequent funding transfer to ICE. Make your voice heard: https://p2a.co/SB4D9Pe
  
  
• An enormous increase to the fee for immigration options, eliminating waivers that increase access to citizenship and other services, and transferring even more funding to ICE? Stand up against the latest invisible barrier TODAY: https://p2a.co/SB4D9Pe
  
  
• Speak up for your community! Submit a public comment to fight back against DHS changes that will make it tougher for middle- and low-income immigrants to remain in the US and apply for asylum: https://p2a.co/RT0TEMg
  
  
• DHS wants to make the United States one of four countries to charge people for asylum! Submit a public comment to fight back against this change that will make it tougher for middle- and low-income immigrants to remain in the US and apply for asylum: https://p2a.co/RT0TEMg
  

SAMPLE FACEBOOK POSTS (click to download Facebook graphics) 

• DHS wants to make it even more difficult for immigrants to remain in the United States and naturalize, apply for asylum, or receive DACA benefits.
  
  The latest move by the agency would make immigration unaffordable and eliminate the waivers that enable middle- and low-income immigrants to become citizens.
  
  Additionally, the agency is calling to transfer tens of millions of dollars to further line the pockets of ICE—more funding for the arrest, detention, and deportation of immigrants in our communities. We’re standing strong against these changes—and you can join us by submitting a public comment in support of a more inclusive, just, and diverse nation.
  
  Click to comment to oppose the proposed asylum fee: https://p2a.co/RT0TEMg

Click to comment to oppose the proposed attacks on naturalization: https://p2a.co/SB4D9Pe

• Stand up with your community! Submit a public comment to fight back against enormous immigration price increases that will make it tougher for middle- and low- income immigrants to remain in the US and naturalize, claim asylum, or apply for DACA. Make your voice heard in the name of justice for all! 

Click to comment to oppose the proposed asylum fee: https://p2a.co/RT0TEMg

Click to comment to oppose the proposed attacks on naturalization: https://p2a.co/SB4D9Pe

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X43pmSTICHl0h6-IoN67eXQJFbuuVnnaJcW7ufbhk_s/edit?usp=sharing

In McFarland, GEO is trying to build two new detention facilities to detain immigrant community members in an attempt to appease their stockholders, who are worried about strong CA legislation against private prisons.   

The action we need to take:

We must remember that all city governing bodies are accountable to its people and corporations are not people. We must challenge McFarland City Planning Commission and McFarland City Council on its values and community commitments!

We need you to join us in mobilizing to local city meetings to demand McFarland cut all ties from GEO and companies who are putting local residents public safety at risk!

• Make a call to McFarland City Council and demand an urgent ordinance to stop any issuing of permits to GEO (661) 792-3091
• Submit a written comment to McFarland City Community Development Director mlara@mcfarlandcity.org

TALKING POINTS FROM FREEDOM FOR IMMIGRANTS:

Private Prisons are BAD for McFarland

Who is GEO?

GEO is a private company that has been profiting from the incarceration of black, people of color, and immigrant communities since 1984. GEO and 1 other private prison corporation (CCA) have a monopoly over private detention; they house about 75% of persons confined in private prisons in the U.S. Both of these corporations are amongst the top contributors to the Trump administration. Their donations have resulted in the passage of harmful policies that have increased detention levels in the US by 500% in recent years - thus creating a prison for profit cycle fueled by the incarceration of OUR communities.

In McFarland, GEO is trying to build two new detention facilities to detain immigrant community members in an attempt to appease their stockholders, who are worried about strong CA legislation against private prisons.   

But won’t new prisons create more jobs and opportunities in McFarland?

No. Here’s why:

• For profit prisons pay sub-standard wages and benefits to all employees while annually rewarding their top executives with millions while falsely claiming to save taxpayers money
• Private prisons divert funds from public services like parks, schools and hospitals to private companies like GEO with little to no oversight.
• More private prisons create incentives for incarceration. It is common sense that if GEO profits from detention, its main goal to drive profit is to incarcerate more people
• In cities like Adelanto where GEO operates one of the most notorious and dangerous detention facilities in the country, quality of life has not improved for community members. On the contrary, GEO has almost unfettered access to do what it wants with local county officials that are dependent on and entangled in its dirty business.

The action we need to take!

We must remember that all city governing bodies are accountable to its people and corporations are not people. We must challenge McFarland City Planning Commission and McFarland City Council on its values and community commitments!

We need you to join us in mobilizing to local city meetings to demand McFarland cut all ties from GEO and companies who are putting local residents public safety at risk!

• Make a call to McFarland City Council and demand an urgent ordinance to stop any issuing of permits to GEO (661) 792-3091
• Submit a written comment to McFarland City Community Development Director mlara@mcfarlandcity.org

MORE TALKING POINTS:

GEO is aggressively attempting to expand its prison for profit scheme in California as a desperate response to nationwide outcry over GEO and ICE’s long track record of human rights violations.

• Policies like AB32 that take a bold stance against ICE and GEO’s dirty business are scaring GEO’s stockholders, who are urging CEO George Zoley to desperately look for additional funding sources

Cities across California like Coachella and Santa Ana are taking bold stances against a xenophobic and morally wrong immigration enforcement agency. It’s time for Mcfarland to join these cities by uplifting their community through protective ordinances that prevent the expansion of for-profit detention centers

• This isn’t a question of jobs. There is no dollar amount that can be placed on morality and community values.
• Communities entrenched in prison economies become dependent on the continued and growing incarceration of individuals
• Cities like Adelanto are an example of how private prison companies have their way with local city officials by leveraging jobs

The population of McFarland is 95.6% latinx. This demographic has been subject to countless instances of racial profiling and targeted harassment by ICE. Creating more detention centers in their community will do nothing positive for the residents of McFarland.

• On the contrary, detention centers like Mesa Verde or the proposed facilities by GEO create a psychological chill factor in working class communities like McFarland.

GEO can’t cover up the truth. Detention is inhumane, unnecessary, and carries a shocking record of abuse and in-custody deaths.

• At least 15 people have died in immigration detention in California since 2010, with two in 2019. In Adelanto, guards mocked survivors of suicide attempts, neglected basic medical attention, and oversaw physical and verbal abuse of immigrants.
• GEO’s Private prisons have also been the scene of horrific abuses. In 2012, a federal judge found that a GEO-run youth prison in Mississippi “allowed a cesspool of unconstitutional and inhuman acts and conditions to germinate,” including brutal beatings by guards.
• The detention of immigrants in the U.S. has gone up a shocking 500%, even as the number of immigrants to the U.S. has gone down.
  • Many immigrants who’ve called our communities home for decades are held in immigration detention. Unfair policies tie the immigration system to the criminal legal system, which suffers from racial profiling and obstacles to equal justice.

Immigration detention, like all forms of  incarceration, is inhumane and unnecessary. Now is the time to raise our voices for real solutions.

• Be it for-profit detention centers and prisons, or cages run by the government, mass incarceration is wrong and abusive. Tackling for-profit detention is a crucial starting point.
• AB 32 is a starting point for a national movement. Communities across the country are organizing to replace immigration detention with a system of community-based case management. Studies prove this works better than the current harsh approach of detention.

As we work to free detained community members and defend AB 32, we need to stand with detained people who are raising their voices for justice.

Curious about what happens on a UUBorders Journey? Here's a reflection from Rose Harris, a member of the Summit UU Fellowship in Santee, CA.

My trip to the Tijuana border was both informative and inspiring. I had no idea what burden the people of Tijuana are bearing for those seeking asylum in the U.S. I was shown shelters that are housing hundreds of people from South America seeking a safe and better life. Meeting a family from El Salvador that was fleeing for their life and stuck waiting in TJ for a court date was especially soul rocking.

The trip to Friendship Park at the border wall was also moving. Seeing people talk to loved ones through a fence was heart-wrenching and inspired a desire in me to work toward a more just and caring immigration reform. I came back with a much better understanding of the asylum-seeking process and inspired to get more involved in immigration reform.

Learn more about our upcoming UUBorders Journeys (April 3-6, 2020 & November 20-23, 2020) and/or work with us to set up another trip time by going to uuborders.org.

Register soon - space is limited!

As immigrant and refugee communities face escalating attacks from the Trump administration, California remains a beacon for progressive policies, leading the nation by introducing bold legislative proposals that affirm the dignity and humanity of everyone in our state. Through CIPC (California Immigrant Policy Center)’s campaigns and legislative priorities, which include Health4All, CalEITC, and defending the California Values Act, we continue to advance inclusive policies that build a prosperous future for all Californians.

This year, CIPC is creating job opportunities and equal access to education and skills training; strengthening legal protections for workers; limiting the impact of private companies that collaborate with Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE); improving mental health and trauma services for immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees; and expanding health and safety net programs for all Californians.

The Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry of California is proud to work alongside CIPC.

REGISTER NOW TO ATTEND 2019 IMMIGRANT DAY AT THE CAPITOL!

READ THE FULL CIPC LEGISLATIVE UPDATE HERE.