Immigrant Rights, Detention & Deportation

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.

As I have done on a number of occasions through my work with the Immigrant Justice Action Team of the UU Justice Ministry of California, this past weekend I took an incredible group of travelers on a Justice Journey to Tijuana as part of our UUBorders program to learn firsthand the injustices of the US immigration laws. The six UU travelers included three ministers and one Christian priest from Argentina. As often happens Miracles can appear. We visited a cafe and community center associated with Food not Bombs. There we met Nicole Ramos, an immigration attorney and tireless advocate for asylum seekers (and a former guest on UURoundtable). She had been working with the LGBTQ Migrants who had completed an arduous and dangerous journey across Mexico. Each hoped to apply for asylum. In our conversations Nicole shared that 14 members of this community of Migrants, seven couples, would like to get married. Would we be able to marry them? And of course with great joy we said YES. We were deeply grateful that this community of courageous Migrants welcomed us and trusted that our three ministers and a priest could create a deeply moving wedding ceremony in Spanish. And indeed they did. Although the marriages would not be recognized by Mexico, they would be recognized by the UU Church of the Larger Fellowship, an international congregation known around the world. But our Faith leaders were not the only hands at work. A member of our group found a jeweler to provide silver rings; others provided wedding cakes, others provided bouquets. And still other hands created a beautiful altar in front of the cafe with flowers and a Rainbow Flag draped with exquisite effect. So four hours after Nicole's request, a wedding with seven ceremonies began. As each couple married, the joy and love they had for each other was visible in their smiles, laughter and affection. And the love and support they received from their LGBTQ Migrant Community who surrounded us was amazing. Yes the Miracle of what love can bring grew and intensified with each marriage and filled this plaza and touched us all. We may not know what tomorrow will bring, but we who were so fortunate to witness and experience this evening.  We will carry with us this gift of a Miracle from an amazing and courageous community.

~Dennis Brown, co-chair Immigrant Justice Team, UUJM

P.S. Our Faith Leaders who performed the ceremony were Rev. Leslie Takahashi, Rev. Ranwa Hammamy, Rev. Rodney Lemery, Father Hugo Cordova Quero and Lay Minister Mar Cárdenas Loutzenhiser.

Today the UU Justice Ministry of California, through our Immigrant Justice Action Team, endorsed the abolition of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE. For some people the proposal to ‘abolish’ a part of our government seems a step too far. For others it is long overdue. I want to speak to those who consider the abolition of ICE an ask that is too much for our Unitarian Universalist faith. I want to tell you that I, too, was once someone who felt that we cannot simply abolish a wing of our government. How will we have any ‘control’? How will we implement an effective immigration system? Is this the same as open borders? If so, is there any way it can pass? I was a skeptic. Then I spoke to people. I spoke with a mother who’s son was taken at night and put in a van. He was pulled out of his home at 4am with his son and daughter weeping as he was handcuffed. I heard of a Honduran woman who came to seek asylum with her 23 month-old granddaughter. It took two months for her to find her granddaughter after she bonded out. I learned of ICE raids in communities that strike fear in communities of color and destroy trust. I heard of a victim of domestic violence too afraid to call police because ICE had raided her neighbors house screaming ‘POLICE’ and she feared she would be deported. I learned how ICE has become a paramilitary force preying on our communities of color across the country, not just at the border. But we can’t call for ICE without having a plan to replace it with something. Yes, we can. ICE was only created in March 2003. Many among our congregations have children older than ICE! Our country in its current form existed for a long time before ICE existed. Immigration and Naturalization Services, along with a number of border and revenue agencies, carried out enforcement of laws and policies, albeit without the tanks, helicopters, guns, drones and other paramilitary operations. In abolishing ICE we can and will work with partners and allies in negotiating a more humane system of immigration enforcement that at the very least values the worth and dignity of those in our communities. We must stare our fears in the face and name them. We must challenge our discomfort with what we think is unknown. We must not allow our government to continue the criminalization of people of color. We must have the courage to confront the racially biased and inhumane treatment of our community members. Today the UU Justice Ministry of California joins many organizations already calling for the abolition of ICE. We will be putting out more resources in the days and weeks to come. In the meantime, please check out this editorial from the Guardian for some additional information. Thank you for your time and I hope you will consider supporting the abolition of ICE. If you are a delegate to the #UUAGA in Kansas City, we urge you to support the Action of Immediate Witness entitled "End Family Separation and Detention of Asylum Seekers and Abolish ICE". Sincerely, Evan Junker Executive Director

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Prayer for Living in Tension If we have any hope of transforming the world and changing ourselves, we must be bold enough to step into our discomfort, brave enough to be clumsy there, loving enough to forgive ourselves and others. May we, as a people of faith, be granted the strength to be so bold, so brave, and so loving. -Rev. Joseph M. Cherry