5/12/21
By Margaret Seiler
This week we sent the following statement, along with the names of more than 80 supporting organizations (including at least a dozen from countries other than the U.S.) and many individuals, to the White House, the Departments of Homeland Security and Health & Human Services. We await their reply.
Walk for the Children / Caminata por la Niñez
On April 30, 2021, we held a Walk in El Paso.
We believe that an administration which promises a more humanitarian approach to border and migration should keep that promise, honor our international commitments to protect asylum, and stop repeating odious injustices inherited from the Trump era.
THIS IS WHY WE WITNESS! AND THIS IS WHY WE WALK!
One month ago, a four-year-old Guatemalan girl, Claudia (not her real name), was separated from her family and put in federal U.S. custody. She had crossed the border with her aunt and cousin, fleeing desperate conditions. Under the cruel logic of Title 42, the Trump-era border policy still in place under the Biden administration, Claudia’s adult caregivers were returned to Mexico. So she became what is known as an “unaccompanied minor”--because of our policy. This four-year-old was held by the Border Patrol and essentially treated like a criminal, in facilities everyone knows are NOT suitable for children, where 7 migrant children died during 2018 and 2019. CBP was informed that the child’s parents were in Maryland, but failed to contact them.
Claudia’s immigration lawyer contacted the government and said the parents wanted to come pick up their child but, before that could happen, she was transferred to Chicago and then placed in foster care before finally being reunited with her family. Throughout much of this time her parents were not informed of Claudia’s whereabouts. “They are not treated like parents who have a right to these children,” said her attorney. It took 7 days for Claudia to be reunited with her parents. And many children are separated for far longer from their loved ones--a month, two months, indefinitely.
On April 30th, which is observed in Mexico as Children’s Day — el Día de las Niñas y Niños — and on the 100th day of the Biden administration in the U.S., as immigrant rights groups mobilize for justice throughout the country, we held a Walk for the Children - Caminamos por la Niñez in El Paso.
We, of Witness at the Border, together with local and national partners that include the Border Network for Human Rights, Coalition to End Child Detention-El Paso and Hope Border Institute, demanded that the Biden Administration:
1. End Title 42 expulsions and admit migrant families on a priority basis.
2. Stop separating children from their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and siblings.
3. Allow parents and other close relatives already in the U.S. to come to the border to pick up their children.
4. Release children QUICKLY to their family in the U.S.
On Children’s Day, April 30th, we asked everyone to stand with us and to bear witness, in defense of the human dignity and human rights of migrant children and their families.
Our Walk for the Children began at the Paso del Norte bridge, which represents the hopes, dreams, and struggles shared among hard-working communities on both sides of the Rio Grande. These vibrant borderlands continue to be divided by U.S immigration and border policies and by an odious wall, with all of its trappings and complicities.
Hundreds of desperate migrants are being turned away at the border because of the Biden administration’s continued use of Title 42, which compels many families to make the unimaginable and painful decision to separate to preserve the possibility of safe haven for their children. Title 42 has become the pretext for mass arbitrary expulsions — over 600,000 since March of 2020 — about half of these since last November. Children expelled with their families are living in overwhelmed shelters in Ciudad Juárez and elsewhere in Mexico. Title 42 is an abuse of emergency public health powers that negates the right to seek asylum in violation of both U.S. and international law. Meanwhile deportation flights which unconscionably continue to return thousands of asylum seekers to well documented dangers in places such as Haiti and Cameroon undermine the current administration’s attempted distancing from the systematic abuses and cruelties of the Trump era.
Title 42 has resulted in the separation of families and the detention of 20,000 children in large scale settings ranging from military bases like Ft. Bliss to convention centers in Dallas, San Antonio, and San Diego. It is well documented that unnecessarily prolonged confinement in conditions like these produces irreparable traumas in children. Policies like these constitute potential crimes against humanity which cry out for transparency, justice, and accountability, and resonate in our hearts and consciences. Ft. Bliss and equivalent large scale settings in convention centers or under CBP or ICE custody are no place for children.
We walked to the gates of Ft. Bliss—the largest U.S. military base—which is currently warehousing thousands of migrant youth, as part of the Biden administration’s inadequate, militarized response to the intensification of regional humanitarian crises. Meanwhile U.S support continues to flow towards corrupt, authoritarian governments in Central America and Haiti. All of this continues to be rooted in unjust, outdated U.S. policies related to the drug war, free trade, and environmental devastation, as well as the lingering, painful legacies of U.S interventions in the regional wars of the 1980s. These are the principal causes of the unsustainable conditions of life that migrant families and children are fleeing.
Ft. Bliss also symbolizes the tragic legacy of abuse of Mexican refugees detained behind barbed wire there 100 years ago, and the ongoing traumas being borne by migrant children, who are deprived of basic freedoms and services while being separated from their families. Many of these children are of indigenous Guatemalan origin, whose communities were the victims of targeted terror during the genocidal violence that was supported by the U.S in the 1980s.
Borderland communities are compassionate and welcoming in a shared spirit of grounded solidarity and hospitality. On Children’s Day we called for full recognition and respect of the right of all children to seek asylum and not be detained in large, institutional settings. All migrants have the right to seek a dignified life, and to safety, refuge, asylum, and sanctuary.
As we took this walk in defense of the right to migrate, these children's journeys and suffering became ours, too. On that day, and until they are freed and reunited with their families and loved ones, we were--and are--all migrant children.
#HomesNotDetention #StopFamilySeparation #WelcomeWithDignity
Organizations who Signed On in Support of this Statement
Local to El Paso:
Border Network for Human Rights
Coalition to End Child Detention-El Paso
Hope Border Institute
Instituto de Geografía para la Paz
NM CAFé
Water Protector Legal Collective
Weaving for Justice
AcTiVat en Derechos Humanos
Al Otro Lado
Asociacion Americana de Juristas/American Association of Jurists
Auburn Seminary
Austin Border Relief
Casa San Jose
Center for Gender & Refugee Studies
Children's Defense Fund-TX
CHIRLA - Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights
CISPES
CodePink Women for Peace, Golden Gate Chapter
Committee in Support of the People of El Salvador
Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes
Crossing Borders - Dubuque
Disciples Refugee & Immigration Ministries
Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose
Don’t Look Away Pac
Don’t Separate Families
Elders for Social Justice / Elders Action Network
Encuentro
Every.Last.One
Families Belong Together
Forum on Haitian Migration in the Americas
Foundation for Economic and Social Justice (Los Angeles)
Frente de Abogados de Izquierdas/Red de Abogados Democratas de España
Fuerza Mundial Global
Grannies Respond / Abuelas Responden, Inc.
Guadalupe Presbyterian Church detention ministry
Guatemala Human Rights Commission
Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers (UK)
Haitian Bridge Alliance
Human Impact Partners
Human Rights Initiative of North Texas
Innovation Law Lab
International Assoc. Of People’s Lawyers
International Tribunal of Conscience of Peoples in Movement
Kino Border Initiative / Iniciativa Kino para la Frontera
La Raza Community Resource Center
Latin America Working Group
Leadership Conference of Women Religious
Lights for Liberty
Lipan Apache Women Defense
Madres e Hijos
Mainers for Humane Immigration
National Lawyers Guild Indigenous Peoples Rights Committee
National Lawyers Guild International Committee
National Lawyers Guild Task Force on the Americas
National Lawyers Guild Mesoamerica Committee
New Sanctuary Coalition
Nicaragua Center for Community Action
Northern Illinois Justice for Our Neighbors
Office of Peace, Justice, and Ecological/Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth
Peace and Freedom Party
Precious Blood Sister O'Fallon, MO
Prince William Diversity Alliance
Project Amplify
Project Lifeline
Prevencion Capacitacion y Defensa del Migrante AC
RAICES
Refugee Support Network DFW
School Sisters of Notre Dame, Central Pacific Province
Servants of Mary: U.S./Jamaica Community Council
Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur EW Unit
Sisters of Saint Joseph
Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, LA
Sisters of Saint Joseph of Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pa
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Justice Team
Sisters of the Most Precious Blood of O'Fallon, MO
Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur
Skylight Engagement
Teachers Against Child Detention
Wellspring United Church of Christ
Willamette University Child & Family Advocacy Clinic
Xochipilli, Chicano/Latino Men's Circle, San Francisco Bay