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

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