If you have been following this group for long, you will have noticed that the word “witness” in the group’s name gets repeated quite a bit in posts. I certainly mention it a lot.

It may leave you with the impression that I think that witnessing is the answer to the monumental problems of forced migration and racism, and the tragic and staggering inequality in human society. But I want to clarify this a bit. It seems to me that witnessing presents us with more of a question than an answer. And the question is this: Can we look straight into the face of this injustice, see it in not just an intellectual way, but a visceral one, without something shifting? Without a transformation of ourselves, and then of more than just ourselves?

#WelcomeWithDignity. Today is the 2nd anniversary of MPP. Families are still stuck in limbo in the encampments at the border in Mexico. Joe Biden ended the program for new asylum seekers (thank you!), but he must now fully #EndMPP. Thank you, Alessandra Mondolfi! We miss you.

STATEMENT ON FORCED MIGRATION:

MIGRANT MASSACRE AND REPRESSION OF MIGRANT CARAVAN SPOTLIGHT MORTAL DANGERS FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS HEADING NORTH

January 28, 2021, Brooklyn NY -- On the occasion of the two-year anniversary of the Trump administration’s implementation of the notorious Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), or Remain in Mexico, and on the eve of additional immigration measures to be announced by the Biden administration, Witness at the Border issues the following statement.

Image: Border Report

What’s Next? Postcard Campaign

Postcard #4 (Mail February 2-5)

End Immigrant Detention

This campaign is being sent to President Biden, Vice President Harris, Alejandro Mayorkas (nominated to head Department of Homeland Security) and Xavier Becerra (Health and Human Services.

A squabble has broken out somewhere in this group, in this strange place called FaceBook...

Someone believed that people who come to read here, and to write here, should feel as she does, that people should celebrate the new president and refrain from criticism. Others have pointed out that that voice comes from the luxury of privilege.

I speak from privilege. White privilege.

We have been to the border. We have seen people on both sides of the border. Many of generous spirit and intellect will admit that on both sides the people are worthy of sympathy. Others, like us, who have stood on both sides of that line of guns and uniforms and rusted steel, have had our natural sympathies heightened, and it has become for us that thing which most enrages those less generous: a deep revulsion for the institutions that block the flow of suffering humanity toward the light, toward life.

From the Escalator to the Border: Trump's #WhiteNationalism.

Are we better than this?

Ask black children who learn when they are young to keep their hands out of their pockets when police are near. Ask children who lose their connection to the world inside of prison tents on the border, never to be found again. Ask parents of those children if their hearts will ever heal.

Friends, we may not agree on how to manage the migratory flow of people wishing to make the US their home. But I'm certain we can all agree to this:

Torturing innocents is never okay.

What’s Next? Postcard Campaign

Postcard #3 (Mail January 19-22)

The World is Watching

This campaign is being sent to President-Elect Biden, Dr. Jill Biden, VP-Elect Kamala Harris, and Alejandro Mayorkas (nominated to head Department of Homeland Security).

Some of us were talking this morning about how it is hard for people to get their minds around the enormity of the day-after-day deportation of humans from airports and across borders, taking place around us and being done in our name.

Tom Cartwright has written a letter to President-Elect Joe Biden, Dr. Jill Biden, and VP-Elect Kamala Harris.

What’s Next? Postcard Campaign

Postcard #2 (Mail January 5-8)

Never Again Child Detentions

There are people now on the verge of deportation, now in the last days of Trump and, perhaps, we are not yet sure, on into the age of a new administration whose commitment to asylum is not yet fully known.

Art by Melissa Bowen Rubin

What’s Next? Postcard Campaign

Postcard #1 - End MPP

Mail December 15-18

This first postcard in a series is being sent to Joe & Jill Biden, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi and Alejandro Mayorkas (nominated to head Department of Homeland Security).

Image: Sidewalk School for Children Asylum Seekers, Matamoros

The closer they come, the harder it is to look away. That is why we place so many hurdles in the way of people who take to their feet and begin the long, slow march to save their lives. And the lives of their children.

Day 16 of 16 Days Of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Against Women The Official 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign #16Days #OrangeTheWorld #GenerationEquality #RatifyILO190

For our final post of these 16 Days, we leave you with this general information, resources, statistics and this reminder: "When it comes to statistics relating to violence against women and children it’s important to know that you don’t have to be a math expert to understand the numbers. You simply have to be willing to recognize that each statistic represents a woman, child, or family — a life — torn apart by violence and abuse."

Day 15 of 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Against Women The Official 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign

#16days #orangetheworld #generationequality #ratifyILO190

The health of immigrant women in detention suffers. In the case of the women forced to have hysterectomies at the Irwin Detention Facility in Georgia the threat to their reproductive health came from the doctor assigned to care for them.

Day 14 of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. The Official 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign #OrangeTheWorld #RatifyILO190 #generationalequality

"Latin America and the Caribbean account for 14 of the 25 deadliest nations in the world for women. There is rarely justice. As many as 98 percent of gender-related killings go unprosecuted in Latin America, according to the United Nations."