Posts
3/24/21
Took a little spur-of-the-moment jaunt down to Carrizo Springs to welcome the White House/Congressional delegation with Rosalinda Ramos Abuabara and Fran Tatu. A member of RAICES stopped to talk to us on her way out and said the delegation would be following in a big black bus. Saw a big black bus come by (sorry, no film, technical snafu) but without the usual several DPS vehicle escort. I
3/24/21
THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST HOPE
Some of us have been to the border. Both sides. We have spent time with people who want to cross into the US, most of whom have friends and family here. Mothers, fathers, children. Young men and women who come to find jobs.
They are not frightening. They do not act threatening. Many believe in a god that has brought them to this point in their lives, and that they are justified in a belief that there are good forces at play that that would redeem them, save them from violence and poverty and persecution. Despite the cruelty of the existence that has driven them from their homes, they believe in a universe that will reward their faith.
3/22/21
Somewhere between 80% and 90% of the children who cross the border, many of them parting from family members that Title 42 is forcing them to leave behind, are on their way to other family members who live inside the borders of the United States. There are two huge problems embedded in that statement.
3/21/21
From the right we hear that the solution to the immigration “problem” is to convince migrants that they shouldn’t come. And the current administration seems to agree. Its representatives keep saying things like sorry, this is a bad time to come. We aren’t ready for you. The right would sharpen that rhetoric.
3/20/21
My friend Karla reminds me that back when we were haunting the gates of Tornillo people would sometimes ask why we were there. Not because they disagreed with our cause. But because, they wondered, why weren’t we raising our voices back when Obama was carrying out a policy of punitive deportations. Where were we then?
3/18/21
Joe,
Here's the thing: you gotta let those parents come across the border with their kids. It isn't working having the kids come alone. They're scared. They miss their parents. We've got to get those families back together, and quickly.
I know you thought you'd have more time, but you don't. They're coming too fast. And there is a reason, and it's a good reason. They are coming because life is really hard for them where they come from.
3/18/21
Title 42 pretends that migrants present a Covid contagion risk to the US. In fact, migrants have a lower rate of Covid positives than the rate in the US.
This is not a new tactic. Pretending that the “other” carries disease goes back a long way. The Chinese Exclusion Act. Nazi Germany.
3/17/21
YOU THOUGHT MPP WAS BAD? WELCOME TO TITLE 42.
Under the banner of an arcane heath code, families with small children fleeing the deadly violence of Central America are being kidnapped, raped, extorted, assaulted, murdered in some of the most dangerous cities in Mexico. Cities designated by the United States State Department as “Category 4” - places to which Americans should never ever travel due to risk of kidnapping and violence.
Drawing by Marc Nelson for Every.Last.One.
3/15/21
The wall can be a stupid ugly fence.
It can be towering bollards, a word no one ever used until we started erecting them out of steel on the southern border.
It can be guards in green uniforms driving vans up and down dirt paths along a river.
It can be boats with mounted automatic weapons and itchy triggers.
It can be planes with chains that rattle as men and women, heads down, watch their feet take short steps up a gangway.
And it can be a law that calls people on the other side diseased, and removes them, even though nobody thinks it’s true.
3/15/21
Day 15 of Witnessing at Homestead, Part 2
If you'd like to join us to witness at Homestead, we are usually here from 9:00 to 4:00 every day. Just put 920 Bougainville Blvd in your GPS. If we don't know you're coming, maybe wait until 10:00 just to be sure someone is here. It would be great if you can sign up to let us know when to expect you. There are 4 links below, covering several 2 week periods. Just put your name in as many or as few hours as you'd like. We are here to see what we can see relating to preparations to open. And to be seen, so it is known there is opposition to this re-opening. Our goal is to #KeepHomesteadClosed
3/14/21
There has been a lot of debate and discussion within this group over the last few days about influx shelter and their place in the current situation at the border. Many of us argue that there are 2 key ways to reduce the need to increase shelter space, and thus reduce the need for large influx shelters like Homestead and Carrizo Springs.
3/14/21
When a judge told Biden that he could not suspend deportations for 100 days, as the administration had announced, he did not tell Biden he could not immediately cut down on deportations. He didn’t say, for instance, that this would be a great time to load up planes with Haitians, and fly them back to a land in political and economic chaos. Or to continue his policy of immediate expulsions of hundreds of thousands of people, by land and by plane.
3/13/21
How are we to understand the reluctance of the current administration to take decisive action to end the anti-immigrant hysteria of the last decades? Why does policy continue to rely on the mythology of invasion when a simpler, pacific view of the movements of rational people is plainly within our intellectual reach?
3/12/21
From Witness at Homestead: Stop the Re-Opening Campaign in Florida
We have seen this truck or one like it every day. Today is Day 12. We've also seen other pest control trucks. I wonder what kind of infestation they're dealing with. Do you think this is a good place for kids? And it's a superfund site, with dangerous pollution. And it's next to an Air Base, with frightening, noisy jets coming and going every day. Why would anyone want to imprison traumatized teens here?