Abandon hope.

This is our immigration policy for Mexico and Central America. It does not matter how bad things are. How hungry, frightened, homeless, poor. Stay right where you are. And here is what we will do to convince you.

Art by Victor Mask Casas

Our voices are not enough.

Here is what we say. We say that if you deny the right to migrate to people whose lives depend on it, but tell them that we will take their children in, you will separate children from their families.

WHY WE WITNESS: STAND WITH US FOR RIGHTS AND DIGNITY OF MIGRANT CHILDREN IN EL PASO ON APR 30. Our sister Jen LaValley Hurley reminds us that we build on legacies of struggle including crucial examples such as IDA B. WELLS (1862-1931), African-American journalist, educator, anti-lynching activist, and women's rights pioneer, born into slavery in Mississippi, and co-founder of the NAACP. JOIN US IN HER MEMORY, AGAINST RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA AT THE BORDER!

The problem of migration. That’s the thing government after government finds itself addressing. But it is like trying to patch a leaking basement in a house that is under water. It is a nearsighted, parochial approach to a problem that requires a drone’s eye view.

Many have probably already seen what I am finally seeing about our country’s immigration policy. I have come to this late. And I think that the things we say about immigration and immigrants are deliberately confusing.

There is the myth of our history. Nation of immigrants, and all that. I will leave aside the Holocaust that decimated the first migrants to arrive, those who came across the Bering land bridge long before the Europeans laid claim to the hemisphere and amassed their wealth on the backs of the unwilling migrants from Africa...leaving that aside, because I cannot do that justice. And isn’t justice a poor word to use?

We have convinced ourselves of the self-righteous notion that we, here in the United States, can better care for and decide the fates of children who migrate here than the families they come to be with. And this notion has been swallowed whole by an industry.

We see the children separated from their families, this time not inside storm fences, that we called cages, this time inside clear plastic walls, huddled on the floor wrapped in Mylar. We are asked to be glad that convention centers and military bases are lining up cots in large spaces to get them to where the blankets are nicer, and they lower the lights at night, and there are fresh masks, occasional showers, and maybe a phone call or two.

Resistance to the the great movements of history, and we are swept up in the tide of such movement, generates great suffering. Lifetimes will be swallowed up in the struggle. Hearts broken, families shattered.

Migrant ‘Protection’ Protocols Survivor Stories #4: Enrique

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

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.

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.

Custom & Border Patrol Encounters on the Southern Border March 2020-February 2021

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.

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?

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.

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.

What’s Next? Postcard Campaign

Mailing March 23-25

FAMILIES BELONG TOGETHER

The right to migrate is not a favor we occasionally grant to people when we are feeling generous. Humans have always migrated. And it is always for similar reasons. A place has become untenable. Not enough food. Too much danger. Climate change. Remember the Ice Age?