TPS Refugees Fight for Status

Temporary Protected Status Refugees Fight Expulsion

Orlando Zepeda and Evelyn Hernandez are immigrant activists. Neither has a backup plan in case TPS isn’t renewed next year, other than “to keep fighting until we have permanent residency.”

 April 17, 2019

By

 Nidia Bautista 

·        

Orlando Zepeda is one of 30,415 Salvadorans living in Los Angeles with Temporary Protected Status, a form of humanitarian relief that will expire next January. He came here from El Salvador in 1984 when he was 18, and has lived in the United States for nearly twice as long as he lived in his home country. Today he shares a Central Alameda home with his wife, Lorena Arana, who is also a TPS holder, and their two U.S.-citizen children, aged 12 and 14. He works providing building maintenance and until recently was involved in his church in Koreatown volunteering as a chaplain in prisons and hospitals.

Evelyn Hernandez, a community organizer at the Central American Resource Center, leads know-your-rights workshops in Los Angeles County, which has the largest Central American population in the country. She’s also a TPS holder from El Salvador, with three U.S.-born children, and is married to a U.S. citizen. In January 2018, the Trump administration announced the end of TPS protections for people from El Salvador, who, like refugees from Haiti, Sudan, Nicaragua and Honduras, are under federal order to leave this country by January 2020.

---

“We’re a community fighting for legal permanent status for our families. We’re not victims.”

---

“I’ve had to consider the possibility of leaving by myself, which would be devastating emotionally for me and my children,” said Hernandez. “There’s a shared anxiety about what’s going to happen after the extension is over.”

Both Zepeda and Hernandez are activists with the National TPS Alliance, an advocacy organization formed and led by program beneficiaries from across the country.  Neither has a backup plan in case TPS isn’t renewed next year – other than, as Hernandez said, “to keep fighting until we have permanent residency.”

"El niño es el pasaporte para cruzar", cuando los menores se convierten ...

Latino Vote Increased in 2018.

Trump can be defeated. 

The following media release was published by National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund on Wednesday:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund today released its analysis of new Election 2018 turnout data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS).Results from the CPS data show that Latino voter turnout increased by 13 percentage points in Election 2018, a 50 percent increase in Latino voter turnout from Election 2014. More than 40 percent of the Latino citizen voting-age population cast ballots in 2018, up from 27 percent in the previous midterm election.*

“These data confirm what we witnessed across the country: that Latinos were showing up in historic numbers to make their voices heard in Election 2018,” stated Arturo Vargas, National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) CEO. “With the upcoming primaries and caucuses only months away, we know excitement is building and that Election 2020 is shaping up to be another one for the record books.  Our recent poll data shows that Latinos are eager to make their voices heard, with eight in ten Latino registered voters stating they are likely to vote in the upcoming presidential election.”

Other major findings include:

• Election 2018 marked the highest Latino turnout for a mid-term election since at least 2002. Nearly 11.7 million Latinos cast ballots in 2018, up from 6.8 million in 2014. The percentage of Latino adult citizens who made their voices heard increased, up to more than 40 percent in 2018 from 27 percent in 2014.*
• The power of the Latina vote was real in 2018. Latina voters outperformed their male counterparts in Election 2018, with 43 percent casting ballots in 2018, compared to 37 percent of Latino males.
• California, Florida and Texas also had higher Latino turnout compared to 2014. Latino turnout in each of these states was significantly higher in 2018, (43 percent, 44 percent and 34 percent), compared to the previous midterm election (25 percent, 36 percent and 22 percent respectively).
• Increases in turnout were particularly striking for California, Texas and Florida. The Golden State saw a 74 percent increase in Latino citizen voting-age population turnout over 2014, with the Lone Star State experiencing a 53 percent increase over 2014. Florida followed with an increase of 23 percent.

Un 'NEW DEAL VERDE' frente al CAMBIO CLIMÁTICO

Report on the families arriving in McAllen, Texas. With photos.

Report on the families arriving in McAllen, Texas. With photos.
Report in Spanish.
https://www.univision.com/especiales/noticias/2019/ninos-frontera/index.html

Call to Abandon Costly and Harmful Immigrant Detention

https://www.immigrantjustice.org/press-releases/new-nijc-report-calls-us-government-implement-community-based-programming-abandon

April 23, 2019

New NIJC Report Calls On U.S. Government To Implement Community-Based Programming, Abandon Harmful And Costly Immigration Detention

As the Trump administration seeks to indefinitely detain asylum seekers and continues its rapid expansion of its immigration prison system, a new report from the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) calls on the U.S. government to end the use of immigration detention and adopt community-based models already in use in some U.S. cities and around the world. These programs ensure migrants have access to the support and services they need and can help the United States avoid the costly and inhumane consequences of incarceration.

The report, A Better Way: Community-Based Programming as an Alternative to Immigrant Incarceration, reviews studies of alternatives-to-detention programming and features programs in Chicago, Sweden, and Toronto, Canada, which provide feasible new models for migration processing in the United States. Studies have found that migrants who participate in community-based programming comply with their immigration court cases at rates of 90 percent or higher, and that these programs cost up to 80 percent less than detention.

“Something has gone terribly wrong in our country in the past 30 years where incarceration has become the centerpiece of our immigration system. There are models from around the world and right here in the U.S. that show there is a better way,” said NIJC Director of Policy Heidi Altman. “Why is the United States growing an immigration prison system that harms immigrants and betrays basic human rights norms, when organizations and communities around the world are modeling alternatives that work, are vastly cheaper, and embrace compassion rather than cruelty? It’s an affront to Americans that Congress has failed to seriously consider these proven models, even as they vote to fill the coffers of the private prison industry.”

The Reality Check: ORGANIZING WASHINGTON'S MIGRANT FARMWORKERS

The Reality Check: ORGANIZING WASHINGTON'S MIGRANT FARMWORKERS: ORGANIZING WASHINGTON'S MIGRANT FARMWORKERS By David Bacon For a Better World, Spring/Summer 2019 https://fairworldproject.org/land-and-...

Farmworkers Seek Immigration Bill

“Cesar taught us to fight for our rights. Alone we are weak, but when we come together we are a force for change. I miss Cesar, but I carry his message in my heart. Every day I recommit to his struggle.”   -- Santiago Lopez, Tomato worker

Tomorrow, Tuesday, April 23 marks 26 years since Cesar Chavez passed. We're sure that you, like all of us, deeply miss his presence. The best way to remember him is to recommit ourselves to what he dedicated his life to: Bringing a measure of justice to farm workers.

This year, a major focus of farm workers is advocating for the “Blue Card” (Tarjeta Azul) immigration bill. In early March, we sent a delegation to Washington, DC to lobby for this critical bill. The theme farm workers chose for their Cesar Chavez marches last month was promoting the blue card legislation. Thousands of farm workers turned out in Oxnard and Salinas to march in support of the blue card on March 24 and on Cesar's March 31 birthday. And next week, on April 28th, farm workers are planning another big Cesar Chavez march in Madera to advocate for this all-important bill.       

Fresno County farm worker Xochityl Garcia explains why this bill so important. “It would allow hard-working farm workers and their families to come out of the shadows. We work hard in this country to put food on America's tables and we deserve the chance to earn legal status with this 'Blue Card' legislation. Children shouldn't have to worry every day when they get home from school that their parents may not come home again.”

Join us in sending a clear signal to leaders in Congress. Agriculture is vital to America's economy and the threat of deportations has caused disruptions that are harming the economic stability of this industry. The Blue Card bill provides provides farm workers a way to earn lawful permanent residence by continuing to work in the fields. The bill provides a stable, legal, skilled workforce, which would benefit farm workers, employers, and consumers. 

We are lucky to have you as our good friend. Please continue to stand strongwith farm workers. Send your gift today to Cesar's UFW.

To show our appreciation, we will send a copy of “Conquering Goliath: Cesar Chavez at the Beginning” by Cesar's mentor, Fred Ross, to the first 100 people donating $50 or more. 

Thanks and Viva Cesar Chavez!

Denying Bond Hearings- Another Assault from the Trump Administration

https://immigrantjustice.org/press-releases/denying-bond-hearings-asylum-seekers-violates-human-rights?

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Attorney General William Barr’s decision to deny bond and indefinitely detain asylum seekers who enter the United States outside ports of entry betrays American values of liberty and due process. The decision in Matter of M-S-  will result in the unnecessary and unlawful prolonged jailing of asylum seekers, and strip immigration judges of their authority to consider individuals for release on a case-by-case basis.

Many asylum seekers are unable to reach one of the official ports of entry to present their claims for asylum. The Trump administration has, in fact, turned people away from ports of entry and made them wait in dangerous conditions in Mexico for weeks or months, forcing many to find other routes to safety in the United States. When an asylum seeker is detained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a bond hearing often is their only opportunity to have a judge from outside DHS review their case and determine whether they should be allowed to pursue asylum protection from outside a jail cell.

“By eliminating the right to a bond hearing, the attorney general has made DHS the judge, jury, and jailer for those who come to our border seeking safety and freedom,” said National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) Executive Director Mary Meg McCarthy. “The decision also is the latest attack on the judicial branch by an administration that has repeatedly attempted to weaken the authority of immigration judges. As this administration continues to consolidate the power of an anti-immigrant president, this unilateral ruling should alarm all Americans.”

The attorney general notes in a footnote that DHS will use this ruling to justify further expansion of its immigration detention system, which already has grown by 25 percent in the past year and currently locks up about 50,000 migrants each day. The attorney general also notes that his ruling, which ensures asylum seekers will be indefinitely detained while their legal cases are pending, fails to address the constitutionality of that prolonged detention.

Barr’s decision does not limit DHS’s continued authority to release asylum seekers during their proceedings using a mechanism known as “parole.” But under the Trump administration, parole has seldom been granted to asylum seekers. Nonetheless, there is no persuasive legal or evidence-based policy justification for prolonged detention of asylum seekers.

NIJC calls on Congress to engage in meaningful and pointed oversight of DHS’s arbitrary release determinations, which, as long as Barr’s ruling stands, will now be the last hope for asylum seekers hoping to pursue their claims for protection outside of detention.

Read a Q&A by NIJC, American Immigration Lawyers Association, Human Rights First, National Immigrant Justice Center and the Women’s Refugee Commission providing further analysis of the Matter of M-S- decision.

TAGS

Rep. Ilhan Omar Speech - What She Actually Said

Muslims for a really long time in this country have been told that there is a privilege, that there is a privilege that we are given, and it might be taken away. We are told that we should be appropriate, we should go to school, get an eduction, raise our children and not bother anyone, not make any kind of noise. Don’t make anyone uncomfortable — be a good Muslim. But no matter how much we have tried to be the best neighbor, people have always worked on finding a way to not allow for every single civil liberty to be extended to us.

So the truth is you can go to school and be a good student. You can listen to your dad and mom and become a doctor. You can have that beautiful wedding that makes mom and dad happy. You can buy that beautiful house. But none of that stuff matters if you one day show up to the hospital and your wife, or maybe yourself, is having a baby, and you can’t have the access that you need because someone doesn’t recognize you as fully human.

It doesn’t matter how good you were if you can’t have your prayer mat and take your 15-minute break to go pray in a country that was founded on religious liberty. It doesn’t matter how good you are if you one day find yourself in a school where other religions are talked about, but when Islam is mentioned, we are only talking about terrorists. And if you say something, you are sent to the principal’s office. So to me, I say, raise hell; make people uncomfortable.

Because here’s the truth — here’s the truth: Far too long, we have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen, and frankly, I’m tired of it, and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it. CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties. So you can’t just say that today someone is looking at me strange, that I am going to try to make myself look pleasant. You have to say, “This person is looking at me strange. I am not comfortable with it. I am going to go talk to them and ask them why.” Because that is a right you have.

Watch the full speech below:

In reality, the congresswoman was trying to distinguish terrorists from all Muslims. The comment was made as part of a larger portion of the speech that focused on encouraging fellow Muslims to embrace their rights and not allow themselves to be bullied by bigots who view them as terrorists.

Babies, As Young as 5 Months old, Held at El Paso Tent City

Gabe Ortiz, Daily Koz 
Hundreds of people, including infants as young as 5 months old, have been detained in “an emerging tent city” at the El Paso Border Patrol Station in conditions that one visiting legislator has described as filthy and totally unfit for families, the Daily Beast reports. “Five U.S. Army tents meant for battlefield hospitals have been repurposed to hold men, women, and children, including infants. Two of the tents were erected over the past week, expanding the facility’s capacity by several hundred people.” Outside, the prison camp is surrounded by barbed wire, with little room to move around. Inside, vulnerable families are languishing for days on end in awful conditions, said Rep. Nanette Barragán of California, who toured the facility last month. She said officials told her their “goal” was to assure people got showers every three days—how generous—but what she saw and heard was “unhealthy.” “One woman had a baby, a five-month-old baby and said she’d been there for five days,” she said. “The baby had filthy clothes. The situation is unhealthy. People are in a confined space, they’re not getting showers, their clothes are dirty, babies are not getting Pampers like they should be. These ladies were crying and telling us their stories and it was just heartbreaking.” These families aren’t sleeping on cots but rather “on a temporary floor that covered the asphalt parking lot beneath, with babies sometimes sleeping on their parents’ legs to avoid the hard floor.” It was just days ago that border officials were forcing detained people to sleep on dirt and rocks in a now-closed cage under a bridge, also in El Paso. Officials were more than happy to allow media to photograph that horror show, as well as to perp-walk children to add some images to the administration’s propaganda campaign.  But now “reporters are forbidden from the facility, leaving The Daily Beast to observe the operation through a telephoto lens from nearly a quarter-mile away.” None of this has to be happening, though. “One of my concerns is they’re slowing down the process almost intentionally and they’re helping create the appearance of this backlog,” Barragán said. “I don’t know this for sure, and I have nothing to point to other than our history of not getting truthful information from this administration and these agencies.” That Barragán even got to tour the prison camp is half the battle. When three House Democrats tried to tour the prison camp for migrant kids in Florida earlier this month, they were blocked by the administration in violation of federal law. “As members of Congress it is essential that we see for ourselves what conditions are, and conduct the constitutionally mandated oversight that we are obligated to provide,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida. “The Department of Health and Human Services is violating federal law denying us entry today.”

The chaos that Trump has created at the border was clearly predictable.

and deliberate !

Trump Surfaced Sanctuary Cities Immigrant Plan To Distract From Mueller Report
I wrote about it in Feb. 2017.  

We Can Resist Trump’s Immigration Orders,  Democratic Left,  Feb.10, 2017. 

https://antiracismdsa.blogspot.com/2017/02/we-can-resist-trumps-deportation-orders.html

Portside.  https://portside.org/2017-02-16/we-can-resist-trumps-immigration-orders

The Trump people, then Steve Bannon, now Steve Miller are so blinded by their ideology that they did not see what was clearly obvious. Of course they will continue And we need to continue to resist. 

By Duane Campbell. Feb. 13, 2017

The chaos created by Donald Trump’s ban on refugees is only the beginning of a crisis that Trump and his allies are creating.  Less noticed was Trump’s rollout of executive actions on immigration and the border wall  on Jan. 25. These executive orders were the opening act of what is certain to be an aggressive crackdown on unauthorized immigration.  The left responded quickly to the Jan. 27 ban on refugees with important protests and significant legal challenges.  However, Trump has created so many crises in his first weeks  that it would be easy to miss the long-term train wreck being created by Trump’s earlier executive  actions on the border wall and the expansion of arrests and deportations. 

On Jan. 25 Trump signed an executive order on immigration 

that directs ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents to use a  broadened definition of  “criminal” and focus deportation efforts not only on those who have been convicted of crimes, but also those who have been charged, or “have committed acts that constitute a chargeable criminal offense.”  This order will increase the number of persons subject to deportation by at least 2 million and the order will triple the number of agents in the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations office and give them broad power to ultimately decide who should be deported. Increased deportations have already begun under this new executive order. 

See the numerous posts below. 

Past use of aggressive interior enforcement, then called “Secure Communities,” was an abject failure. ICE agents conducted raids and arrested people at work sites, schools, and on the streets.  Often they jailed complete families.  In most cases, these arrests and deportations depended upon the cooperation of local police and social service agencies (see sanctuary cities, below). The campaigns deported parents of U.S. citizens, disrupting families, schools, and workplaces. The raids were too often done without proper warrants and other procedural safeguards. 

The Wall (or Fence)

Oppose Trump's Racist Lies About Immigrants

Too many news sources are amplifying images of Trump's manufactured chaos without giving essential context to understand what's happening at the border and why. That bigger picture is laid out in our video and reflects the work United We Dream, MoveOn members, and many others have been doing to stop Trump's racist attacks on immigrants and on our democracy since he assumed office.

–Greisa Martinez Rosas, United We Dream

Trump is using immigrants and refugees at the border to stoke fear and create chaos so he can con all of us out of more money and freedom for his racist anti-immigrant agenda.

This is a deliberate strategy by Trump, Stephen Miller, and the right-wing xenophobes in the administration to create a frenzy and terrorize immigrants—while abusing human rights, sacrificing our democracy, and funneling more of our money into his deportation and detention regime.

Instead of treating these immigrants and asylum-seekers like human beings, the deportation force is herding them into photo ops to manipulate politics and get Trump what he wants. We can’t let ourselves fall into his trap.

That's why my organization, United We Dream, teamed up with MoveOn to lay it all out in this two-minute video. Will you check out and share this short video so everyone knows what the Trump administration is scheming and how to stand up to it?

Watch on Facebook or on Twitter.

And after you watch this video, please share it with friends and family.

Too many news sources are amplifying images of Trump's manufactured chaos without giving essential context to understand what's happening at the border and why. That bigger picture is laid out in our video and reflects the work United We Dream, MoveOn members, and many others have been doing to stop Trump's racist attacks on immigrants and on our democracy since he assumed office.

Click here to watch and share this video and help push out the truth about Trump's anti-immigrant campaign of fear and chaos.

Thanks for all you do.

–Greisa Martinez Rosas, United We Dream

That's why my organization, United We Dream, teamed up with MoveOn to lay it all out in this two-minute video. Will you check out and share this short video so everyone knows what the Trump administration is scheming and how to stand up to it?

The Sacramento Teachers Strike

Choosing Democracy: The Sacramento Teachers Strike: Jeff Bryant Much like other teacher actions that have occurred across the nation, Sacramento teachers are demanding changes to their ...

What Is Happening at the Border ^

"What's happening at the U.S.-Mexico border in 6 charts," from Pew Research Center

'REMAIN IN MEXICO' BLOCKED BY FEDERAL JUDGE: A federal judge Monday halted the Trump administration's policy of forcing certain non-Mexican asylum seekers to wait in Mexico during their court proceedings, POLITICO's Ted Hesson reports. "In a 27-page order , San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg issued a preliminary injunction against the policy, a decision that represents another legal setback for the Trump administration's hard-line immigration agenda," Hesson writes. "The ruling did not tackle the question of whether DHS has the authority to send asylum seekers to Mexico. Instead, it found that plaintiffs were likely to demonstrate that the policy did not comply with federal regulatory law." More here.

Valuable article.

Locking Immigrants in ‘Camps’ Is the New American Normal

By Zak Cheney-Rice
April 4, 2019
New York Magazine

Where a person is categorized as illegal — as undocumented immigrants have been — they can more seamlessly be treated as if their existence is a crime.

Dolores Huerta Day- April 10

© 1999 Barbara Carrasco. All rights reserved.

EVENT

DOLORES HUERTA DAYApril 10, 2019

Dolores Huerta Day
Wed., April 10, 2019
10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
FREE admission for all visitors

Celebrate California’s first annual Dolores Huerta Day at the California Museum with FREE admission on Wed., April 10, 2019! 

Enacted in 2018, Dolores Huerta Day recognizes the legendary Latina activist’s extraordinary work while encouraging Californians to participate in a day of community service in her honor. 

Festivities include:

Annunciation House - El Paso, Texas

We are extremely grateful for your support, especially at this time.  2018-2019 is unparalleled  for Annunciation House.  A growing number of people from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, among others, have left their countries, often fleeing persecution and extreme violence, and have walked hundreds of miles in search of a safer place for their children and families.

As they’ve arrived at the border in El Paso/Ciudad Juarez, they’ve faced the awful reality of being stopped and refused application for asylum or if they cross the border, separation from children, even infants, inhumane conditions in ICE holding cells meant for far fewer people and treatment as dangerous criminals.  The crisis has heightened since just before Christmas as immigration authorities have been dropping off hundreds of people downtown and at bus stations with no one to provide even modest assistance to exhausted, hungry and penniless immigrants, many of them young children. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are dropping off as many as 500 people a day.)  In response, religious and humanitarian communities in the El Paso area have partnered with Annunciation House and opened new shelters across the city to provide food, warm, clean clothing, and a safe place to sleep.  In addition, volunteers assist migrants in contacting family members and making arrangements for travel to family members in the US.  Because of the holiday season and significantly reduced availability of bus and airline seats, though, many migrants are having to remain in shelters for longer than the typical one to four days.

Committee Chair Celebrates resignation of Kirstjen Nielsen

Kirstjen Nielsen

It didn’t take long for House Homeland Security Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) to celebrate the resignation of Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen — but he placed full blame for the “humanitarian crisis” at the border on President Donald Trump.

“Hampered by misstep after misstep, Kirstjen Nielsen’s tenure at the Department of Homeland Security was a disaster from the start,” Thompson said in a statement issued by the committee Sunday. “It is clearer now than ever that the Trump Administration’s border security and immigration policies — that she enacted and helped craft — have been an abysmal failure and have helped create the humanitarian crisis at the border.” 

He accused Nielsen of being “unable to lead and stand up to the president for his misguided, wall obsessed anti-immigrant agenda.”

However, the congressman added: “We cannot allow her to serve as a scapegoat for the situation at the border. Let me be clear, President Trump is to blame for making the situation at the border worse. His terrible and cruel policies have broken families apart and have caused chaos in our immigration system.”

Thompson presided over an acrimonious Homeland Security Committee hearing last month when Nielsen was attacked for allowing the detention of migrant children in cages after they were separated from their parents during Trump’s controversial “zero tolerance” policy. (She also falsely denied such a policy existed.)

Nielsen denied children had been kept in cages, contradicting photos from detention sites. “Sir, we don’t use cages for children,” Nielsen told Thompson.  “I’ve seen the cages,” the congressman snapped. “I just want you to admit that the cages exist.”

ed. note. WE can expect that her replacement will be just as bad. 

Before Nielsen’s abrupt resignation, hardline Trump adviser Stephen Miller was reportedly handed total control of border policy. Insider: “US border and immigration policy is now said to be under the control of one of the most hardline anti-immigration members of the Trump administration, following the weekend’s abrupt resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. On Sunday, Politico reported that the White House adviser Stephen Miller was behind a government-wide bid to tighten migration policy. The site said he lobbied for the replacement of government officials with those who share his views and telephoned mid-ranking officials at several government departments to angrily demand that they do more the halt the illegal movement of migrants into the country. CBS News also reported that Miller was behind a planned overhaul of the Department of Homeland Security, where President Trump reportedly didn’t believe the outgoing Nielsen shared his anti-migration stance.”

47,000 Migrant Children Kept From Families, DOJ Admits

“The long-term damage of Trump’s war on immigrants. NYMag: “On Friday, the

Trump Worsens the Crisis He Created on the Border

SOUTHERN BORDER — Organizations across the southern border will continue to fight the administration’s dangerous and misguided efforts to build a deadly wall following the House of Representatives failure to overturn President Trump’s veto on his fake national emergency. 

The vote comes as the Pentagon announced it will transfer $1 billion dollars to begin new wall construction along the southern border, a move rejected by top lawmakers in both parties. The fight now moves to the courts. The Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC) filed a lawsuit in February along with the Sierra Club and the American Civil Liberties Union to protect the people and places that are threatened by Trump’s unconstitutional power grab. 

Trump has created — and worsened — a humanitarian crisis along the southern border in an effort to justify his deadly, harmful and wasteful wall. He has separated children from their parents, tear-gassed families fleeing dangerous situations, and illegally returned desperate asylum seekers to Mexico to wait for their hearings. 

Vicki B. Gaubeca, director of the Southern Border Communities Coalition, issued the following statement:  

“Although the House was unable to override President Trump’s veto, southern border communities are more committed than ever to fight the administration’s hate-fueled obsession with building a wall and further militarizing our communities. The Pentagon’s announcement to transfer funds to build deadly and dangerous border walls is part and parcel of the humanitarian crisis the Trump administration is continuing to stoke in our home region. Apprehension rates at the southern border remain at historic lows. In fact, the majority of those seeking entry at our southern border are families and kids fleeing dangerous, life-threatening situations who have a legal right to seek asylum. We have a legal and moral obligation to treat them with compassion the same way we would like to be treated if we were in their situation. But instead of responding with real solutions, the Trump administration continues to worsen the crisis it created to push for a wall that does nothing to address the forced displacement of people from places like Central America. 

The bottom line is that we need policies that revitalize our communities, not militarize them. Border communities do not need a wall, we need investments in roads, schools, and health care that benefit families that work hard and contribute to the growth and character of our country.”

ABOUT THE SOUTHERN BORDER COMMUNITIES COALITION

The Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC) brings together organizations from San Diego, California, to Brownsville, Texas, to ensure that border enforcement policies and practices are accountable and fair, respect human dignity and human rights, and prevent the loss of life in the region.

Addressing the Immigration Crisis

Addressing the Immigration Crisis: ​WHEREAS   one of the first principles of democratic socialism is the importance of collective action; WHEREAS   our political work should be informed by a strategic analysis of the political...

Addressing the Immigration Crisis and Defending Immigrants and        
​       Refugees 
Our  priority is the defense of immigrants and refugees against racist attacks, and the promotion of comprehensive immigration reform that would secure their place in the U.S., putting an end to corporate induced competition between native born and immigrant workers, and between U.S. workers and workers abroad.

Migrant parents, children enter overtaxed system

Poor People's Campaign - Sacramento

From April 3rd to April 13th, the California Poor People's Campaign is organizing a statewide Truth & Poverty Tour to shine a light on the plight, fight, and insight of the poor across California, and the real national emergencies that require immediate attention. We are coming to Sacramento, CA on April 4th for our second tour stop. We will be hosting a public Poor People's Town Hall, and then a Poor People's March and Rally. RSVP11 AM-1 PM: Town hall Meeting, Community Space, 400 16th St., Sacramento 1-2 PM: March and Rally, Loaves and Fishes at 12th and North C St. (Cul de Sac), Sacramento We’ll meet at 400 16th Street, at the corner of D Street. We’ll be running shuttle vans/cars from the Target store parking lot at Broadway and Riverside Blvd. Please park at the far end of the parking lot from the store, along Riverside Blvd. The shuttles will be there beginning at 10:30 am. They’ll be available to bring you back after the event as well.  For shuttle service info please contact Mario at 916 224-4400.  For more info contact: Kevin Carter, kcwethepeople@gamil.com, Faye Wilson Kennedy, fayek@springmail.com Join us in lifting the voices of the poor and marginalized in our community and highlighting solutions to our nation’s fundamental issues. You won’t want to miss out! Forward together, California Poor People’s Campaign