The Arizona Machine: Reflection on Tucson Kidnapping

By Raúl al-qaraz Ochoa www.antifronteras.com

It's true. Life in pre-BS 1070 Arizona is the same as post-BS 1070 Arizona.

I saw the video of yesterday's kidnapping where young people in the south side of Tucson were forcefully separated from their dad and mom, they were taken away by Border Patrol.

Watching this violent assault on youtube got me sick. My stomach turned into a clenched fist. The blood circulating throughout my body probably stopped flowing for a bit and it turned into boiling lava erupting from my sad and outraged heart. and all i could do was cry, cry like a baby... for those children, for that family, for my family, por mi tia, por las mamas y papas de Tucson con los que organizo, por l@s jovenes que estan tan dentro de mi corazon y rezos. Por todas ellas y ellos, y los millones que no conozco.

Almost reaching 400,000 deportations (250,000 of those being 'non-criminal'), the Obama administration is on course to deport more people than any other president in u.s. history. His administration is following a disturbing government plan titled "Operation Endgame", which outlined since 2003 their goal of deporting all "removable illegal aliens by the year 2012". This kidnapping does not represent an accident in the system, it is an intentional part of the larger plan.

The video made me feel disempowered. so overwhelmed. Imagine how it can destroy a mother and her children. It's a trauma that never goes away. This nightmare is all too familiar to me and my family. Rage is too little of a word to describe my body's reaction. In fact, there are no words in the english or spanish languages that can express the tremendous sense of indignation that not only shatters my every bone, it also shatters my spirit and essence as a human being in this community.

I wonder... when are we going to end powerlessness in the face of such a monstorous system? We're up against law enforcement agents that operate under an evil state apparatus. Despite a court decision to temporarily block the "papers please" part of BS 1070, it still happens. and it will continue to happen with or without BS 1070. Clearly, if we are ever to achieve meaningful change, this oppressive machine must be entirely and completely dismantled. No court decisions, no laws or lawsuits, no elections and no public policies will ever be enough. Think of this unsuspecting family's struggle in the larger context of white supremacy, colonization, capitalism, war and empire.

"

There comes a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part, you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.

"

(Mario Savio of the student movement of the 1960's)

This quote rings true right now.

Mothers are being kidnapped. Fathers are being taken away on their way to work. And money is being made from their detention. CCA (Corrections Corporation of America, a private prison corporation) has infiltrated the corrupt AZ government forces and helped push for BS 1070 to pass! Deaths at the u.s.-mexico border continue to increase year after year after year as the national machine apparatus is scheduled to pour $600 million for even more border militarization!

Does this apparatus smell rotten to you? Does it make you sick at heart? Can you passively stand by as this is taking place on your clock, in your community? How would it look like for us to put our bodies upon the gears and wheels of this machine? What will it take to interrupt and completely shut down this machine? Somehow, somewhere, someday this empire machine will be taken down. It's only a matter of perseverence and time.

I have hope. I have faith. I will continue to organize... for this machine to fall. I will continue to pray... for all of us--past, present and future.

IRN Note: Raúl al-qaraz Ochoa's "The Arizona Machine: Reflction on Tucson Kidnapping" was originally published at www.antifronteras.com

Join the civil resistance against SB1070! Free Salvador Reza!

Puente leader Salvador Reza arrested without cause.

Free Sal Now.

A leader of human rights was wrongfully arrested today [Friday, July 30, 2010]. Salvador Reza is being held by Maricopa County Sheriff Arpaio as a political prisoner in Arizona. Sign the petition that says, "I Stand with Sal. Free Him Now."

Today, Sheriff Arpaio responded to continued acts of non-compliance by targeting and arresting human rights organizer and leader of the Phoenix-based Puente Movement, Salvador Reza.

Reza was getting in his car outside a rally across the street from the Sheriff's jail when several Sheriff deputies surrounded him and placed him in handcuffs without cause.

Previous and unrelated to Reza's arrest, 10+ people of conscience placed themselves in front of a caravan of Sheriff vans to block them from carrying out another raid in the community. Protestors chanted "Arrest Arpaio, Not the People" and "Not One More."

If you're in the Phoenix area, join Puente Movement outside the jail at 35th ave & Lower Buckeye. If you're outside the area, text "Arizona" to 50555 to donate $5 to the bail fund or click, http://bit.ly/azdonate

Free Sal Now!

Photos are available at http://flickr.com/photos/puenteaz

Video is available at http://youtube.com/puenteaz

Direct report from Phoenix: Civil resistance Takes the Streets

NNIRR interviewed Christian Ramirez, National Coordinator of the American Friends Service Committee, by phone. Christian is in Phoenix, Arizona, taking part in the national day of action against SB1070, Arizona's anti-immigrant racial profiling law (July 29,2010):

What are some of the highlights of the day so far?

Christian Ramirez: The first thing we have noticed is that no one is celebrating yesterday's court ruling.

Earlier this morning more than 300 people blocked the entrance to the Maricopa County jail here in Phoenix. The protesters were met with a big show of force. Some 60 MC Sheriffs fully-dress in riot gear confronted the protest and dispersed those assembled.

45 have been reported arrested; among them community leaders in the Puente Movement, Salvador Reza and Tupak Enrique of Tonatierra and a member of the Universalist Unitarian Church

Now there are about 500 people already gathered here in Cesar E. Chavez plaza in Phoenix and the organizers expect more to come. Another march is taking place at 4:00 pm today.

What is quite palpable is the climate of tension with a lot resistance.

And no one here, the human rights activists, is celebrating the court ruling.

Why aren’t they celebrating Judge Susan Bolton's decision blocking some parts of SB1070?

Those leading the mobilization are saying that SB1070 in its totality grossly violates human rights and the U.S. Constitution. Just because sine parts of the law are being implemented and others blocked represents a partial victory in courts but it does not mean a partial victory for people there.

There is quite a mood of resistance here in Phoenix; quite similar to the mood of resistance in April when SB1070 was first approved.

While the turn out is smaller than in April it is still early in the day and a larger rally is expected to take place in the afternoon.

What are people asking us who are not in Phoenix or Arizona to do to rollback SB1070?

The movement here is taking action saying: We will not comply with the law and our civil resistance will continue until 1070 is defeated.

They are declaring loudly that the partial ruling won’t make any dents in the anti-immigrant sentiment in Phoenix, which people have been suffering for a long time now.

We are receiving reports of protests and civil disobedience in Los Angeles, Boston, and other parts with rallies and civil disobedience.

Here poeple are making clear that yesterday’s ruling does not translate into favorable changes for communities. The ruling is a small step but a very small step and protests should continue.

Justice was not served by yesterday’s ruling.

Coming here, I was expecting different mood, a little more jovial mood about the ruling. But that's not the case.

People are upset and there’s a mood of resistance. Do not be fooled about yesterday – this is the message we’re hearing over and over again.

*

To read NNIRR's initial reaction to the court ruling against SB1070, click here.

Listen to a "Democracy Now!" interview Isabel Garcia, co-chair of the Tucson-based Coalicion de Derechos Huumanos, here.

For contacts and list of actions during July 29, 2010's national day of action against SB1070, click here.

*

Christian Ramirez, AFSC's national coordinator, is based in San Diego, CA; and is a member of the board of directors of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR).

NNIRR: ¡Organizáte para el 29 de julio por la justicia y los derechos humanos!

Día nacional de acción contra SB1070

Apoya la resistencia comunitaria contra la ley anti-inmigrante de detenciones raciales en Arizona

Click here to read this post in English.

La Red Nacional Pro Derechos Inmigrantes y Refugiados (NNIRR) llama a su membresía, socios, aliados y amig@s a unirse al día nacional de acciones contra la ley SB1070, la ley anti-inmigrante, de detenciones raciales de Arizona, este 29 de julio. La SB1070 puede ser derrotada exigiendo y organizándonos por la justicia y los derechos humanos para todas y todos!

NNIRR está urgiendo a la Administración de Obama de usar todos los recursos a su disposición para detener a la SB1070 – y poner fin a TODA colaboración entre la migra y la policía.

La SB1070 será implementada el 29 de julio, dando a la policía de Arizona el poder de detener y arrestar a cualquiera persona que sospechan de ser indocumentada. El Departamento de Justicia (DOJ) ha presentado una demanda contra la SB1070 para que sea declarada no-constitucional; el DOJ argumenta que la ley estatal usurpa el poder federal de controlar la inmigración.

Grupos comunitarios de Arizona y sus socios están dirigiendo esfuerzos dinámicos para resistir la ley SB1070 y están organizando acciones diversas y campañas como “Muevan el juego” para denunciar y construir la oposición contra esta ley de odio.

Tome acción para derrotar a la SB1070

· Exprese solidaridad con comunidades inmigrantes y fronterizas: Organice vigilias, protestas y otras actividades para exigir la derogación de la ley SB1070 en Arizona y profundizar el conocimiento de los impactos locales de la colaboración entre la migra y la policía en su comunidad.

· Dígale a Obama y al Congreso que pongan alto a todos los programas de colaboración entre la migra y la policía: Organicen reuniones comunitarias y otras acciones para aprender de y organizar contra los programas 287(g) y “Comunidades Seguras” y sus vínculos a la ley de odio la SB1070 de Arizona.

· Haga llamadas telefónicas al Presidente Obama (202) 456-1414 y a los miembros de su delegación Congresista al (202) 224-3121: Pídales que suspendan la colaboración entre la migra y policía e investiguen los abusos cometidos por el control policiaco migratorio contra comunidades de color, inmigrantes y la gente trabajadora en la frontera y en el interior del país.

· Alzen sus voces por la justicia y los derechos humanos: Reporte abusos a la iniciativa para documentación de derechos humanos de NNIRR, el HURACÁN: la red de acción de comunidades innmigrantes por los derechos humanos. Haga clic aquí para reportar abusos y compartir su historia organizándose por la justicia y los derechos humanos.

Presidente Obama: Suspenda la colaboración policiaca en el control migratorio y todos los operativos de control migratorio

La crisis en Arizona es el resultado de las políticas federales de control migratorio y seguridad fronteriza que deliberadamente encauzan a las y los migrantes a cruzar por Arizona. Miles de migrantes han muerto y desaparecido y muchos más han sufrido sin cesar en la frontera entre México y los EEUU desde que los EEUU implementó esta estrategia de control fronterizo en 1994.

La NNIRR se une a diversos grupos locales y nacionales para organizar la resistencia contra todas las formas de control policiaco y leyes racistas, incluyendo a la SB1070 y sus contrapartes federales, las iniciativas 287(g) y “Comunidades Seguras” que permite a la policia de actuar como migra y detectores de la condición migratoria. La SB 1070 está basada en estos programas.

La SB1070 y los programas federales de colaboración entre la migra y la policía violan nuestros derechos básicos a la libertad de movimiento, la libre asociación, a la protección contra todas las formas de la discriminación y el derecho a la comunidad saludable y la seguridad social. Con la colaboración, la policía y otros usan la condición migratoria apercibida o actual de una persona para negar nuestros derechos constitucionales. Ahora los EEUU está deportando a personas en cantidades sin precedentes con una indiferencia total por sus derechos a un proceso judicial.

Mientras emergen proyectos de leyes que arremedan la SB1070, la Administración de Obama tiene que actuar rápidamente para investigar los abusos cometidos en el control migratorio, incluyendo audiencias con nuestras comunidades para aprender directamente de los que sufren los impactos. Necesitamos que el gobierno rinda cuentas por la crisis en derechos humanos generada por las políticas defectuosas y abusivas de control migratoria.

¡Sueña, álzate, organízate -- por la justicia y los derechos humanos!

NNIRR: On July 29 - STOP SB1070, STOP the Hate | El 29 de julio: ALTO a SB1070, ALTO al odio

Organize for the July 29
National Day of Action:

Against SB1070

For Justice & Human Rights!

Support community resistance to

Arizona's anti-immigrant racial profiling law

Haga clic aqui para leer este mensaje en espanol.

The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) invites her members, partners, allies and friends to join in a national day of actions against SB1070, Arizona's anti-immigrant racial profiling law this July 29. SB1070 can be stopped by demanding and organizing for justice and human rights for all.

NNIRR is urging the Obama Administration to use all resources at its disposal to stop SB1070 -- and to end ALL immigration-police collaboration.

SB1070 is set to go into effect on July 29, giving Arizona police the power to stop and arrest anyone they suspect of being undocumented. The Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against SB1070 to declare it unconstitutional; the DOJ is arguing that the state law usurps federal powers to regulate immigration.

Arizona community groups and their partners are leading dynamic efforts to oppose SB1070 and are organizing diverse actions and campaigns like "Move the Game" to expose and build pressure to stop the hateful law.

Take Action to Stop SB1070

Express solidarity with immigrant and border communities: Organize vigils, protests and other activities to demand an end to SB1070 in Arizona and to raise awareness of the local impacts of immigration-police collaboration in your community.

Tell Obama and Congress to roll-back all immigration-police collaboration programs: Hold community meetings and other actions to learn about and organize against the 287(g) and "Secure Communities" programs and their connection to Arizona's hate law SB1070.

Make calls to President Obama (202) 456-1414 and your Congressional delegation at (202) 224-3121: Ask them to suspend all immigration-police collaboration and investigate the immigration law enforcement abuses being committed against people of color, immigrants and working people at the border and interior.

Raise your voices for justice & human rights: Report abuses to NNIRR's human rights documentation initiative, HURRICANE: the Human Rights Immigrant Community Action Network. Click here to report an abuse and share your story of organizing for justice and human rights.

*

President Obama: Suspend ALL immigration-police collaboration & enforcement operations

The crisis in Arizona is the result of federal immigration control and border security policies that deliberately funnel migrants through Arizona. Thousands of migrants have died and disappeared and countless more have suffered at the U.S.-Mexico border since the U.S. implemented this border security strategy in 1994.

NNIRR is joining with diverse local and national groups to organize resistance against all forms of immigration policing and racist laws, including SB1070 and its federal counterparts, the 287(g) and "Secure Communities" initiatives that allow local police to act as immigration law enforcers. SB 1070 is based on these programs.

SB1070 and federal programs of immigration-police collaboration violate our basic rights to freedom of movement, freedom of association, protection from all forms of discrimination and the right to healthy community and public safety. With collaboration, the police and others use a person's perceived or actual immigration status to trump our constitutional rights. Now the U.S. is deporting record numbers of people with total disregard for their due process rights.

As copy cat laws emerge in other states, the Obama Administration must act swiftly to investigate immigration abuses, including hearings with our communities to directly learn of the impacts. We need government accountability for the human rights crisis resulting from a flawed and abusive immigration enforcement policy.

Dream, rise, organize -- for justice and human rights!

From Mississippi to Arizona: For freedom and human rights

Dialogue between rising Arizona movement against SB1070 and Mississippi Freedom Summer veterans

By Linda Burnham

The room was small, but it was filled with enormous possibility. And everyone in there knew it.

On Saturday, May 29th, after a long, hot day of marching, chanting and rallying, a group of activists met in a windowless room at the Phoenix Doubletree Inn. Many had worked non-stop for weeks on end, mobilizing the tens of thousands who poured out of their homes in support of justice for the migratory workers and families whose lives and livelihood are threatened by Arizona immigration policy. Their phone-banking and door-knocking and e-mailing and community meetings had produced sea of people who filled the streets with their bodies and their voices.

Obama, escucha. Estamos en la lucha.

Que queremos? Justicia. Cuando? Ahora.

And now, though their day had started before sunrise, here these activists were, 14 hours later, eager to engage in an historic dialogue with veterans of Mississippi Freedom Summer.

MacArthur Cotton [right, in photograph] came to Phoenix from Kosciusko, Mississippi, Jesse Harris from Jackson, Mississippi, and Betty Garman Robinson from Baltimore, Maryland. These Freedom Summer vets came to march and rally against Arizona?s punitive legislation and to share their stories and their wisdom, gleaned from decades of struggling for justice. Arizona activists from the Puente Movement and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network have called for an Arizona Human Rights Summer to intensify non-violent resistance to SB1070, due to go into effect July 29, 2010.

The Doubletree meeting was meant to forge a vital connection between the summer of 1964, a season that changed the course of U.S. democracy, and the summer of 2010, a season that may yet do the same. The times are oh so different. For young activists -- the high schoolers who organize their massive walk-outs via text messaging, the college students trying to negotiate a college education without documents -- 1964 might just as well be a century or two ago. 21st century Arizona is not the Mississippi that clung for dear life to its profound distortions of democracy set in place in the post-Reconstruction period. And yet, the resonances are many.

Gross abuse of power by local law enforcement? Check. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is the modern-day incarnation of the despotic, mid-20th century southern sheriff charged with keeping the Negroes in their place, even if that meant encouraging violence and vigilantism. Megalomania plus racism was a lethal combination then; it's just as lethal today.

Unjust, anti-democratic policy enshrined in law? Check.

A white population that is subject to being driven by fear of the brown tide, and that, consequently, has a very hard time getting on the right side of history? Check.

Demagogues bent on mobilizing mistrust of the federal government, gaining power through a states? rights agenda, and building the influence of a right wing populism firmly grounded in race hatred? Hate to say it, but check, check, check.

But there are hopeful resonances as well.

The massing up of the power of poor people who have had enough. Basta ya!

People in motion despite their profound vulnerabilities to the arbitrary exercise of state power.

Committed, tireless organizers, young, old and in between, who have decided to throw down, dig in, hold the line.

The creativity and fearlessness of young leaders coming into their own.

And the Arizona activists link themselves directly to the black freedom struggle and the civil rights movement. Placards for the march, quickly silk-screened by the dozens at Tonatierra community center, carried a trio of images: Cesar Chavez, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mahatma Gandhi. A portrait of King, along with one of Chavez, held pride of place in the restaurant owned by Mary Rose Wilcox, Maricopa County supervisor, immigrant rights advocate and Joe Arpaio?s nemesis-in-chief. A banner reading ?From Selma to Phoenix, from Civil Rights to Human Rights? was on prominent display at the main stage for the rally in front of the state capitol.

So when MacArthur talked about the years of organizing that went on before the Mississippi Summer Project, the uncapitalized summer projects of 1961, 1962 and 1963, Arizona's on-the-ground organizers could relate to the slow and steady aggregation of forces and experience that constitutes the groundwork on which mass transformational movements are built. And they listened closely as Jesse described how Mississippi activists earned the trust of communities marked by both poverty and fear, and learned to marry a single statewide programmatic objective (the right to vote) with a wide array of locally generated tactics. Betty shared her experience with mobilizing resources in the north ? people, money, public opinion ? to support the southern struggle.

As the discussion opened out in that small room overflowing with both the past and the future, 45 activists grappled with tough questions: How do we protect the integrity, trusted relationships and hard-won gains of deep community organizing while situating that work as a building block in a burgeoning national movement? How do we reconcile different approaches, different organizing methods, different cultural and spiritual traditions in ways that build mutual respect and strength? How do we organize in communities where residents are so demoralized and despairing that they see no point in coming out to a meeting?

Those questions were certainly not definitively answered, but as one participant put it, "Anytime we get together and put our deepest challenges on the table, it's a good thing."

The Doubletree meeting brought activists and organizers together across regions, across generations, across races and nationalities, and, perhaps most importantly, across sectors of the social justice movement whose alignment cannot be taken for granted, but must be nurtured with care and broad vision. Our conversation prepared us to walk on a path cleared by the elders while at the same time breaking brand new ground.

*

Visit www.altoarizona.com for the latest news about Arizona Human Rights summer.
Visit www.mscivilrightsveterans.org for more information about the ongoing activities of the Mississippi Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement.

My thanks to Puente for receiving us with such grace, and to all the Mississippi Summer veterans who could not travel to Phoenix, but who were generous with their time and sage counsel. Special thanks to the Urgent Action Fund, whose quick turn around made the Mississippi-Arizona exchange possible.


Linda Burnham
Consulting at the Crossroads
www.lburnham.com

All photographs by Arnoldo García, NNIRR.

Alza tus voces: Todas y todos somos Arizona

Día Nacional de Acción contra la SB1070

La Red Nacional Pro Derechos Inmigrantes y Refugiados al lado de Arizona por la justicia y los derechos humanos!

El 29 de mayo, los ojos del mundo estarán sobre Arizona cuando decenas de miles de miembros de las comunidades de Arizona, incluyendo a los pueblos indígenas, jornaleros, sindicatos, pueblos de color, mujeres, gente LGBTQ, trabajadoras y trabjadores, la juventud, estudiantes y de otras partes del país, convergerán en Phoenix para el Día Nacional de Acción contra la SB1070. La SB1070 es la nueva ley anti-inmigrante, de detenciones raciales del estado de Arizona, que permite a la policía interrogar a cualquier persona sobre su condición migratoria, encarcelarla y entregarla a la migra, ICE, para ser deportada.

La Red Nacional Pro Derechos Inmigrantes y Refugiados (NNIRR, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights) y su membresía estarán presentes en Arizona y en acciones de solidaridad alrededor del país el 29 de mayo para estar al lado de los pueblos de Arizona en la lucha para restaurar nuestros derechos y contrarrestar al odio racial.

El 29 de mayo y más allá, la Red Nacional Pro Derechos Inmigrantes y Refugiados hace un llamado a todas y todos sin importar su condición social de exigir la derogación de la ley SB1070 y el fin a la colaboración de la policía local con el control migratorio. Este es un momento nacional significativo para comprometernos a eradicar todas las formas de la discriminación racial y las intolerancias. Nos fortalece y da ánimo ver cómo tantos y diversos grupos y sectores se han unido para oponerse a la SB1070.

Este apoyo amplio es muy necesario para impedir la expansion continua de programas federales de colaboración policiaca en el control migratorio que permiten a leyes como la SB1070 y otras medidas de control migratorio y fronterizo que ponen en peligro la vida, perpetuan los abusos y el odio racial, socavando la salud de las comunidades.

Ya antes del 29 de mayo en Arizona la Red Nacional de Jornaleros con el Movimiento Puente están preparando un boicott nacional de Arizona, especialmente contra compañías y productos cuyos dueños han contribuido fondos que han permitido el florecimiento de leyes y políticas anti-inmigrantes. La Red de Jornaleros y Puente también están planeando una campaña de desafío a la SB1070 que se implementará en julio.

La Coalición de Derechos Humanos (DH), trabajando con comunidades fronterizas y no-fronterizas, iniciará su quinta anual “Marcha sobre el Sendero de las y los Migrantes” – una caminata de 75 millas desde Sásabe, Sonora hasta Tucson, Arizona para expresar solidaridad con migrantes mujeres, niñas y niños, ancianos y hombres que han caminado por este sendero y perdido sus vidas. El trabajo de DH contra la militarización EEUU del control migratorio y de comunidades fronterizas es un llamado profundo de ligar nuestras comunidades a través del país para desmilitarizar la frontera y defender el derecho a la vida, la libertad y la salud de todas y todos.

Más allá del 29 de mayo, la Red Nacional NNIRR continuará urgiendo a la Administración de Obama que:

• Tome todos los pasos necesarios para impedir la implementación de la SB1070. Obama tiene que denunciar el clima de odio racial e investigar y castigar a todas y todos los oficiales estatales, munipales y locales que están violando los derechos civiles de comunidades enteras;

• Replegar y poner fin a los programas del 287(g), Comunidades Seguras y todas las formas de programas de colaboración policiaca en el control migratorio

• Suspender todas las detenciones y las deportaciones e investigar los abusos cometidos contra inmigrantes en la frontera y en el interior del país.

• Desmilitarizar el control migratorio y las comunidades fronterizas y poner alto al despliegue de tropes de la Guardia Nacional. En lugar, el gobierno de EEUU debe emitir suficientes visas y proveer opciones para que las familias puedan reunificarse y vivir, trabajar, orar, estudiar y recrearse con sus derechos integralmente protegidos. El gobierno federal tiene que invertir en la creacion de comunidades sostenibles y promover políticas de comercio justo que proveerán estabilidad y desarrollo;

• Busque en serio reformas migratorias basadas en la justicia social que proveen legalización integral que defiende los derechos civiles y laborales de todas las personas.

¡Todas y todos somos Arizona | We are all Arizona!

CDH Calls for Border Demilitarization on National Day of Action against SB1070

Coalición de Derechos Humanos

For Immediate Release May 28, 2010 Contact: Derechos Humanos (520) 770-1373 Communities Condemn Obama Administration's Decision to Further Militarize the U.S. - México Border We must stand together on May 29, 2010 to show our resolve against injustice Tucson - The Coalición de Derechos Humanos along with groups across the country, condemn Tuesday's announcement that the Obama Administration will send 1,200 National Guard troops to Arizona and will request an additional $500 million to "secure" the Mexican border. The decision by Obama to "up the ante" on the militarization scheme of over 16 years, not only follows his administration's record of continued attacks on immigrant families across the nation since he became President but his own DHS 800 ICE agent military-style assault on the communities in Arizona on April 15, 2010. Last year, President Obama also sent more than 700 new federal agents to the border, at that time responding to cries of non-existent "spill-over violence," feeding the continued growth of the militarization and of the anti-immigrant sentiment. "Our communities have borne the consequences of border security policies implemented since the mid-1990's-thousands of migrants who have been funneled to their deaths along the Arizona-Sonora border, dangerous spikes in xenophobia and the growth of hate groups, negative economic impacts and other tensions for border communities, the eventual election of anti-immigrant politicians and the enactment of anti-immigrant laws," stated Isabel Garcia, member of Coalicion de Derechos Humanos. "Now this new decision will be felt increasingly and devastatingly across the country." In July of 1994, Doris Meissner, then Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) released the "Border Patrol Strategic Plan: 1994 and Beyond," which clearly shows that their predicted effects of increased militarization would lead to the current political conditions in the state of Arizona. "Those of us who knew that Arizona was 'chosen' to become the laboratory for the anti-immigrant policies back in 1994, now hope that we can finally reframe the immigration debate by demanding that President Obama and the Congress engage in a dialogue that includes an analysis of our foreign and economic policies, such as NAFTA and the Merida Initiative (and the resulting migration), a review of our immigration laws and policies that have encouraged unauthorized migration, and an acknowledgement of the vast contributions made by immigrants," stated Garcia. "We must tell the U. S. public the truth about immigration. But if we follow the same framework and continued increases in police and other enforcement/prosecution measures such as Operation Streamline, we will continue the negative consequences as well, including the unprecedented expenditures." The decision to send military troops into civilian communities is also extremely dangerous. On May 20th, 1997, the nation was horrified by the murder of a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil by the military. Eighteen year-old Esequiel Hernandez, Jr., who was tending to the family's goats on his family's ranch in Redford, Texas was stalked for twenty-one minutes and then shot and killed. The U.S. Marines, part of Joint Task Force Six, an INS/Department of Defense unit working along the border, worried that they had killed an innocent civilian and watched Esequiel dying for approximately twenty minutes before calling in to report the incident. A House Judiciary Sub-Committee subsequently made damaging findings, including accusations of obstruction of investigation, and clearly illustrates the dangers of placing military troops in civilian communities. Derechos Humanos and allies across the country call on each one of us to take responsibility to learn the truth about the immigration issues and to engage in dialogue in our own communities and families. While those in power focus on pitting us against each other, worker against worker, Big Oil and Wall Street get a free pass. We must not allow the attacks on our communities. We demand that the Obama Administration reverse his decision to send national guard troops to our border and the request for half a billion dollars to "secure the border." Our country needs real security - jobs, health care, quality education, housing, healthy communities - not measures that bring pain, division, hate and destruction.

Coalición de Derechos Humanos P.O. Box 1286 Tucson, AZ 85702 Tel: 520.770.1373 Fax: 520.770.7455 http://ww.derechoshumanosaz.net

Honoring the Fallen: Demanding an End to U.S. Border Miltiarization

520 Weeks of Witness to Human Rights Crisis

Coalición de Derechos Humanos Celebrates Ten Years of Raising Voices for Justice and an End to Border Militarization

The human rights crisis that exploded after Arizona Governor Brewer signed into law SB1070, which gives local police the power to stop and arrest individuals for their immigration status, is over sixteen years in the making. SB1070 is the offspring of U.S. border security and immigration control policies that deliberately funnel migrants through the state's deadliest and desolate regions.

Thursday, May 20, 2010, marks the 520th consecutive week of a Thursday night community vigil organized by the Coalición de Derechos Humanos at El Tiradito shrine in Tucson, Arizona, to remember and honor the thousands of individuals who have perished on the U.S.-Mexico border as a result of U.S. militarization of immigration and border control.

Ten years ago, the Coalición de Derechos Humanos (DH) began a vigil to recognize all victims of U.S. border security policies. In 2000, DH reported the recovery of 136 human remains solely on the Arizona border region. Now, from October 1, 2009 to February 28, 2010, DH reports an astounding 110 human remains recovered on the border over five months.

Since 1994, when the current border security strategy was implemented by the Clinton Administration on the entire U.S.-Mexico border region, more than 5,000 migrants deaths have been recorded on the U.S. side of the Mexico border.

Please join or support the Coalición de Derechos Humanos at the 520th weekly vigil Thursday, May 20, 2010, 7:00pm, at El Tiradito Shrine (Cushing and Main Streets) Tucson, AZ

In addition, May 20th marks the 13th year anniversary of the killing of 18-year old Esequiel Hernandez, Jr. by U.S. Marines in Redford, Texas as the young man tended the family's goats:

Esequiel Hernandez, Jr.* May 14, 1979 - May 20, 1997

Join DH to commemorate the fallen on the 520th weekly vigil, a pledge to bear witness to the deadly border and its victims.

Background to the Human Rights Crisis in Arizona

NAFTA Border Control of Migrant Labor

Why are migrants dying and disappearing in the deserts and mountains of Arizona and in parts of California New Mexico and Texas?

The U.S. deliberately "funnels" migrants into the most dangerous and desolate regions of the border to supposedly dissuade them from coming to the U.S. This strategy was implemented as the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, was being negotiated and signed. NAFTA, instead of addressing the displacement of workers caused by "free" trade policies, put the costs of NAFTA on Mexico and specifically undermined the rights of migrant workers.

Border security and control strategies have been the policy of how migrant workers are integrated into the U.S. labor force. NAFTA and subsequent U.S. border security policies have made migrant workers, including Indigenous people and other people of color communities on the border, more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. SB1070 is the latest form of labor control policy based on anti-immigrant racial profiling and discrimination.

"Prevention through Deterrence" means Migrant Deaths

Called "prevention through deterrence," the U.S. government implemented the current border security and immigration control strategy in 1993 on the El Paso, TX-Ciudad Juárez sector of the border as "Operation Blockade." The strategy was then extended to the entire border in 1994, as Operation Gatekeeper in California, Operation Safeguard in Arizona and Operation Rio Grande in south Texas.

Operation Blockade was implemented in September 1993 by then Border Patrol Sector Chief Silvestre Reyes that consisted of placing one Border Patrol agent with a Bronco jeep about every thousand yards across the entire width of the El Paso-Juárez metropolitan region on the borderline. BP Sector Chief Reyes under then-INS director Doris Meisner piloted the strategy that is responsible for causing the death, disappearance or, if they survive the ordeal, immense suffering and damage to the health of thousands of migrants.

The U.S. implementation of the border security strategy was part of the U.S. pact under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that was signed and ratified by Congress in November 1993.

The goal of the now 17 year old U.S. border security strategy was to force migrants who chose to cross without authorization or inspection through the desert and out of the safer urban areas. Instead of offering options to enter legally, the U.S. offered migrants choose between not crossing or risking their lives and health to reunite with their families and seek work to survive.

How to End the Human Rights Crisis at the U.S.-Mexico Border

The human rights crisis at the border is the result of U.S. immigration and border control polices, practices and strategies that criminalize status, militarize immigrant and border communities, link immigration enforcement and services to the politics of national security. Ultimately, the U.S. border reflects the imposition of "free" trade policies and economic development that forces workers to move to find work -- in many cases into involuntary international migration -- and makes them vulnerable to hate and exploitation.

Communities have to learn each others histories and find common ground to roll-back the hate and end the policies that foment and bolster the anti-immigrant climate.

At the heart of this is building long-lasting and durable relationships between border and non-border communities, immigrants, Native American peoples, communities of color and working people. This relationship is strategic to expose, prevent and stop the current trading of rights that is central to "comprehensive immigration reform." Rights trading means that the rights of communities are negotiated away as part of the deal-making for immigration reform. The rights of border and immigrant communities have always been offered head first to satisfy the xenophobia and calls for "border security."

In 2007, NNIRR worked with the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) to bring an African American and black immigrant delegation to the Arizona border to see first-hand the devastating results of the U.S. militarization of immigration and border control policies, practices and strategies.

In 2006, NNIRR with the Coalición de Derechos Humanos brought a national delegation of grassroots community groups and leaders to meet with their counterparts in the Arizona border region and dream a different border based on justice and human rights. These are were our recommendations to solve the human rights crisis at the border :

Implement routine programs of legalization that expand access to visas and provide access to permanent residency including future flows. Systematic legalization programs – recognizing human, labor, environmental, and civil rights – will ensure that migrants have options to unite with their families and avoid mortal danger.

End the deadly border enforcement strategies; instead protect the human rights and constitutional liberties of all immigrants and communities on the U.S.-Mexico border. This includes but is not limited to issuing sufficient visas so that all migrants that wish to can enter the country legally and safely and are not forced to choose between risking their lives crossing through the desert and mountains or subjecting themselves to inhumane violations of their rights and abuse just to reunite with their families and find work to survive.

Demilitarize the U.S.-Mexico border and cease all enforcement policies, practices, measures, laws, and strategies that criminalize migrants forcing them into crossing through the most dangerous areas in the mountains and deserts where hundreds die every year. And, prevent the initiation of policies, laws, practices and measures to militarize the U.S.-Canada border;

Address the backlog and facilitate family reunification by increasing visas and more legal options allowing migrants to cross safely and not risk their lives at the hands of smugglers, unscrupulous employers, or immigration officials who act with impunity and jeopardize public safety;

Repeal draconian federal criminal laws that prosecute and incarcerate migrants for merely crossing the border without inspection.

End the deportation of permanent residents, including ending indefinite detention or its expansion, preserving due process rights and restoring access to the courts and meaningful judicial review for all immigrants.

Develop bi-lateral migration policies and practices that uphold the human rights of migrants, which are accountable to independent, civilian community-based monitoring and oversight;

Restore the civil rights, civil liberties and human rights of border communities and immigrants everywhere.

Grant unrestricted crossing rights for members of Indigenous nations and communities living on both sides of the border.

Enhance the safety of border communities and protect migrants by demilitarizing the borders, including tearing down the walls along the U.S.-Mexico border, and establishing accountability mechanisms for independent civilian and community-based monitoring and oversight;

Clearly and publicly declare its opposition to private vigilante groups and the hateful acts they perpetrate, and prosecute any criminal activity against immigrants and others;

Create an independent monitoring and accountability mechanism that directly engages impacted communities in holding the Department of Homeland Security accountable for its immigration enforcement and detention policies and initiatives;

Transfer federal spending from border militarization to genuine “border security” programs including health care, housing, education, living wages, social security and fair trade between communities straddling the border and other nations;

Stop collaborating with other countries targeting migrants for arrest and detention and cooperate with neighboring nations to implement economic and social policies that effectively resolve problems of unsustainable development caused by “free” trade policies, which are the root cause of forced displacement and involuntary international migration;

End and reverse the privatization of border control and national security operations, which is rewarding private security contractors that have abysmal human rights records and corruptive practices in Iraq, Palestine, New Orleans and elsewhere;

Abandon all plans to militarize the U.S.- Canada border, virtually and physically, as contemplated in recently passed Congressional legislation calling for a “study” of the militarization of the northern border, including the high technological surveillance of the U.S.- Mexico border.

De-link the policies and politics of national security and the “war on terror” from all immigration services and enforcement and give priority to “human security,” fulfilling the human rights, economic well-being, civil liberties, labor protections, health, safety and freedom from fear and instability, for all communities and individuals regardless of their citizenship or immigration status; and,

Transfer all border and interior immigration services and enforcement functions now under the Department of Homeland Security back to the Department of Justice, including the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Bureau of Border Protection and Customs, and the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, previously under the Immigration and Naturalization Services.

Address the root causes of involuntary migration and forced displacement in sending countries by ending “free” trade and other structural adjustment programs imposed on the global south by U.S.-controlled international financial institutions. Support sustainable economic development instead.

Make the United States a true partner in international cooperation by ratifying the International Convention for the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.