Tucson Protection Network Coalition Joins the National Fast Campaign "Not One More"

(En español sigue abajo)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 8, 2013

CONTACT: (939) 579-3534

Protection.Network.Coalition@gmail.com 

Tucson Protection Network Coalition Joins the National Fast Campaign "Not One More"

Tucson, Arizona - As the House of Representatives proceeds to discuss the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill (CIR) and moves forward with militarization policies that will continue to harm border communities, several members of our community will begin a fast from Tuesday July 16th through Saturday July 20th in Tucson, Arizona. The Protection Network Coalition's goal is to highlight how the immigration raids and deportations continue to separate families across the country.

"We fast in solidarity with all of those who are facing deportation proceedings, all of those who have been separated from their families and all of those who have been ripped apart from their communities. We fast to say not one more deportation," declares Eleazar Castellanos, a 46 year-old community leader at the Southside Worker Center and a fasting participant. The group's spiritual fast is one of a series of travelling fasts that have been taking place nationwide. Communities in California, Oregon, New York and Florida have also participated in the national fast. The campaign is expected to end in Washington, D.C. during the last week of July.

The Not One More fast aims to have national and local impact. On a national level, the community members who will be fasting are calling on President Obama to immediately suspend deportations. They are also demanding Congress to pass an immigration reform that is inclusive of all 11 million undocumented people in the United States, and to stop the militarization of the US-Mexico border.

On a local level, the Tucson community demands local law enforcement to stop collaborating with immigration law enforcement. Police and Border Patrol collaboration continues to divide families and terrorize communities in Tucson and across the country on a daily basis.

A Press Conference at Southside Presbyterian Church is scheduled for July 16th at 11:00 AM (at 317 W. 23rd St.) and will be the starting point of the week's activities and events.

For a soon-to-be-released list of daily activities in Tucson July 16-20, go to: www.facebook.com/events/138174623048100/?fref=ts 

More information on the National Fast available at: www.notonemoredeportation.com

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PARA DIFUSION INMEDIATA

8 de Julio de 2013

Contacto: (939) 579-3534

Protection.Network.Coalition@gmail.com 

La Coalición de Redes de Protección de Tucson se une al Ayuno Nacional: Ni Una Deportación Más

Tucson, Arizona - Mientras la Cámara de Representantes continua debatiendo el proyecto de ley de la Reforma Migratoria y avanzan con políticas de militarización anti-migrantes que continuaran dañando y destruyendo nuestra comunidad, varios miembros de la comunidad de Tucson estarán llevando a cabo una jornada de ayuno que comenzara el Martes 16 de Julio y terminara el Sábado 20 de Julio de 2013. El objetivo de la Coalición de Redes de Protección de Tucson es destacar como las redadas de inmigración y las deportaciones continúan destruyendo familias alrededor de los Estados Unidos.

"Ayunamos en solidaridad con todas las personas que se encuentran en proceso de deportación, con todos aquellos que han sido separados/as de sus familias y arrebatados/as de sus comunidades. Ayunamos para decir ni una deportación más," declaró Eleazar Castellanos, líder comunitario del Centro de Trabajadores del Sur de Tucson quien estará ayunando. Dicho ayuno es parte de una jornada nacional que se ha estado llevando a cabo a lo largo de Estados Unidos. Comunidades en California, Oregon, Nueva York y Florida han participado en el ayuno nacional. Se espera que la jornada de ayunos culmine en Washington, D.C. durante la última semana de Julio.

La Coalición de Redes de Protección de Tucson espera que la campaña tenga un impacto nacional y local. A nivel nacional, la comunidad le exige al Presidente Obama un alto inmediato a las deportaciones. A su vez, le hacen un llamado a la Cámara de Representantes que pasen una Reforma Migratoria Comprensiva que incluya a los 11 millones de indocumentados/as en Estados Unidos y que se pare la militarización en la frontera entre Estados Unidos y México.

A nivel local, la comunidad de Tucson le exige a las autoridades locales que paren la colaboración con la Patrulla Fronteriza. La colaboración entre la Policía de Tucson y la Patrulla Fronteriza continúa dividiendo y aterrorizando la comunidad de Tucson a diario.

Una Conferencia de Prensa tendrá lugar en:

La Iglesia Presbiteriana en Southside

el 16 de Julio a las 11:00 AM (en 317 W. 23rd St.)

La misma será el comienzo de las actividades y eventos programadas para la semana del 16 al 20 de Julio.

Para ver el programa de actividades y eventos en Tucson del 16 al 20 de Julio visite nuestra página: www.facebook.com/events/138174623048100/?fref=ts 

Más información sobre el ayuno nacional disponible en: www.notonemoredeportation.com

NNIRR: Senate Immigration Bill Dashes Hopes for Fair, Just Reform

June 28, 2013

For Immediate Release

Senate Immigration Bill Dashes Hopes for Fair, Just Reform

'Border surge' approval further threatens border communities, migrant safety and well-being
 

(Oakland, CA) With the Senate’s passage of S. 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013, the Board of Directors and members of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights voiced their disappointment and concern with the dramatic escalation of border enforcement negotiated to secure support from conservative Republican senators hostile to the legalization of undocumented immigrants.

Executive Director, Catherine Tactaquin, commented, “The Senate passed a historic immigration reform bill yesterday. We had hoped the bill would have been historic for upholding the human rights of immigrants, for providing fair and equitable access to visas, protecting their rights as workers, fueling resources to process the long backlog of pending family visa applicants, and ending flawed and punitive immigration enforcement policies at the border and in the interior.“ She continued, “Unfortunately, S. 744 was not that bill. This is not the kind of legislation and deal-making that we can support nor encourage.”

Susan Alva, a Los Angeles-based immigrants rights attorney, also criticized the immigration “compromise”: “Legislative deal-making is a given. But in this bill, the legalization carrot has been beaten to a pulp by an enforcement stick that staggers the imagination.  By shamelessly presenting this as a victory, proponents of this bill are banking on the toll that years of historic levels of enforcement have already taken on immigrant communities.  This is not compromise; this is blackmail."

Board member Christian Ramirez, Human Rights Director at Alliance San Diego, spoke to the Corker-Hoeven “border surge” amendment added in the final days of negotiations: "Despite this unwarranted aggression against 15 million people who call the border home and the irresponsible language of war and occupation used in the Senate floor to refer to the safest region in the United States, southern border communities will continue to ensure that rights and dignity are restored for the betterment of the people of the United States.” He continued, “The threat of militarization by policy makers has no place in a democratic society. Social and economic needs cannot and must not be resolved through military might if we are to preserve our morals and values as a society.”

Board Chairperson Eduardo Canales of Corpus Christi, Texas, added that the bill “perpetuates and enhances failed policies of increased enforcement on the border and will continue to increase migrant deaths.” He also warned that the expansion of the “E-verify” employment verification system would “allow further discrimination and racial profiling of immigrants and other workers of color.”

Other board members also raised an alarm about the consequences of the dramatic escalation of the border security program. Hamid Khan, based in Southern California, stated that the bill served as a model for what he termed as the 

“Surveillance Industrial Complex.”  “Under the guise of public safety and security,” he commented, “the bill is a political investment in the further strengthening and legitimization of the police state.”

Khan identified the huge transfer of public funds to be invested in surveillance equipment, data collection and data mining, enhanced communications interoperability and information sharing between federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies. He said, “Intermixing current and new technologies, enhancing operational capacities, adding thousands of new customs and border patrol agents are key steps in a full spectrum of information gathering, storing, sharing and disseminating as necessary tools for social control.” 

Monami Maulik, Executive Director of the New York-based Desis Rising Up and Moving-DRUM, raised similar concerns. “This bill is not what thousands of our members, as South Asian immigrants, have been organizing tirelessly for years alongside so many communities,” she said. “Congress will send an alarming message to all of us and the world, that human rights are no concern to the U.S.” She continued, “This bill is using immigration as an excuse to further a national security state—to fly drones above us, surveil us, and set the stage for a national ID system and database. We need real human rights-based reform. The world is watching.”

Gerald Lenoir, Executive Director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, described the bill as “a nasty piece of legislation that attempts to codify repression on the border and wasteful spending.” He also expressed concern about the limitations of the legalization program: “It falls far short of the promise of a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants. The onerous work and income provisions will disqualify millions of low income undocumented immigrants from accessing the path to a green card and citizenship.”

“S. 744 does not deliver even our minimum aspiration for immigration reform: bringing the undocumented community ‘out of the shadows’, commented Lillian Galedo, Executive Director of Filipino Advocates for Justice, based in Oakland, California. “The proposed legalization program will not legalize 11 million people.  The 10 to 20 year ‘path’ to citizenship will not benefit the mostly elderly Filipino caregivers in our base.’ She also stated that they “totally oppose the massive militarization of the border and border communities. The only beneficiaries of this boondoggle are the war and prison contractors whose successful lobbying resulted in a $46 billion set-aside for ‘border security’. This is a sad day for human rights.”

Bill Chandler, Executive Director of the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance and a longtime labor organizer, expressed concern about the bill’s drive to increase and continue guest worker programs. These, he said are “another form of indentured servitude and a benefit for employers, not workers.”

Board member Janis Rosheuvel, Executive for Racial Justice with United Methodist Women in New York, declared, “As people of faith, we call on our elected officials to end the criminalization of communities of color exemplified by this bill. We call for justice-driven legislation that delves into the root causes of migration and does not rely on punitive policies as a matter of course. Our communities and nation deserve more.”

The National Network pledges, as the immigration reform debate focuses on the House and where hostile representatives have declared their opposition to any form of legalization, to continue the fight for fair and just immigration reform.

“We will push back on the mean-spirited, xenophobic and punitive proposals that have already begun to emerge there,” said Tactaquin, adding, “The Obama Administration also needs to shoulder greater responsibility for the well-being and safety of immigrant communities, and break this downward spiral in the direction of immigration reform. We call on the Administration to start by suspending detentions and deportations and keeping families together as we continue on this difficult road to immigration reform.”

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Click here to read NNIRR's May 20, 2013 letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The letter outlined proposals and positions for a fair immigration reform policy.

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The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights is a nationwide alliance of diverse immigrant community, civil and human rights, labor, faith and other allied sector groups and individuals. NNIRR is committed to human rights as essential to securing healthy, safe and peaceful lives for all.

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Urgent Action Needed TODAY to Oppose 'SAFE' Act, HR 2278

Urgent Action Needed TODAY to Oppose 'SAFE' Act, HR 2278

Stop the Dangerous Expansion of Detentions and Deportations

Please take a moment to read this Urgent Action Alert about a dangerous proposal that will be considered in the House Judiciary Committee tomorrow, Tuesday, June 18.

The “SAFE Act” (the 'Strengthen and Fortify Enforcement Act'), introduced by Rep. Gowdy (R-SC), would substantially increase detentions, deportations and racial profiling. This is just one more repressive proposal introduced in the House while the Senate considers S 744, the immigration reform bill.

Click here for a preliminary analysis of the SAFE Act from the Immigrant Justice Network, and here for a summary from the National Immigrant Law Center.

Please join us in taking action today. 

Here's the recommended action from the Detention Watch Network:

1. Contact House leaders TODAY and tell them not to bring the "SAFE Act" up for a vote.

Call 1-888-891-3271 for the Congress Switchboard. Ask for Representatives Goodlatte (HJC Chair R-VA), Conyers (HJC Ranking Member (D-MI), and Boehner (House Speaker, R-OH).

Script: My name is _____ calling from ­­­­­_____. The SAFE Act represents the views of the nativist, anti-immigrant extremist and is out of step with the views of the vast majority of Americans. The SAFE Act’s single-minded focus on immigration enforcement would dramatically increase detentions and deportations, and create an environment of rampant racial profiling and unconstitutional detentions without fixing the immigration system’s problems. I urge you to invest in your political future by opposing the SAFE Act, H.R.2278, and blocking it from coming up for a vote.

2. Call your Representative TODAY and urge them to vote NO on the "SAFE Act."

Find out if your representative is on the House Judiciary Committee. Call 1-888-891-3271 for the Congress Switchboard.

Script: My name is _____ calling from ­­­­­_____. The SAFE Act is out of step with the country, and represents the views of the nativist, anti-immigrant extremists. As a constituent, I urge you to invest in your political future by voting NO on the SAFE Act, H.R. 2278.

3. Spread the Word

Forward this alert to your networks! You can also tweet at House Judiciary Committee members to vote NO on the “SAFE Act.” See call-in information below for a national conference call today:

CAMBIO is hosting an Organizing Call TODAY to Oppose the SAFE ACT H.R. 2278

Monday, June 17 @ 1 pm Pacific, 3 pm Central, 4 pm Eastern

Call-in number:

Toll-Free Access Number:
1.800.977.8002

Direct Dial/ International Access Number:
1.404.920.6650  

Participant Code: 
6427412#

Thank you for taking action today!

For more information and resources on immigration reform, go to NNIRR's Immigration Policy Reform section of our website.

May Day 2013: Legalization -- NOT deportation!

International Workers' Day 2013:
Calls for Legalization -- NOT Deportation!

For the past several years International Workers' Day, May Day, has served as a vehicle to spotlight the particular injustices against immigrant workers, especially the undocumented. In 2006, we can remember the massive May Day and other rallies across the country that mobilized millions of undocumented workers, their families and allies to protest the anti-immigrant Sensenbrenner bill and to call for legalization. With immigration reform underway in Congress, May Day events in immigrant communities vary vastly in their size and scope, but a message that continues to jump out is Legalization not Deportation!
As the Senate proposal has revealed, the path to a green card and eventual citizenship can be long and "tough," as the "Gang of 8" likes to characterize the path they have charted. And if some Republican leaders in the House have their way, there won't be a path at all! If and when a legalization program is finally approved, clearly not all of the 11 million will make it through. Some will not fit the criteria to even apply. Border and interior enforcement will be increased; the proposal certainly does not do away with the current programs in place to deport all who can be deported.

Even now, while much of our efforts are focused on Congress, thousands of immigrants are being detained and deported, separated from their families. Just this past week, an ICE audit of two janitorial companies in San Diego may result in the firing of over 500 immigrant workers. Some may be charged with felony identity theft. Similar audits continue to take place around the country, leaving workers without jobs and worse, identified for detention and deportation.
As the Senate Judiciary Committee prepares to mark-up the immigration reform bill, we need to redouble the call for a halt to detentions and deportations. Immigrant communities deserve the opportunity to raise their voices, concerns and needs in the immigration debate, and should have the opportunity to move out the shadows with a fair, genuine legalization program. (See immigration reform updates and tools here.)

Support Human Rights for All Migrant Workers and Their Families

Together with our allies in the international migrant rights movement, the National Network has supported and advocated for universal ratification of the UN's International Convention for the Protection of Rights of All MIgrant Workers and Members of Their Families, or Migrant Workers' Convention. On International Workers' Day, please join us in showing your support for the US to commit to ratification. Learn more about the convention and sign the online pledge of support: individual endorsers click here. Organizational endorsers,  click here.
Your continued support is more important than ever

Please make a contribution to the National Network to boost our work towards a fair and just immigration reform -- and beyond. Click here to make an online donation. Prefer to send a check? We are happy to receive your donation in the mail. Just make your check out to "National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights" and mail to the address listed below.  Thank you!
And be sure to join us online, particularly on Facebook where must-see news is posted daily.

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EEUU hace demanda para expropiar tierra indigena para el muro fronterizo en Texas

Contacto:

* Laura Rivas: 510-282-2500, xicanitatli@gmail.com

* Lawdefense1@gmail.com

Para difusión inmediata

30 Abril: Gobierno EEUU hace demanda contra mujer indígena en cortes de TX;

El gobierno busca expropiar inmediatamente más terreno para el muro fronterizo

Inmigración y Seguridad: Aún más usurpación de tierras indígenas para el muro fronterizo

Brownsville, Texas –26 de Abril, 2013 –Eloisa Garcia Tamez volverá a la corte federal el 30 de abril de 2013 para defender sus derechos contra el gobierno de Estados Unidos. En un intento gubernamental de tomar posesión inmediata de la propiedad del subsuelo de Eloisa Garcia Tamez para el dique y el muro fronterizo que divide sus tierras ancestrales, el gobierno de EE.UU. tendrá que convencer al juez federal Andrew S. Hanen que tiene el derecho a despojarla y para justificar que se requiere el subsuelo para la seguridad nacional.

El equipo legal de Tamez ya habían estado en diálogo con abogados del Departamento de Justicia de EEUU en los últimos meses para establecer las fechas para un juicio con jurado en el caso actual de Tamez. Simultáneamente a la solicitud de posesión inmediata, el gobierno propone un calendario de juicio con jurado que se extiende hasta mayo de 2014. Una declaración del abogado de la acusada, Peter Schey, que se presentó ante la corte el 15 de abril establece:

“El acordado Orden de Programación Propuesta establece fechas y el juicio bien hacia el futuro y no es claro por qué; el demandante no ha dado explicación de por qué necesita una orden de posesión inmediata para la pequeña franja de tierras adicionales implicadas en la moción actual.”

Mientras que EE.UU. tomó forzosamente las tierras de pueblos indígenas y otros pueblos vulnerables durante la primera ronda de la construcción del muro fronterizo en 2009, no tenía la autoridad para desposeer a Eloisa Garcia Tamez de sus derechos de propiedad del subsuelo, y la agresión del estado continua contra una dueña indígena de la propiedad con profundos lazos ancestrales a la tierra y su subsuelo.

Un comunicado emitido por Daniel Romero, Presidente del Consejo General de la Banda de Lipan Apaches de Texas (NDE) dice: "Pedimos que el gobierno de Obama y el Congreso incorporen las demandas del CERD [las Naciones Unidas] por una consulta apropiada y la consideración de los pueblos indígenas y comunidades de la región fronteriza. Solicitamos que el gobierno de EE.UU. incluya la solicitud de los pueblos Ndé [Lipan Apache] dentro de la reforma migratoria actual y nuestra propuesta de la política sobre tierras fronterizas la cual ha influenciado negativamente la forma de vida Ndé.”

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Lipan Apache Women Defense http://lipancommunitydefense.wordpress.com/

Lipan Apache Band of Texas http://www.lipanapachebandoftexas.com/

Immigration and Security: Further Encroachment of Border Wall on Indigenous Lands

Contact:

Lawdefense1@gmail.com

Press Release – For Immediate Release

April 30:

US Government will bring Indigenous Woman in Texas back to court;

Government seeks to immediately seize more property for US-Mexico Border Wall

Immigration and Security: Further Encroachment of Border Wall on Indigenous Lands

Brownsville, Texas – April 26, 2013 – Defendant Eloisa Garcia Tamez is going back to federal court April 30, 2013 against the United States government. In an attempt to win immediate possession of Eloisa Garcia Tamez’s sub-surface property beneath the levee and the border wall which bisects her ancestral property, the U.S. government will have to convince Federal District Judge Andrew S. Hanen that it has the right to dispossess her and to justify that the subsurface is required for national security.

Tamez’s legal team had already been in dialogue with the U.S. Department of Justice attorneys in recent months to establish a timeline for a jury trial on Tamez’s current case. Simultaneous to the request for immediate possession, the government is proposing a jury trial schedule which extends through May of 2014.

A declaration from the defendant’s attorney Peter Schey submitted to the court April 15 states:

“The agreed upon Proposed Scheduling Order sets deadlines and trial in this cause well into the future and it is unclear why, and plaintiff has failed to explain why, it requires an immediate Order of possession on the small strip of additional land involved in its present motion.”

While the U.S. forcibly took Indigenous and other vulnerable peoples' lands for the first round of border wall construction in 2009, it did not have the authority to dispossess Eloisa Garcia Tamez of her subsurface property rights, and the state aggression continues against an Indigenous property owner with deep ancestral ties to that land and what lies beneath.

 

A statement issued by Daniel Romero, General Council Chairman for the The Lipan Apache Band of Texas (Ndé) states:

 “We ask that the Obama Administration and Congress to incorporate [the United Nations] the CERD’s demands for proper consultation and consideration of the Indigenous peoples and communities of the borderlands region. We request that the U.S. Government be inclusive of Ndés’ [‘Lipan Apache peoples’ ] request in current immigration reform and our proposal of the border lands policies that have negatively influenced the Ndé way of life.”

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Lipan Apache Women Defense http://lipancommunitydefense.wordpress.com/

Lipan Apache Band of Texas http://www.lipanapachebandoftexas.com/

Migrant Death Rate on Arizona Border More than Double in Two Years While DHS Plans Expansion of Deadly Criminalization Policies

For Immediate Release
January 24, 2012
Contact: Kat Rodriguez: 520.770.1373

Arizona- Despite continued claims by the Department of Homeland Security that the number of migrant deaths has reached an all-time low, data show that the actual rate of migrant death on the Arizona border has actually almost doubled in the last two years. This information comes as DHS announces plans to eliminate voluntary removals and criminally prosecute, incarcerate, and formally deport all apprehended immigrants, a move that is clearly spurred by the need to boost detention numbers to justify a grossly bloated DHS budget.

While apprehension numbers do not provide an exact number of immigrants attempting to cross the border, academic research has illustrated that apprehension are highly correlated and fluctuate with true unauthorized migration flows (1). Using the numbers of U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions as a proxy for migration flow, along with the number of human remains recovered on the border, we are able to generate an approximate "migrant death rate."

As a point of comparison, in 2009, the number of recovered human remains of those believed to be border crossers was 183. The number of apprehensions reported by the Border Patrol in the Tucson sector was 241,673. Thus, it can be said that for every 100,000 apprehensions, there were 75.72 human remains recovered on the Arizona border.

In 2011, the number of recovered human remains of border crossers was also 183. However, reported apprehensions for the Tucson sector dropped dramatically that year, to 123,285. Ultimately, for every 100,000 apprehensions, the remains of 148.43 migrants were recovered; nearly double the rate of 2009.

Since 2000, the remains of more than 2,300 migrants have been recovered on the Arizona, and at least 6,000 border-wide. The continued policies of criminalization of working men and women, coupled with the strategy of funneling migration further into the harsh Arizona desert, has resulted in a human rights crisis that has been denounced by local, national, and international communities.

Claiming credit for the decrease in migration, which is in fact the result of the poor economy, DHS's plan to dramatically increase the criminalization of migrant workers is irresponsible. Such a policy will ultimately result in forcing more people through non-regularized forms of migration while boosting the budgets of private detention centers such as CCA and contracted companies such as Geo Group, whose budgets depend specifically on the criminalization, detention and deportation of migrants, and who have long been included in the biggest lobbyists for longer and harsher sentencing for immigrants.

The failure of the Obama Administration to acknowledge the impact of deadly border policies and the appalling position of increasing the enforcement regime is reprehensible. In this heated election year, it is particularly insulting to Latino families that political leaders jockey to outdo each other on anti-immigrant and blatantly anti-Mexican rhetoric, while at the same time strategize on how to secure the Latino vote. Democrats and Republicans alike should be advised that this hypocrisy has not gone unnoticed by Latino communities, and they can expect no less than to harvest what the seeds of their xenophobia and racism will yield them.

Currently, the number of remains recovered in Arizona from October through December of 2011 is 45, already exceeding of the number recovered last year during the same timeframe. 82% are currently unidentified. 55% are of unknown gender, meaning that not enough of their bodies were recovered to establish gender. 73% are skeletal remains, a result of the federal border strategy of forcing them into the most isolated and remote areas of the border. While Arizona continues to be viewed as a "battleground state" by political and economic forces, the real battle is being waged around the issue of dignity and justice, with human beings as the casualties of greed and division.

1. Espenshade, Thomas J. (1995b). "Unauthorized Immigration to the United States." Annual Review of Sociology. Vol. 21, Pp. 195-216.

The complete list of recovered remains is available on the Coalición de Derechos Humanos website: http://www.derechoshumanosaz.net. This information is available to anyone who requests it from us and is used by our organization to further raise awareness of the human rights crisis we are facing on our borders.

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