For Immediate Release: Emergency National Delegation Calls for an End to the Violence at U.S.-Mexico Border

From: "Arnoldo Garcia" <agarcia@nnirr.org>
To: <agarcia@nnirr.org>
Subject: For Immediate Release: Emergency National Delegation Calls for an End to the Violence at U.S.-Mexico Border
Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 09:41:01 -0700

For Immediate Release
June 20, 2006

Launch National Dialogue to Develop Alternatives to End Border Militarization

Members of National Border Community Tour Call for an End to the Violence at U.S.-Mexico Border

Contact:
Arnoldo Garcia, (510) 465-1984 ext. 305, agarcia@nnirr.org
Isabel Garcia, Alexis Mazon, and Kat Rodriguez, (520) 770-1373

(Tucson, AZ--Oakland,CA) After spending three days of intense visits and conversations with community leaders, organizations and migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, members of the national delegation participating in the "Emergency National Border Justice & Solidarity Community Tour" (see list of participants at end) expressed their shock and dismay at the life-threatening situation facing border communities and migrants as a result of deliberate U.S. border control policies and strategies forcing migrants to cross through the desert.

Organized by the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights with the Tucson-based Coalicion de Derechos Humanos, the "Emergency National Border Justice & Solidarity Community Tour" brought a forty-five member delegation to witness first-hand the impacts of border militarization in Douglas, Tucson and Nogales, Arizona and their counterparts in Mexico, Agua Prieta, Nogales, Altar and Sasabe, Sonora, June 15-18, 2006.

National delegation members are calling for an end to the border violence against communities and migrants and launching a national dialogue among communities of color, immigrants and working people to envision alternatives that would end the human rights crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.

"The border wall and militarization are a death sentence for migrants and ruthlessly devastates families and communities on both sides of the border," decried Ms. Monami Maulik, director of DRUM: Desis Rising Up & Moving based in New York. Ms. Maulik stressed, "The humanitarian crisis at the border is sending shock waves across our communities, fueling hate violence and anti-immigrant scapegoating. This state of affairs must end; it makes us more vulnerable to abuse and threatens our well-being and future everywhere."

Hailing from twelve states from across the U.S., including organizations from African American, Indigenous, Asian Pacific Island, Latino, Arab and South Asian communities, the emergency border community tour kicked off last Thursday June 15 by participating in the weekly vigil held for fallen migrants at the El Tiradito Shrine in Tucson. Delegation members joined local community members to honor the memory of fallen migrants, offering solidarity and condolences to the families who have had loved ones die and disappear in the desert.

Emergency border community tour members saw first-hand the dangerous journey migrants undertake as a result of official border control policies that deliberately forces them to risk their lives crossing the desert to reunite with their families and find work to survive. Border community tour members traveled to Agua Prieta --  Douglas, Arizona's border twin city in Mexico -- where they met with humanitarian aid and religious groups that put drinking water for migrants in the desert and provide shelter and assistance to those in distress. The national delegation spent the last day in Altar and Sasabe, Sonora in Mexico, talking with community groups, residents and migrants, retracing the route migrants use before crossing the border through the desert. Almost 5,000 migrant dead have been recovered at the U.S.-Mexico border since the current border control policies were first implemented in 1994, over half of these in Arizona.

Gerald Lenoir, from the Black Alliance for Just Immigration in California, described his visits and meetings with border community leaders, migrants and members of organizations as a "crash course" in the repressive border reality. Mr. Lenoir declared: "I now can see the total picture: the Migra and border violence, migrants risking their lives in 105 degree desert heat, and the devastation immigration border policies and immigration enforcement are inflicting on our communities across the country."

Supporting the emergency border community tour's call to for a national dialogue to end border militarization and anti-immigrant violence, Mr. Lenoir laid the blame at foot of the official U.S. border control policies for the deaths in the desert, stating, "Instead of making our border communities safe and protect the lives migrants, our border policies are causing untold suffering, mass rights abuses and migrant deaths. U.S. border policies are undermining our civil liberties and jeopardize public safety; they must end now and roll back militarization before it becomes too late."

Members of the Emergency National Border Justice & Solidarity Community Tour are calling for an immediate end to the deadly border militarization policies and strategies and in its place implement policies that would enhance the safety of border communities and protect migrants, including tearing down the walls, establishing accountability and oversight mechanisms for independent civilian and community-based monitoring and oversight.

The members of the emergency border community tour will be reporting back to their local communities to share what they saw and learned at the border. The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and the Coalicion de Derechos Humanos will be issuing a national report on the findings and recommendations of the Emergency National Border Justice & Solidarity Community Tour and propose next steps to unfold the national dialogue for a safe and just border for all.

DELEGATION MEMBERS
Emergency National Border Justice & Solidarity Community Tour
June 15-18, 2006 -- Arizona-Sonora at the U.S.-Mexico Border

Sponsored by the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights with
La Coalicion de Derechos Humanos

Fahd Ahmed, DRUM: Desis Rising Up & Moving, New York
Stephanie Anderson, Rights Working Group, Washington, D.C.
Ana Maria Archila, Latin American Integration Center, New York
Sung E Bai, CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, New York
Partha Banerjee, New Jersey Immigration Policy Network, New Jersey
Alejandra Bergemann, Fuerza Unida, Texas
Jo Ann Gutierrez Bejar, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, New Mexico
Mariana Bustamante, American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants' Rights Project, California
Jose Bravo, Just Transitions Alliance, California
Shiu-Ming Cheer, South Asian Network, California
Sheila Chung, Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition, California
Lillian Galedo, Filipinos for Affirmative Action, California
Arnoldo Garcia, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Isabel GarcIa, Coalicion de Derechos Humanos, Arizona
Tomas Garduno, Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice, New Mexico
Monica Hernandez, Highlander Center, Tennessee
Nancy Hormachea, American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, California
L. Patricia Ice, Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, Mississippi
Hamid Khan, South Asian Network, California
Hari Kondabolu, Hate Free Zone of Washington State
Gerald Lenoir, Black Alliance for Just Immigration, California
Che Lopez, Southwest Workers Union, Texas
Rafaela Lozano, Families for Freedom, New York
Monami Maulik, DRUM: Desis Rising Up & Moving, New York
Alexis Mazon, Coalicion de Derechos Humanos, Arizona
Ana Ochoa O'Leary, Fundacion Mexico, Arizona
Hector Perez, Just Transitions Alliance, California
Manuel Pino, Indigenous Environmental Network, Arizona
Ramsey el-Qare, American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, California
Salvador Reza, Tontatierra Centro Macehualli, Arizona
James Riding In, Pawnee Nation and repatriations expert
Kat Rodriguez, Coalicion de Derechos Humanos, Arizona
Rafael Samanez, Esperanza del Barrio, New York
Alessandra Soler Meetze, American Civil Liberties Union, Arizona
Hank Schwenckert, American Civil Liberties Union, Arizona

Naomi Swinton, Grassroots Leadership, North Carolina