Reprinted with permission of Veterans for Peace vfp@veteransforpeace.org
A present-day Guatemala City mural memorializes deposed President Jacobo Árbenz and his historic land reforms. Credit: Soman via Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 2.5
Veterans For Peace strongly condemns Trump’s ‘zero tolerance’ immigration policy, the imprisonment of children, and criminalization of undocumented immigrants. Our immigration laws and enforcement tactics have long been at a crisis point and we are now witnessing even more draconian enforcement and criminalization of people seeking refuge.
Veterans For Peace recognizes that these orders did not happen in a vacuum, but represent a long history of racist and violent policy that has perpetuated U.S. wars across the world and horrific domestic policy that created ICE, massive immigration detention centers and a wall that already splits towns and separates friends and families. However, the Trump administration has escalated, at an alarming pace, the implementation of new dangerous measures. President Trump is moving to fulfill on the promises of his campaign that caused an upsurge of hateful sentiment in our nation and spurred a rise in fear and anger.
Veterans For Peace understands that this outrageous abuse of refugee children and their parents is an extension of historic and current U.S. intervention in Central America. The U.S. government conducts military interventions, orchestrates coup d’etats, and supports oligarchs and dictators. The CIA, NED and USAID pursues regime change for any Latin American government that will not bow to U.S. economic exploitation of their land and their people. This too must end. It is time for the U.S. to have a just foreign policy that treats our neighbors with fairness and compassion.
At a time when refugees who are fleeing U.S.-sponsored violence are being branded as criminals, rapists and terrorists, and as anti-immigrant rhetoric continues to poison the public discourse, it is important for people of conscience to take a stand and to offer a different narrative.
Instead of welcoming refugees as required under international humanitarian standards, the U.S. government is treating individuals and families fleeing to the U.S. as if they are criminals, imprisoning them for profit. Moreover, the U.S. “solution” to the so-called child migrant crisis has been to further militarize the borders of Mexico and Central America and to jail families indefinitely.
We need to build grassroots power to challenge the racist status quo and we need to take action. We applaud those who have already taken action across the country, from Portland to D.C. We can not remain silent about the connections between militarized U.S. foreign policy and the reasons why people flee here for their lives.
[New Indicator recommends that readers also become familiar with the racist origins of ALL immigration and naturalization laws in the USA. A simple place to start could be Wikipedia. See the article on the History of laws concerning immigration and naturalization in the United States.]
Anti-war marchers at Copley Square on their way to Boston Common to protest U.S. military involvement in El Salvador, on March 21, 1981. Photo by John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty
Protestors at the Federal Office Building in San Diego. June, 25, 2018.
International Day of Solidarity with the J20 Defendants
Monday, June 25 was an international day of action in solidarity with the J20 defendants, arrested in Washington, D.C., on January 20, 2017. On J20, 230 people were mass arrested on felony charges during demonstrations against Donald Trump’s Inauguration. Most have been acquitted or had charges dropped, but 44 still face trial.
The IWW rallies at a US consulate in Toronto. Photo source: It’s Going Down.
In San Diego 30 people protested Monday at the north entrance of the Federal Office Building, at 880 Front Street, during the lunch hours of 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Many federal workers and officials and members of the public take lunch breaks at the cafeteria here while doing business at the federal building. Room 6293 of the Federal Office Building is the main office for the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney’s Office Southern District of California. Federal court buildings are next door. The protest was organized by the IWW San Diego Local 13.
The international day of action was called on June 6, 2018 by the North American IWW General Executive Board and Defend J20 Resistance:
“For over a year, the US has been pressing felony charges–including “riot,” “inciting a riot,” and “conspiracy to riot”–against protesters who were arrested at the inauguration of Donald Trump. After a revelation that they had been withholding evidence from the defense, federal prosecutors dropped all charges against 10 defendants last week, including against members of our union. Today, the second J20 trial ended in a mistrial for three defendants and full acquittal for a fourth.
“The state is reeling from this defeat, and lashing out like a wounded animal as it retreats. 44 defendants are still awaiting trial. The hour is late; the time to act in their defense is now. We are calling for an international day of action in solidarity with the J20 defendants on Monday, June 25th….”
See the full call to action at https://iww.org/content/solidarity-actions-j20-defendants
For more background information on the J20 case:
June 25th Day of Solidarity Sees Action in 5 Countries
Report from Toronto. June 25th J20 Solidarity Day:
Report from National Lawyers Guild:
Second J20 Trial Ends with No Convictions, Prosecutor Hiding Evidence
Statement of Solidarity with J20 Defendants
Statement of Unity and Non-Cooperation
J20 Trial: 200 Inauguration Protestors, Journalists & Observers Face Riot Charges from Mass Arrest
