The Migrant and Refugee Solidarity Coalition in San Diego made an International Call to Action for a Day of Solidarity with the Refugee Caravan and Central American Exodus. Dozens of organizations around our region and worldwide endorsed the Call to Action and demonstrations were held in eleven cities across the USA on November 25, 2018. Emergency support for the temporary shelters in Tijuana and in San Diego is being mobilized. 

 

Cities which participated in the November 25 Day of Solidarity with Central American Refugees

 
Over 600 people demonstrated solidarity on the San Diego side of the border wall and demanded demilitarization of our border communities and respect for the human rights of refugees and immigrants. Simultaneously thousands of people protested on the Tijuana side of the border wall, demanding that the Trump regime obey international and U.S. refugee law and stop blocking asylum seekers from entering the USA.

International Call to Action for the Refugee Caravan and Central American Exodus

As thousands of our refugee relatives—children, elders, brothers, sisters, LGBTQI+ siblings and people with disabilities—make their way to the border, we are calling for an International Day of Action in Solidarity with the Caravan and Exodus from Central America on Sunday, November 25th, 2018. We, the San Diego Migrant and Refugee Solidarity Coalition, composed of migrant rights and social justice groups, invite individuals and organizations across the country and globe to organize demonstrations in their cities, and if they have the capacity, to join our rally and march to the border.  

We call for an action on November 25th to commemorate the anniversary of the 2017 Honduran election stolen by the US government-backed, right-wing military dictator Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH). We are demonstrating on this day to acknowledge and draw attention to the current social and political crises driving the exodus from Central America. We understand that these crises—drug wars, military coups, destruction of indigenous lands for the benefit of corporations, and environmental catastrophe in the region—are all symptoms of US foreign policy, corporate profiteering and war-making.

Moreover, we see that the Trump administration is creating a warlike atmosphere against the caravan. It should be clear that they are not just acting with the support of a cabinet of white supremacists and a majority GOP in the Senate but are also emboldened by the last few decades of bipartisan militarization of the border, mass raids, expansion of for-profit detention centers, and mass deportations—with more than 2.5 million migrants under Obama and Trump alone. Further, these policies are a continuation of a long history of anti-Indigenous colonial violence and genocide.

These attacks have been complemented by decades of pushback against the migrants’ rights movement and years of terror against all who participated in the mega marches for Migrant’s Rights back in 2006 and since. We must continue to build and consolidate our gains no matter how large or small.

Legal precedent, “civility,” regard for life: the administration has no respect for any of it. The only thing that it responds to is resistance from below.

           The US government, as with all governments, and the people of the United States have a choice: We can reject the humanity of the refugees and buy into the racist anti-migrant rhetoric of the Administration and the media. OR, we can do what humans have an obligation to do and what the US government owes the people of Central America: insist on allowing all the refugees the right to seek asylum!

Demands

1. Respect for the right of asylum for all members of the Central American Exodus. Stop the profiling and criminalization of refugees; lift the executive order limiting access to asylum.
2. Process all asylum claims made at Ports of Entry with expediency. We reject Custom and Border Protection’s claim that Port of Entries lack capacity to let in refugees. We also reject the shift away from decades of international asylum agreements that allow for requests to be made anywhere on the border.
3. The US government must publicly acknowledge a) its role in Honduran Coup in 2009, b) that the Honduran government is a US supported dictatorship, and c) recognize the political and social crises throughout Central America as caused by US foreign policy.
4. Call for international solidarity beyond the US and Mexico. The United Nations and Red Cross must also recognize the Humanitarian crisis at the US/Mexico Border.
5. We demand freedom for incarcerated migrants now and free movement for asylum seekers. No incarceration of migrants in shelters or for-profit detention centers.
6. No impunity for governments that violate international asylum agreements and processes. Prosecute officials who violate the human right to seek asylum in any country of their preference.

 

 

Endorsing Organizations:

Activist San Diego

Af3irm SD

AIM OTIPEMISIWAK

American Friends Service Committee

American Federation of Teachers, Local 1931

American Indian Movement Southern California

Anakbayan San Diego

Alíanza de Salvadoreños Retornados

Asamblea de Solidaridad con México – País Valencià

Binational Conference Organizing Committee

Binational Conference on Border Issues Organizing Committee

Border Angels, San Diego

Brown Beret National Organization and all Texas Brown Berets

Caravan Support Network

California for Progress

Campus Antifascist Network

CARECEN

Centro Cultural De la Raza

Center for Interdisciplinary Environmental Justice

Center for the Advanced Study of American Institutions and Social Movements

Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft

Coalición Fronteriza de Centro Americanxs

Colectivo Zapatista

Colectivo Somos Migrantes – España

Colectivo Ollin Calli Tijuana

Defend Boyle Heights

Democratic Autonomous Federation

Democratic Socialists of America- San Diego Chapter

Democrat Socialists of America

Employee Rights Center  (ERC)

Enclave Caracol

Enclave Caracol TJ

Enlace

Food Not Bombs

Freedom Road Socialist Organization

Halifax in Solidarity with the Migrant Caravan

Honduro-Canada Solidarity Community

Human Rights Alliance for Child Refugees and Families

Immigrant Justice League

International Socialist Organization

Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) San Diego Local 13

Indivisible (Normal Heights/Hillcrest, San Diego)

Jews for Palestinian Right of Return

John Brown Prisoner Solidarity Project

La Diáspora Hondureña

Labor for Palestine

Las Luchonas

Leonard Peltier Defense Committee

Legalization 4 All

Mark Brazil

Migrante San Diego

Movimiento Cosecha

Mujeres en Resistencia Chicago

Mujeres en Resistencia- San Diego

New Indicator Collective – newindicator.org

No Space for Hate

Otay Mesa Detention Resistance

Our Revolution SoCal OC

Palestinian Youth Movement-San Diego

Party For Socialism and Liberation

PSL Salt Lake – Party for Socialism and Liberation

People over Profits- SD

Pueblo Sin Fronteras

QTPOC colectivo

Raices sin Fronteras

Racial Justice Coalition

San Diego Committee Against Police Brutality

San Diego County Central Committee of the Peace and Freedom Party

SAN DIEGO BORDER DREAMERS

San Diego Workers World Party

San Diego Ground Zero Players

School of the Americas Watch-L.A.

Showing Up for Racial Justice, San Diego

Stop Tribal Genocide

Students for Justice in Palestine, San Diego

Students for Justice in Palestine @ UCSD

The Coalition to Free Mumia Abu Jamal and All Political Prisoners

The Freedom Socialist Party

Transfronterizx Alliance Student Organization (TASO) UCLA

UMAS y MEXA de CU Boulder

Union Del Barrio

Union de Vecinos

Undocutravelers

Uaptsd San Diego Copwatch

Veterans for Peace, San Diego

Veterans for Peace, Chapter 72 Portland, OR

Veterans For Peace (national)

Women’s Labor Network

Women Occupy San Diego

43 San Diego

Map: Imperial Valley Press

The current international border between Mexico and the USA actually runs through the middle of the land of the Kumeyaay Nation. No treaty has ever been ratified by the U.S. Senate regarding any land being ceded by the Kumeyaay Nation.

by National Lawyers Guild
November 20, 2018

TIJUANA, Mexico—Since last Thursday, a Central American exodus of 4,000-5,000 asylum seekers have been arriving at the Tijuana/San Ysidro Port of Entry. The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and Al Otro Lado (AOL) are mobilizing legal support on both sides of the border to help protect and uphold the human rights of these refugees fleeing violence and political crisis.

The NLG and AOL are calling on attorneys, law students, and other legal workers to travel to the border and volunteer to Legal Observe (LO) refugee arrivals, lead know your rights trainings, and staff legal clinics. Volunteers must already be trained NLG Legal Observers, have some proficiency in Spanish, and above all, practice cultural sensitivity and remain aware of their privileged status as a guest in a space in which families are fighting for their lives.

On the Mexican side of the border in Tijuana, the first priority for volunteers is to ensure that particularly vulnerable people are allowed access to the Port of Entry to make their claim for asylum. We also will be expanding legal rights presentations in shelters immediately and anticipate a constant need for attorneys and legal workers for three or more months. Volunteers may sign up at this form, and by doing so acknowledge that you are participating at your own risk. For questions, please contact volunteer@alotrolado.org.

“The US government’s refusal to prepare to receive refugees, which it knew about for some time, has created a humanitarian crisis in Tijuana and other Mexican border cities. It is inconceivable that a government, one arguably among the most powerful and wealthiest in the world, chose to install barbed wire and soldiers in place of developing strategies and spaces to process refugees expeditiously, and with the human dignity that all human beings deserve. This response greatly diminishes the United States’ reputation as a champion for human rights,” said Al Otro Lado Border Rights Project Director Nicole Ramos.

Multiple NLG entities are contributing to the effort, including our International and Mass Defense Committees. The National Immigration Project of the NLG is also lining up volunteer immigration attorneys. Local NLG chapters in California including Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, and San Diego will be ready to provide legal support on the US side, building upon work done during the previous migrant caravan with Pueblo Sin Fronteras that arrived in April earlier this year.

“On our 2016 Mexican delegation, we interviewed migrants from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, who described their harrowing journeys of rape, robbery and murder. These refugees have an absolute right to come to the US under US and International law,” said NLG member Jose Luis Fuentes.

In addition, the Military Law Task Force (MLTF) of the NLG condemns the deployment of US military forces to the border in what MLTF Executive Director Kathleen Gilberd calls “an immoral and illegitimate use of US troops.”

Says Michael Galvan, NLG Queer Caucus Co-Chair: “My work with the caravan exodus began when a contingent of about 70+ LGBTQ persons split off and arrived in Tijuana sooner than most had anticipated. I’m amazed by the folks in the caravan, who though frustrated and tired, are showing tremendous patience, gratitude, and determination.”

# # #

Al Otro Lado is a bi-national, direct legal services organization serving indigent deportees, migrants, and refugees in Tijuana, Mexico.

The National Lawyers Guild, whose membership includes lawyers, legal workers, jailhouse lawyers, and law students, was formed in 1937 as the United States’ first racially-integrated bar association to advocate for the protection of constitutional, human and civil rights.

Contact: communications@nlg.org, 212-679-5100, ext. 15

 

Mass extinctions, global warming and nuclear weapons are growing threats not only to organized human life, but even to much of life on the planet. Noam Chomsky was recently interviewed by Democracy Now! (broadcast November 2 and 5). He talked about the most recent news and science.

“We have to make decisions now which will literally determine whether organized human life can survive in any decent form. You can just imagine what the world would be like if the sea level rises, say, 10 or 20 feet or even higher, which is within the range—easily within the range of predictions. I mean, the consequences are unimaginable. But it’s as if we’re kind of like the proverbial lemmings just happily marching off the cliff, led by leaders who understand very well what they’re doing, but are so dedicated to enriching themselves and their friends in the near future that it simply doesn’t matter what happens to the human species. There’s nothing like this in all of human history. There have been plenty of monsters in the past, plenty of them. But you can’t find one who was dedicated, with passion, to destroying the prospects for organized human life. Hitler was horrible enough, but not that.”

Nothing that people have done until now has succeeded in eliminating the existential threats of nuclear weapons and mass extinctions and global warming. What can we do?

AN OPEN FORUM: Extinction or Revolution?

New Indicator is asking individuals and organizations to contribute your answers to “what can we do?” New Indicator wants to contribute to ongoing improvement of movement theory and action and effectiveness, by asking you these questions and by publishing your answers here. We will not edit your writing without your prior written consent.

Please write to info@newindicator.org