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.