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About Us
The Border Network for Human Rights’ general purpose is to facilitate the
education, the organizing and the participation of marginalized border
communities to defend and promote human and civil rights; to the end that these
communities work to create political, economic, and social conditions where
every human being is equal in dignity and rights.
The work of the BNHR is based primarily on three sources of rights. The most
important of these sources is the human needs and the experiences of the
impacted immigrant communities in the US. From here, BNHR utilizes the
principles and articles contained within the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights as well as the Constitution of the United States (particularly the Bill
of Rights - amendments 1,4,5,6, & 14) as a tool and as an important framework
for the education and eventual organizing of the members of those communities.
When community members are trained as Human Rights’ Promoters and when they
organize themselves into Human Rights’ Committees, immigrant rights are
included, defended and promoted within a larger and more complex struggle for
equality in dignity and rights.
The Human Rights organizing model that BNHR utilizes not only teaches immigrants
and marginalized border communities about their rights, but it builds on their
daily necessities and experiences as it creates a collective commitment to fight
for their rights. Part of BNHR work at the border and in other parts of the
United States is to play a lead role in creating a more democratic and
accountable society for all, especially for immigrants.
Early on in the organizing process members of the BNHR prioritized work on
legalization of undocumented communities and abuse of authority, but these
priorities were always placed in the larger context of human rights. BNHR
members developed a list of 13 community priorities central to the permanent
work of BNHR. These 13 fundamental priorities were developed through the direct
involvement and participation of communities and they specify the core issues
that affect the well-being and those that local communities defined as “basic
human rights.”
Permanent Residency (legalization)
Civil and Constitutional Rights
Labor Rights
Dignified Housing
Access to Education
Healthy Communities
Nutrition
Public Service
Culture and Language
Civic Community Participation
Human Mobility
Dignity and Respect
Peace and Justice.
These 13 basic Human Rights are a reflection of the communities that make up the
work and mission of the BNHR.
The organizing efforts of the Border Network for Human Rights have formed
directly and indirectly more than 20 Community-Based Committees for Human Rights
in impacted border and interior communities, specifically within immigrant
neighborhoods and Colonias, and have trained more the 100 human rights promoters
to coordinate the organizing within their immigrant communities. Also, BHNR has
more that 5 years experience using the testimonial documentation of abuses of
authority as an important tool for community organizing around the promotion and
defense of human rights along the U.S./Mexico Border. The BNHR has developed an
in-depth study of applicable national and international legal and regulatory
authorities that has been published as the Human Rights Abuse Documentation
Reference Manual. The BNHR organized the first grassroots campaigns to document
human rights violations and abuse of authority of law enforcement in border
areas on December of 2000, December 2002 and December 2003.
Currently, the Border Network for Human Rights (BNHR) focuses its organizing
work in immigrant communities of El Paso Colonias and in southern New Mexico
(Las Cruces, Anthony, Chaparral, Vado, Berino, etc.). BNHR is also supporting
initial organizing efforts with immigrant communities in the Rio Grande Valley,
Houston, Dallas, and New Jersey.
Throughout the work and history of the BNHR the success has been measured in
three important ways: are the communities more aware of their human and
constitutional rights; are those same communities utilizing their new knowledge
to defend and promote their rights in stemming the abuse of authority of one of
the many law enforcement agencies working the U.S./Mexico Border region; and
finally, are the voices of these community based human rights committees having
a positive impact at the state and national level when it comes to the
implementation of fair immigration reform policies. The constant challenge is to
collectively create a culture of human rights for the community as a whole, when
what we have is a culture of “legalized” abuse [of authority].
Within every region of the country, the BNHR is measuring its success by the
number of Human Rights Promoters and Human Rights Trainers organized and by the
number of active Human Rights Committees working towards their specific
objectives and goals. BNHR members will gauge their growth and accomplishments
by having their collective voices present in the push for fair and comprehensive
immigration reform at the state and federal level as well as in their constant
local work of defending and promoting their human and constitutional rights.
Both at the local, regional and at the national level, the consolidation process
of our education and organizing work (Promoters, trainers and committees) as
well as the carrying out of our objectives and goals (community participation in
the defense and the promotion of human rights, documentation of abuse of
authority, a fair and comprehensive immigration reform and equality in dignity
and respect) will be an evaluation method utilized to measure the success of the
work of the BNHR.
Problems and Issues to be addressed
Global poverty and inequality have increased so dramatically during the past 50
years to the point that many persons are forced to migrate simply as a means of
basic survival, let alone to grow and develop their potential. Ultimately, this
movement of people is an autonomous form of resistance against global injustice.
Respect for the rights of immigrants before, during and after the process of
migration is key in order to fulfill needs and uphold Human Rights. The United
States’ immigration policy and militaristic border control measures implemented
along the U.S.-Mexico border do not respect nor protect the fundamental human
rights. Instead, in the resulting culture of abuse and violence, migrants are
considered to be “less-than-human” and labeled “criminals” and even “national
security threats”.
The U.S. and other Latin-American governments actively collaborate to control
the number of migrants that enter the United States. Mexican and Central
American migrants who cross the southern U.S. border without documents face a
dangerous gauntlet in which they may be detained, beaten, and deported. In
addition, we observe what has been called the “globalization of repression,”
that is, law enforcement officers in the U.S. and Mexico are engaged in similar
practices, which limit the human rights of border residents and border crossers,
especially in the aftermath of September 11. Law enforcement officers regularly
stop U.S. and Latin American citizens within their respective countries to
request their identification and immigration documents, violating basic
constitutional rights in both countries as well as the universal human right of
mobility. Therefore, persons who “look Mexican,” regardless of their
nationality, are particularly vulnerable and exposed to an array of human rights
violations.
All of the work of the BNHR takes place within geographical regions and within a
collective national moment that sees and treats immigrants as less than human,
as criminals and as “threats to our national security.” Operating simultaneously
within this reality, we are constantly being reminded by current and previous
administrations that immigrants built this country and that the United States is
a country that values freedom, rights and its democratic principles. This
duality impacts immigrant communities in every conceivable manner imaginable as
well as it confronts the very real limitations of the national rhetoric and our
national laws meant to protect us when it comes to the right of persons to be
free from random searches and detentions in their homes, their places of worship
and employment and in their schools; to the right of mobility of people; the
right to a stable job and a living wage; and to fair and comprehensive
immigration policy reforms, etc.
Goals, Objectives and Values of BNHR
BNHR especially sustain the vision of engaging communities in a process of
forming immigrant human rights committees to work in the short term toward
immigration policy changes, which would recognize the contributions and rights
of immigrants. Additionally, BNHR puts a special emphasis in strengthening the
collective voice of border communities, which are being impacted by “war and
national security policies” that undermine human and constitutional rights.
Also, BNHR attempts to increased public awareness around the promotion and
defense of the human rights and for the implementation of a new legalization
program for undocumented immigrants.
BNHR has prioritize its organizing strategies to impact major policy changes in
two well-linked issues impacting border communities in particular and immigrant
communities nation-wide. Those two General Goals are:
To promote, protect and defend human and civil rights in the immigration law
enforcement context, in particular, in the process of border enforcement. This
includes the review of the current anti-terrorism and interior and border
control strategies on the U.S./Canada/Mexico border and other major entry
points.
Specific Objectives
* To contribute to the developing regional and national debate to define
Guidelines for Law Enforcement Accountability, especially for those agencies
involved in immigration law enforcement.
* To promote the creation of mechanisms such as independent Civilian Oversight
Committees to receive, investigate, and process possible violations of human and
civil rights by law enforcement agencies.
To advocate for the implementation of a broad and comprehensive legalization
program for all nationalities of undocumented immigrants and their families that
live in the United States as well as to establish legal mechanisms that to
legalize future migratory flows.
Specific Objectives
* To articulate the needs of undocumented immigrants of border communities to
bring to the national attention the need for comprehensive immigration policy
reform that will recognize the economic, social and human contribution of more
than 8 million undocumented immigrants.
To raise awareness to the needs of migrant communities to establish a permanent
program that guarantees migrants’ right of entry, right to employment, and right
to permanent residency.
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