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News1
Imagine the border between Mexico and the United States. Cyclone fence.
Cement. Abandoned train cars. Empty factories. Dollar stores. And a group of
immigrants marching down the street. Their shouts: “No somos terroristas” (We
are not terrorists!) “¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!” (The people united
will never be defeated!) Suddenly, a Border Patrol truck appears and... blocks
traffic to allow the immigrants to pass by.
This October 12, more than 200 men, women and children marched in El Paso, Texas
to demand justice, equality and human rights for Mexican immigrants in the
United States. The march was organized by members of the Border Network for
Human Rights who, along with ex braceros from the Farm Workers Union and
dispalced workers from the Border Workers Association, stayed home from work
this Tuesday to take back so-called "Columbus Day" and name it the "National Day
of Immigrants," with a public forum in the morning, a march at midday and a
cultural festival in the afternoon.
The immigrants march with joy: the braceros with their cowboy hats, the members
of the Border Network with colored flags painted with their thirteen points of
struggle: permanent residency, constitutional rights, labor rights, dignified
housing, education, health, nutrition, public services, culture and language,
political participation, human mobility, dignity and respect, and peace and
justice.
As they walk down the streets, sure of themselves, it is difficult to believe
that some of them do not have papers.
Defeating Fear
The Border Network for Human Rights (BNHR) began in the year 2000 with a very
definite goal: to stop abuse against Mexican immigrants on the border. Fernando
García, director of BNHR, says other social organizations existing at that time
in the El Paso region only fulfilled immediate needs without trying to detain
abuse, change practices or educate the immigrant community.
“Our organizing tool is not based on solving every one of our problems,"
explains the director. "The main tool is education about human rights and the
rights included in the U.S. Constitution." This is, he admits, very slow work.
When García arrived for the first time in El Paso in 1998, he worked with the
Immigration Law Enforcement Monitoring Project, a program under the Quaker
organization, American Friends Service Committee. There, he realized that many
times immigrants themselves did not know their own rights that were violated
daily. For example, they would run when they saw a Border Patrol, an action
which legally justified their detention, and they did not know that they could
remain silent when asked questions by an immigration agent.
This is how the Border Network began, with the idea of moving from monitoring
law enforcement toward organizing immigrant communities themselves. But when
they began to have meetings to inform people about their human rights, they
found that immigrants would only go to one meeting and never come back. BNHR's
director believes that this was due to the fact that they had not taken into
account the context of this community dominated by fear.
“What we are fighting is a history of oppression, racism and abuse that has
created a culture of fear and violence," he explains. "And that fear has taken
away the hope of the immigrant community that one day things will be better."
This began to change when BNHR began to move beyond simple talks and began to
prepare people to be their own human rights promoters. As promoters, immigrants
then created committees in their communities where they read the United States
Bill of Rights, learn about universal human rights, document abuse and organize
actions to stop it.
Fear is still present, but people are learning to defeat it. One example of this
is the fact that instead of paralyzing people, the anti-immigrant policies
imposed after September 11, 2001 moved immigrants to action. "Many social spaces
fell apart at that time, but that is when the Border Network grew most," says
García.
In December of each year, BNHR carries out a campaign to document abuse.
Promoters put up tables in public places like churches, schools and
supermarkets, as well as going house to house, to collect testimonies.
At the same time, representatives of BNHR travel regularly to dialogue with
legislators in Washington and Mexico City to ask congressmen of both countries
to promote more humane immigration policies.
Even the Border Patrol has now begun to recognize the value of dialogue with the
immigrant community. As Martina Morales, regional coordinator of BNHR in
Southern New Mexico, explains, raids in her region were greatly reduced after
December 5, 2003, when BNHR organized a community forum in Anthony, New Mexico,
for people to speak directly with Border Patrol authorities and report the
constant violations of their human rights.
Little by little, all the committees have managed to reduce the number of
serious abuses. According to BNHR documentation, illegal entries by immigration
agents into homes of immigrants have been reduced by seventy percent in
communities where committees exist.
Morales also recalls the first BNHR assembly in 2001. Beforehand, members spoke
with the local office of Immigration to announce that several buses full of
human rights promoters (many of them undocumented) would be arriving at the
Assembly, and they hoped no one would be detained. The buses arrived without
problems.
Another victory over fear is recalled by a promoter from the Human Rights
Committee in Vado, New Mexico. She relates how one day her son came home to tell
her that a man had asked him for his papers. He answered, "I don't know if you
are immigration or not. If you are, show me your identification. Because I know
my rights and I know I have the right to remain silent." They let him go.
Immigration policy still remains to be changed, but BNHR members no longer are
so afraid.
"Now no one runs," recognizes García.
Continual Abuse
In 2003, approximately 800 people from 250 families were registered in the
Border Network. There are human rights committee in diverse communities on the
border in East El Paso and Southern New Mexico: El Segundo Barrio, Vado, Las
Cruces, Sunland Park, Chaparral, Anthony, Montana Vista, Sparks, Agua Dulce,
Socorro, Berino and El Paso High.
In addition, a youth group made up of teenagers from these communities also
meets to learn about the Bill of Rights and talk about their own needs. In 2004,
they organized a summer camp where they painted a banner to represent the
thirteen points of struggle of BNHR, they met farm workers from the region and
wrote and performed skits about the constitutional amendments.
The majority of the communities where committees have been created are living in
extreme conditions. Vado, New Mexico, for example, is a community ambushed by
dust, where old trailers lie strewn without direction in the sand of the desert.
Families that work in a nearby dairy live here, and in some cases, the dairy
owner doubles as their landlord, renting them trailers for 250 dollars a month.
During the morning forum on October 12, the immigrants meet in the office of the
Farm Workers Union and one by one take the stand to speak about the conditions
in which their communities live. They speak before a panel made up of a
representative from the Mexican consulate, a civil rights lawyer,
representatives from local dioceses, a representative of a local congressman and
two social workers. This panel is unique in that it is not here to speak, but
only to listen to the word of the immigrants.
The most frequent abuse reported by the communities is that local police demand
papers when they detain people for speeding or some other traffic violation,
even when they are not authorized to do so. "We have read many laws and we know
that this is illegal," sustains a member from the Committee of United Immigrants
in Montana Vista, Texas.
But the reports go beyond abuse by police and immigration agents. The young
people announce they want access to scholarships to go to college, be able to
work and help their families. "Today, the only thing we can do is work in
agriculture and other jobs where we would be paid minimum wage," states Paola
Rodríguez, from Montana Vista.
One promoter from Vado explains, "Many young people do not go to high school
because of discrimination and gangs. They get disillusioned because they say
they will never go to college." Some young children have been denied entry into
public elementary schools, reports a member from Montana Vista, whose six
year-old nephew was kept out of school for a year because he did not have
papers.
Othón Miranda, confined to a wheelchair because of meningitis, needs medicine to
control his convulsions, but he does not have medical insurance. Although his
mother and stepfather both are citizens, he has been waiting for his papers for
more than seven years with no answer.
The lack of health services is a serious problem, not only because of
non-existent medical insurance for undocumented people, but also because of the
conditions in which these people live and work. Another participant in the
forum, Natalia Gutiérrez from Sunland Park, New Mexico, denounces that their is
a garbage dump next to an elementary school in her community and no authority
has done anything to remove it, although several children on both sides of the
border nearby have shown signs of allergies and respiratory problems.
The Thirteen Points
At the end of the day on October 12, the immigrants, exhausted after their
march, intone their anthem in an old abandoned factory where the BNHR offices
are held. It is the old tune "De Colores," but with new lyrics: “Inmigrantes,
inmigrantes son los compañeros que vienen de afuera…” (Immigrants, immigrants
are the brothers and sisters who come from afar...)
Since 2001, all Border Network decisions are made in assembly, by unanimous
agreement of all the members. During the 2002, assembly, committees brought
together the needs of their communities and formulated thirteen points that are
now read on the flags that this October 12 flew through the main streets of El
Paso, Texas.
“Our work will not finish until all thirteen points are met," declares Martina
Morales. That means, she explains, that their goal will not be met by a
presidential election or mere legalization, but that they will have to continue
struggling for a dignified life for all immigrants.
The Constitutional amendments are used in the Border Network as a tool of
protection and defense. Even those members who are citizens declare they did not
really know about the amendments before entering BNHR. "I didn't know anything
about the Constitution, only the pledge allegiance to the flag," points out Lulu
Hernández, a member of BNHR born in Texas.
Paola Rodríguez, a sophomore in high school and one of the most active young
people in BNHR, explains, "In school they teach you about the Bill of Rights and
you never learn them, because it is too hard. But at the Border Network summer
camp, we learned about our rights by acting them out."
However, the Border Network philosophy is not that rights come from the
Constitution or the U.N. According to their philosophy, rights arise from
communities themselves. Miguel Miranda, regional coordinator from East El Paso,
explains, "I tell the committees that I will help them as coordinator and
promoter. 'Come with me and I'll help talk with the authorities,' I say, 'but
you have to do your part, too. The right depends on you.'"
During the first activity that promoters use to sensitize their communities,
they ask participants to imagine that they are a community and they ask them,
"What are the human needs that we need to fulfill to have a dignified life?"
Answers are not hard to come by: a house with enough space for the whole family,
a well-paid job with good conditions, access to health and education. They are
then asked to draw these needs on paper. Finally, as a part of the activity, the
promoters take away their drawings, rip them up and throw them away.
“Do you think those were your rights?" they ask the participants, who have
remained speechless. "No. Those drawings represented your needs but they are not
your rights."
This activity, which can seem disconcerting at first, in truth reflects the
central idea of the Border Network for Human Rights: a right is that which is
defended. Neither God nor the government nor the director of BNHR can give
people their rights. It is the community itself that must defend them. Human
rights come from the needs of the community and not from an official paper.
When this activity is carried out for a second time, participants organize and
defend their rights together. Now, the drawings cannot be ripped apart so
easily.
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