Announcing BorderLinks New Education Director

With utmost excitement, BorderLinks gives a warm welcome to our new Co-Director and Director of Education, Ren Manning!

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Dear BorderLinks Community,

I am honored to join this incredible organization. As an organizer, educator, and artist, I am deeply committed to transformation and migrant justice. I grew up in New Mexico and have lived in Arizona for 9 years. Experiences within international struggles for liberation in Tucson, New York City, Guatemala, México, and Maasailand, Kenya have profoundly influenced me. I graduated from Prescott College with a BA in Social Movement Studies and a MA in Social Justice and Human Rights. At Prescott College, I taught courses in US/Mexico Border Studies, Anti-Racist Organizing, Landscapes of Neoliberalism, and Art & Agency in the Borderlands.

Organizing projects I have contributed to include the Freedom Education Fund, a full ride scholarship for undocumented students at Prescott College; Keep Prescott Together, a Northern AZ deportation defense network; research on US involvement in global border militarization for Todd Miller’s Empire of Borders; and work within faith-based, political, and community organizations. I also serve on the Board of the Unitarian Universalist Justice Arizona Network, write, and perform drag.

I look forward to engaging in critical learning and action with each of you in the future.

Adelante,

Ren

Ren has big shoes to fill as they replace our dear colleague Rocío (formerly Cathie) Pacheco who lead the Education Department for three years. Rocío provided critical leadership to the organization throughout a variety of transitions and was instrumental in shaping the values and culture here at BorderLinks. We owe much to Rocío and wish them the best as they offer their wisdom and leadership to their home community in Los Angeles, CA.

EVENT: The Dispossessed Book Discussion with John Washington—October 28, 2020

Join us for a discussion with John Washington, former BorderLinks delegation leader and author of The Dispossessed: A Story of Asylum at the U.S. Border and Beyond. His book explores the history of asylum while telling the story of twenty-four year old Salvadoran asylum seeker Arnovis.

WHEN: OCTOBER 28, 2020, 2:00PM PST / 5:00PM EST

WHERE: VIRTUAL (VIA ZOOM)

COST: FREE!

MORE INFO & RSVP HERE

BorderLinks Celebrates DACA Victory

BorderLinks joins millions across the nation in celebrating the victory of the Supreme Court ruling against the Trump Administration’s attack on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program. We are pleased to see that the Court determined that the termination of the program did not follow proper protocols. We stand in solidarity with all in the DACAmented community who were cruelly targeted by an administration that has sought to criminalize and disenfranchise it. With this ruling, a weight of uncertainty has been lifted.

We recognize the incredible amount of work over many years that has led to this day. The victory is the hard-won efforts of thousands of youth who have been the heart and soul of this movement, literally putting bodies on the line to bring their stories forward and demand justice. The courage, spirit and fire has been an inspiration, and has challenged movement work to push beyond typical boundaries. This is a hard won and well-deserved victory for all who have fought for (im)migrant justice.

BorderLinks joins in the call for full and permanent protections for DACA recipients, their families and all in the (im)migrant communities who have been systematically disenfranchised by U.S. border and immigration policies. DACA is a temporary program, and the U.S. must recognize the need for structural change that is not subject to the whims of those in power.

The struggle for justice continues. As a border organization that sees firsthand the effects of racist and xenophobic policies, we also wish to raise up the plight of those in detention under horrifying conditions, particularly in the midst of the global pandemic of Covid-19. Further, recognizing the interconnectedness of diverse anti-racist struggles, we express our complete and unqualified support for everyone who has taken action in this latest wave of the Black Lives Matter movement. The police, who, from Minneapolis to Tucson, disproportionately abuse, incarcerate, and kill Black people, are the same institution that routinely hands undocumented community members over to immigration enforcement. We are inspired beyond words by the courage and determination of this movement’s participants, and we express our intense grief and anger at the deaths of so many Black people in the United States at the hands of law enforcement. With this in mind, we pledge to continue to raise awareness, challenge oppression of all marginalized communities, and work towards justice.

COVID-19 IMPACT AND RESPONSE

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Since 1987, BorderLinks has worked through a place-based dynamic educational experience with visiting delegations to connect divided communities, raise awareness about the impact of border and immigration policies, and inspire informed action for social transformation and justice. 

We remain committed to facilitating the sharing of experiential knowledge from the borderlands. However, our first order of action is to do our part to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus and protect our staff, community partners, and program participants. In keeping with our values-driven mission, we have closed our offices, dormitories, kitchen, and meeting spaces.

Spring and early summer are typically the busiest season for BorderLinks—delegations from high schools, universities, and faith communities flock to BorderLinks’ home in Tucson, AZ during this time to take part in our unique educational programming. This year is going to be different. As of today, we’ve confirmed 18 official cancellations or postponements. This represents about 30% of our annual delegations and 23% of our annual revenue. Our losses are currently over $160,000. Nonetheless, we remain committed to doing all we can to retain all staff at full capacity as long as possible (hopefully throughout the remainder of the pandemic) so that the economic burden we are facing is not placed on the shoulders of our employees. 

While the BorderLinks office is closed, our staff is presently working full-time at full pay. We are, in fact, working hard to convert workshops and established curriculum as well as to create new content for a virtual format. While we know there is no substitute for experiencing, first-hand, the realities of the borderlands, we are committed to continuing to work with our community partners to create critically-informed and creative educational content from and about the borderlands. We also remain as committed as ever to our community partners. Just last week Chukson Water Protectors borrowed the BorderLinks van to deliver food and supplies to elders in their community and we donated much of our store of food toward this effort. 

We know you will understand our sense of urgency to do our part to keep our communities safe and healthy. While we cannot yet know the full impact of COVID-19 on our communities and our nation, we do know that communities who are already vulnerable—(im)migrants, refugees, asylees, the undocumented—are more at risk from exposure to the virus, are less likely to have access to heath care and health insurance, and more likely to suffer during an economic downturn. We encourage you to stay connected and attuned locally to the needs expressed by vulnerable communities and those who serve them.

We ask that you please keep BorderLinks in mind as you look for ways to give your support. We will be sharing more information soon about the fundraising campaigns we’ll be conducting to help us make it through these tough times and ensure the mission of BorderLinks moves forward.

For now, stay strong in body and spirit and know we will get through this together. ¡Juntos si se puede!

PDF Download of this statement

Ways to respond to family separation

As the heart-wrenching consequences of the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” border policy have come to light, in particular the separation of children from their parents, we have been gratified by the surge in public awareness and action across the country and world. Many of you have contacted us, asking what can be done.  Here's some information that you might find helpful.

Migrant-justice advocates have been tirelessly pointing out that Trump’s June 20th executive order didn't reverse the zero-tolerance policy of criminally prosecuting all adult border-crossers. The administration proposed an increase in prosecution and indefinite family incarceration, and repackaged it as an end to family separation. To better understand the consequences of Trump’s order here is a helpful article and graphic produced by the migrant justice organizaton Mijente and a succinct breakdown of the order by the NY Times. This thorough timeline documents decades of the rise in family detention, with a wealth of sources.

If you’ve observed Operation Streamline or visited a detention center, you know the dehumanizing consequences of both systems. If prosecutions continue, children could be held in internment camps with their parents for long periods of time, as immigration cases proceed slowly. While some are calling for "alternatives to detention," Borderlinks and many of our community partners call for the end to the criminalization of immigration. Lauren Dasse, the executive director of the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, wrote a powerful editorial calling for families to be immediately paroled into communities.

Migrant-justice activists also point out that many other Trump Administration policy directives have even more devastating effects, especially the recent directive from Attorney General Sessions that significantly narrows the grounds on which migrants can claim asylum. Read more about these changes here.

Trump continues to play on racist fears with his frequent talk of an immigration “crisis” (not to mention the more dehumanizing terms he’s used), yet immigration is at historic lows. When so many of our political leaders and fellow citizens fall back on racist assumptions and assert that humanitarian disasters in Central America are “not our problem,” remember that US policies are frequently a primary factor in the root causes of migration. 

Human stories told face-to-face are a powerful antidote to indifference, ignorance, and despair. If you wish to learn more and connect with grassroots migrant justice movements, consider scheduling a BorderLinks delegation.

    Actions you can take on family separation:

    For further context and facts: