One_liners

_Join justice organizers, theologians, scholars of religion, clergy, and students in El Paso, TX, for a learning immersion in the borderlands, Wed. Sept. 5 - Sun., Sept. 9, by registering here.

_Making it real. Read what happened when the government tried to replace migrant farmworkers, many of whom worked in fields along the border, with high school athletes.

_Check out this video of a mountain lion captured by one of the several cameras placed near the border wall in Santa Teresa, New Mexico by the Southwest Environmental Center (an organization that is part of SBCC) to show how a wall will harm local wildlife species, including coyotes, mountain lions, bobcats, deer, and badgers.

_The Defenders of Wildlife, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Animal Legal Defense Fund filed a petition with SCOTUS, asking the court to overturn a ruling that allowed the Trump administration to waive dozens of environmental, health and safety laws to build border walls near San Diego.

_Read this heartbreaking story, which quotes yours truly, about a man who finds his father’s remains in the desert a decade after his disappearance via a Facebook post.

Must_reads

_We Have a Border Dream. In a historic moment for border communities, Martin Luther King, III,_the son of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr._will deliver a speech on the 55th anniversary of his father’s seminal “I Have a Dream” speech in San Diego, CA, Tuesday, Aug. 28, to uplift the lives of immigrants and their families. With the border wall as a backdrop, Mr. King will appeal to the nation’s collective conscience to rise up and live out the true meaning of his father’s Dream that all people are created equal and should be treated with dignity and respect. The speech will be live streamed by Alliance San Diego on Tuesday, Aug. 28, starting at 10:45 a.m. Pacific.

_Corruption and abuse galore. When will CBP_the largest law enforcement agency in the nation_be held accountable for the implementation of “zero tolerance” practices and other abuses it commits against immigrants and border communities? All abuses from CBP’s track history of lethal use of force, to horribly invasive body searches of women and minors to Border Patrol’s coercive practices in family separations should be thoroughly investigated and reigned in with commensurate accountability, transparency, and oversight.  (The story on invasive searches quotes SBCC steering committee member Pedro Rios of American Friends Service Committee.) “Now is time to make real the promises of democracy.”

_Dehumanizing asylum seekers. While some officers at CBP ports of entry at the U.S.-Mexico border have started to comply with international and domestic asylum laws by processing asylum seekers in a timely way (such as at the Nogales, Arizona, port of entry), not all have stopped the practice of making asylum seekers wait on the Mexican side. The Washington Office of Latin America (WOLA) issued the following report - “Come Back Later”: Challenges for Asylum Seekers Waiting at Ports of Entry to illustrate the problem. SBCC ally Astrid Dominguez of the ACLU Border Rights Center comments on CBP putting up an invisible wall by making asylum seekers wait at the ports of entry in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas.

_ Yes, we have a dream. One where border communities live freely, safely, equally and with dignity. One where border means strength, vitality, prosperity, multiculturality and humanity. One where political rhetoric doesn’t harm our community, neighbors, environment, or wildlife. That’s why we need your help by calling your congressional members to tell them cut spending to ICE and CBP, stop funding a border wall,  #DefundHate, and #RevitalizeNotMilitarize our border communities.

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border_lines is published every Friday for your reading pleasure. If you’d like to submit an item for inclusion, please email Vicki B. Gaubeca at [email protected], by Wednesday COB.

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