Click here to view the letter as a PDF   Southern Border Communities Coalition Statement for the House Judiciary Markup of the Border Security and Enforcement Act of 2023 Dear Committee Leaders, We, the Southern Border Communities Coalition, write in strong opposition to the Border Security and Enforcement Act of 2023 that the House Judiciary Committee will mark up on April 19th. The bill would violate human rights at the southern border by harming children, destabilizing families and blocking access to asylum, violating our international commitments and signed treaties. Continue reading

The Biden administration’s proposed new rule threatens human rights at the border and is an abdication of the United States government’s responsibility in the global community. The rule limits asylum only to people who were granted prior permission to come to the United States, are able to make an appointment to present themselves to the border using a faulty online app, or previously sought asylum in a third-country through which they traveled on their way to the United States. The rule undermines the right to seek asylum and the right to be treated equally before the law of the most vulnerable migrants at the border, including black and indigenous migrants, individuals who do not have the means to access technology while traveling or those who have to immediately leave their homes to protect their lives and their families. The rule does nothing to address the humanitarian crisis at the border caused by three years of using the COVID pandemic as an excuse to close the southern border to people seeking safety. It ignores the thousands of reported cases of violence that asylum seekers from all over the world have been the victims of while waiting in Mexico. Continue reading

Lilian “Lili” Serrano a proud fronteriza whose family has resided in the Tijuana-San Diego border region for three generations. She spent her teens in Oxnard, California, an agricultural town in Ventura County. Lilian has over a decade of experience working in community education, human rights advocacy, and social justice work. She became civically active as a High School student in 2006, when a series of anti-immigrant proposals in the U.S. Congress sparked a national mobilization for immigrant rights. Continue reading

(Por favor, vea la traducción de esta carta al español abajo)  View/download the .pdf of the letter October 24, 2022  Julissa Mantilla Falcón, President of the IACHR Edgar Stuardo Ralón Orellana, First Vice-President of the IACHR Margarette May Macaulay, Second Vice-President of the IACHR Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño, Commissioner of the IACHR Joel Hernández García, Commissioner of the IACHR Roberta Clarke, Commissioner of the IACHR Carlos Bernal Pulido, Commissioner of the IACHR Tania Reneaum Panszi, Executive Secretary of the IACHR Organization of American States 1889 F St NW Washington, D.C., 20006  Continue reading

UPDATE 5/6/2022: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a memo announcing the elimination of Border Patrol Critical Incident Teams (BPCITs), which have repeatedly interfered with law enforcement investigations of agents involved in the killing and harming of community members. Read our press release here.  Continue reading

UPDATE 5/6/2022: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a memo announcing the elimination of Border Patrol Critical Incident Teams (BPCITs), which have repeatedly interfered with law enforcement investigations of agents involved in the killing and harming of community members. Read our press release here.  Continue reading

As a coalition grounded in protecting and advancing human rights in the borderlands, the Southern Border Communities Coalition can celebrate the following accomplishments that were the direct result of our work and collaborative efforts. Continue reading

SBCC’s director, Vicki B. Gaubeca, sets the record straight By Vicki B. Gaubeca The Southern Border region has always been a place of hope, welcoming and opportunity. With the current challenges facing us in the region, this nation has a chance and a responsibility to live up to our values, do the right thing, and develop fair, humane and functional systems to welcome vulnerable newcomers, as well as border residents, at our southern border. We want to make sure we, as people who live and work in the southern border region, set the record straight, and answer some questions we’ve heard below. Continue reading

By Sarah Towle There haven’t been many moments of joy in the U.S. immigration space these past four years. But March brought celebration to the borderlands as we witnessed the good guys — and gals — prevail over the evil villain, Hollywood-style — if only for a moment. Continue reading

The Southern Border region has always been a place of hope, welcoming and opportunity. Border communities know that the challenges we’re experiencing at the border are NOT a ‘crisis’ and are not new — they are the result of the hyper-militarization of the Southern Border over the last two decades that has criminalized migrants, rather than recognized them as human beings. It is also the result of the near total closure of the border to people seeking protection, which is an abdication of the United States government’s responsibility in the global community. The government has gone so far as to weaponize laws and provisions against migrants that meant to keep people safe, like Title 42. Trump’s misuse of Title 42 to block and expel asylum seekers placed them in grave danger, and one year later, President Biden has done nothing to stop it. Continue reading