San Diego, Southern Border Region: A woman died Thursday morning following a crash between a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) vessel and a panga boat carrying 20 migrants, including men and women. Questions remain as to how the crash occurred, why warning shots were fired, and what can be done to avoid similar situations which are life-threatening for passengers. Continue reading

  Top-Officials Perpetuate Culture of Impunity and Violence Inside Nation's Largest Law-Enforcement Agency Southern Border Region:  The Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC) strongly condemns the lack of willingness from leadership at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to hold Border Patrol agents that were involved in 67 lethal use-of-force incidents from 2010 to 2012, accountable for their actions. The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) audit, released in 2013, concluded that CBP officers and agents the used of deadly force in these incidents where it may not be not justifiable and that many incidents were not thoroughly investigated. Continue reading

Family, Community Gather to Remember 5th Anniversary since Border Patrol killed Sergio Adrián Hernandez Güereca Las Cruces, New Mexico: Today, community members and faith leaders will gather at 1 p.m. local time with the family of Sergio Adrián Hernandez Güereca in a binational vigil at the border wall between Sunland Park, New Mexico and Anapra, Mexico to remember five years since Border Patrol gunned down the 15-year-old teenager in Mexico. Continue reading

  Border Reality Checkpoints will take place at the following locations and times today: California: San Ysidro Port of Entry, 1:00 pm PSTTexas/New Mexico: Santa Fe Bridge Port of Entry, El Paso, TX, 12:00 pm MTTexas: Gateway Port of Entry, Brownsville, Texas, 3:00 pm CT  Visuals: Participants will wear orange vests and Revitalize Not Militarize shirts at the checkpoints. Some will hold signs that read, "Know Your Rights" while others will speak with people crossing the ports of entry to encourage them to report abuse. See previous checkpoint actions held in San Ysidro and El Paso. Continue reading

  Border Reality Checkpoints will take place at the following locations and times on Wednesday:  California: San Ysidro Port of Entry, 1:00 pm PSTTexas/New Mexico: Santa Fe Bridge Port of Entry, El Paso, TX, 12:00 pm MTTexas: Gateway Port of Entry, Brownsville, Texas, 3:00 pm CT Visuals: Participants will wear orange vests and Revitalize Not Militarize shirts at the checkpoints. Some will hold signs that read, "Know Your Rights" while others will speak with people crossing the ports of entry to encourage them to report abuse. See previous checkpoint actions held in San Ysidro and El Paso.Social Media: #DignityCrossing #CruzaConDignidad Continue reading

  May 5, 2015 The Honorable Ron JohnsonChairman, Homeland Security Governmental Affairs Committee The Honorable Thomas CarperRanking Member, Homeland Security Governmental Affairs Committee Dear Chairman Johnson and Ranking Member Carper: We write as border, immigration, faith, labor, environmental, civil rights, and human rights experts and advocates to urge you to oppose S. 750, the misleadingly titled “Arizona Borderlands Protection and Preservation Act,” scheduled for markup on May 6th.   S. 750 is a profoundly harmful bill that would subordinate every existing legal protection applicable to federal public lands in a vast, 10-million-acre area of Arizona to its unattainable objective of entirely sealing the southwest border. Committee Chairman Johnson and his House counterpart Rep. McCaul have disavowed the goal of stopping every illegal border crosser as unachievable. Earlier this year, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson described such high apprehension rates as unworkable. A February 2015 report by the Bipartisan Policy Center stresses that “achieving 100 percent enforcement is an unrealistic expectation in any border security effort,” noting that even the former East Germany’s “kill zone” stopped only 95% of crossers.[1] Continue reading

  Southern Border Region: A federal appeals court ruled on Friday that the Border Patrol agent who shot and killed 15-year old Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca cannot be sued in U.S. courts by the teen's family. The border agent shot across the border from El Paso, Texas into Ciudad Juárez in Mexico where Sergio Adrian was standing. Vicki Gaubeca, Director of the ACLU of New Mexico's Regional Center for Border Rights, released the following statement: Continue reading

  Border Families Aim to Raise Awareness About Border Brutality & Accountability WHAT: Border Quilt WorkshopWHEN: Tuesday, April 21, 2015 from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.WHERE: Alliance San Diego, 4443 30th Street Suite 100, San Diego, CA 92116VISUALS: Dozens of Border Quilts, family and community members creating hand-made quilt panels.  San Diego, CA:  The family of Francisco Ceseña (a 40 year-old U.S. citizen who was killed under questionable circumstances after being taken into inspection by Customs and Border Protection on December 24, 2014), will be creating a quilt panel in memory of their loved one during a community Border Quilt Workshop being held tomorrow from 5-7 pm at the office of Alliance San Diego. Brenda Ceseña, sister of Francisco, released the following statement: Continue reading

  Arizona border communities stand with the families of Jose Gutierrez, Carlos La Madrid and Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez Tucson, AZ: Border residents from Tucson, Arizona are rallying Monday to support the family of Jose Gutierrez who continues to denounce the brutal beating he endured 4 years ago at the hands of 11  Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents at the San Luis Port of Entry as he attempted to cross back into the U.S. to reunite with his family. The case of Jose Gutierrez still has not been resolved and no agent has been held accountable. Continue reading

  New England lawmaker overlooks $26 bn revenue contribution by immigrant workers and calls for increasing the militarization of the US-Mexican border  Washington, DC—In a series of aimless attacks on immigrants, the House and Senate leadership are holding six committee hearings on immigration this week—unusual for any one issue given the Republicans in charge have offered no real solution to our country’s immigration crisis that is tearing apart millions of families, putting immigrant workers at risk of exploitation, and keeping our economy from reaching its full potential. Continue reading