SOUTHERN BORDER — Today, President Biden announced new executive actions that could keep families together and provide affirmative immigration relief for many undocumented residents married to U.S. citizens through the use of a longstanding immigration authority known as “parole in place”. In the absence of Congress failing to fulfill its duty to fix our immigration system to uphold human rights, this represents the largest expansion of immigration protection for border communities in California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas since DACA twelve years ago in 2012. Continue reading

Families of border residents slain by border agents and impacted community members decry 100 year anniversary of Border Patrol Southern Border — Today as the U.S. Border Patrol marks its 100 year anniversary, community members decried a century of harm, violence and impunity the agency has imprinted on border communities, as advocates issued a joint letter to President Biden to rein in the largest law enforcement agency in the nation. Today, May 28, is also the same anniversary of the beating and torture of Anastasio Hernández Rojas, who is survived by his wife Maria Puga and children after Border agents left him for dead in 2010 after trying to cross the San Ysidro U.S.-Mexico border. Continue reading

MEDIA ADVISORY Impacted Community Members Call for End of Legacy of Violent & Abusive Border Policing on Border Patrol 100-Year Anniversary Continue reading

  Border Communities Call for Elimination of all Incarnations of Cover-Up Teams  Southern Border — Yesterday the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report on Border Patrol Critical Incident Teams (CITs) that was prompted by a 2021 letter sent to Congress by the Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC). The GAO report validates community concerns that Border Patrol has used CITs to engage in criminal investigations of border agents for use of force without any congressional authority and with the contrary purpose of managing “civil liability”. The report points to widespread and ongoing abuse of power at the nation’s largest law enforcement agency. In light of this, SBCC calls for an end to all current and future incarnations of CITs to ensure the integrity and independence of criminal investigations. Continue reading

Photo by AFSC San Diego Southern Border - In response to a recent Texas court order implicating Sierra Club and the Southern Border Communities Coalition’s (SBCC) settlement with the U.S. government concerning the illegal use of military construction funds for border wall projects, Sierra Club and SBCC took decisive action to protect the agreement’s vital remediation projects by filing a Motion to Intervene in the case. Continue reading

     SOUTHERN BORDER - In a significant victory yesterday, a court decision affirmed that children held in Open Air Detention Sites (OADS) are indeed under the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). This ruling comes on the heels of nearly a year of documentation and multiple administrative complaints filed by the Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC) and its partners with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) concerning the dire conditions migrants face while detained at these sites. Continue reading

TEXAS – On the eve of President Biden’s visit to the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas, 128 advocacy organizations from across the southern border region and the country issued a joint letter today demanding President Biden and Department of Homeland Security Secretary (DHS) Mayorkas refuse to sign any agreements with the state under TX SB 602, new Operation Lone Star legislation now in effect allowing U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to enforce Texas state criminal laws at Border Patrol checkpoints and Ports of Entry. Continue reading

SOUTHERN BORDER - Following weeks of closed-door negotiations, a small group of Senators yesterday released a supplemental spending bill that contains harmful immigration, asylum and border-related provisions that would gut our asylum system, give dangerous powers to current and future administrations to close our border to those seeking safety, and continues the deadly legacy of deterrence and border militarization. Continue reading

Jacumba, CA – Seven immigrant rights organizations lodged an urgent federal complaint this week against the Department of Homeland Security Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) and its Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for violating their own custody standards for asylum seekers being held in several open-air detention sites along the U.S.-Mexico border in California. For several months, Border Patrol officers have forced asylum seekers to wait outdoors for several hours or days between sections of the San Diego border walls and other open-air sites in the Jacumba desert where they aren’t allowed to leave and don’t have adequate access to water, food, sanitation, medical care, or protection from the elements. Continue reading