SOUTHERN BORDER -- In the second multiple-murder case committed by a Border Patrol agent this year, a U.S. Border Patrol supervisory agent has confessed to killing four women and assaulting a fifth in Webb County, Texas. Juan David Ortiz, a 10-year veteran of the force, is being held on a $2.5 million bail. Ortiz is the second agent in the Laredo area to be arrested on murder charges this year. This spring, agent Ronald Anthony Burgos-Aviles was charged with killing a woman and her one-year-old child. In May, a Border Patrol agent also shot and killed 20-year-old Claudia Patricia Gómez González in Rio Bravo, Texas. The Border Patrol’s pattern of death and abuse across the southern border and lack of accountability, oversight and transparency continues to jeopardize the trust and safety of border communities. Continue reading

EL PASO, Texas — A report released today examines President Trump’s border wall proposal and the last two decades of border security policies, including the existing 654 miles of border walls, exposing the wide-ranging damages that the militarization of the border and these walls have already inflicted upon border communities. Continue reading

SAN DIEGO, CA --  In commemoration of the 55th anniversary of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s seminal “I Have a Dream” speech, his son, Martin Luther King, III, will visit the San Diego border area to highlight the injustices that migrants, refugees, and border communities face. Mr. King will deliver his remarks next to the border wall. Continue reading

SOUTHERN BORDER -- The family of a teenager shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent in one of the most high profile cross-border shootings has new hope for justice following a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that allows them to sue the federal government for damages. José Antonio Elena Rodriguez was shot 10 times in the back through the border fence by Border Patrol Agent Lonnie Swartz in October of 2012. Elena Rodriguez was walking on the Mexican side. Swartz was charged for the killing, but was found not guilty of second-degree murder in April 2018. He still faces a new trial for manslaughter. The ruling gives Araceli Rodriguez, the mother of Jose Antonio, standing to sue in U. S. courts. Continue reading

  The coalition, made up of immigrant, civil rights, faith, LGBTQ, legal services and other organizations demand Congress reduce funding for detentions, deportations and the border wall. WASHINGTON, DC -- Yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee voted on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s Fiscal Year 2019 Bill. The bill would give DHS $5 billion for a harmful, unnecessary border wall, 370 CBP officers, 400 NEW ICE personnel to continue arresting and jailing families within the United States, funds for the incarceration of 44,000 immigrants and the expansion of detention camps.The committee voted along party lines, with Democrats voting against the bill and Republicans voting to tear more families apart, cage children and put parents behind bars, continue to raid our homes and workplaces to deport immigrants across the country. Continue reading

Nearly 300 immigrant, civil rights, faith, LGBTQ, legal services and other organizations call on Congress to reduce funding for detentions, deportations and the border wall. Continue reading

Nearly 300 immigrant, civil rights, faith, LGBTQ, legal services and other organizations call on Congress to reduce funding for detentions, deportations and the border wall. The #DefundHate Coalition which the Southern Border Communities Coalition is a member of, recommends that the Senate Appropriations Committee vote NO on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) FY19 appropriations bill. Continue reading

SOUTHERN BORDER --  Today, President Trump signed an executive order that will expand the detention of families crossing the border, including asylum seekers, by caging children alongside their parents, causing them irreparable psychological harm. Incarcerating children with their parents is not a solution to family separation. It is just as cruel and heartless. Continue reading

SOUTHERN BORDER REGION -- The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security approved a bill that includes $1.6 billion for more border wall and hundreds of new border agents as part of a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security for fiscal year 2019. Continue reading

SOUTHERN BORDER --  House Republicans will introduce two border militarization bills next week that would waste $25 billion on Trump’s vanity wall and hire thousands of unaccountable border agents, while separating more kids from their parents and holding Dreamers hostage. Continue reading