One_liners

_Steering committee member Pedro Rios of American Friends Service Committee explains the chaos that ensued as the government attempts to reunite with their parents the more than 2,000 children taken as part of Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy.  

_Steering committee member Rev. Randy Mayer of Good Shepherd United Church of Christ notes the sense of despair felt by asylum seekers at the comedor in Nogales, Sonora.

_Steering committee member Mike Seifert of ACLU of Texas demanded more accountability and transparency of CBP’s enforcement activities, particularly in the context of family separations at the border.

_Outraged that authorities are cruelly ripping children and infants away from the arms of parents coming to the U.S. to flee horrific violence or to provide a better life for their families? Then you should read this article that describes the grim history of when_and why_ it became a misdemeanor to cross the border.

Must_reads

_Thanks for making those calls! Even after President Trump urged Congress to pass House Speaker Ryan’s hardliner immigration and border militarization bill_which would have provided $25 billion for a useless, harmful border wall and thousands of new unaccountable border agents_it was soundly defeated, 121-301. Bam!

_No rest for the weary. While next week Congress is in recess for 4th of July celebrations, we’ve learned that some members are thinking about introducing some ugly bills when they return to DC. One proposal would expand agricultural visas and impose on employers the mandatory use of E-verify. The other proposal would override the Flores settlement and codify into law Trump’s executive order of caging kids with their parents indefinitely as a “solution” to family separation. Go away, already.

_Pretty sleazy. It’s pretty obvious that some members of Congress (from both sides of the aisle) support draconian detention and militarization policies at the border to tip their hats to private prison corporations. Curiously, the same corporations that have contributed to their political campaigns. Take for example, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) who has accepted $32,400 from GEO, an immigrant detention private prison corporation. SBCC ally John-Michael Torres of La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), said politicians who care about the Rio Grande Valley community should not receive funding from “private prisons who profit off immigration detention.” Here’s a story about New Mexican candidates who have also received campaign donations from the likes of GEO (aka, GEOhell)  and CoreCivic (otherwise known as #RottenToTheCoreCivic), which prompted this response from some of these elected officials. And in case you have any doubt about what motivated family separations and Trump’s executive order that supposedly “solved” the problem by jailing kids with their parents indefinitely, read this story that illustrates the excellent return on campaign investments for private prison corporations. On a positive note, check out how cities and counties nationwide are refusing to take the money for ICE detention beds. We’ll persist on our mantra to keep families and kids in #CommunitiesNotCages.

_#CommunitiesNotCages. Don’t buy the administration’s rhetoric that children will be ok if they are with caged with their parents indefinitely. This will cause unnecessary harm to children and result in a boon to private prison corporations and cause unnecessary harm to children. A gilded cage is still a cage. Here are more cost effective and just as effective alternatives to detention. Call your members of Congress and tell them to #DefundHate and instead invest in community alternatives, as well as in good accountability and oversight of current border enforcement resources, like requiring that all Border Patrol agents wear body-worn cameras or that they gather and publicly report stop and arrest data. In short, tell them to #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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