FREE THE IMMIGRANT CHILDREN IN DETENTION AT LONG BEACH CONVENTION CENTER!
Reunite Children with their Families Now!
President Biden: Declare a Humanitarian Crisis at the Border Now!
RALLY – SATURDAY, MAY 22nd, 2021 at 3PM
Long Beach Convention Center – Gather East Seaside Way and S. Pine Ave. (Long Beach)
***Always wear a mask in public to protect yourself and others from COVID-19***
* Refugee Status for ALL the Immigrant Children and Their Families Crossing the Border Now that Grants Safety from Deportation, Access to Health Care and Pandemic Financial Assistance Now!
* Shut Down Children Detention Centers!
* End the Trump-Era Racist Policy of Turning Away Immigrants at the Border and Forcing Family Separation!
* Increase the numbers of Family Reunification and Work Visas!
* Full Citizenship Rights for ALL Immigrants Now!
To all the immigrant children who recently crossed the border and are now in detention at the border and in more and more cities around the country, welcome on behalf of the civil rights and immigrant rights movement in America! There is no better time to arrive in America than now. Now, in the aftermath of the defeat of Trump and his fascist supporters. Pushed out of the presidency by millions of people who marched and protested all over the country for months against his racist program for a white America. An integrated movement against racism and racist police brutality, initially inspired by the fight for justice for George Floyd, a black man murdered by four police officers, led by racist white police officer Derek Chauvin. A movement that also this month of April won another massive victory when a jury convicted Derek Chauvin of murder. For many people, these victories seemed unimaginable some months ago, like for some of you it might have seemed unimaginable some months ago that you would be in the U.S. now. But now that we have accomplished our first challenges, we cannot stop, when our next victories are within reach and we have gotten our first tastes of success. We can catch our breath and reflect on how we accomplished our victory in order to build on our success because the fight is not over.
There are some lessons that we share in our struggles. The first and most important lesson has to be that freedom, equality and justice cannot wait and they must be won through struggle, no politician or government will give it to us. Even the necessary sacrifice to leave your home country in the search for freedom, is also a rebellion against the unequal living conditions, caused in part by a long history of oppression from the United States. Achieving our victories has required tremendous courage and sacrifice. Sometimes marching in American cities, stopping traffic in city streets or freeways, or marching in highways through Guatemala or Mexico, with hundreds or thousands of strangers who became our friends through the struggle. Other times learning when to hold our ground, clashing with government forces and when to evade them or hide from them. And then there are some sacrifices some in America can only imagine, like spending many hours cramped in a bus or truck not knowing when it would end or making the impossible decision to separate from your family and risk your life across a river or a desert. But rest assured the sacrifices are worth it and they have taken us closer to real freedom and equality.
The second important lesson to keep in mind is to not trust politicians, we must judge leaders and friends by what they do and not what they say. American politicians are no different than politicians in the countries we come from. The current administration says they stand with immigrants, they say they are for the right of immigrants to seek asylum in the U.S., to not be separated from their families, that they support an immigration reform that would grant a pathway to citizenship. But the reality is that the current border policy of allowing children to remain in the U.S. but splitting them apart from older family members who are sent back to Mexico, is by definition family separation. This policy is increasing the number of unaccompanied minors who are risking their lives crossing the border. The same minors who are then being detained for indefinite periods of time by a bureaucratic and slow process, instead of reuniting the children right away with their family relatives or sponsors. Acting with the same determination we have shown in the past, we can force the Biden administration to make real on his promises on immigrant rights.
Fighting with the strength of our collective power, we can get citizenship rights for ALL immigrants, we can stop deportations and ICE raids, and prevent the growth of a pro-Trump, immigrant bashing fascist movement. The ongoing crisis of immigration must be declared a humanitarian crisis and immigrants crossing the border must be given refugee status on arrival. The humanitarian crisis at the border are the effects of both long standing unstable social, political and economic conditions and the recent wave of racist anti-immigrant policies of the Trump administration. These conditions have been exacerbated by devastating natural disasters like hurricane Eta and Lota and the crippling global pandemic of COVID-19. Immigrant families must be let into the country as refugees and be granted access to medical care, safety from deportation, and pandemic financial assistance as everyone else.
Freeing the children from detention and granting refugee status to all the families crossing the border would send a loud and clear message to the children and their families who have been turned away, that they are welcome in America, as well as provide them protection from deportation and financial benefits. In addition, a significant increase of family and work visas will allow newly arrived families a chance to get settled. This would put the newly reunited families in the strongest position to contribute – using their talents and abilities to learn and to work and make a new home in the United States.
The now over 20,000 children, who are being held in an ever-expanding network of improvised detention centers around the country in big cities and military bases, are being held under the government category of “unaccompanied minors” which confers absolutely no legal protection or benefits of any kind. Case managers in the detention centers only have as much authority as the ICE agents, who are actually in charge of each case, will give them.
Xavier Becerra, head of HHS (Health and Human Services Department) in a statement made in a Telemundo news interview approximately translated to English, “some kids won’t be able to stay under US laws. Some will have to be reunited with their families in their countries of origin”. This moment of some honesty reveals some of the truth. With no policy to free all the children in detention and reunite them with their families for a future in the US, these children, full of hope and possibility, face a sure probability of being deported or detained indefinitely, in one of many American concentration camps – a very Trump-like possibility which we must stop.
The right to asylum is an international human right established through legal arrangements amongst nations guaranteeing the right of oppressed people to leave their homeland and move to another nation if they feel it is no longer possible to live where they are. But this right is simply words on paper if these young people and their families are not granted refugee status, are deported, or detained indefinitely.
Our defiance and assertion of our equality is what has gotten us this far. Our moment in history and our situation demands leaders of our movement with the courage to step forward, to be bold, to be ambitious and lead by example and assert our demands. The new civil rights movement must be the front-line defender of the rights of immigrants and minorities and must not leave these vital tasks in the hands of politicians who may give lip service to “diversity” but have failed to protect millions of people from Trump’s racist attacks.
The victory of the Justice for George Floyd Movement that led to the jailing of racist murderer police officer Derek Chauvin has taught us that through the independent consistent struggle of our mass movement we can change our world for the better. To the young people who seek to continue fighting for freedom and equality for all in America and the world, Join BAMN and let’s build our movement together.
