Border Report Back - From Sasabe to Tucson (RSVP first)

From Sásabe to Tucson: Report back from the US/Mexico border

Thursday, July 20, 2006

6:00PM to 8:00PM

Asian Resource Center

310 Eighth Street - Lobby

Oakland, CA

Four blocks from the 12th St./Oakland City Center and Lake Merritt BART stations

Please RSVP to Sheila at (510) 839-7598 or sheila [at] immigrantrights.org
<mailto:sheila [at] immigrantrights.org> by Tuesday, July 18



Organized by:

: Mariana Bustamante, ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project

: Sheila Chung, Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition

: Ramsey el-Qare, American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of San Francisco (ADC-SF)

: Lillian Galedo, Filipinos for Affirmative Action

: Arnoldo Garcia, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights

: Nancy Hormachea, American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of San Francisco
(ADC-SF)

: Gerald Lenoir, Black Alliance for Just Immigration





Members of Congress are hosting dog-and-pony show hearings in border towns and
across the United States to drum up support for increased border militarization and
interior enforcement - strategies that have failed to deter unauthorized migration.
Rather than hear from immigrant communities affected by these policies, extremist
legislators are stacking their hearings with anti-immigrant proponents. Their tales
are far from the realities at the border...



In mid-June, 40 delegates (seven from the Bay Area) toured the Arizona/Mexico border
with the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and Coalición de Derechos
Humanos (Human Rights Coalition). In Sásabe, Mexico, we spoke with migrants
preparing to cross the treacherous desert and mountains, carrying nothing more than
a backpack and 2 gallons of water. In Tucson, we watched the court proceeding of
six men sentenced to jail and deportation solely for having crossed into the U.S. to
make a better life for their families. We met with the coroner's office and toured
the facility where the migrant dead are kept, learning about the gripping number of
human beings that have died at the border from dehydration, abuse and vehicle
accidents. We also met with members of the Tohono O'odam nation whose sacred lands
have been divided by the border. Join us as we share these and other stories of
devastation and hope from the border.