AFSC-San Diego

‘Smart’ borders are just as deadly as traditional walls and fences. Our latest report with the Transnational Institute shows that the Biden administration’s pla...n for ‘smart’ borders will not end the suffering, family separation and deaths on the US-Mexico border. Read more: bit.ly/humaneworldreport

An update from our Policy Engagement Coordinator Peniel Ibe on what is happening in Congress during the reconciliation process and the campaign to secure a pathway to Citizenship for All.

Press Conference to demand the shutdown of Geo Group’s Western Regional Detention Center as stipulated by President Biden’s Executive Order on this National Day of Action to shut down private prisons. #FreeThemAll #CommunitiesNotCages Read ACLU's letter to the Biden ADministration RE: GEO Contract at Western Region Detention Facility, https://www.aclusandiego.org//2021_09_21_wh_ltr_re_geo_mcf

AFSC staff joined local partners to document possible renewed border wall construction in the Otay Mountain Wilderness. Members of the Mexican National Guard limited the amount of time the team could document in the area. The team observed what appeared to be road preparation and movement of border wall materials, including bollards, to a staging area. More field documentation will be necessary for a better assessment of what exactly is taking place. This border wall project was initially funded with unlawfully obtained funds from the Department of Defense.

Fifty years ago, Friendship Park was created so loved ones separated by the border could come together. Today communities are working to end Border Patrol presence at the parkand restore it for its original purpose. https://www.afsc.org//new/gathering-place-us-mexico-border

Tell Congress: It's time to create a roadmap to citizenship for all migrants and immigrants! Every person without permanent immigration status deserves a lasting solution to keep families and communities together. But today, there are about 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. without a viable roadmap to permanent residency and citizenship. They provide emotional and financial support to loved ones; shoulder responsibilities in schools, churches, local businesses, a...nd civic organizations; and are deeply integrated into our communities. Many serve as "essential workers" and are at the frontlines of keeping communities healthy and fed during this pandemic. President Biden has announced his support for a roadmap to citizenship for most undocumented immigrants. And the next economic recovery package is a critical opportunity for the U.S. to finally take this step in recognizing and affirming immigrants as vital members of our communities. Tell Congress: Ensure the upcoming recovery package includes a roadmap to citizenship for all undocumented immigrants, including essential workers; people with DACA, TPS, and DED; and their families! https://www.afsc.org//tell-congress-its-time-to-create-roa

How does the successful struggle to create Chicano Park inform today's struggle to create an "International Friendship Park? Join this online dialogue as leade...rs of the Chicano Park Steering Committee and Friends of Friendship Park share and compare their efforts to preserve these extraordinary landmark locations in the San Diego/Tijuana borderlands. Hosted by Pedro Rios of American Friends Service Committee. See more

On the 50th Anniversary of Friendship Park we commemorate the occasion by proposing an alternative to the existing border wall of death; let’s Build A Park to celebrate friendship. More information at https://www.friendshippark50.org

Visit https://www.friendshippark50.org to find out how to support and get involved with the activities commemorating the 50th anniversary of Friendship Park. https://www.kpbs.org//port-entry-podcast-fifty-years-frie/

Atención | Toma nota de esta información si buscas asilo en los Estados Unidos: ¡No te dejes engañar! Recuerda que las organizaciones de sociedad civil prestan servicios completamente gratuitos. Ten cuidado si alguien te pide realizar depósitos para continuar con tus procesos de asilo, puede ser un fraude. Tu información personal es valiosa y no debes proporcionarla si desconoces el uso que le darán. No te dejes engañar, infórmate y toma tu decisión. Attention ...| Take note of this information if you are seeking asylum in the United States: Don't be fooled! Remember that civil society organizations provide completely free services. Be careful if someone asks you to make deposits to continue with your asylum processes, it may be fraud. Your personal information is valuable and you should not provide it if you do not know how it will be used. Do not be fooled, make an informed decision. Psicologos sin Fronteras Border Line Crisis Center AFSC Latinoamérica y El Caribe Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) Unified U.S. Deported Veterans-Resource Center "Playas Barracks" BORDER ANGELS

AFSC-SD joined Black Alliance for Just Immigration for their "Come By Here" - Caravan for Black Migrants. The caravan began in Los Angeles and concluded at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego. The program at the Otay Mesa facility denounced the Biden-Harris administration's rampant anti-Black and anti-migrant rhetoric and practices, demanded an immediate end to the aggressive deportations of Black migrants, and made it clear that a for-profit system is inhumane and needs to be abolished! #freethemall #abolishice #shutdownotay

On July 11, demonstrators in Cuba took to the streets to protest shortages of food, medicine, and electricity. We have heard from Friends in Cuba that people are struggling and in dire need of economic and material support. We stand in solidarity with the Quaker community and with Cubans from all political and religious affiliations who are struggling during this time, and we believe that people should have the right to protest without being criminalized. We call on the Biden... administration to immediately end the U.S. blockade and travel restrictions against Cuba. The blockade has had a devastating effect on the Cuban economy for decades, making it far more difficult for the Cuban people to access goods, medical care, and basic necessities. As people across the globe struggle to recover from COVID-19 and its economic and political fallout, it is critically important that we work together across borders to ensure health care and wellbeing for all. It is collaboration not sanctions or military interventions that will lead to shared security and an end to the pandemic. https://www.afsc.org/story/standing-all-people-cuba

Join AFSC staff in a conversation about organizing and advocacy efforts to end immigrant detention across the U.S. We’ll look at how communities are working to free people from detention, end policies that expand detention, and permanently shut down detention centers. Come learn practical tips on how we can collectively push back against the use and funding of immigration detention. Our panel discussion will also highlight the value of consistent advocacy that is rooted and developed in partnership with immigrant communities.

AFSC's petition to Abolish ICE went viral over the past year! Why is the movement to eliminate this abusive immigration enforcement agency gaining so much momen...tum, and what can the incoming Biden administration do to put us on the right path? Hear from our program staff about the impacts ICE has on our communities, and what we can do in 2021 to move the #AbolishICE campaign forward! See more

ICE operates as the principle instrument towards criminalizing and persecuting working class migrant families and communities, said Benjamin Prado of AFSC’s U.S.-Mexico Border Program. Their surveillance, questioning, and detention tactics constitute a policy of state terror with far reaching and long lasting consequences for working families, and the destabilization of entire communities. In San Diego we support the efforts to organize community self-defense patrols to counter ongoing ICE terror.

We need your help to save Friendship Park! The Friends of Friendship Park Coalition (FFP), organizers of the BUILD THAT PARK! effort were recently told by Border Patrol that there are plans to expand the border wall in the park. We don’t know when the new construction will take place, but we have already seen land surveyors and other activity that precedes the arrival of heavy machinery meant to prepare the land for border wall construction. Border Patrol has said that the ...Binational Friendship Garden of Native Plants will be destroyed and replaced with a new border wall. What can you do? Email the San Diego Border Patrol expressing why you think Friendship Park needs to be saved and protected at [email protected] **Please cc Friends of Friendship Park in your email (cc: [email protected]) We say NO to further militarization of our border region. Join us in saying NO to a wall. Suggested Guidelines for Emailing BP: If you’re from San Diego, be sure to say that. If you’ve been to Friendship Park before, say what moved you about your experience there. Mention why you believe bringing in 30' border wall is a bad idea, how it’s wasteful, what it symbolizes for you and your community, etc. Be sure to personalize your email. The email doesn’t have to be long! Forget the wall...Let's BUILD THAT PARK!

Compartimos este video que combina una secuencia de video que nos proporciona Eric Casas combinado con el "Corrido de Tacho" por Juventino Flores, en este Día Internacional del Migrante, en memoria de Anastasio Hernández Rojas y todas y todos quienes fueron victimas de la brutal politica migratoria asesina de los EEUU en la frontera. Este Día Internacional del Migrante recordamos a todas y todos quienes, a pesar de vivir bajo la constante amenaza de la separación familiar, so...n las y los trabajadores quienes hacen andar las ruedas de la historia. // The US-Mexico Border Program shares this video that combines the timelapse of the unveiling of the mural dedicated to Anastasio Hernanez Rojas taken by Eric Casas and combined with the "Ballad of Tacho" performed by Juventino Flores, on this International Migrants Day. We dedicate this in memory of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas and all those migrants who lost their lives to the brutal policy of death that is the US immigration system. #AbolirLaMigra #AbolishICE #FreeThemAll

There are still a few events left in our national Free Them All week of action. Join our colleagues in a letter writing campaign where folks will be sending holiday cards to black immigrants in detention. Tomorrow is the annual Posada Sin Fronteras (Posada Without Borders). We're going virtual this year and hopefully, more people can join us! ... Details in the flyer and below in the comments!

The US-Mexico Border Program held a Free Them All virtual letter writing and panel discussion on December 17th, in comemoration of the International Mirants Day (December 18, 2020) as part of a National Week of Action to demand the end to the mass incarceration system in the United State. We had the participation of Unión del Barrio, Detention Resistance, and Peace Resource Center of San Diego WWW.PRCSD.ORG(#TreatMiDontMistreatMi). #FreeThemAll #AbolishICE

27. POSADA SIN FRONTERAS 2020 27st POSADA WITHOUT BORDERS 2020 Sábado 19 de diciembre de 2020 / Saturday, December 19, 2020 4:00 pm... Los derechos no tienen fronteras Rights have no borders La Posada Sin Fronteras will stream on Saturday at 4 PM from this page: https://www.facebook.com/posadatjsd

During this pandemic we have worked closely in solidarity with Detention Resistance, and Pueblo Sin Fronteras. Part of that work has led to the release of this report, Compounding Suffering During a Pandemic: A Case Study in ICE's Detention Failures. Families have been torn apart since the creation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 2003. The restructuring of the government’s homeland security branch was a direct result of the attacks on the US on September 11, 2...001. The intensification of the need for increased border security, which continues to this day, can also be seen as a response to fear. This fear of others, of migrants, of all non-white foreign-born individuals is also a reflection of the systemic racism uniquely challenging this country. The global pandemic has further heightened the existing US racial and class divides Unfortunately, the Trump Administration has consistently attacked immigrant and migrant communities even during the pandemic. This report provides an overview of the immigration detention system, and thoroughly analyzes the impact of COVID-19 on individuals in ICE detention at the Otay Mesa Detention Center (OMDC), and the government’s failure at providing the necessary protections, including releasing people from immigration prisons that have experienced a high number of COVID-positive cases. https://www.afsc.org//compounding-suffering-during-pandemic

On Sunday, Oct 25, 2020, 48 hours after a Border Patrol agent killed a Mexican man in San Ysidro behind the Las Americas outlet stores, community members gathered to place cempasuchitl flowers on a makeshift alter in a vigil while calling for transparency and justice in the investigation, in addition to an end to violence by Border Patrol agents. Few details are known about what took place that led to Border Patrol using deadly force, but Border Patrol agents have abused their power in prior cases attempting to manipulate details about the investigations. This has included threatening and dispersing witnesses, tampering with evidence, illegally acquiring evidence, and leaking false information about the victims to the media. The vigil was a necessary action to demonstrate that border communities will not tolerate state violence.

Together with @alliancesandiego , we call for an independent investigation of the killing of a person by a Border Patrol agent in San Ysidro Friday, October 23. Given the missteps that SDPD has made in the past with investigations of border agents, particularly in the killing of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas in 2010, it is imperative that SDPD not involve Border Patrol, Customs and Border Protection, or any part of the Department of Homeland Security, including and especially the Critical Incident Investigation Teams (CIIT) in the homicide investigation. Their involvement has the potential to corrupt the investigation and be an obstruction of justice. #justicia #defundhate

Together with Alliance San Diego, we call for an independent investigation of the killing of a person by a Border Patrol agent in San Ysidro earlier this evening. Given the missteps that SDPD has made in the past with investigations of border agents, particularly in the killing of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas in 2010, it is imperative that SDPD not involve Border Patrol, Customs and Border Protection, or any part of the Department of Homeland Security, including and especially the Critical Incident Investigation Teams (CIIT) in the homicide investigation. Their involvement has the potential to corrupt the investigation and be an obstruction of justice. Read more below.

From our community partners Unión del Barrio on their efforts to prevent family separation by monitoring ICE presence in communities. // De nuestras compañeras y compañeros de Unión del Barrio en sus esfuerzos para defender las comunidades migrantes de la separación familiar. #AbolishICE #FreeThemAll

If you missed our overview of our recent report, here it is!

LIVE NOW: Vanessa Ceceña, Human Rights Program Associate in San Diego, is giving an update on a recently released report showing how ICE has exacerbated suffering for detained migrants at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in California.

How might the results of the 2020 elections impact the future of border wall construction in border communities? Join the conversation this Friday at 11 AM (PT) See below for more details.

The DOJ Inspector General found that the"Justice" Department was the 'Driving Force' behind the zero tolerance policy of family separation at the border. The federal policy responsible for the macro criminal act of causing pain, suffering and trauma used migrant children and their parents as a deterrent to future migrant flows. Jeff Sessions refused to answer questions from the Inspector General. https://www.pbs.org//new-report-suggests-doj-was-driving-f

There are still many migrants detained in ICE prisons, even during a global pandemic. Our latest report takes a close look at detention conditions in San Diego, and the failures of ICE and CoreCivic in minimizing the spread of COVID. The report includes testimonies from migrants at the Otay Mesa Detention Center (OMDC) and links to additional detention data. Our report can be accessed here: https://www.afsc.org//fil/documents/ICECOVID_101220pdf.pdf

Very proud to support our partners and participate in the Mira Costa Udocumented Student Action Week!

In more than 30 locations throughout the state of California people took action to demand the release of people in State, prisons, jails and detentioncenters, including an end to ICE transfers. The US-Mexico Border Program joined in this call and dropped a banner/panel to demand the end to the complicit role the state of California plays in the for-profit detention of migrants. End to the mass incarceration of people for profit, especially in times of covid. Abolish the Pri...son Industrial Complex. #FreeThemAll #FreeThemAllNow #AbolishICE #AbolirLaMigra

As COVID-19 outbreaks continue to threaten the lives of incarcerated Californians, the California Liberation Collective demands the immediate halt of all transfers from state custody and into the hands of ICE, as well as mass releases beginning with medically vulnerable individuals from state prisons. Despite an onslaught of hunger strikes across detention centers in the state and various meetings to demand Governor Gavin Newsom use his authority to save lives, he has failed... to take real action. Meanwhile, the COVID death toll in state prisons is now 68, and outbreaks in ICE detention continue to mount. To urge the Governor to act, immigrant rights advocates, families of people in detention and state prison, and faith groups will hold 30 rallies at detention centers, prisons and other locations across California on Tuesday. In several locations, groups will drop banners naming the facilities after the Governor and certain local officials. ICE systematically deprives tens of thousands of immigrants of liberty each day in detention centers, with rampant medical neglect. In ICE detention, like other forms of incarceration, people are kept closely together by design, making distancing impossible. Across the country, communities are organizing to replace immigration detention with a system of community-based case management. Studies prove this works better than the current harsh approach of detention. #FreeThemAll #FreeThemAllNow #AbolishICE #AbolirLaMigra

To urge the Governor to act, immigrant rights advocates, families of people in detention and state prison, and faith groups will hold 30 rallies at detention centers, prisons and other locations across California on Tuesday. In several locations, groups will drop banners naming the facilities after the Governor and certain local officials.