Ni Una Más Deportación. Ni una más! Not one more deportation. Not one more!

This post is a follow-up to what I wrote last night. If you haven't read "Fuera, Polimigra," I'd recommend it so you understand the backstory of this one!

For a brief update: on October 8, four members of the Tucson community were taken away right in front of Southside Presbyterian Church, and my amazing housemate Steph was able to rally over 80 community members (including Southsiders) to non-violently protest the cooperation between local police and immigration authorities (aka Polimigra). Here are photos from today's press conference at noon, and there will be more action to demand justice for the Tucson community to come!

When we woke up this morning, Tucson was finding out about what we already knew. Here are press photos from last night's protest as the police short-distance pepper sprayed many of the peaceful protesters:
Photos: Protesters interfere with TPD traffic stop

Here was today's press release:
"Tucson, Arizona –Local Tucson Police Department (TPD) officers called Border Patrol on a worker and a loving father—Agustin and Arturo— Tuesday evening for a minor traffic stop. In response to this SB 1070 injustice, community members surrounded the Border Patrol vehicle locked in arms in order to protest the detention of Agustin and Arturo. The Border Patrol agents rushed-in to break the non-violent circle. About 20 TPD cars and 15 Border Patrol vehicles arrived to the scene. Agents pushed elderly women, threatened youth with tasers, shot people with rubber bullets, and pepper-sprayed community members.
Furthermore, Border Patrol interrogated random people on the sidewalk and took community leader Rosa Leal, even after she showed agents an Arizona driver’s license. They also handcuffed and detained local activist Mari Galup.
In light of the growing debate on immigration reform, collaborations between local police and immigration agents, as well as criminalization of migrants and militarization of the US-Mexico border continue. Our community does not stand for this.
The community demands that local TPD stop calling Border Patrol. Otherwise, Police Chief Villaseñor must go!"

Today at Southside, the community and the press turned out.

Channel 4 in front of Southside Presbyterian Church, our Tucson church home and where the protest took place last night.

Eleazar, husband of Rosa who was detained, speaks to the press beforehand.

Videographers for various media start setting up.

 

Community members ready to show their support in Southside's kiva, the sanctuary.

Protesters calling police chief Villaseñor to step down, and for an end to the Polimigra.

Raul Alcaraz Ochoa, friend of our housemate Steph, and now friend of our whole house (not to mention boss immigration activista!), and a young woman led the press conference in English and Spanish.

As one of the leaders of the Southside Worker Center that organizes and advocates for the rights of mainly day laborers and their families, Raul not only calls for justice with his powerful words, but also in his actions, having himself thrown his own body under Border Patrol vehicles twice in protest of detentions.

The intersection between church and state; faith and conscience.

By 12:15 the kiva was brimming, and the chants of "Ni una mas," (Not one more), "Si se puede" (Yes we can), and "No estas solo" thundered.

Dan Millis of the Sierra Club Borderlands chapter and BorderLinks' board member held up his sign: "If Rosa is a criminal, I am the tooth fairy."

At the press conference, I ran into Elsbeth, one of my BorderLinks supervisors on her day off! Here she is with her partner Mike.

Raul and the young woman did an incredible job laying out the main message, and then Rev. John Fife took the pulpit, a place he is rather accustomed to as the former pastor of Southside.

John Fife called out the police and Border Patrol for unlawful actions, namely racial profiling, inappropriate and illegal usage of SB 1070 legislation, and violence against a peaceful demonstration.

"I asked the officer what the charge was. 'No license plate light.' 'So why are you holding him?'" The reason for holding him? "He did not speak English and he did not have a driver's license." I'm sorry, what?! Would a white person, in either the driver's seat or the passenger's seat, be asked for their documents and held for Border Patrol to come under reasonable suspicion that he/she was in the country illegally?

"This did not need to happen. This was a simple traffic stop that should have resulted in a ticket and sending that person on their way..." There should have been no asking about documentation status, especially not of the passenger. There is no way a passenger should be asked or required to show identification, much less a driver's license. 

The passenger, Arturo in this case, should have been released immediately. And even under SB 1070, local authorities are not allowed to hold someone any longer than it would take to process the infraction: the traffic violation. You cannot just call Border Patrol and wait for them to show up.

When they did show up, Tucsonians formed a double circle around their van and refused to let it leave. In response to this action, people were pepper sprayed, sometimes within six inches of their eyes, shot at with rubber bullets that left marks, and many were thrown to the ground, including viejitas, little old women, as Steph said. "All of the violence was on part of the TPD (Tucson Police Department), all of it, without any attempt to diffuse the situation... Twenty Border Patrol agents attacked members of this community without any warning. They attacked peaceably assembled members of this community."

Those who enforce the law need to know the law. They need to know the discretion they are granted (to not call Border Patrol), and they need to know the parameters in which they can operate (so many violations as I have mentioned). Rev. Fife demanded a full investigation of the actions of the police and of Border Patrol, as well as their policy and training. Along with getting the remaining three out of detention, that will be the subject of further organizing for justice.

This is the 13-year-old son of Agustin, the first man to be detained. He left us all crying saying, "I need my father because he is my mother and my father at the same time... He's the most generous person... I've never been separated from him... Please give me my father back."

Remember Eleazar from the beginning, whose wife Rosa was detained? He came still had some incredible words, though. He introduced himself as "Eleazar Castellanos, padre y esposo." "Eleazar Castellanos, father and husband." Eleazar and Rosa heard about the hubbub at Southside and went to see what was going on with their friends and how they could help. Rosa stayed out of the fray, sitting on a curb and observing, and she was questioned by police including about her immigration status, apparently, or she would have not been taken away. Rosa showed her Arizona driver's license.

Eleazar said thank goodness for that. They have the privilege of having documents, he added. But the police kept questioning her. "Qué más pruebas quieres, señor?" she asked. "What more proof do you want, sir?" He continued with his own questions: "Why are the police doing the function of Border Patrol? Its not their job!"
 
And then the true heartbreaker: "I woke up without my wife for the first time in 25 years." I at age 23 cannot even fathom spending 25 years with someone, let alone waking up with them every morning for 25 years until one day they aren't there.

Finally, here is the wife of Arturo. She challenged the community: "How are they leaving us alone, in the shadows, with so much fear, with so many questions from our children? We need to live in freedom! We need our voice to be heard! We need our vote to matter! My husband is a good man. We are part of our parish and active in the community... This is our country too!... How do the police and the migra just keep doing whatever, detaining whomever?"

How can we deny this 13-year-old his only parent, all from a traffic violation? How much longer will we continue to separate families? All I can say is I am so shocked and saddened, and I guarantee you work will be done on this. I will keep you posted. Ni una mas! Not one more!

"Fuera, Polimigra."

It was about 8:30 pm. Heather, Amy Beth, and I were sitting on the couch, sharing photos of our friends and family back home, expecting Amy Beth's brother for his single-night visit. This may be his only chance to visit, or he may land the job from tomorrow's interview and start work in Tucson, once again close to his little sister.

Amy Beth had seen our housemate Steph, YAVA (YAV alum) who is well-connected in the immigration activist community and with the Southside Worker Center (organizes and defends the rights of day laborers and their families), post a little earlier on Facebook that one of the workers had been arrested. We collectively wondered how she was doing, so we all three texted her to check in. 

A little after 8:30, Amy Beth's brother, Andrew, arrived! We gave him the brief house tour, made plans for ping-pong on the back porch later, and plopped ourselves in the living room to chat. 

Heather received a text from her boyfriend who is an elder at Southside, saying that something happened. And soon, Amy Beth got a frantic call from Steph. While she insisted she was fine and could drive home, no. We introduced Andrew to Tucson by piling into his rental car and driving to Southside to pick up Steph and drive her back home.

 Everything was dark including the members of the crowd still lingering. Everyone was in the dark, but the media were still there.

Apparently this is what we missed, and Steph was in the thick of things: Southside Worker Center Border Patrol protest

As we found her, "Don't touch me, I got pepper sprayed," she said. "They started shooting us with como... pistolas de goma." Rubber bullets. She's Puerto Rican, so sometimes we communicate in Spanglish, and how would you ever find the words in your second language when you're shaken up. 

We tried our best to put the pieces together as the last people from the 80-plus-member crowd began to head their separate directions. An immigration lawyer was also on the scene, and people were exchanging information. 

In preparation for an upcoming immigration justice action this weekend, two separate groups had been meeting in different parts of town, and the Samaritans, a humanitarian aid group for migrants, all happened to be meeting tonight when Steph found out about Agustin's arrest. She was one of the first there, and because all of those groups were already together, it was easy to get over 80 activists there in a snap. 

Amy Beth went over to Eleazar, the parking lot coordinator of the Worker Center who helps connect day laborers with employers and fair wages, and Heather and I joined them. His wife, Rosita, had been detained as well. The lawyer assured him that they have a case and will definitely get Rosita out of detention, and it seemed like the shock had warn off enough for him to acknowledge there was nothing more that could be done at this point other than to go home and shower. What struck me was how he told us, "You just cannot trust anyone, even people you think are there to help you." In the middle of everything, it seemed like a few people had joined the protest and chatted, chistosos (joking), but they turned out to be ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents in plainclothes. All I could do was shake my head. Trust is something Arizona desperately needs. This is just days after California signed remarkable Trust Act legislation, and Eleazar for one feels he cannot trust the police, nor the government, nor people in plainclothes on the street, nor those who seem they are there to help.  

We drove Steph home and continued to debrief her experience of this madness. The media reported:
Traffic stop turns into immigration protest, TPD uses pepper spray
"The police officer conducted a records check and discovered the driver has never had a license in the United States or in Arizona. According to Hawke, SB 1070 law then required the police officer to  'mandatory impoundment' of the vehicle, arrest the driver and also required to call the Border Patrol."

That's actually false. SB1070 does not require police to call Border Patrol. In fact, it allows for discretion. That is precisely why protesters shouted "Fuera, Polimigra." Get out, Polimigra. Polimigra: policía + inmigración. The cooperation between local police and federal immigration authorities under Secure Communities legislation (Secure Communities Wiki) that leads to people being stopped for minor traffic violations, Border Patrol being called, and ICE starting deportation proceedings. The intention for this policy was greater cooperation for the deportation of people committing actual crimes, but it has served to drive even more fear into immigrant communities who were legitimately wary of authorities before, and now are even less likely to report crimes for fear of their own deportation. Who is secure? How is this healthy for communities when people live in fear and real crimes, not just traffic violations, are not reported?

On Facebook, Tucson News KVOA posted:
"A traffic stop turned into a protest on the south side. TPD says Border Patrol took a driver and passenger into custody, when police learned they were undocumented immigrants. But more than 100 people gathered around the scene near 22nd St. and 10th Ave. TPD did use pepper spray against some demonstrators police say were acting aggressive. But police say no one was seriously injured."

And later, this news clip:
KGUN9

Four community members were taken away tonight. Agustin, for not having a light on the front license plate of his truck. And side-note, he is undocumented. Mari, an activist and protestor. Another worker named Arturo, whose supposed offense I did not hear.

And Rosita, Eleazar's wife, a loving woman who took Steph in for the holidays last year and fed her homemade tamales, for sitting on the curb and being undocumented. "She's sick, Rosita is sick, and they took her away..." Steph recounted with heartbreak.

For resisting Border Patrol non-violently, protesters were pushed to the ground, and for continuing to resist, clouds of pepper spray came their way, inducing screams. Norma, the silver-haired volunteer doctor for the Samaritans, ended up with scratches all over her arms and legs. Steph said, "I'm what, 115 pounds, and he pushed me to the ground, saying, 'Oh you're so tough...' They pepper-sprayed a lot of people in the eyes... They just pepper-sprayed me all over... And he touched me, so I spat at him. I know that's considered violent, but I was just so angry." 

No matter how much you read in the news that this is happening, that while the government is shut down, they are still deporting 1000-plus people a day because that is a necessary matter of national security, it rocks our world when this actually happens to people you know. Welcome to Tucson, Andrew. Holding Steph's hand,  making sure she ate, drank water, and showered the pepper spray and the feeling of him touching her off, and being there for her was all we could do. Tomorrow, we get up and we continue the work laid out before us. Community organizing, educating, and working in solidarity. 

Please stay tuned. There will be an emergency press conference tomorrow at noon at Southside. Ironically, Southside's Pastor Allison is currently in Washington, D.C. advocating for immigration reform while all of this is unfolding right outside her church. We're working all the angles, folks. 

Minnesota

Oh the irony of checking in with a past student while the office soundtrack was for Mason Jennings, and my only album of his was "Minnesota." Sometimes, being away from Minnesota is hard. I am away from a number of people that I love! And while I'm completely immersed in the work I am doing here, I still try to keep in mind the people who touched my life in my work in Northfield last year. 

In the past week, one of the students I worked with some last year, who has a good heart, did something stupid and got arrested, and another told me about how he is trying to save up money for college, but it's hard on $7 an hour. He still told me he hopes to go back to school, asked me what schools are like in Arizona, and told me to stay smart and safe.

I told him, "You have a huge heart and inspire me. I hope people can see your heart in whatever you do!"

"Thank you. Means a lot from you, like I said before you're one of the smartest people I know."

Even though I am away in Arizona, Northfield's TORCH program and its amazing students are still in my heart!

Giving What I Got

One of my biggest struggles living on a small stipend which will basically go to bills and food this year will to not be able to financially support organizations and people that are struggling and/or are doing good work. I get a flood of emails every day from organizations to stay updated on their work, and while I would love to give even $10, this year I have to choose even more judiciously what and who I can support financially. Which is why it breaks my heart further when things happen like today.

When I was biking home from church, I stopped at a stop sign to turn left onto a busy street, and to my right was a large group of family members and friends putting on a carwash in the parking lot. A couple teenage boys called out to jokingly ask if I wanted my bike washed. Rain does that well enough for me (when we have it). But the traffic was still flowing, so three elementary-age girls ran over to me to follow up on the boys' question, and ask if I'd just consider making a donation. I asked, "For what?" "Our uncle." Now this is making assumptions, but that would most likely either mean their uncle is sick or in detention for an immigration violation and is hoping to get bonded out. (The Southside Worker Center actually does hold carwashes to raise money to pay bonds for their community workers who get detained so that they can be free and working while they await the decision of their deportation case). In either scenario, these little girls, this whole family, is missing their tío, and they are working so hard for him in his time of need.

Today I could pull out the only cash I had, a $5 bill, and nudge that family a tiny bit closer to ensuring the health and wellbeing of their tío. However, my intentional community in my house is pooling together all of our living stipends to pay the bills and meet our nutritional needs the best we can, and as we haven't paid a month of bills yet and are unsure what a month's worth of groceries for five mouths between Safeway, Food City, Food Conspiracy co-op, and the Community Food Bank will look like, we do not know how much money we'll have left over at the end of the month (for other things, like you know, bike equipment, vitamins, maybe fun things out on the town etc.). There are going to be countless scenarios this year where individuals, families, and organizations call out for monetary support, and in the case of individuals and families on the streets, the question of dependency and how much good you are actually doing is always tricky to navigate. So again, when my heart is broken and I want to support another's mission, on a simple living stipend, financial support is not a simple act. 

But just like everyone else who doesn't have much money to their name, when I am not be able to give financially, I can give my heart and my time. Time is also a privilege to have, though, because I do not have to exhaustingly work two jobs just to put food on the table for my family. Therefore I should be exhaustingly working for others to have more opportunities for decent, humane, good work that can provide for them and their families.

Delegation Day Domination

Today I'm grateful for how BorderLinks fills my days. I'm still training on delegations, but today I'm amazed by how we spent seven hours in the desert with Humane Borders to check their humanitarian water stations, ate delicious lentil soup cooked by our staff, made conceptual connections between free trade policies and increased migration of human beings, had an amazing presentation by a 19-year-old unDACAmented student from Scholarships A-Z about how he and other undocumented students and allies are working for access to higher education, filled our bellies again on what I attempted to cook for the crew, and then voiced some of our thoughts on how today motivated us to continue working for social justice with our new tools and experiences. My brain is whirring and I still have so much energy after a long day, and tomorrow it's on to the next one!

Check out some photos from the delegations so far! 

 Here's a few photos from my first learning delegation - a single-day delegation with a group of pastors from Duke Divinity School.

Here's Indira, our Program Organizer for this trip! 

Going on a desert walk with Shura from Green Valley Samaritans. We walked trails common for migrants to take, walking in the dark for safety. As we walked, we called out "Somos amigos, somos Samaritanos Tenemos agua, comida, y medicina" - We are friends, we are Samaritans. We have water, food, and medicine - just in case there were people in need of assistance but in hiding.

Here Shura shows us where some people take refuge under the highway for safety.

 Marveling at the modern federal courthouse where we went to observe Operation Streamline (not familiar with Operation Streamline? Don't worry, I'll be blogging about it much more!)

Once in a while we stumble across something unexpected - in the building where we went to visit with a public defendant in immigration cases, we found Senator McCain's office! After our talk with the lawyer, we waltzed right up to the Senator's door, and they let us in to see his office even though he was away at a town hall meeting.

And here's my second training delegation, this time with a group from the Presbytery of Des Moines! A little Midwest connection never hurts. Here's our sunset reflection time at Gates Pass.

This time, I had the opportunity to learn from the delegation styles and expertise of both Alex (BorderLinks) and MaryCruz (HEPAC, our Nogales partner organization). Here's Alex starting the reflection before we lost too much light.

 This morning we followed Jean and Betsy from Humane Borders on their route to check three of their water stations in various points in the desert.

Jean and Betsy checking the level and quality of the water in their recycled blue drum. 

 Ever seen a cow crossing sign? Welcome to free range cattle country.

 We passed by this cactus and of course we had to stop for pictures. As many saguaros are around 100 years old when they first sprout arms, this one with its 30-plus arms must be hundreds of years old.

Old copper mines. 

 A little off the beaten path, Betsy led us to an unexpected site: the graves of numerous Chinese migrants who died in or near the copper mines perhaps a century ago. What an interesting parallel to today's migration story of marginalization and undervalued life.

 Who can say they've driven through this kind of forest - a saguaro forest?

 Delegate Shamaine taste-testing the water.

 Another water station in the shade of the cacti. And an actual tree.

 I'll write more about this eventually too, but after a food systems activity and Dario the DREAMer's talk, we finished the day before dinner with time at the local farmers' market.

Shamaine found this sunset spot over the farmer's market with me. 

 

In case you were worried, I am indeed alive and well!

After dinner... How wonderful is it when delegation participants not only clean up after themselves, but go above and beyond to rearrange our tupperware cabinet! (Thanks Kathy!) 

Hope you all enjoyed the pictures :-) Now off for some personal reflection time before the next early morning!