Monday, July 1, 2019

At the Border of Our Humanity


At its best, peacemaking integrates heart, head, and hands. As MPT's June border team leaves Tijuana and ponders next steps, it is worth reflecting on the importance of these three aspects of peace team work.

First, the heart . . .

One would need to have a heart of stone to stand outside the port of entry at El Chaparral where so many are fleeing for their lives and the lives of their families and not feel the horror and hope born of desperation that hangs in the early morning air. A montage of images - some minuscule in detail but enormous in meaning - lodge in the heart, painting a picture of a system that is utterly broken by design.

An exhausted mother, babe in arms, with two toddlers in tow waiting for a number to be called that day . . . or not. An educator fleeing Cameroon describing politically-motivated atrocities back home as well as the hunger and dead bodies he encountered as he made the dangerous trek through the jungle of the treacherous Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama. A woman in the final days of pregnancy boarding a bus that will take her into the bowels of the U.S. immigration system while her partner is left behind. A pink backpack, a handful of tattered documents, numbers written on tiny slips of paper.

Bearing witness to this manufactured crisis tears at the heart, but to stop there would be an exercise in sentimentality and solipsism. A large part of the work of MPT is to observe and monitor what is happening on the ground and then engage in ongoing study and social analysis so that subsequent teams can come to the work with a richer context.

What the team observed at the border is, in great part, a result of war, poverty, racism, and imperialism. If we fail to get down to the root causes of the conditions that drive immigration, human rights observers will be standing at borders forever.

How can one bear witness, for example, to the many Salvadorans fleeing north without understanding the context of U.S. complicity and direct involvement in a bloody civil war and campaign of terror waged against the poor of that country, many of whom were tortured and killed by men trained on U.S. soil at the School of the Americas  (renamed WHINSEC) with U.S. tax dollars?

When President Trump demonizes migrants across the board as menacing gang members, he fails to mention the fact that Central American gangs originated in Los Angeles where Salvadoran families fled to escape horrific violence fueled, to a great extent, by our own country's policies of standing with the privileged and powerful.

While the overwhelming majority of Salvadoran asylum seekers are fleeing violence, including gang violence, there are deeper questions that beg to be asked.

For example, wouldn't it make sense to address the personal and collective trauma resulting from poverty, war, and displacement and explore its relationship to violence? Why do the media cover gruesome acts of criminality but turn a deaf ear to the violence of poverty that so often gives rise to street violence? What needs to happen so that youth, not only in El Salvador but around the world, have authentic options and hope for the future?

These are the kinds of questions that must be asked as part of peace team work.

It is crucial that team members learn about the histories and cultures of those with whom we stand in order to understand the structural violence that leads so many people to the border in the first place. It is also important to recognize that the situation at the border is fluid, reflecting political, economic, and social realities that are ever changing.

For example, since February when MPT was last in Tijuana, there has been a demographic change at El Chaparral. During the winter, the team observed a small group of Cameroonians waiting each morning for their numbers to be called; today their numbers have swelled dramatically. Frustrated, they report that they have been kept waiting for months, claiming that the process is racist and corrupt.

It is worth noting that the illegal "metering" system that is currently in place was instituted during the Obama administration in response to an influx of Haitians who had arrived at the border. The team listened deeply to Cameroonians who believe that race is a major factor in their being kept in Tijuana longer than other asylum seekers.

Many of them complained to MPT that their numbers are being passed over by a process that favors asylum seekers from Central America and Mexico. One man from Cameroon, pointing to a brown-skinned family waiting in line to board the bus, told the team that the metering system is racist in favor of "white" people like "them," serving as a reminder that systems of oppression always rely on a strategy of divide-and-conquer, something the team witnessed in Tijuana.

It became obvious to the Summer Team that we need to learn much more about the situation in Cameroon in order to have a better grasp of what is happening on the U.S - Mexico border before sending our next team.

Once this team returns home, its members will continue to read, study, and keep up updated on all aspects of the immigration process as part of the follow-up work.

Questions need to be asked, for example, about the relationship between harsh immigration policies and white supremacy. About immigrants are being exploited as a money-making mechanism for the private prison industry. About an election cycle during which immigrants will be objectified as dangerous scapegoats by some candidates and used as self-serving sound bytes for others.

There are also the issues of squalid migrant detention centers, the Migrant Protection Protocols (or what some call the Migrant Persecution Protocols), and ongoing ICE arrests  (MPT's home base, Michigan, has the second highest arrest rate in the country) that team members will respond to in ways that each of us will discern when we arrive home.

MPT's summer team is committed to studying these various aspects of the complex and cruel immigration system and more as team members prepare talks and presentations . . . which leads to the final aspect of the summer team's peace work - action!

As it's been said, "to know and not to do is not to know." The team takes being at the border seriously. We return to Roanoke, Los Angeles, Northern California, and Michigan to share what we learned with our communities, connect with organizations and activists working on immigration and human rights advocacy, and meet with our elected officials to report on what we witnessed and documented. Of course, the work will also involve recruiting and preparing future teams to return to the U.S. - Mexico border.

MPT's primary focus is creating a just world grounded in active nonviolence through the practice of peaceful presence, unarmed civilian accompaniment, observation/documentation, and placing our bodies in front of those who would harm others (interpositioning).  We bring our hearts, heads, and hands to the work.

The violence of the present moment - so much of it rooted in poverty, racism, and militarism - demands peacemakers committed to opening our hearts and using our minds and getting our hands in the dirt. Nothing less will do if we hope to tear down the walls in our world that keep us from becoming fully human.


Here is a link to a comprehensive report that was researched during the time MPT was in Tijuana. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/2019/09/23/immigration-crisis-migrants-us-mexico-border/2022670001/


Hope and Anguish


Enclave Caracol  


 An older gentleman with difficulty walking due to diabetes comes down the stairs after a visit with a volunteer in the medical clinic. One of our team members stationed at the door comments that she sees that he got some new shoes. He says” Yes! and they are beautiful!”










Food Not Bombs volunteers create wonderful welcoming aromas in the kitchen next to the entry/exit for Al Otro Lado’s legal workshop. They serve  meals four evenings a week. On Friday afternoon as our Peace Team members provide security near the clinic door, we ask "what's cooking? it smells wonderful!." They tell us it's lemon balm tincture and explain it's use in promoting calmness and easing stress. 


A young mother sits in the hallway, rocking her infant daughter, looking a bit worried. A volunteer with beginner Spanish skills says “ah...bonita!” and gestures toward the two of them.   The mother’s face lights up with a beautiful broad smile.


A childcare volunteer follows a toddler as she walks towards the stairway. The little girl hides her face behind the metal railing just cleaned by another Al Otro Lado volunteer…a game of peekaboo begins. 


Mural at Al Otro Lado:
 “The extreme clarity of the desert light is equaled by the extreme individuation of desert life forms.Love flowers best in openness and freedom.” - Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire



El Chaparral Port of Entry

As names are called, a young boy with his family stands behind the metal barriers. His eyes are intensely focused on the list manager, his hands are clasped together at his chin.  Although one of the names in his family is called, and several move forward in hope, the list managers say there is only space for one person. The next day the boy and two family members are called. They leave other family members behind for another day.



A woman appearing to be near full-term in her pregnancy is called. A man steps forward with her and they line up behind the others who have been called. Within a minute the man leaves. He is not allowed to cross with her. She must go alone. Volunteers who know her say she is not well.

After hearing her name, a young woman moves into the line of those called. She stands against the barred fencing, looking outward to those who are watching and waiting for their day. A few moments later, as a man calls out to her, she turns away, burying her head between the bars, sobbing.


Two volunteers arrive with a cart containing a large pot of hot liquid, cups, a frying pan and a painted sign. They park the cart near people waiting in the line. The board is placed at the top of the cart. It says ”Avena Gratis.”  As one volunteer holds the pan filled with cups, the other fills the cups with the hot beverage. The drinks are offered to all who are waiting.


After his family members names were not called, even though list organizers had promised the day before that they would be, a young Cameroonian man and his friend express deep disappointment.  They tell a few white American human rights observers in the area that the system is not fair. They point to their skin and tell us the system is clearly racist and urge us to do something about it.





Friday, June 28, 2019

Behind Walls of Separation


El Chaparral has changed again since MPT was last here. No longer are the government agencies attempting to maintain a facade of an autonomous asylum seekers self-managed list. Now, the red canopy and the list managers sit inside the National Institution of Migration / Border Police parking area, behind huge metal posts set side by side - a fence that mirrors the Border wall itself, hiding and blocking the recording of illegal numbers and the entire process. 

The assertion that the list managers as asylum seekers are in authority and control the list wears thin when they are seen sitting behind a fence that isolates one asylum seeker from another creating a cold and impersonal shield of separation. People's lives are neatly arranged in illusionary ink, reduced to slips of paper and handed through the inhumane barrier. The stories of the migrants have been muted - the human voice can barely pass through this metal barrier. 



The entire sidewalk is roped off. Asylum seekers must stand a great distance away, held back by yet another metal barrier where a list manager tells them when to advance down the sidewalk to release their precious documents through the metal barrier. They wait, poised to see if the papers will prove their right to ask for asylum or to see if  they will be told that they don't have the proper documents. How can an asylum seeker believe that there is anything other than an orchestrated dance of cruelty and corruption behind this metal veil that denigrates U.S. and international law and the right to seek asylum? 

Upon return this summer, tensions are rising. MPT has observed the escalation of indignation by those holding the tiny illegal numbers for weeks and sometimes months. They angrily challenge the system demanding answers to why their number has not been called - questioning why they have been bypassed while others are allowed entry. A team member observed an asylum seeker look a Grupos Beta humanitarian agent in the eye saying, "I know what's going on - I heard with my own ears someone with a number lower than me say, 'Cuanto me cobra?' ('How much will it cost me?').

A team member listened to this exchange, witnessing the agent respond stoically to the accusations that were bravely asserted by this man and two women. They stood directly in the driveway entrance on the Mexican side of the border - yards away from where "the chosen" line up to board the vans that drive them less than half a kilometer away to Ped East Point of Entry. There they disembark only to be shuffled in a line - grandmothers, babies, and pregnant women. Then they are turned over to the custody of ICE on the U.S. side and loaded and transported by U.S. vans a mere 200 feet from where they were boarded at El Chaparral in the first place. 



Meanwhile, out in the center divide stand the Africans of Cameroon, Togo and Yemen, along with the Haitians and Jamaicans, visibly segregated from the lighter-skinned asylum seekers. They all stand waiting to be called. Team members observed seven numbers called today which should mean 70 people cross, but instead only 14 are transported to Al Otro Lado (the other side). The questions hang in the air.  Why? And again Who goes? Who stays and who is making a profit? We observe, we listen and meticulously document to find the answers.

There are other things to consider as well like: Who gets to have an audience? Who is turned away? Which documents are accepted and why aren’t others? Our team members witness the dire reality of this manufactured crisis that squeezes out the last remnants of civility. It is a world gone mad with waiting and fearful desperation mired in exhaustion. Team members know that there will be more trauma for these families, the seekers of asylum, before relief is found if at all. 

Today the Summer Meta Peace Team saw there was a UN representative taking photos of the people waiting in an illegal line for illegal numbers - their lives illegally held in limbo by a number on a piece of paper.  Meta Peace Team holds a peaceful and loving presence in the wake of chaos.

Thursday, June 27, 2019

A System Designed to Make Life Hard

Since arriving at the border this summer, MPT has heard disturbing information and seen questionable actions that indicate that the process of asylum-seeking operates neither fairly nor squarely. The process has become more complicated, secretive and corrupt.

Most readers of this blog already know about the illegal “metering” system. Instead of being welcomed into the US as international law states, an asylum seeker is given a number on a tiny piece of paper. Because that number will not be called for weeks or months, people have to find a place to stay until that number is reached.  There is no way to tell exactly when the number will be called.  Anywhere from 0 to 100 names may be called on any day, so asylum seekers must pack up their families and all of their possessions and get themselves to the border at 7 AM (sometimes requiring several hours of travel). They do this for several days in a row in order to be there when their number is called.  If they miss the call, they must start over again by getting a new number and the wait continues.

Today 60 new arrivals received their numbers while only 30 names of asylum seekers were called, and of those 30 names, a total of 15 people actually passed through to the US where their first stop will be detention centers for several weeks.  One team member expressed to an English-speaking asylum seeker who was standing next to her that she was concerned that so many people were missing their call. The woman explained that many of those who were not there at this time had paid to get lower numbers and had passed through at an earlier date.  

The difference between the numbers that were distributed today and the numbers of the asylum seekers who were able to enter the U.S. represents 3240 individuals. That shows how many people are left waiting “in limbo,” stuck at the border, trying to find life’s basic needs: food, clothing, shelter. This life is hard. We hear that. We see that. We sense that. This life is hard. And the system seems designed to make it that way.


Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Border Report - Context and Orientation



Monday was MPT's first full day in Tijuana. The team spent the day connecting with partners to discuss the work ahead, meeting with friends from the Unified U.S. Deported Veterans, and visiting Las Playas de Tijuana where the border wall reaches out into the ocean like a long finger pointing toward freedom and a world without walls.

Throughout the week, the team will be posting short reports on what we are witnessing and doing at the border. Upon return, team members will offer more detailed accounts of the situation on the ground.These daily posts are offered as brief snapshots of what is happening here.

The day began with the news that  Mexico was sending 15, 000 troops to the northern U.S.- Mexico border in response to pressure from the Trump administration. This was followed by reports that a migrant father and his 23-month-old daughter drowned a migrant father and his 23-month-old daughter drowned while attempting to cross the Rio Grande. These realities, along with the ongoing rash of stories detailing the horrid conditions in U.S. immigration detention facilities and the ongoing manufactured humanitarian crisis at the border, provide some of the context for the work of MPT's June Border Team.


After orienting ourselves and being brought up to date on the situation at the border and beyond for those seeking asylum, the team visited the office of the Unified Deported U.S. Veterans and Veterans for Peace Tijuana. These veterans, who are dealing with the trauma of war, detention, and deportation, have been waging a mighty struggle to return home to their families and friends in the U.S. As Hector, one of the deported vets, says: "If I died tonight, my ashes could be returned to the States where I would be given a full military funeral, yet while I'm alive I can't return to the only home I know . . .  I'm an American."

Although the injustice of being deported after having served in the military has been devastating for each veteran, collectively they have built a strong and loving community here in Tijuana where, in addition to their advocacy work, they offer support to newly-deported vets and direct aid to migrants living in Tijuana's shelters.



When MPT was here in February, the team was invited by the veterans to place a peace team at a march they were co-sponsoring with a local Muslim group.

This team plans on accompanying the vets later in the week as they offer humanitarian relief to migrants. Individual team members are also arranging meetings with their elected officials back home in order to raise the issue of justice for these deported vets and offer an eye witness report of what is happening on the U.S. - Mexico border..

After leaving the vets' office, the team went to Las Playas de Tijuana where the wall that separates Tijuana from San Diego stretches out into the ocean. This is where Friendship Park is located, the site where the deported vets organize weekly bi-national church services.This is also the site where Pat Nixon famously stated that she wished the barbed wire fence that separates the people of two such friendly nations would be cut down.

This area, which once provided a space for families on both sides of the border to connect with one another, is now highly restricted and monitored by U.S. Border Patrol. Today Friendship Park is open for only a few hours on weekends to ten people at a time, a far cry from the vision of unity articulated by the former First Lady.


Despite draconian policies to keep people separated, the wall has become a place of resistance and hope.This is where deported veterans have painted their names onto the iron slats of the wall and where the ugliness of separation has been transformed into a beautiful statement of shared humanity through art and gardens and creative expressions of solidarity. 

The team's last visit of the day to the  Tijuana's Border Angels office and migrant shelter that hug the beach at Las Playas. MPT learned that earlier in the afternoon, ten Mexican soldiers conducted a raid on the shelter, arresting two men. The team wonders if this raid has anything to do with the day's news about Mexican troops being sent to the U.S. - Mexico border. The team will keep in touch with Border Angels and post updates.

Early tomorrow morning the team will report to  El Chaparral at the U.S. point of entry (POE) to provide human rights monitoring and a peaceful presence.This is where those seeking asylum line up early in the morning in order to be placed on a waiting list as part of a "metering" process that is in violation of international and U.S. law.

Others, having waited weeks or even months after being placed on the list, also gather at El Chaparral in the hope that their numbers will be called that day. Those whose names are announced will then board a bus that will take them on a hellish journey that begins with being held in the hielera (ice box) for processing. From there, these asylum seekers will step into an uncertain future that may include family separation, detention, and being sent back to Mexico.

Resources:

Al Otro Lado Border Rights Project: https://alotrolado.org/programs/border-rights-project/

Refugee Blockade: The Trump Administration's Obstruction of Asylum Claims at the Border (Human Rights First Fact Sheet)
https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/sites/default/files/December_Border_Report.pdf

Monday, June 24, 2019

MPT at the Border - Summer Team



MPT Summer Border Team is off to a great start having arrived in Tijuana in time for orientation with our partner organization. We see great need for our compassionate presence. Asylum seekers face a very difficult, complicated  - even horrendous - process at all levels, and many of the potential outcomes are devastating. Over and over again arbitrary decisions are made such as: the time pending between presenting themselves and having their claims heard, the documentation process and whether or not family members are going to be separated. Much of what we heard at orientation helped us better understand the process and fueled our desire to work for human dignity and freedom. Our work begins today.

Monday, March 25, 2019


When our team arrived in Tijuana, we could not know what we would experience in the days ahead.  Would the border be open or closed?  Would we need to use our violence de-escalation methods to help protect migrants?  How could we be most helpful to the most vulnerable persons at the border?  We discovered that while Tijuana can be a very dangerous place, our day to day experience was, on the surface, quite ordinary.  Tijuana is like many cities of its size.  And fairly safe if you are traveling in a group, have reliable shelter, have access to money and transportation, and know who to approach for help.  We had those advantages, most do not.  Through our orientation with Al Otro Lado and our first-hand experience at El Chaparral and Al Otro Lado, we became aware of the obstacles to even reaching the port of entry and we began to feel apprehensive for these ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.   In our work with Al Otro Lado, we came to learn the importance and power of being a friendly presence, a link to trustworthy assistance, and witnesses to the ways the asylum process, at one of the world's busiest points of entry, is not accessible, is not equitable, and is not just for the vast majority of men, women, and children who seek to make their claims for asylum. 


Sunday February 17:  Friendship Bi-national Park, La Playa

We had an opportunity to view the artwork, community garden, and sculptures that community members had created on and along the wall.  It was remarkable to see this symbol of bi-national friendship, the expressions of love, humanity, and interconnection throughout Friendship Park now a challenge and resistance to the rusted iron barrier that scars the sandy outcropping into the ocean there.  Constructed in 1971 during the Nixon administration, the park was originally a symbol of cross-national friendship.  And in fact, the park only had a short barbed wire fence until 1994, when residents of both countries could easily meet on the border under the supervision of US border patrol.  Even after September 11, 2001, it was possible to meet and pass things across the fence.  That changed in 2009, when the Department of Homeland Security closed down the park and constructed a second parallel fence and later a third 20 foot wall of bars was built that stands today.  Friendship Park reopened in 2012 with the mesh fence that only allows people to touch fingers with loved ones on the other side. (“Friendship Park,” Wikipedia).  We gathered at a little coffee place near the beach run by Border Angels, the cafĆ© is a fundraiser and educational center for the human rights group that advocates for and educates people about the dangers faced by migrants as they cross the desert, dropping off water along migrant routes and educating about the history of US/ Mexico border policy as well as providing legal advice.  One of the cafĆ© staff shared with our group their experiences along the border and their efforts to continue their work despite border patrol interference with their humanitarian work.

Monday, February 18, 2019

Our previous day’s orientation gave us context for what the travelers could face, but could not prepare us for understanding the confusing and changing numbers process and distinguishing newcomers from more seasoned migrants and the different immigration authorities and police always present in the plaza.  Picture an ordinary transportation plaza, where taxis idle for incoming train or bus passengers. No buses or trains here, just people walking along the pedway between the old and new point of entry or migrants who hope to cross in the near future.  The most confusing part on this first day was figuring out the numbers process as it unfolded in real time and figuring out when and how we could help.  We looked for subtle signs that people may be confused or we approached male members of family groups to find out if they had heard about Al Otro Lado and their services yet.  Other members of our team with stronger Spanish skills observed and documented the numbers process and the various efforts to obstruct the process.  At some undetermined point, we would begin to hear voices from a megaphone calling out names.  And then quickly, volunteers would hurry to the sidewalk to help those boarding the buses quickly shift their warmest layer to be next to their skin or to add a warm donated layer close to their bodies.    

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Our second day, we felt like “old hands” at El Chaparrel.  We could now identify the police standing along the concrete wall in the sunshine and the Grupos Beta overseeing the numbers process.  We were also more confident greeting people and introducing ourselves before asking them about the flier.  There were fewer migrants on the plaza that day, one of coldest during the week.  We could feel the cold radiate from the concrete and it reminded us of the cold these migrants would face, with fewer layers than ours, in the detention cells.  It was not unusual for the procedures to change without notice.  Later that morning we discouraged away from the sidewalk and had greater difficulty connecting with migrants to help them into warm clothing before they boarded buses.  


Friday, February 22, 2019

This was my final day directing migrants to the Al Otro Lado entrance.  I had an opportunity to assist several families and individuals and I had the opportunity to meet and learn more about the San Diego community who are part of the larger network to provide services and assistance to asylum seekers in the region.  One of the volunteers was from the San  Diego based Rapid Response Network, which helps migrants with transportation and housing once they cross the border into the United States.  Throughout the week, we were happy to discover that a Meta Peace Team presence in Tijuana would be an important complement to an array of humanitarian groups assisting on either side of the border.  



Wednesday, February 27, 2019

What Do You Need to Know?

Coming back after this trip, we will all try to convey to you - collectively and individually - what we witnessed first-hand....and we'll do our best.  But there is so much...We can only pray to do it justice.

To those of you who helped support this trip, we can't thank you enough.  Your prayers and donations now allow us to share the truth that can only come from "seeing it for yourself".   That is invaluable.

So, if you only have a short time to read, what is most important for you to know?

Those seeking legal asylum in the United States are waiting at the border, with nowhere to sleep or eat.  Local Mexican churches and organizations are doing their best to provide housing and meals.  Everyone we met was cold, tired, hungry, and anxious.  Many had nowhere to sleep.  While we were there, the nighttime temperatures dropped into the 30's.  Some days it absolutely poured rain.  We were drenched and cold - and we had a place to stay!  Many people - if not most - needed medical care to treat the illnesses inherent to living on the streets, some of whom had done so for months while they journeyed north. 

Readers may want to see pictures of these immigrants, but to protect them, we can't show you their faces.  What did they look like?  Like your 3rd grade teacher.  Like the little boy next door playing with his dog.  Like the lady in the checkout line at the grocery.  Like your grandmother.  Like your baby.  Like us. 

The majority of the people seeking asylum came as families: parents, grandparents, children, and babies.  They were doing everything in their power to get across the border to safety - legally - through the myriad of hurdles our government has created.  And a good number of these hurdles are illegal and wholly unconstitutional according to our own laws.


Many of the immigrants we met were from Mexico, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, but there were also large contingencies of asylum seekers that came from Haiti, Cameroon, and Russia. 

The treatment that the immigrants receive after their number is called ("Report from El Chaparral" ) can honestly be likened to a form of torture.  It is heartbreaking to watch parents, after finally hearing their number called in the open square, scramble for permanent markers to write their contact information on their children's arms.  They know they will be separated from each other by our system.  They are doing the only thing they can to ensure that they may see their children again.  Who knows it these temporary tattoos will work to do that?

Because those called are only allowed to keep the layer of clothing closest to their skin, volunteers scramble to help them change into warmer clothes at their base before they are loaded unto a bus.  These clothing donations are needed to fend off the frigid boxes they will be "stored" in while they await their interviews to determine if their situation is dire enough to qualify for more hearings within the United States boundaries.  These ice boxes have already been well-documented.

The border wall itself is a conglomerate of corrugated steel, concertina wire, concrete, floodlights, "no man's land" barren zones traveled by armed border patrols, and amalgamations of all of these put together.  Although it may happen, the entire time we were there we never saw anyone attempt to thwart these barriers.  To build a higher wall would be ridiculous, but from all the construction equipment we saw, they are adding to it constantly.


We also saw beauty:  Wonderful people, just like you and me, hoping only for a safe, stable life.  Grateful for the tiniest of kindnesses. Appreciative smiles when
you commented on how beautiful their children were, or helped them with paperwork, or escorted them to the doctor for free medical care.

We partnered with amazing people as well.  Al Otro Lado has created a system of support that allows volunteers to assist for as little as a day and as long as...well... indefinitely.  This network of non-hierarchical volunteers works tirelessly to help those seeking asylum get their most basic needs met, offering medical care, legal consultations, simple meals, and perhaps most importantly, the warmth, dignity and respect that are due all human beings.

We also partnered with Unified U.S. Deported Veterans and Veterans for Peace: see  "Thank You For Your Service, Now Get Out of My Country".  

So what is it most important for you to know?
That there is injustice and cruelty at our doorstep.  That our tax dollars are paying for it.  And there are wonderful people trying to dismantle that cruelty and injustice.  You all helped us be a part of that, and we are most grateful.

But our work here has just begun.

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

MPT's Winter 2019 Border Team

Team Members (L-R): Mary Hanna, Amy Schneidhorst, Pat Thornburg,
Kim Redigan, Kathleen Hernandez, and Linda Sartor

Monday, February 25, 2019

Thank You For Your Service, Now Get Out of My Country



The MPT Border Team was invited to join Unified U.S. Deported Veterans and Veterans for Peace at a powerful event, “Thank You For Your Service, Now Get Out of My Country” held at Enclave Carocal in Tijuana.
The evening opened with film clips of deported veterans telling their stories as part of a collaborative video project with UC-Davis followed by a panel discussion led by 2 of the more than 50 deported vets in Tijuana and a Gold Star father whose son is currently in the U.S. military. One of the Deported Vets, Hector, said “If I’m dead I can go back (to U.S) like nothing. They’ll ship my ashes home and send a flag to my family.”
Prior to their deportation, these vets were legal permanent residents living in the US between 3 - 48 years with their families on green cards. Some were summoned to appear at immigration hearings while overseas, their  commanders making the false promise that they would handle the situation. Others struggling with PTSD were deported over minor drug offenses. 
The event concluded with representatives from Veterans for Peace, including VFP National President, Jerry Condan, placing the migrant crisis in the context of U.S. foreign policy and militarism, especially in Central America.
MPT was honored to have been invited to this event and to place a peace team the following day at an event co-sponsored by the veterans.  More to follow on how we can help bring these deported vets back to the U.S. where many of them have family waiting for their loved ones to return home.







Sunday, February 24, 2019

The Wall: Which Side Are You On? A Team Member’s Reflection

by Kim Redigan

Borders and barbed wire. Separation fences. Spotlights. Guards and guns. And always the walls.

MPT teams are often working in places where walls divide humanity, creating the illusion of “other” who then becomes objectified into "enemy." Walls are always built on a foundation of fear. They serve as monuments to the idols of nationalism, racism, militarism. They say something about the human heart.

Over the past week, we have looked at many walls. We have seen remnants of the old, corrugated wall that separates the U.S. from Mexico, but mostly we stood in the shadows of walls that more accurately reflect this political moment. Towering, slotted rust iron walls separated from large concrete walls topped with concertina wire by a paved “no man’s land” where Border Control and contractors come and go. This means no more kisses, smiles, or communion passed between people who belong together.


We saw serpentine walls that snake over green rural hills, and we saw towering walls that rub up against busy, congested highways in Tijuana.

We saw the bizarre “showcase” of wall prototypes set down with precision like a surreal set in a dystopian film. 
The cost of each of the eight prototypes ranged from $300,000 - $500,000 each. This is the site where Donald Trump staged a speech last month. Now the prototypes are being destroyed. 

A few miles away families, driven by the violence of poverty and war, arrive at the border and run into the wall of cruelty called the U.S. immigration system. They will be criminalized and treated like animals for fleeing the conditions that have, in many cases, been caused by U.S. foreign policy. One wonders what it would take to destroy this wall and replace it with prototypes of compassion and justice.

We also saw the wall that divides the beach at Playas de Tijuana, reaching into the ocean like a long finger pointing toward freedom. It is here where the Unified U.S. Deported Vets and others have resisted through art, color, gardens, and creativity. This is the place where border church services are held each Sunday. The place where Border Angels serve up coffee and support for migrants in a weathered beach shack.

A place where ocean waves roll out and in, out and in, out and in, whispering a mantra that echoes all the way from Mexico to Palestine to the most faraway place of all - the human heart.

These walls must fall! These walls must fall! These walls must fall!



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Protective Accompaniment for a joint Muslim and Deported U.S. Veterans' Event

On our final day in Tijuana, the MPT Border Team was asked to don  vests and serve on a peace team at a rally and march sponsored by Unified U.S. Deported Veterans and the Latina Muslim Foundation and joined by members of Veterans for Peace and Tijuana Propone.

The day began on the El Chaparral plaza where a “Hands Off Venezuela” rally and prayer service for the people of Venezuela was held. From there, marchers carrying brooms and plastic bags spread out around areas not far from Avenida RevoluciĆ³n. The march and clean-up event, Eco-Project for a Clean Tijuana - One World, Two Communities, One Humanity Without Borders, was lively and included many young people. The march concluded with a big clean-up at a park next to the wall.

MPT accompanied the marchers throughout the streets of Tijuana. At one point, the team encountered a very agitated and inebriated man from the U.S. who was alternately screaming profanities and claiming he was God while letting everyone around him know that he killed James Brown. The team was concerned about the presence of so many children in the vicinity and worried about his safety, given the strong police presence in the area. While two of our affinity teams (subsets of our Team as a whole) stayed with the march, one affinity team stayed back and de-escalated the man by finding areas of common ground. He may have been drunk, mentally ill, and loud, but his humanity shone through when he spoke of his beloved mother.

Although the rest of the march had moved on, the decision was made to stay with this man because of out of concern for his safety. After the two team members accompanied the man to a local dental clinic, the entire Team was available to escort marchers back to their starting point.

After that, we said our farewells to our veteran friends over filtered water and packaged almonds before heading back across the border. 

Serving on this accompaniment team was the perfect way to end our time in Tijuana.