ACLU Trainings for Border Observers and notes of a frontlinemom

swaneagle harijan swaneagle harijan

First thing this morning, i came across an article about the body of another woman who was found In Juarez wrapped in a blanket on someone's back porch. The article gave no details.

In October 2004, my 12 year old daughter and i participated in the Caravan for Justice for the Women of Juarez. Ramona Morales, the Mother Sylvia Elena Rivera Morales, spoke in 12 cities along the western U.S. Her 15 year old daughter was tortured, mutilated, raped and strangled to death. It was very stressful for Ramona to tell this story up to 3 times a day.

Caravans came from 4 different points in the U.S. as well as one in Canada. Converging in El Paso, people then traveled to Juarez and Chihuahua to march, meet with families of victims, talk to officials and draw international attention to this deplorable situation. After it was over, several people tortured into signing confessions were released.

Tho Taina and i were not able to go beyond Tucson, i have kept up as much as i can with the situation. Recently i learned from Jessica Marques of the Mexico Solidarity Network that the cousin of a victim also tortured into confessing to the killing of his cousin has not been released. He was in Chiapas at the time of his cousin's killing. More women die and not one killer has been apprehended to this day.

Now white supremacists are called to form vigilante border patrols in April along the Arizona/Mexico line to keep migrants out, to capture them and who can anticipate what harm may be done by well armed bigots. At least a dozen migrants have been executed, most likely by white militias, in this region, tho thousands have died over the past 11 years. The crisis along the border is the unfolding of the coming Amerikkkan nightmare challenging us to now deal with the rapidly accelerating war at home.

The Paiute people in Bishop, California are living in terror due to threats from the KKK to dismember, rape and kill girl children between 5 and 9. White supremacists are suspected in several killings of migrants in Alameda county as well as killings of Indigenous people in border towns near reservations and who knows what other murders are happening that receive no press?

Indigenous women are murder victims in disporportionate numbers. They face the greatest violence of any target group in this country. While at Big Mountain in December, i was told by Pauline Whitesinger about the murders of young women in Tuba City who are from relocatee families. I struggle to put these atrocities together in a way that displays the accumulative horror of ongoing genocide.

As we approach the March 19 global protests against US Tyranny, it is critical to integrate the reality facing people of color and the marginalized in this country. It is of immense concern to me that these issues are not more thoroughly integrated into the peace and justice work being done. Please pay attention to atrocities in your communities. Do not let it go when the bodies of marginalized people are found. Follow up with phone calls to let sheriffs and other officials know that you are watching. We can not let these increasing killings go unaddressed. It is for the well being of our children and their children. Such serious developments MUST be a basic part of all the work we do for Peace. Insist on such integration.

I AM ASKING ACTIVISTS WHO HAVE PRIVILEGE AND INFLUENCE TO PLEASE GIVE VOICE TO PEOPLE OF COLOR FROM THE TRENCHES OF STRUGGLE DURING THE COMING RALLIES AND DEMONSTRATIONS MARCH 18, 19 AND 20!!! WE NEED TO HEAR FROM OTHERS INVOLVED IN RESISTANCE AND NOT THE SAME WELL KNOWN NAMES OVER AND OVER. WE NEED TO LIVE EGALITARIANISM! PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY AMONG THOSE YOU TRUST.

In peaceful struggle, swaneagle harijan, nonIndian supporter of Dine and Hopi Elders

Ray Ybarra American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona Ira Glasser Racial Justice Fellow P.O. Box 3740 Douglas, AZ 85608 (520) 364-1188

ACLU of Arizona to train legal observers to monitor Minuteman Project

Group will have lawyers on stand-by to file civil lawsuits

March 8, 2005
Contact: Ray Ybarra, 520-364-1188

The ACLU of Arizona will be training individuals as legal observers to document the activities of Minutemen volunteers as they visit Cochise County, Arizona in April. Legal Observers will be following these private citizens as they attempt to enforce federal immigration law.

'The purpose of legal observes is to deter abuses, document the actions of these individuals, and highlight the real tragedies that occur along the border," said Ira Glasser Racial Justice Fellow Ray Ybarra. 'Perhaps someday we will live in a society where no human being will have to face death and hatred in pursuit of work that this country requires, but until that day comes the experiences of undocumented immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico Border needs to be highlighted in order to demonstrate the fact that this is one of the grossest human rights violations in the history of the United States. Hundreds of people die annually in the desert and the American public chooses to turn a blind-eye."

The activities of the current vigilantes and these new volunteers constitutes unlawful imprisonment, but unfortunately, the Cochise County Sheriff chooses to attend the meetings of these groups to pat them on the back. (see attached letter to County Sheriff) To this date he has yet to arrest any private citizens for unlawfully detaining or abusing migrants despite a vast amount of evidence that these incidents have occurred.

It is for this reason that the ACLU of Arizona will have lawyers on stand-by ready to file civil cases against these vigilantes. 'The vigilantes are symbolic of the fear and misunderstanding that exists in our society. While overcoming this attitude is the ultimate challenge that we as a society must strive for, we can not sit idly be while those who are motivated by fear and misunderstanding attempt to take out their frustrations on a group of individuals who are simply in search of a better life," said Ybarra. 'These individuals may very well likely come to our state as ‘vigilantes' and end up leaving as a ‘defendant'."

March Reports

Thanks to Dorinda Moreno for passing this on!

March Reports

Last updated on March 16, 2005