Photo / Fibonacci Blue
Editor’s note: From mid-August to mid-October of this year, the People’s Tribune and our bilingual sister publication, El Tribuno del Pueblo, worked with a group of activists and researchers to sponsor a series of five “Zooming to the Border for Human Rights” online panel discussions investigating abuses of immigrants and refugees along the U.S.-Mexico border. The findings from the online hearings were outlined in an executive summary released Oct. 29. Below are excerpts from the executive summary. A full report will be issued soon. The video recordings of the panel discussions can be viewed on the People’s Tribune BORDER HUMAN RIGHTS page.
It is at the border that the character of the nation is being defined, for better or for worse. — Fernando Garcia, Director, Border Network for Human Rights
. . .The view from the U.S.-Mexico border is both a damning portrait of national policies, and an inspiring vision of community struggle and resilience. For many, the image of Ellis Island as a welcoming gateway to the poor masses yearning to be free, seeking liberty, justice, and the pursuit of happiness, eager to contribute their energy and intelligence to building the young nation, is iconic of the U.S. 20th Century. It seems that the U.S.- Mexico Border is fast becoming the reference for this country’s 21st Century, and, at least for the moment, a far less inviting image of fences and walls. Every issue that afflicts our nation today is magnified here at the border: racism, excessive force, the exploitation of essential workers, the ongoing separation and unequal conditions in schools, the inadequate health care system and environmental contamination and ecosystem destruction.
[During five online hearings] 27 experts who are active in the border region collectively gave nearly 10 hours of eyewitness testimony to more than 400 listeners.
The report finds that all along, and on both sides, of the border, vibrant communities are being sacrificed as the border is turned into a highly profitable zone for unbridled militarization, carceral state expansion, border industrialization (factories and farms), and environmental and ecological devastation. The report further highlights how, in the name of a manufactured threat to our national sovereignty, $381 billion of taxpayers money has been siphoned away from desperately needed social infrastructure for communities. Instead of strengthening and uplifting our communities, our resources have been misdirected towards subsidizing the endless construction of a massive border enforcement landscape.
While the militarization, industrialization and denuding of the landscape of border communities is, no doubt, extremely profitable for corporate interests in the security and construction industries, it tears apart and weakens the fabric of community and environment, not only along the border but for all of us.
In addition to the blatant disregard of indigenous treaties, this egregious misappropriation of resources also entails countless illegal violations and the outright suspension of long and hard fought national and international protections and rights for labor, refugees, children and the environment.
Experts offer compelling testimony about conditions on Southern Border
