In 2020, the People’s Tribune and our sister bilingual publication, El Tribuno del Pueblo launched “The People-to-People Fact-Finding Delegation to the Border” in collaboration with a group of activists, researchers, and independent journalists who are deeply concerned about human rights violations at the U.S.-Mexico border. From August through October 2020, the group convened five virtual panels (via Zoom) representing different sections of the US-Mexico Border. By making several virtual stops at border crossings along that route, in Brownsville, Texas-Matamoros, Tamaulipas; El Paso, Texas-Cuidad Juárez, Chihuahua; Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Arizona; and Mexicali-Calexico, San Diego-Tijuana, we sought to reveal some of the specificities and commonalities among these embattled but nonetheless vibrant border communities.
Twenty-seven experts who are active in the border region collectively gave nearly 10 hours of eyewitness testimony to more than 400 listeners. Their testimony was heard against the background of what was probably the most critical presidential election in U.S. history, and in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. The findings of the panels were compiled into a report which is being distributed to state, national and international governmental and human rights bodies.
The 64-page report, “Zooming to the Border for Human Rights,” finds that all along the border, and on both sides, 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 that, 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.
The report is available for download in PDF form from the websites of the People’s Tribune (http://peoplestribune.org/pt-news/border-human-rights-videos/) and El Tribuno del Pueblo (http://www.tribunodelpueblo.org/page-zooming-to-the-border-for-human-rights/). Although the border situation continues to evolve, the content of the report is still compelling and relevant, and we hope our readers will download the report and circulate it widely. Thank you.
