Fight Back News Service is circulating the following call for the Legalization for All Network

Join the Legalization for All Network call to action

June 11th through 18th!

The right-wing bigot Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis recently signed into law Senate Bill 1718 which criminalizes anyone who is undocumented and by extension anyone “aiding” them. The new law makes it illegal to have undocumented people in vehicles, no out of state driver licenses issued to the undocumented are usable in the state of Florida, and any undocumented person seeking emergency aid in hospitals will be required to answer staff questions regarding immigration status.

A similar bill, The Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, was introduced in congress by Republican Jim Sensenbrenner from Wisconsin. That bill caused such an uproar by the public that Chicano groups mobilized and called for protests. These events are now known as the immigration mega marches of March 2006. Also, these marches were the largest during that year’s International Workers Day and have since shaped May Day around the U.S. The new May Day tradition being to uplift demands of legalization for all of the undocumented.

June 1, 2023 various immigration organizations and nonprofits mobilized within the state of Florida and solidarity events were seen in other places, like Chicago and Los Angeles. In Immokalee, Florida thousands took to the streets.

The Legalization for All Network is calling on all interested people who wish to show their solidarity with those affected by these racist attacks, to participate in the week of action. These attacks are part of a systemic oppression against Chicanos, and immigrants including Mexicans, Central Americans and others.

The week of action will begin June 11th and end June 18th. Some organizations are already calling for their own events like the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) which will be holding an event on Father’s Day. DeSantis will continue with hateful and extremist attacks. Aside from SB 1718, DeSantis also signed into laws bills targeting LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights— further showing that nobody is safe. An attack on some is an attack on all!

Those interested are asked to contact the Legalization for All Network (L4A) here: https://legalizationforall.wordpress.com/contact-us/

Stop the hate, Legalization for ALL!

#UnitedStates #LegalizationForAllNetworkL4A

Los Angeles, CA – The Legalization for All Network (L4A) concluded day four of the 2023 border delegation with a virtual panel that included speakers from different immigrant rights organizations. The panel was moderated by Jenny Bekenstein, a member of Centro Community Service Organization (CSO). Sol Márquez, member of Centro CSO and Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) grounded the discussion in the broader purpose of the delegation – to deepen participants' knowledge of different immigrant rights struggles and to find unity across these struggles.

Brad Sigal, a member of L4A and the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), began by talking about MIRAC's recent victory in winning driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants in Minnesota through the Drivers Licenses For All bill.

Sigal then introduced L4A, explaining that the organization was formed as a network of local, grassroots, multinational immigrant rights organizations. Birthed from the mass protests that exploded across the U.S. in 2006 against the anti-immigrant Sensenbrenner bill, L4A aims to unite immigrant rights groups across the U.S. around four main pillars: no Trump wall, no guest worker expansion, legalization for all, and no more militarization and repression at the border. Sigal also explained the role of U.S. imperialism in causing forced immigration.

Next, Karla Cativo and Balmore Membreño from Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) and Resistencia Comunitaria spoke about their work opposing U.S. military aid to El Salvador. They explained how U.S. imperialism creates conditions that lead to forced immigration throughout Central America. The Salvadorean government has imported policies of political repression and mass incarceration that closely resemble those of the U.S. government, further oppressing working class peoples in El Salvador and contributing to forced migration.

Xochitl Sanchez, a member of the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN) in Los Angeles, described the legal services that CARECEN provides to immigrants in the Los Angeles area. She laid out the main demands of CARACEN: permanent residency for Temporary Protected Status holders, an end to border militarization and obstruction for asylum seekers, protection for undocumented day laborers, the end of police and sheriff entanglement with ICE, and an end to U.S. intervention in Central America. Sanchez also spoke about the lack of social services for vulnerable immigrants and refugees entering the U.S., and CARECEN's work in trying to fill that void.

Andrés Kwon, a lawyer with the ACLU of Southern California, spoke about his work at the intersection of immigration law and criminal law. He expounded on the exploitation of undocumented immigrants within the U.S. criminal legal system and the ACLU's work to establish a public defender system in immigration proceedings through the LA Justice Fund. He also discussed their efforts in passing the LA County sanctuary policy, which prohibited county sheriffs from transferring undocumented immigrants to ICE. In 2018-19, LA County sheriffs transferred over 1500 people to ICE; that number went down to zero in 2021-22 due to this new policy.

Viva Vargas from the International Migrants Alliance (IMA) spoke about IMA's work with working-class migrants, and how U.S. imperialism keeps people in poverty around the world, leading to forced migration. Undocumented immigrants in the U.S. are then exploited in the workplace due to a lack of legal protection, such as unaccompanied minors who are forced to labor in inhumane conditions to provide for their families back home. Vargas also emphasized how deeply and immediately the U.S.-Mexico border crisis is felt in Southern California, and how our communities are intertwined culturally, economically and socially.

The panel inspired the 2023 border delegates with a renewed commitment to fight for immigrant rights. The panelists' diverse range of work on immigrant rights, including political activism, legal services, social services, and more, provided a wealth of knowledge for the delegates to deepen their own organizing. The panel provided a critical forum for activists to build connections with one another and find unity across different organizations and experiences. Through unity, we can fight for and win full rights for immigrants and put an end to U.S. imperialism.

#LosAngelesCA #LegalizationForAllNetworkL4A

San Diego, CA – On April 3, a group of activists from the Legalization For All Network hiked along the U.S. Border State Park Trail and toward Friendship Park. This park was created so that people on opposite sides of the U.S.-Mexico border could meet. In the past, families have used the site to touch and slip gifts to one another, but with the new Trump Wall, they won’t even be able to see each other.

The activists traveled dry and rugged, then wet and muddy, terrain that at times resembled quicksand. In some instances, the park trail would abruptly stop due to flooding from rainfall days before. However, the group was able to continue onward despite these obstacles by traversing through a stretch of greenery beside the trail.

About a mile later the group was met by two large border walls standing between them and the park. The walls run parallel to one another and could be seen spanning from the top of the hills in the distance down to the nearby coast. The group’s shoes and clothes were either drenched or covered in mud, giving the activists a glimpse of the extremely treacherous conditions immigrants crossing the border face consistently.

The fact that there are two walls means that people who are successful in crossing one are met by yet another. Those unable to make it past the second become stuck between the walls for hours – and sometimes days – without food or water. Border patrol does nothing to rescue them. Instead, they watch as the lives of men, women and newly-born children are in limbo. Oftentimes, it’s the people from the nearby communities who bring them resources that keep them alive.

As militarization of the border increases, onlookers on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border watch as the already hostile terrain becomes even more deadly. The activists witnessed loud helicopters flying overhead and ICE agents driving up and down the hills alongside the border. Somewhat less visible but ever still present is a combination of tower systems, ground sensors, radars, license plate readers and drone cameras.

There are currently more than 290 surveillance towers already in operation throughout the Southwest – one of which is located near Friendship Park. This tower was built by Anduril, which declares on its website: “The battlefield has changed. How we deter and defend needs to change too.” The company has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying federal officials, according to the Guardian, and in a promotional video boasts that its technology never sleeps, never takes a break, never blinks.

Altogether, this technology is a testament to the ugly reality that the U.S. government would rather spend billions of dollars to put immigrants down than grant them their humanity. The increased militarization of the border in 2023 stands in stark contradiction to the calls for people’s freedom, in particular, those people living in the most heavily militarized area of the country, Aztlán.

#SanDiegoCA #LegalizationForAllNetworkL4A

Tijuana, Mexico – On April 2, a group of activists from the Legalization For All network crossed the U.S.-Mexico border to witness the effects of U.S. border militarization. The group met with Robert Vivar, binational coordinator at VÍA Internacional, and Aída Amador, coordinator of VÍA Migrante. They visited the Unified U.S. Deported Veterans Office, the border wall at Friendship Park on the Tijuana side, and the Casa de Luz LGBTQ+ immigrant collective house.

Crossing from the U.S. into Tijuana was quick and easy with no lines – the group did not even need to present their passports, which showed just how easy it is for many U.S. citizens to be able to cross into Mexico without question.

Once in Tijuana, the group stopped at the Unified U.S. Deported Veteran Resource Center, where they heard from Robert Vivar about the work they do. After serving in the U.S. military, immigrant veterans can lose their documentation due to criminal convictions and are then deported, left with PTSD from their service and separated from their homes and families in the U.S. The office was created to welcome these veterans, offering services such as help with housing, legal relief and reintegration into society after being deported.

Vivar himself was a veteran who was deported twice and was finally granted reentry into the U.S. after an almost 20-year battle. He finally won his case before the California Supreme Court. Vivar was a green card holder who had moved to the U.S. at age six. He told the group that after he was deported to Tijuana, he would come to Friendship Park and “it was too painful” to look out across the border to the San Diego side, as California was his home. After his own experience as a deported veteran, he began to advocate for other U.S. veterans who had been deported, understanding firsthand how cruel it is for the U.S. to send immigrants to fight and possibly die to serve the U.S. only to later get deported.

The group then drove to Friendship Park, a binational park located close to the San Ysidro Port of entry border crossing. The park became a meeting place for separated families to meet and even be able to reach through the wall and touch each other across the U.S.-Mexico border. The part of the park on the U.S. side was closed under Trump and remains closed under Biden, so there is no longer a way for families to meet there despite strong organizing efforts to reopen the park in San Diego.

As the delegation members made their way to Friendship Park in a van, Vivar gave the group a lesson about the current situation at the Tijuana border as the border wall came into view. Vivar explained to the group that asylum seekers are given much misinformation about how to apply for asylum, and that they are told they can just go to the border and apply. In reality, an appointment is needed, and appointments are difficult to get. Because of this misinformation, many immigrants jump the first wall and think they can give themselves up to the U.S. Border Patrol.

Instead, the Border Patrol leaves them between the two border walls that run parallel to one another, for hours or even days. Some of the people stuck between the two walls have been infants. This torture-on-display tactic is used to discourage immigrants from crossing. Vivar talked about how VÍA Migrante and others bring food and water to those who are stuck between the walls, since any pleas for help to Border Patrol go ignored. Along the drive, the group was able to see some of the individuals and families stuck between the two walls and was struck by this inhumane practice that happens often in the area.

At Friendship Park, the group heard more from Vivar about the wall and the history of the park, which is situated right on a beach. During the tour, Vivar asked the group if they knew why much of the wall was built to be 30 feet tall, which happened under Trump but is expanding today, as there are still plans for the shorter areas of the wall to be built up to this height under Biden. Vivar explained that 30 feet is a calculated critical height at which if a person falls from, they would be unlikely to make it to the ground alive or without permanently disabling injuries. On top of this, along the base of the wall lies large amounts of razor wire, in exactly the spot where someone climbing the wall would land. The situation is deadly.

There was quite a strong contrast at the park. The wall, which is a physical manifestation of oppression lined with sharp razor wire, was painted in bright colors and displayed beautiful and inspiring messages and images. Families and children could be seen enjoying the sunny day, playing at the beach, as the wall stretched out into the ocean. A Border Patrol vehicle zoomed by in between the two parallel walls. Some members of the group saw a person attempt to scale the wall and cross but climb back down as Border Patrol approached.

The wall’s extension into the ocean itself does not deter people from trying to swim across, but many drown or have to turn back. Vivar told the delegation members that after a large group once tried to cross through the water and some made it across, razor wire was added to the section of the wall in the water as well, creating an even deadlier situation for those trying to cross this way.

The next stop for the delegates was visiting Casa de Luz, an LGBTQ+ collective that houses immigrants and their families in a communal living space with a focus on food security. The group then went to Caza de Luz itself and met with Aída Amador from VÍA Internacional and Caza de Luz Founder Irving Mondragón for a tour. Mondragòn had started a kitchen program at the border, cooking healthy meals and providing basic needs to asylum-seekers at El Chaparral camp, a camp at the border. He then founded Caza de Luz, which they call a “collective,” as the word “shelter” has a negative stigma. The house was far from negative – it was full of color and light, kids played on the outdoor patio and the inside space was full of brightly colored furniture, cheerful artwork, books and trinkets. Caza de Luz is unique in that they welcome and embrace the LGBTQ+ community, which is not always the case in many shelters, and they also do not have a time limit on how long individuals and families are able to stay with them.

The group got to see beauty in the work that Caza de Luz does at the border, but was left as well with the heaviness of what they witnessed at the oppressive and grossly inhumane border wall. It is clear that the U.S. would rather see individuals and families who are fleeing desperate situations die at the hands of this oppression than cross the border in hope of a better life. The fortification and expansion of border militarization certainly did not end under Trump, but continues today and must be stopped.

#TijuanaMexico #Tijuana #LegalizationForAllNetworkL4A #USMexicoBorder

San Diego, CA – On April 2, part of the Legalization for All Network’s border delegation spent the day in San Diego, the city on the U.S. side of the border across from Tijuana, México.

The group of immigrant rights activists from Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Chicago and Minnesota spent the day in San Diego’s Barrio Logan neighborhood.

They started with a tour of Chicano Park at the heart of the neighborhood, and then did a walkthrough of the surrounding neighborhood.

As a border city on land that was part of Mexico until 1848, until the U.S.’s theft of the states that are now the southwestern part of the U.S., parts of San Diego are strongly marked by Chicano culture.

Robert Vivar, bi-national coordinator at Via international, and Rigo Reyes, community development director at Via Migrante, explained the history of Chicano Park to the group, a park that is now an officially recognized federal historical landmark.

In the park there is a series of massive murals telling the history of the struggle of the Chicano people who were forged as a people in the struggle against colonization, national oppression, brutality from police and ICE, and exploitation.

53 years ago in 1970, Chicano community activists occupied and then took control over Chicano Park to have a community-controlled space to tell their story and organize activities in their community, which was being threatened with high levels of pollution from the highway passing over it as well as polluting industries, including military contractors, and gentrification.

The massive colorful murals in the park are painted on the large pillars that hold up the highway overpasses that go over the park, bringing life to an area that would otherwise be drab and forgotten.

The 1970 community takeover had to fight against both the city of San Diego and the state of California for control of the park, as the state wanted to use the space under the highway for a Highway Patrol station. After winning control of the space through militant struggle, a Chicano Park Steering Committee was formed, which controls the park to this day. The building at the edge of the park hosts a Chicano Park museum.

Every April, members of the community organize Chicano Park Day commemoration of the April 22, 1970 takeover of the park. They also hold many community events in the park.

The day that the border delegation visited, there was a large Palm Sunday ceremony as well as a lowrider car and bike show. There were also posters around the park advertising the upcoming May 1 International Workers Day march.

After learning about the history of the park and the meaning of many of the images depicted in the murals, the delegation got a block-by-block tour through Barrio Logan with Chicano Park Steering Committee member Lucas Cruz.

He explained the struggle to preserve Chicano culture, identity and political consciousness in the neighborhood. This includes struggles against gentrification, rent gouging and businesses that want to move into the neighborhood while either erasing the Chicano character of the neighborhood or co-opting Chicano culture opportunistically without a connection to the Chicano community or movement. It also includes struggles to prevent police brutality and over-policing of Chicano youth, and struggling with some business owners to not default to calling the police into the community for every problem they encounter.

Cruz talked to the group about the history of the Chicano people while describing one of the murals in Chicano Park. The Chicano people were forged into a nationality in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Mexico and then the imposed Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. The people in the states that the U.S. seized in 1848 that currently are the southwestern states of the U.S., began to live a different reality than both Mexicans in México and people in the rest of the United States. The awakening of the Chicano liberation movement in the late 1960s led to the Plan Spiritual de Aztlan that identified the land base of the Chicano liberation struggle as the territory seized by the U.S. in 1848 and the struggle as one for self-determination on that land, named Aztlan.

This Chicano national consciousness can be seen in distinctive features of Chicano culture and language that continue to this day as well as with the persistence of Chicano organizations such as MEChA, Brown Berets, among others.

After the neighborhood tour with Cruz, the delegation met with two leaders of Aztlan Youth, a Chicano organization based in Barrio Logan. They heard from two women leaders of Aztlan Youth, Rocky and Briana. They talked about the struggles young Chicanos are engaged in in Barrio Logan, like the struggle against the effects of environmental racism including the high rates of asthma and other medical conditions in the community due to the decades of corporate and government decisions to pollute their neighborhood. They talked about the continual struggle to make sure young Chicanos learn their culture, history and identity, since those things aren’t usually taught in schools.

After meeting with Aztlan Youth, the delegation got to visit the Tommie Camarillo Collection, a meticulously-maintained archive of posters, buttons, newspapers, photos, videos, music and other materials going back more than 50 years documenting the history of the Chicano liberation movement with a strong focus on the history of the struggle over Chicano Park.

The day as a whole gave the participants in the border delegation a grounding in the struggles of the Chicano community in the border town of San Diego, and a deeper understanding of the basis of modern-day anti-immigrant politics in the history of oppression and theft of land from Mexico and the forging of the Chicano people in the borderlands and the Southwest.

#SanDiegoCA #immigrantRights #USMexicoBorder #LegalizationForAllNetworkL4A

San Diego, CA – On April 2, part of the Legalization for All Network’s border delegation spent the day in San Diego, the city on the U.S. side of the border across from Tijuana, México.

The group of immigrant rights activists from Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Chicago and Minnesota spent the day in San Diego’s Barrio Logan neighborhood.

They started with a tour of Chicano Park at the heart of the neighborhood, and then did a walkthrough of the surrounding neighborhood.

As a border city on land that was part of Mexico until 1848, until the U.S.’s theft of the states that are now the southwestern part of the U.S., parts of San Diego are strongly marked by Chicano culture.

Robert Vivar, bi-national coordinator at Via international, and Rigo Reyes, community development director at Via Migrante, explained the history of Chicano Park to the group, a park that is now an officially recognized federal historical landmark.

In the park there is a series of massive murals telling the history of the struggle of the Chicano people who were forged as a people in the struggle against colonization, national oppression, brutality from police and ICE, and exploitation.

53 years ago in 1970, Chicano community activists occupied and then took control over Chicano Park to have a community-controlled space to tell their story and organize activities in their community, which was being threatened with high levels of pollution from the highway passing over it as well as polluting industries, including military contractors, and gentrification.

The massive colorful murals in the park are painted on the large pillars that hold up the highway overpasses that go over the park, bringing life to an area that would otherwise be drab and forgotten.

The 1970 community takeover had to fight against both the city of San Diego and the state of California for control of the park, as the state wanted to use the space under the highway for a Highway Patrol station. After winning control of the space through militant struggle, a Chicano Park Steering Committee was formed, which controls the park to this day. The building at the edge of the park hosts a Chicano Park museum.

Every April, members of the community organize Chicano Park Day commemoration of the April 22, 1970 takeover of the park. They also hold many community events in the park.

The day that the border delegation visited, there was a large Palm Sunday ceremony as well as a lowrider car and bike show. There were also posters around the park advertising the upcoming May 1 International Workers Day march.

After learning about the history of the park and the meaning of many of the images depicted in the murals, the delegation got a block-by-block tour through Barrio Logan with Chicano Park Steering Committee member Lucas Cruz.

He explained the struggle to preserve Chicano culture, identity and political consciousness in the neighborhood. This includes struggles against gentrification, rent gouging and businesses that want to move into the neighborhood while either erasing the Chicano character of the neighborhood or co-opting Chicano culture opportunistically without a connection to the Chicano community or movement. It also includes struggles to prevent police brutality and over-policing of Chicano youth, and struggling with some business owners to not default to calling the police into the community for every problem they encounter.

Cruz talked to the group about the history of the Chicano people while describing one of the murals in Chicano Park. The Chicano people were forged into a nationality in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Mexico and then the imposed Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. The people in the states that the U.S. seized in 1848 that currently are the southwestern states of the U.S., began to live a different reality than both Mexicans in México and people in the rest of the United States. The awakening of the Chicano liberation movement in the late 1960s led to the Plan Spiritual de Aztlan that identified the land base of the Chicano liberation struggle as the territory seized by the U.S. in 1848 and the struggle as one for self-determination on that land, named Aztlan.

This Chicano national consciousness can be seen in distinctive features of Chicano culture and language that continue to this day as well as with the persistence of Chicano organizations such as MEChA, Brown Berets, among others.

After the neighborhood tour with Cruz, the delegation met with two leaders of Aztlan Youth, a Chicano organization based in Barrio Logan. They heard from two women leaders of Aztlan Youth, Rocky and Briana. They talked about the struggles young Chicanos are engaged in in Barrio Logan, like the struggle against the effects of environmental racism including the high rates of asthma and other medical conditions in the community due to the decades of corporate and government decisions to pollute their neighborhood. They talked about the continual struggle to make sure young Chicanos learn their culture, history and identity, since those things aren’t usually taught in schools.

After meeting with Aztlan Youth, the delegation got to visit the Tommie Camarillo Collection, a meticulously-maintained archive of posters, buttons, newspapers, photos, videos, music and other materials going back more than 50 years documenting the history of the Chicano liberation movement with a strong focus on the history of the struggle over Chicano Park.

The day as a whole gave the participants in the border delegation a grounding in the struggles of the Chicano community in the border town of San Diego, and a deeper understanding of the basis of modern-day anti-immigrant politics in the history of oppression and theft of land from Mexico and the forging of the Chicano people in the borderlands and the Southwest.

#SanDiegoCA #immigrantRights #USMexicoBorder #LegalizationForAllNetworkL4A