Border Angels Weekly Newsletter
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Let's honor MLK Jr. Day on January 18, 2021
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Did you know the Day Laborer Outreach Program has been around since the founding of Border Angels? It's how we got our start!
It is still going strong today thanks to Osvaldo and his team’s efforts, care and respect for the day laborer community. We are so grateful to all of you for your generosity, and to our team for visiting two locations.
They were able to help 65 day laborers!
This program works to not only distribute care packages with face masks, snacks and water, but we also make sure that they are being treated with dignity. We provide them with the legal information and tools they may need.
Donate down below! GRACIAS!
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This past weekend, members of our Water Drop team partnered with Retenes California (Fresno, CA) to search for a missing person who had fallen down a cliff and was presumed dead.
Our joint crews began the search during sub-freezing temperatures at daybreak. After approximately 9-10 hours of climbing and searching, we found the presumed remains of the person we were looking for. We hope this helps to bring some peace and closure to their family.
Thank you to Retenes California for the invitation and collaboration, and thank you to our own @davila9160 for your leadership and education when it comes to searches.
We plan to collaborate with more organizations in California and Arizona in the near future. We are not able to do the work we do without the generous donations from our supporters.
Thank you to all who have donated. To donate to our efforts, please check out the button down below.
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Starting our week with a very sweet message from our friends at Espacio Migrante:
“Although this message is belated, we wanted to make sure we publicly thanked Border Angels’ support for making our Christmas dinner possible to the community sheltered at Espacio Migrante. The winter holidays are especially tough when you are away from your home, your family, your friends and everything you know, which is why we so appreciate and care so much to have the opportunity to have a special dinner, to interact, and to celebrate. May this year bring health, abundance, justice and happiness to your lives!
(Spanish) A pesar de lo tardío de este mensaje, no queremos dejar de agradecer públicamente el apoyo de BORDER ANGELS en la realización de la cena navideña para la comunidad albergada en Espacio Migrante. Las fiestas decembrinas son especialmente sensibles cuando se está lejos de casa, de la familia, amistades y todo lo que se conoce, por lo que se aprecia con particular cariño el tener la oportunidad de tener una cena especial, convivir, celebrar. Que este año traiga salud, abundancia, justicia y felicidad a sud vidas!”
We cannot thank you enough for making moments like this possible!
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Our Green Cards for Kids Program remains a priority for 2021!
We're appreciative of your continued support. Fabiola Navarro, the attorney leading this effort, is hard at work with each child’s individual case.
Because of the nature of these cases, the kids we help require anonymity, and it’s harder to provide our followers with updates.
Although this process takes time – it is a combination of both family and immigration courts – it’s all worth the wait when these children receive Special Immigrant Juvenile Status.
We are drawing closer to resolving these cases and will provide updates as we can. Your generosity will ensure a child a permanent place in this country. Gracias!
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Familias Reunidas
Bond Program
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Click the image to watch video!
The Familias Reunidas Immigration Bond Fund posted its first bond on January 7, 2020. Since then, we have helped free 69 immigrants and asylum seekers from the Otay Mesa, Adelanto and Imperial County for-profit immigration prisons. Because of you, this program has helped dozens of people from over 18 countries of origin.
Today, on the anniversary of our first bond posting, we share this short piece of art that was created to continue raising awareness of the complex immigration system that disproportionately affects migrants of color, and from which private corporations profit from.
Every donation helps mothers, fathers and loved ones who are still detained and every dollar goes towards freeing someone from detention.
Border Angels pledges to end family separation one family at a time – will you?
Thank you to the three artists, Aysia Segura, Gavin South, and Cristina Ibarrando, as well as professor Olivia Taussig-Moore and the Pratt Institute, who created this video. They made this all possible!
https://www.facebook.com/BorderAngels/videos/1097853930717891
Donate to the fund today!
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At the U.S.-Mexico border, there are thousands of families in danger and waiting for a positive response to their asylum claims for more than a year. They have sent a message to President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris and you can join them.
Take action by signing on to this message that will be delivered to the Biden Administration prior to the Presidential Inauguration on January 20th. In addition, when you take action, your U.S. Senators and member of the U.S. House of Representatives we will receive a similar message, calling on them to encourage the Biden administration to take action immediately upon taking office.
https://ignatiansolidarity.net/action-alerts/joining-voices-with-asylum-seekers/?fbclid=IwAR0QjVF3JqKSElKiB2Y2w6ONDKVCm6jPEo_FlK7LXZ-SUsG3YQMMlpHwbhI
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Call to Action: Join us in supporting the efforts by Friends of Friendship Park to advocate for a stop to further constructions of walls on the US-Mexico border.
The Trump administration contractors have already begun to replace the exterior fence at Friendship Park with bollard style walls. This Park is near and dear to Border Angels mission, as we have hosted multiple events and tours and has been a great source of love and tool for education over the years.
Here’s what you can do to help click the link below:
1. Stop the Wall by sending your comment to San Diego Border Patrol
2. Sign the petition to open this park following social distancing recommendations
3. Sign up for the Online Silent Protest “Zoom de Silencio” on Sunday January 24th at 1:00 PM/PDT.
https://www.friendshippark.org/?fbclid=IwAR2Y2HsQ5JbFF-6rj2flgFbimiNern4vpAtXh-uBb-03Fqa7niO04Aeb-Po
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NEW YEAR, NEW MERCH!  
The wait is over, head to our shop now and purchase your own “Tu Vida Vale” t-shirt, stickers and pins!
Get your limited edition merchandise now before it runs out!
Design by Misael Ruiz
Click below to shop:
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You can make a difference and donate today.
Please make checks payable to:
Border Angels
2258 Island Ave
San Diego, CA 92102
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Other ways to support
Border Angels
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Donate your classic car to Border Angels. Your generous gift has the potential to raise hundreds and even thousands of dollars that will go towards saving lives in the desert, freeing loved ones from detention centers, and helping migrant families in Tijuana.
The trusted vehicle donation program makes it easy with free pick-up and takes great care in finding the right buyer to get top dollar for it. Plus, they handle all the paperwork! Whether your vehicle sells for $500 or less, for more than $500, or for more than $5,000, you will be provided with the proper paperwork and tax receipts.
Call 855-500-RIDE (855-500-7433) or donate online at https://careasy.org/home#NP-donation-form
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On Thursday, January 21, the Strauss Center will host Dulce Garcia, Executive Director of Border Angels, for a virtual talk. This webinar is part of their Brumley Speaker Series.
Attendees must have a Zoom account to join the webinar.
Registration details coming soon!
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'We tortured families': The lingering damage of Trump's separation policy
Civil rights groups want to see the Biden administration reunify victims, grant protection in the US and provide restitution
By Sam Levin
"The US government’s policy of separating migrant families at the border has continued to wreak havoc and inflict suffering in the final months of Donald Trump’s presidency, with parents still missing, reunifications blocked and reunited families struggling to pick up the pieces of their lives.
Righting the wrongs of Trump’s globally condemned separations policy is one of the most urgent and challenging tasks that lies ahead for the incoming administration. Civil rights groups that have been fighting for years to reunite thousands of families are now pushing for a bold and speedy response from Joe Biden – one that reunifies victims, grants them protection in the US, and provides restitution.
“We tortured these families, we took their children,” said Carol Anne Donohoe, the managing attorney with Al Otro Lado, a group that has been working to reunite deported parents with their children. “Some parents and children haven’t seen each other in over three years. It’s an abomination, and we need immediate action … and accountability to ensure this never happens again.” ".
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/04/trump-administration-family-separation-immigrants-joe-biden?fbclid=IwAR067j00Q1in-BtezwY6mWIQB3kPdHU7QTy_MDHlCGJd-8EnhFfaVs_WEhA
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Harris teases immigration agenda: Green cards for DACA and TPS recipients, shorter waits for citizenship
The vice president-elect also said the new administration would try to decrease by five years the time required to obtain citizenship.
By Matthew Choi and Alice Miranda Ollstein
"The incoming administration will focus on decreasing wait times to obtain citizenship, granting automatic green cards to protected undocumented immigrants and adding immigration judges to decrease backlogs on court hearings, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris said on Tuesday.
Speaking with Univision's Ilia Calderón, Harris teased a sweeping immigration reform bill that her and President-elect Joe Biden's administration plans to introduce. Harris said their bill would grant green cards immediately to immigrants protected by the Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policies. She added that the administration would also try to decrease the amount of time required to acquire U.S. citizenship to eight years from 13 years by making the naturalization process more efficient."
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/12/kamala-harris-immigration-green-cards-daca-citizenship-458455
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Justice Department was unprepared for family separations but Jeff Sessions pushed it anyway, watchdog says
By Priscilla Alvarez
"(CNN)Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions knew early on migrant families would be separated when the Trump administration implemented its controversial "zero tolerance" policy and still proceeded to push for the policy, according to a scathing report from the Justice Department inspector general released Thursday.
At one point, Sessions emphasized to US attorneys that "we need to take away children," according to notes from the call cited in Thursday's report.
"[T]he Department's single-minded focus on increasing prosecutions came at the expense of careful and appropriate consideration of the impact that prosecution of family unit adults and family separations would have on children traveling with them and the government's ability to later reunite the children with their parents," the inspector general wrote.
Lawyers are still unable to reach the parents of 611 children who had been split from their families by US border officials between 2017 and 2018, according to a Wednesday court filing."
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/14/politics/family-separations-immigration-justice-ig/index.html
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Trump impeached after Capitol riot in historic second charge
By Lisa Mascaro, Mary Clare Jalonick, Jonathan Lemire and Alan Fram
| Associated Press
"WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump was impeached by the U.S. House for a historic second time Wednesday, charged with “incitement of insurrection” over the deadly mob siege of the Capitol in a swift and stunning collapse of his final days in office.
With the Capitol secured by armed National Guard troops inside and out, the House voted 232-197 to impeach Trump. The proceedings moved at lightning speed, with lawmakers voting just one week after violent pro-Trump loyalists stormed the U.S. Capitol, egged on by the president’s calls for them to “fight like hell” against the election results.
Ten Republicans fled Trump, joining Democrats who said he needed to be held accountable and warned ominously of a “clear and present danger” if Congress should leave him unchecked before Democrat Joe Biden’s inauguration Jan. 20.
Trump is the only U.S. president to be twice impeached. It was the most bipartisan presidential impeachment in modern times, more so than against Bill Clinton in 1998."
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/nation-world/story/2021-01-13/trump-on-verge-of-2nd-impeachment-after-capitol-siege
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Make a difference and donate today.
Visit our website: www.borderangels.org
Please make checks payable to:
Border Angels
2258 Island Ave
San Diego, CA 92102
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