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May is Mental Health Awareness Month!
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Mobile Mental Health Clinic:
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In honor of May being Mental Health Awareness month, we’d like to share some exciting news: Border Angels has created a mobile mental health clinic in partnership with Psicologos Sin Fronteras, B.C. serving communities in Tijuana. These images are from one of the sessions at Pro Amore Dei shelter.
These services take place at the shelters we support, in an effort to provide support and healing to migrant communities who have endured many types of trauma. The main purpose of this clinic is to implement awareness workshops on the issues of gender-based violence and sexual harassment in order to inform and prevent such issues. It will also serve as a way to detect cases and provide health services of comprehensive care from the psychological, medical, legal, and channeling for the mitigation of these factors in the migrant communities.
We hope to provide all kinds of support to migrant communities through our Shelter Aid program, and we are excited for this new aspect of aid in addition to supporting with food, housing, and other needs!
Click Here to donate to our Shelter Aid program.
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Did you know Border Angels is the first non-Muslim organization to support a Muslim shelter and human rights group in Tijuana? Our partnership with Latinas Musulmanas shelter initially began to assist Afghan refugee families arriving at our southern border last year.
Through our Shelter Aid program, we've been working together on the construction of this shelter. We are overjoyed at the outcome and are happy to see families in a dignified living space.
Click here to donate to Shelter Aid
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Familias Reunidas Bond Program:
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Time to celebrate! Meet the latest recipient of our Families Reunidas Bond Fund Program: Armando! He is a 49-year-old asylum seeker from Colombia who spent 3 months at the Imperial Regional Detention Center.
Armando's wife is 9 months pregnant, and thanks to your continued support, he is free and will be able to be at the delivery of his first child! We are so grateful to have the opportunity to help and share this story with all of you.
Click here to donate and help more people like Armando!
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Due to the pandemic and title 42, the asylum-seeking process at U.S. ports of entry has been unavailable for 2 years. Title 42 has both actively expelled and maintained many migrants in Tijuana, many of whom have been waiting at the 17 shelters we support.
Border Angels met with the Department of Homeland Security to bring all of this information to them, providing testimony from the experiences of all of those in Tijuana shelters. The directors directly requested we relay the urgency of all the people waiting in limbo, waiting for their turn. On April 18th, when Border Angels met with DHS, they listened. They allowed us the opportunity to cross what started from 10 asylum-seekers a day to now 35, news that overjoyed the shelter directors, as there are thousands of people who have been waiting months, and in some cases over a year for a chance to ask for their legal right to seek asylum. With this collaboration, we have since then presented at the border a total of 380 people.
This negotiation with CBP and Title 42 exemptions aren’t happening anywhere else along the border. Apart from Huisha exemptions, these exemptions are exclusive to asylum seekers who have been in our supported shelters. There is no list or place to line up to be considered for this process as they have all already been identified and submitted. The Chaparral Humanitarian Alliance has since then supported all of the logistical work in Tijuana, all the while prioritizing the confidentiality and safety of the shelter residents and directors.
The existence of this process does not imply that the right to request is being respected. As part of the Chaparral Humanitarian Alliance, we continue to denounce the systematic violation of the right to request asylum because every day hundreds of people are returned to places of risk without their right to save their lives.
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Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
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We are proud to honor Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month which is celebrated the month of May. Thanks to Asian Resources, Inc. (ARI) and the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPOI) Data Policy Lab @ UCLA Center for Health Policy Research by highlighting the 1.5 million Asian American (AA) and 90,000 Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (NHPI) children and youth who live in our state.
A large share of AA and NHPI children in California come from immigrant families. Asian languages make up 5 of the top 12 non-English languages spoken in California.
Read more here
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Congressional Testimony on Title 42:
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A year ago, we offered testimony in Congress at the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ Subcommittee on Government Operations and Border Management about the egregious human rights violations we heard from the people we served in Tijuana.
“This week we began conducting legal consultations at the encampment to alleviate some of the anxiety migrants are experiencing due to the lack of information from this administration. During this legal clinic at el Chaparral, a woman told me crying that she had no choice but to send her teenage son to cross alone –– it was the only way that he would have a chance to survive. She feared for his death if he remained in Mexico because the gangs they are fleeing from have a reach in Tijuana. Regardless of her fear and the growing threats of violence, the mother remains at the encampment with her youngest son, sleeping in the streets."
- Dulce Garcia
This young child needs surgery, but cannot have it because of the risk of infection he would be exposed to while recovering living on the streets where they do not have access to potable water, bathrooms or food.”
In part, this testimony assisted in the opportunity to present Title 42 exemptions of supported Border Angels shelter residents. We reiterate that the existence of this process does not imply that the right to request is being respected. Similar conditions, violations, and continued trauma of migrant families remain. As part of the Chaparral Humanitarian Alliance, we continue to denounce the systematic violation of the right to request asylum because every day hundreds of people are returned to places of risk without their right to save their lives, as we anxiously await the proposed end date of Title 42.
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Customs and Border Protection to remove special units accused of cover-ups
Customs and Border Protection announced they are getting rid of their special units, which have been accused for decades of covering up crimes committed by the agency.
According to a memorandum released Friday, by October 2022, CBP will no longer have any of their secret units and instead rely on the Office of Professional Responsibility to conduct investigations on patrol officers.
The agency says that this ensures accountability.
“When we talk about big picture, we are talking about rouge officers that get away with murder,” said Dulce Garcia, who works with the advocacy group Border Angels.
Garcia said these specialized units, sometimes referred to as “shadow units,” have been accused of covering up crimes. It has been affecting families on both sides of the border, for decades.
“We are talking about testimony, forensic evidence, anything,” explained Garcia. “Videos, all of those things were tampered and withheld in various cases.”
One of those cases was the death of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas in 2010. Rojas was said to have been brutally beaten and then arrested, before dying days later in a hospital.
Thanks to the tireless work of the Southern Border Communities Coalition on this issue.
Read Full Article Here
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San Diego County is the first in the border region in which immigrants detained in detention centers have free legal defense
The county of San Diego became the first in the border region to launch a Legal Defense program for Immigrants arrested in Detention Centers, which constitutes a historic event. And it is that until now the people who are arrested by agents of the Border Patrol or the Department of Customs and Border Protection, have never had the benefit of having a free lawyer to take care of their defense outside of nonprofit organizations who provide that service.
It is worth noting that it was Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer who presented the proposal on May 21 of last year, which was then approved by the members of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. In fact, the historic legal order now makes San Diego the first border county in the nation to offer free legal representation for immigrants facing deportation proceedings.
Attorney Dulce García, director of Angeles de la Frontera, said that this is the first step in a program that has been much needed for decades in this border region.
“At the moment given the (available) resources it is being limited to people who are in the Immigration Detention Center (located in Otay Mesa) and not necessarily someone who has a criminal history but who has been placed in deportation for not having documents or because they are filing their asylum claim (because) they are entering (the country) would also be part of this program.”
But “we are going to continue fighting so that the program is expanded and we have representation for all (immigrants); right now given the scarce resources that exist, this is the possibility today”, she insisted.
Read Full Article Here
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Immigrant Rights Legal Defense Program
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We have everything from t-shirts, to totes, to water bottles! All merchandise purchases go towards our programs and life-saving work.
Visit our online shop here.
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Looking for asylum-seeking resources? / Busca recursos sobre asilo?
Visit our page on the link below for the most up-to-date asylum information, including the latest Know Your Rights session presented by Borderline Crisis Center.
Visite nuestra pagina web en el enlace de abajo para la information mas reciente sobre el asilo incluyendo la sesion mas reciente de Conozca Sus Derechos presentada por Borderline Crisis Center.
Click Here
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A quick reminder that there are many ways to support us and get involved with Border Angels!
DM, FB message, or email us any of your questions at [email protected]
We appreciate you!!
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