Celebrating Pride Month🌈

Image via: @theworldofthegay
A voice message in a laundromat, and a rebirth across the border. One trans woman’s journey to U.S. soil
Life as an asylum seeker can change in an instant. Ceidy Zethare was in a Tijuana laundromat when she found out she would be entering the United States the next day.

“I didn’t want to be a victim in my country,” Zethare said in Spanish. “I want to start my life from zero and forget everything that happened.” She was afraid of what might happen to her if she stayed in Tijuana. She’d already been beaten once since arriving there, the scars still fresh on her neck and limbs.

She also worried about maintaining her treatment for HIV, a condition she’s been living with since she was drugged and raped on a night out in 2019 with people she thought were her friends. It is difficult for migrants from other countries to get access to health care in Mexico, and Zethare’s mother tried to send the medications from Guatemala when she could get the money together to do so. The experience is reflective of why she ultimately fled her country, the persecution she faced because of her gender identity.
For years, that big front door to the United States has been generally closed to asylum seekers. When the pandemic began, ports of entry stopped allowing migrants fleeing for their lives onto U.S. soil to request protection. The policy behind that, known as Title 42, also instructs border officials to expel asylum seekers without performing the normally legally required screening processes to see if they qualify as refugees if they try to cross without permission.

Meanwhile, a small program to identify especially vulnerable migrants and bring them in through the San Ysidro Port of Entry as exemptions to Title 42 has started up in coordination between Customs and Border Protection and the nonprofit Border Angels, which collaborates with Tijuana shelters. The organization is able to identify up to 35 individuals per day to bring to the border.

Read more of Ceidy's story Here ([link removed])
PROGRAM UPDATES:
Volviendo A Casa
(New Program "Returning Home")
Conrado Cifuentes was a 44-year-old husband and father who passed away in the Sonoran desert after suffering 2 heart attacks on the way to Grossmont Center hospital. It was his first time attempting to cross the border in the hopes to work and raise money to help his two daughters pay for college, as he did not have those opportunities in Mexico. His wife and daughters are truly heartbroken and devastated.
Through our Volviendo a Casa we were able to help transport his body back to his home state of Coahulia, MX for funeral services. So that his family may lay him to rest and say their final goodbyes. May he Rest In Peace.

We are devastated at the loss of another life, we continue to denounce the many policies at work at our southern border which are the cause of this, and continue to provide humanitarian aid to those crossing in hopes of preventing such tragedies.

Click Here ([link removed]) to donate to this program.
Familias Reunidas Bond Fund

A big win this week! Meet one of the latest recipients of our Families Reunidas Bond Fund Program: Luis! He is a 25-year-old asylum seeker from Colombia who spent 2 months at the Imperial Regional Detention Center.

He was reunited with his wife of 8 months and shared the following sentiment: “Thank you Border Angels for the reunion of this small family, we are so grateful for your meaningful support. God bless you.”

Click Here ([link removed]) to help more people like Luis!

We're on a roll! We helped another Colombian asylum seeker be free after being in the Imperial Regional Detention Center for 2 months! Gilberto is 19 years old, one of the youngest recipients in our Familias Reunidas Bond program
.
Gilberto is so excited to be reunited with his mom and dad, and we couldn't have done it without your support

Click Here ([link removed]) to help more people like Gilberto!
Shelter Aid:

As part of our Shelter Aid program and partnership with fellow CHA members, Psicologos Sin Fronteras, B.C., our mobile mental health clinic services continue to take place in an effort to provide support and healing to migrant communities who have endured many types of trauma. This past week, the clinic paid a visit to Camino de Salvacion and Latinas Musulmanas.

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.

Click Here ([link removed]) to donate to our Shelter Aid program.
Our Shelter Aid program collectively supports over 1,000 migrants daily, hundreds of those migrants include young children. Thanks to your support, we are able to assist families with rent, utilities, groceries and more. Including materials and living spaces to allow them to express themselves like this picture above.

Click Here ([link removed]) to donate to our Shelter Aid program.
Thank you SDIRC!
We just received our SDIRC 2021 Community Organizer of the Year award plaque! We are so grateful for this recognition and to be part of a coalition doing so much for immigrant, asylum-seeking, and other marginalized communities. Although we have accomplished so much in the past year, this drives us to continue our much-needed and life-saving work.

"Border Angels for collaborating with organizations in Tijuana to form the Chaparral Humanitarian Alliance to get almost 1000 migrants across the border through Huisha Title 42 exemptions and provide humanitarian aid to migrants in the encampment; offering testimony in congressional hearing; bringing back mother of deported military officer Rocio Rebollar; supporting 17 shelters in Tijuana, weekly water drops in the desert, placing 100 bonds for imm/migrants in detention, participation in Immigrant Day, playing a leading role at the TRUTH Act Forum, and advocating for the VISION Act."
We're Hiring!
Border Angels is looking for a motivated and passionate individual to become part of our mission of love. This on-site position requires you to live in San Diego as some tasks must be performed in person.

Apply today and join our team for a full-time Administrative Assistant position by sending us your resume to:
[email protected]

Click here ([link removed]) for the full job description
BA IN THE NEWS

"We want asylum", for many migrants hope is a breach in the US wall"
Due to Title 42, the sanitary measure that since March 2020 allows the expulsion of those who arrive at the US border without a visa, try to cross through the desert, defying the currents of the rivers or jumping the wall, the great fence that with up to 9.1 meters of height meanders hills and dunes dividing Mexico and the United States, even to the raging waters of the Pacific.

“Americans can go to Mexico to parties without wearing masks and with unvaccinated people, but those seeking asylum are left in limbo hearing that they cannot enter the United States due to covid,” laments Dulce García, from the NGO Border Angels, referring to Title 42, which by decision of a judge this Friday will remain in force. The ruling will be appealed by the Justice Department, the White House announced.

For activists, it is the desperation that leads many to hire coyotes to cross.

Read Full Article Here ([link removed])

Odyssey in the desert, the ways of migrants between Mexico and the USA
Next Monday, barring any judicial surprises, the era of Title 42 will end. The law provides for the blocking of migrants' entry for health security reasons, has been applied by the Trump administration in the height of the pandemic and has been kept up by Biden, at least until now.

The administration predicts that with the removal of Title 42, approximately eighteen thousand people will try to cross the border every day.

Precisely in California, in San Diego County, we walked a section of the path used by migrants in an attempt to escape the Border Patrol. Even in recent months the desert of the Jacumba mountains has killed hundreds of people, migrants struck down by the fury of the elements whose bodies are often not even found.

Accompanying us is Dulce Garcia, Executive Director of the Border Angels humanitarian organization. The "border angels" leave cans of water, food and clothing along the border paths for migrants to use. Dulce arrived in the United States as a child and despite the difficulties she managed to become a lawyer specializing in the rights of migrants.

Read Full Article Here ([link removed])

Climate Refugee Walk: HIA Strives to Spread Climate Awareness
On May 10, Honors In Action led a climate protest. The protest was held as a walk around campus in order to spread awareness of climate change and climate refugees. Climate refugees are people who have been displaced from their homes due to climate change.

The goal of the protest was to not only spread awareness for climate refugees, but to also get students involved in climate awareness.

HIA also collected donations for an organization called Border Angels, which is a nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian aid along the US/Mexico border.

Read Full Article Here ([link removed])
DON'T FORGET THE MERCH:

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 ([link removed]) .
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 ([link removed])
Border Angels Youtube Channel ([link removed][0]=AT0P45H2q2-G7hh2HJVCdSovBnNvl1GxplLNLpBF7cPAHW5QODu_mUxSRz65v6vumRlDjbWhdf3MsPC5WZy9Zj2tiqZTvoGcHvKqlMYz_MDxhCLNT5l14aWAW9ynRja12ju4HCeFh3Ezv7-Zkl8SnIO0GXFu96wh5q6pc94y_RsXpUnZTjEfi966GZRK4R7e2qnEVKc&mc_cid=4555efbef6&mc_eid=UNIQID)

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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San Diego, CA 92102

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