John --
No human being should ever be made to drink from a toilet, but that is exactly what AOC and other representatives visiting a border patrol facility yesterday discovered.
This is not about a lack of funding. These agents are engaging in systematic and intentional cruelty, apparently for “sport.”
This is a deliberate humanitarian crisis playing out in daily reports of abuses and inhumane conditions in many migrant facilities across the country.
ProPublica released an article yesterday about abhorrent, racist and dehumanizing rhetoric that’s been shared on a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents. This wasn't a small group, there were more than 9,500 members. It showed a prevalent culture of hate.
It is clear that, on a fundamental level, our immigration agencies do not view migrants as human beings.
In 2017 Brand New Congress took a stand, calling for CBP and ICE to be disbanded and replaced by a new agency called CRIS: Citizenship, Refugee, and Immigrant Services. CRIS would be an agency that focuses on simplifying the immigration process to welcome immigrants and refugees in a safe, efficient manner -- an immigration policy that sets the standard for human rights and lives up to the values our Constitution is supposed to uphold.
Many of these people are fleeing poverty, violence, and political instability brought on by decades of U.S. foreign policy. We have a duty as citizens of this nation, and citizens of the world, to right the wrongs done in our name.
Either you believe in liberty and justice for ALL, or you don’t. Brand New Congress stands for justice, and we pledge to protect the liberty and dignity of all people. We stand with lawmakers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who defied the party leadership and put people first when they voted NO on giving $4.5 billion to these fascist, renegade agencies.
When you celebrate Independence Day this week, think of the thousands of mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, children and aunts and uncles sitting in a crowded, filthy detention cell in Texas for the "crime" of wanting a better life. Twenty or 50 or 100 years ago, they could have been our parents. Those children could have been us.
We believe humanity is not defined by citizenship. We believe liberty and justice are universal human rights. And we are electing working people to Congress with the courage to stand up to party leaders when they’re wrong.
In solidarity,
Cory Archibald
Board President
Brand New Congress
