Migrant Posada Belen, Ac, Humanity Without Borders, Ac,  Justice Border, Ac

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SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 2011
6–9 PM
The Amistad Center
of Santa Lucia Parish
518 Gallagher Street
El Paso, TX 79915
Dinner Ticket: $50

All proceeds support the work of Annunciation House.

ANNUNCIATION HOUSE
815 MYRTLE AVE, EL PASO, TX 79901,
915-533-4675
contact Voice of the Voiceless

BELÉN, POSADA DEL MIGRANTE
Located in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico, Belén, Posada del Migrante has offered hospitality to more than 40,000 immigrants, largely Central and South Americans. Together with two human rights organization it hosts, Belén, Posada del Migrante boldly advocates against the kidnapping, extortion, sexual abuse, and murder of migrants by criminal organizations and the simultaneous complicity of public officials. In the context of impunity, Belén, Posada del Migrante, was an outspoken critic of the 2010 massacre of 72 migrants in San Fernando, Tamaulipas.

OUR KEYNOTE SPEAKER: BISHOP RAUL VERA
Bishop José Raúl Vera López, OP has been a bold defender of human rights throughout Mexico, especially of those of the indigenous and the immigrant. He speaks out against the kidnapping of immigrants and the Mexican government’s inability to disarm drug cartels.

On the evening of October 15, 2009, while attempting to enter the United States with his US Consulate issued Bi-B2 laser visa, Mr. De L Rosa was detained by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents after answering “yes” to a CBP’s question of whether he, Mr. De L Rosa, had reason to fear for his life in Mexico. During the interview with CBP agents, Mr. De L Rosa explained that as the Juarez Ombudsman for the Chihuahua State Human Rights Commission his life had been threatened as a result of his investigations of accusations of human rights violations against the Mexican military. During the interview, Mr. De L Rosa clearly stated that while he did fear for his life, he was not seeking political asylum at this time and instead wanted to continue the ongoing negotiations with Chihuahua state officials in respond to his request for adequate security protection. In spite of Mr. De L Rosa’s clear statement that he was not seeking political asylum, CBP made the decision to detain Mr. De L Rosa.

CBP’s detention of Mr. De L Rosa, a well known and high profile official of a governmental human rights office, raises serious questions and concerns. Why was Mr. De La Rosa detained? On whose authority was Mr. De La Rosa detained? Having made it clear that he was not seeking political asylum, why was this disregarded? If the reason for his detention was for his protection, as CBP has publicly stated, why was the only option considered that of placing Mr. De La Rosa in handcuffs and then locking him up in a detention facility. Finally, were there any political considerations involved in the decision to detain Mr. De La Rosa?

The implications of Mr. De La Rosa’s detention are such that an initial meeting with a staff member of Congressman Silvestre Reyes was held for the purpose of notifying the Congressman’s office that a formal request for a Congressional Inquiry on Mr. De La Rosa’s detention would be forthcoming.

In submitting the formal request, we would like that request to be accompanied with as broad a base of support from organizations and individuals as is possible. If it is possible that someone of Mr. De La Rosa public profile to be dealt with in this manner, what is the reality that non-public persons are dealing with?

This is to let you know that the formal request will be going out via email and on this website in the next day or two and provide you with as much time as possible for you to consider endorsing the request and sign on. It is also being sent with the request that you circulate it among your contacts.

Camera by: Seth Donald, Joanna Heatwole, Maria Salazar

Sound: Seth Donald, Chad Heatwole

[en]We are a nation of immigrants.

We come from Mexico and the Philippines, from Central America, Ireland, Ethiopia and Iraq. We come to escape poverty and violence, fear, war, discrimination, political suppression and economic hardship. We leave behind parents and children and the skies of our homelands. We bring with us languages, photographs, telephone numbers, backpacks, stories, and hopes. We have walked day and night through the desert to cross the frontera. We have waited on the far side for papers to go through. We have hopped trains, seen companions fall, have put our trust in and been abandoned by coyoteshuman smugglers. We are the ones who have arrived.

We have been called illegals, mojados, aliens and terrorists. We are rounded up at work, leaving our children stranded. We are imprisoned and deported from the cities where we have lived for decades. We are guarded against at the border by barbed wire, dogs, pressure sensors and armed guards, as if we are an army to be feared. Yet often, we are the ones who live in fear.

We are math teachers and dishwashers, carpenters, translators, painters of portraits and of houses. We pick the apples in Yakima, Washington. We wash your dishes in restaurants in Minnesota. We rebuild houses in Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. We pay taxes out of our salaries. We send our children to school, wanting them to learn and succeed and to be safe. Neither do we forget the family members we have left in our birth countries: we work hard to support them as well. But we live here now: in big cities and small towns, in migrant camps, in apartment buildings and bedroom communities. In some places we are invisible. But look for us—we are here. We are twelve million strong.

We have sought and found opportunities in this country, and in return we have contributed our labor, our children, the rich textures of our cultures, and a chance for each of us—we and you—to learn compassion and wisdom through encountering the stranger. But we must be strangers no longer. We are your grandparents and your sons- and daughters-in-law, your past and your future. As brothers and sisters in Christ, we affirm our humanity, dignity, and value. As children of one God, as heirs of one earth, we assert our rights.

1. We have the right to be treated with respect, regardless of our documented status, and to be referred to in terms that reflect our humanity: no human being is illegal.
2. We have the right to seek employment, and to work to improve the quality of life for ourselves and our families. If we cannot support our families in our home country, we have the right to migrate to other countries in search of work.
3. We have the right not to be separated from our nuclear families. Our spouses and children should be allowed to travel with us as we cross borders in search of a living wage.
4. We have the right to earn legal status in a country to which we have contributed our labor, even if—indeed, especially if—we are low-wage workers.
5. We have a right to safe working conditions and fair compensation for our labor.
6. If we become the victims of a crime, we have the right to seek protection from the law of our new country without fear of imprisonment or deportation based on our documentation status. We have the right to prosecute abuses of our rights, including domestic abuse and abuse by employers.
7. We have a right to health care and healthy living conditions.
8. We have a right to education for ourselves and for our children.
9. We have the right to preserve our traditions and language as we integrate and learn the traditions and language of our new country. We recognize that each of us is made richer by this sharing of cultures.
10. We have the right to participate in political activities and protests without the fear of being detained for advocating for ourselves.educe the need for illegal immigration.

For this reason, immigrant and native born, we say together from the border to the Congress of the United States, “Give us just and humane legislative immigration reform!”

• For the millions of undocumented persons presently living, working and raising families in the United States, we ask Congress to provide an inclusive, straightforward and reasonably priced legislative pathway to permanent legalization and the opportunity for eventual citizenship.
• For families that live separated and divided by present immigration policy, we ask Congress to legislatively affirm the intrinsic value of family unity by eliminating the tremendous backlog of family-based petitions awaiting the availability of a visa.
• For immigrants seeking to accept available jobs and for employers seeking to fill employment positions, we ask Congress to legislatively provide a legal entry pathway for future workers and their families, especially low-skill workers, and thereby significantly reducing the loss of life and limbs, human smuggling, violence and indebtedness that the present system creates.
• For immigrants with special circumstances, we ask Congress for the passage of the Dream Act, the Ag Jobs Act, adjustment of status for recipients of political asylum and Temporary Protected Status, and adjustment of status for persons in removal proceedings who have no felony criminal records.
• For immigrants who feel obligated to live in hiding, who have lost their lives or limbs, who must risk violence and the tremendous indebtedness of paying human smugglers, due to the growing “enforcement-only approach” in dealing with immigration, we ask Congress to legislatively bring an end to the militarization of the border, the construction of walls and fences, employment and neighborhood raids that divide families, the ever increasing construction of immigration detention facilities and the detention of unaccompanied children.
• For immigrants encountering law enforcement, we ask Congress to legislatively protect and guarantee human and civil rights by ensuring due process, making enforcement of immigration law the sole domain of federal agencies, establishing a viable and independent mechanism for the review of federal enforcement agencies and the handling of complaints.
• For potential immigrants, especially those immediately south of the border, who overwhelmingly abhor having to leave their country, family, friends and communities, we ask Congress to legislatively set policies and provide foreign aid to fund economic development programs that create the kind of living-wage employment that allows families to sustain themselves and thus reduce the need for illegal immigration.

Please sign this statement and mail it to your Congressional representatives.
Signature __________________________________________________________________
Printed name_______________________________________________________________
Address ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
Annunciation House, El Paso, TX, www.annunciationhouse.org
Voice of the Voiceless 2007[/en]

[es]

DECLARACION DE LOS DERECHOS DE INMIGRANTES

Somos una nación de inmigrantes.

Venimos de México y de las Filipinas, de América Central, de Irlanda, de Etiopía y de Irak.  Venimos para escapar la pobreza y la violencia, el miedo, la guerra, la discriminación, la represión política y dificultades económicas.  Dejamos a padres e  hijos y los cielos de nuestras tierras natales.  Traemos con nosotros idiomas, fotos, números de teléfono, mochilas, historias, y esperanzas.  Hemos caminado de día y de noche por el desierto para cruzar la frontera.   Hemos esperado en el otro lado por papeles para pasar.  Hemos subido en trenes, visto a compañeros caerse, puesto nuestra confianza en los coyotes – contrabandistas de humanos – y luego fuimos abandonados por ellos.  Somos los que logramos llegar.

Hemos sido llamados ilegales, mojados, extraños y terroristas.   Nos han reunido en el trabajo, dejando a nuestros hijos abandonados a su suerte.  Somos encarcelados y deportados de las ciudades en donde hemos vivido por décadas.   Somos vigilados en la frontera por alambre espinoso, perros, sensores de presión y guardias armados, como si fuéramos un ejército al cual se le debe temer.  Pero, a menudo, nosotros somos los que vivimos en el miedo.

Somos maestros de matemáticas y lavaplatos, carpinteros, traductores, pintores de retratos y de casas.  Pizcamos manzana en Yákima, Washington.  Lavamos platos en restaurantes en Minnesota.  Construimos casas en Louisiana tras el Huracán Katrina.   Pagamos impuestos de nuestros salarios.  Mandamos a nuestros niños a la escuela, deseando que aprendan y sean éxitos y estén seguros.  Y no se nos olvidan los miembros de familia que dejamos en nuestras patrias:  trabajamos duro para mantener a ellos también.  Pero vivimos aquí ahora:  en las ciudades grandes y en los pueblos pequeños, en campos de trabajadores migrantes, en departamentos y en comunidades donde viven personas que viajan diariamente al lugar de trabajo.  En algunos lugares somos invisibles.  Pero búsquenos—aquí estamos.  Somos doce millones.

Hemos buscado y hemos encontrado oportunidades en este país, y a cambio hemos contribuido nuestro labor, nuestros hijos, la rica textura de nuestras culturas, y una oportunidad para que cada uno de nosotros –  nosotros y ustedes – aprendamos compasión y sabiduría a través de encontrarnos con el desconocido.  Pero ya no debemos ser desconocidos.   Somos tus abuelos y tus yernos y nueras, tu pasado y tu futuro.  Como hermanos y hermanas en Cristo, afirmamos nuestra humanidad, nuestra dignidad y nuestro valor.  Como hijos de un  mismo Dios, como herederos de un solo mundo, afirmamos nuestros derechos.

1. Tenemos el derecho de ser tratados con respeto, no obstante la condición de nuestra documentación, y que hablen de nosotros en términos que reflejen nuestra humanidad:  ningún ser humano es ilegal.

2. Tenemos el derecho de buscar empleo, y de trabajar para mejorar la calidad de vida para nosotros y para nuestras familias.  Si no podemos sostener a nuestras familias en nuestro país, tenemos el derecho de inmigrar a otros países en busca de trabajo.

3. Tenemos el derecho de no ser separados de nuestras familias nucleares.  A nuestros esposos y a nuestros niños se les debe permitir viajar con nosotros cuando cruzamos fronteras en busca de un salario que nos alcance para vivir.

4. Tenemos el derecho de ganarnos un estatus legal en el país al cual hemos contribuido nuestro labor, aunque –por cierto y especialmente si – somos trabajadores ganando un salario bajo.

5. Tenemos el derecho de trabajar en condiciones seguras y de ser compensados justamente por nuestro trabajo.

6. Si llegamos a ser víctimas de un crimen, tenemos el derecho de buscar protección de la ley de nuestro nuevo país sin temor de ser encarcelados o deportados únicamente por nuestro estatus de indocumentados.  Tenemos el derecho de iniciar procedimiento criminal cuando haya abuso de nuestros derechos, incluyendo abuso doméstico y abuso a mano de nuestros patrones.

7. Tenemos el derecho a la asistencia médica y a condiciones de vida saludables.

8. Tenemos derecho a educarnos y a educar a nuestros hijos.

9. Tenemos derecho de preservar nuestras tradiciones  e idioma al integrarnos y al aprender las tradiciones y el idioma de nuestro nuevo país.  Reconocemos que nos enriquecemos los unos a los otros al compartir nuestras culturas.

10. Tenemos el derecho de participar en actividades políticas y en protestas sin temor que vayamos a ser detenidos porque luchamos por nosotros mismos.

Por esta razón, los inmigrantes y los nativos, juntos decimos de esta frontera al Congreso de los Estados Unidos, “¡Denos reforma legislativa de inmigración justa y humana!”

• Para las millones de personas indocumentadas que actualmente viven, trabajan y crían a sus familias en los Estados Unidos, le pedimos al Congreso que provea un camino legislativo inclusivo, sencillo y de precio razonable para la legalización permanente y finalmente para la oportunidad de obtener ciudadanía.
• Para familias que viven separadas y divididas por la política de inmigración existente, le pedimos al Congreso que afirme legislativamente el valor intrínsico de la unidad de la familia eliminando el tremendo atraso de peticiones de familias que esperan la disponibilidad de una visa.
• Para inmigrantes que buscan el aceptar empleos disponibles y para los empleadores que buscan llenar posiciones de empleo, le pedimos al Congreso que provee legislativamente un camino de entrada legal para trabajadores que van a llegar y para sus familias, especialmente a trabajadores de poca habilidad, y así reducir considerablemente la pérdida de vida y de miembros, el contrabando de personas, y la violencia y endeudamiento que crea el sistema actual.
• Para inmigrantes con circunstancias especiales, le pedimos al  Congreso que se promulgue el Dream Act, el Ag Jobs Act, un ajuste de estatus para los que se reciben del de asilo político y del Estatus de Protección Temporaria, y un ajuste de estatus para personas en procedimientos de deportación que no tienen antecedentes penales.
• Para inmigrantes que se ven obligados a vivir escondidos, para los que han perdido la vida o miembros, para los que se ponen en riesgo de sufrir violencia y la tremenda obligación de pagar a contrabandistas, debido al crecimiento al énfasis de “solo cumplimiento” cuando se trata de inmigración, le pedimos al Congreso que le ponga un alto legislativamente a la militarización de la frontera, a la construcción de muros y cercos, a las redadas en lugares de empleo y vecindades que dividen a las familias, a la creciente construcción de lugares de detención para inmigrantes, y la manera en que se tratan las quejas.
• Para inmigrantes que se encuentren con agencias de cumplimiento de leyes, le pedimos al Congreso que protega y garantice derechos humanos y civiles, asegurando debido proceso, poniendo el cumplimiento de la ley migratoria en el campo solamente de agencias federales, estableciendo un mecanismo viable e independente para la revisión de agencias federales de cumplimiento de leyes y para el manejo de quejas.
• Para inmigrantes posibles, especialmente a aquellos inmediatamente al sur de la frontera, que detestan el tener que dejar su país, su familia, sus amigos y sus comunidades, le pedimos al Congreso que establezca leyes que provean ayuda extranjera para programas de desarrollo económico que crea la clase de empleo con jornal básico que permita a las familias a sostenerse y así reducir la necesidad de inmigración ilegal. [/es]

We are a nation of immigrants.

We come from Mexico and the Philippines, from Central America, Ireland, Ethiopia and Iraq. We come to escape poverty and violence, fear, war, discrimination, political suppression and economic hardship. We leave behind parents and children and the skies of our homelands. We bring with us languages, photographs, telephone numbers, backpacks, stories, and hopes. We have walked day and night through the desert to cross the frontera. We have waited on the far side for papers to go through. We have hopped trains, seen companions fall, have put our trust in and been abandoned by coyotes—human smugglers. We are the ones who have arrived.

We have been called illegals, mojados, aliens and terrorists. We are rounded up at work, leaving our children stranded. We are imprisoned and deported from the cities where we have lived for decades. We are guarded against at the border by barbed wire, dogs, pressure sensors and armed guards, as if we are an army to be feared. Yet often, we are the ones who live in fear.

We are math teachers and dishwashers, carpenters, translators, painters of portraits and of houses. We pick the apples in Yakima, Washington. We wash your dishes in restaurants in Minnesota. We rebuild houses in Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. We pay taxes out of our salaries. We send our children to school, wanting them to learn and succeed and to be safe. Neither do we forget the family members we have left in our birth countries: we work hard to support them as well. But we live here now: in big cities and small towns, in migrant camps, in apartment buildings and bedroom communities. In some places we are invisible. But look for us—we are here. We are twelve million strong.

We have sought and found opportunities in this country, and in return we have contributed our labor, our children, the rich textures of our cultures, and a chance for each of us—we and you—to learn compassion and wisdom through encountering the stranger. But we must be strangers no longer. We are your grandparents and your sons- and daughters-in-law, your past and your future. As brothers and sisters in Christ, we affirm our humanity, dignity, and value. As children of one God, as heirs of one earth, we assert our rights.

1. We have the right to be treated with respect, regardless of our documented status, and to be referred to in terms that reflect our humanity: no human being is illegal.
2. We have the right to seek employment, and to work to improve the quality of life for ourselves and our families. If we cannot support our families in our home country, we have the right to migrate to other countries in search of work.
3. We have the right not to be separated from our nuclear families. Our spouses and children should be allowed to travel with us as we cross borders in search of a living wage.
4. We have the right to earn legal status in a country to which we have contributed our labor, even if—indeed, especially if—we are low-wage workers.
5. We have a right to safe working conditions and fair compensation for our labor.
6. If we become the victims of a crime, we have the right to seek protection from the law of our new country without fear of imprisonment or deportation based on our documentation status. We have the right to prosecute abuses of our rights, including domestic abuse and abuse by employers.
7. We have a right to health care and healthy living conditions.
8. We have a right to education for ourselves and for our children.
9. We have the right to preserve our traditions and language as we integrate and learn the traditions and language of our new country. We recognize that each of us is made richer by this sharing of cultures.
10. We have the right to participate in political activities and protests without the fear of being detained for advocating for ourselves.

For this reason, immigrant and native born, we say together from the border to the Congress of the United States, “Give us just and humane legislative immigration reform!”

• For the millions of undocumented persons presently living, working and raising families in the United States, we ask Congress to provide an inclusive, straightforward and reasonably priced legislative pathway to permanent legalization and the opportunity for eventual citizenship.
• For families that live separated and divided by present immigration policy, we ask Congress to legislatively affirm the intrinsic value of family unity by eliminating the tremendous backlog of family-based petitions awaiting the availability of a visa.
• For immigrants seeking to accept available jobs and for employers seeking to fill employment positions, we ask Congress to legislatively provide a legal entry pathway for future workers and their families, especially low-skill workers, and thereby significantly reducing the loss of life and limbs, human smuggling, violence and indebtedness that the present system creates.
• For immigrants with special circumstances, we ask Congress for the passage of the Dream Act, the Ag Jobs Act, adjustment of status for recipients of political asylum and Temporary Protected Status, and adjustment of status for persons in removal proceedings who have no felony criminal records.
• For immigrants who feel obligated to live in hiding, who have lost their lives or limbs, who must risk violence and the tremendous indebtedness of paying human smugglers, due to the growing “enforcement-only approach” in dealing with immigration, we ask Congress to legislatively bring an end to the militarization of the border, the construction of walls and fences, employment and neighborhood raids that divide families, the ever increasing construction of immigration detention facilities and the detention of unaccompanied children.
• For immigrants encountering law enforcement, we ask Congress to legislatively protect and guarantee human and civil rights by ensuring due process, making enforcement of immigration law the sole domain of federal agencies, establishing a viable and independent mechanism for the review of federal enforcement agencies and the handling of complaints.
• For potential immigrants, especially those immediately south of the border, who overwhelmingly abhor having to leave their country, family, friends and communities, we ask Congress to legislatively set policies and provide foreign aid to fund economic development programs that create the kind of living-wage employment that allows families to sustain themselves and thus reduce the need for illegal immigration.

Please sign this statement and mail it to your Congressional representatives.
Signature __________________________________________________________________
Printed name_______________________________________________________________
Address ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
Annunciation House, El Paso, TX, www.annunciationhouse.org
Voice of the Voiceless 2007