Persistence pays off.  IMIRJ, the Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice, issued this litany of thanks last week in recognition of the many people who persisted in challenging the ICE detentions in a local jail:

"Thank you to the courageous men, women, and kin who launched a hunger strike while they were detained in the spring of 2017 to protest the conditions inside and ICE’s family separation machine.
Thank you to others detained since then for your resistance— whether you were there for two days or two years, sent from the private prison in Tacoma as retaliation, or couldn’t see your family because there was no family visitation. 
Thank you to the Gorge leaders who have protested, organized, held vigil, and invited the rest of the state to join them to get ICE out of NORCOR. 
Thank you to the clergy who visited the men, women, and kin detained week in and week out— who amplified their demands and stories, listened and shared life together in a time when so much life was being taken away. 
Thank you to people of faith and fierce love around the state who amplified the stories of those detained in their services and prayers, organized caravans to stand in solidarity in The Dalles, raised money for the high cost of phone calls, made calls to the Board and kept the pressure on, walked in pilgrimage from Sheridan to NORCOR, and joined IMIrJ for our first-ever statewide campaign and action in the spring of 2018. "   

I learned from Central Americans in the struggle for justice and equality that it is important to celebrate the wins as well as to grieve over the losses.  So let's dance a little this weekend!  

​A local pastor in Bend, Oregon and a school board member, asked this question, "Why is it happening?" on a webnair,  bit.ly/2DTsoBX , sponsored by the Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice which supports local congregations to become active in Immigrant Justice work.  She urged us to ask and demand answers to "Why were Border Patrol agents in full riot gear showing up to break up a peaceful crowd protecting the two immigrants on an ICE bus?  And they were so abundantly resourced, while our schools struggle to have enough money to educate the children?  Why?  Why? Why? "

    Bend is a city of 97,000 people in Central Oregon.  93% of the population are white (2010 census).  It is known for its outdoor life - most people travel there to ski in the winter and bike and kayak in the summer.  However, the population is changing as many Latinx move here for jobs in the tourist industry or nearby farming and ranching.  

    On August 12, 2020, 2,000 people gathered to surround the bus where the two detained immigrants were held from 5:45AM on Wednesday morning until the arrival of the federal troops to break up the crowd surrounding the bus around 1AM.  A local pastor organized the crowd to sit down when the federal troops arrive.  It was a peaceful protest but clearly in opposition to ICE raids and detention of immigrants.  "If this is allowable, how do we make it not allowable?"  That is a question that many of us working for immigrant justice and racial justice, need to keep asking.  

    One of the organizers working with the local Diversity Council said, "We didn't show up as anti-federal troops or anti-ICE but because we are pro-family and two of our neighbors were picked up by ICE."  The crowd changed repeatedly, "Let Them Go."  A young boy crying pounded on the bus, saying "Papi, Papi."  
     An attorney who was in the crowd as a volunteer, expressed her frustration with the broken immigration system.  "We work within the system while at the same time we are trying to change it."  

       Another local pastor shared that "the presence of so many in the  crowd was an "act of solidarity of sacredness and the presence of love."  So the question again, "why did the Border Patrol show up?"  The Border Patrol supposedly had total authority within 100 miles of the northern and southern border of the United States.  Bend, Oregon like Portland, Oregon where the Border Patrol Tactical Unit showed up to "protect the federal courthouse, is 374.2 miles from the Canadian border!

     What can we do to protect our neighbors?  First of all, Know Your Rights!  Attorneys at the Bend ICE raid scene shouted out the rights all person have to the two men on the bus.  We who are U.S. citizens need to know our rights as well.  

    Become active with your local immigrant rights group!  Be prepared to show up - many communities have Rapid Response Teams prepared to act in case of an ICE raid.  Join one and be prepared to show up!   Write about what is happening in your community - send Letters to the Editor or write an OpEd piece.  
​
Why the Border Patrol?  Why did the local police not protect the peaceful protesters from the federal troops?
​
  Demand answers from your local and state elected officials.  And most importantly, this year VOTE!  The immigration system will not change until there are enough courageous legislators willing to make the changes to ensure a fair and humane immigration system.  Black Lives Matter and the call for major police reform is connected to the racist oppressive laws that keep people out of our country and then detain and deport them.  

Background
The current administration has worked to systematically limit access to asylum at the border. When
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) implemented metering in May 2018 at the ports of entry in
Nogales, migrants were abruptly faced with weeks and later months-long waits before being able to
formally begin their asylum process in the U.S. This dynamic was exacerbated with the subsequent
implementation of Migration Protection Protocol (MPP), otherwise known as “Remain in Mexico,” forcing
asylum seekers to wait months or years in Mexico for their U.S. asylum hearings. These policies have
obligated many of the migrants passing through Nogales to live in unsustainable uncertainty. Now the
Administration has used the global pandemic as a pretext to fully suspend asylum processing, denying
migrants fleeing persecution their right to refuge and due process in the United States.
 
Dozens of asylum seekers currently in Nogales, Sonora have been waiting since December to begin the
process of seeking protection in the US. The hundreds of asylum seekers returned to Nogales under
MPP have had their very first court dates rescheduled from March or April 2020 to October 2020, with no
guarantee that court will even be open by that date. Yet CBP continues to place newly arriving Cubans
and Venezuelans into MPP and returning them to prolonged limbo in Nogales, Sonora, even as they
subject asylum seekers from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador to expulsions with no consideration
of their claims for protection.
 
Beyond metering, MPP, and the state of asylum during the pandemic, on June 15th the administration-
controlled Department of Homeland Security proposed a rule that would permanently dismantle the entire
asylum process with irreparable consequences extending far beyond the context of the pandemic. The
proposed rule appears to have been crafted to create insurmountable procedural obstacles, establish
high burdens of proof, and narrow the grounds for qualification for asylum. Under this new proposed rule,
the majority of migrants stranded in Nogales, Sonora would not meet the basic standards for asylum
qualification, and therefore, would never be heard in front of an immigration judge. The rule would
completely decimate a process meant to protect asylum seekers from improperly being returned to harm.
 
We believe that the United States government has the responsibility to fulfil the guarantees that it made to
refugees and that is why we are joining forces with other organizations, local leaders, communities of
faith, and asylum seekers in acting to save asylum.