Promote Justice for Mexico and the Borderlands

We’re moving full speed ahead with the “Stop Gun Smuggling to Mexico” campaign and want to make sure to keep you in the loop. We’ve seen some small but significant progress lately, and there are a number of exciting developments on the horizon that we want you to know about, so check out the updates below!

If you haven’t already, click here to tell President Obama to stop gun smuggling into Mexico.

By most accounts, Mexico has become an increasingly dangerous place to stand up for human rights over the past several years. According to the Mexican nongovernmental organization CENCOS, at least 24 human rights defenders and journalists were murdered in 2011 alone. The Mexican government has not adequately responded to threats and attacks against defenders, leaving 99% of all aggressions against them in impunity. Until Mexico’s judicial and law-enforcement institutions are fully able to uphold the rule of law, a special mechanism is needed to protect human rights defenders so they may continue their important work without fear. The Mexican government is in the process of developing such a protection mechanism, but has failed to fully include the participation of civil society--the very people these measures are being designed to protect.

Several members of the U.S. Congress concerned with the high levels of danger facing human rights defenders in Mexico have raised their voice. Together, they sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging her make a priority in her dialogue with Mexico the importance of civil society participation in the development of a protection mechanism for human rights defenders.

To read the letter, click here.

Each year, tens of thousands of migrants transit through Mexico with the goal of reaching the United States.  This journey is fraught with danger and many experience extreme violence along the way.  According to Mexico’s Nation Human Rights Commission (CNDH), a staggering 11,333 migrants were victims of kidnapping from April 2010 to September 2010.  However, the humanitarian crisis of migrants in Mexico extends beyond kidnapping.  Too often, migrants become victims of extortion, robbery, torture, rape, and even murder, including the horrific mass murder of 72 migrants in Tamaulipas in 2010.

After ten years of making a life for himself in the beach-front city of Santa Monica, California, Jorge Romero* was deported to Mexico, joining the ranks of nearly 400,000 other undocumented migrants removed from the United States this past fiscal year. Behind the record high number of deportations by the Obama Administration are stark, human stories of broken families and untold abuse suffered by those who attempt to return to their homes in the United States. Jorge, who left behind his cousin and father in Santa Monica, was one of those to brave the dangerous journey back. On the way, he was apprehended and grossly abused by the U.S. Border Patrol. This is his story, as recorded by humanitarian organization No More Deaths: