Action Alerts

Today, President Obama unveiled an expansive plan to tackle gun violence.  For so many of us focused on ending the bloodshed that has devastated communities on both sides of the border, this is encouraging news.

We wanted to THANK YOU for adding YOUR voice to the groundswell calling for an end to gun violence.  Earlier this week, the petition that many of you signed urging President Obama to better enforce and tighten lax U.S. gun laws that traffickers exploit to get guns and smuggle them into Mexico was delivered to Vice President Biden’s task force on gun violence .  As you may recall, this is the same petition initiated by groups from Mexico’s Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity in partnership with LAWG and dozens of faith-based, human rights and anti-gun violence groups from both sides of the border. 

Over the past month, the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity has traveled 6,000 miles across the United States calling for the U.S to do its part to stop violence in Mexico. From LA to Chicago, Houston to Cleveland, caravaneros have reached 25 cities calling for an end to the failed drug war that has left over 60,000 dead and 10,000 disappeared in Mexico over the last five years.

On Monday, September 10th, the Caravan will arrive to Washington, D.C., the final stop of the Caravan.  Poet and movement leader Javier Sicilia and victims who have lost loved ones to violence in Mexico will be here to make their voices heard in our nation’s capital – and we ask you to JOIN US and add your voice in calling for an end to the failed policies, an end to bloodshed.

On Wednesday, September 12th, LAWG and partners are organizing a Vigil/Procession for Peace to commemorate the 60,000 people who have died in Mexico’s misguided “war on drugs.”  We will gather at 5:30 p.m. at St. Stephen & the Incarnation Church—1525 Newton St. NW Washington, D.C.  At 6:30pm, we’ll march down 16th Street to Meridian Hill/Malcolm X Park for a candlelight vigil.

Will you join us on Wednesday, September 12th to make a statement alongside victims of violence from Mexico?

We were proud to join with YOU and so many partners and allies in hosting Mexico’s Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity here in our nation’s capitol last month.  Highlights of their 3-day stop in Washington, D.C. included a TV-camera crowded press conference on the steps of a Capitol Hill church and a ‘lobby day’ where teams of victims and advocates deployed all over Capitol Hill to tell their stories to individual members and congressional aides. The historic visit ended with a moving vigil and march through Columbia Heights to a final event in Malcolm X Park, a dramatic poetry reading by the Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, whose reaction to his son’s murder sparked the movement, and a stirring speech by the legendary farmworker union leader, Dolores Huerta. 

“… treat them (migrants) like human beings because they are not animals,” responded a nurse in Nogales, Arizona, when asked what she would say to the U.S. Border Patrol.

Did you catch it?  Last week, PBS aired Part 2 of their investigation into allegations of abuse by the U.S. Border Patrol, including sexual assault, physical abuse, and even torture.   In response, Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) remarked, “The PBS report paints an appalling picture of cruelty and corruption.”