Action Alerts

You’ve probably heard plenty about violence committed by warring drug cartels in Mexico over the past several years. But what about the unlawful violence committed by the Mexican military?

Human rights violations committed by soldiers against civilians have skyrocketed since President Calderon took office in 2006. And of the 4,000 complaints of human rights abuses reported so far during his administration, only a single soldier has been held accountable in military jurisdiction. Why this impunity? Because crimes committed by the military against civilians are investigated and tried in notoriously secretive military courts.

Ask your member of Congress to take a stand to end impunity for human rights abuses in Mexico!

You probably heard the news this past August: 72 Central and South American migrants were brutally massacred after resisting their kidnappers’ extortion attempts and demands to work for them as drug smugglers–teens and a pregnant woman among the dead. It was the worst mass-killing in Mexico since Calderón launched his “War on Drugs.”

May 27, 2010 – SPECIAL UPDATE: The Senate Rejected Border Amendments that Would Have Resulted In More of the Same. Today, all 3  “border security first” or “enforcement-only” amendments were defeated during debate on a supplemental appropriations package. Thanks to all who called and took a stand for sensible solutions for the SW border region!

Now we need to see the President and Congress get serious about comprehensive reform and long-term solutions – not quick fix ‘solutions’ like military hardware - to address organized crime related violence in Mexico – efforts that should include strengthening the judicial system, improved accountability for the police and robust protection of human rights. Rather than offering serious solutions, some policymakers have offered more of the same, band-aid, window dressing measures that score political points but don’t solve the problem. That includes President Obama’s decision, announced earlier this week, to send 1,200 National Guardsmen to the border. His decision directly contradicted the facts and what his own administration has been saying for months. Sending the National Guard to the border will not solve our immigration crisis.

---

Your senators need to hear from you NOW to halt efforts to further militarize the U.S.-Mexico border region. We understand that the Senate will be voting TODAY on a trio of harmful amendments seeking to expand misguided, enforcement-only approaches along our Southern border.

We don't typically take action on state-level legislation. However, we find a bill recently passed by Arizona's state legislature and currently on its way to Governor Jan Brewer's desk –- SB1070 –- so dangerously misguided that we feel we cannot sit back silently.  And you shouldn't either!

If allowed to pass into law by Gov. Brewer, SB 1070 would effectively force police to engage in racial profiling, criminalize unauthorized migrants for 'trespassing' into Arizona, and permit anyone to sue local agencies if they believe that the law isn't being adequately enforced.  Such policies are as sweeping as they are dangerous.

If you ascribe to the old saying that "actions speak louder than words," then March 21st, 2010 may become a historic moment. On that day, an estimated 200,000 plus families, students and concerned individuals from Delaware to Oregon participated in the "March for America" in Washington D.C. to remind Congress and President Obama that we're tired of empty promises and want to see action towards immigration reform - and we want to see it now!

Director of The 800 Mile Wall, John Carlos Frey, is asking all the right questions of our U.S.-Mexico border.

"Do we need to spend billions of dollars on fencing and technology? Does it work? Should the thousands of migrant lives lost on U.S. soil be recognized and taken into account? Should we do anything about the deaths? Is there a solution?"

If you're wondering when the opportunity will arise to demand that our legislators begin asking these questions, the time is now!

As a newcomer to the LAWG team, and inside the beltway advocacy, I have been surprised over the last few months to learn what it actually takes to achieve the change we want. Before I started, I assumed that if we could simply bring the facts about real people who are suffering as a result of U.S. policies in countries like Mexico and Colombia, we could make it happen. But it turns out that there's so much more that goes on in DC every day than I could have anticipated.

They don't get it... yet.

Although we now have new leadership in Washington, they still don't understand what they need to do to stand up for human rights. They think that by saying more about the importance of human rights and democracy than the Bush Administration did, they are making progress. But we know that until they actually change U.S. policies to support victims of violence in places like Mexico and Colombia, they will continue to be a part of the problem, not the solution.

Now, if we can get them to hear what we hear from people in Mexico and Colombia and know what we know, they might change their tune.

So, this month we are launching a "Human Rights NOW" campaign, which will use innovative tactics to get them to make human rights come first in U.S. policy.

Actions speak louder than words.

This seems like a simple concept. But lately, the Obama Administration and the State Department seem to have forgotten it when dealing with Latin America. Despite serious human rights abuses by Colombian and Mexican security forces alike, the State Department just went ahead and declared that both countries were meeting the human rights requirements needed in order to receive more U.S. military aid.

Click here to send a fax to Secretary of State Clinton asking her to stand up for human rights!

Do you remember Kevin Costner's blind determination in the movie Field of Dreams to build a baseball field based on the direction of a mysterious voice? Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) has heard a similar voicing stating, "If you build it, they won't come."

He wants a 700-mile wall of pedestrian fencing built along the U.S.-Mexico border --a measure that will harm communities and the environment of the borderlands and do nothing to fix our broken immigration system. 

Click here to help to stop this latest attempt to expand on the failed policy of constructing more walls along our SW border.