Issued by: FIRE (Fight For Im/migrant and Refugees Everywhere)
Special Bulletin: As we write this email, the Biden administration is arranging the sending of young migrants to military bases and coliseums in San Antonio, Texas. Immigrant advocates are working to assure that the children and youth are not only welcomed, but released as soon as possible to their families. The community is demanding that immigrant advocates be the main contacts for these families instead of ICE agents. Visit FIRE website for bulletins.
Justice for Erick Mejia. Sign on to the petition. Erick was a 26-year-old Honduran shot 28 times and killed by San Antonio police in Texas. The family is demanding that the city of San Antonio fire the police. Erick was undocumented and ran in fear after being stopped by traffic police. It is a travesty of justice that his family had to flee violence in their homeland only for their son to be shot down in cold blood in this country.
Please share and sign the petition: http://chng.it/MxK88Phv5K
Sign on to the petition to Free Gabby Solano. Gabriela Solano is an incarcerated survivor of domestic violence who has served 20 years in prison for her involvement in a crime committed by her abusive boyfriend and his acquaintances. Gabby faces a transfer to ICE at any time.She tried to leave an abusive relationship, but instead has been incarcerated for her abuser’s deadly actions. Gabby must be protected & shouldn’t face double punishment on the day of her release! Sign & share petition to #FreeGabby: bit.ly/FreeGabby
Support the efforts of the National TPS alliance. This alliance last year organized a national caravan to Washington DC to demand TPS, which FIRE actively supported. Their ongoing work needs your solidarity. Visit: https://www.nationaltpsalliance.org/
FIRE STATEMENT ON BIDEN ADMINISTRATION We Say to Biden & the Democratic Party:
You owe the immigrant movement. It is now or never.
When thousands of people took to the streets the day Joe Biden was confirmed as President, many im/migrants and their advocates joined them. Activists and organizers were buoyed by the win, mainly because it was a defeat of Trump.
But they were not duped. Everyone knew that the victory was small but important for all those languishing in detention cells, waiting in dire conditions at the border, or living in fear in this country.
The struggle is far from over, however as the deportations of Black immigrants has shown.
Migrant groups and the Latinx movement mobilized in record numbers for the 2020 election. It was a historical turnout. It was not because they were looking for a “savior” but rather because they picked “a target.”
This “target” must now step up. A defeat of Trump was a step forward because it signaled some relief for migrants. But the struggle for legalization, abolishing ICE, and closing detention centers is far from over.
FIRE is committed to joining organizers in the struggle to not only undo Trumpism but to fight for the demands we have been raising since 2006.
FIRE CALLS ON THE BIDEN/HARRIS ADMINISTRATION TO DO THE FOLLOWING:
•DACA youth should receive immediate legalization. End the uncertainty now.
•Stop the deportations now, especially of Black immigrants.
•Justice for Cameroonian migrants tortured & deported by ICE.
•Immediate asylum for all victims of US intervention abroad
•Abolish ICE, Abolish the police.
•Close the detention centers. End mass incarceration; stop criminalizing Black and Brown people.
•Justice for the women migrants forcibly sterilized at Irwin Detention Center
•Reparations for climate refugees.
•Open the borders; close the jails.
•Reunite the families separated by ICE with compensation for trauma.
FIRE urges the solidarity movement, unions, the anti-war and all progressive movements to continue to join the fight for im/migrant rights. Now more than ever we cannot leave migrant youth alone to battle for a besieged community. Trump was ousted but his legacy in ICE, etc. leaves on.
