BAMN is agitating the caravan to march on the border. They are not on the ground and not working with the caravan organizers. At the same time, law enforcement is emptying the San Diego jails and telling the courts to anticipate 200-300 prosecutions/day. We smell a setup
When we tried calling their office, they answered and then hung up when we explained who we were. They haven’t picked up any subsequent calls
We repeat- BAMN is not on the ground in Tijuana and is not working with any nonprofits, organizers, or the caravan members themselves. Yet the US government is preparing for an invasion and mass prosecutions. What is going on here?
We can say from working on the ground with the caravan that 1) the vast majority of migrants are committed to entering legally, 2) a peaceful hunger strike is ongoing to pressure CBP to process faster, and 3) no one from BAMN consulted the caravan members in organizing this march
We were confused when we got word from San Diego that the jails/courts were preparing for a mass of unlawful entrants, especially because most of the migrants have been moved from the border to a shelter about 30-45 mins away and there was no march planned
In a decade+ of immigrant rights organizing on the border and in LA, we have never had any interaction with BAMN. They don’t have any individuals or real contact information on their website. Smells like the government trying to stir shit up #HueleACIA
Update: just spoke with one of the BAMN ‘organizers,’ who seemed unaware of conditions on the ground. Refused to give his last name. Had no real answers as to who they are working with and lied about having contacted our colleagues. Said planned mass prosecutions were ‘good’
Either BAMN has a government mole, or they ARE the US government, because the gov’t knew way more about their planned march than the caravan.
UPDATE: Benito Juarez camp is slowly emptying out. Gov’t has turned off water and electricity. BAMN operatives are there encouraging ppl to march. Meanwhile, soldiers are posting up on the US side of the river
So it turns out this isn’t a gov’t op. Many, many people have let us know that it’s BAMN’s MO to co-opt movements, fail to consult with affected groups and engage in reactionary violence with no regard for who suffers the consequences
Hard to believe that an organization that claims to be pro-migrant would do something so incredibly damaging to the people they claim to serve.
