The Christmas in Tornillo encampment should be getting more attention. A creative-arts focused encampment at the gates of a detention camp holding 3,000 children. People bringing giant puppets to the fences and writing messages on stray soccer balls they kick back over the fence.
The Christmas in Tornillo effort is led by brown women. They wanted to create something generative that was led by brown women after having to repeatedly tell white folks that they shouldn't thank DHS security for their service. (I'm not kidding.)
I talked about the encampment in my end-of-the-year piece, but that was a reflection. There's an in-depth story to be told here. One that's painful, hopeful and extremely necessary. (Photo: Jimmy Betts) 
Last night, activists with the Christmas in Tornillo encampment set up a blockade during shift change in front of 20 charter buses carrying workers into the Tornillo detention camp. It included a Christmas Tree created with water jugs slashed by border control.
Here's my piece where I talk about it. But again, this is a reflection. The world needs some dope reporting on this. bit.ly/2rZanbE (Photo: Jimmy Betts)
Here's some local coverage of last night's Christmas in Tornillo blockade outside the Tornillo detention center, where 3,000 migrant children are being held. kvia.com/news/el-paso/g…
"More people are detained than Tornillo's tent city than in all but one of the nation's 204 federal prisons, yet construction here continues." kvia.com/.../number-of-…
So glad to see Christmas in Tornillo getting more coverage today. Keep it up journos! This is the kind of story this country needs right now!
I really feel like a lot of people are searching, whether they know it or not, for something to believe in. Not a candidate, but an idea in motion. These are dizzying times, but in the Christmas in Tornillo encampment, there is a clarity of purpose and moral necessity.
Christmas in Tornillo won my heart the moment I saw my friends' photos of folks holding up giant puppets at the fences so the 3,000 caged migrant children at the camp would have something to smile at.
Protests outside these monstrous child and family detention facilities also create an opportunity for us to engage with the truth about incarceration in the US more broadly, and I don't think we have any hope of saving this society's soul until we do so. It's all connected.
