As Al Otro Lado continues to assist with the @CBP street releases of asylum seekers in San Diego we continue to encounter families that have been separated. Every day we meet dozens of people who have no idea where their spouse or child is. 1/6 🧵 Some lost loved ones may still be in CBP custody, others were dropped off at a different transit station sometimes over 1hr away from each other or dropped off at a hospital due to medical concerns. No info is given to the family member as to where their spouse or child is. 2/6

Did you know that being willing to die for your country is not enough to guarantee you automatic citizenship? Yes, that’s right. We’re talking about the thousands of veterans who have been deported after serving their country.
1/9 Contrary to popular belief, you do not have to be an American citizen to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces nor does your service automatically qualify you for citizenship.
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Today, we, along with @ImmDef @TransLawCenter @JFSSD + @sdACLU filed a complaint asking @DHSOIG to investigate @CBP’s failure to expeditiously process urgent humanitarian parole applications. Right now humanitarian parole is practically the only path to safety in the U.S. In recent months, dozens of applications for urgent humanitarian parole filed by all of us have gone unanswered for weeks, if not months or denied with no explanation

Late last year we started to notice a disturbing trend. Migrant mothers who had given birth on US soil, therefore making their babies American citizens, were being immediately expelled by @CBP just days after giving birth + before babies’ birth certificates could be issued.
1/ Not only were these newborns sent back to some of the most dangerous cities in the world, but without any proper paper work, these babies were essentially left stateless making it even more difficult to get vaccinations and essential government benefits like food assistance.
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This weekend, for the first time in over three years, our client Luis was able to hold his son in his arms again. His son was only five years old when @CBP officers callously took him while Luis was in court. He was told his son would be there when he got back. He wasn’t.
1/8 But Luis’ story isn’t the only happy one we have to share. He’s 1 of 13 parents that were reunited with their kids over the weekend + 8 more will be reunited this week! These were parents who were separated + deported from their children during the terror of #zerotolerance.

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¡HUGE! news coming out of the immigration sphere today! AG Garland just overturned two devastating decisions made by ghouls, ahem, former AGs Sessions and Barr, that sought to restrict asylum even further by limiting the qualifications for protection.

1/ The first decision, Matter of A-B, all but precluded domestic violence as a reason to seek asylum. The second decision, Matter of L-E-A, seriously limited asylum for people who were being persecuted because of their family associations.

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Incredible news to share!
One of our clients who was expelled to Mexico under Title 42 with her U.S. citizen baby has been paroled into the U.S.!
CBP made her believe she was being released to her brother, instead they dropped her off in Mexico with a newborn baby.

1/ She is Haitian and barely speaks Spanish so she didn’t know how to ask for help. The first few nights she and her infant slept on the streets.

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Our humanitarian work isn’t just about serving the needs of our clients, it’s about taking a holistic approach by working in tandem w other on the ground orgs in Tijuana to make sure they have what they need to address the most urgent needs of migrants affected by this pandemic. Today, we were able to provide a water filtration system for @PrevencasaAc, a clinic fighting to reduce the impact of HIV by providing free medical services. Access to clean water is a basic human right.

https://twitter.com/PrevencasaAc/status/1363579134178324480

Because of your donations to our #covid19 Humanitarian Migrant Fund, we’ve been able to start (socially distant) breastfeeding and parenting classes out of our Tijuana offices for new parents who have been denied their right to asylum + remain trapped at the border.
1/6 We originally began these classes thinking it would only be for the mothers, but then we realized the fathers were also interested. They would drop off their partners and linger a bit until finally they would end up staying for the whole class!

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With all that is going on, it is easy to forget that families still remain separated, and we have not stopped our work to reunite them. Over 400 parents were deported without their children and every day we are getting new referrals for cases.

1/4 These parents endured an agony no parent should ever have to. Imagine thinking you’ve finally reached safety w ur child only to have them forcefully taken from you. Their screams burning in ur ears as they cry for mama + papa. America kidnapped these children then lost them. 2/4

At the height of the #BlackLivesMatter protests, we started to hear heartbreaking feedback from clients, recent asylees, horrified at what they were seeing happening in America and beginning to wonder if they had made a mistake coming to seek safety in this country.

1/ Many of them found themselves reliving or being reminded of the same persecution they had fled.

The curfews in effect during #ArabSpring. The military brutalizing peaceful protests. The rise of fascism under this administration. . . .

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🧵 As we enter deeper into the storm of the election don’t get swept up into the notion that if Biden gets elected everything will finally be better + we can stop fighting. Did racism suddenly disappear when Obama was elected? Were Black people finally treated w dignity?
1/4 These problems didn't start with Trump. The hate was always there bubbling beneath the surface. Trump just turned up the heat to max. He made it ok to finally let that bigoted freak flag fly. In fact, he proudly encouraged it. Made made it the cornerstone of his presidency.
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Over the past couple weeks a common fear has been coming up in conversations with our clients detained at #OtayMesa, one of the hardest hit detention centers with Covid cases.

“If I die in here. What is going to happen to my children?”

1/3 Having almost accepted the real possibility of dying in detention, their new terror is having their children swept up in the foster care system or worse, deported.
To help them we've been reaching out to pro-bono attorneys to help them draw up wills that include family plans.
2/3

In a remarkable decision last yr, a judge ruled the gov was required to provide mental health services to families separated under zero tolerance. The ruling held the gov accountable for mental trauma as a result of its own policies. But getting those services has not been easy. @brittny_mejia profiles the incredible work of @SenecaFOA as they attempt to locate and offer these services in the middle of a pandemic and speaks to the ongoing trauma these parents and their children experience daily even after they've been reunited.
latimes.com/california/sto…

In less than 24 hrs after being granted asylum, our client Israel was on a flight this AM to be w his family thanks to @miles4migrants, w masks donated by @mutualaidLA + new clothes with a backpack filled w essential toiletries thanks to your donations to our Humanitarian Fund. And this isn’t a self-congratulaotry roll call, rather to show of just a *few of the many resources needed after folks get out. Winning asylum and getting out is incredible and the goal, but it’s what happens after that determines the real win.

Your donations to our #Covid19 Humanitarian Migrant Fund go further than you know!
The've given us the opportunity to support local community initiatives like the Hope Truck, a food truck project employing youth coming out of the Mexican juvenile system.

tijuanainnovadora.com/hope-truck-otr… By working at the Hope Truck, youth are prepared and empowered to re-enter the work force by learning management, hospitality + accounting skills.

Your donations have allowed us to hire the Hope Truck to feed asylum seekers, deportees and migrants trapped at the border!

In a remarkable decision last yr, a judge ruled the gov was required to provide mental health services to families separated under zero tolerance. The ruling held the gov accountable for mental trauma as a result of its own policies. But getting those services has not been easy. @brittny_mejia profiles the incredible work of @SenecaFOA as they attempt to locate and offer these services in the middle of a pandemic and speaks to the ongoing trauma these parents and their children experience daily even after they've been reunited.

latimes.com/california/sto…

Egregious #Covid19 due process violations in @ICEgov detention at Adelanto (run by @TheGEOGroup) and Otay Mesa (run by @CoreCivic).

A thread 🧵

Let’s start with Adelanto. @ICEgov @TheGEOGroup @CoreCivic As a result of protests that took place in front of Adelanto, @ICEgov and @GEOgroup have been retaliating against detainees and counsel by:

- locking down the facility
- denying attorney phone calls
- taking away all forms of communication with the outside world.
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According to @RepWilson who is currently speaking on a virtual congressional briefing "U.S. Deportations and Expulsions During COVID19," since March 13th ICE has sent 127 deportation flights to Latin America and the Caribbean. Eight of these have been to Haiti. @RepWilson Haiti, a country with a population of 11 million, currently has 124 ICU beds with even less ventilators.

With those numbers alone, you don’t even have to know about Haiti’s current situation to recognize that a #covid19 crisis would collapse Haiti’s health system.

Yesterday, our client Simpson was jailed at Adelanto. Today, after 7 mos in detention, his feet are in the Pacific Ocean. In a few hrs he'll be on a flight to his sponsor’s — safe from the persecution + torture he survived in Cameroon + safe from contracting Covid in detention. While each office works together on cases, this particular one was truly an all hands on deck cross border collaboration. Simpson’s case was put on our radar through the work we were doing to identify medically vulnerable Black asylum seekers for a federal law suit.

Your donations to our #Covid19 Humanitarian Migrant Fund aren’t only helping to feed hundreds of folks at the border, they are sustaining small business owners and putting money back into the community.

Esther is the owner of La Antiguita, a small tamale shop in Tijuana.
1/ When the caravan first arrived, Esther would go to the POE, where asylum seekers would line up to put their names on la lista, + give out tamales. As a mother who had been deported from her children to Tijuana, she knew what it was like to be in a strange place with nothing.

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