Anti-Militarism: News & Updates

The United States has long been a destination of migrants from around the world seeking safety and new opportunities. The image of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty welcoming “the poor huddled masses” is ingrained in our collective memory and culture.

Yes, there are many coming to our southern border seeking safety. Many of those come from countries whose people have been negatively impacted by US economic and military policies. They come here because we went there.

While the US was the world’s largest recipient of new asylum applications in 2023 (1.2 million), it is desperately trying to deter migrants from seeking refuge here. On June 4, the Biden-Harris Administration announced new plans to “secure our border.” It bars migrants from even asking for asylum. The unwelcoming attitude that the US presents toward migrants is illustrated not only by Biden’s recent asylum ban and the monthly increase in US migrant detention, now standing at 38,525.

In IRTF’s July 2024 Migrant Justice newsletter, please read about (1)   Asylum Processing at the US-Mexico Border, (2) ICE Air: Update on Removal Flight Trends, (3)  Migrants in Colombia: Between Government Absence and Criminal Control, (4) At the Border: Recent Incidents at and around the US-Mexico Border, (5) Honduras plans to build a 20,000-capacity ‘megaprison’ for gang members as part of a crackdown, (6) Thousands of displaced residents in southern Mexico fear returning to their homes after violence, (7) Danger in the Darién Gap: Human Rights Abuses and the Need for Humane Pathways to Safety, (8) America Turned Against Migrant Detention Before. We Can Do It Again, (9)  Asylum claims are down over 40% in Mexico, and (10) UN Refugee Agency Global Trends Report 2023.

Then take a few minutes to read what you can do to take action this week in solidarity with migrants and their families. (See details at the bottom of this newsletter.)

A) Act Now for welcoming, dignified and just immigration policies

B) Root Causes: Stop Deportation Flights to Haiti

C) Root Causes: Restore Asylum for LGBTQ+ Refugees in Danger

D) Think Globally. Act Locally: Help Migrants and Refugees in Cleveland

Read the full newsletter at https://www.irtfcleveland.org/blog/migrant-justice-newsletter-jul-2024

El Salvador’s state of emergency, declared in March 2022, has led to severe human rights violations against children of low-income communities. Many children have been doubly victimized by gang members who abused them and then by security forces who detained and mistreated them, with possible lifelong consequences. The government should end its abusive approach and prioritize a rights-respecting policy that dismantles criminal gangs, addresses child recruitment, and provides children with protection and opportunities.

In a 107-page report released on July 16, 2024, Human Rights Watch documents arbitrary detention, torture, and other forms of ill-treatment against children under President Nayib Bukele’s “war on gangs.” Detained children have often faced overcrowding, lack of adequate food and health care, and have been denied access to their lawyers and family members. In some cases, children have been held, in the first days after arrest, alongside adults. Many have been convicted on overly broad charges and in unfair trials that deny due process.

Click here for a link to the full report.

It is impossible to discuss justice and democracy in Guatemala without considering the outsized role of the Guatemalan army in every sphere of Guatemalan politics. To analyze the role and rise to power of the army, we must go back to the year 1954, when what has been called the October Revolution (1944 to 1954) was interrupted. Guatemalan playwright and author Manuel Galich refers to those ten years as “the revolutionary decade” in his article "Ten Years of Spring in the Country of Eternal Tyranny."

El Salvador has been under a state of exception since March 2022. As a response to combat the country’s powerful street gangs, this “temporary measure” suspended constitutional rights, such as the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial. Cristosal presents its findings of our two-year investigation on the impact. The effects of these punitive policies have had a ripple effect throughout Salvadoran society, which is disproportionately felt by women.  Drawing from 3,643 reports from victims and their families, Cristosal has found deplorable detention conditions, lack of medical care, and cases of torture.  With mass detention and the deaths of at least 265 people in custody (including four infants), “the justice system has failed and is complicit in the systematic violation of the human rights of the Salvadoran people.”

Click here to read the press release from Cristosal.

IRTF is among the 50 faith-based organizations representing many faith traditions calling
on the Biden Administration to immediately rescind harmful and sweeping asylum bans – including
the “Securing the Border” Proclamation and its implementing Interim Final Rule (or the ‘Rule’) first
announced on June 4. We, the signatories on this letter to President Biden, insist that the US support asylum and border policies that live up to our values
and affirm the value and dignity of all

In the first half of 2024, Colombia saw a slight decrease in deadly violence against community leaders and human rights defenders compared to the same period in 2023. According to Indepaz, an NGO monitoring armed conflict, 86 such individuals were assassinated between January and June, down from 96 during the same period last year. The region of Cauca continued to be a hotspot for these assassinations, often linked to conflicts over territory left by the FARC guerrilla group in 2017. The United Nations emphasized ongoing concerns about violence targeting social leaders in its report to the Security Council, criticizing insufficient investigations into these crimes. Despite more than 1,600 assassinations since the start of Colombia's peace process in 2016, the UN highlighted that only 75 perpetrators had been successfully prosecuted by the Prosecutor General's Office. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged the Colombian government to swiftly implement security guarantees outlined in the Final Agreement and to enhance state presence nationwide to support peace efforts. Recently, national officials, diplomats, and social leaders convened to discuss improving security conditions for human rights defenders and leaders in conflict-affected areas.

Over the past decade, the Afro-Indigenous ethnic Garífuna communities in northern Honduras have been expecting that their government would abide by three separate rulings of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to return their stolen lands. That hasn’t happened. After taking their cause to Capitol Hill (along with our friends from the Honduras Solidarity Network), Rep. Cori Bush (01-MO) introduced into the US House of Representatives a resolution supporting Garífuna ancestral territorial rights.

IRTF was in Washington, DC, the second week of June. We walked the House office buildings on Capitol Hill and dropped off memos to the foreign policy aides of 55 US congresspersons who have previously co-sponsored legislation in support of human rights in Honduras. We also visited the offices of all 14 congresspersons from Ohio.

But they need to hear from their constituents!

Please read the email below from our friends at Witness for Peace Solidarity Collective and Latin America Working Group (LAWG). Take a few minutes to contact your congressperson today. Urge that they co-sponsor H.Res.1278.

Thank you!