Call to Action: Call your elected officials
Please call your elected officials on Monday and demand a humane response to these asylum seekers. Our troops should not be used this way. During the time it took for the caravan to reach the border, a processing center could have been set up and they could have been prepared to determine the status of those coming. To tear gas, shoot at, and fire riot weapons at poor hungry families that include babies and toddlers is a grave crime. They need to stop now.
Christian Ramirez is with Jose Luis Camarillo Tellez.
What we have witnessed today in the San Diego-Tijuana border region amounts to an act of state-sponsored violence that seeks to normalize the use of military might to respond to social and economic conditions.
Our entire region was collectively punished.
On the Tijuana side of the border unarmed men, women and children were tear-gassed. In San Ysidro, families ran for cover as military helicopters conducted low-flying patterns and the booming sounds of explosives from teargas canisters reverberated throughout one the most popular shopping centers in our region.
The federal government shutdown — for the third time in one week– of the busiest border crossings in the world, has caused chaos and has effectively paralyzed our region.
All of us in our region, must act now in order to put an end to this excessive escalation of force.
Photo Credit: Jose Luis Camarillo Tellez, Thomson Reuters Notimex Agencia de Noticias Pedro Rios AFSC-San Diego