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  1. #1
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    Pro-illegal activists set up "Arks of the Covenant"

    http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=N ... le&sid=449

    Groups plan 3 outposts to aid crossers
    By Stephanie Innes ARIZONA DAILY STAR
    Topics: Border Patrol, illegal immigration, Americans, security, deaths, water stations, crimes, laws
    Fresh from a Peace Corps assignment in Haiti, 26-year-old Melissa Kreek last month turned her hopeful attentions to the Mexico-Arizona border. Though she'd just come from the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, the Missouri native was not prepared for the human desperation and suffering she found in the Sonoran Desert.

    Read the latest headlines about illegal immigration.

    "I had absolutely no idea of the sheer numbers - between 1,000 and 3,000 people every day crossing the border from Mexico. It blew my mind," Kreek said.

    Since October, 84 people are known to have perished on desolate patches of desert along the international border, a number that is already three times what it was at this time last year, and summer - the season of death in Southern Arizona's borderlands - has not yet officially begun. Last summer, men, women and children seeking to enter the United States were dying at a rate of nearly one a day, succumbing to the punishing heat while traveling on foot from Mexico into Arizona.

    With a mantra of "ni una muerte más" - not even one more death - volunteers like Kreek will set up round-the-clock desert camps near the border this weekend. They will devote the next two months to aiding undocumented immigrants with everything from bottled water and Band-Aids to cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

    Kreek's living expenses will be covered by a Phoenix church but like the other workers, her time will be given for free. Undaunted by triple-digit heat and an empty bank account, Kreek says she's energized by the idea of achieving social justice through action. Others like 22-year-old Jennifer Hill are motivated by a deep Christian faith. Hill says she sees the crucified Christ in the face of each migrant. Both women say the desperation of people willing to risk their lives for work in the United States is horrifying.

    "Saving a life is never illegal," Hill said last week as she sat in a small office at Southside Presbyterian Church, 317 W. 23rd St., that was crowded with boxes of juice, peanuts, water and medical supplies for the volunteers.

    The workers say humanitarian aid to the migrants trumps immigration law, though critics are already speaking out against the camps, charging that the volunteers are abetting illegal activity and that their good intentions will only encourage more undocumented immigrants to enter the United States.

    "People who assist people in the process of immigrating illegally are obviously committing a felony," said Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a 25-year-old nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C.

    Stein added that unless volunteers contact the U.S. Border Patrol each time they encounter an illegal entrant, they are no more than political agitators.

    The Border Patrol last week met with the volunteers about their summer plans. Charles Griffin, a spokesman for the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, said the volunteers are not required to determine someone's citizenship, suggesting they are within their rights to offer help with no questions asked.

    "If all they are doing is providing humanitarian aid at a given spot, setting up water stations, then we won't become involved," he said. "As long as they are not transporting them. . . . We encourage the general public to report immigration. Your tax dollars and mine are paying me to do just that - that is our mission, to enforce immigration laws."

    The workers' three round-the-clock "Arks of the Covenant" camps, planned for locations near Arivaca, Douglas and Why, are named after a wooden box that in the Old Testament symbolized the presence of God traveling with the people of Israel when they were wandering the desert. Organizers are getting calls with offers of help from across the country.

    "I just don't think it's something we morally can live with," said Richard Boren, a 47-year-old Tucson consultant and volunteer with the larger "No More Deaths" movement that includes the desert camps. "We cannot let our brothers and sisters from Mexico be seen as expendable."

    The camp near Douglas will be manned by volunteers from the international Christian Peacemaker organization. Students from Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colo., will help staff the Why camp, and a third team of rotating volunteers will be stationed at the Arivaca camp. Fifty people have committed to staying at the camps, and the list of volunteers keeps growing.

    "It sounds kind of cheesy, but it's healing. . . . It's all affirming," said Holly Thompson, a 32-year-old Seattle native and a graduate student at Arizona State University who is holding down two part-time jobs this summer while she volunteers 30 hours each week with No More Deaths.

    "We are very humbled by the outpouring of solidarity and support," said the Rev. Stuart Taylor of St. Mark's Presbyterian Church, 3809 E. Third St. "It's been very gratifying that people around the country are responding to the crisis in the borderlands. I think we are prepared to continue doing it as long as there are people dying in the desert."

    Hill, a seminary student from Michigan, says the No More Deaths movement unifies and broadens existing local faith-based programs: Humane Borders' water stations and the Samaritan Patrol's traveling medical aid for migrants. She fights back tears when she recalls finding a man barely alive under a mesquite tree in searing heat while she was out with the Samaritan Patrol.

    "I think we can bring a lot of attention to this crisis and stop people from being statistically immune," she said. "We can challenge churches to be places of welcome."

    Hill speaks about a man named Juan, who slept on her office floor after making a near-fatal journey, mostly on foot, from Guanajuato in central Mexico to Tucson. Juan was a stonecutter - a trade that is now nearly obsolete because of machinery, she said.

    "His worn face and toothless smile told me that he had known hardship and was not giving up any time soon," Hill wrote in an essay about Juan that she shares with local churches. "His timidness spoke to me of a gentle spirit. He had five children and a wife back home. He was hungry and jobless, but he needed money for a surgery for one of his sons."

    Putting faces to the numbers is also fueling Kreek, who can't forget meeting two Mexican boys in an Altar, Sonora, migrant center.

    "They said they were going to walk to Boston," Kreek recalled. "They said they were 18, but they looked 12. They were so naive. They don't have a chance in the world."

    During a 12-month period ending Sept. 30 - the end of the last federal fiscal year - 137 people were known to have died on the Mexico-Arizona border, according to the U.S. Border Patrol. The tally has increased each year as stepped-up enforcement near ports of entry like Nogales and Douglas has forced migrants into remote areas. And thousands do continue to make the trek. Since Oct. 1, the Border Patrol has been apprehending illegal border crossers in the Tucson Sector at a rate of nearly 1,400 people a day - and those are only the people who get caught.

    Most of the migrants who lose their lives are men between the ages of 18 and 45, often traveling with siblings and cousins, and they die in remarkably similar circumstances.

    On March 21, Gabriel Ortega Flores fell ill after crossing the border in a remote area of the Tohono O'odham Nation southwest of Tucson with his brother, Candino. The young men had run out of food and water, and Gabriel died at the age of 27 from dehydration and heatstroke. Four days later, 19-year-old Raúl Ramos Chávez died from heatstroke, also on the reservation, after walking from Mexico with his brother, according to autopsy reports from the Pima County Medical Examiner's Office.

    No More Deaths organizers want to increase national awareness of young people like them who are ending up in body bags. And the workers want to prevent more casualties by helping migrants both before and after their travels to the United States,

    "These are people who are malnourished and dehydrated before they even start their journey across the border," said the Rev. John Fife, pastor of Southside Presbyterian Church. "To save lives we need to make sure people have adequate nourishment. That is scarcely a crime."

    Fife, whom Dan Stein dismisses as a "hopeless ideologue," has a long history of social activism, including a criminal conviction during the 1980s for helping people from Central America enter the United States illegally.

    At that time, people were paying $200 to $250 per person for a "coyote" - a people smuggler - to bring them across the border into the United States, he said. Now the going rate is $1,500 to $1,800, and Fife predicts the border crossers will be paying $2,000 apiece by summer's end.

    "It has now in truth become more profitable and less risky to cross human beings over the border than it is to smuggle drugs," Fife said. "The result of militarization is a record number of deaths, not to mention the destruction of the Sonoran Desert."

    What's really being destroyed, counters Stein, is the U.S. labor market.

    "The working poor for the first time are probably one-fifth of the U.S. work force - they are permanently poor with no way out. At some point Mexico is going to have to take responsibility for their own people because we've got our own refugees here," Stein said.

    The Sierra Vista-based American Border Patrol is also critical of No More Deaths volunteers, though president Glenn Spencer takes a more radical stance than Stein, saying that the volunteers are disloyal Americans who are contributing to a "hostile invasion" of the United States by Mexico.

    "This is just outrageous," he said, vowing to monitor the Arks of the Covenant camps with high-tech aerial video devices. "They should be arrested."

    Such threats do not worry Kreek.

    "I often think of how our country would be different if only everyone in junior high or high school was exposed to a Third World country," Kreek said, noting that being part of No More Deaths is already affecting her own life and personal search for faith.

    "It has restored my confidence in organized religion in the United States," Kreek said. "They are walking their talk, spending time and energy on their faith and social justice. Standing up for a cause like this speaks to spirituality.

    "When 84 people have died in the desert since October, you have to look at what role we play. Just saying 'the law says this' - that is not an explanation."

    http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=N ... le&sid=449
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  2. #2
    Senior Member Richard's Avatar
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    Yes go overseas to live for six months try Mexico

    If you try to obtain work in Mexico without a residency and work permit the authorities there arrest and deport you.
    I support enforcement and see its lack as bad for the 3rd World as well. Remittances are now mostly spent on consumption not production assets. Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  3. #3
    Senior Member Virginiamama's Avatar
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    http://www.laresistencia.org/No%20Mas%20Muertos.htm

    I went to the No More Deaths web site here are some excerpts...
    !No Más Muertes!
    No More Deaths!
    Stop Militarization of the Border!
    The militarization of the border has forced migrants to cross in the most dangerous areas possible, leading to hundreds upon hundreds of needless deaths.

    Lets face it - these are the people who pick our produce, make our food, and make our clothes, at below minimum wage (slave wages). They are forced to migrate from their countries because of organizations like NAFTA, IMF, the World Bank, etc. We must fight for them, they are our brothers and sisters. We must show the government that we will not accept slavery in any form or way, and we will fight to stop the deaths of those crossing the border.

    Join La Resistencia!
    Build a National Movement of Resistance to Stop the Attacks on All Immigrants!
    We believe:
    People are driven from their homeland and come to the US to survive.

    All people have a right to survive regardless of legal status.

    Being an immigrant is not a crime. Human life is more important than laws.

    People with legal status have the responsibility to defy and resist unjust laws, struggle alongside our brothers and sisters who have been deemed illegal, and protect them.

    Dear Friends,

    On behalf of La Resistencia, we would like to extend this invitation to become a member. Joining this organization represents a determination to STOP the attacks on all immigrants. It is an opportunity to make a difference. It means that you are a part of this organization which has a long history of struggle on the front lines of some of the most important battles to defend immigrants. We urge you to join La Resistencia now, when your membership is most needed!

    These are very serious times. La Resistencia has been taking a long hard look at the work of our organization. We are evaluating what we have accomplished, and at the same time, searching our souls. We are asking what exactly is called for in order to strengthen the critical struggles we are all involved in. A key part of this is to defeat the government’s vicious repression that is most severely affecting Muslim, Arab and South Asian immigrants, but seriously impacting all immigrant communities.

    Most recently, our organization worked with many other groups to help found The Blue Triangle Network, whose mission is to stop the repression against Muslim, Arab and South Asian immigrants. (see www.bluetriangle.org). La Resistencia sees this as an extremely important development. It brings together people from within the communities under attack, and those outside those communities who are determined to play our part in building the kind of national movement necessary to expose, confront, and resist the onslaught of attacks on all immigrants.

    La Resistencia has been playing a critical role throughout the country. We have been out there, building the resistance to the wave of racial profiling, roundups, secret arrests and detentions, and deportations. We have been working to expose and struggle against the increased militarization of the US/Mexico border. And we have been working to build new alliances, and to bring together all of our experiences in various struggles with the aim of stopping the attacks on immigrants.

    Thousands across the country have taken up the call put out by La Resistencia and the Blue Triangle Network to wear the Blue Triangle--the symbol of solidarity with immigrants, and resistance to anti-immigrant repression. But much more is required of our organization. That is why your membership is needed now.

    This is a time to resist! It is time to take great pride in voicing opposition, and taking action to defend our immigrant sisters and brothers. We are determined to play a part in building the kind of national movement necessary to expose, confront, and STOP the onslaught of attack on immigrants.

    La Resistencia hopes you will accept this invitation to join today, and make it possible to build the kind of movement needed to organize nation-wide resistance. We appreciate all your contributions toward the organization.

    En Lucha,

    La Resistencia
    National Office Staff
    Call for Action!
    No More Deaths in the Desert Campaign
    We received this Call for Action from our friends in Arizona. The situation for our immigrant sisters and brothers is worsening as the the heat sets in and US government clamps down on the US-Mexico border. Unmanned aircraft to track people down like animals and tents to indefinitely detain those who cross and are caught by la migra are now in place! This is an emergency situation.

    La Resistencia calls on people nationwide to spread the word, and join the Walk for Life. If you are unable to travel to Arizona, donate so that others are able participate. This is critical; we must resist this deadly militarization and show solidarity with our sisters and brothers who continue to cross the border to survive.

    !No Más Muertes!

    You Can Make the Difference!
    The US government has drawn a line through society: on one side are "people-with-papers," on the other side are people criminalized by this system for the language they speak, their country of origin, and the color of their skin.

    Members of La Resistencia are students and youth, artists and activists, professors and attorneys, clergy and religious activists, revolutionaries and pacifists. We are united by the common conviction that we will not stand silent and complicit while our immigrant sisters and brothers are hunted down, beaten, arrested and deported.

    We know that we must stand with our sisters and brothers "on the other side of the line" and take matters into our own hands to STOP THE WAR ON IMMIGRANTS! ¡TODOS SOMOS ILEGALES! WE ARE ALL ILLEGAL!

    A link I found on No More Deaths Website

    Keep on Crossin'
    http://www.keeponcrossin.com/


    Keep on Crossin' Manifesto

    When in the course of human events it becomes necessary to cross borders of political, social, linguistic, cultural, economic and technological construction...we wiIl cross. For long before there were borders, there were crossers. We are the proud sons and daughters of these crossers, and we hold that crossing is a basic human right. Furthermore, we hold this right to be in-illegal alienable.

    Artificial borders of body and mind and spirit must be crossed off the list. For every star-crossed, cross-bearing, cross-platform, cross-dressing, cross-country, cross-walker at the crossroads of culture, the time has come to cross.

    We are living in a time when a truckload of toxic waste has more rights to cross than a human being. Wherever and whenever this is the case, we will cross.

    Our crossing will be a sign to other crossers that the time has come to cross. We will cross at intersections. Anywhere we cross will become an intersection by the act of our crossing. We will look both ways before crossing, and then, with the positive momentum of humanity, we will cross.

    We will cross into other manifestos. These include but are not limited to the Prague Manifesto for Esperanto, the Russell-Einstein Manifesto against nuclear war, the Roxy Music song "Manifesto," the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Plan of Delano, the Plan Espiritual de Aztlan and any other plans, declarations or manifestos that encourage, promote and reward crossing.

    When the border expands, we contract. And when the border contracts, we expand. And when it is time to cross, we will cross all by ourselves.

    Wherever there are tired, huddled masses yearning to breathe free, we will cross.

    Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, we will cross.

    As Martin Luther King wrote from the injustice stained confines of a Birmingham jail: "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny."

    By wearing this patch, we declare that our garment be counted as a piece from Dr. King's "single garment of destiny."

    Another Link

    http://rwor.org/



    http://rwor.org/future/web.htm
    THE BATTLE FOR THE FUTURE WILL BE FOUGHT FROM HERE FORWARD!
    YOU THINK YOU KNOW................BUT YOU HAVE NO IDEA..............JUST WHAT BUSH HAS IN STORE FOR.....YOU.....US.....THE WORLD.....OUR FUTURE!

    Straight upâ€â€
    Equal rights for all, special privileges for none. Thomas Jefferson

  4. #4
    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    Re: Pro-illegal activists set up "Arks of the Covenant&

    "When 84 people have died in the desert since October, you have to look at what role we play. Just saying 'the law says this' - that is not an explanation."
    Gee....Sweetie.....how about the 10,000 people killed in just the state of California by the illegals you are helping?

    Aiding and abetting.....oh yeeeeeeah!!

    Lock her up and Throw Away the Key!!

    A Nation Without Borders Is Not A Nation - Ronald Reagan
    Save America, Deport Congress! - Judy

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  5. #5
    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    Re: Pro-illegal activists set up "Arks of the Covenant&

    "I often think of how our country would be different if only everyone in junior high or high school was exposed to a Third World country," Kreek said, noting that being part of No More Deaths is already affecting her own life and personal search for faith.


    Where has she been? Our American students see Third World here in the US every day in the communities Ms. Kreek and her Friends are helping to create right here in the United States.

    (I guess she went to a "private school", eh? Since when have they called it junior high and high school? Its been middle school and high school for more than a decade in American PUBLIC SCHOOLS!"

    Okay, do a search on Kreek....find out who is behind her....United Church of Christ? Lutheran Church? Catholic Church? These three OBL sponsors, of these, which is the greatest?

    GET A JOB, GIRL, AND GROW UP!!

    Why would a normal rational person be worried about 84 illegal aliens who died in the desert from a choice they alone made and NOT be worried one bit about the 10,000 people in California murdered by illegal aliens?

    These do-gooders aren't do-gooders. They are champions of a cause to end the United States and get Americans Killed!

    And there are 10,000 murders documented by the California Attorney General's Office to back that up. Not one of these so-called "do-gooders" has done one bit of "good" to stop those deaths under their NO MORE DEATHS media campaign for the OBL!!

    Phonies!!

    A Nation Without Borders Is Not A Nation - Ronald Reagan
    Save America, Deport Congress! - Judy

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  6. #6
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    People with legal status have the responsibility to defy and resist unjust laws, struggle alongside our brothers and sisters who have been deemed illegal, and protect them.
    These words are close to verbatum of JOHN KERRY & FATHER ROBERT DRINAN, THE BERRIGAN BROTHERS and others from the 60's & 70's. They are words fed to the kids by communist supporters/alies. The face may have changed but the foundation is the same
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  7. #7

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    !

    Oh Puhleeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaasssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!

    This is ridiculous! If they would stay at home where they are legal, they wouldn't be dying in the desert!

    Anyone who is caught HELPING these criminals crossing our borders should be arrested for aiding and abeting. Just as the police arrest the people who aid and abet murderers and drug dealers. The illegals are criminals and anyone helping them are criminals, too! PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!

    They are no different!!

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