Freedom, Justice, Voice, Power. Celebrating International Human Rights Day!

December 2021

Dear friends, 

Today we honor International Human Rights Day, and take a moment to reflect on our work as we look to 2022 with continued determination and commitment.

This year we launched our long-awaited project to expose the scale and scope of human rights violations in the border region. Partnering with grassroots leaders and organizations, we are documenting the impact of the militarism/poverty nexus on the borderlands, identifying abuse hotspots, and lifting up the voices and leadership of those most impacted. We look forward to sharing this with you in the new year.

As we close out 2021, we thank you — our members and supporters — for the multiple ways you joined us in advocating for human rights: petitioning to end to Title 42; challenging human rights abuses against Haitian migrants in Del Rio, Tx; fighting record deportations and exclusions of asylum seekers; and keeping up the pressure for a path to citizenship for all. These actions have been critical to pushback against intolerable immigration enforcement and to build public support for fair and humane policy changes.

While this year had begun with hopeful (yet cautious) progress for critical immigration reforms under a new administration, partisan politics once again intervened and persistent anti-immigrant lobbying has compromised the bold changes initially promised. Despite some relief from the constant racist threats and harsh enforcement actions of the previous administration, the system of injustice against immigrants remains untouched.

Nonetheless, we are inspired by the power of organizing and solidarity in our communities. Groups like NNIRR have responded with round-the-clock organizing, despite being deeply under-resourced and rooted in communities reeling from the health and economic consequences of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. Public support has significantly grown for Haitian migrants, the DACA program, immigrant workers, legalization and a pathway to citizenship.

But much more needs to be done to effectively move the needle on legislative change.

2022 will be a year of continued human rights education and organizing —and we expect immigration to be a defining and volatile issue in the build-up to the November midterm elections. In this chaos, we will keep up our push for viable paths for regularization of undocumented immigrants, and commitments to full human rights protections for all immigrants and refugees. Especially in a world beset by a climate crisis that is increasingly driving population displacement and cross-border migration, we must step up our efforts to end border militarization, while joining partners around the world to demand that the root causes of forced global migration be addressed.

Our 2022 priorities:

• Through our Spotlight Mapping and Documentation for Human Rights on the Borderlands project, NNIRR will strengthen awareness of the multiple human rights crises fueled by militarization and policies that criminalize migrants on the border.  
• We will lift up community expertise and engagement —essential in the fight for human rights-centered policies and remedies to address decades of abuse and dysfunction in the U.S. immigration system.
• We will educate and organize at the intersections of immigration and labor exploitation, the climate crisis, racism against black and indigenous peoples, violence and oppression of women and LGBTQ+ people, to build shared understandings, strengthen alliances and engage in mutual advocacy. 
• We will bring border voices to the 2-year review of the UN Global Compact for Migration in May 2022, to highlight the growing crisis of missing migrants, migrant deaths at the border, and other critical issues.

We hope we can count on your support and continued engagement in 2022. 

With peace and justice,

Alma Maquitico, Jennifer Ferrigno, (Co-Directors) & the NNIRR Board of Directors 

P.S. All it takes is a donation from each of you to fuel our human rights programs. Please give what you can to support vital education and advocacy in the New Year!