Occupation of Arizona Border Patrol station!

21 May 2010
Tucson, AZ – More than a dozen people occupied Border Patrol headquarters
at Davis-Monthan Airforce Base today in an act of peaceful resistance. The
group includes members of Indigenous Nations of Arizona, migrants, people
of color and white allies. Six people used chains and other devices to
lock themselves in the building. These Arizona residents disrupted the
Border Patrol operations to demand…

OCCUPATION OF BORDER PATROL HEADQUATERS DAVIS-MONTHAN AIRFORCE BASE, TUCSON, AZ

1st NATION AND MIGRANTS OPPOSE SB1070 DEMAND DIGNITY, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND END TO BORDER MILITARIZATION

“The militarized border imposed by the U.S. has lead only to cultural and
environmental destruction of the indigenous peoples whose land is on or
near the border. This militarization brings death and terror for
indigenous peoples from other parts of the continent migrating to this
land.”
21 May 2010
Tucson, AZ – More than a dozen people occupied Border Patrol headquarters
at Davis-Monthan Airforce Base today in an act of peaceful resistance. The
group includes members of Indigenous Nations of Arizona, migrants, people
of color and white allies. Six people used chains and other devices to
lock themselves in the building. These Arizona residents disrupted the
Border Patrol operations to demand that Border Patrol (BP), Immigration
Customs Enforcement (ICE), their parent entity, the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS), and the Obama administration end militarization of the
border, end the criminalization of immigrant communities, and end their
campaign of terror which tears families apart through increasing numbers
of raids and deportations.

The protesters also call on the State of Arizona to repeal the racist
Senate Bill 1070 that criminalizes immigrant communities on the state
level, makes it illegal to transport or harbor an undocumented person
regardless of family relationship, requires police agencies to engage in
racial profiling, and ultimately is an attempt to ethnically cleanse
Arizona of those with brown skin. This act of civil disobedience was only
the latest in an increasing wave of direct action targeting the federal
government’s terrorist immigration policies.

Border militarization destroys Indigenous communities.

The development of the border wall has lead to desecration of our
ancestors graves, it has divided our communities and prevents us from
accessing sacred places.

Troops and paramilitary law enforcement, detention camps, check points,
and citizenship verification are not a solution to migration. We have
existed here long before these imposed borders, my elders inform us that
we always honored freedom of movement. Why are our communities and the
daily deaths at the border ignored? The impacts of border militarization
are constantly made invisible in the media, the popular culture of this
country and even the mainstream immigrants rights movement which has often
pushed for “reform” that means further militarization of the border, which
means increased suffering for our communities.

Indigenous communities such as the O’odham, the Pascua Yaqui, Laipan
Apache, Kickapoo, and Cocopah along the US/Mexico border have been
terrorized with laws and practices like SB1070 for decades. Indigenous
people along the border have been forced by border patrol to carry and
provide proof of tribal membership when moving across their traditional
lands that have been bisected by this imposed border; a border that has
been extremely damaging to the cultural and spiritual practices of these
communities. Many people are not able to journey to sacred sites because
the communities where people live are on the opposite side of the border
from these sites. Since the creation of the current U.S./Mexico border, 45
O’odham villages on or near the border have been completely depopulated.

On this day people who are indigenous to Arizona join with migrants who
are indigenous to other parts of the Western Hemisphere in demanding a
return to traditional indigenous value of freedom of movement for all
people. Prior to the colonization by European nations (spaniards, english,
french) and the establishment of the european settler state known as the
United States and the artificial borders it and other european inspired
nation states have imposed; indigenous people migrated, traveled and
traded with each other without regard to artificial black lines drawn on
maps. U.S. immigration policies dehumanize and criminalize people simply
because which side of these artificial lines they were born on. White
settlers whose ancestors have only been here at most for a few hundred
years have imposed these policies of terror and death on “immigrants”
whose ancestors have lived in this hemisphere for tens of thousands of
years, for time immemorial.

In addition, the migration that the U.S. government is attempting to stop
is driven more than anything else by the economic policies of the U.S.
Free trade agreements such as NAFTA have severely reduced the ability of
Mexicans and others from the global south to sustain themselves by
permitting corporations to extract huge amounts of wealth and resources
from these countries into the U.S. This has led to millions of people
risking the terror and death that so many face to cross into the U.S.
looking for ways to better support their families. Thousand of women, men,
children and elders have died crossing just in the last decade. If the
U.S. really wants to reduce migration it should end its policies of
exploitation and wealth extraction targeted at the global south and
instead pursue policies of economic, environmental and social justice for
all human beings on the planet, thus reducing the drive to immigrate.

The protestors are demanding:

-An end to border militarization
-The immediate repeal of SB1070 and 287g
-An end to all racial profiling and the criminalization of our communities
-No ethnic cleansing or cultural genocide
-No border patrol encroachment/sweeps on sovereign native land
-No Deportations
-No Raids
-No ID-verification
-No Checkpoints

-Yes to immediate and unconditional regularization (“legalization”) of all
people
-Yes to human rights
-Yes to dignity
-Yes to respect
-Yes to respecting Indigenous Peoples inherent right of migration
—————————————————————————–