Over the last few days as we’ve been mobilizing with our Mijente comrades in San Diego to speak out against the implementation of Operation Streamline and the separation of families/criminalization of migration due to invisible borders.
If you followed us on our social media yesterday, you would have caught the dynamic march and action that we were able to execute mostly due to, in part, your immediate response to our call for financial support. So we thank you so much! You don’t understand what it means to have folks who truly care about our work and will take action when called. However, the work is not over.
Right now at the San Diego federal building. Shoutout to @BYP_100 @ConMijente pulling off this drop!
FREE OUR FAMILIES NOW! ✊?#AbolishICE#FreeOurFuture #ShutDownSessions #ChingaLaMigra pic.twitter.com/ccxA0JxCiZ
— Advancement Project (@adv_project) July 2, 2018
10 of the folks who were integral in dropping the banner yesterday (#SanDiegoClimbers) were arrested and were in jail for an extended period of time. One of these folks is a BYP100 member and on staff here. The District Attorney for San Diego, Summer Stephan, is working to make an example of them by hitting them with trumped up felony charges that could mean excessive amounts of time behind bars. Families belong together––outside of cages–– and those who are fighting for them deserve to be free. The caging of activists fighting for dignity for undocumented families is brutal, offensive, and indecent. By keeping these folks in jail, you are, in turn, separating families.
Over the past few days, you all have helped us raise nearly $6500 for our Fuck ICE Fund! We now need your support in helping to free our people! Here is what we need you to do:
- Please head over to the bail fund and donate whatever you can to support the excessive bail for our folks (which has reached over $500K). Be sure to share the link on social and let folks know that we need as much support as we could get
- Call District Attorney, Summer Stephan, at 619-531-3544 between 10 am and 7 pm CST and demand that she drop the charges against the #SanDiegoClimbers. Be sure to tell her that if she truly believed in protecting children and families, she would drop these charges, otherwise, she’d be criminalizing those who are making efforts to do just that.
I know that this email reads a little more seriously and that’s because this is an urgent time for us. These are the repercussions of us laying our bodies on the line for what we know is morally right. The actions we take make look sexy and fun but there is still so much that continues behind the scenes once folks have been arrested. And we need continued momentum and support to make sure that we can keep our people safe. And I can trust that you can help us do just that.