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When the Border Network started, it started with just one person, that was me
that was eleven years ago
and now Border Network has
more than six hundred families participating and I think we have done
many things
we have achieved not only to organize communities to impact our local and regional
governments and systems but I think right now we're part of the national discussion on
immigration reform and
human rights
we have other organizations coming from all over the nation
to the border where things are extremely difficult but what they are seeing is
a story of hope where people are coming together against
all of the challenges and essentially saying that this is enough, that people should be counted
that nobody's rights have to be violated.
The basic work
of Border Network is to educate the people about the rights they have in this country
even when they don't have a social security number
because no human is illegal
they are undocumented, and that's a
different thing.
It's hard to live right here because
even to go to work
you fear that somebody might stop you.
You fear that they can stop you and
they're going to ask you for your legal status here. So it's hard
but I have children
and they need to eat so that's why I need to go to work.
We are heading right now to
Montana Vista which is a community that Border Network has been working with for the
last ten years it's one of the subregions that we have
and we're meeting with
organizers and we're meeting with community members that will be
sharing some of their experiences of being part of Border Network,
how Border Network has changed their lives in terms of
being educated, participating in the political process
and doing a lot of changes that benefit our community.
We can't work, we don't have any papers so we either have to work in
houses
or, I don't know what else. We don't get jobs. Our husbands have to work and they
get paid
low wages, why?
You can't ask for more. You can't go to the boss and say, you know what, I need a raise. What, you need a raise?
Forget it. I can get two for one.
So what do we do?
We have
this border tour
for several organizations coming from all over the nation
to the border where things are extremely difficult but what they are seeing is
just a story of hope where people are coming together against
all of the challenges, essentially saying that this enough, that people should be
counted, that nobody's rights have to be violated.
We do have a dialogue with the Border Network for Human Rights
just like we do with any other agency
approaching us is the best thing that those organizations can do
because we want to be
a transparent agency and we want to help. We want to
help with the concerns of the people. We need immigration reform now. We can't continue like this.
There's a lot of people that are suffering right now just because they don't have a social security number. There's a lot of people
that want to succeed. They want to work, they want to go to college.
Not having that number stops you from being somebody here.
The goal is to eliminate illegality.
We are not in favor of anybody coming illegally into the country or undocumented,
so what we need to do is to establish a process that is fair, that is just that
protects rights. We need to talk about the future, a future that is much different than what we have right now.