Today, the topic is the incarceration of migrant children in California detention centers, a horrifying direction for our state. Unaccompanied children are held in detention centers on both sides of the US – Mexico border. According to CNN, on the Mexico side, as of April 1, 5,300 are being held in Border Patrol facilities. More than 1,360 of these children have been detained beyond the legal limit of 72 hours. On the US side, 13,000 are being held in shelters under the jurisdiction of the Dept of Health and Human Services in locations around the country. One of them, San Diego Convention Center, is currently at full capacity, housing 1,450 13- to 17-year-old girls.
How did the US reach this point of detaining thousands of migrant children? Gaby Hernandez says, “People say we have a broken immigration system. We don’t. We have a system that works in the way it was designed to work.”
Gaby Hernandez (she/her) serves as the Executive Director for the Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition. Gaby was born and lived in Mexico City until she was twelve years old and moved to Oceanside, CA where she grew up before moving to Long Beach five years ago. Her life experiences as an undocumented woman have fueled her passion and commitment for social justice and immigrant rights. She’s an abolitionist who believes in the importance of people power and grassroots organizing in order to make real systemic change. Gaby has a dog named Fuego who she adores.
Maricela Gutierrez, Executive Director of SIREN, has extensive training in grassroots organizing and racial equity strategies for engaging disenfranchised communities. She is a founding member of Unaccompanied Immigrant Youth and Families Collaborative and the Soñadores Invencibles Program that work to develop safety net systems for children and families seeking asylum.
Rev. Deborah Lee, Executive Director of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, has worked at the intersection of faith and social justice for over 25 years in popular education, community organizing and advocacy connecting issues of race, gender, economic justice, anti-militarism, LGBTQ inclusion, and immigrant rights. She has consistently sought to strengthen the voice and role of faith communities in today’s social movements. Her work has been recognized as innovative and impactful with awards from the United Nation’s Association of the East Bay, East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, and the national United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministry.
To listen, click here 58 mins
To get involved
https://www.lbirc.org/protection-not-detention
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