[Sotero kept quiet, worrying that her family would be targeted. But she found comfort in numbers at last week's rally, organized by Tucson's Border Action Network. In August 2004, BAN hosted a community forum where anger simply erupted.] People had been afraid to speak out, ... They fear repercussions; they fear being targeted, because (the Border Patrol) is so dominant and so imposing in their communities, where they're told they don't have any rights. |
From our experience, most of the folks that we work with are all staying here for the holidays. They're definitely staying for fear of not getting back in. |
He's just the most unbelievable person I've ever met. |
Immigrant communities and groups across the country are coming together to send a loud and clear message to decision makers in Washington D.C. that we are not the enemy but part of the solution. |
It has shifted to the mainstream political debate. It's disturbing. |
It's an incredibly costly endeavor, and then on top of that, walls don't work. All the fencing has done for the last 10 years is to push people into crossing the border in more and more difficult and dangerous terrain. |
Parents didn't like the idea of their children possibly having to move twice. |
People had been afraid to speak out. They fear repercussions; they fear being targeted, because (the Border Patrol) is so dominant and so imposing in their communities, where they're told they don't have any rights. |
Radio is incredibly effective in the Spanish-speaking community. It's definitely been an impetus. |
The absurdity of it gets played out in the day-to-day lives of Border Patrol agents. Everybody knows somebody [in the U.S. illegally] who has some kind of relationship with a Border Patrol agent. Either someone in their family is married to one, or they're sleeping with one. People's lives are very complicated and intertwined and they're not very clear-cut. |
The bill is completely ignoring the economic, political and social reality of the United States. Immigrants have been and will continue to be an integral part of the country's social fabric. |
The issues and the reasons that people leave home are so much more compelling and profound than a wall. So it ends up being millions and millions of dollars wasted. |
They just keep throwing money at the border with all these new novelty things that they try. It's just a waste of taxpayers' money. |
They needed a school teacher to organize things, |
They said it got lost somewhere. |