EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Community activists are launching a public engagement campaign to counter what they perceive as the growing “militarization” of the Texas-Mexico border.
It includes a two-week span of marches and community meetings called “Journeys of Resistance” in El Paso, Laredo, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas and Austin from May 3-17. A database to document abuse and demand accountability from government agencies also is in development.
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The so-called Texas Community Resiliency Agenda campaign comes after the deployment of thousands of active-duty troops to the border and a Trump administration push for local governments to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. The activists allege this is sowing fear among families of mixed immigration status and painting a distorted picture of the region.
“It’s not only enough to have police departments and the state police, now we’re seeing an expansive militarization of our communities,” said Fernando Garcia, executive director of Border Network for Human Rights. “It’s not only weapons. It’s not only uniforms and tanks like we have seen arriving in El Paso in the last weeks. It’s the mentality that people of color are the enemy, that immigrants are an invasion…”…