UndocuPick-Up Lines

The Impact of Deportations & Enforcement

The first time I overheard adult conversations about la migra and law enforcement in my neighborhood I was a child. While playing in the living room of our apartment, I watched the worried faces of adults, trying to understand what was so worrisome. Unbeknownst to me, my mother had dealt with my father going missing after work only to find out that he had been detained by immigration officers and sent to Tijuana. In my early teens I witnessed my aunt come home terrified and anxious after narrowly escaping the workplace raids of the mid 90s. In those early years of my childhood and into my teens I began to understand that my community was not safe.

While in high school I continued to develop an understanding of the insecurities that haunted my community as countless neighbors and family friends faced deportation proceedings. The detention of community members and their potential deportation was our disturbing norm. Feeling safe in our community should not be negotiable, yet for immigrants it is. In 2008, while on a trip to L.A. my sister was detained and my family became another deportation story in our community. She was 20 years old, but unfortunately other families face the immigration detention of their children.

The days following my sister’s detention my mother displayed signs of extreme emotional stress and eventually had fainting episodes that put her in physical harm. The mental health of my parents was tested as the sought desperately to keep my sister from being deported. Undocumented families have always had to make difficult decision in the aftermath of a detention or deportation. There are no government-appointed attorneys for individuals in deportation proceedings therefore leaving my family in the midst of an expensive and confusing legal battle. Immigration detention facilities operate like jails which greatly contributed to the intimidation of my sister. We were never told when they moved my sister or kept informed about her safety only adding to our worry. When someone is detained it leaves a substantial impact on families and local communities.

Now the only time I get to spend time with my sister is when there is a fence between us at Friendship Park, a binational meeting place at the US-Mexico border. The fence mesh only allows for half inch areas of unobstructed view while a pair of massive metal walls roughly 18 feet high separate me from my sister. There is a limit placed on visitors, my family is not all allowed in at once, we must take turns entering the gates to the park. My parents did not feel comfortable with the level of patrolling and only recently saw their daughter after six years apart. At friendship park I am told for how long I can see her and my nephews by a border agent that is present at all times. I am lucky to have even this level of access given my proximity to the border, but it is undoubtedly painful to be given a limit on when I can experience family time.  

Decades of enforcement have harmed families and left insurmountable obstacles for many immigrants. For my sister, the obstacle is a 10 year re-entry bar that prevents her from rejoining my family in the U.S. Everyday that raids and deportations continue somebody's family is irreversibly harmed. Like my family, there are many more with stories that bear witness to the devastating effects of family separation. Simply put, the more than 2 million deportations since Obama took office have consequently affected more than just 2 million people.

Social media is an increasingly valuable tool for immigrant rights advocates, through its ability to help shape the national discourse surrounding immigrant issues. Hashtags, when promoted by enough individuals, eventually "trend" and attract more online discussions. Hashtags have been used by the immigrants rights movement to directly impact the discussion about deportations, presidential administrations, immigration status, human rights crisis, and the overall experiences of undocumented immigrants. Here is an introduction to the immigrants rights movement in 5 hashtags:

#UndocumentedUnafraid

Undocumented and unafraid emerged as a slogan from the immigrant youth movement, but quickly came to represent a brave new political identity that empowered undocumented people. By becoming publically unafraid and living out of the shadows immigrants continue to increase visibility and raise awareness of the fear and injustice faced by undocumented people across the US. Exposing our immigration status is a source of community strength and introduced a new organizing method, where immigrants advocate for themselves by becoming/being undocumented and unafraid. Put simply, this hashtag is a form of self-determination and shift in identity.

#Not1More

The not one more deportation hashtag is a call to action for the presidential administration and immigration enforcement agencies to end deportations immediately. Despite deportation protection and work authorization for an exclusive part of the immigrant community the excessively repressive enforcement of immigration laws continues to deport immigrants. The hashtag initiated conversations about President Obama’s legacy of deportations and questioned how committed to immigrant rights the Obama administration really is given how many deportation continue to occur. #Not1More serves as a reminder that efforts towards humane immigrant rights are few and far between and therefore we must continue to hold current and future administrations accountable for continued use of deportations.

#DeporterInChief

Deporter in Chief is a play on Obama’s title of Commander in Chief with the purpose of

exposing the president's role in exceptionally aggressive deportations. It is a critical remark about the president’s immigration stance and the record high deportations of over 2 million since Obama took office. It initiated conversations about immigration groups who continued to defend the president despite a record that shows excessive enforcement has been taking place while Obama has been in office.

#IceOutOfCA

The ice out of California hashtag is also a call to action for enforcement agencies in a state that has almost a quarter of the nation’s undocumented immigrants. It triggered online discussions about the inherently inhumane and terrorizing actions of ICE. It expresses the urgency for immigrant communities to remove ICE and highlights the harmful nature of enforcement-first immigration policy.

#EndTransDetention

Immigrant rights advocates used #EndTransDetention to highlight the intersections between the LGBTQ and immigrant communities. The hashtag was used to coordinate online conversations about ending the detention and abuse of transgender people being held in immigration custody. Detention centers often operate without oversight leaving LGBTQ detainees vulnerable to sexual assault and other human rights violations. Living at the intersection of two socially and systemically oppressed identities holds its own particular set of obstacles in detention centers.

The invitation from the facebook event reads: As part of Enero Zapatista, Colectivo Zapatista and the Palestinian Youth Movement- San Diego invite you to a run and walk along the border to protest the imperialist colonial borders around the world that seek to steal our indigenous land and divide our communities. Join us for the walk/run, speakers, kids activities and a music performance in resistance to all borders around the world. There is a $1 suggested registration donation.