In the past few weeks, state, national and even international media have made their way down to the Rio Grande Valley to spotlight the injustice of children separated from their parents as a result of the Trump administration's “zero-tolerance policy.”
"Families Belong Together" rally in Brownsville, Texas on June 28, 2018
(Photo: La Union del Pueblo Entero - LUPE)
When news first broke of this brutal human rights abuse, we reached out to Sierra Club community organizers in the Rio Grande Valley to identify partner organizations, like La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), doing the frontline work of representing and reunifying families.
Last Thursday, a couple of our staff members drove down to McAllen to host LUPE’s fast and prayer chain, the same day that Brownsville held its “Families Belong Together” rally.
The family separation crisis isn’t over, and it’s also not the only issue the Rio Grande Valley is facing. Last week, community organizers also put together a beautiful vigil to honor the life of Claudia Patricia Gomez Gonzalez and others whose lives were lost at the hands of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), providing a space for community members to gather and speak out against various injustices.
Now that the nationwide June 30 “Families Belong Together” rallies have passed, we will continue to be in solidarity with RGV organizers, friends, and allies against family separation and detainment, against more border walls that separate neighbors and harm the environment, and against the escalating militarization of our South Texas communities.