Zero Tolerance to the separation of families!

Claudia Arroyo, Community Education Director
June, 19 2018

Dear Prospera supporters, partners, and friends,

It is with deep sadness and indignation that we write to you from Prospera to denounce the Zero Tolerance policy that is being implemented by the US government. This new attack to our immigrant community means that 45 children per day are being separated from their families!

According to the Washington Post, 1,995 children have been separated from 940 adults at the Mexican border between April 19 and May 31, not counting the 1,500 youngsters that have been “lost” in the system’s records! If these figures could speak they would yell with the desperation and impotence experienced by mothers and fathers as they are being torn away from their children, not to mention the terrible psychological trauma that these young ones are living as they are being torn from their parents. What kind of society are we becoming? How is it possible that this is happening in a country that boasts of its democracy, liberty and justice? What is our responsibility as human beings? How do we make our voices heard?

During times of Apartheid in South Africa, the United States pronounced that it was not possible for a country to claim sovereignty when human rights were being violated. How is it possible then to allow anti-immigrant policies that are violating the basic human rights of a family, an international humanitarian right for all human beings regardless of their condition?

At Prospera, we are raising our voices against this aberration. We reaffirm our commitment to lifting up immigrant women and their families. It is through cooperation that we become strong and it is through cooperation that we will find collective liberation. The cooperative model that creates just and solidarity economies is an alternative that recognizes the power of the most disenfranchised. It is a path to re-establish the dignity that has been trampled and stolen; it is the hope that helps us remember that another world is possible.

Our mission to partner with immigrant women to build economic power through leadership development and cooperative entrepreneurship is now more essential than ever if we are to lift up the voices of those who have been silenced, not only through anti-immigrant policies but inhumane policies like the law of Zero Tolerance.

In the name of the more than 250 million immigrants of the world, the ones who are trapped in a border, the ones who live in fear, the ones who lost a friend, a family member… the children who have been ripped apart from their families…the mothers crying for their children… in the name of humanity that is being sullied, crushed and forced to emigrate for economic, political, social and cultural reasons, today we pronounce Zero Tolerance to the Separation of Families.

Zero tolerance to international policies that impoverish entire communities for the benefit of a few!

Zero tolerance to immigration policies that criminalize and dehumanize!

Zero tolerance to all actions that endanger the human rights of the more than 232 million human beings and migrants of the world!

Claudia Arroyo
Community Education Director
Prospera Community Development

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TAKE ACTION

FOLLOW AND SUPPORT FAMILIES BELONG TOGETHER

JOIN AND MOBILIZE WITH THE COMMUNITY!

* Wednesday, June 20th, Sacramento. Join various organizations in Sacramento to Defend California Values. More info here.
* Friday, June 22nd Bay Area. Join the Bay Area organizations to learn about the background of human rights abuses at the border and the ongoing work of immigrant-led organizations. And brainstorm powerful actions we can take in the Bay Area and beyond! More info here.