Aug. 12, 2010: Protest at Border Security Conference
Contact: Louie Gilot, Policy Director, Border Network for Human Rights, (915) 274-0541, lgilot@bnhr.org
August 12, 2010
COMMUNITY MEMBERS PROTEST BORDER SECURITY CONFERENCE
‘Security Without Community is Not Security’
El Paso, TX –Fifty community members from El Paso and Southern New Mexico stood outside the Seventh Annual Border Security Conference at UTEP, protesting the event where community groups are not represented. The protesters stood silently with signs that read, “What about… civil rights?†“What about… community input?†“What about the environment?†“What about detention standards?†“What about… migrant deaths.â€
The Border Network for Human Rights wishes to release the following statement, attributable to the group’s executive director, Fernando Garcia:
“This event is now in its seventh year and the organizers have never extended an invitation to community organizations to participate. We cannot help but feel that the opinions of border residents are not valued when it comes to an issue that is so important to them. We believe that border communities have an important role to play in their own security and should be consulted. We also believe that border enforcement should be accountable to communities. It is very disappointing that the organizers of this conference do not feel that way.â€
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More information on the Border Network for Human Rights: This organization, founded in 1998, is one of the leading immigration reform and human rights advocacy organization in the United States. Based in El Paso, the BNHR counts about 4,000 members in El Paso and Southern New Mexico. More information at www.bnhr.org.