VivirLatino

I’ve been really interested to read Mala’s critique of the March for America (can we pause for just a minute and really think about what that means? Marching for America?) as she and I have talked offline a bit about how the march was largely symbolic–carrying very little meaning for most US citizens and doing not-so-much for those who desperately need action, protection, and help–undocumented peoples. That the march was a mixed bag; symbolism can be really good and necessary–but it can’t be all that there is (these are largely my critiques, you’ll have to wait for mala to post her own critiques!).

Then I read the following:

The Shelter | Sanctuary | Status Campaign invites shelter workers, residents, managers, counselors and anti-violence against women advocates and activists to attend an urgent community meeting on March 8th.

It has come to our attention, that the Canada Border Services Agency invaded a shelter for women – on February 27, looking to track down Jane, a single mom and survivor of violence from Ghana.

“It’s so scary,” Jane says, who wishes to keep her real name anonymous but is willing to speak to the media. “I thought the shelter was supposed to be a safe space for me and my baby. I’m scared not just for myself, but for non-status women in shelters everywhere who are facing the same fear,” she continued.

“We have heard of the CBSA waiting outside of shelters, looking to apprehend women without status, but I have never heard of officers actually walking into a shelter to look for women,” says Eileen Morrow, Coordinator of the Ontario Association for Interval and Transition Homes, the largest shelter association in Canada. “This is an unprecedented attack on women in our communities and we demand it end immediately!”

“The women in our shelters are survivors of violence. They are healing from trauma. The last thing we need is the bullies from CBSA barging in her to re-traumatize them,” says Bernadette Dondo, a counsellor at Nellies.

“The women’s movement fought long and hard for access to shelter and safety. This is a fundamental right for all women, regardless of immigration status. The CBSA violated this right and the women’s movement is going to hold them accountable,” asserts Fariah Chowdhury, an organizer with the Shelter | Sanctuary | Status Campaign.

Shelter workers, residents and anti-violence against women advocates will be joined by women from Toronto Rape Crisis Centre, Sistering, METRAC –Metropolitan Action Committee Against Violence Against Women and Children and many other women’s organizations demand that Canada Borders Service Agency immediately stop visiting or waiting outside shelters or organizations that provide services to women; that women fleeing domestic abuse and violence be given status immediately and a full and inclusive regularization program be implemented.

For more info phone: 647.836.8781
or email shelter.sanctuary.status@gmail.com

Organized by the Shelter|Sanctuary|Status Coalition, a growing movement of over 120 anti-Violence Against Women organizations that are working to create safe spaces for all women, regardless of immigration status – http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/sss

The follow up to this post is here.

Outside of the fact that these actions of the Canadian Patrol are extraordinarily frightening and misogynistic (I’ve written before about how women are often controlled by abusive spouses through the theft of their green cards or even outright refusal to renew papers), I think that the response to the Canadian Patrol by women’s groups in Canada points an especially bright light on what the pro-immigration groups in the US are not achieving: a national response to gross abuse and negligence against immigrants by the government.

What I mean specifically: the major pro-immigration organizations in the US are so policy driven–so reform minded and “get new legislation enacted” centered–that they forget that the fight over immigration starts first and foremost, in the streets. In our hood, among our friends, with our familia. It starts with having no place to go, nothing to eat, no friends. And being reached out to by the local women’s shelter. Or the local church. The various Border Patrols throughout the world are not looking for undocumented people in Congress or Legislature. They are looking for them at bars, at churches, at shelters.

The government, too, knows where the fight is.

So what does it mean then, that immigrants, their families, their communities, and the Border Patrol know exactly where the fight is–but all those who are supposedly standing up for immigrant rights are sitting a world away advocating for something that may or may not have any sort of effect on the battle going on in the community?

In short: what in the hell do we do about this major disconnect between most pro-immigration organizations and the lived experiences of immigrants? How do we get to the point that there is a organization or coalition that will be strong enough and hold enough clout to put out a succinct analysis and forceful response about local issues on a national level?

I know that there are several problems in the US that Canada and other nations do not have to deal with–for starters, the corporate owned media that has a central interest in maintaining immigrant (women) as the “other.”

But from where I’m sitting, the pro-immigration community in the US can’t even agree that “family” is a highly contested concept to organize around–specifically because of incidences of abuse and violence that go unreported and undealt with in an effort to maintain the “we’re good people who love our families” immigrant narrative intact.

The US only likes Good Immigrants, right?

Are we ever going to be brave enough to have the tough conversations?