by Jose R. Matus

Since 9/11, the Bush Administration has associated illegal immigration with terrorism, claiming a need to secure the southern border with more border patrol agents, deploy the National Guard and construct walls or other elaborate barriers to secure our Homeland from another attack. Not surprisingly, anti-immigrant hysteria, xenophobia and racial discrimination in Southern Arizona have never been higher. Literally caught in the middle, Southern indigenous communitieson both sides of the US/Mexico border have been profoundly impacted by theanti-immigration legislation and border enforcement policies.

As anti-immigrant sentiment increases in Southern Arizona, so have the activities of racist paramilitary groups such as the Minutemen, Border Guardians and the reinvigorated Ku Klux Klan. Voices advocating for indigenous rights, human/civil rights, fair and comprehensive immigration policies are met with deaf ears, an us-versus-them mentality and the use of terms like “terror,” “invasion,” and “national security.” Every area of Arizona has its own version of the anti-immigrant movement impacting both the immigrant community and the indigenous nations residing within the state.

Over the past two decades, controlling unauthorized immigration along the US-Mexico border has become an increasingly important national objective. In 1994, Attorney General Janet Reno and Immigration and Naturalization Commissioner Doris Meissner launched a nationwide strategy of “prevention through deterrence.” That policy created economic opportunity for human/drug smugglers, a rise of crime and violence on indigenous borderlands and other border communities, and changed the southern Arizona-Mexico border region.
Claiming to fight against illegal immigration, human and drug smuggling and terrorism on behalf of the American taxpayer, the US Government spent approximately $30 billion in the past 12 years. The financial cost will rise higher when the current strategy is set in motion: an additional 6,000 border patrol agents as well as more National Guard forces, and construction of the three-tier southern border fence. Such lethal border enforcement policies have been ineffective in the past and are unlikely to decrease unauthorized immigration or human and drug smuggling, nor make America safer.

Area activists struggle to bring national and international attention to how anti-immigrant and border enforcement policies have affected the lives of the seven Southern indigenous Nations (the Kumeyaay, Cocopah, Tohono O'odham, Akimel O'odham, Yaqui, Yavapai-Apache, Tiwa and Kickapoo). This includes environmental damage, mistreatment, lack of respect and recognition of indigenous rights of mobility and passage, abuse of authority and violation of rights.

Ofelia Rivas, who organizes the a project “O'odham Voice against the Wall,” described the proposed wall between Mexico and the United States vividly: “It's like somebody put a knife in your mother. The barrier will be continually there, and you can't pull it out.”

Nearly 12 years ago, the INS-and subsequently Homeland Security-began deliberately funneling immigrants into the desert. To block access and to trap migrants, they have dramaticly increased the installation of environmentally damaging infrastructure in sensitive desert areas. These include fences and high voltage lighting. Now formerly pristine areas are saturated with illegal roads, trampled vegetation, abandoned vehicles'pollution that will last for generations.

In these and other ways, Department of Homeland Security border enforcement and protection policies have interrupted indigenous social, traditional, and ceremonial communities; continue to divide indigenous border communities from conducting cross-border business and events; and put indigenous border residents (mostly elderly and children) in harms way.

The many rapid economic, demographic, and cultural changes taking place throughout the US/Mexico border region are forcing southern border indigenous nations to intensify efforts to prevent further loss of our ancient cultural traditions. An increasingly important component of such efforts are the strengthening (and some cases, reestablishing) of social, familial, and cultural ties with indigenous relatives in Mexico who are affiliated with ceremonial and cultural traditions.

Indigenous customs often clash with border policies. An elder Tohono O'odham woman, 68-year-old Margaret Garcia, explains: “Many people have no birth certificates as they were born at home. If we are ever required to get passports, it would be difficult for us.” She sat just yards from the dusty international line that she first rolled over in a horse and cart to attend ceremonies in Mexico as a girl.
Formed to promote respect for human and civil rights and protest against militarization of the southern US border region, Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras promotes comprehensive immigration reform that provides for the rights of mobility/passage of indigenous peoples to and from Mexico. Such rights would include changes in the Laser Visa requirements and process (currently requiring costly border-crossing cards issued by the US Embassy and its consulates in Mexico). We also seek a reduced presence of extensive border patrols, thus significantly reducing damage to indigenous borderlands and fragile terrain.

Reform must also include changes to work authorization. Currently, a work permit is usually given to an individual who has applied for permanent residency, recruited for a high tech job, and/or employers apply for the work authorization when they recruit foreign workers. The work authorization permit is controlled by the employer and not given to the individual worker. That gives the employer authority to end the work relationship at anytime and deport workers back to their country of origin. We advocate that foreign workers should have the opportunity and be given the privilege to seek and obtain a work permit/authorization to find employment in the US, or when recruited by an employer that he or she be able to seek other employment opportunities should they be fired or laid off.

With the firm belief that all social changes come from building a base of empowerment, Alianza conducts community forums, teach-ins, and legalization and know-your-rights workshops. We work to mobilize the at-risk community to get involved in the decision-making process to make elected officials accountable.

As part of a media campaign, we hold press conferences, appear on television and radio talk shows, and host border tours for local, national and international media. We also provide capacity training to the at-risk community on immigration legislation issues, and human and civil rights.

Additionally, Alianza works in partnership with other community groups to better support the organizing agenda of human/civil rights, indigenous and immigrant rights work in our respective communities. Our overall organizing agenda is to develop a stronger, cohesive, more sustainable-and ultimately more effective-human rights movement. We must prioritize our organizing agenda to develop strategies to (1) establish a well planned collaboration and networking process; (2) enhance capacity in human rights framing and advocacy; and (3) conduct legal research and recommend changes and/or improvement of public policies that directly or indirectly affect the at-risk communities.

Immigration legislation and border enforcement policies affect all of us in one way or another, from human and civil rights, to education, workforce, sovereignty, way of life and development of adverse public polices that discriminate against the poor and people of color. The social change and justice movement must come together as one human movement and develop alliances with indigenous rights, immigrant rights, LGBT, labor, religious groups, youth and other people of color human/civil rights movements to foster leadership development in order to promote common purposes, mutual support and resource sharing among organizations. Indigenous rights and immigrant rights are human and civil rights!

Jose Matus is a Yaqui ceremonial leader and the director of Alianza Indigena sin Fronteras/Indigenous Alliance without Borders, which received a grant from RESIST last year. For more information, contact Alianza, PO Box 826, Tucson, AZ 85701; www.indigenasinfronteras.org.