Happening right now! It’s not too late to log on and watch

“MPP/Remain in Mexico is destroying families beyond what we saw with family separation ... [it continues at] the expense of the dignity of thousands of people, and it’s happening out of sight, out of mind. the US doesn’t even have to think about it.” -Sister Norma Pimentel

Venezuelan attorney and asylee Jorge Sanchez, who lived in Matamoros under MPP and is now in California () is about to speak about his own experiences with the program and attending imm tent courts down there. He continues to advocate for gente still in camp.

Jorge’s case took 8! total hearings. All of them took place in these f@&!*%¥ tent courts along the Rio Grande riverbank in Brownsville, Texas

Thelma O. García, RGV immigration lawyer with 40+ years of experience is on deck talking right now sharing a brief history of policies that led up to MPP/Remain in Mexico (btw I’m pretty sure this is getting recorded, so I’ll post a link here when I find it).

“[el campamento] is no place for human beings to be living in, but because of the pandemic, merits hearings are being [indef. postponed]. People who’ve been in Matamoros a year and a half already, their cases are being moved back to 2021.” -Thelma Garcia

#endMPP now! It’s dire!

“You never know what’s going to happen here. You never know when policies are going to change [even as counsel].” -Thelma Garcia naming the fraught space gente subjected to MPP/Remain in Mexico are forced to fight their cases in. This uncertainty is a Trump admin strategy.

Jennifer K. Harbury, Attorney and Human Rights Lawyer reminds us to be skeptical of Biden until we see when/if/how he plans to act on immigration. Didn’t catch the exact quote fast enough to tweet but something along the lines of “we had problems with imm justice under Obama too”

Sister Norma, asked what gente in camp confide to her: “that enough is enough! ‘We don’t want donations, [you can’t] make the camp better, it isn’t safe, it needs to STOP.’ They want us to hear them, to please get them out of here. If they go back to their countries, it’s death.”

Same Q to Jorge, from VZ:

“Nothing positive. The situation is very bad. Kids have been a year without school now. The conditions worsen every day. Not enough electricity, nor water, the river encroaches & fills the tents people live in. The psychological situation is very grave”

Thelma naming anti-migrant sentiment gente in Matamoros encounter: “I’ve had clients tell me that when they go to the Mexican police for help they hear comments about CentAms, other ppl* in the MPP program, they’re told they’re not wanted there”

*[black] Caribeñxs, Suramericanxs

Lilli Rey, founder of @BorderRelief: “people think that kids aren’t conscious of what’s happening around them [like the stress and fear MPP forces them to be surrounded by] but they ARE!” emphasizing that resource support isn’t enough anymore, no one should be in MPP. LET THEM IN

My hands hurt so I’m gonna stop live tweeting now (it’s almost over anyway) but I’ll revisit this thread later to share more poignant/relevant quotes I missed because there were so many. And to share the full link!

Quick shoutout to @belindaHarriaga for moderating this talk (while also translating Span to English) - it’s so hard to condense her insight and very soothing energy into a few tweets but I never, ever get tired of hearing her speak