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CALL
TO ACTION!
International Migrants Day 2006
Following a year of unprecedented mobilizations for
immigrant rights, the National Network for Immigrant
and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) invites you to culminate
the year with a BANG and send a loud message to the
new Congress by organizing and supporting events to
celebrate International Migrants Day and to reaffirm
our commitment to the rights of all immigrants.
About December 18 (International Migrants Day)
On December 18th, 1990, the International Convention
on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers
and Members of Their Families was approved by the United
Nations General Assembly, after almost a decade of governmental
negotiations and strong advocacy by migrant communities
around the world. On December 4th, 2000, following lobbying
efforts by international agencies and migrant groups,
the United Nations recognized and proclaimed December
18 as International Migrants Day.
Since 2001, in solidarity with other migrant organizations
around the world, NNIRR has commemorated this day in
the U.S. alongside its members, through local events,
a national statement and press release, educational
and organizing materials, media campaigns, and even
a commemorative poster and t-shirts. (For more details,
visit www.nnirr.org/dec18
and for more details on international events, visit
www.migrantsrightsinternational.blogspot.com
and www.december18.net)
International Migrants Day 2006
This year has been a particularly significant year
in the struggle for immigrant rights. In recognition
of the accomplishments by immigrant communities, and
the challenges ahead of us, NNIRR is calling on organizations
and individuals around the country to commemorate this
year’s International Migrants Day with a local
event or action highlighting one or more of the following
struggles:
- Ending the militarization and impunity at the US-Mexico
border and interior enforcement: The US government
has converted the US-Mexico border region into a de-constitutionalized
zone, where communities and immigrants are racially
profiled and subjected to unconstitutional detentions
and deportations. In addition to the hundreds of miles
of walls and other barriers at the border, Congress
recently approved 700 more miles of additional walls,
electronic surveillance and the deployment of 6,000
National Guard troops to police the border. These
border control policies and immigration law enforcement,
being implemented with impunity, have only served
to force migrants into more remote, desolate and dangerous
border zones to cross, resulting in hundreds of deaths
every year and countless others permanently lost.
The recent Border Social Forum which included participants
from diverse communities on both sides of the US-Mexico
border, denounced the militarization of the border
as “an authoritarian and racist act that criminalized
migrants and forces them to risk their lives to enter
the US, which further provokes divisions and violence
between US citizens and immigrants.”
- The anti-immigrant legislative proposals in Congress:
While some have applauded the shift in power within
Congress by the recent mid-term elections, we are
reminded that both Democrats and Republicans widely
supported legislative proposals in both the House
of Representatives and the Senate, which would criminalize
immigrants through intensified border enforcement
and mechanisms to extend interior enforcement as well.
Furthermore, the seemingly “best” of these
proposals contained guest-worker provisions that would
sustain an underclass of migrant workers and ensure
that they remain a pool of cheap, disposable labor
for use and abuse by large corporations.
- Promoting principles of justice and equality for
immigrants: Migrant communities are not just fighting
back in resistance. They have been promoting principles
of justice and equality in various ways and will be
doing that even more vehemently in the coming year.
NNIRR be developing an extensive National Dialogue
on the US-Mexico Border (building from this year’s
Emergency National Border Tour), mobilizing around
the United Nations’ proposal to organize a Permanent
Forum on Migration and Development to ensure that
migrant community voices from around the world will
be strongly represented, and launching a National
Campaign for Justice and Equality to change the nature
and framework for comprehensive immigration reform.
Your event can take place at any number of places,
and in various forms – a late afternoon action
at a Federal Building, an evening gathering at a place
of worship, even a potluck dinner at a local community
center. We encourage you to publicize your activity
in the media to help call attention to the significance
of the day as well as to your own efforts to promote
the rights of immigrants. And we also encourage groups
to coordinate their efforts with others locally, and
to reach out to allies and new friends through this
event.
As in previous years, NNIRR will collect information
on all these activities to publicize them nationally
and internationally, to raise the collective power of
grassroots community action. We are also circulating
a national sign-on statement for International Migrants
Day that can be found here: NNIRR
National December 18 Statement.
If you plan to organize an activity for International
Migrants Day, please click
here and fill out this form, or send all relevant
details by email to crajah@nnirr.org.
For more information, contact:
Colin Rajah; 510-465-1984 x306 or crajah@nnirr.org
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Migrant
Rights are Human Rights!