FRONTERA TEXAS ORGANIZING PROJECT FRONTERA TEXAS ORGANIZING

from Annual Report 2022 | Border Network for Human Rights

STATE CAMPAIGNS

The implementation of the illegal and brutal Operation Lone Star in Texas has brought several aggressions against Texas border residents and immigrant families. However, for the Border Network for Human Rights, this situation presented an opportunity to take essential steps to build more community capacity, expand abuse documentation strategies, create a community-oriented narrative,

In that situation, BNHR adapted and launched, with limited resources, the Frontera Texas Organizing Project with the primary goal of building community capacity and community leadership, expanding the immigration law enforcement abuse documenting strategies, building a border community-oriented narrative, and elevating the

Paso, Presidio-Big Bend, Sierra Blanca-Van Horn, Del Rio-Eagle Pass, Laredo, and the Texas Valley (Alamo, San Juan, Harlingen, and Brownsville).

As part of its immigration reform initiative, BNHR announced the Frontera Texas Organizing Caravan, a community organizing and leadership of border residents and immigrant families to promote and defend human and civil rights.

The Caravan started in El Paso on May 1, 2022, on International Workers’ Day, and stopped along key border towns ending in Brownsville on May 17.

This initiative occurred in response to the State of Texas’s implementation of an unprecedented, inhumane immigration enforcement strategy at its border with Mexico by deploying hundreds of State Troopers and the National Guard (Operation Lone Star) to question and detain both immigrant and border residents.

This politically motivated strategy led by Governor Abbott is illegal and unconstitutional and has already impacted the rights of immigrants and refugees and deteriorated the quality of life of border communities in Texas. On Saturday, May 14, members of the #FronteraTexas Organizing Project, led by BNHR, held a press conference in Hidalgo, Texas, to highlight the high impact of these anti-immigrant, communities and build community resistance across the border.