National caravan for migrants sets out

Members of the San Diego International Action Center and the Fight Imperialism-Stand Together (FIST) youth group along with other human rights organizations and thousands of individuals have supported Gente Unida, an immigrant rights group formed last summer to oppose the Minutemen, in initiating a national march for migrants that began in San Diego Feb. 2 and will end in Washington, D.C.

The caravan will encourage communities across the U.S. to denounce the assassination of Guillermo Martinez Rodriguez by the San Diego border patrol in December and HR 4437, a bill that seeks to increase the already deadly militarization of the border and attempts to continue the criminalization of migrants, their employers and supporters.

The caravan will also pay homage to the 4,000 migrants who have died since the inception of the racist, INS-sponsored “Operation Gatekeeper” in 1994. Crosses will be planted across the U.S. in their honor. According to one of the caravan organizers, Enrique Morones of Border Angels and Gente Unida remarked, “It’s time our community march on Washington and across the country to let the world know we demand to be treated with respect and dignity; we ask for nothing more and will settle for nothing less.”

This historic march for migrants began on the anniversary of the signing of the 1848 treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo at the “wall of shame & the wall of death” located at the border crossing in San Ysidro, Calif., before moving on to Calexico, Calif., in the Imperial Valley where members of the United Farm Workers and Braceros Pro-A gathered on both sides of the Mexicali border fence.

Over the next two weeks, the caravan will travel to Los Angeles, Fresno, San Francisco and Sacramento, then move into Arizona, Texas, Atlanta, Raleigh, Cleveland and Chicago, with plans to arrive at the final destination of D.C. on Feb. 18. Information on the caravan schedule can be found at www.borderangels.org.