Eyes on the border
New Capital Region group wants to help those caught in crisis
Activists organize group to take direct action to help immigrants.
The U.s.-mexico border may be 2,000 miles away, but if anything happens along it, a group of Capital Region activists will be watching.
Advocacy group ICE-FREE Capital District kicked off its newest endeavor, the Capital District Border Watch, at a Tuesday night meeting in St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, bringing together seasoned protesters and concerned citizens to learn about what’s happening. They are ready to take direct action during the border crisis declared by President Donald Trump.
“We’ve got the camps, we’ve got the wall, we’ve got ongoing detentions, we’ve got sending people here, we’ve got militarization at the border. There are a lot of different angles and they really matter and they’re escalating right now,” Karen Beetle told the group.
Beetle, a family therapist and peace activist, began protesting last year when the government started separating families at the border. When 300-plus immigrants were transferred from the border to Albany County Jail last summer, Beetle tried to get mental health counselors to see detainees inside the jail.
Beetle and retired professor Carrie Kuehl organized the meeting because they wanted to be prepared to respond immediately to issues. Another woman wanted to ensure the Capital Region wasn’t complicit in federal government actions. One man found himself sitting at home saying “this is bad” and wanted
to move past that.
Doreen Glynn, 82, a sister with St. Joseph’s Order in Latham, said she went to El Paso for the third time in December to volunteer at Annunciation House, a nonprofit shelter that temporarily houses migrants with no criminal record who crossed the border seeking asylum. As a volunteer she helped provide people with food, beds and showers and coordinated their transport to meet contacts elsewhere in the U.S.
“I’ve been shaped by these issues. I needed to have direct service and have a face to face interaction,” she said. She hopes she can bring back stories “just to put a human face on it.”
On Tuesday the group brainstormed how to share information and get involved in what’s happening along the border. Ideas included educational events, sending material aid, creating artistic responses, joining advocacy cam- paigns, and partnering with alistof 20-plus organizations to provide direct services to refugees and immigrants in the Capital Region.
The group is gearing up for its first protest next week. “Close the Camps,” organized by Saratoga Springs resident Chloe Blanch, is calling on the government to shut down detention centers housing children who cross the border. Protesters will gather from 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Monday at the Leo W O’brien Federal Building in downtown Albany.
The Capital District Border Watch met on the heels of Presidents Day protests against Trump’s national emergency declaration to fund a border wall.
A stalemate over his request for $5.7 billion in border wall funding caused the longest government shutdown in U.S. history — 35 days — from December 2018 to January 2019.
On Friday, Trump signed a spending plan to keep the government open, which included $1.4 billion to bolster a barrier along the U.s.-mexico border. At the same time, he used his presidential power to declare a national emergency which, along with other diverted funds, will give him nearly $8 billion to build a wall.
Late Monday, 16 states including New York launched the first major legal challenge to the president’s attempt to use emergency powers to fund construction of a wall.
Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas, who leads the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, plans to introduce a resolution co-sponsored by Rep. Alexandria Ocasiocortez of New York to terminate the executive order.