Activists Occupy Border Patrol Headquarters in Tucson

--1st Nations and migrants oppose SB 1070--

More than a dozen people, including members of Indigenous Nations of Arizona, migrants, people of color and white allies, staged an occupation of Border Patrol headquarters at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base this afternoon in an act of peaceful civil resistance. Six of the group used chains and other devices to lock themselves into the building. The protesters were removed, cited for trespass and released before 5 PM.

The protesters stated that the disruption of Border Patrol operations was a demand that Border Patrol, Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), their parent entity, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Obama administration end militarization of the border, end the criminalization of immigrant communities, and end their campaign of terror which tear families apart through increasing numbers of raids and deportations.

The protesters also call on the State of Arizona to repeal the Senate Bill 1070, a bill they term "racist" and that, they say "criminalizes immigrant communities on the state level, makes it illegal to transport or harbor an undocumented person regardless of family relationship, requires police agencies to engage in racial profiling, and ultimately is an attempt to ethnically cleanse Arizona of those with brown skin."

This act of civil disobedience was the latest in an increasing wave of direct action targeting the federal government's immigration policies.

Border militarization destroys Indigenous communities

The group denounces the construction of the border wall because, they say, it "lead to desecration of our ancestors' graves, it has divided our communities, and prevents us from accessing sacred places."

The group does not foresee that the use of troops and paramilitary law enforcement, detention camps, check points, and citizenship verification will solve migration issues. Further, they value freedom of movement, in the tradition of their elders who lived in the area prior to the current national borders.

Indigenous communities such as the O'odham, the Pascua Yaqui, Laipan Apache, Kickapoo, and Cocopah along the US/Mexico border, say the group, were forced by border patrol to carry and provide proof of tribal membership when moving across their traditional lands that have been bisected by the U.S.-Mexico border. They allege that the border had damaged the cultural and spiritual practices of the indigenous communities, disallowing many to journey to sacred sites across bi-national lines.

Since the creation of the current U.S.-Mexico border, 45 O'odham villages on or near the border have been completely depopulated, claimed the group in a statement to the press.

Friday's action by people who are indigenous to Arizona was an effort of solidarity with migrants who are indigenous to other parts of the Western Hemisphere. They call for a return to the traditional indigenous value of freedom of movement for all people.

Prior to area colonization by European nations (Spaniards, English, French), the establishment of the United States its borders, indigenous people migrated, traveled and traded with each other unimpeded by modern national borderlines. From the group's perspective, U.S. immigration policies dehumanize and criminalize people simply due to their birth on a particular side of "these artificial lines."

The group emphasized that modern migration into the U.S is driven by U.S. economic policies as seen in free trade agreements like NAFTA. The policies, say the group:

"have severely reduced the ability of Mexicans and others from the global south to sustain themselves by permitting corporations to extract huge amounts of wealth and resources from these countries into the U.S. This has led to millions of people risking the terror and death ... to cross into the U.S., looking for ways to better support their families. Thousands of women, men, children and elders have died crossing just in the last decade."

The protesters enumerated the following demands:

• An end to border militarization
• The immediate repeal of SB1070 and 287g
• An end to all racial profiling and the criminalization of our communities
• No ethnic cleansing or cultural genocide
• No border patrol encroachment/sweeps on sovereign native land
• No-- Deportations, Raids, ID verification, checkpoints
• Yes-- to immediate and unconditional regularization ("legalization") of all people, human rights, dignity, respect, respecting Indigenous Peoples' inherent right of migration