Last week, Rio Grande Valley residents & immigrant rights activists met a visit by President Trump with a protest sending a clear message: we will not be defined by your wall anymore.

The question now is: what will define the next four years for our region that has been the symbolic battleground of the past four?

Under the shadow of Trump’s incomplete wall and the watchful eye of the still militarized immigration enforcement apparatus, border communities have been hashing out an ambitious agenda for the change we will demand of the Biden Administration.

Pathway to citizenship that is broad, inclusive, and accessible to the 11 million+ undocumented Americans

Without draconian and harsh enforcement tradeoffs that undermine the rights of border communities while criminalizing immigrants

This will benefit:

• All undocumented immigrants, their families, and their communities

Reunify and protect families

1. Expand reprieve and work authorization for as many people permissible under the law, including those deported unjustly.
2. Extend Deferred Action and other forms of prosecutorial discretion to families separated by CBP under Zero Tolerance and all families separated by detention and deportation.

This will benefit: 

• DACA recipients, eligible for DACA, and their families
• All undocumented immigrants
• Immigrants who have a previous deportation and returned to reunite with family

Reverse “Public Charge” rule and protect access to care and services

1. Issue an Executive Order that directs agencies to rescind the public charge regulations.
2. Commit the White House to swift, bold, and comprehensive policy and outreach strategies aimed at ensuring immigrants and their families feel safe in accessing public benefits and services. 

This will benefit: 

• Immigrants who have foregone public benefits and services because of the rule change.
• Immigrants whose immigration cases are more difficult, anxiety-inducing, and costly because of the added requirements and longer application process.

Decriminalize moving to the U.S. and reuniting with family

1. End Zero Tolerance and Operation Streamline
2. Use discretion to stop charging unlawful entry and re-entry as a crime
3. Use prosecutorial discretion to protect families separated by CBP under Zero Tolerance and all families separated by detention and deportation

This will benefit: 

• Immigrant families who have a previous deportation and returned to reunite with family. 
• Immigrant families who have been deported and plan to return to reunite with family.
• Immigrants with family members on the other side of the border who plan to cross.
• Families who are undocumented with families who face double penalties if they are deported and attempt to return to reunite with their families and lives here.

Moratorium on all ICE operations, deportations, and detentions

Regardless of past deportation or contact with the justice system

This will benefit: 

• All undocumented Americans
• People with LPR status who have had contact with the justice system
• Immigrants who have a previous deportation
• People who have been deported under fast-tracked deportations

Rescind the declaration of militarization of the border.

1. Rescind the executive action declaring the border as part of a national emergency, including:
   • Withdrawing national guard
   • withdrawing active duty military
   • disbanding Task Force North

This will benefit: 

• Border communities who experience economic and cultural losses due to negative perceptions of the region
• Border residents who experience increased anxiety as border militarization increases around them
• Undocumented immigrants who have to live under the eye of Border Patrol and active-duty military

Issue an Executive Order that rolls back the expansion of expedited removal (fast-track deportations) and sets out a plan to end the use of the policy entirely.

This will benefit: 

• Immigrant families who have been deported under fast-tracked deportations.

Immediately stop any further construction of the Wall of Shame

Cancel all existing contracts.

This will benefit: 

• Indigenous communities of the borderlands fighting to protect their homeland and sacred sights
• Border residents battling against the federal government taking their land for border wall construction

End Migrant Protection Protocols and rebuild, improve, and expand a fair Asylum and Refugee System