In commemorating International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Angered by the hardening stance on immigration-related issues, Elvira Arellano will be holding hunger strike outside the US Embassy. She told the the Prensa Latina, “On behalf of the thousands of undocumented people, we demand the end of abuse against Mexicans in US territory.”

Elvira Arellano spoke out in behalf of thousands of immigrant women here in the United States. She demanded that Mexican families living in the United States receive decent treatment and being treated as terrorist. Unfortunately, here in the US, immigrant women are violently separated from their children. Arellano’s message should be a reminder that an immigrants journey North is to seek work, in order to provide a better future for their family.

When it comes to violence against women, it is a direct consequence of the inequalities between women and men. Poverty, marginalization and certain aspects of women’s identity, such as their race or ethnicity, can also leave some women more vulnerable to violence. According to Arellano, there are four million undocumented Mexican immigrants in the US and in Mexico, immigrant women who come from other countries are also repressed by violence and poverty. In this country alone, we continue to deny migrant women their most basic human rights, such as the right to health care.

The acceptance of violence against women and girls – either explicitly or tacitly – creates a culture of impunity, which perpetuates that violence. When States fails to hold perpetrators accountable, it contributes to a culture of impunity in which justice is denied and the roots of gender inequality grow deeper.

Earlier in November, Arellano spoke to a group of Mexican migrant activists to decry US policies to jail undocumented migrants, the construction of the border wall, and the increase in deportations.

“Is Mexico prepared to receive all of these deported people and their families?” Arellano said on the opening day of the “First Parliament of Mexican Migrant Leaders Who Live in the U.S.”

“Is it prepared to guarantee an education to their children, who are U.S. citizens? Or is it prepared to defend them against all these attacks?” she said.

The mass deportation of legal and undocumented immigrants has separated an estimated 1.6 million children and adults from their non-citizen family members. According to Mesoamerican Migrant Movement, founded by Arellano and other activists, about 22,000 people are deported from the United States to Mexico every month.

Violence against women and girls will not be eliminated in this country until we are willing to be aware of the magnitude of this problem. The elimination of violence must be a priority at all levels – local, national, and international. We must be willing to speak out in order to support and sustain an environment that will not tolerate violence against women and girls. An environment in which men and women together, will intervene to ensure that no perpetrators go unpunished.

Little know immigrant right’s activist Flor Crisostomo is also waging a hunger strike for the same reason. She is currently staging her strike in front of the Chicago offices of Rahm Emmanuel. She has singled out Emanuel for his unwillingness to use his influence within the Democratic Party to effect change.

This blog stands behind Elvira Arellano and Flor Crisostomo.

Related posts

• “We are all Elvira” (8)
• The Fight Worth Fighting For (6)
• The American Empire: Conquest Through NAFTA (5)
• Striking Back (2)
• Shattered Dreams (8)

Tags: border, Elvira Arellano, Flor Crisostomo, Immigration, undocumented immigrants, violence against women |  Print This Post |
functional