On Dec. 6 student activist groups gathered at the quad to collect supplies for the migrant caravan that is assembled along the U.S-Mexico border. Nathaniel McGuigan, minister of communication for the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) and biology senior, helped spearhead the event.
“We are out here collecting donations that will be sent down to the border to support the migrant caravan coming from Honduras and other countries,” McGuigan said.
The donation drive was put on by members of PSL, Earth Guardians and Moviemiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MECHA). McGuigan said that the donations will be driven to southern California and given to the Border Angels, a volunteer non-profit organization advocating for human rights along the U.S-Mexico border, on Dec. 16.
The caravan includes people from a variety of Central American countries. Members of the caravan first started their journey north around mid-October. President Trump infamously sent 5,200 troops to the border just before the midterm elections to “secure the border and make America safe.”
However, the way the federal government has been handling the migrant caravan is one of many reasons people showed up to support those coming to the U.S. Annie Bond is double-majoring in art education and studio arts and showed up in the quad to support the migrants.
“Everyone deserves a place on Earth and we are pushing them out of their countries through corrupt political practices,” Bond said.
Bond believes countries need to expand to be a global community because of the problems of climate change. A recent report from the World Bank Group found that by 2050, “over 143 million people…could be forced to move within their own countries to escape the slow-onset impacts of climate change.” The report also highlighted that “the poorest and most climate-vulnerable areas will be hardest hit.”
Human rights advocate Jack Nounnan said he came to show support for migrants and to protest the federal government’s family separation policy.
“The event is a vendetta against [the government] taking away children,” Nounnan said.
Early this year, it was reported by major news outlets that the federal government had separated 2,654 children from their parents. The family separation policy has ended, but a family detention policy is still in place. Bond and McGuigan believe that U.S. policies are contributing factors to why people are fleeing Central American countries. Bond thinks the U.S. needs to do more to help migrants coming here.
“We can’t keep being separatists,” Bond said. “It’s important to show solidarity because it is the foundation of humanity and community. At the end of the day [solidarity] is the end-all-be-all of why community exists.
People can contact Simone McGowan of Earth Guardians if they would like to drop off donations anytime before Dec. 16
