(Kudos to Todd Miller from The Border Chronicle for the above photo taken on election day on the south side of the wall. Notice that the flag is made from human clothing. )

THIS IS NOT THE MESSAGE I EVER WANTED TO SEND BUT WE ARE IMMEDIATELY SUSPENDING OUR WEDNESDAY COLLECTIONS UNTIL SOMETIME AFTER INAUGURATION DAY .

(If you have already purchased GoBag or medical supplies please email me because we will accept them.)

Texas is already acting as if the new administration were in place and will be cracking down big time not only on migrants but non-profits. Remember Ken Paxton and Annunciation House in El Paso?!  And all legal asylum seekers coming through our region of the country come through El Paso. Even Border Servant Corps (BSC) in Las Cruces will be shuttering after December 31st.

All GoBag supplies will be sent to BSC because they are currently still receiving hundreds of guests per week. We will stay in touch with Deming and BSC about how to support where we can.

We are sure that just because legal migration may be brought to a standstill other emergencies will ensue. Hopefully the state of New Mexico will stand up now that federal monies will stop. Both sides of the border will be in crisis mode.

If you have made, or continue to make financial contributions to our Border Justice Project, we will maintain and disburse those funds to serve the same populations we originally committed to in Deming and Palomas. We just have no idea what that will look like. I will continue writing emails as we know more.

In keeping with Thanksgiving, I am ever so grateful and blessed by your support and participation through all these years. And we are not giving up!

If you live in the Grant County area, Silver City Indivisible 2.0 (indivisible.org) will be meeting Monday, December 9th from 5-7 at The Hearth, 1915 N Swan Street (the former Presbyterian Church). Immigration is not the only item on the agenda but anyone interested is invited to attend. Bring your own brown bag snack and beverage.

And wanting to finish on a positive note, I need to give a big thank you to everyone who helped fill Peter’s truck and trailer for Border Partners earlier this month. It’s hard to tell from the photo but there’s an incredible amount of tools and equipment packed in there. Peter drove across the next day to Palomas and was eagerly received!

We will be able to sponsor another collection for Border Partners in January. Probably looking at used medical equipment as well as more shop and gardening tools.

My wish is that you spend all the coming holidays with those you love and care about. That’s where we gather the energy that sustains us going forward to build a world we’re proud to live in.   ~Barbara