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DREAMers Moms Tijuana – Yolanda Varona

In 2011, Yolanda Varona was unexpectedly separated from her children at the end of a trip across the border.  She was deported to Mexico.

As Varona found ways to connect with her children and worked toward being with them again, she helped other deported mothers to find services and resources.  Varona became the Founder and Director of DREAMers Moms in Tijuana, Mexico, as many of the women, Varona worked with were mothers of children with US citizenship or qualify for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), otherwise known as DREAMers.

In 2019, Mari McMenamin, Dana Schuerholz and I traveled to San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico to cover border stories and listened to Varona’s story of deportation and efforts to connect with her daughter. 

Producers: Mari McMenamin, Laura Florez. Special thanks to Magdaleno Rose-Avila of Building Bridges for inspiring us to pick up this story and for connecting us to the speakers.

Photos: Dana Schuerholz, Mari McMenamin

  

 

   

 

 

Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Day

 
On Wednesday Feb. 7, the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN) and many immigrants and allies will gather at the state capitol building for a rally in support of WAISN’s 2024 immigrant justice campaigns.  The campaigns are for Health Equity for Immigrants to provide equal access to healthcare for all low-income Washingtonians, regardless of their immigration status, and Unemployment Insurance for Undocumented Workers to create a permanent, separate unemployment system that provides benefits to undocumented workers.
 
The Olympia City Council will also sign a proclamation designating February 7, 2024 as Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Day.
 
KBCS spoke with WAISN Executive Director, Catalina Velasquez about the work by immigrants and allies in the movement of advocating for immigrant communities, the campaigns and the event.
 
Producer: Yuko Kodama
Photo: WAISN

KBCS Border Stories – Living Undocumented

How does being undocumented impact your life? Does it impact where you go shopping for groceries, where you rent your apartment, whether you drive or buy a car or have access to a cell phone? Dulce Garcia, Executive Director of Border Angels, speaks to how being undocumented shaped who she is today.

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How the Indigenous Community Assisted the Fort Sill Protest

Paul Tomita is a third generation Japanese American who attended a protest in June, against the Trump Administration’s plans to incarcerate 1400 children at US army post, Fort Sill this month.  The organizers of the event were Japanese American, and some were elders who had experienced forced relocation and incarceration by the United States government during World War II.

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