PRONOUNCEMENT: CROSSING FRONTIERS / CONNECTING HUMANITY

Representatives of 15 organizations from 10 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Canada, Japan and the United States, below as signatories, gathered in Alamo, Rio Grande Valley, Texas, USA to participate in Crossing Borders/Sharing Humanity. Learning from one another through popular education, we focused our attention on Human Migration and Human Trafficking.


As such, we denounce the criminalization of migration and affirm:

1. Migration is a worldwide phenomenon that is manifested by the movement of people in search of a better life. 
2. People do not choose to migrate. They do so to escape poverty and/or violence. Migration causes people to be estranged from their homeland, their culture and their family. 
3. Migrants are human beings and should be treated and respected in their entirety. 
4. The greater the restriction in laws and the higher the walls, the greater the risk people will undertake in their search of a better life. The implementation of measures of persecution and exclusion, and the laws that generate repression benefit clandestine and criminal organizations that profit from the suffering of others.
5. Current immigration policies are unacceptable and degrading. They create an environment that fosters human trafficking and increases the risk of the most vulnerable sectors. 
6. Victims of Trafficking live in silence and intimidation. Discrimination, objectification and oppression, especially towards women and girls, condemn them to situations of profound exploitation.

We call on governments to:
- Implement changes needed to guarantee a dignified life for all people so that every person can exercise their right to migrate or their right not to migrate.
- Guarantee the labor rights of workers
- Provide safety, dignified treatment, and respect for Human Rights of each and every migrant

We are committed to:
• continue working to respect the universal human rights of migrants.
• continue to advocate for immigration reform in our countries in an effort to guarantee the safety of migrants so they do not become the prey of groups operating outside the law
• continue to welcome, promote, protect and integrate migrants in our own organizations.
• denounce trafficking in persons and everything that leads to it
• strengthen our work by participating in networks in favor of migrants and victims of trafficking.


April 13, 2018  Alamo, Rio Grande Valley, TX