While the U.S. government is passing anti-immigration laws that put a more militarized presence on the border, Coalación de Derechos Humanos, a local non-profit group, works to educate the public about human rights and injustices happening at the border everyday.

Kat Rodriguez, coordinator for Derechos Humanos, said the group's main goal from the beginning was to “document abuse by law enforcement.” This goal has evolved into much more, and the group is now educating the community about the true crisis the border is facing.

“We are committed to really educating the community on how to enforce their own rights, (and) really how to create their own rights,” said Isabel Garcia, co-director of Derechos Humanos. “We do the work of the ant, little by little trying to create political conditions for major change.”

Garcia, along with Lupe Castillo and Margo Cowan, founded Derechos Humanos in 1993 with support from grants and private donations. The three women worked together in the 70s at the Manzo Area Council, once a federally-funded social service center dedicated to immigrant rights.

After the shut down of Manzo, initiated by President Lyndon B. Johnson, Derechos Humanos was born to do human rights work in the community, Garcia said.

Currently, the main focus of Derechos Humanos has evolved to “documenting abuse by border patrol, highway patrol, police and sheriffs officers around the border and in the Tucson community,” Rodriguez said.

According to Rodriguez, most labor abuse issues arise when someone doesn’t get paid for their work or is being mistreated on the job.

Twice a week, Derechos Humanos hosts an abuse clinic where they provide legal advice to visitors, and Garcia said most of the cases concern people facing labor abuses.

Derechos Humanos also educates the community about their rights by using presentations and training sessions.

Beyond educating the Tucson community, Derechos Humanos has also created alliances with other groups on local, national and international levels. They work to unite organizations and create an opportunity for dialogue. But Rodriguez said the government’s response to immigration is causing division in the entire community.

“We have worked with environmentalists, union groups, (and) religious groups,” Rodriguez said, “because it really is about creating a space for communities to talk about what’s going on, rather than the government splitting us up.”

Derechos Humanos has alliances with Wingspan, Southern Arizona’s resource center for the LGBT community, No More Deaths and Humane Borders. The latter two are faith-based humanitarian groups in Tucson.

“Uniting to discuss those issues is a way that we can all win,” Rodriguez said. “We can all work together in making our communities more just.”

While Derechos Humanos and the other organizations are allies, they each have their own separate role and contribution to the border.

“We can do what we do because we know they’re doing (what they are, and) they can do what they do because they know we’re doing this,” Rodriguez said.

The work that Derechos Humanos does has had a big impact on the border, and they’re holding the community accountable for the kinds of mistreatments that have gone previously undocumented, said Ani Goodenberger, Humane Borders’ program coordinator.

“They’ve had a great role in bringing the human rights violations that have been happening at the border to light. They’re not letting people get away with the kinds of mistreatment of people that they’ve gotten away with before,” Goodenberger said.

While Garcia describes the current status of the border region as a “complete crisis,” she is hopeful her organization and its allies can create a safe environment for workers in any country.

“Our vision is to have countries where workers can migrate, and to have
countries where workers can stay in their homes and not have to migrate. Our vision is to have human rights protected for all of those contexts."