Network looking for volunteers to document abuses

Volunteers are being recruited in San Luis, Ariz., and elsewhere in Yuma County to document allegations of rights violations by law enforcement agencies and other organizations.

The recruitment effort is the campaign of Tucson-based Border Action Network, which describes its mission as working with immigrants and border city residents to ensure their rights are upheld.

Julissa Villa, the network's organizing coordinator, attended a recent Neighborhood Watch group meeting in San Luis to line up volunteers for a training workshop the organization plans to host in San Luis July 12.

Villa said the volunteers' task would not to be to investigate individual claims of abuse but to document patterns of violations against immigrants and other border residents, whether by law enforcement agencies or school systems.

“The documenters are going to receive instruction in the Constitution, civil rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and they are going to learn to find those patterns,” she said. “They aren't going to process individual complaints, although we can show them how to do that.”

Formed in 1999, the Border Action Network combines grassroots community organizing, leadership development, litigation and policy advocacy to ensure the rights of immigrant and border communities in Arizona, according to its website. Known by its acronym BAN, the organization has signed on as a plaintiff in one of seven lawsuits filed against the state's anti-illegal immigration law, Senate Bill 1070, signed into law a year ago by Gov. Jan. Brewer.

Mily Verdugo, a representative for BAN in Yuma, said the network will also go to Somerton to seek out volunteers. Those interested can reach her at 1-928-627-5217.