For more information on Pueblo Sin Fronteras, see Centro Sin Fronteras and La Familia Latina Unida (Nonprofits)

The Pueblo Sin Fronteras (“People Without Borders”) is a project of La Familia Latina Unida, a Chicago, Illinois-based 501(c)(4) illegal immigration advocacy organization formed in 2001 by Elvira Arellano, an activist for immigrants living illegally in the United States. The organization is affiliated with the Chicago-based 501(c)(3) pro-illegal immigration groups Centro Sin Fronteras and Pueblo Sin Fronteras. Together, the organizations have been involved in organizing approximately 1,000 economic migrants from Central America to attempt to cross the U.S. and Mexican borders illegally since 2010.^[1]

Organizational Overview

Pueblo Sin Fronteras and La Familia Latina Unida, its sponsor, are regularly listed together, including on the latter’s website and their respective social media pages.^[2]

Emma Lozano, a left-wing activist and pastor at the Lincoln United Methodist Church in Chicago, Illinois, is listed as executive director of Pueblo Sin Fronteras. ^[3] Lozano is also president and founder of the Centro Sin Fronteras.^[4] She is the sister of the late Rudy Lozano, a left-wing activist and community organizer in Chicago, Illinois.^[5] Lozano is also a pastor at the Lincoln United Methodist Church in Chicago, along with her husband, the pastor Walter “Slim” Coleman. ^{[6] [7]}

Illegal immigration activist Roberto Corona is the founder of Pueblo Sin Fronteras.^[8]

Pueblo Sin Fronteras is a member of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, a left-wing coalition of immigrant activist groups.^[9]

Illegal Immigrant Caravans

April 2018 Caravan

Also see Centro Sin Fronteras (Nonprofit)

In Spring 2018, hundreds of migrants from Central America approached the U.S.-Mexico border seeking asylum in the United States and threatening to enter illegally if their request was denied. Pueblo Sin Fronteras organized the caravan in conjunction with the CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project.^{[10] [11]} The CARA coalition consists of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, the American Immigration Council, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association, all groups advocating for legal status for illegal immigrants and expanded immigration overall.^[12]  These organizations have been funded by a number of major left-of-center grantmaking foundations, including the Open Society Foundations, MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Carnegie Corporation of New York. ^[13] The caravan eventually halted in Mexico City on April 4 instead of reaching the United States border.^[14]

In a press release released by Pueblo Sin Fronteras on March 23, 2018, the group “demand[ed]” the governments of Mexico and the United States “open the[ir] borders to us because we are as much citizens as the people of the counties where we are and/or travel.” Other demands were “that deportations, which destroy families, come to an end” and “that the U.S. government not end TPS [Temporary Protected Status] for those who need it.” ^[15] Temporary Protected Status is a status designated by the Secretary of Homeland Security which grants eligible foreign nationals protected status during “extraordinary and temporary conditions.”^[16] The demands appear to violate U.S. law, which prohibits behavior by individuals that “encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States” illegally.^[17]

The press release was co-signed by Roberto Corona, the founder of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, and Alex Mensing, an organizer with the group.^[18]

Pueblo Sin Fronteras has reportedly organized roughly 1,000 immigrants in caravans to attempt to enter the U.S. and Mexico illegally since 2010, primarily from Honduras and El Salvador:^[19]

“The idea behind an organized group journey is to alleviate some danger on the long trip, through the simple principle of safety in numbers. Pueblo Sin Fronteras has its own organizers to handle logistics, and each individual is responsible for their own provision of food, water, and funding for transportation, should it be necessary. Groups are created by Pueblo Sin Fronteras; each composed of about 15 individuals under one leader. Five groups are then organized into a sector. This is how the caravan is structured and maintains order as the group moves northward.”

October 2018 Caravan

In mid-October 2018, another caravan of roughly 4,000 to 7,000 immigrants seeking illegal entry into the United States was launched from Central America. The caravan, which first crossed the Guatemalan border into Mexico illegally on October 19, was organized by at least one activist from Pueblo Sin Fronteras, identified as Denis Omar Contreras (sometimes spelled “Contera” or “Contrera.”^[20] A second Pueblo Sin Fronteras activist, Rodrigo Abeja, was later identified as “traveling with the migrants.”^[21] Abeja was noted as being “one of the caravan’s leaders” in the Washington Post.^[22] He was also a caravan leader in the April 2018 caravan.^[23]

After President Donald Trump warned the governments of Honduras and Guatemala that they would be cut off from American foreign aid for failing to control the flow of illegal migrant caravans to the U.S., Pueblo Sin Fronteras accused the Central American countries of adopting “a policy of fear and racism imposed by the United States.”^[24]

Pueblo Sin Fronteras activist Alex Mensing has claimed that “[t]here’s no one in charge of this thing [the caravan].”^[25] At an October 19 protest in San Francisco, California, however, Mensing denounced efforts to control the flow of illegal immigrant caravans from Central America:^[26]

“It’s time the Guatemalan government stand up for its Honduran brothers and sisters,” said Alex Mensing with the San Francisco-based organization Pueblo Sin Fronteras, a group that advocates for migrants’ human rights. “The people who are currently fleeing Honduras are being forcibly displaced from their country … and that is a direct result of the corrupt Honduran government and U.S. intervention and support for that corrupt government.”

On October 18, Pueblo Sin Fronteras activist Irineo Mujica, who holds dual American and Mexican citizenship, was arrested by Mexican officials during a pro-illegal immigration protest held in Ciudad Hidalgo, near the Mexico-Guatemala border.^[27] While Pueblo Sin Fronteras activist Alex Mensing told reporters Mujica was not involved in organizing the October 2018 caravan, Mujica is listed as one of two Mexico-based contacts for a press release following the March 2018 Pueblo Sin Fronteras caravans.^[28]

The caravan met with criticism from many American pro-legal immigration groups, which wrote that “bowing to this migration blackmail would produce an American political backlash that would damage the cause of legal immigration and a humane refugee policy.”^[29] David Frum, a moderate Republican and writer for the Atlantic, noted that the caravan’s slogan was “People without borders,” adding that it “chimes with the rising sentiment among liberals that border-enforcement is inherently illegitimate, and usually racist, too.”^[30]

Leadership

Activists

Alex Mensing is an organizer and program coordinator for Pueblo Sin Fronteras and its affiliates. ^[31] Mensing has spent a significant amount of time with economic migrants in Central America and organizing illegal immigrant caravans to the United States.^[32]

Irineo Mujica, an Arizona-based activist holding dual United States and Mexican citizenship, is a caravan organizer for Pueblo Sin Fronteras.^[33] In October 2018, he was arrested by Mexican officials in Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, for his involvement in a pro-illegal immigration protest.^[34]

Rodrigo Abeja is an activist and organizer for Pueblo Sin Fronteras. He has been involved in at least two caravans from Central America to the U.S. and Mexico.^[35] [36]