After Little Girl's Plea, Woman Going To Border To Help Migrants

SOUTHAMPTON, NY — A local woman is putting her beliefs into action, traveling from the Hamptons to the border, where she said she will help migrants.

Lisa Votino-Tarrant, who lives on the Shinnecock Reservation, explained that she is traveling with the Sanctuary Caravan, which is part of the New Sanctuary Coalition.

According to the Sanctuary Caravan's Facebook page: "Asylum seekers and refugees fleeing violence and persecution need safe passage, but they are being met instead with tear gas, hate speech, and a militarized border. We invite you to stand for justice by joining the Sanctuary Caravan, a call by New Sanctuary Coalition to thousands of loving minded people to spend 40 days and 40 nights at the border to meet, witness and accompany the exodus of people fleeing to the U.S. for sanctuary. We believe that people have the right to migrate. We further believe that the current violence — both physical and bureaucratic — being directed at asylum seekers who have gathered at the border is immoral. We are committed to nonviolence, and we are equally committed to standing for dignity, liberty and equality for all people."

Volunteers, the page said, will be trained to conduct a pro se legal clinic to assist and empower people to advocate for and represent themselves as they seek asylum; they will also follow up with those who are detained to regain their liberty and organize at home to welcome migrants as they reach their final destination.

Votino-Tarrant said she will be supporting migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, on the Tijuana side, with their asylum applications; she may also going with people to turn themselves over to U.S. authorities, she said.

Votino-Tarant posted on social media about her upcoming journey. "It's happening! I leave this Friday morning for the border with the Sanctuary Caravan. I'll be in San Diego for a day of training and then to Tijuana until Feb. 4."

To help with financing the effort, Votino-Tarrant organized a GoFundMe page, "Support My Work With The Sanctuary Caravan"; donations, she said, are still greatly appreciated.

Votino-Tarrant said she had been thinking of volunteering since she is familiar with migrant shelters and the immigration issues and U.S. policy "that has contributed to all of this."

But, she said, her young daughter made the difference. "Lily cemented it for me," she said. "We were watching the news one night and she asked if I could go to the border and help those families. And I really didn't have a reason to say 'no' and all the reasons to say 'yes.'"

On her GoFundMe page, Votino-Tarrant wrote: "I am asking you to support my work with the Sanctuary Caravan at this time when the most vulnerable among us are being targeted by hateful rhetoric and physical violence."

Votino-Tarrant added that she believes people have the right to migrate.

"For those who have no idea who I am, I have been a community organizer for over 15 years. I work mostly on civil rights and human rights issues. I have always told people that I go where I'm needed and people are currently needed in Tijuana. It is also prompted by my 6-year-old daughter Lily who has demanded I go to help. She is firmly against the wall and believes we should help everyone seeking asylum — yeah, my kid is kind of awesome.

"As she put it, 'Those are new friends, Mama, can you go help them?' Yes, Lily, I can," she wrote.

Patch photo courtesy Lisa Votino-Tarrant.