Gabriela Castañeda
Gabriela Castañeda is the Communications Director for Border Network for Human Rights, one of the most established collectives of migrant rights defenders at the US-Mexico border. She began as a volunteer for BNHR in 2004, then served as BNHR East El Paso Office Director. She is a renowned advocate for undocumented communities in Texas, and oversees all communications for BNHR. For her public work defending immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, undocumented peoples, and mixed families in Texas, she has received death threats via social media and email, and subjected to years of state harassment and judicial proceedings related to her legal status in the United States.
Gabriela Castañeda and Adrián Hernández saw each other briefly at the
Hugs Not Walls Event on the border between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez in 2018.
HRDS in the USA have been subjected to acts of harassment, intimidation, death threats, stigmatization and restrictions have been placed on their freedoms of expression, assembly and association. Some defenders have also been dismissed from their jobs and been prevented from earning a living, are subject to spurious legal proceedings, and have been arrested, detained, placed under house arrest, beaten and been victims of violent and armed attacks.
