For decades there has been an increased militarization of the US-Mexico border. For most of the country’s history, the southwest has been culturally and economically connected to the northwest Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California Norte. After the 1980s, when hundreds of thousands of Central American refugees fled the wars in their countries and crossed our southern border, the US government began to construct walls and other barriers to stem the tide. In 1994, the government implemented Operation Gatekeeper, whose aim was to deter would-be migrants from crossing at the historic and well-worn crossings around the Tijuana/San Diego corridor. To some extent, the plan worked—fewer people crossed near the major population centers. But they did not stop coming. Instead, people were pushed out further and further into the extremely inhospitable terrain of the Sonora desert of southern Arizona. By the late 1990s, southern Arizona became the epicenter of a migration, and ground zero of an increasingly deadly journey. There do not appear to be good statistics of how many people die crossing into the US, but several thousand deaths have been documented over the last two decades, and it is estimated that several hundred die each year from dehydration, hypothermia, drowning, or exhaustion.
Read moreOPINION: A Lifeline at the Border: No More Deaths
My Immigration Story
A series of posts by Daryanani & Bland staff sharing their own “immigration” stories—how they (or their families) came to America and/or how they came to work in the immigration law field.
My immigration story begins when I discovered my grandfather had an accent. As a child, I never recognized his Irish “brogue” (the word supposedly comes from the idea that the Irish sounded as if they spoke with a shoe in their mouths—“bróg” is the word for shoe in Irish), distinctive after more than fifty years of life in the US. I heard no difference at all in how he spoke compared to how my parents or grandmother (native “noo yawkahs”) spoke.
My grandfather was born in the Lanes of Limerick, Ireland in 1912. These same Lanes were made famous in Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, and there has long been speculation in my family that the hearse driver mentioned in the book was my own great-grandfather. Who knows—people love a good yarn! Certainly Summer Street in Limerick—where my grandfather grew up—is a short walk from the home described in McCourt’s book. My grandfather had a 6th grade education but was among the most intellectual and well-read people I ever met. As a child during the Irish Civil War, he ran across enemy lines to deliver messages to the Irish Republican Army fighting the Provisional Government over the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Following the war—as before it—he and his family struggled to survive in the urban slums, and it was no surprise that he would follow in the footsteps of millions of his countrymen and women and take the boat to America. He arrived in New York City at age sixteen in 1928. His name was Jack Bray.
Read more"Shakedown: How Deportation Robs Immigrants of Their Money and Belongings"
Out of the 400,000 people deported from the US in fiscal year 2013, nearly one third were deported without their money or personal belongings, a new report by No More Deaths says. Using data from No More Deaths' Property Recovery Assistance Project, the report argues that dispossession has become a prevalent and dangerous deportation practice. The report explains the three main ways whereby immigrants being deported lose their money and/or their belongings: complete failure of US officials to return money and belongings before they are deported; cash or funds returned in forms that cannot generally be accessed internationally, such as personal checks, money orders, or prepaid debit cards; and, least common, money directly stolen by US agents.
While the report acknowledges that some Customs and Border Protection (CBP) "agents have indicated that they go out of their way to ensure the return of confiscated belongings," these officers "view this activity as a favor outside of the scope of their duties." This view as well as comments by "higher-level officials suggest a willingness, at all levels of CBP, to use the power to seize belongings at will rather than in accordance with the law."
While the money lost is generally valued at under $100 USD per person, nevertheless this amount represents significant funds for many deported immigrants. As a result of their loss of funds or property, these immigrants reported that they could not afford to travel home, afford shelter or food, were unable to obtain employment due to loss of identification documents, or were exposed to dangers such as threats, robbery, or attacks. This is not to mention the psychological trauma of the loss of personal keepsake and family heirloom items.
The report recommends that detained immigrants be granted access to vital belongings including medications while in custody, that belongings should never be destroyed while detained immigrants are serving a sentence, and that funds are provided to immigrants in cash before they are deported.
In response to the allegations, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Marsha Catron said in an email that the "agency has standards to ensure detainees' property is safeguarded and returned when they are released or deported" and that any "'allegation of missing property will be thoroughly investigated[.]'"
Amnesty International on US-Mexico Border
"Many thousands of Mexicans (in particular) leave their homeland due to economic and social pressures and go in search of a better livelihood north of the border. Amnesty International does not take issue with the sovereign right of the United States to police its international borders in order to determine whether individuals have the legal right to enter the country. But it must do so in a manner which complies with its international human rights obligations."
- United States of America: Human Rights Concerns in the Border Region with Mexico
Opinion: Crisis at the Border
The surge in Central American children crossing the US-Mexico border over the last nine months has been all over the news, and has revealed some of the best—and worst—of this country. Surely, the increase in the number of children crossing the border has overwhelmed the US Border Patrol, who are far more used to arresting adults running from them than children running toward them, and are, moreover, entirely unequipped to care for and house these children. In many instances, these children have fled horrific gang violence and crushing poverty, and have come to the US in search of parents that they have not seen for most of their lives. This difficult situation has exposed the fault lines in American politics and given opportunities for people across the political spectrum to show their true colors.
The surge of new arrivals has provided fodder for Republican criticisms of President Obama as an “Amnesty President.” The president’s meager administrative measures to provide relief to the undocumented are blamed for fueling rumors that children will get a “permiso” if they can make it to the other side of the Rio Grande. (Calling Obama the “Amnesty President” is, of course, baseless posturing given the hard cold facts that many more people have been deported under the Obama administration than during any of his predecessors’ administrations, notwithstanding recent reports that deportations have actually decreased 20% in the last year compared to the year before).
Read moreCNN: “Journalist Jose Vargas, symbol of immigration debate, detained at airport”
Jose Vargas, an award-winning journalist and prominent activist for undocumented immigrants, was detained this morning by US Customs and Border Protection at McAllen-Miller International Airport. Mr. Vargas was in McAllan, Texas (near the US/Mexican border) to report on the plight of undocumented immigrants (in particular, the surge of Central American children crossing the border, which we previously discussed) and he wrote he only become aware after traveling to the area that “for an undocumented immigrant like me, getting out of a border town in Texas—by plane or by land—won’t be easy. It might, in fact, be impossible.” His only documentation, he tweeted earlier this morning, was his Philippine passport and pocketbook US Constitution.
UPDATE: Mr. Vargas was released Tuesday evening with a notice to appear before an immigration judge. Department of Homeland Security officials said in a statement "they had released Mr. Vargas because he had no prior immigration or criminal record" and "their focus was on deporting immigrants who posed security threats."