tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56782279507881514392024-03-14T03:34:26.757-07:00Border Journey: The heart of solidarityBorder Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-90730023648615646452017-01-20T06:19:00.000-08:002017-01-20T06:22:33.192-08:00Confronting racism and lies<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
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<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> The billionaire
real estate developer that just moved into government-subsidized housing in
Washington, D.C. said during the campaign that Mexico was sending rapists and
criminals to the U.S. I’ve met with many
people here in Nogales that have just been deported from the U.S. They’ve told me, often with tears in their
eyes, that they made the risky journey to the U.S. in search of work so that
they could provide for their families back home in Mexico or Central America.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Donald Trump’s
racism and lies are very offensive and troubling, but racism and an inability
to tell the truth have a long bipartisan history in the White House and
congress. He plans to continue, and
expand, the border enforcement policies that were developed by his
predecessors. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> The spouse of the
candidate that received three million votes more than Trump built the initial
Nogales Wall in 1994 – the same year that the North America Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) was implemented. Bill
Clinton worked very hard during his first year in office to push NAFTA through
congress.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> NAFTA enabled U.S.
corporations to more easily establish assembly plants in Mexico where the
minimum wage is now just $4 per day. It
also enabled U.S. agribusiness to sell subsidized corn at prices so low that
Mexican farmers could not compete. Two
million farmers lost their lands in Mexico during the first 10 years of NAFTA.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background: white;"> Landless farmers
and impoverished workers crossed into the U.S. in order to provide for their
families and the Clinton administration responded by creating the first
national strategy for the Border Patrol: “Prevention through Deterrence.” </span>The goal was to “Raise the risk…to the
point that many will consider it futile to attempt illegal entry… Illegal
traffic will be deterred, or forced over more hostile terrain, less suited for
crossing.” The bodies of more than 7,000
people have been recovered along the southern border since that policy was
implemented.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> The president that Hillary Clinton served
as secretary of state replaced the initial Nogales Wall with a taller and
stronger wall in 2011 – at a cost of $4.1 million per mile. During that same time, the Obama
administration spent $187 million to modernize the Mariposa port-of-entry to
make it easier for hundreds of diesel trucks to cross daily with products made
in the assembly plants of Nogales.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> “Free trade” agreements like NAFTA enable
capital to easily cross borders in the search for higher profit but do not
allow workers to cross those same borders in order to provide for their
families. There are nearly 100 assembly
plants in Nogales that employ 37,000 workers.
It appears that the primary purpose of the Nogales Wall is to keep workers
on the cheaper side of the wall and continuing to assemble products for U.S.
corporations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> The Obama administration also invested in
the technology used by Israel to enforce borders on the Palestinian
people. Elbit Systems was paid $23
million to construct seven surveillance towers along the Nogales section of the
border. Those towers give the Border
Patrol complete radar control of the border and feature long-range cameras and
night observation systems to detect people that are attempting to cross into
the U.S. to escape from poverty and violence.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> “Because we live in an age where
terrorists are challenging our borders, we can not allow people to pour into
the U.S. undetected, undocumented and unchecked,” said the previous president during
his first campaign in 2008. He went on
to forcibly remove 2.7 million people of color from the country during his
eight years in office.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Donald Trump wants to surpass that record
set by Barack Obama. This makes it even
more necessary now to confront racism and lies, and to act in solidarity with
the people that are suffering from U.S. economic and immigration policies. </span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2M1XrRhe4QeJhiz6Nt-gDrPSLRgYtpjMfHF1To2_RDo0sg41nhZHEnMmXz884Qk_9yqzn1eStlLFX7aN1NkcMMZ3wdKmI8A9D9Qj_NAxxOgSNzrbhP2qEprVRrSsWInrqzG_Whpb5uk25/s1600/Trump+Golf+Club+Banner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2M1XrRhe4QeJhiz6Nt-gDrPSLRgYtpjMfHF1To2_RDo0sg41nhZHEnMmXz884Qk_9yqzn1eStlLFX7aN1NkcMMZ3wdKmI8A9D9Qj_NAxxOgSNzrbhP2qEprVRrSsWInrqzG_Whpb5uk25/s320/Trump+Golf+Club+Banner.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My sister and me at the Trump National Golf Club of Los Angeles</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-68184041403647151092016-10-18T07:01:00.002-07:002016-10-18T07:09:18.350-07:00Border Convergence<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Hundreds of people gathered on both sides
of the border wall that separates Nogales, Sonora from Nogales, Arizona on
October 8 and 9. The convergence was organized by SOA Watch to
protest the militarization of the border that is causing so much suffering and
death for our migrant sisters and brothers.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> This militarization was started by Bill
Clinton and has been further escalated by Barack Obama. A “crisis” of unaccompanied minors that were
fleeing violence and poverty in Central America and seeking refuge in the U.S.
occurred during summer 2014. The response
of the Obama administration was to pressure the Mexican government to further
militarize its southern border with Guatemala.
Millions of dollars were given to implement Plan Frontera Sur (Southern
Border Plan) which placed more immigration agents and checkpoints in southern
Mexico.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Sister Guadalupe; of the Hermanos en el
Camino shelter in Ixtepec, Oaxaca; told us that the militarization in southern
Mexico has forced migrants to pass through more isolated, and dangerous,
regions. She said that nine of every ten
migrants arriving at the shelter have been assaulted, and more than half the
women have been raped. Mexico is now
deporting more Central Americans than the U.S., and this repression and
violence have reduced the number of people arriving at the U.S. border. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> “I very much appreciate Mexico’s efforts
in addressing the unaccompanied children who we saw spiking during the summer,”
said Obama in January 2015. “In part,
because of strong efforts by Mexico, including at its southern border, we’ve
seen those numbers reduced back to much more manageable levels.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> The Nogales Wall was first built by the
Clinton administration in October 1994 – just three months after he visited the
site of the former Berlin Wall. The
Obama administration built a taller, and stronger, border wall in the summer of
2011.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> “We celebrate unity,” Clinton had said in
Berlin. “We stand where crude walls of
concrete separated mother from child, and we meet as one family. We stand where those who sought a new life
instead found death. Berliners, you have
proved that no wall can forever contain the mighty power of freedom.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> The Clinton administration created the Border
Patrol’s first national strategy in 1994, “Prevention through Deterrence.” The goal was to “Raise the risk…to the point
that many will consider it futile to attempt illegal entry… Illegal traffic
will be deterred, or forced over more hostile terrain, less suited for
crossing.” Since then, the bodies of
more than 6,000 people have been found in the southern border region. The actual death toll is much higher because
many bodies are never found. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Last month, we commemorated the 15th
anniversary of the attacks of September 11 and I found myself reflecting on how
we define terrorism. It seems to me that
terrorism involves the use of violence, targeting civilians, to achieve a
political objective. Thousands of
civilians have now died after being forced over hostile terrain along the
border in order to deter people from entering the U.S. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> “No más, no more, tear down the border
walls!” we chanted during the litany for those victims at the end of the
convergence here in Nogales.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7jFIrE9rEJ15B_AX41Aful_LCVlxwfr7JeMsxaA0LPQGXMbFgSs_fFUM0wFKfZl5DofYpAGRNTnwCliO9YT8PbhX38t6OZ5vXXQhAzaJAsN1AeAGjxk6v8DMhlzbfNAFWA3n7p0LYmv_s/s1600/March+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7jFIrE9rEJ15B_AX41Aful_LCVlxwfr7JeMsxaA0LPQGXMbFgSs_fFUM0wFKfZl5DofYpAGRNTnwCliO9YT8PbhX38t6OZ5vXXQhAzaJAsN1AeAGjxk6v8DMhlzbfNAFWA3n7p0LYmv_s/s320/March+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">A deported mother and veterans, followed by Veterans for Peace, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">leading the march along the wall in Nogales,Sonora</span></td></tr>
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Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-20125065044477015622016-09-07T07:05:00.000-07:002016-09-07T07:08:29.310-07:00Woman with gun used to recruit for border enforcement<span style="background: white; font-family: inherit;">This billboard of a woman holding erect a
large gun could be Customs and Border Protection’s vision of gender equality or
it could be aimed at young men with high levels of testosterone and blind patriotism. The bodies of 49 people were found in the
desert of southern Arizona in June and July – victims of this militarization of
the border that forces migrants to the most deadly terrain for crossing into
the U.S. The woman and her gun are
featured on three billboards located alongside I-10 between Tucson and Phoenix.
Using this image to promote “America’s
Edge” on border enforcement illustrates the obscenity of current U.S. policy. </span><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwbn8Flrwutu1SLHSDuqw7aUHcntdQZjPhvfpVnQtThcHRHhj-T7phzNLVNf6KoTLJ_HGEmzaj68Dts3mVwM4E7fpxQPnWiucoVL4ddM0Hua4BbwpKnvp_1RwK45NjFbmUWaEFVh8NZsA-/s1600/CBP+billboard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwbn8Flrwutu1SLHSDuqw7aUHcntdQZjPhvfpVnQtThcHRHhj-T7phzNLVNf6KoTLJ_HGEmzaj68Dts3mVwM4E7fpxQPnWiucoVL4ddM0Hua4BbwpKnvp_1RwK45NjFbmUWaEFVh8NZsA-/s320/CBP+billboard.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-8480360691098194702016-05-09T07:27:00.002-07:002016-05-09T07:40:56.197-07:00Vigil to close the School of the Americas moving to Nogales<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> The movement to close the School of the
Americas (SOA) training center for Latin American soldiers has held an annual
vigil in front of the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia for 25 years. This year, the convergence will be moved here
to the Nogales Wall as an expression of resistance to the militarization of the
U.S.-Mexico border. The four-day event
will conclude on October 10 – the fourth anniversary of the murder of
16-year-old José Antonio Elena Rodriguez by a Border Patrol agent that fired into
Nogales, Sonora from Nogales, Arizona on October 10, 2012.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Father Roy Bourgeois, founder of SOA
Watch, visited Nogales in May 2013 and a vigil was held that evening at the
site where José Antonio was killed. He
presented José Antonio’s mother, Aracely, with a photo of him holding a cross
with her son’s name during the vigil at Fort Benning the previous November. The Home of Hope and Peace (HEPAC) was
honored to host another SOA Watch delegation that came to Nogales from April 28
to 30 in preparation for the vigil this October. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> The journey of SOA Watch from its
beginning in front of Fort Benning to the border in Nogales parallels my own
life journey over those same 26 years.
My first trip to Latin America was to the Mesa Grande refugee camp in
Honduras in September 1989. The camp was
home to thousands of people who had fled from the U.S.-sponsored war and
repression in El Salvador. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> A group of 500 people were preparing to
return to El Salvador the following month and we met with their “mesa
directiva” (elected leaders). Beto, Arturo,
Isabel, Neto, Eulalio and Miguel shared their stories with us and transformed
my life. “We are willing to risk our
lives, if need be, to bring our people back to El Salvador,” said Beto, the
president. “By claiming our right to
live as a civilian community in the countryside we believe we will be
contributing to the process of bringing peace to our homeland.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> They returned to Guancorita in El Salvador
on October 29 and found that most of the community had been destroyed by Air
Force bombing. A few weeks later, on
November 16, soldiers went into the Central America University in San Salvador
and murdered Father Ignacio Ellacuría (rector), five other Jesuit priests,
their housekeeper and her daughter. Many
of those responsible for the massacre had been trained at the School of the
Americas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Then on February 11, 1990, Guancorita was
attacked by the Air Force. Planes and
helicopters flew overhead for two hours and fired 15 rockets and 8 bombs around
the community. Four families that were
living beneath sheets of plastic ran to seek shelter in a house made out of
brick. One of the helicopters fired a
rocket that exploded inside the house – killing five people, including four
children, and wounding 16.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> We visited the community the following
month and Patrocinio leads us to “la casa de la masacre” (the house of the
massacre). We enter the house and there
is a huge stain spread across the right wall.
The bricks are pockmarked with holes from the “esquirlas” (rocket
shrapnel). Five crosses with the names
of the victims mark the sites where they died: “Isabel Lopez” and “Anabel Beatriz
Lopez” (Patrocinio’s 10-year-old and 2-year-old daughters), “Jose Guardado” and
“Blanca Lilia Guardado” (father and 2-year-old daughter), and “Dolores Serrano”
(10-years-old). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Patrocinio tells us about the attack and then
takes out his bandana and carefully unrolls it on the ground. Inside is a piece of the rocket, with the
markings in English. The rockets, the
bombs, the helicopters and planes had been paid for with our tax dollars.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> We meet Patrocinio’s spouse, Maria, that
afternoon in the neighboring community of Guarjila. Tears stream down her face as she tells us
about the death of her two daughters.
She is eight-months pregnant and shows us the shrapnel wounds on her
chest and upper legs. “It was a miracle
I didn’t lose my baby,” she says. Maria
gave birth to a girl who was named Isabel Beatriz in honor of her two sisters
that she never met.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> In July 1990, Guancorita was renamed
Comunidad Ignacio Ellacuría in honor of the rector of the Central America
University and in recognition that both the Jesuit community and Guancorita had
suffered massacres. In November of that
year, Father Roy and a few other people held a vigil at the gates of Ft.
Benning to commemorate the first anniversary of the massacre at the university. The vigil would grow over the years with the
participation of thousands of people every November. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Twenty two years after that first vigil, a
Border Patrol agent fires his pistol between the bars of the Nogales Wall at
José Antonio who is walking down below on International Street in Nogales,
Sonora. Lonnie Swartz empties the
13-round clip, puts in another clip, and then fires all the bullets in that one. He shoots José Antonio once in the head and
seven times in the back.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> I visited the site of the killing, on the
sidewalk in front of Dr. Contreras’ clinic, ten days later. The wall on the corner had seven bullet
holes, up high, with red circles around each one that had been drawn by police
investigators. A few feet away, the side
wall had three bullet holes down low, alongside the sidewalk where José Antonio
died. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> On November 2, Day of the Dead, HEPAC
helped organize the first procession and vigil to protest the murder of José
Antonio. Other vigils followed to
commemorate the six month, one year, year and a half, two year, and three year
anniversaries. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> We will gather together this October in
solidarity with the family of José Antonio and all victims of U.S.-sponsored
violence; including Isabel and Anabel Beatriz Lopez, Jose and Blanca Lilia
Guardado, and Dolores Serrano. We would
be honored to have you join us.</span></div>
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Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-60548688823657847292015-12-14T07:08:00.001-08:002015-12-14T07:12:40.465-08:00Paris climate summit ignores the reality of Nogales<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The neighborhood where I live in Nogales
is called Bella Vista (“Beautiful View”).
The view disappears in the haze on these winter mornings as desperate
impoverished people burn whatever they can to ward off the cold. This toxic reality of corporate “free trade”
was not addressed during the recent “Climate Change Conference” in Paris.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The U.S. government demanded that the
emissions reduction targets set by individual countries not be legally binding,
and that countries harmed by climate change should not be able to take legal
action for that damage. As reported by
Naomi Klein, that’s exactly opposite to the U.S. stance on “free trade” agreements
which are legally binding. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The North America Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) that converted Nogales into a sprawling industrial city enables
corporations to sue governments if the corporations feel they’re not being
treated fairly. The Trans-Pacific
Partnership trade agreement that was signed by the Obama administration in
October, and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership that is
currently being negotiated, both include legally-binding provisions for
corporations to sue governments.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Prior to the implementation of NAFTA, there
were trees on the hills around Nogales.
Twenty years later, there are nearly 100 “maquiladoras” (assembly
plants) and the trees are gone. The
products made in those plants can not be ones that are needed by the people of
Mexico but, by law, have to be exported.
The largest plant in Nogales is Chamberlain which employs more than
3,000 workers that make garage door openers.
There is only one house in our neighborhood with a garage, and it doesn’t
have a door.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Chamberlain; Kimberly-Clark; Master Lock;
Becton, Dickinson and Company; and other U.S. corporations have plants here to
take advantage of the cheap labor. The
minimum wage in Nogales, Sonora is $4.25 per day as compared to $8.05 per hour
in Nogales, Arizona. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The maquiladoras have access to all the
water and electricity they need to make products that freely cross the border
but the workers do not enjoy that same privilege. The water in our neighborhood is purchased
from tanker trucks that fill storage tanks located on the rooves of homes. Drinking water is bought from pick-up trucks
that drive through loaded with 5-gallon jugs.
The price of electricity explains the haze in the air and the occasional
house fire in winter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The U.S. government recently spent $187
million to modernize the port-of-entry to make it easier for hundreds of diesel
trucks to cross the border daily with products from the maquiladoras, and produce
grown in the states of Sonora and Sinaloa.
<span style="background: white;">The government also spent tens of millions
of dollars to install a taller, and stronger, border wall to ensure that
workers do not leave the maquiladoras in search of higher pay in the U.S.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> As long as “free
trade” is protected more than the environment and workers, corporations will
continue to warm our planet to dangerous levels. However, as Naomi Klein writes in her book “This
Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate,” “Climate change – if treated
as a true planetary emergency – could become a galvanizing force for humanity,
leaving us all not just safer from extreme weather, but with societies that are
safer and fairer in all kinds of other ways as well…It really is the case that
we are on our own and any credible source of hope in this crisis will have to
come from below.” </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
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Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-1238075535868793082015-02-02T15:45:00.001-08:002015-02-02T15:50:23.405-08:00Gaza in Arizona<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">I saw heavy
machinery up ahead as I parked on the ridge road a few miles north of the border
with Mexico.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">When I got out of the car,
I could see a tower in the east and another one in the north.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">None of that had been there the last time I
was on that ridge just three months ago and I was curious to get a closer look
when I returned from the hike.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background: white; font-family: inherit;"> The machinery was
at a construction site on top of a hill with an extensive view. “Do not enter. This site is under video surveillance,” read
the signs, in English and Spanish, along the perimeter of the site.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background: white; font-family: inherit;"> The northern tower
was surrounded by a fence and had the same bilingual warning. Two cameras were mounted on top of the tower,
a microwave dish extended from the side, and a large solar panel was at the
base – an imposing image set against the desert sky. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background: white;"> While I was taking
that photo, Todd Miller and Gabriel Schivone were posting an excellent article
entitled </span><a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/01/26/gaza-arizona-how-israeli-high-tech-firms-will-armor-us-mexican-border"><span style="background: white;">Gaza
in Arizona</span></a><b><span style="background: white; color: red;"> </span></b><span style="background: white;">I
saw the article the next day and I was startled to read, “Customs and Border
Protection (CBP) contracted with Israel’s giant military manufacturer Elbit
Systems to build a ‘virtual wall,’ a technological barrier set back from the
actual international divide in the Arizona desert...CBP has tasked Elbit with
creating a ‘wall’ of ‘integrated fixed towers’ containing the latest in
cameras, radar, motion sensors, and control rooms. Construction will start in the rugged, desert
canyons around Nogales.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background: white; font-family: inherit;"> I sent a message
to Todd with the photo and asked, “Could this be part of the ‘wall’ of
‘integrated fixed towers’ that Elbit is building for CBP?” He responded a few minutes later, “Very
interesting! I’m going to check it
out.” He and Gabe drove to Nogales the
next morning and we went out together to see the tower. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background: white; font-family: inherit;"> We were greeted by
an armed security guard and one of the construction workers who told us, “You
can’t go any further because there’s moving pieces and equipment.” Todd mentioned that we had seen the tower
from the road and we were wondering what it would be used for. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background: white; font-family: inherit;"> The foreman came
over to check us out and the worker asked him, “Should we put them in contact
with Elbit?” “You have to talk with the
public information office of Customs and Border Protection,” quickly
interjected the foreman. “Are you
working for CBP?” asked Todd. “You have
to talk with the public information office of Customs and Border
Protection. That’s all I can tell you,”
was the response.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background: white; font-family: inherit;"> In “Gaza in
Arizona,” Todd and Gabe describe how the University of Arizona is recruiting
Israeli security companies to set up operations at the Tech Parks Arizona
campus in Tucson. The program is called
the Israel Business Initiative. The
Department of Homeland Security designated the University of Arizona as the
lead school for the Center of Excellence on Border Security and Immigration in
2008 and the university has received millions of dollars in federal grants.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background: white; font-family: inherit;"> President Obama
strongly supports “free trade” policies that enable corporations, like Elbit,
to easily travel around the globe in search of increased profit but he opposes
providing that same freedom of movement for workers. The minimum wage in Nogales, Sonora is now
$5.20 per day while the minimum wage in Nogales, Arizona is $8.05 per
hour. Elbit’s virtual wall will help
ensure that the women and men who assemble products for U.S. companies in
Nogales, Sonora stay on the lower-wage side of the border. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background: white; font-family: inherit;"> Todd and Gabe
quote Roei Elkabetz, brigadier general of the Israel Defense Forces, at the
beginning of their article. “We have
learned lots from Gaza,” he said. “It’s
been a great laboratory.” That
laboratory is now being extended to Arizona.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-10703661541880020362014-12-18T17:53:00.004-08:002014-12-18T18:01:46.871-08:00Migrant Posada<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">Mary was riding on
a burro, and Joseph was walking beside her, as they traveled by the Nogales border
wall in search of shelter during the Migrant Posada.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">A cold rain was falling, but for a brief
moment, the sun came out and a rainbow appeared.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background: white; font-family: inherit;"> Posadas recreate the
journey from 2,000 years ago as Mary and Joseph are refused lodging at various
stations along the way and finally welcomed in at the end of the procession. The Migrant Posada was organized by the Kino
Border Initiative and Dioceses without Borders as an act of solidarity with our
undocumented sisters and brothers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background: white; font-family: inherit;"> The first station was
at the Nogales wall which was built by the Clinton administration in 1994, just
four months after he visited the site of the former Berlin Wall. “Wherever there’s a wall, there’s a closure
of the heart,” read a banner attached to the wall. Those were the words spoken by Pope Francis last
month on the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background: white; font-family: inherit;"> At each station,
the people outside in the procession sing to ask for lodging. The people inside sing in response that there
is no room. “In the name of justice, I
ask you to let me in. I will not cause
you harm, I just want to work,” sang the people on the south side of the
wall. “We have thousands of agents that
protect our borders, and you won’t get across even through the cracks,” responded
the people on the north side.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background: white; font-family: inherit;"> Separation of
families was the theme of the second station.
“In the name of justice, I ask for your support and solidarity. Separated from my children, my heart is
broken,” sang the deportees. “I don’t
care about what you’re going through, stop you’re crying. The children that you left behind, you are
not going to see again,” was the response.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background: white; font-family: inherit;"> There was a moment
of silence at the third station to remember the thousands of people who have
died in the desert. “We’re half a
family, deported without pity. The
children are left crying, lamenting that they are orphans,” sang the people
outside. “We don’t want you to come
here, stay over there. The purity of the
race could become contaminated” replied the people inside.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Mary and Joseph
were finally welcomed at the last station which was the Kino Border Initiative
dining hall where recently deported migrants receive two meals a day. There we all sang, “Let’s celebrate without
borders or barriers, people who thirst for justice. Today we will work and struggle together for
justice and dignity.”</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></div>
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Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-59805282764817832982014-05-01T10:04:00.000-07:002014-05-01T10:06:17.334-07:00Mother and daughter reunited<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Herminia rushed out of the Tucson cathedral
to reunite with her daughter Rosy who had just been released after spending
seven months in the immigration prison in Eloy, Arizona. Herminia had been arrested in front of the
White House, carried out a two week hunger strike in front of the ICE
(Immigration and Customs Enforcement) office in Phoenix, and spent the last four
weeks in the cathedral in her campaign to win her daughter’s release. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Mother and daughter ran towards each other
and came together in a tearful embrace surrounded by the light of the TV
cameras. “I struggled to get out and I
dreamed of being with my mom,” said Rosy.
“Never give up and always struggle to realize your dreams.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> “This is where Rosy returned to life,”
Herminia told me earlier inside the cathedral.
“She’s on her way. She called and
said, ‘Mom, I’m out now. The nightmare
has ended.’”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I visited Rosy in the Corrections
Corporation of America prison on March 2.
We passed through five locked gates and doors on our way to the visit
room. She was in a green uniform and we
could only be with her for one hour.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Rosy told me that her family moved to the
U.S. when she was just 11<b><span style="color: red;"> </span></b>years old.
They lived for two years in Denver and seven years in Mesa, Arizona. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> In December 2012, the family went back to
the state of Quintana Roo in southern Mexico because Rosy’s grandfather was
dying of cancer. They found the country
had changed during the time they had been gone.
They were at risk of being kidnapped because the criminal groups thought
they had money from their time in the U.S. and her father was brutally beaten. Rosy and Fatima (her 13 year old sister) were
both bullied a lot at school. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> They fled from Quintana Roo and came north
to Nogales. Herminia, Rosy and Fatima presented
themselves at the border here on September 22, 2013 and asked for asylum. Herminia and Fatima were released that same
day on parole but Rosy was sent to the immigration prison in Florence. The next day, on her 20th birthday, she was
transferred to the prison in Eloy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Herminia passed the first interview for
political asylum when the official found that she had a credible fear of
persecution if she were sent back to Mexico.
Rosy’s case was moving much more slowly and Herminia decided the only
option was to launch a public campaign to win her daughter’s release. Rosy was finally released on bond on April 28
and said, “I can’t believe I’m out here and not in there.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The Obama administration has deported more
than two million people and two thousand women are currently being held in the
Eloy immigration prison. “What would
happen if Obama’s daughters, or wife, were separated from him?” asked
Herminia. “What would he do?”</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-13473425460523220402013-12-20T13:09:00.000-08:002013-12-20T13:09:27.039-08:00Migrant Christmas<div class="MsoNormal">
Mary was riding
on a burro alongside the border wall during the Migrant Posada in Nogales on
December 14. The posada is a procession
that reenacts the journey of Mary and Joseph seeking shelter for the birth of
Jesus. We stopped at three stations
along the border where we listened to the migrants describe the rejection and
abuse they had suffered during their journey.
Mary and Joseph, and the migrants, were finally welcomed inside at the
Kino Border Initiative “comedor” (meal program) at the end of the procession.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Julio was still
in shock when I met him at the comedor that morning. He told me that he had been walking through
the Food City parking lot in south Tucson at 6 A.M. to meet a friend for a
roofing job. A policeman stopped him and
said, “Show me your I.D.” Julio replied
that he didn’t have it and he was then frisked and ordered into the patrol
car. The policeman called the Border
Patrol and Julio was “repatriated” to Nogales a couple hours later. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Julio lived in
the U.S. for 15 years and is married to a U.S. citizen. He said, “I used to drink and use drugs, but
then I found God, and my life changed…I don’t understand why this happened to
me today.” He doesn’t know anyone in
Nogales and he had no idea what he was going to do, not even in the next
moment.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I met Sergio the
following morning as I was hiking along one of the migrant trails north of the border. He told me that he lived for five years in
the U.S. and has a spouse and a three-year-old son in New York. He had been deported and was trying to return
to his home and family. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sergio had been
walking for two days and he said it was very cold at night – the temperature
had dropped to 28 degrees the previous day.
I gave him some warm clothes, a blanket, food and water; and told him “I
hope you’re able to be with your son for Christmas.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAztScbpg65QnCYZrbNtev6Hr7eKKg_j6zD9j0DRnCMEJgB6sLzKjcD9C3pR2kFnCrcRvi87gi27_cGK7qjxnRIg33Am8RZVVylZm75LbpZgsb_oEa__sN-rv1Ew5rlg-_542JycfG5KTA/s1600/Posada+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAztScbpg65QnCYZrbNtev6Hr7eKKg_j6zD9j0DRnCMEJgB6sLzKjcD9C3pR2kFnCrcRvi87gi27_cGK7qjxnRIg33Am8RZVVylZm75LbpZgsb_oEa__sN-rv1Ew5rlg-_542JycfG5KTA/s400/Posada+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"We want family unity for the children of immigrants"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-63228904970400569892013-08-14T18:14:00.001-07:002013-08-14T18:15:47.677-07:00The Dream 9 return home<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The “Dream 9” activists returned on August
8 to the site where they had been handcuffed and placed in detention just 17
days before. They stood in front of the border
crossing in Nogales with their fists in the air and a banner that stated,
“We’re Home – Families Beyond Borders.” An
international campaign won their release the day before from the Eloy Detention
Center which is owned and operated by Corrections Corporation of America. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Lizbeth, Lulu and Marco traveled from the
U.S. to Mexico last month to visit their families and return with the other six. They all presented themselves at the border crossing
on July 22 and requested to be allowed re-entry to the U.S. on humanitarian
grounds. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Their courageous action raised awareness about
the hundreds of thousands of families that have been torn apart by the Obama
administration’s aggressive deportation policies. It was also a bold demand that people who
have been deported should be allowed to return home to the U.S. Obama has now deported more people than any
other president in history – 1.7 million.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Eight of the activists would have
qualified for the DREAM Act which proposed legal residency for people who
arrived in the country as minors and completed high school in the U.S. The bill passed the House of Representatives
in 2010 but failed in the Senate. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Adriana left the U.S. last year because
she wanted to pursue a college degree and couldn’t afford to do so as an
undocumented student in Arizona. She
spent seven months living and working at the San Juan Bosco migrant shelter
here in Nogales.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Ceferino went back to Mexico because he
needed ear surgery that would have cost $21,000 in the U.S. He tried to return to the U.S. in June.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Luis left in 2011 after the DREAM Act failed. He tried to cross back into the U.S. four
times last year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Maria started college but could no longer
afford it and returned to Mexico last year.
She had to put off her education here in order to work and sustain her
family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Claudia was deported after her husband was
detained while he was driving to work. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> All of the Dream 9 filed petitions for
political asylum after they were denied permission to re-enter the U.S. on
humanitarian grounds. The immigration
authorities determined that they each had a “credible fear” of being harmed or
killed if sent back to Mexico. They were
released on parole and will continue to fight for their right, and the right of
hundreds of thousands of others like them, to be home in the U.S.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> They have overcome the fear of deportation
and are, as they shouted at the border crossing, “Undocumented, Unafraid!”</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg6NRr13b286FZz3KhW4zxT3gWD_HGRJNpWzR_9oE7OFHy08qyn8yyCEV2wrT_nsmZ6uHeTVZnZbRSAey3qeSgvU1Sf4pye9n8vIRQddDknnmWDtjF4yJMsLnsMEFp903jlCw6pSFPFzBU/s1600/Dream+9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg6NRr13b286FZz3KhW4zxT3gWD_HGRJNpWzR_9oE7OFHy08qyn8yyCEV2wrT_nsmZ6uHeTVZnZbRSAey3qeSgvU1Sf4pye9n8vIRQddDknnmWDtjF4yJMsLnsMEFp903jlCw6pSFPFzBU/s320/Dream+9.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-46485093104899964652013-07-23T13:48:00.002-07:002013-07-25T10:19:02.003-07:00Just wanting to go home<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Thirteen year-old Yamil entered the United
States for the first time in seven years with his mother and grandmother
yesterday here in Nogales. He and his
grandmother Elvia were detained by Customs and Border Protection for five
hours. His mother Claudia was handcuffed
and arrested.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Three undocumented youth who have been
living in the U.S. recently traveled to Mexico so that they could attempt to return
yesterday with Claudia and four other people who had been long-time residents
of the U.S. Claudia was at the head of
the group as they entered the pedestrian border crossing and requested to be
allowed re-entry on humanitarian grounds.
She and the others were committed to taking this action as a bold challenge
to current deportation policies. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The Obama administration has now deported
1.7 million people – more than any other president in the history of the
country. If the current rate continues,
Obama will have deported more people than all of the previous presidents
combined. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Elvia told me that her husband and brother
were killed in Durango, Mexico in 1988. She
received threats and fled to the U.S. with her four children when Claudia was
just 13 years-old. They eventually moved
to Wichita, Kansas where Yamil was born in 2000.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Claudia told us “I feel like Dorothy (in
the Wizard of Oz). My life was hit by a
tornado and I just want to go home.” Claudia’s
husband was detained while he was driving to work in Wichita. She was then detained while acting as his
interpreter and they were both placed in deportation proceedings. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The immigration judge said that Yamil, who
was five, “could survive in Mexico.” He
has been seen by a therapist to treat his depression. Claudia told us that he
recently asked her, “When are we going to get our life back?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I talked with Yamil yesterday while we
were waiting to find out what would happen with his mother and the others. I asked him when he moved to Mexico and he
replied “January 1, 2006.” Yamil told me
that he wants to go back to Wichita with his mother, and then have his father
and their dog join them. He likes the
peacefulness of Wichita and that his parents could find work there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Yamil loves soccer and he plays
goalie. His favorite team is the United
States and he will be rooting for them again in the next World Cup. Yamil and Claudia went to the U.S. match
against Uzbekistan in the Under 17 World Cup at the Torreon stadium in 2011. Claudia told us “No one even knew where
Uzbekistan is located but they were all rooting for them against the U.S.” Yamil was one of the few people that
supported the U.S. and was disappointed when they lost.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Elvia took Yamil to have his first
hamburger back in the U.S. and he returned with a big smile on his face. Unfortunately, that smile disappeared an hour
later when we learned that Claudia and the others were being sent to the Eloy
Detention Center. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> This is the first time that a group of
long-time U.S. residents (who are technically Mexican nationals) have attempted
to return to the U.S. by petitioning for humanitarian parole. Since that petition was denied, they are now
applying for asylum. Claudia is very
concerned about her safety if she’s deported back to Mexico. Her family is again receiving threats and she
and Yamil have spent most of the last year closed up inside their home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> For the latest developments in this
historic case, go to the National Immigrant Youth Alliance Facebook page: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/NationalImmigrantYouthAlliance">https://www.facebook.com/NationalImmigrantYouthAlliance</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"> </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">To take action, go to the Dream
Activist web site: </span></span></span><a href="http://action.dreamactivist.org/bringthemhome"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://action.dreamactivist.org/bringthemhome</span></a><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgINmbUUx0UMC5_9pFGKVfpncLHNCpJXIgCZp6ILrsUzvQKmF6vZXrUt0B_dEPWH4I598nHCysOLBVz216EXTWyX91n2OhjG122hWa4UPsxWfaje1r2OL250QEw3Mj5Py4O2CtL8EKKEIK5/s1600/Claudia+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgINmbUUx0UMC5_9pFGKVfpncLHNCpJXIgCZp6ILrsUzvQKmF6vZXrUt0B_dEPWH4I598nHCysOLBVz216EXTWyX91n2OhjG122hWa4UPsxWfaje1r2OL250QEw3Mj5Py4O2CtL8EKKEIK5/s320/Claudia+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://action.dreamactivist.org/bringthemhome" style="font-size: medium; text-align: start;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Claudia approaching the border crossing in her graduation gown (as a Dream activist)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU4Kmu2WBDtCNJY6EjKSM9fmdgQFvF_nmJRUkS5FqmkP0BZrStBB5iP87VgXJjGtOSoWAufAk7p32hYzcv1PQyJK0FSzQE_gGADWSB4HyDcicjidiSGgwAjm83UnFcUtirefhbmzqiGZv7/s1600/Elvia+&+Yamil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU4Kmu2WBDtCNJY6EjKSM9fmdgQFvF_nmJRUkS5FqmkP0BZrStBB5iP87VgXJjGtOSoWAufAk7p32hYzcv1PQyJK0FSzQE_gGADWSB4HyDcicjidiSGgwAjm83UnFcUtirefhbmzqiGZv7/s320/Elvia+&+Yamil.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elvia and Yamil walking to the crossing</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjdYuWea-oM2rBnMUZFgg62GwzkrpnclJ1g87C740DbUnjEp96jKK1tzIQC4KPmVyAfYxpamE3oHdfqShPLdlwJSO65FglvnGdLFdDAW65rzVwjxJgyZUbhiYtto2cJ76BNrcQQ3pJ3vtV/s1600/Yamil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjdYuWea-oM2rBnMUZFgg62GwzkrpnclJ1g87C740DbUnjEp96jKK1tzIQC4KPmVyAfYxpamE3oHdfqShPLdlwJSO65FglvnGdLFdDAW65rzVwjxJgyZUbhiYtto2cJ76BNrcQQ3pJ3vtV/s320/Yamil.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yamil entering the U.S.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiexyUAX2hl1NF06o8y2T3GglfbAPw-WzLKX8YM_4artXRCwxBlVYlIS9ONeq1OL_B8Dfq6HDvPVgsYe1SNAceap0-b9kBGJVp5s7kPuUG-Xv_vTdzhEZ4yqGQzYU6u_pZ6XZ9UEQBD6x1w/s1600/Yamil+&+Elvia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiexyUAX2hl1NF06o8y2T3GglfbAPw-WzLKX8YM_4artXRCwxBlVYlIS9ONeq1OL_B8Dfq6HDvPVgsYe1SNAceap0-b9kBGJVp5s7kPuUG-Xv_vTdzhEZ4yqGQzYU6u_pZ6XZ9UEQBD6x1w/s320/Yamil+&+Elvia.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yamil and Elvia after learning that Claudia and the others were being sent to the detention center</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><span style="color: blue;"><o:p></o:p></span></u><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-36276612237404300032013-06-14T12:06:00.004-07:002013-06-14T12:11:00.222-07:00Dogcatchers for migrants<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I was driving along a dirt road, about
five miles north of the border, when I saw two men sitting by the road. “We’re lost and we want to turn ourselves in
to the Border Patrol,” they told me as I stopped alongside them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> They had walked two days from Nogales and
Mario was not able to go any further.
“I’ve got diabetes and it’s affecting me,” he said. His arms were scratched, his pants were torn,
and he was having difficulty walking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Mario is 43 and his cousin Fernando is
19. They’re from Mexico City and they
had traveled three days by bus to get to Nogales. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> There was no cell phone coverage so I
drove them to the nearest paved road to wait for the Border Patrol. It was already warm at 8 A.M. and it would reach
100 degrees that afternoon. After just a
few minutes, a Border Patrol truck came by and I flagged him down. I explained that Mario and Fernando wanted to
turn themselves in because they couldn’t go any further and that Mario had
diabetes which was affecting him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Agent Stransky drove into the pull-out and
parked about 20 feet away. He got out of
the truck, opened the door of the small enclosure on back, and yelled “Yo!” at
Mario and Fernando. He didn’t say
another word to them as they walked to the truck, stepped up on the bumper, and
stooped down to get inside. There was no
acknowledgement that Mario and Fernando were human beings and not stray dogs. He then closed the door and quickly drove
away. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The migrants call these Border Patrol
trucks “dogcatchers.” There’s a bench on
both sides of the enclosure about 12 inches above the floor and the roof is
very low - Mario and Fernando were both hunched over as we said good-bye. There’s just one small window on the back
door and another small window on the front.
If Stransky had been in an accident because of driving so rapidly, there
were no safety devices that would have protected Mario and Fernando from being
injured.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The “Border Security, Economic
Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act” that is being debated now in
the senate calls for hiring another 3,500 border agents. That will likely result in even more migrants
being treated like stray dogs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrGSDjLpZD4vYkKYlDIzpL-hB53xpIZUq0ulbN9LqW66YawM1BQcKhZsU2uv1TP8JWdS8X3xfBUx5hVDRKpOkVEWBIYyw95js7fsH_Qxy70VgmFz7-dhklobLfFKCwA1lI5DITHbyxXrj-/s1600/Mario+&+Fernando.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrGSDjLpZD4vYkKYlDIzpL-hB53xpIZUq0ulbN9LqW66YawM1BQcKhZsU2uv1TP8JWdS8X3xfBUx5hVDRKpOkVEWBIYyw95js7fsH_Qxy70VgmFz7-dhklobLfFKCwA1lI5DITHbyxXrj-/s320/Mario+&+Fernando.jpg" width="215" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Mario and Fernando</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ_wRPSBcIAB8AHOFwc8SPfWxLzziN0QWby7k0JGZRq5CWIl-Usp0dh7ux5QkTw9y2Z84c8wEYhErV_1-L8ZB9Peaz9ziFMXD0gfZF3Gy_4mZ7kT4wqjTGvWg7DpSpFmpHxYHcHhGio91M/s1600/Stransky's+dogcatcher.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ_wRPSBcIAB8AHOFwc8SPfWxLzziN0QWby7k0JGZRq5CWIl-Usp0dh7ux5QkTw9y2Z84c8wEYhErV_1-L8ZB9Peaz9ziFMXD0gfZF3Gy_4mZ7kT4wqjTGvWg7DpSpFmpHxYHcHhGio91M/s320/Stransky's+dogcatcher.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Stransky's "dogcatcher"</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
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Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-24976360178297405292013-04-20T09:09:00.004-07:002013-05-19T16:32:30.524-07:00March for José Antonio<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> More than 200 people marched in Nogales on
April 10 to commemorate the six month anniversary of the murder of 16-year-old
José Antonio Elena Rodriguez by the Border Patrol. José was walking along International Street
when a Border Patrol agent fired into Nogales, Sonora on the night of October
10. The autopsy report was released in
February and shows that José was shot once in the head and seven times in the
back.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> José’s family installed a cross on the sidewalk
where he was killed. Father Ricardo
blessed the cross and people placed flowers and candles there in remembrance of
José. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The Border Patrol claims the agent fired
in self-defense after rocks were thrown at agents who were pursuing two drug smugglers. Their brief statement noted that the agent
“discharged his service weapon” and “one of the suspects appeared to have been
hit.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Isidro Alvarez was an eyewitness to the killing
and he spoke at the press conference prior to the march. He was walking behind José and heard gunshots
and saw him fall. Isidro did not see or
hear any rocks being thrown. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> There is a surveillance tower about 100
yards from where José was killed and the cameras would have recorded the
shooting. The F.B.I. is still
investigating the case six months later.
“I want to know who they are” said Aracely, José’s mother. “I want them arrested and I want justice.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The bipartisan group of eight senators announced
their immigration reform bill on April 16.
It includes $3 billion to increase border surveillance, $1.5 billion to
build more walls and fences, and funding to hire another 3,500 border
agents. This support for increased
militarization of the border will likely result in more marches and vigils here
in Nogales in the future. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhiOkaeg_RK3FxctZDAXTzz3Te9qcO2vkLsVp8ir_sLtVCYmBTgdlc2uuT0mXfwYy7B4drUazukFFCmJMp4In2UO9SlrlM3YQc9HoEjVRJPJdwbJ0_-VLNFIhNFuLdm7U9WcNcW6D26Smt/s1600/March.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhiOkaeg_RK3FxctZDAXTzz3Te9qcO2vkLsVp8ir_sLtVCYmBTgdlc2uuT0mXfwYy7B4drUazukFFCmJMp4In2UO9SlrlM3YQc9HoEjVRJPJdwbJ0_-VLNFIhNFuLdm7U9WcNcW6D26Smt/s320/March.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">"Peace and Justice on the Border"</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm23NiHOPtLDieqDVP2k3IRm33qqm3XQQYYEDxAaA7UyJ5wufdPiVeZBenKkRcUd7TXAOMa1y6E2dXnQhQssub3o6g7BmTQHCZ32uPSZ3jlzo5QpD3Fj5WRPiG56qYg7Vkhm73JUjcW64L/s1600/Padre+Ricardo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm23NiHOPtLDieqDVP2k3IRm33qqm3XQQYYEDxAaA7UyJ5wufdPiVeZBenKkRcUd7TXAOMa1y6E2dXnQhQssub3o6g7BmTQHCZ32uPSZ3jlzo5QpD3Fj5WRPiG56qYg7Vkhm73JUjcW64L/s320/Padre+Ricardo.jpg" width="194" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Father Ricardo</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuAKutTu4asmhHVK80eGxuXsSXKsVUktJsuSMsWjsHONd5rz2gg4OzcMhYDttdtzFDksHo4iZ81nNklXl7F_yeG-mBLg35v-lnLuW-huhMpk58gWgBrbrciX_LVjBENfA2RJ2p5Awi9caF/s1600/Aracely.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuAKutTu4asmhHVK80eGxuXsSXKsVUktJsuSMsWjsHONd5rz2gg4OzcMhYDttdtzFDksHo4iZ81nNklXl7F_yeG-mBLg35v-lnLuW-huhMpk58gWgBrbrciX_LVjBENfA2RJ2p5Awi9caF/s320/Aracely.jpg" width="214" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Aracely</span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWerTnz-KynG6GaS7NrDPXAWBeZ7Crvuq1ed_d9KV1ZqNTilOZxpjUgPzKZ9J_gnIQ9asRJ_5qVQTys_b2C_xUQ1fWAE7al07f4CD940LgMzweQ-a9gJdhS7ER231gDtdyGpkzb4P_YZJt/s1600/Children.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWerTnz-KynG6GaS7NrDPXAWBeZ7Crvuq1ed_d9KV1ZqNTilOZxpjUgPzKZ9J_gnIQ9asRJ_5qVQTys_b2C_xUQ1fWAE7al07f4CD940LgMzweQ-a9gJdhS7ER231gDtdyGpkzb4P_YZJt/s320/Children.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuH9XJN3iv9k0XBl1ptMVHpqwBjbFWKVZPfFNWst9JVeSKzc96qDtGGV7_6W1uNQ1pbcjH7wGuWHV6AuNyTL79rOQfjFAUvGkVLNKEiCHg-4eXeJC3DP7yDnxw5dft9MkS0eAVOboCmnqN/s1600/Memorial.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuH9XJN3iv9k0XBl1ptMVHpqwBjbFWKVZPfFNWst9JVeSKzc96qDtGGV7_6W1uNQ1pbcjH7wGuWHV6AuNyTL79rOQfjFAUvGkVLNKEiCHg-4eXeJC3DP7yDnxw5dft9MkS0eAVOboCmnqN/s320/Memorial.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<br />Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-4974180105110197672013-03-28T10:35:00.000-07:002013-03-28T10:40:22.528-07:00Deporting José and Margarita to secure the border<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> “When we see people like you we don’t run and hide,” said José when I sat beside him at the Grupos Beta migrant center in Nogales on March 22. “When we see them with their backpacks, and at the beaches, we treat them well.”</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> José is 19 years old and from the southern state of Chiapas. He and two companions had traveled the entire length of Mexico and then crossed into Arizona. They hiked for five days in the desert and they ran out of water and food after the first three days. In their desperation, they walked into the town of Tubac and found a store where they bought drinks and food.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> “People ran away and hid,” said José. “They looked at us like we were from a UFO. Someone called us ‘Mexican motherfuckers’ and they called the Border Patrol.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> “The agent shoved me to the ground, put my hands behind my back, and then put his boot on my neck.” José lifted his shirt and showed me the large scratch on his side.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> “When we were in the prison, they threw the food at us like we were animals. They just gave us a small, cold hamburger and a carton of juice. They turned on the air conditioning (to make it cold) and we could only wear t-shirts.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> José had been deported to Nogales at 11 P.M. the previous night. There are people who prey on migrants here and dropping them at the border late at night puts them at risk of being assaulted, robbed and extorted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> “I don’t like America and I’m never going back,” concluded José.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Margarita told me she was 22 years old and from the state of Guerrero when I talked with her at the Migrant Resource Center in Agua Prieta on March 8. She had traveled two days by bus to get to the border. She and a cousin then hiked for a day in the Arizona desert and were arrested by the Border Patrol. Margarita was separated from her cousin in the detention center and she had just been deported to Agua Prieta that morning. Her cousin had been carrying her cell phone with all the numbers and she had no idea how to communicate with her family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Margarita had hoped to travel to Oxnard, California to work with her cousins in the strawberry fields. I seem to be lacking the insight used by the government because I don’t see how a young woman who wants to spend her days stooped over picking strawberries poses a grave risk to national security.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> “Because we live in an age where terrorists are challenging our borders, we can not allow people to pour into the U.S. undetected, undocumented, and unchecked,” said Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign. He failed to mention that not a single terrorist has been caught crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> After being re-elected with the support of the Latino vote, Obama announced his plan for immigration reform. “I believe it should include a continuation of the strong border security measures that we’ve taken because we have to secure our borders,” he said. The Obama administration deported more than 1.5 million people during his first term. Making increased border security a top priority of reform will likely result in even more racism and brutality being used to protect freedom and democracy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Robin Williams, in his starting role as the space alien Mork in the “Mork and Mindy” show, gave a more accurate description of immigration enforcement more than 30 years ago. He was almost deported from the U.S. for being an “illegal alien.” Mork always communicated with his boss at the end of the program to inform him about activities on earth. That week, he said “There’s this lady who is carrying a torch and she keeps saying ‘Send me your tired, your poor, and your huddled masses.’ Except there’s also a man down at the immigration office who says ‘Not too tired, not too poor, and not too many.’”</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">José</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh50IvEeZM7TjQSG8z5NsOayryPtusw4pwxhmS4z75-qPDx1ArxSkZxqm54ebD1lyTinyqKhhrgIKmaHxPih4__OVTpLBRkAVLwaR2Fu6ryaoDwk1Ln51xyspz9FoHnhDrNpwMGoMFs125L/s1600/Margarita.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh50IvEeZM7TjQSG8z5NsOayryPtusw4pwxhmS4z75-qPDx1ArxSkZxqm54ebD1lyTinyqKhhrgIKmaHxPih4__OVTpLBRkAVLwaR2Fu6ryaoDwk1Ln51xyspz9FoHnhDrNpwMGoMFs125L/s320/Margarita.jpg" width="227" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Margarita</span></td></tr>
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Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-29840810881189145792013-02-18T11:13:00.000-08:002013-02-18T11:15:40.312-08:00In memory of Helen Nicholson<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> My mother, Helen Nicholson, died yesterday
afternoon. She welcomed me into this
world in her loving embrace and I told her how much I loved her as she was
leaving here. Her body will soon be
reduced to ashes but I continue to feel the presence of her loving spirit.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I was very blessed to grow up surrounded
by her warmth and love. She taught me
about love through her example and that continues to inspire me. I remember sitting on the porch with my
sister while Mom read to us from our favorite books. When we were able to read for ourselves she
always made sure there were books in the house.
She would take us to the library and knew all our favorite authors. She also volunteered at the school library
and encouraged my friends to read by finding books that would interest them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> When I grew up and moved away from Los
Angeles, she visited me in various places where I lived – Arcata, Boise, Spokane,
Helena, Missoula and Madison. We also traveled
together to my favorite place in the universe – the Canadian Rockies. At age 76, she flew from Los Angeles to
Indianapolis to meet me there at a Global Ministries conference when I was
living in Colombia. Throughout all those
years, her home was always a refuge for me – stocked with my favorite foods and
filled with her love. It feels very
strange to be here this morning without her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> We shared a deep love for nature and a few
years ago I found some prose she had written for a high school English
class. “Looking into the sky on a calm,
cloudless night, can give me an achingly sweet sensation. I realize that nature and the universe are so
big and overpowering that they have the ability to calm my ruffled thoughts and
leave me at peace with myself. It always
helps me to turn to nature, because that way I feel closer to God and to
complete happiness.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I called Mom on February 11 to tell her
about the snow that was falling in Nogales that evening. It brought back memories of her childhood in
Lake Bluff, Illinois and she talked about catching snowflakes on her
tongue. I called her the following
evening and she chided me for not having tried that myself. As we hung up, she told me “I love you Scott
Douglas” – just like she did when I was a kid.
It seemed like she knew, in some way, that her life was coming to the
end.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> As I told her yesterday, “I love you very
much, I’m very grateful, and you can just let go.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> In loving memory of Helen Nicholson,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> From her son, Scott</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcui0tq_MzE0_b14fJSnfmGTL4KGKKZ8fIRTKBiPzFxPFiEgzQVaKKH6nmlB_JD7QycIF8-XG8Kt1WCwk0VrRzpE11em7NRUm6Y1h-NSUYU8_PK31k0uptxRTfyFiO3UbYtLoxWkA0G3e6/s1600/Mom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcui0tq_MzE0_b14fJSnfmGTL4KGKKZ8fIRTKBiPzFxPFiEgzQVaKKH6nmlB_JD7QycIF8-XG8Kt1WCwk0VrRzpE11em7NRUm6Y1h-NSUYU8_PK31k0uptxRTfyFiO3UbYtLoxWkA0G3e6/s320/Mom.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mom, at age 14, at her favorite spot overlooking Lake Michigan</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfQzQMVzB29MtkF9OUlynpFR0vJCZz5V1d7cTE3vg8uP878EGmZM8haTpkrY5GNkpSnTaF-iMybtFpZuPNwvPsscLTZLwAfvS5Cadq1mX5046v4qr2danROgr-qYPS7nCkL_QhSWaYA6yf/s1600/Mom+-+Cambria.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfQzQMVzB29MtkF9OUlynpFR0vJCZz5V1d7cTE3vg8uP878EGmZM8haTpkrY5GNkpSnTaF-iMybtFpZuPNwvPsscLTZLwAfvS5Cadq1mX5046v4qr2danROgr-qYPS7nCkL_QhSWaYA6yf/s320/Mom+-+Cambria.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mom, at age 81, watching the waves crash on the rocks at Cambria, California</td></tr>
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Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-30812116456102938502013-01-24T20:14:00.002-08:002013-01-24T20:18:02.506-08:00The people of Tirabichi<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Maria and Jesus showed me where they want
to build their house in the Tirabichi dump of Nogales when I visited there on
January 17. They used to work sweeping
the streets but that job ended and they’ve been working in the dump for two
years. Maria told me they sort through
the refuse for plastic, glass, tin, aluminum and other recyclable
materials. They store what they’ve found
and sell it once a week to the buyers that drive up to the dump. They earn four to five dollars a day. Jesus’ parents built a house in the dump a
year ago and his father has worked there for ten years.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The
Diario de Sonora newspaper featured a front-page article on January 12 about
the families that live at the dump. The
headline read “We feel more forgotten than cold.” Tirabichi is less than a mile from the Hogar
de Esperanza y Paz (HEPAC) community center and I walked up there the next day. The high temperature that afternoon was 45
degrees and it dropped to 14 the following morning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Arturo and the Molina brothers showed me
the shelters they had built and I can’t imagine what it would have been like
there that night. Arturo lived in Des
Moines, Iowa and his children are still in the U.S. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Manuel is 40 years old and he grew up in
the dump. He lived in Tucson for six
years, but the rest of his life has been there at Tirabichi.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The conversations and images from that day
stayed with me. I talked with Sandra and
Larry of the Tucson Samaritans, and Liz and Tricia who were visiting from
Montana, and I returned to Tirabichi with them on January 17. The intense cold had ended the day before and
the odor was more evident as we walked up the hill.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> “We’re content because we’re able to work
here,” Teresa told me. “I only finished
elementary school and that’s why I’m here.”
She has four children between six and seventeen years old, and she’s
been working at the dump for six months.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The Clinton administration built a border
wall to separate Nogales, Sonora from Nogales, Arizona in 1994 (the same year
that the North America Free Trade Agreement was implemented). The Obama administration replaced it with a
larger wall in 2011 at a cost of four million dollars per mile. The people at Tirabichi live less than four
miles from where all that money was spent to keep them in poverty. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The HEPAC community center represents a
grassroots alternative to the policies of inequality and exclusion. A team from HEPAC was at Tirabichi when we
arrived there. They were inviting people
to send their children to the lunch program and to participate in the adult
education classes. Teresa had the flyer
and we talked about the opportunity to get her high school education at HEPAC.</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV1koDjtZD9cM8RbZxTwS6V0r7JUmwmPrsCJEU1vfB5fDhTtA14U1INVpPIylW2PSeHhcmUDz0PqaCxM_l384aagoZv9kG2FhnEyNAj7TzKUQug3AwtgUwwbbuz1y8-IgBUwYKaRUaLd-5/s1600/Jesus+&+Maria.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV1koDjtZD9cM8RbZxTwS6V0r7JUmwmPrsCJEU1vfB5fDhTtA14U1INVpPIylW2PSeHhcmUDz0PqaCxM_l384aagoZv9kG2FhnEyNAj7TzKUQug3AwtgUwwbbuz1y8-IgBUwYKaRUaLd-5/s320/Jesus+&+Maria.jpg" width="214" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jesus and Maria on the site of their future home</td></tr>
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Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-77160261198212454342012-12-10T08:21:00.001-08:002012-12-10T08:33:27.692-08:00The killing of Jose Antonio<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Two months ago today, 16-year-old Jose
Antonio Elena Rodriguez was killed by the Border Patrol here in Nogales,
Sonora. Today is also International
Human Rights Day commemorating the adoption of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights by the United Nations on December 10, 1948. It seems like an appropriate moment to
consider the impact of the United States’ militarization of the border.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> A Border Patrol agent in Nogales, Arizona fired
at least 14 shots from his assault rifle into Nogales, Sonora on the night of
October 10. Jose Antonio was hit twice
in the head and four times in the chest. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The Border Patrol claims the agent fired
in self-defense after rocks were thrown at agents who were pursuing two drug
smugglers. Their brief statement issued
the following day notes that the agent “discharged his service weapon” and “one
of the suspects appeared to have been hit.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> “They ripped out a part of my soul” said
Araceli, Jose Antonio’s mother, during a gathering of border organizations in
Ciudad Juarez. “He was and is part of my
life. I still hear his voice. My son had a lot of dreams. Why do they have to kill innocent
people?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I moved back to Nogales ten days after
Jose Antonio was killed and I’ve been drawn to that site several times. I went there the day after I returned here
and my last visit was two days ago. I’ve
also walked along the U.S. side of the border wall near where the shots were
fired.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Jose Antonio was killed on the sidewalk in
front of Dr. Luis Contreras’ home and clinic on International Street. The agent placed the barrel of his rifle
between the steel beams of the border wall and shot down into Nogales, Sonora. That section of the wall is about 20 feet
high and set on a hill that is 25 feet above the street. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The initial shots were fired from at least
100 feet away and eight bullets hit the corner of the building. The final shots were fired from about 50 feet
away and three bullets hit that side of the building where Jose Antonio died. It would have been extremely difficult to
throw a rock from there and hit the agent who fired all those shots.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The killing took place approximately 100
yards from a Border Patrol surveillance tower.
The video that was recorded by the cameras that night has not been
released to the public or to Jose Antonio’s family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> It would appear that the Border Patrol is
able to get away with murder because the victim was Mexican. Would the U.S. government show more concern
if an agent on the northern border had killed a 16-year-old Canadian, or if the
roles were reversed and Jose Antonio had shot into the United States and killed
someone there? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> “Why are they able to go out and kill
here?” asked Araceli. “Why are they
covering them up? I want to know who
they are. I want them arrested and I
want justice.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> “There have been very many young people,
teenagers, who have been killed at the border” said Navi Pillay, the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“The reports reaching me are that there has been excessive force by the
U.S. border patrols.”<span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFMe-DBTvRtyI5T3i3SWnCAO9P5oSlo8IJI8Nn-k9o-ybmiQ9kkg278PLWhXI9OrNGBJG2dQ3uDmlzHcAGK_ASmID7YjmE-j5_NQMMVxZ3D0QZ11y5b8hJQ19iYNzMSZGrx3moYOGCjkIL/s1600/Araceli.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFMe-DBTvRtyI5T3i3SWnCAO9P5oSlo8IJI8Nn-k9o-ybmiQ9kkg278PLWhXI9OrNGBJG2dQ3uDmlzHcAGK_ASmID7YjmE-j5_NQMMVxZ3D0QZ11y5b8hJQ19iYNzMSZGrx3moYOGCjkIL/s320/Araceli.jpg" width="233" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">Araceli with a photo of her son</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM42b6rNHFJxNdqOoIK3uZYUQpOo4nXSC-S4KwhPnY39KBrkWD0HwgptJqFuIVQAxH4Dd588B4jV5TXJlUOBPYfcx9Qsxq9kWvunRbGvvJR729FyX_DxRup7U24D8NjAK0feKSe79KG2wF/s1600/Jose+Antonio+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM42b6rNHFJxNdqOoIK3uZYUQpOo4nXSC-S4KwhPnY39KBrkWD0HwgptJqFuIVQAxH4Dd588B4jV5TXJlUOBPYfcx9Qsxq9kWvunRbGvvJR729FyX_DxRup7U24D8NjAK0feKSe79KG2wF/s320/Jose+Antonio+1.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Tito and Jeannette standing where Jose Antonio died (circles were drawn around the bullet holes)</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBsSL_4J7VUYljF2P0T9iXcDrBu-QVIoquukWyfdzuqDNMfFWCWid8X-uNKIqGrCUD-l6Y-UEGtXK9VcW3-oR62AgkcgD3d_1NehW1NWJ-RsekZ1goNN5S2BJMh8wo1yKqB3tx5UE9b6-W/s1600/Jose+Antonio+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBsSL_4J7VUYljF2P0T9iXcDrBu-QVIoquukWyfdzuqDNMfFWCWid8X-uNKIqGrCUD-l6Y-UEGtXK9VcW3-oR62AgkcgD3d_1NehW1NWJ-RsekZ1goNN5S2BJMh8wo1yKqB3tx5UE9b6-W/s320/Jose+Antonio+2.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">The first shots were fired from the border wall above the car parked in the middle and the surveillance tower is on the left</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-dqfGk7SlwINo3n9_z1XGaAepVT5qQQyciHBLFIG2qRjhZVbGdtQou4rahXa2rB3jQhZBF3UA3ZBdwRPcN-dqwh07aR0sWQWYqMVa1KWKjm-SAj60_0BWi6JlE5DfREVn2eOeN__SsowP/s1600/Jose+Antonio+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-dqfGk7SlwINo3n9_z1XGaAepVT5qQQyciHBLFIG2qRjhZVbGdtQou4rahXa2rB3jQhZBF3UA3ZBdwRPcN-dqwh07aR0sWQWYqMVa1KWKjm-SAj60_0BWi6JlE5DfREVn2eOeN__SsowP/s320/Jose+Antonio+3.jpg" width="214" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">The final shots were fired from that part of the wall</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-71766900893045662492012-07-19T22:17:00.002-07:002012-07-19T22:22:58.105-07:00Sentenced to death in the desert<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The president and members of congress
sentenced a woman from Guatemala to capital punishment for crossing an
imaginary line in search of work.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The sentence
was carried out on June 30 in a remote section of desert 50 miles southwest of
Tucson.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The woman was struggling to hike
up a hill, collapsed face down on the ground, and died.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Her body was found two days later by a
University of Michigan archaeology team that returned on July 15 to create a
memorial.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It appears she was in her
early 30s and her name is unknown.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Professor Jason DeLeon showed us the place
where she died - a dark stain marked the ground. He has hiked that trail many times in his
work to preserve migrant artifacts (items left behind on the journey) and he often
rested in the shade of the mesquite tree where they were building the
shrine. The view looking down the hill
from there is starkly beautiful, but she was heading uphill and not able to
focus on the scenery.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Her sentence was imposed by the
individuals responsible for policies and laws that enable U.S. corporations to
freely move their products around the world while placing severe restrictions
on the movement of workers. The border
city of Nogales, Sonora has nearly 100 assembly plants that manufacture goods
for export to the U.S. More than 3,000
people work in the Chamberlin factory producing garage door openers. Those openers cross easily into Nogales,
Arizona but the people that make them would have to hike for days in the
southern Arizona desert if they dared to seek better-paying work in the U.S.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Since the North America Free Trade
Agreement was implemented in 1994, the border with Mexico has been enforced
through a policy of “deterrence.” Unauthorized
immigrants are forced to cross through the most isolated and dangerous areas
along the border. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The Border Patrol station in Nogales is the
largest in the U.S. and a 20-foot-high border wall separates Nogales, Sonora
from Nogales, Arizona. The woman was
prevented from safely crossing between the two sides of the city and, instead, had
to cross through the remote desert about 30 miles to the west. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> A patrol from the Samaritans organization was
driving along Batamote Road on June 30 when they encountered a young man from
El Salvador who was in very bad condition.
He said he walked an hour to reach the road and he was seeking help for
a woman from Guatemala who was dying. He
asked that the Border Patrol be called to rescue the woman. The Border Patrol didn’t find her, but they
did apprehend the young man and he was then taken to the hospital.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The mission of Samaritans is to save lives
in the Southern Arizona desert by providing humanitarian aid to migrants in
distress. It is an expression of compassionate
resistance to policies and laws that enable garage door openers to cross the border
while punishing people that are crossing in search of a better life.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-48173744526239193502012-06-29T09:05:00.000-07:002012-06-29T09:08:35.633-07:00Vigil at the Tent City jail<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">Three men dressed in camouflage and armed
with assault rifles were watching us as we stepped off the bus to protest sheriff
Joe Arpaio’s tent city jail in Phoenix on June 23.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">Sheriff agents on horseback and with an ATV,
patrol car, and SUV were posted just down the street.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">They weren’t concerned about the armed civilians
but they did video people who walked by porting “Standing on the Side of Love”
placards.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA)
was holding its general assembly in Phoenix and more than 3,000 people
participated in the candlelight vigil outside the jail. Peter Morales, UUA president, was given a
tour of the jail by Arpaio and he said it seemed like “what you’d see in a
fascist country.” Geoffrey Black,
president of the United Church of Christ, called it “a national disgrace.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> We all chanted “Close it down!” with
enough force to be heard inside the jail.
The inmates are kept in tents where they have to endure the heat of
summer and the cold of winter. The
temperature reached 106 degrees that day and was still over 100 at 9 P.M. Arpaio calls himself the “toughest sheriff in
America.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The sheriff has ordered sweeps of Latino
neighborhoods to round up people suspected of being unauthorized immigrants. A Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation concluded
that Arpaio oversaw the worst pattern of racial profiling by a law enforcement
agency in U.S. history. The sheriff and
his commanders created a culture of abusing the rights of Latinos. The DOJ filed a lawsuit against Arpaio last
month because of “unlawful discriminatory police conduct directed at Latinos.” <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Standing on the Side of Love is a campaign sponsored by the UUA to “harness love’s power to stop oppression.” The day after the UUA assembly ended, the Supreme Court upheld the clause of Arizona’s law SB1070 that requires police to check the immigration status of people they stop and suspect are unauthorized immigrants. UUA moderator Gini Courter said, “It violates our faith to comply with SB1070 and we are called to resist the mass detention and deportation of immigrants.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-49647690495076606152012-05-31T09:24:00.001-07:002012-05-31T09:29:18.921-07:00Memorial Day in the desert<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We commemorated Memorial Day by hiking to
three shrines in the Sonoran desert and leaving water and food along the trail in
an effort to prevent the creation of future shrines.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> We were walking along the side of a hill
when Bob stopped and began peering around.
He stepped off the trail and started working his way up through the
spiny ocotillo. After a few minutes he saw
the cross and a small pile of rocks. He
took some rope out of his pack, knelt down, and lashed the cross solidly
together again. Bob had found the
remains of a migrant there in March of last year. We sat down in the scant shade of a mesquite
tree and contemplated the tragedy that had occurred at that site.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The trail continued up to a saddle between
the hills a quarter mile away. This is a
resting place for migrants where Bob and Dorothy had hung four packs beside the
trail a week before. They checked the
packs and the water and food they had placed inside was all gone. We unloaded the water and food packets we had
carried and restocked those packs. It
felt like an appropriate way to honor the person who had died just down the
trail.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> We continued hiking and after a while Bob
led us to a tree which has a cross and a candle at its base. That marks the site where he found the
remains of a migrant in February of this year.
We again sat in the shade for a long moment of silence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> A short distance away, Bob brought us to
the third shrine. He found the remains
of another migrant there on that same day in March 2011. The bones he encountered were of a small
person, probably a woman. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I asked Bob a few questions about the shrines
and I started to feel overwhelmed – sadness at those painful deaths and anger
over a border strategy that deliberately funnels people into such remote and
deadly terrain. I took a few steps away
and tried to focus on the mesquite trees and the feel of the breeze on my
face. The cactus behind the cross was in
bloom – beauty and tragedy, side by side.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> “I don’t want to have to place another
shrine in the desert,” Bob told me. “It
hurts to do so but I don’t want people to be forgotten.”</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-73318661280894352522012-05-08T08:43:00.001-07:002012-05-08T08:49:23.269-07:00Alone in the desert<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We had been hiking for a couple hours on
May 5 when we saw a man walking towards us on the ridge. We were following the trail south towards
Mexico and he was heading north.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> “Are you OK?” we asked. “They chased us this morning,” he replied. “I got separated from the group and I’m
lost.” “Who were they?” we inquired. “La Migra (Border Patrol).” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> “Do you have water and food?” we
asked. “No,” he said. Al gave him a pint bottle of water which he quickly
gulped down. It was just 10 A.M. and it
was already getting warm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> “Have you seen a group of people?” he
asked. We did see a group about an hour
earlier. We had reached the edge of a
cliff and were looking into the canyon when Al saw four people walking down an
ATV (all-terrain vehicle) trail. We
watched as a Border Patrol truck came into the canyon and drove towards the bottom
of the trail. We heard some noise and
saw two Border Patrol agents on ATVs riding down that same trail. The people, ATVs, and truck disappeared from
view behind the trees and we couldn’t see what happened next.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> We told him what we had witnessed and
pointed out where it had occurred. He
was hoping to catch up with the group but that no longer seemed possible. “Can I go with you?” he asked. We explained that we’re members of the
Samaritans and put water and food along some of the trails. We were just out for the day and we weren’t
going to be hiking further north. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> We gave him bottles of water and food
packs, and talked about the danger of continuing the trip alone (see photo of
the terrain heading north). He said he
was going to wait and see if another group came along that he could join. If not, he would walk back to Mexico.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> We asked where he was from and he told us
Guatemala. I asked where in Guatemala
and he said Quetzaltenango. I had gone
to language school there twenty years ago.
Quetzaltenango is in the western highlands of Guatemala at an elevation
of 7,500 feet – a world away from the arid landscape of the Sonoran
desert. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> He looked to be about my age and all he was
carrying was a sweater, and no pack. He
thanked us, gathered up the water and food in his arms, and walked south back
up the ridge. We turned around and
started down the ridge into the canyon.
Shortly after reaching the canyon road, we passed two Border Patrol
trucks parked (with engines running) in the shade of some trees.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> We continued on to the main road and began
walking back to where we had parked the truck.
Along the way, we saw a road sign: “Travel Caution: Smuggling and
illegal immigration may be encountered in this area.” </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-44695260343700924752012-01-29T20:33:00.000-08:002012-01-29T20:35:38.238-08:00Images from the migrant trail<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I hiked along the U.S.-Mexico border with two other members of the Samaritans organization on January 21. We were looking for active migrant trails where we could leave water and food for people that might be in distress. The images from three scenes that day have stayed with me.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> We started off hiking along a streambed that parallels the border. After an hour of walking, we passed a pool of water and Bob noticed a piece of clothing under the water. We were both intrigued and haunted by that sight.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> A few hours later, we found an active trail and followed it south towards the border. We saw occasional footprints made by tennis shoes and then came upon a resting area. A small shrine had been erected beside a tree - a cross, candle glasses, and Bible. There was also a photo of a woman hugging her two daughters. The photo was next to a prayer to Saint Gabriel – “May your divine providence extend over my family so that together we may give thanks to God.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> At the end of the day, as we drove back to the main road, we passed a Border Patrol truck parked alongside another truck with a portable surveillance tower. They were on top of the highest hill in the area – waiting to detect and apprehend people for crossing an imaginary line in the desert in order to provide for their families. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Just a few days earlier, the Border Patrol announced they are going to launch a new program – the “Consequence Delivery System.” Unauthorized immigrants will be classified into seven different categories that will receive varying degrees of punishment – which could include a criminal conviction and being sent back to distant areas in Mexico. One of the unmentioned consequences of the system will be increased profits for the corporations involved in the detention and deportation industry.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I’ve been able to talk with many courageous migrants in Nogales – some on their way north and others who have recently been deported. Their motivation for risking arrest and death in the desert is either to provide for their families in their communities of origin or to be re-united with their families in the communities in the U.S. where they have established their lives. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I believe that a parent’s love for their child is ultimately more powerful than the heartless technology and policies created to enforce inequality and exclusion.</span> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5acUmePlez1WjwhRNyz4x9gU8V0ZGBzj-3-_9XySmVljXF-CCbuP1Y1BBd3r1m3yyGjnie-ouAYr1vlZkNRl0sTx1ahkf_WF5Y9wY536GxzKsXs75WSz5a-eBRKs626OAYxS7QzJWhSQr/s1600/Clothing+in+pool.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5acUmePlez1WjwhRNyz4x9gU8V0ZGBzj-3-_9XySmVljXF-CCbuP1Y1BBd3r1m3yyGjnie-ouAYr1vlZkNRl0sTx1ahkf_WF5Y9wY536GxzKsXs75WSz5a-eBRKs626OAYxS7QzJWhSQr/s320/Clothing+in+pool.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj395HCQqs2w97uiAaIOrkqk9loZgrfsLxmTKC_m5tV1-WddcSRaQoHzvfMyfzGogt9LcIhlAZh3T2nFdTecWrluZfGIoajR5TnKpTxjqey2Z5E2Maqou5svsarOg4x2k3uedUX9Vf_h-xF/s1600/Surveillance+tower.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj395HCQqs2w97uiAaIOrkqk9loZgrfsLxmTKC_m5tV1-WddcSRaQoHzvfMyfzGogt9LcIhlAZh3T2nFdTecWrluZfGIoajR5TnKpTxjqey2Z5E2Maqou5svsarOg4x2k3uedUX9Vf_h-xF/s320/Surveillance+tower.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-13535115503304270922011-10-13T21:35:00.000-07:002011-10-13T21:35:04.935-07:00Josseline's shrine<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I visited the shrine for Josseline Hernandez during a hike along the migrant trails on October 8. Josseline was a 14-year-old girl from El Salvador who was traveling with her 10-year-old brother. They were going to Los Angeles to reunite with their mother. After crossing Guatemala and the entire length of Mexico, they hiked 20 miles in the desert of southern Arizona. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span> </span>Josseline became ill and they were still 20 miles from the pick-up spot.<span> </span>The “coyote” (guide) left her behind because he had to get the group there on time to meet their ride.<span> </span>Her brother didn’t want to leave but she told him “You have to keep going and get to Mom.”<span> </span>Josseline died in the cold of winter in the desert on February 20, 2008.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span> </span>Focusing my attention on the task of taking photos allowed me to ignore any feelings about what had happened there.<span> </span>I pulled out the plants that were obstructing the view of the cross so that I could get a clearer picture.<span> </span>Then I started removing a few of the plants that had grown up behind the cross and I remembered watching Isabel cleaning the grave of her brother Reyes for the Day of the Dead in El Salvador.<span> </span>It felt as if I was doing something for Josseline but it was more about soothing my own emotions.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span> </span>I took the photos and put the camera back in my pack.<span> </span>That’s when it hit me and I started to sob.<span> </span>Sonia, Josseline’s mother, wrote a poem that is inscribed at the base of the cross: “When you feel that the road has turned hard and difficult don’t give up in defeat.<span> </span>Continue forward and seek God’s help.<span> </span>We’ll carry you always in our hearts.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span> </span>Josseline died alongside a dry streambed in a small canyon.<span> </span>As we were hiking up the hill, I looked back and was struck by the beauty of the scenery.<span> </span>The contrasting emotions of the sorrow for her death and the peace from that view are still with me.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span> </span>The sorrow also alternates with anger about the policies that killed Josseline.<span> </span>Sonia was unable to find work in El Salvador and she went to Los Angeles to earn money to send back for Josseline and her brother.<span> </span>She had worked for years in L.A. and finally saved up enough money to bring her children there.<span> </span>Her dream turned to tragedy when Josseline became the victim of a militarized border created by successive administrations in the U.S.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span> </span>Bill Clinton began the policy that would lead to the death of Josseline and thousands of other unauthorized immigrants.<span> </span>He pushed the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) through congress in 1993 and that destroyed the livelihood of more than two million small farmers in Mexico.<span> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span> </span>His administration then started building border walls and placing more Border Patrol agents to block the flow of migrants through Tijuana-San Diego; Nogales, Sonora–Nogales, Arizona; and Ciudad Juarez–El Paso.<span> </span>This policy of “deterrence” funneled migrants away from the urban areas and into more remote and hazardous terrain.<span> </span>Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, this militarization was escalated by George Bush and Barack Obama with the justification of “securing the border.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Not a single terrorist has been caught crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S. Yet, the government continues to “deter” people that are seeking work, or to be reunited with their families, by pushing them into the deadliest terrain along the border. That’s a political objective which is pursued through the use of armed force and causes large numbers of civilian casualties – including 14-year-old girls from El Salvador.</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_f3uXgqkHJj6TCNhZeSS5AlDy_C4Nkec5UwaOpef50rkeco2hWL2ZVv5N94XKVbzSpITpZDCe6WXjU9ejNtA1yb7Jlwvjd85tMFFrRYGtreYOD2mDvO-p7t1OBxrWc693lh8PtmbWTgj3/s1600/Josseline%2527s+shrine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_f3uXgqkHJj6TCNhZeSS5AlDy_C4Nkec5UwaOpef50rkeco2hWL2ZVv5N94XKVbzSpITpZDCe6WXjU9ejNtA1yb7Jlwvjd85tMFFrRYGtreYOD2mDvO-p7t1OBxrWc693lh8PtmbWTgj3/s320/Josseline%2527s+shrine.jpg" width="214" /></a></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">Photo of Josseline’s shrine:</span></div>Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-70278454081958295802011-10-05T21:05:00.000-07:002011-10-05T21:05:03.386-07:00Stop the deportation of Sandra Lopez<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 20-year-old Sandra Lopez to Nogales, Sonora on March 9. She was brought to the U.S. when she was just two weeks old and she doesn’t know anyone in Mexico. Sandra spent five days on the streets of Nogales and then ran for her life up through the lanes of traffic at the border and crossed back into the U.S. She was arrested and taken into federal custody, and applied for asylum. She is now at risk of being deported again.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span> </span>I attended a press conference at Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson on September 29 to call on the Obama administration to halt the detention and deportation of Sandra.<span> </span>I was able to speak with her mother and father, and I told them I would spread the word about her case.<span> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span> </span>The No More Deaths organization launched a national campaign for Sandra on July 25.<span> </span>More than 5,000 e-mails, faxes and phone calls have been made to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security.<span> </span>Please add your voice to the campaign by going to <a href="http://www.nomoredeaths.org/Updates-and-Announcements/stop-sandras-deportation.html">http://www.nomoredeaths.org/Updates-and-Announcements/stop-sandras-deportation.html</a> to send a message. <span> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span> </span><span> </span>Sandra graduated from high school in Tucson in 2009 and wanted to enroll in Pima Community College.<span> </span>She was told that she would have to pay out-of-state tuition because she doesn’t have immigration documents.<span> </span>Her family couldn’t afford that and she began working with her mother cleaning homes.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span> </span>She ran into a friend from high school in September 2010, and he asked her to mail a box for him and gave her $100.<span> </span>Sandra had never sent anything from FedEx before and it cost $85 for the package.<span> </span>She kept the remaining $15 and it turned out that the package contained marijuana.<span> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span> </span>Sandra plead guilty to “securing the proceeds of an offense” on February 8, 2011 and was placed on three years probation.<span> </span>She was then transferred to ICE and placed in the Eloy Detention Center – a 1,500 bed facility owned and operated by the Corrections Corporation of America.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span> </span>She appeared before an immigration judge on March 9 and was told there was no possibility of relief for her case.<span> </span>She became very distraught, started crying and signed a form that she did not understand which caused her to be deported to Nogales that night.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span> </span>“Strange men began to ask me to come with them,” wrote Sandra in her application for asylum.<span> </span>“I had a little bit of money so I went to a hotel right by the border and got a room.<span> </span>I saw men bringing girls a lot younger than me there and the girls looked really scared.<span> </span>At night I could hear them scream.<span> </span>I left the next morning.<span> </span>I was really scared.<span> </span>Several women met me outside and told me to come with them.<span> </span>They told me they kept girls like me and gave them jobs.<span> </span>I know they wanted me to be a sex worker for them.”<span> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span> </span>“I asked policemen for help but they would not help me.<span> </span>They also tried to get me to go with them and I knew I would be raped.<span> </span>I lived on the street for five days and nights - just running and hiding.<span> </span>I was so scared I ran for my life up through the lanes of traffic back into the United States.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span> </span>The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on August 18 that it would “execute a case-by-case review of all individuals in removal [deportation] proceedings to ensure that they constitute our highest priorities.”<span> </span>DHS also stated, “It makes no sense to expend our enforcement resources on low-priority cases such as individuals who were brought to this country as young children and know no other home.”<span> </span>Sandra’s case offers the Obama administration an opportunity to show that this is a change we can believe in.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Photos of Sandra’s mother and father during the press conference: </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH53UHfikWWkdsK_M_tAmoeFE0XA20Oqv62plQLQm6L6qrsQjugOyk8TVzSo00EyrWKWbnZ5CyywmpgLQrjZueFRZBSrRB0n01gs93wwBtuL7xavYSgFWQKxhdC4LLlpxAzDa71wSYF1i0/s1600/Sandra%2527s+mother.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH53UHfikWWkdsK_M_tAmoeFE0XA20Oqv62plQLQm6L6qrsQjugOyk8TVzSo00EyrWKWbnZ5CyywmpgLQrjZueFRZBSrRB0n01gs93wwBtuL7xavYSgFWQKxhdC4LLlpxAzDa71wSYF1i0/s320/Sandra%2527s+mother.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDNRLEJmicfdWKzstMi6q5W3uy7HhNukztNi5JrHqsFN1cbyexjgD2YvLB4k_cCgT16KZ9lNbftUUQ3Y-2ggpqYyPRlhAL3BjJOUDyY-_rtgDFhNJtSgj2BzhK6FFf5603a2RSKZUJGk3T/s1600/Sandra%2527s+father.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDNRLEJmicfdWKzstMi6q5W3uy7HhNukztNi5JrHqsFN1cbyexjgD2YvLB4k_cCgT16KZ9lNbftUUQ3Y-2ggpqYyPRlhAL3BjJOUDyY-_rtgDFhNJtSgj2BzhK6FFf5603a2RSKZUJGk3T/s320/Sandra%2527s+father.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div>Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678227950788151439.post-41351949013217167882011-09-27T10:06:00.000-07:002011-09-27T10:09:06.720-07:00The Border Patrol's Culture of Cruelty<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span class="Apple-style-span"> The No More Deaths organization released a report on Border Patrol abuses on September 21. Seven members of the coalition attempted to deliver the report to the headquarters of the Tucson sector of the Border Patrol but were not allowed on the grounds. An agent said they couldn’t come in because of concerns about “the safety of detainees.”</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The Presbyterian minister, doctor, nurse, two social workers and two human rights lawyers were stopped at the gate by several armed Border Patrol agents. I was accompanying the group to photograph the event. A Border Patrol agent was videoing us as we arrived and a woman in civilian clothes was also taking photos of us. Tucson police cars began arriving near the gate and there were eventually five patrol cars and two unmarked police cars.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Agent Easterling came out through the gate to receive the report. The seven spokespersons each talked about a different area of concern. John Fife, pastor emeritus of Southside Presbyterian Church, said “The word doesn’t appear in the report but the word that I would use to describe this is sin.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Norma Price is a doctor that volunteers with the Samaritans organization to provide medical care for migrants in distress in the desert. She used the word “malpractice” to describe the Border Patrol’s denial of medical treatment for migrants who are ill or have been injured.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Sarah Roberts is a nurse and co-founder of No More Deaths. She carried a gallon of water and expressed her concern about the Border Patrol’s failure to provide adequate water, or any water in many cases, to migrants apprehended in the desert.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The report is entitled “A Culture of Cruelty: Abuse and Impunity in Short-Term U.S. Border Patrol Custody” and is available at <a href="http://www.cultureofcruelty.org/">http://www.cultureofcruelty.org/</a> More than 4,000 interviews were carried out with migrants who had been deported in Naco, Nogales and Agua Prieta, Sonora. “Human rights abuses of individuals in short-term U.S. Border Patrol custody are systemic and widespread” concludes the report. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> A Culture of Cruelty documents widespread incidents of the failure to provide water or adequate water; failure to provide food or adequate food; denial of medical treatment; inhumane processing center conditions; verbal, physical and psychological abuse; separation of family members; failure to return personal belongings; and due process concerns. The Border Patrol issued a statement to the media that day saying “Mistreatment or agent misconduct will not be tolerated in any way.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The report also documents dangerous deportation practices including “lateral repatriation” of unauthorized migrants. The Alien Transfer and Exit Program deports people through a different port of entry than the one nearest to where they crossed into the U.S. Someone who crossed the border into Arizona could be sent back to Mexico through California or Texas. Migrants usually have very little or no money when they’re deported and dropping them off in an unfamiliar city puts them at risk. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Another dangerous practice is to deport people late at night in cities with problems of violence. I visited the San Juan Bosco migrant shelter in Nogales on September 24. One of the volunteers there told us a group of deported migrants arrived at 1:30 that morning and another group at 2:30. That’s an obvious example of abuse that is tolerated and routinely practiced by the Border Patrol.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Photos of agent receiving report, agent with video camera, and police presence:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Pfj92G8CsL5oiUhOJDZf5gULEhbI3sfwHAlGc9dErERBN5-my_PQZmdDafE1f_92K0b9uHNb7A75aUIxIjhSns1dbpBOXCImUUT1kdbZt4Dg0qJGcwz41doia8tUONXeaTb5YGhv33Yt/s1600/Border+Patrol+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Pfj92G8CsL5oiUhOJDZf5gULEhbI3sfwHAlGc9dErERBN5-my_PQZmdDafE1f_92K0b9uHNb7A75aUIxIjhSns1dbpBOXCImUUT1kdbZt4Dg0qJGcwz41doia8tUONXeaTb5YGhv33Yt/s320/Border+Patrol+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZLzUl7_qrfpXrUDztYdOORJOpNqv5KaQIVLb6LaR4jZ2vipL96hn9rV11qfJzfT2C6atXZEcRhdHWSIKBoTBZZLygKxUNmq_UZ7wdY0oXQtTxb_Ak9ne4w506dkhgG1NxEp9mHiRhb_EH/s1600/Border+Patrol+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZLzUl7_qrfpXrUDztYdOORJOpNqv5KaQIVLb6LaR4jZ2vipL96hn9rV11qfJzfT2C6atXZEcRhdHWSIKBoTBZZLygKxUNmq_UZ7wdY0oXQtTxb_Ak9ne4w506dkhgG1NxEp9mHiRhb_EH/s320/Border+Patrol+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
</span></div>Border Journeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07014671841076026886noreply@blogger.com0