Gaza in Arizona

     I saw heavy machinery up ahead as I parked on the ridge road a few miles north of the border with Mexico.  When I got out of the car, I could see a tower in the east and another one in the north.  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.

     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.

     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.  

     While I was taking that photo, Todd Miller and Gabriel Schivone were posting an excellent article entitled Gaza in Arizona  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.” 

     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.  

     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.

     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.

     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.

     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.

     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.

Migrant Posada

     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.   A cold rain was falling, but for a brief moment, the sun came out and a rainbow appeared. 

     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.

     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.

     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.

     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.

     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.

     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.”

    

Mother and daughter reunited

     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. 

     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.”

     “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.’”

     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.

     Rosy told me that her family moved to the U.S. when she was just 11 years old.  They lived for two years in Denver and seven years in Mesa, Arizona.

     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. 

     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.

     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.”

     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?”

Migrant Christmas

     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.

     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. 

     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.

     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. 

     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.”

"We want family unity for the children of immigrants"

The Dream 9 return home

      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. 

     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. 

     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.

     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.    

     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.

     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.

     Luis left in 2011 after the DREAM Act failed.  He tried to cross back into the U.S. four times last year.

     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.

     Claudia was deported after her husband was detained while he was driving to work.

     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.

     They have overcome the fear of deportation and are, as they shouted at the border crossing, “Undocumented, Unafraid!”

     

Just wanting to go home

     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.

     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. 

     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.   

     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.

     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. 

     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?” 

     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. 

     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.

     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. 

     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.

     For the latest developments in this historic case, go to the National Immigrant Youth Alliance Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NationalImmigrantYouthAlliance  To take action, go to the Dream Activist web site: http://action.dreamactivist.org/bringthemhome

Claudia approaching the border crossing in her graduation gown (as a Dream activist)

Elvia and Yamil walking to the crossing

Yamil entering the U.S.

Yamil and Elvia after learning that Claudia and the others were being sent to the detention center

Dogcatchers for migrants

     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.

     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.

     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. 

     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.

     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. 

     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.

     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.

Mario and Fernando

Stransky's "dogcatcher"