Tearing down walls and welcoming immigrants

     A large excavator was tearing down a section of the border wall in Nogales when I was there with a delegation on June 1.  Residents of Nogales, Sonora were able to look directly across the border into Nogales, Arizona for the first time in 16 years.  The people who had gathered to watch the operation burst out in applause as a piece of the wall was pulled down. 

     Another excavator was alongside the border about 100 feet away.  That machine was being used to erect a higher and stronger wall.  Two armed men from the Safety and Security Solutions company were guarding the opening between the old wall and the new one.  Two Border Patrol agents and a Nogales police officer were also standing guard to ensure that no one stepped across the imaginary line separating the two sides of Nogales. 

     The First Presbyterian Church of Oxford (Mississippi) delegation had arrived in Nogales, Sonora two days earlier and our first stop was at Grupos Beta – a Mexican government agency that provides aid to migrants.  Gelma, Brenda, Isabel and Carmen told us they were from Acapulco and had tried to enter the U.S. in search of work.  They crossed one morning and were apprehended by the Border Patrol that afternoon.  One of the delegation participants asked why they thought it was so hard for them to enter the U.S. and they each responded: “Racism.”

     The following day, we visited a meal program for migrants operated by the Catholic church.  Anulfa described how she had walked for three nights in the desert of southern Arizona.  She began to cry and said, “I thought I was going to die.”  They were going up and down steep, rocky hills and were running out of food and water.  She couldn’t go any further and was apprehended by the Border Patrol.

     The U.S. government has erected hundreds of miles of walls and placed thousands of Border Patrol agents in areas where people used to cross the border relatively easily.  This strategy of “deterrence” has pushed migrants into the most inhospitable and dangerous regions to cross.  The bodies of 253 migrants were found in the Arizona desert last year.  The actual number of deaths is much higher because the desert is a very harsh environment and most bodies are never found.

     Maria told us she had lived for 13 years in Phoenix and has three children that are 7, 12 and 16 years-old.  She was apprehended for driving without a license in October 2010.  As an undocumented immigrant she was unable to obtain a license.  She was separated from her children and sent back to Mexico.  Maria has tried to cross back into the U.S. ten times since then to be with her children.  During her ninth attempt, she spent 90 days in two different Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers.

     We met with two ICE representatives the day after we spoke with Anulfa and Maria.  They told us that ICE is “looking for the worst of the worse” to remove from the country.  “The United States is one of the most welcoming countries in the world in terms of immigration,” they concluded.

     We went on a water run the following morning with Humane Borders.  The organization maintains water stations in the desert to aid migrants that are at risk of dying from dehydration.  A Border Patrol truck pulled up behind our rental van as we were driving back towards Tucson.  They turned on the flashing lights and pulled us over.  Four armed agents got out and came alongside the van.  “Are you U.S. citizens?” they asked; and then, “What are you doing here?”  “Did you see any traffic (i.e. migrants) when you were out there?” asked one of the agents before allowing us to continue on our way to the Arizona-Sonora Desert museum.

    

    

Border wall and Friendship Park

     I looked down on the beach at Tijuana on February 11 and saw the border wall extending out into the Pacific Ocean.  I was standing on the former site of Friendship Park.  The park was inaugurated by first lady Pat Nixon in 1971 to celebrate the relations between the people of Mexico and the United States.  The Department of Homeland Security built a secondary border fence (100 feet north of the wall) during the first months of the Obama administration and eliminated Friendship Park. 
     The Clinton administration created the border wall in 1994 – just months after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was implemented.  U.S. corporations used NAFTA to flood Mexico with subsidized corn and more than two million Mexican farmers lost their land.
     Displaced farmers, along with workers who had lost their jobs, crossed into the U.S. to seek employment.  The Clinton administration built walls in the urban areas to push the migrants into more remote and hazardous terrain.  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.”  More than 5,000 people have now died while attempting that crossing.
     I was in Tijuana and San Diego to participate in the “Turning Walls into Tables” border conference organized by the United Church of Christ and Disciples of Christ.  Josue, a minister in Mexico, challenged all of us to knock down the walls that divide us – including the walls in our hearts and minds.
     Pat Nixon planted a tree to inaugurate Friendship Park and then ordered her security guards to cut the barbed wire fence at the border.  She crossed over to embrace some of the Mexican children and said “I hope there won’t be a fence here too long.”
     Photos of the border wall at Tijuana and the former site of Friendship Park:

The Nogales Wall

     “Berliners, you have proved that no wall can forever contain the mighty power of freedom,” said Bill Clinton at the site of the former Berlin Wall in July 1994.  A few months later, his administration built its own wall that separates Nogales, Sonora from Nogales, Arizona.  I crossed that border on December 11 and walked for a mile along the U.S. side of the wall - an area that is completely militarized.

     I passed a Border Patrol car that was parked at the crest of a hill on International Street, which runs along the border.  The pavement ended and turned into a dusty dirt road.  A Border Patrol truck was parked on the next hill.  “Sir, do you need any assistance?” the agent asked me.  “No, I’m just looking for a spot to take some photos of the wall,” I replied.

     Another Border Patrol truck came driving down towards me as I was walking up the next hill.  The agent asked what I was doing there and if another agent had come by to talk to me.  “How much further are you going?” he asked, and I told him just to the top of the hill.

     I took some photos up there and began walking back along a smaller road that winds along the hills and drops down to the main road by the wall.  I came upon an unmarked truck parked beside the road and a man stepped out and walked towards me.  He was dressed in a camouflage uniform and had an automatic rifle slung from his shoulder.  “What are you doing here?” he asked, with his hands on the gun.  I explained that I was taking photos of the wall and asked if he was with the National Guard.  “Yes,” he replied. 

     I also asked if the road continued down to the main road and he confirmed that it did.  He then scanned the hills and said, “Could you find another route out?  We can’t have anyone in our sight.”  I suggested that if I continued along that road, I would quickly be back on the main road and out of his sight after I got to the crest of the next hill.  He didn’t want me going any further and he still had his hands on the rifle, so I turned around and walked back again on that same road. 

     A Border Patrol truck then drove alongside me and stopped.  After the initial questions, we entered into a conversation about the border.  Ruben told me that he had worked with the Border Patrol for 24 years. 

     “Why are so many people crossing?” he asked.  “I think NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement) has something to do with it,” I responded.  “U.S. agricultural corporations used NAFTA to flood Mexico with subsidized feed corn and more than two million Mexican farmers lost their land because they couldn’t compete.  Also, the minimum wage on the other side of the wall is $4.70 a day and here it’s $7.25 an hour.  A good wage, including production bonuses, in the assembly plants there is just $70 a week.”

     Ruben also asked about a long-term solution.  “I believe if farmers could stay on their land and workers were paid a decent wage, they wouldn’t feel the need to cross the border,” I said.  He then confirmed that he had my name correct and continued driving down the hill alongside the wall.

     Photos from the U.S. side of the wall:

The Wall

     Jeannette and Tito took me to the border wall here in Nogales on Thanksgiving Day.  The wall divides the city into Nogales, Sonora and Nogales, Arizona; and it was designed to block impoverished Mexicans and Central Americans from entering the U.S. in search of work.  It is14 feet high and topped with a fence, and is made of landing strip materials from the Gulf War.

     A Border Patrol truck was parked on a hill, 200 yards to the west.  Another Border Patrol truck was parked on a hill, 200 yards to the east, alongside a tall pole with surveillance cameras.  “We’re probably being watched,” said Jeannette.

     Bill Clinton began this militarization of the border after the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect in 1994.  U.S. agricultural corporations used NAFTA to flood Mexico with subsidized corn grown in the U.S. for animal feed.  The price of that corn was less than what it cost small farmers in Mexico to grow the corn that had been used for tortillas.  The farmers couldn’t compete with U.S. agribusiness and more than two million of them lost their lands.    

     Displaced farmers, along with workers who had lost their jobs, crossed into the U.S. to seek employment.  The Clinton administration built walls in the urban areas to push the migrants into more remote and hazardous terrain.  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.” 

     Militarization of the border was expanded by George Bush and Barack Obama.  There are now more than 3,300 Border Patrol agents and 500 National Guard soldiers stationed along the Arizona border.  During the last year, 253 people died in the desert of southern Arizona while attempting to migrate into the U.S.    

     In contrast, U.S. corporations are able to freely cross the border in search of profit.  Applebee’s, Blockbuster Video, Burger King, Carl’s Jr., Dairy Queen, Domino’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald’s, Office Depot, Papa John’s, Subway, and Wal-Mart all operate in Nogales, Sonora.  Sixty five U.S. companies; including General Electric, Master Lock, Otis Elevator and Xerox; have assembly plants here with approximately 25,000 workers.  The minimum wage on this side of the wall is $4.63 a day.

     “I’ve been here in Nogales for 20 years,” said Engracia.  “There used to be just a chain link fence and we could see through it to the other side.  But then the wall blocked our vision and now we can’t see each other.”

     Guadalupe Serrano, Diego Taddei and Alberto Morackis of the Junk (“Yonke”) Public Art Workshop created a huge mural on the Sonora side of the wall last year.  Hundreds of photos of people comprise the “Migration Mosaic” that features four feet walking.

     A variety of images and messages have been painted on the wall, including “Borders are scars on the earth” and “Walls turned on their sides are bridges.”

     Photos of the border wall with the collage, and the Bella Vista neighborhood as seen from the Hope and Peace community center (where I’m living and working):

Marching for the rights of children

     More than 50 children and adults from the Hope and Peace community center participated in the Mexican Revolution parade here in Nogales on November 20.  Ten thousand people marched through the streets according to the El Diario de Sonora newspaper.  The only group that presented a social message in the parade was the community center.

     The children carried signs that read, “I have the right to nutrition,” “I have the right to decent housing,” “I have the right to education,” and “I have the right to play.”  Those rights are not fulfilled for many of the children that live in the impoverished “colonias” of Nogales.  The colonias are scattered throughout the hills of the city, and were formed when people took over vacant land and built houses out of whatever material was available to them.

     “We revolutionize with healthy nutrition, camps for children, and education for adults” read a large banner carried by one of the adults.  The community center is in the Bella Vista colonia and provides lunch for children from the most impoverished families, runs winter and summer children’s camps, and offers classes for adults to complete their high school education. 

     When the children marched passed the reviewing stand, they raised their signs and the MC read out their messages for the mayor, army commander, and the other spectators gathered there.

     Photos of girl with “I have the right to nutrition” sign and boy with “I have the right to decent housing” sign:

   

Migrant chains

     The prisoners were in chains as they were brought before the judge in U.S. district court in Tucson on November 12.  The seven women and sixty men had handcuffs that were attached to a chain wrapped around their waist and shackles on their feet that were connected with another chain.  Their crime was having crossed a man-made line in the desert in search of work.  

     They were seated on the left side of the courtroom and visitors were restricted to the right side of the gallery.  I noticed that the front row of the visitors section was vacant and I asked the guard if I could sit there.  He replied that the row was closed because, “They want to keep the public as far away from the prisoners as they can.”

     The judge called the people up in groups of six.  The first 55 people were charged with two crimes - re-entry after deportation and illegal entry.  He told them that re-entry is a felony punishable by up to two years in prison, and that illegal entry is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.

     Each person had signed a plea agreement with the federal prosecutor that morning in which they pleaded guilty to illegal entry and the felony charge was dismissed.  The judge asked each of them, “Are you a citizen of Mexico (or Guatemala or Honduras) and did you enter the United States near Nogales (or another town), Arizona at a time and place other than one designated by an immigration officer?”  He then sentenced each of them to the time on the plea agreement, which ranged from 30 to 180 days.

     The process lasted an average of six minutes per group - one minute per person.  “This shit is f…ed up!” shouted one of the prisoners while another group was in front of the judge.  I agreed, thinking that he was commenting on the process.  It turns out his headset didn’t work and he couldn’t hear the Spanish translation of the proceedings.  That happened with the headsets for several people. 

     The vast majority of the people had been apprehended that week, some just the day before the hearing.  The judge asked each person if they wanted to say anything prior to their sentencing and only one did.  She was a single mother who had left her daughter with a neighbor, and she was worried about how she could pay for that care (now in jail instead of having found work).  She asked the judge to reduce her time.  He responded that he had to accept the sentence of 95 days in her plea agreement; and if she refused that agreement, she could face up to two years in prison.

     The last 12 people were charged with the one crime of illegal entry and were sentenced to the time they had served since being apprehended that week.

     This process is named Operation Streamline and it occurs every day, Monday through Friday, at 1:30 P.M.  The program began in Tucson in 2008 and targets migrants who are apprehended along the border in Arizona.  The goal is to convict 100 people a day with misdemeanors so that they will face stiffer penalties if they cross the border again.      

     I’m going to Nogales, Sonora tomorrow to start working as a volunteer with the Hope and Peace community center.  The center is a sister organization of BorderLinks (http://www.borderlinks.org/) which has been carrying out educational delegations to the Borderlands for more than 20 years.  I’ve been here in Tucson for a week of orientation and training, and that afternoon in court taught me a lesson on racism and oppression that I will never forget.

     Photos of the U.S. district court in Tucson (cameras are not allowed inside):