U.S. flying deportees deep into Mexico, over dangerous border

Washington Post
By Nick Miroff
July 31, 2013

Security conditions have grown so dire in Mexican border towns that U.S. immigration authorities have begun flying some deportees to Mexico City, rather than releasing them into areas where they could be targeted by kidnappers and smuggling gangs.

The twice-weekly flights operated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) carry only a fraction of the nearly 300,000 Mexican nationals returned by the Obama administration each year. But flying deportees deep into Mexico could save lives by discouraging them from attempting another desperate illegal crossing, ICE officials say.

“We’re trying to reduce attempted reentry into the United States and minimize the potential for exploitation of people who are removed to Mexico and their loss of life,” said Tim Robbins, an ICE official who coordinates the flight program, known as the Interior Repatriation Initiative.  Read more. 

Illegal Immigration: Cruelty, Xenophobia and U.S. Business (La Jornada, Mexico)

"The criminalization of undocumented migration in the United States and the violations of human rights that accompany it, is a strategy that results in enormous political, economic and corporate profit, the very existence of which contradicts the founding principles of that country."

Editorial
La Jornada 
Translated By Halszka Czarnocka
WorldsMeet.us

April 4, 2013

According to official reports divulged by The New York Times, some 300 undocumented migrants a day are subject to solitary confinement in U.S. prisons on orders of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE for short). This happens in spite of the fact that such people have not been jailed for criminal offences, but for civil ones, which under the laws of our neighboring country, don't even merit punishment. Their detentions are a means of ensuring that they appear at administrative hearings. Out of this figure, half, or some 150, are kept in solitary confinement for 75 days or more, which according to psychiatric experts cited by the newspaper, multiplies the risk of severe mental damage for the detainees.

Beyond the intrinsic cruelty of laws currently in force in our neighboring country under which migrants are persecuted - laws that criminalize foreigners for coming to the U.S. in search of work or a better life than what their countries of origin offer - inhumane practices like this one have various contextual elements that must be examined. Read more.

Immigrants Held in Solitary Cells, Often for Weeks

The NY Times 
By Ian Urbina and Catherine Rentz
Published: March 23, 2013

WASHINGTON — On any given day, about 300 immigrants are held in solitary confinement at the 50 largest detention facilities that make up the sprawling patchwork of holding centers nationwide overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, according to new federal data.

Nearly half are isolated for 15 days or more, the point at which psychiatric experts say they are at risk for severe mental harm, with about 35 detainees kept for more than 75 days.

While the records do not indicate why immigrants were put in solitary, an adviser who helped the immigration agency review the numbers estimated that two-thirds of the cases involved disciplinary infractions like breaking rules, talking back to guards or getting into fights. Immigrants were also regularly isolated because they were viewed as a threat to other detainees or personnel or for protective purposes when the immigrant was gay or mentally ill.  Read more.

Deportees flown to Mexico City in new program to bypass border towns

Reuters: Immigration officials on Tuesday flew 131 deportees to Mexico City in the maiden flight of a new program to send illegal immigrants to the interior of Mexico, rather than border towns where they are more likely to be exposed to criminals.

The two-month project is a collaborative effort between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Mexican Ministry of the Interior, and is geared toward immigrants who come from the interior regions of Mexico.

In the past, many Mexican nationals deported from the United States have ended up in northern border towns, despite having no ties to the region. Deportees placed there have often sought to re-enter the United States illegally, or have fallen prey to criminal organizations, federal officials say. Read more.

Family of ICE agent slain in Mexico files wrongful death claim against US government

AP: WASHINGTON — The family of an Immigration and Customs agent slain in Mexico has filed a $25 million wrongful death claim against the U.S. government.

A pair of South Texas law firms representing the family of ICE Agent Jaime Zapata filed the claim June 14 and named ICE, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Justice Department as defendants. Attorneys for Zapata’s parents, Mary and Amador Zapata, named several supervisors at the agencies and FBI Director Robert Mueller and Attorney General Eric Holder. Read more.

US turns to Mexican newspaper ads to counter drug smugglers who target unwitting job-seekers

Associated Press: The war on drugs is going to the classified sections of Mexican newspapers.

Smugglers have long advertised work as security guards, housecleaners and cashiers, telling applicants they must drive company cars to the United States. They aren't told the cars are loaded with drugs.

Starting this week, U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement began buying ad space in Tijuana newspapers to warn jobseekers they might be unwitting pawns. read more

U.S. says beware of ads placed by drug traffickers

UTSanDiego.com: "“Would you like to work in San Diego?” asked the small want ad placed in a Tijuana daily newspaper. “A company that is a leader in its field is looking for male employees.”

It sounded like a good opportunity, but what appeared to be an honest job offer had a major hitch: The work involved smuggling narcotics, and the employer was a drug trafficking organization.

The scenario has become increasingly familiar to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa border crossings. Over the past year, more than three dozen drivers caught with drug loads claimed that they had answered want ads, and were simply complying with their new employer’s request that they drive a vehicle across the border." read more

Who is a Criminal? ICE’s Less-than-Reliable Numbers on ‘Criminal Offenders’

America's Voice: A lot has been written this week on the recent ICE sweep that arrested more than 3,100 individuals over the span of six days, involving more than 1,900 ICE officers in every state across the nation. Given the scope of the operation—it was one of the largest deportation sweeps ever of its kind—we have to wonder who was picked up, and for what reasons.

The Obama administration’s prosecutorial discretion policies are supposed to be in force right now, and the headlines about this sweep were all about the really bad guys taken off our streets. But given our experience, we were skeptical. Is ICE really deporting only the worst criminals, while allowing innocent DREAM Act students and hardworking immigrants who just want to take care of their families stay? read more