Near the Border, a Few Deputies Are Outnumbered by Drugs and Bodies

“It’s hard,” he said. “I stop these guys and they pull out their wallets. I see the pictures of their kids and I think about my own kids. I realize I’d probably do the exact same thing if the situation was reversed.” Deputy Brad Gill, Ajo, AZ

I find that consistently local law enforcement officers, forced by recent laws to treat immigrants as criminals, are far less convinced of their task and far more compassionate than lawmakers in Washington or the state capital. As the "border security" hype heats up in the context of immigration reform, legislators should pay more attention to our own "boots on the ground" and less to the defense lobbies that roam the halls with stuffed pockets, selling the tragically false equation of immigration=national security threat. 

We'll be putting out a series on recent reports on immigration in Arizona and Texas on www.cipamericas.org this week. They document the high death rate and massive human rights violations that should shame a nation committed to justice. They also reinforce the deputy's view here that the multibillion-dollar plan of building a total wall is useless and a gigantic waste of tax dollars.

NYT. June 11, 2013 AJO, Ariz. — On a recent morning, Lt. Bill Clements, commander of a remote sheriff’s department substation here, sent his deputies into the sun-blasted Sonoran Desert to recover a body — the fifth in five days. Hours later, back at the station, a deputy unzipped a white body bag, revealing the corpse of a man who had died making the brutal crossing from Mexico, his lips shrunken, either with dehydration or from being partly eaten by wild animals, the deputies said.

Pima County sheriffs moved the body of a person who had apparently died crossing the border.

Out here, life expires suddenly and without dignity. The Ajo district station recovered 18 bodies last year. As of late May, the station had recovered eight, and the summer sun was still a few weeks away.

Read More...

Mexico: Traffickers abandoning immigrants at sea

CNN

By Catherine E. Shoichet
April 29, 2013

Mexican authorities said Monday that they've spotted a troubling immigration trend: large numbers of migrants abandoned at sea by traffickers.

Every month, Mexico's navy says it rescues about 150 stranded migrants, left adrift in overloaded boats off the country's Pacific coast.

As part of the scam, officials said in a statement, traffickers tell the migrants that there has been an equipment failure and promise to return but never do.

The immigration and maritime authorities said the frequency of that approach -- about 10 or 12 times per month -- inspired them to issue a warning on Monday: "Do not allow yourself to be fooled and put your life at risk by leaving it in the hands of people without scruples whose only goal is obtaining money without caring about the lives of other human beings."  Read more. 

Why Walls Won't Work: Repairing the US-Mexico Divide (EXCERPT)

The Huffington Post
Michael Dear
March 19, 2013

There are no magic words to solve the problems of immigration in the US or drug-related violence in Mexico. Instead, I offer one incontrovertible conclusion regarding the borderlands: the Wall will not work.
Here's why.

Because the Border Has Long Been a Place of Connection

The borderline is a permeable membrane connecting two countries. The inhabitants of this "in-between" territory thrive on cross-border exchange and collaboration, both of which have flourished for many centuries. There are strong senses of mutuality and attachment to territory among border residents.

Throughout time, many great dramas have been played out along what is today the border zone, including cataclysmic invasion, war, and revolution. The current afflictions in this troubled geographical vortex pertain to immigration and drug wars. The region has survived past upheavals, and will undoubtedly outlast the present woes.

A principal reason why border tensions are today so intense is that neither the migration nor drug problem has its origin in the borderlands. Instead, they originated from outside, and borderland communities have limited capacity for self-determination in these matters. At the national level, the US and Mexico each stand to gain from the sacrifices of that small subset of their populations that resides in the border zones. These are the people who must endure the exogenously-induced threats, with little assistance from their national and local governments beyond military and police actions. In the meantime, they have made what adjustments they can: some people have left , tired of the stresses and dangers; others simply await the future.  Read more. 

Sifting for answers in a mass grave in Tapachula, Mexico

By Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times

September 12, 2012

TAPACHULA, Mexico — With the first light of day, a team of investigators using shovels and brushes begins picking through the red dirt of the Garden Pantheon cemetery, a ramshackle resting place where a mass grave sits cordoned off by yellow police tape.

Black and blue tarps (and one advertising Coca-Cola) shield the work from the intense sun and prying eyes. Slowly, over the next weeks, the team will exhume dozens of bodies that have been dumped, nameless, in the mass pauper's grave toward the back of the cemetery, in this city near Mexico's border with Guatemala.

Some of the bodies are skeletons; others, more complete. Some died violent deaths at the hands of very bad guys; others succumbed in more mundane ways: disease, car wrecks, exposure.

Standing at the center of the operation is Mercedes "Mimi" Doretti, a forensic specialist who has pretty much seen it all. Tall with long, dark hair, the 53-year-old Argentina-born single mom has dug up bodies for two decades, from Latin America to the killing fields of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

She is fiercely protective of her charges, taciturn with outsiders, sympathetic but reserved with survivors. More than 400 people with missing relatives have given DNA samples, mostly from strands of hair, which will eventually be used in the hope of identifying the bodies. Read more. 

Migrant Deaths Jump

September 10, 2012

Although unauthorized border crossings are down to 40-year lows on the United States’ southern border, the deaths of migrants trying to reach the Promised Land are on the upswing in at least one section of the region. That’s according to Miguel Angel Isidro, Mexican counsel in Laredo, Texas. In remarks to the Mexican press, Isidro said 60 migrants have perished in the zone surrounding Laredo and its sister city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, so far this year.

Of the 60 deaths, 34 were registered on the U. S. side of the border and 26 on the Mexican side. According to Isidro, all the deaths in Mexico were due to drownings in the Rio Grande. The deceased persons recovered in the U. S. succumbed mainly to dehydration, though some drowned in the river or were killed in vehicular accidents, he said.

“The (death toll) is higher than last year’s, when 52 dead migrants were registered, according to Mexican consular sources and reports from the authorities in Nuevo Laredo” Isidro said. “Of those deaths, 30 happened in the desert of Laredo, Texas, and 22 on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande.”

The Mexican diplomatic official attributed the increase in migrant deaths to the tightening of U. S. border security across from once-popular crossings between the Mexican state of Coahuila and the highway that connects to the metropolitan center of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. The blocked access, Isidro said, has forced migrants to attempt dangerous crossings in areas with extremely high temperatures or treacherous waters. The Mexican consulate, he added, has issued warnings advising of the dangers in crossing the territory.

Sources: El Diario de Juarez/Notimex, September 10, 2012. New York Times, September 7, 2012. Article by Julia Preston.

Frontera NorteSur: on-line, U.S. -Mexico border news Center for Latin American and Border Studies New Mexico State University Las Cruces, New Mexico

For a free electronic subscription: e-mail fnsnews@nmsu.edu

Grand jury probing death hears from witness to stun-gun shooting by US border officials

AP: SAN DIEGO — A man who saw an illegal immigrant from Mexico get shot with a stun gun by U.S. border authorities said he testified Thursday to a federal grand jury amid signs that prosecutors are considering criminal charges in the immigrant’s death after more than two years of silence on the politically charged case. Read more.

Mexico Accuses Border Patrol of Shooting Underage Mexican

Fox News Latino: SAN ANTONIO – An FBI investigation has been launched on the U.S. border with Mexico regarding the possible connection between two incidents that may have resulted in the death of an underage Mexican citizen.

On Saturday, U.S. Border Patrol agents reportedly opened fire along the Rio Grande after being pelted by rocks and having a gunman point a weapon in their direction. On Sunday, Mexico confirmed and condemned the fatal shooting of a Mexican citizen on the Mexican side of the border on Saturday as well. Read more.

Drug War Weapons Traffic: Slain border agent's family files $25M claim against U.S.

Slain border agent's family files $25M claim against U.S. – USATODAY.com: "The family of slain Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry filed a $25 million wrongful death claim Wednesday against the federal government, saying he was killed because U.S. investigators allowed murder weapons into the hands of criminals.

Terry died Dec. 14, 2010, when his special-operations unit got into a shootout with border bandits in a remote canyon area near Rio Rico. At the scene, investigators found two AK-47s that were traced back to a gun-smuggling probe by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives." read more

Immigrant Rights March Starts Along U.S.-Mexico Border

KPBS.org: "A march to remember migrants who died along the U.S.-Mexico border gets underway Feb. 2 in San Diego. ... The group will start in San Diego, head to Arizona and then to Sacramento to lobby for migrants and farm workers rights. ...  Border Angels, the organization, which sets out water in the desert for migrants crossing the border, has been organizing the event for seven years. ... This year, the march will focus on the legacy of Cesar Chavez." read more

Immigration Reality: University Of Michigan Researcher Documents Belongings Left Behind While Crossing The Border

Huffington Post: "Not many people consider the human side of immigration, let alone take the time document the belongings of those left behind by the migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Worn sneakers, dirty backpacks and empty water bottles fill the Sonoran desert. Each object tells a story of struggle, hope and determination and it wasn't until recently that they were collected for anthropologists hoping to study the science behind migration phenomenon.

"This is not garbage" said Jason De Leon, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan, "The goal of the project is to rigorously and systematically collect data on the social phenomenon of border crossing using the lens of anthropology to provide insight into the realities of this process."" read more

The Border: Even without Herman Cain's 'electrified' fence, the border is already lethal

CSMonitor.com: "Operation Gatekeeper... results in an average of one death per day along the southwest border. ... In Jan. 1994, a year after President Bill Clinton took office, the Border Patrol embarked on a strategy of “control through deterrence” that has proven deadly. ... The idea behind Operation Gatekeeper was to block traditional entry and smuggling routes with enforcement personnel and physical barriers.

Policymakers anticipated that the show of force would discourage migrants from entering without inspection. However, the assumptions proved wrong, as migrants began to traverse the border over more dangerous terrain and the use of unscrupulous smugglers surged. As the migrants moved to more dangerous, unfamiliar terrain, deaths resulted." read more

U.S. Border Agent Shoots, Kills Alleged Illegal Border-Crosser In Struggle

AP/Fox News: " A U.S. Border Patrol agent fatally shot a Guatemalan man in southern Arizona as the illegal border-crosser allegedly attacked an agent. ...

Julia Guzman, the consul general of Guatemala in Arizona, said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent her government a summary of the struggle, which began as border agents encountered a group of illegal immigrants. Guzman said U.S. authorities reported that the 28-year-old became combative, got control of an agent's collapsible steel baton and attacked an agent and a police dog." read more