U.S. border apprehensions of Mexicans fall to historic lows

Pew Research Center: For the first time on record, more non-Mexicans than Mexicans were apprehended at U.S. borders in 2014 by the Border Patrol, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of more than 60 years of Border Patrol data. This shift is another sign that unauthorized immigrants from Mexico are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border significantly less often than they did before the Great Recession.

U.S. Border apprehensions of Mexicans fall to historic lows. About 229,000 Mexicans were apprehended by the Border Patrol in fiscal year 2014 compared with 257,000 non-Mexicans during the previous year, according to recently published Border Patrol data. Taken together, total apprehensions of Mexican and non-Mexican unauthorized immigrants (more than 486,000) were up 16% over the previous year. Read more. 

Who Really Crosses the U.S.-Mexico Border?

The Atlantic: For the first time in more than 60 years, more non-Mexicans than Mexicans were apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol at checkpoints in 2014, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center.

Approximately 257,000 non-Mexicans were apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol in 2014, compared to about 229,000 Mexicans, according to the recently released data. The total number of unauthorized immigrant apprehensions is up 16 percent from the prior year. Read more. 

Texas Bolsters Border Patrol With Its Own

New York Times:  Along the Rio Grande here, the suspected smugglers trying to slip into the United States have certainly noticed their adversaries on the water: burly commandos in black-and-white boats mounted with .30-caliber machine guns and bulletproof shields. The patches on the officers’ camouflage fatigues identify them not as federal Border Patrol agents but as another breed of law enforcement entirely.

Texas game wardens.

Pool photo by Eric Gay

A team of them — whose routine duties include investigating fishing tournament cheaters and making arrests for B.U.I., or boating under the influence — patrol the Rio Grande, pulling smuggling suspects from the river and dodging rocks thrown from the Mexican side. Members of the Texas Rangers have also traded in their familiar white cowboy hats for camouflage so they can blend into the brush on covert nighttime operations.

Mexico, U.S. Examine Use of Force on Border

Hispanic Business: Mexican and U.S. officials met to discuss the use of force by U.S. federal agents on the border in an effort to reduce violent incidents during the apprehension of migrants, the Foreign Relations Secretariat said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske, U.S. Border Patrol officials and U.S. Embassy personnel participated in the meeting, the secretariat said.  Read more. 

Immigration Reform Should Address Why People Leave

Huffington Post 
By Andrew Wainer
July 18, 2013

In June, the Senate approved the most far-reaching reforms to U.S. immigration policy in 50 years. The Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act passed on a vote of 68-32. It now faces a more daunting challenge in the House of Representatives. The 1,000+ page bill includes an earned legalization process for 11 million unauthorized immigrants, increased enforcement both at the border and at home, and a revamped guest worker program for both high- and low-skilled jobs.

But even as policymakers attempt to fix what everyone agrees is a broken immigration system, the proposed legislative solutions overlook one of the system's most important moving parts -- the economic hardship in immigrants' home countries that drives them to seek work in the United States. Thus, the U.S. development community can play a new and important role in helping to integrate economic development and poverty reduction into U.S. immigration policy.  Read more. 

Sealed U.S. Border Will Be 'Unprecedented Challenge' for Mexico

Mexico - El Universal - Original Article (Spanish)
By Enrique Berruga Filloy
World Meets, Translated By Halszka Czarnocka
June 27, 2013

Every day, the proposed U.S. immigration reform law gets tougher: the waiting period for obtaining citizenship has risen from 13 to 15 years, migrants will have to admit that they illegally entered U.S. territory, and now the measures for controlling the border zone will be doubled, both in terms of budget and the number officers. The amendment proposed by Republican Senators Bob Corker of Tennessee and John Hoeven of North Dakota demands an increase in border patrol officers to 40,000; requires the construction of a 700 mile fence; the installation of infrared sensors; and the use of unmanned aerial drones. The figures are devastating: there will be seven border patrol officers for every mile of the frontier.  Read more. 

Mexico objects to border security portion of US immigration bill, says fences not solution

The Washington Post 
By Associated Press
June 25, 2013

MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government objected on Tuesday to an immigration bill that appears headed for approval in the U.S. Senate, saying the initiative’s heavy focus on border security is not consistent with the relationship between the two countries.

Foreign Relations Secretary Jose Meade said that instead of expanding a border fence, as proposed in the bill, the United States should modernize border bridges to expedite commerce.

“Fences do not unite,” Meade said while reading a statement to reporters during a news conference where he didn’t take questions.  Read more. 

Border Deal by 2 in G.O.P. Lifts Chances of Immigration Bill

The so-called comprehensive immigration reform bill in the U.S. Congress is shaping up to be the worst counter-reform in terms of human rights and civil liberties in the history of U.S. legislation. 

Here is a note from the New York Times on yet another Republican knife in the back of immigrant rights, this time in the form of a "border surge" (yes, they are actively striving to make Chihuahua look as much like Iraq as possible), including fencing and 40,000 security forces, all for a cool $30 billion in taxpayer money, which could easily end up being double that due to "errors" and cost overruns, if the history of this lethal boondoggle is any example.

NYT, WASHINGTON — Two Senate Republicans reached an agreement on Thursday on a plan to strengthen border security with the bipartisan group of eight senators that drafted an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws, raising hopes that the new deal could build Republican support for the immigration legislation being debated on the Senate floor.

The deal, according to aides with knowledge of the discussions, will call for what was described as a “border surge” that nearly doubles the current border patrol force to 40,000 agents from 21,000, as well as the completion of 700 miles of fence on the southern border. The additional border agents, an aide said, would cost roughly $30 billion.  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. 

New urgency to cross along tougher U.S. border

The Washington Post

That’s when many of these men crossed over for the first time, in their late teens or early 20s.

Today the area is perhaps the toughest part of one of the most heavily guarded and closely watched international boundaries in the world. The Department of Homeland Security has doubled border security and immigration enforcement spending since 2006 to $18 billion a year, deploying sensors, cameras, fencing, surveillance drones and federal agents.

The immigration overhaul proposals from Congress and the White House promise to harden the border even more.

The Department of Homeland Security does not estimate how many illegal migrants make it across, but researchers and the migrants themselves say the odds of getting caught are greater than ever.

Since 2005, the United States has doubled the number of Border Patrol agents deployed along the Mexico boundary to 18,516, an all-time high.  Read more. 

Border Patrol Opens Unmanned Crossing on U.S.-Mexico Border

ABC/Univision 

Get ready for the very first "unmanned" border station on the U.S.-Mexico border. Slated to open at the end of this month, the Big Bend National Park in Texas will be staffed by, you guessed it, computers.

The station will be equipped with machines that can scan citizenship documents and conduct live video interviews with U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at a station in El Paso, Texas, Tech News Daily reports. While Mexican citizens will be able to use the crossing, U.S. officials maintain that Americans tourists to the national park are more likely to do so. When a similar CBP crossing was open in the same location more than a decade ago, few Mexicans used it. In 2002, because of increased security measures, U.S. officials closed the original crossing, forcing tourists to travel more than 100 miles to the next nearest crossing to get to Mexico, according to Nextgov.

For anyone worried about the effectiveness of an unmanned station, federal officials maintain that the technology is both effective and cost-efficient, given the number of border crossers in the area. Natural barriers, such as the Rio Grande river, already make illegal crossings more difficult in the region than in other segments of the border, Nextgov reports. Cameras and surveillance tools will be set up in the vicinity, like at any other border station and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials will also be able to travel from the El Paso station should the need arise. Read more. 

US & Mexico Plan for New Border Inspection Station in Tijuana

Fox News Latino 
January 03, 2013

Commercial shipments crossing the Mexican border with the United States will have now have a new layer of screening before they can enter the country thanks to the announcement of a planned customs inspections station in Tijuana that will for the first time ever permit U.S. agents to screen loads before they cross into the U.S.

Funded by the Mexican federal government, the facility will operate on the same compound as the busy Otay Mesa border crossing and will have U.S. and Mexican officials operating in the same facility. This idea of the building is to speed up the process for which certain goods – namely produce – cross the border.

The site supposedly has a laboratory, rooms for cold storage and state-of-the-art inspection equipment and U.S. officials would enter the compound from a secure road on the U.S. side of the border. The site will officially be opened once U.S. President Barack Obama and newly-inaugurated Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto give the joint go-ahead. Read more. 

Mexico denounces killing of minor by U.S. border agents

Fox News Latino The Mexican government strongly denounced the homicide of a minor by U.S. agents on the border between Nogales, Mexico, and the likenamed Arizona city.

The Foreign Relations Secretariat expressed in a communique Mexico's "energetic condemnation" of the incident that occurred Wednesday on the border when Border Patrol agents opened fire and killed the minor.

"The disproportionate use of lethal force by the army engaged in immigration-control duties is unacceptable under any circumstances," the statement said.

It added that cases like this, "particularly because of their recurrence," have sparked the resentment of Mexicans and of all the powers and political parties in the country. Read more. 

Human rights group accuses U.S. of abuses along Mexico border

Reuters U.S. policing along the Mexico border discriminates against Hispanics and Native Americans and contributes to the deaths of illegal immigrants, according to a study by the human rights group Amnesty International USA.
 
The report, titled "In Hostile Terrain: Human Rights Violations in Immigration Enforcement in the U.S. Southwest," identifies what it says are systemic failures of federal, state and local authorities to enforce immigration laws without discrimination.

"Communities living along the U.S.-Mexico border, particularly Latinos, individuals perceived to be of Latino origin and indigenous communities, are disproportionately affected by a range of immigration-control measures, resulting in a pattern of human rights violations," the study said.

The U.S. government has tightened security along the nearly 2,000-mile border with Mexico in recent years, adding additional fencing, surveillance technologies and Border Patrol agents. The federal government also has partnered with some state and local police forces to give officers immigration-enforcement powers.  Read more

Full Report from Amnesty International here:

IN HOSTILE TERRAIN: HUMAN RIGHTS ... - Amnesty International 
www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/.../en/.../amr510182012en.pdf

Border Control: Texans On Wrong Side Of Border Fence Grow Anxious

AP/Fox News: "Max Pons is already anticipating the anxiety he'll feel when the heavy steel gate shuts behind him, leaving his home isolated on a strip of land between America's border fence and the violence raging across the Rio Grande in Mexico.

For the past year, the manager of a sprawling preserve on the southern tip of Texas has been comforted by a gap in the rust-colored fence that gave him a quick escape route north in case of emergency. Now the U.S. government is installing the first gates to fill in this part of the fence along the Southwest border, and Pons admits he's pondering drastic scenarios." read more

Border: Military to bolster presence on border

tucsonsentinel.com: "The military's presence along the Mexican border will be bolstered this month when more troops and equipment are deployed to Southern Arizona, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol said Thursday. Joint Task Force-North, which oversees military operations along the U.S.-Mexico border, will send additional troops, vehicles and equipment to Arizona and New Mexico in mid-February, the Border Patrol said." read more

Border Security: Congressman Cuellar of Texas to host meeting between Defense Department and local politicians and law enforcement

MexicoBlog is on Congressman Cuellar's email list. We received this announcement of his setting up a meeting between the Deparment of Defense and local political leaders and police forces as part of his effort "to transfer technology and equipment from the Department of Defense to federal, state and local first responders." 

Dear Friends of the 28th District of Texas:

I am honored to host a meeting with the Honorable Paul N. Stockton, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and America’s Security Affairs at Laredo Community College on Friday, February 10, 2012.

I extend an invitation to local first responders and community leaders including: mayors, judges, sheriff’s departments, police departments, constables and fire departments. Secretary Stockton will join me in our efforts to transfer technology and equipment from the Department of Defense to federal, state and local first responders.

The meeting will be broadcast in Floresville, Texas, and Mission, Texas. The meeting is open only to first responders and government officials at the request of law enforcement agencies. First responders, if you are interested in attending please contact one of my congressional offices.

Sincerely,

Congressman Henry Cuellar

Border Control: New Fences Block Access To U.S.-Mexico Border Monuments

An interesting article about another unforeseen consequence of barricading the border with Mexico.

Fronteras Desk: "Before there was a fence, all that marked the border between Mexico and the United States were stone and steel monuments, 276 of them dotting the southwestern landscape. They were installed by Mexican and American surveyors starting in 1850, after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War and the two countries agreed to define their shared border.

But as the U.S. Border Patrol has reinforced the boundary with a new fence, many of these bi-national monuments have been left entirely on the Mexican side of the barriers." read more

Border Lines: Drones Hunt Immigrants and Marijuana Backpackers -- and Wind-triggered Ground Sensors

Border Lines: "The Department of Homeland Security says it needs a fleet of two-dozen Predator and Guardian drones to protect the homeland adequately. Designed for military use, 10 of these unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are already patrolling U.S. borders in the hunt for unauthorized immigrants and illegal drugs.

DHS is building its drone fleet at a rapid pace despite its continuing inability to demonstrate their purported cost-effectiveness. The unarmed Predator and Guardians (the maritime variant) cost about $20 million each. Yet DHS has little to show for its UAV spending spree other than stacks of seized marijuana and several thousand immigrants who crossed the border without visas." read more

Border Security: Answers to the Border Drone Numbers Game

Border Lines: "CBP has answers to the apparent inconsistencies and errors that I have pointed out in previous postings. In response to a request to clarify the confusing and ostensibly errant numbers, CBP warned “it would be unfair to categorize UAS [unmanned aerials systems] by only using drug interdiction or border crossing metrics.”

Yes, ideally CBP would measure progress in securing the homeland by achievements by other measures, such as its role in countering terrorism and keeping the homeland secure – whatever that means." read more