Faces from the Border: Choosing Friends

New Yorker: Today, about half of the guardians of the border—U.S. Border Patrol agents—are Hispanic, and many have roots in both countries. Consider agent Yesenia León, aged thirty-three. She was born in a small town in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua and came across the border legally when she was four thanks to her father, a U.S. citizen. León, the youngest of six children, was raised in El Paso.

She graduated from Bowie High School, which back then, she says, was known as “La Bowie” because the south-central school had a reputation for its cholos, or gang members. It was also known as the place that had, through a 1992 federal lawsuit, changed the way the agents operated in border cities. The Border Patrol agency routinely stopped and questioned Hispanics near the high school, located just a few feet from the border. The lawsuit brought by Bowie students and staff successfully made a case against racial profiling that has had a major impact on Border Patrol procedures throughout the Southwest. Read more.

Mexico halts immigration inspection at Otay Mesa

UTSanDiego: Following protests from Baja California business and political leaders, Mexican immigration authorities on Tuesday suspended a program at the Otay Mesa border crossing requesting that foreign pedestrians show a passport and say how long they plan to stay in Mexico.

The head of the Baja California office of Mexico’s National Migration Institute, Rodulfo Figueroa Pacheco, confirmed that it was back to business as usual at the port, where some 6,000 visitors cross southbound on foot on any given day. Pedestrian visitors can voluntarily register with Mexican immigration authorities, but won’t be asked to do so, he said. Read more. 

Threat of punishment doesn’t dissuade illegal immigration, new study shows

USC News
By Gilien Silsby
August 1, 2013

Neither the threat of arrest nor punishment may significantly deter Mexicans from trying to enter the United States illegally, according to a new USC Gould School of Law study that was published in the August issue of the American Sociological Review.

The study examined a variety of economic and noneconomic factors that may influence decisions to migrate illegally from Mexico to the United States. It found that people’s perceptions of the certainty of arrest and the severity of punishment are not significant determinants of their intentions to migrate illegally, once other relevant factors are taken into account.  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. 

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. 

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.

House approves waiver of border environmental laws

CBS News: WASHINGTON — The Republican-controlled House on Tuesday approved a bill that would allow the Border Patrol to circumvent more than a dozen environmental laws on all federally managed lands within 100 miles of the borders with Mexico and Canada.

Supporters said the measure is needed to give border agents unfettered access to rugged lands now controlled by the Interior Department and Forest Service. Laws such as the Wilderness Act and Endangered Species Act often prevent agents from driving vehicles on huge swaths of land, leaving it to wildlife, illegal immigrants and smugglers who can walk through the territory undisturbed, they said. Read more.

Border: More Predator drones fly U.S.-Mexico border

Washington Post: "There are now eight Predators flying for U.S. Customs and Border Protection — five, and soon to be six, along the southwest border. After a slow rollout that began in 2005, government drones are now patrolling most of the southern boundary, from Yuma, Ariz., to Brownsville, Tex.

Fans of the Predators say the $20 million aircraft are a perfect platform to keep an watchful eye on America’s rugged borders, but critics say the drones are expensive, invasive, finicky toys that have done little — compared to what ordinary Border Patrol agents do on the ground — to stem the flow of illegal crossers, drug smugglers or terrorists." read more

Border Politics: A border debate that counters sense with nonsense

A Washington Post editorial on the nonsense of border politics

Washington Post: "Mr. Obama is now reported to have decided to slash the number of (national) guardsmen on the border, whose deployment was paid for by the Pentagon. His decision is sensible. The deployment was intended to be temporary, and at $10 million a month, it was a luxury the Pentagon, facing billions of dollars in cuts, could hardly justify.

Still, the logic of the president’s decision has not dampened an outcry from Republicans who see political advantage in fanning hysteria on the issue of illegal immigration." read more

Border Politics: Drone Boosters in Congress

Border Lines: "The House proponents of expanded drone operations have their own caucus. Cong. Buck McKeon, the powerful Republican who represents the southern California’s 25th district, created the UAV Caucus – now called the Unmanned Systems Caucus -- in 2009. McKeon also chairs the House Armed Services Committee, where he promotes drone use in foreign wars.

Under Candice Miller’s chairmanship, the Border and Maritime Security Subcommittee of the Homeland Security Committee has become another major font of drone boosterism. The committee’s ranking member is Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar, who represents the border district of Laredo. Cuellar also serves as cochair of the Unmanned Systems Caucus." read more

Border Impossible To Secure, Experts Says

And this is from Fox News--Latino! 

Fox News Latino: "A border that is sealed off to all undocumented immigrants and drugs flowing north is a promise none of (the Republican candidates) could keep. "Securing the border is a wonderful slogan, but that's pretty much all it is," said Ted Galen Carpenter, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute. "Even to come close would require measures that would make legal commerce with Mexico impossible. That's an enormous price for what would still be a very leaky system."" read more

The Border: South Texas lawmen strongly dispute GOP’s border “war zone” claims | Texas on the Potomac | a Chron.com blog

HoustonChron.com blog: "Obama administration officials used a White House roundtable and Democratic forum with South Texas law enforcement officers Wednesday to refute Republican claims that Mexican drug cartels have turned the U.S.-Mexico border region into a war zone.

... South Texas law enforcement officials and Democratic congressmen said claims by Republicans that the border has become a war zone were untrue and unfairly painted the border region as drenched in cartel violence.
“The border is not in chaos,” said Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño. “We are not at ‘Ground Zero’.”" read more

US Employs More Drones To Watch Border

This article focuses on the technology and ostensible benefits of using Predator drones on the border. It also points out, indirectly, some of the politics around their use. U.S. Congressman Henry Cuellar wants more of them. The Borde Patrol agents union wants the money spent instead on (surprise!) "more boots on the ground."  For a critical analysis of the politics, read Predators on Border, Hawks in Mexico. For more on Congressman Cuellar, see our editorial, What's Behind the Merida Initiative's Move to Texas?

AP/Fox News Latino: "The Predator program ... is playing a larger role in the nation's border security as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection adds to its force of unmanned aircraft. The agency received its second Predator B aircraft in Texas last month and will add its sixth overall on the Southwest border when another is based in Arizona by the end of the year.

... A Predator system — the plane, sensors, control consoles and antennas — costs $18.5 million. ... U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, who pushed to add the second unmanned aircraft in Texas and eventually hopes to have six based here, called them an "extremely important" part of the border enforcement mix of agents and technology." read more

U.S. Politics: Rick Perry's States' Rights Populism-Why Rick Perry Is Important Even If He Loses

Border Lines: "Gov. Rick Perry ... claims he is “conservative to the core,” and we can readily believe him. He is socially conservative, committed to Christian moral precepts he says animated the nation’s founders. A proud Eagle Scout, Perry also defends the Boy Scouts of America for their policy of prohibiting atheists and gays, and he believes in intelligent design, not evolution.

Perry is also a conservative on border and national security issues. As governor, he has brought together border sheriffs, state police, and the Texas Rangers in a campaign to “protect Texans” from the Mexican drug gangs allegedly crossing into Texas and bringing drug war–related violence with them. He has invested several hundred million dollars along the Rio Grande through initiatives such as Operation Border Star, which, according to Perry’s Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw, aims to “leave no exploitable seam” in the border." read more

The Border: Analysis shows that statistics don't back up claims of rising drug cartel-related crime along border

Austin Statesman: "Last month, two retired Army generals, flanked by the state officials who had hired them, stood in the Texas Capitol and painted an alarming picture of escalating violence on the Texas-Mexico border. Their report, which relied less on crime statistics than anecdotal evidence, concluded that the Texas side of the border had become a "war zone."

But a closer look at crime numbers in border counties since 2006 ... does not reveal evidence of out-of-control chaos. An American-Statesman analysis of all 14 counties that share a border with Mexico and two dozen border cities shows that violent crime along the Texas side of the Rio Grande fell 3.3 percent between 2006 and 2010.

... Questions over statistics highlight the push to control the narrative along the border, which has major repercussions nationally. The country's perception of the border — as either a war zone or a violence-free haven — influences discussions ranging from immigration reform to presidential politics." read more

The Border: Senate proposal would waive environmental laws at border

The environment, endangered animals and plants, become another form of collateral damage from the insanity of the border "war" against immigrant and drug traffic. Immigration from Mexico has dropped dramatically and the drug traffic will never be stopped, yet the politicians will continue to go on the warpath, heedless of the destruction they wreak. 

Examiner.com: "A bill sponsored by Ariz. Sen. John McCain passed through a Senate subcommittee this week, which would grant Customs and Border Patrol agents unfettered access to all federal lands within one hundred miles of the U.S. border with Mexico. Currently, Border Patrol officers are not permitted to drive their vehicles through certain areas of the border region due to environmental restrictions. However, many lawmakers, both Republican and Democrat argue that these restrictions create channels where Mexican smugglers travel across the border unabated." read more

Border Politics: GOP Seeks Waiver Of Environmental Laws At Border

Fox News: "A growing number of lawmakers are saying (that environmental protection) restrictions have turned the border wilderness areas into highways for criminals. In recent weeks, three congressional panels, including two in the GOP-controlled House and one in the Democratic-controlled Senate, have moved to give the Border Patrol unfettered access to all federally managed lands within 100 miles of the border with Mexico."

... Environmental groups said lawmakers lining up to support the legislation have routinely opposed the Endangered Species Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act and dozens of other laws, and they accused the lawmakers of using illegal immigration as the latest excuse to gut protections.

"For every problem that's out there in society, there's some extremists in Congress who say the solution is, `Well, let's roll back the environmental laws, let's open up the public lands,"' said Paul Spitler, spokesman for the Wilderness Society. "It doesn't comport to reality, but it fits their mindset that it's simply the environmental regulations that are holding back America." read more

Border Politics: Homeland Security adding 3 drone aircraft despite lack of pilots

Ah, the insanity of pork barrel politics!

latimes.com: "The Homeland Security Department is adding three surveillance drone aircraft to a domestic fleet chiefly used to patrol the border with Mexico even though officials acknowledge they don't have enough pilots to operate the seven Predators they already possess. The new drones are being purchased after lobbying by members of the so-called drone caucus in Congress, many from districts in Southern California, a major hub of the unmanned aircraft industry.

"We didn't ask for them," said a Homeland Security official who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak frankly. Officials said the Customs and Border Protection Office of Air and Marine, which operates the drones, has enough pilots to fly the current fleet only five days a week. Congress approved $32 million to buy the new drones last August. But the authorization did not include money to train or hire new pilots or crews, or to buy spare parts, officials said." read more