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Trump Is Forging His Own Gaza On The Southern Border

November 29, 2018 By Jacob Sugarman, Truthdig.com , , ,
When a crowd is exposed to tear gas, an aerosol containing the chemical agent 2-chlorobenzaldene malononitrile (CS), nasal passages begin to run, eyes water uncontrollably and breathing grows short and painful. Those directly exposed can experience vomiting or diarrhea. Effects take hold within 30 seconds, and the symptoms can last up to 10 minutes, even after the air has cleared or the afflicted have managed to scramble to safety. For these reasons, nearly every nation in the world banned the compound’s use in warfare under the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993. Yet despite ratifying these agreements, the United States continues to utilize tear gas for domestic riot control. Police shot dozens of canisters at protesters over several days in Ferguson, Mo...

Socialism Beyond Borders

November 27, 2018 By Hilary Wainwright, Redpepper.org.uk , ,
In an age of transnational corporations and global finance-driven speculation, socialist strategy is doomed if it focuses exclusively, or even primarily, on any individual nation state. Yet, at the same time, popular struggles for control over nation states are an essential part of a necessarily international strategy. This is my starting point in responding to Costas Lapavitsas (page 38) and his call for socialism to ‘start at home’. We must learn from the recent successes of cross-border movements and their distinctive capacity to counter the power of the huge corporate lobbies, most recently in the defeat of the TTIP trade deal between the EU and the US.

Tucson Demonstrators Wheatpaste In Intersection After Second Border Patrol Agent Not Guilty Verdict

November 27, 2018 Tucson Anarchists, Itsgoingdown.org , , ,
On Wednesday, November 21st, a jury in Tucson, Arizona found Border Patrol agent Lonnie Swartz not guilty of involuntary manslaughter for his 2012 shooting of 16 year old José Antonio Elena Rodríguez. Though Lonnie Swartz’s killing of José Antonio is only one among many murders committed by Border Patrol, the particularly egregious nature of the shooting made it the first time in history that a BP agent has faced criminal charges after killing someone. Swartz shot through the border wall from Nogales, Arizona into Nogales, Sonora, hitting the unarmed teenager ten times in the back and killing him instantly. A previous trial had already found Swartz not guilty for second-degree murder, but could not come to a decision on manslaughter charges...

U.S. Border Patrol Launches Tear Gas At Migrants Over Attempt To Breach Fence

November 26, 2018 Christopher Sherman, AP.org , , ,
TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — U.S. border agents fired tear gas on hundreds of migrants protesting near the border with Mexico on Sunday after some of them attempted to get through the fencing and wire separating the two countries, and American authorities shut down the nation’s busiest border crossing from the city where thousands are waiting to apply for asylum. The situation devolved after the group began a peaceful march to appeal for the U.S. to speed processing of asylum claims for Central American migrants marooned in Tijuana. Mexican police had kept them from walking over a bridge leading to the Mexican port of entry, but the migrants pushed past officers to walk across the Tijuana River below the bridge.

Trump’s Military Deployment To The US-Mexico Border Is Illegal

November 20, 2018 By Marjorie Cohn, Truthout.org , ,
Passed in 1878 to end the use of federal troops in overseeing elections in the post–Civil War South, the Posse Comitatus Act forbids the use of the military to enforce domestic US laws, including immigration laws. For this reason, Trump’s decision to deploy the military to the border to enforce US immigration law against thousands of desperate migrants from Central America — who have undertaken the perilous journey over 1,000 miles through Mexico to the US border in order to apply for asylum — is an unlawful order. Kathleen Gilberd, executive director of the National Lawyers Guild’s Military Law Task Force, told Truthout, “The deployment of US troops to the Southern border is an illegitimate political ploy and a serious misuse of the military. This action casts shame on a government that treats refugees seeking asylum as enemies.”

US Border Patrol Agents Prone To Corruption

November 12, 2018 Justin Rohrlich, Defenseone.com , ,
Toward the end of September, Ramon Antonio Monreal Rodriguez obtained $650,000 worth of cocaine from smugglers along the Arizona border. The 32-year-old Tucsonian made two exchanges of drugs and money over the course of two nights, and ensured 41 kilos of coke got into the US from Mexico without any problems. Monreal and the traffickers met up at a prearranged spot in a patch of desert near the San Gabriel Gate. Monreal knew the area well. After all, he had been working in the vicinity since he joined the US Border Patrol a decade earlier. The FBI, which had Monreal under surveillance, arrested him on Sept. 25; Monreal resigned from his role as an agent later that day.

“Migrating Is An Act Of Resistance”: A Report From Mexico’s World Social Forum On Migrations

November 10, 2018 By Tamara Pearson, Towardfreedom.org , ,
While US President Donald Trump and other like-minded political and economic leaders are building walls, migrant activists say they are building bridges. Some 2,000 activists and academics from over 60 countries gathered in Mexico City over the weekend for the 8th World Social Forum on Migrations. The gathering aimed to create a new vision of migration and bring the various movements and organizations together. It was coordinated by MIREDES International and the International Network of Migration and Development, and follows the first Social Forum on Migration in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2005. “Migrants are protagonists, not victims” was one of the key messages participants and panelists stressed at the forum.

Controversial AI ‘Lie Detectors’ Coming To EU Airports, Border Crossings

November 7, 2018 By Tyler Durden, Zerohedge.com , , , ,
Several European airports will deploy an AI-powered lie detector at border checkpoints in a trial run of the new technology, reports CNN.  When a passenger approaches customs, they will be asked a series of questions by a "virtual border guard avatar," which will use an Artificial Intelligence to monitor their faces to quickly determine whether they are lying in an effort to reduce congestion.  The avatar will become "more skeptical" and change its tone of voice if it believes a person has lied, before referring suspect passengers to a human guard and allowing those believed to be honest to pass through, said Keeley Crockett of Manchester Metropolitan University in England, who was involved in the project.

Is There Really A ‘Militia Caravan’ Traveling South To Protect US Border From Marching Migrants?

November 7, 2018 Igor Ogorodnev, Rt.com , , , , ,
Most media outlets have published as fact claims that vigilante groups incited by Donald Trump are organizing themselves to confront the migrant caravan, but the story appears to be based on little more than an unverified boast. Variously named as “armed militias” and “far right activists,” some “gun-toting” groups have been reported as “forming their own caravan” in scores of media reports over the weekend, from the Huffington Post to The Hill in the US to international outlets such as the UK’s the Sun, Turkey’s Anadolu, and Russia’s Sputnik. The vigilantes are reportedly equipped with military-level tech, and will form units hundreds-strong. They have caused alarm among both local residents – afraid that their land will be invaded– and the army contingent forced to separate sides.

Armed Militia Groups Head To The Border, Sparking Military Concerns

November 6, 2018 Mary Papenfuss, Huffingtonpost.com , , , ,
Armed bands of civilian militia members are traveling to the southern U.S. border, where President Donald Trump has ordered thousands of active-duty troops to rebuff the approaching migrant caravan. About “200 unregulated armed militia members [are] currently operating along the southwest border,“ says a planning document for Army commanders leading the 5,200 troops Trump has deployed at the border, according to Newsweek. The groups “operate under the guise of citizen patrols supporting” border officials, the document says, pointing out “reported incidents of unregulated militias stealing National Guard equipment during deployments.”

Chicanos Welcome Central American Caravan

November 6, 2018 Sol Marquez, Fightbacknews.org , , , , ,
Los Angeles, CA – On October 26, as the caravan of refugees from Central America traveled through Mexico, they were welcomed with food, festivity, aid, and clothing. As Chicanos, we must do the same when the caravan arrives at U.S. border. Attacking Mexicans, and by extension Chicanos, Trump has dispatched the U.S. military to the U.S.-Mexico border to block the caravan. We say down with Trump, down with him hiding like a coward behind the U.S. military, down with the continued militarization, killings and abuses at the border, down with the injustices to the undocumented in the U.S., and down with the U.S. destabilization of Central America. We must demand legalization for all current 11 million undocumented people in the U.S., and asylum now for the caravan refugees when they arrive at the border.

Trump’s Call To ‘Protect’ Border Reactivates Vigilante Militias

November 5, 2018 Staff, Telesurenglish.net , , , ,
Armed anti-immigration groups of civilian volunteers have been reactivated at the call of President Donald Trump to protect the U.S. from the “invasion” of Central American asylum-seekers, and are preparing to install themselves at the border with their rifles. After years of relative inactivity, the Texas Minutemen militia summoned volunteers for a watchout operation at the border with Mexico in order to aid the border patrol and the 15,000 troops that Trump is allegedly dispatching to the border to stop the migrant caravan. The organization, similar to a paramilitary group, is headed by the private investigator Shannon McGauley, who said they’re preparing scores of armed volunteers to guard three points at the Texas border.

Trump’s Rules Of Engagement For Troops At US-Mexico Border Mirror Those Used By The IDF In Gaza

November 5, 2018 By Whitney Webb, Mintpressnews.com , , , ,
WASHINGTON  — Since President Donald Trump first directed the outrage of his supporters at a Central American migrant caravan making its way towards the United States a little over a week ago, his plan to deploy between 5,200 and 15,000 active-duty U.S. soldiers to the border has provoked mixed reactions within the United States. However, Trump’s more recent announcement that armed U.S. soldiers have been instructed to target any migrants who resort to throwing stones as though they were firing rifles has evoked an even wider range of reactions. On Thursday afternoon, Trump detailed in a speech that “Anybody [in the caravan] throwing stones, rocks, like they did to Mexico and the Mexican military, Mexican police, where they badly hurt police and soldiers of Mexico, we will consider that a firearm.”

Your Commander-in-Chief Is Lying To You: Veterans Issue Open Letter To Active Duty US Soldiers

November 3, 2018 By Rory Fanning, Commondreams.org , , , , ,
Your Commander-in-chief is lying to you. You should refuse his orders to deploy to the southern U.S. border should you be called to do so. Despite what Trump and his administration are saying, the migrants moving North towards the U.S. are not a threat. These small numbers of people are escaping intense violence. In fact, much of the reason these men and women—with families just like yours and ours—are fleeing their homes is because of the US meddling in their country’s elections. Look no further than Honduras, where the Obama administration supported the overthrow of a democratically elected president who was then replaced by a repressive dictator.

Does Domestic Use Of The Military For Immigration Violate The Posse Comitatus Act?

November 2, 2018 By Heather Timmons, Qz.com , , , ,
The US is sending thousands of troops to “harden” the border with Mexico, Pentagon officials said today (Oct.29), as thousands of asylum-seekers approach on foot from Central America. The armed forces will send 5,200 personnel, three helicopters, several military planes, and more than 150 miles of razor wire to border locations, starting in Texas, Air Force Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and US Northern Command, told reporters Monday (Oct. 29) afternoon, confirming earlier reports. Customs and Border Protection officers will continue to enforce immigration law on the border...
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