Border

Neglect & Abuse Of Unaccompanied Children By U.S. Customs And Border Protection

May 26, 2018 Staff, Aclusandiego.org Educate! Abuse, Border, Children

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (“CRCL”) is the agency within DHS that is, according to its own website, responsible for “promoting respect for civil rights and civil liberties in policy creation and implementation,” and for “investigating and resolving civil rights and civil liberties complaints filed by the public.” In response to our FOIA request, CRCL released approximately 4,600 pages of records, consisting of complaints submitted by legal service providers and immigrants’ rights advocates on behalf of migrant children detailing various forms of abuse. The CRCL records also consist of internal agency records documenting the limited investigations it undertook.

Victory! Fourth Circuit Rules That Border Officials Can’t Subject Electronic Devices To Suspicionless Forensic Searches

May 14, 2018 Staff, Boingboing.net Create! Border, Courts, Surveillance

Back in 2014, the Supreme Court ruled in Riley v California, holding that border guards do not have unlimited authority to search our personal electronic devices when we cross the border, requiring individualized criminal suspicion before a search can take place. Now, in U.S. v. Kolsuz, the first appellate ruling since Riley, the Fourth Circuit appeals court has held that it is unconstitutional for US border officials to subject visitors devices to forensic searches without individualized suspicion of criminal wrongdoing. The Fourth Circuit didn't rule out the possibility that manual searches were also unconstitutional, but did not rule on the matter, and the ruling also suggests that warrants may be needed before border guards can undertake forensic searches of electronic devices.

“We’re Gonna Take Everyone” — Border Patrol Targets Prominent Humanitarian Group As Criminal Organization

May 7, 2018 Ryan Devereaux, Theintercept.com Educate! Border, Immigration, Repression, Undocumented

FROM THE MOMENT Scott Warren was arrested by Border Patrol agents on a remote property just north of the Mexican border, in January this year, there were questions. The 35-year-old college instructor, with a doctorate in geography and a history of academic and humanitarian work along the border, was found in a building known locally as “the Barn,” in the company of two young undocumented men from Mexico. Accused of supplying the men with food, water, clothing, and a place to sleep, he was indicted by a grand jury in February, on two counts of harboring illegal aliens and one count of conspiracy to transport and harbor illegal aliens. The humanitarian aid volunteer could spend up to two decades in prison if convicted and sentenced to consecutive terms.

Fatal Encounters: 97 Deaths Point To Pattern Of Border Agent Violence Across America

May 4, 2018 Sarah Macaraeg, Theguardian.com Educate! Border, Immigration, State Violence, Undocumented

In the last 15 years, agents with Customs and Border Protection have used deadly force in states up to 160 miles from the border, from Maine to California. For six long years the family of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez have been caught in a legal saga seeking justice for the 16-year-old who was killed by a US border patrol agent who fired 16 times from Arizona into Mexico. Ending criminal proceedings that have dragged on since 2012, a jury last week cleared agent Lonnie Swartz of second-degree murder and could not agree on a verdict for two lesser charges of manslaughter. The shooting has compelled judges up to the US supreme court to deliberate whether the American government can be sued in civil court for wrongful deaths on Mexican soil – placing the incident, and eight other cross-border fatal shootings, at the center of scrutiny surrounding the use of force by agents in response to allegedly thrown rocks.

Border Militarism: An Old Failed Policy, Tried Again

April 26, 2018 By Todd Miller, Tomdispatch.com Educate! Border, Immigration, Militarization, Policy

At first, I thought I had inadvertently entered an active war zone. I was on a lonely two-lane road in southern New Mexico heading for El Paso, Texas. Off to the side of the road, hardly concealed behind some desert shrubs, I suddenly noticed what seemed to be a tank. For a second, I thought I might be seeing an apparition. When I stopped to take a picture, a soldier wearing a camouflage helmet emerged from the top of the Stryker, a 19-ton, eight-wheeled combat vehicle that was regularly used in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. He looked my way and I offered a pathetic wave. To my relief, he waved back, then settled behind what seemed to be a large surveillance display mounted atop the vehicle. With high-tech binoculars, he began to monitor the mountainous desert that stretched toward Mexico, 20 miles away, as if the enemy might appear at any moment.

The Long, Brutal History Of Militarization At The US-Mexico Border

April 13, 2018 Rachel Ida Buff, Buzzflash.com Educate! Border, Militarization, Nationalism

The recent announcement of intent to deploy US National Guard troops to the US-Mexico border is part of an ongoing theater of cruelty which summons xenophobic ideas of national security and imposes more military presence in daily life. This kind of swagger has a long history. But instead of offering security, its consequences visit repression, degradation and death on many communities, and undermine the rule of law throughout the country. In the early 1950s, concerns about communist infiltration focused on the US border with Mexico. Assistant Border Patrol Commissioner Willard Kelly compared undocumented migration from Mexico to a "great, peacetime invasion."

People Of Colombia & Venezuela Unite On Border Opposing Hostilities

March 12, 2018 By Katrina Kozarek, Venezuelanalysis.com Resist! Border, Colombia, Immigration, Solidarity, Venezuela

Barquisimeto, March 8 2018 (venezuelanalysis.com) On the first and second of March, social movements and human rights organizations from Colombia and Venezuela came together in the border cities of San José of Cucutá, Colombia and San Antonio, in the state of Táchira in Venezuela in an event of mutual solidarity for peace and self determination. This event was organized as both countries face growing economic, social and political tensions that have manifested especially the border areas of these two countries in the form of mafias of contraband, presence of paramilitaries, social violence and xenophobia against Venezuelan immigrants, assassinations of Colombian political activists, and increased military presence on both sides of the border.

A Treacherous Crossing

January 31, 2018 Kathy Kelly, Vcnv.org Educate! Africa, Border, Immigration, Migrants

On January 23rd an overcrowded smuggling boat capsized off the coast of Aden in Southern Yemen. Smugglers packed 152 passengers from Somalia and Ethiopia in the boat and then, while at sea, reportedly pulled guns on the migrants to extort additional money from them. The boat capsized, according to The Guardian, after the shooting prompted panic. The death toll, currently 30, is expected to rise. Dozens of children were on board. The passengers had already risked the perilous journey from African shores to Yemen, a dangerous crossing that leaves people vulnerable to false promises, predatory captors, arbitrary detention and tortuous human rights violations. Sheer desperation for basic needs has driven hundreds of thousands of African migrants to Yemen.

The Consequences Of Chase & Scatter In The Wilderness

January 19, 2018 Staff, Thedisappearereport.org Educate! Border, Immigration, Nationalism, Undocumented

The death of José Cesario is not an aberration. Our report finds that the US Border Patrol routinely chases people, causing them to scatter, and directly contributing to their disappearance and/or death. Since the mid-1990s, the US Border Patrol’s policy of Prevention Through Deterrence has intentionally pushed migration into increasingly remote corridors in the Southwest borderlands. This policy has turned the natural landscape into a lethal weapon that injures, kills, and disappears border crossers. Our report shines a light on the deadly practices that characterize enforcement in these hostile wilderness areas. The result: thousands of known deaths of undocumented border crossers, and an even greater number of disappearances—a crisis that has received far less attention.

Flexible Borders, Your Rights & Drones And Public Broadband

December 24, 2017 Eleanor Goldfield, occupy.com/actout Resistance Report Border, Drones, Municipal Networks, Net Neutrality

This week on Act Out! we're talking borders and barriers. First up, did you know that the U.S constitution has a different border zone than the official border map of the U.S.? And what does that have to do with drones in a small town in Maine? Next up, make some noise between barriers this New Years and here's how the U.S now extends to 75% of the world's nations. Finally, following last week's Net Neutrality decision, you may be feeling down – but here's a pick me up that gives YOU the power to access the internet – no telecoms allowed.

Utilizing Indigenous Thought To Cope In The Age Of Trump

November 27, 2017 Four Arrows, truth-out.org Strategize! Border, Donald Trump, Ideology, Indigenous Peoples, Nationalism

By Four Arrows for Truthout - November 9, 2016, was a typical North Dakota wintry day and the cold wind bit into me. Unlike the group of fellow Veterans for Peace I was with, who had come from northern or eastern locations, I was fresh in from a fishing village in central Mexico. We huddled around a red camper van, listening to a radio station in anticipation of hearing the results of the election. The crowded camp below our hilly perch was strewn with makeshift buildings, campers and tipis, and we were surrounded by rolling hills, grass plains and buttes that bordered the sacred Missouri River we were trying to protect. Hearing the radio transmission clearly was difficult, owing to static and occasional interruptions from TigerSwan, a private military contractor hired by Energy Transfer Partners to disrupt our communications with the outside world. Nonetheless, when we heard that Trump was the new president of the United States, the words resonated all too clearly. No one spoke at first. Then, showing tearful emotion, one of our younger vets, who had regretfully participated in two tours in Iraq, angrily spoke out: "How stupid are people in this country?" Immediately, one of our female Lakota vets walked up to him and gave him a sincere hug. She was a round-faced woman in her 40s or 50s who wore a derby-type leather brimmed hat, long beaded earrings, a brightly colored vintage Navajo-styled Pendleton blanket coat and a pair of eyeglasses that illuminated eyes that radiated gentle wisdom.

Israeli Arms Maker Picked To Build Prototype Of Trump’s Border Wall

October 18, 2017 Ali Abunimah, www.electronicintifada.net Educate! Border, Israel, Trump Administration

By Ali Abunimah for The Electronic Antifada - An Israeli arms maker has been picked by the US Department of Homeland Security to build a prototype of the wall President Donald Trump has vowed to build along the full length of the US-Mexico border. Elta North America is one of eight firms that will receive about $300,000-$500,000 each to build test versions of the barrier. Trump now says his wall will be “see through,” suggesting an emphasis on fences and electronic monitoring, rather than concrete. Construction of the prototypes is expected to begin this fall near San Diego. The company is the Maryland-based subsidiary of Elta Systems Ltd., which is owned by one of Israel’s leading arms companies, Israel Aerospace Industries. Elta is not the only Israeli firm that pitched itself to build Trump’s wall. Magal Security Systems, a company that has helped Israel isolate Gaza from the outside world, earlier expressed its interest in winning the contract.

School Of Americas Watch Border Encuentro Coming Up

October 6, 2017 Katherine Henao, www.popularresistance.org Resist! Border, Immigrant Rights, Immigration, School of Americas

By Katherine Henao for School of Americas Watch. If you’re an immigrant like me, you know how hard it is to be the constant scapegoat of the United States – that those of us who come to these borders are blamed for problems caused by the U.S. and the U.S. alone. It might be hard to comprehend how violent U.S. policies in Latin America are, because we are taught to think that war is the only significant cause of devastation. But economic and trade policies have wreaked significant violence and essentially caused forced migration – something the U.S. is not willing to admit.

Stop The Border Surveillance Bill

September 29, 2017 Adam Schwartz, www.eff.org Resist! Border, Legislation, Surveillance

By Adam Schwartz for EFF - EFF opposes a new federal bill that would dramatically expand dragnet biometric and other surveillance of U.S. citizens and immigrants alike at and near the U.S. border. Sen. Cornyn (R-TX) introduced S. 1757, styled the Building America’s Trust Act, in August. EFF’s opposition letter objects to the following provisions of the bill: Biometric Border Screening. The bill would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to collect biometric information from all people who exit the U.S., including U.S. and foreign citizens. This would entrench and expand DHS’s existing program of facial recognition of all international travelers who take certain outgoing flights from U.S. airports. EFF opposes such biometric border screening, given the sensitivity of biometric information, the threat it will be stolen or misused, and the hazard of mission creep. Collection of Immigrants’ DNA. The bill would require DHS to collect DNA and other biometric information from “any individual filing an application, petition, or other request for immigration benefit or status.” EFF has long opposed dragnet biometric surveillance of immigrants. DNA surveillance raises special concerns, because DNA can expose sensitive information about familial history and health issues.

California To Sue Trump Administration Over U.S.-Mexico Border Wall

September 22, 2017 Patrick McGreevy and Jazmine Ulloa, www.latimes.com Resist! Border, California, Lawsuit, Mexico, Trump Administration

By Patrick McGreevy and Jazmine Ulloa for Los Angeles Times - California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra plans to announce a lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of the state that will challenge President Trump’s proposal to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, a project Becerra has called “medieval.” Becerra is scheduled to travel to Border Field State Park near San Diego to announce that a lawsuit is being filed in federal court over construction of border wall projects in San Diego and Imperial counties. The lawsuit, which includes the California Coastal Commission as a plaintiff, states its purpose is "to protect the State of California’s residents, natural resources, economic interests, procedural rights, and sovereignty from violations of the United States Constitution" and federal law. It adds that the wall would have a chilling effect on tourism to the United States from Mexico. The state's lawsuit alleges that the Trump administration has failed to comply with federal and state environmental laws and relied on federal statutes that don't authorize the proposed projects. The brief alleges the federal government violated the U.S. Constitution's separation-of-powers doctrine "by vesting in the Executive Branch the power to waive state and local laws, including state criminal law.".

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