Weekly Diaspora: One Year After SB 1070, What's Changed?

by: The Media Consortium

Thu Apr 28, 2011 at 10:54:55 AM EST

A year ago this month, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed SB 1070 into law, effectively pushing an already vibrant anti-immigrant movement to a new extreme. Over the following months, immigrant rights advocates prepared for the worst, and grappled with multiple setbacks as other states threatened to follow Arizona's example.

Minutemen Founder is Guilty of Murder

by: Manuel

Mon Feb 14, 2011 at 16:18:19 PM EST

Her name was Brisenia Flores.

In 2009, she begged for her life before getting killed under orders by one of the founding members of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corp, just one of the many hydra-heads of border vigilante groups that roam the border region of Arizona. Today, justice was served:

A Pima County jury convicted Shawna Forde today of two counts of first-degree murder in the May 30, 2009 deaths of Arivaca residents Raul Junior Flores and his 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia.

The jury also convicted Forde of attempted first-degree murder in the shooting of Flores' wife, Gina Gonzalez, as well as related aggravated assault and robbery counts.

Gonzalez started crying as soon as the first guilty verdict, the killing of her daughter, was read just before noon in a packed courtroom at Pima County Superior Court.

The jury deliberated for seven hours over two days. Jurors will now be asked if the death penalty ought to be considered.

AZStarnet.com

Minutemen Disband

by: Manuel

Thu Mar 25, 2010 at 11:18:03 AM EST

The group's president, Carmen Mercer, of Tombstone, said she and the board's two other directors voted to end the group's five-year run because they were worried her recent "call to action" would attract the wrong people to the border.

On March 16, Mercer sent out an e-mail urging members to come to the border "locked, loaded and ready" and urged people to bring "long arms." She proposed changing the group's rules to allow members to track illegal immigrants and drug smugglers instead of just reporting the activity to the Border Patrol.

But while the Minuteman PAC spent $1.7 million during the last election cycle (as of Nov. 24), less than 9 cents of every dollar went to help candidates -- either directly through contributions or indirectly through advertisements and mailings supporting or opposing specific candidates. By contrast, nine similar PACs spent, on average, nearly four times as much --about 34 cents of every dollar -- on contributions to federal campaigns and on materials calling for the election or defeat of particular candidates. 2009 SPLC Intelligence Report

Humanitarian Activist Charged With Littering

by: Manuel

Thu Jun 04, 2009 at 12:33:32 PM EST

A Tucson man convicted of littering on federal land said he will continue to leave out water for illegal immigrants walking through the desert, even if that means risking further citations.

"We're committed to our humanitarian efforts," said Walt Staton, 27, who was found guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court of knowingly littering on a national wildlife refuge.

Arizona Daily Star

If the ruling stands, Mr. Staton could serve a year in prison and be fined 10,000.  The human rights group No More Deaths/No Más Muertes has more information at their website about the trial and plans for appeal, as well as presence on Facebook with a group page and cause page.  Their mission and those of allies such as Border Angels in Southern California is simple:  everyone deserves to live.

6th Annual Migrant Trail Announced

by: Manuel

Wed May 20, 2009 at 15:15:38 PM EST

Our Vision:

In 1994, the U.S. government under the direction of President Bill Clinton, instituted Operation Gatekeeper that provided funds and personnel to militarize the border between Baja California and California.  The campaign was specifically designed to divert the wave of humanity inland:

The purpose of the new plan was to stem the tide of illegal immigrants crossing the border from Mexico into the United States and to shift the remaining traffic eastward, where the Border Patrol believed it enjoyed a strategic advantage over would-be crossers. This new approach to patrolling the border was named "Operation Gatekeeper." Since the plan's launch in 1994 at Imperial Beach, the same operational concepts have been implemented at the remaining stations in the San Diego Sector, beginning with Chula Vista - the station immediately east of Imperial Beach - and continuing in an easterly progression station by station to the San Diego Sector's eastern border.

USDOJ.gov (emphasis mine)

Eastward.

Triple-digit heat.  Non-existent sources of water. Desolation.  Death.  

"Strategic advantage" indeed.

The above graph comes from a 2007 policy brief and study, authored by Raquel Rubio-Goldsmith, M. Melissa McCormick, Daniel Martinez, and Inez Magdalena Duarte, through the University of Arizona's Binational Migration Institute.  It shows the explosion of death wrought in the Tucson Sector - part of that "eastward" mentioned by the Department of Justice - in the aftermath of Operation Gatekeeper.

Those of us who call la frontera home have not remained silent in the face of this humanitarian crisis.  Grassroots organizations have mobilized to build coalitions of neighborhoods, church congregations, elected officials, student groups, and others to raise awareness of the disastrous end many of these economic refugees suffer in the desert.

From May 25-31st the 6th Annual Migrant Trail will bear witness to the humanitarian crisis that marches unimpeded, even under a new President.  This 75-mile trek spans the distance between the communities of Sasabe, Sonora, México and Tucson, Arizona.  Details on how to support this endeavor below the fold.

A Final Spit in the Face from Bush

by: Duke Reed

Tue Jan 20, 2009 at 00:23:10 AM EST

In a move aimed to appease the anti-immigrant base of his party, Bush commuted the sentences of Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who were convicted of shooting suspected marijuana smuggler, Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, in the back as he fled back across the Mexican border. The agents then attempted to cover-up their actions by filing false reports and hiding evidence.

Their case became a proxy for the greater debate over immigration and border security and a cause celebre for every far-right blowhard from Rush Limbaugh to Lou Dobbs who used it to rally the anti-immigrant right.

Appeals for leniency were generally based on the premise that "these brave men were only doing their job to protect our borders." And that their punishment far outweighed their crimes. Dobbs often called the case "an outright travesty of American justice."

But what was lacking in much of the hyperbolic rhetoric and grandstanding surrounding this case was any regard for the truth.

In their zeal to paint Ramos and Compean as heroes, and use them as pawns in the bigger immigration battle, many of their supporters neglected to explain exactly what the two agents did to eventually be convicted of a crime.

There is a reason a jury found these two men guilty, and it has nothing to do with the politics of immigration reform or the fight against "our broken borders." It has to do with two rogue cops who overstepped the boundaries, then tried to cover up their crime.

It's a story no different than that of Rodney King, Amadou Diallo, or more recently Sean Bell, and Francisco Javier Domínguez, where law enforcement officers have used undue and unnecessary force resulting in injury or death. The fact that these particular officers patrolled the border rather than the Bronx or Compton doesn't make their actions any less odious, and it certainly doesn't make them heroes.

Welcome to América, Soon-to-Be Land of the White Minority

by: robvato

Fri Aug 15, 2008 at 00:47:06 AM EST

In another telling truism about how ‘demography is destiny”, the Census Bureau recently released a report with a most radical implication: whites will be a ‘minority’ by 2042 or a full 8 years before most experts predicted. Coming from places like California, many of us have witnessed firsthand some of the white minority dynamics that will define the future United States Of América. Scholars like my friend David Hayes-Bautista, writers like Dale Maharidge, author of the ever-prescient “The Coming White Minority”, and people in Whiteness Studies programs have long analyzed the extreme fluidity of whiteness. Yet, the news from the Census is nothing less than astonishing in terms of its political, economic, and cultural implications.

Viewed from the perspective of such startling demographic developments, the current anti-migrant climate, a climate filled with fear and with tragedies like the recently reported death of Chinese immigrant Hui Lui Ng , reflect the workings of personal and institutional fear or what I call “White Fear” in this article. Though I do not have any direct insight into the workings of the mind of An Other, I imagine that news of the coming white minority status must inspire images like those depicted in this photo-parody by San Diego-based Chicano artists Richard Lou and Robert Sanchez formerly known as “Los Anthropolocos”:

(If you want to read the conclusion of this demographic mystery go here:)

More Bodies Found Along La Frontera

by: Manuel

Thu Jul 10, 2008 at 14:15:22 PM EST

Teibel's article today deserves mentioning because he did not do the journalistic lazy move by juxtaposing drug bust incidents with this separate facet of border news.  It is solely about the human rights crisis that unfolds and grows year after year in the Sonoran Desert.  The fact is, the vast majority of crossers are economic refugees; but due to fork-tongued pundits like Lou Dobbs, Tom Tancredo, the Minutemen vigilantes, and lazy journalists, the perception of border crossers usually involves shading their identities with drug runners and terrorists.

A Tale of Two Borders

by: Duke Reed

Tue Jun 17, 2008 at 23:23:26 PM EST

We've heard that statement in various forms a millions times, repeated ad infinitum by various politicians and talking heads since Frank Luntz first advised anti-immigrant Republicans to stress that ""A country that can't control its own borders can't control its own destiny" to sell an anti-immigrant agenda to the American public.

But it has always gone without saying that the border that needed to be controlled has been the one to the south.  Rarely, if ever, has the northern border been mentioned in most border security screeds.

Congress has appropriated funds for vast amounts of added security on the southern border, and walls are being constructed as we speak to further limit access across the 1900 mile stretch.

Of course the need to stem the flow of "illegal immigration" is always given as the chief cause for such expenditures. But additionally, the need for general "border security" is often cited.

Anti-immigrant politicians and talking heads are always quick to conflate the flow of economic refugees with the flow of drugs and the threat of international terrorism to pepper their anti-immigrant rants with even higher levels of fear and trepidation.

Trancredo famously brought up the specter of terrorists crossing the southern border in this ad:

And the boyz at Fox Noise have turned up the fear meter on more than one occasion:

But a new report from the General Accounting Office sheds new light on exactly where the nation's greatest border security threats exist ....and they aren't along the much patrolled southern border...but our remote and unmonitored northern one.  

Immigration 101: Border Walls - True costs in dollars and human lives

by: Duke Reed

Mon Jun 16, 2008 at 17:18:07 PM EST

In the mid-nineties US policy towards Mexico changed in two significant ways that eventually set the stage for the current "immigration crisis." In January 1994, NAFTA went into effect and a new era of prosperity and progress was to begin in Mexico. At the same time, a new strategy was enacted along the southern border intended to stem the flow of unauthorized migrants. The policy of "prevention through deterrence" involved quintupling border-enforcement expenditures, building new fortified checkpoints, high-tech surveillance, and deploying thousands of additional Border Patrol Agents. Additionally, border barriers were built along portions of the California and Texas border to prevent migrants from entering through the most highly trafficked urban areas.

More than a decade later it's become evident that the promises of these two policies, rather than bringing economic change to Mexico and decreasing unauthorized migration to the US, have led to conditions that more than doubled the flow of migration....and brought added death to the border.

NAFTA, while bringing trade and investment to Mexico, has had unintended negative consequences on both sides of the border for working people and the poor. Whole segments of the US manufacturing sector have been relocated to Mexico resulting in job loss for US workers. At the same time, the lifting for trade restrictions in Mexico have allowed cheaper US commodities to enter the country, decimating Mexican agricultural markets and throwing millions of small farmers out of business. Additionally, the availability of even cheaper labor sources in places like China has forced manufacturing wages to go down.

As for the policy of "prevention through deterrence", all it has really accomplished in the past fourteen years is a movement of the routes of migration from relatively safe urban areas like San Diego and El Paso to the hostile desert and mountainous regions where enforcement is difficult. This "funneling effect" of forcing migrants into least hospitable areas has had devastating effects for those on both sides of the border. A study released by the University Of Arizona examined the consequences of shifting migration patterns from California and Texas to Arizona and found it had increased migrants deaths by 20-fold.

The failures of NAFTA to bring prosperity to Mexico are well documented. It's moved 19 million more Mexicans into poverty, forced more than a million small farmers off the land due to the lifting of restrictions on cheaper US subsidized agricultural products, lowered  real wages, and in the end forced "millions ...to abandon their native homelands. Entire indigenous nations -- the Zapotecs, the Mixtecs, the Tzotzil Maya -- have moved by the tens of thousands, creating the largest migration of Native American peoples in North America since the Trail of Tears in the late 19th century."

While trade policies have brought suffering to the poor of Mexico, border policies have brought death.  

Razor Wire Added to Border Wall

by: Manuel

Wed May 21, 2008 at 12:17:51 PM EST

SAN DIEGO -- -- The U.S. Border Patrol is installing razor-sharp concertina wire atop border fencing between San Diego and Tijuana, marking a major shift in approach along a frequently violent stretch of the frontier.

The triple-strand wire, meant to keep smugglers from attacking agents, will stretch five miles when completed this summer -- the longest expanse of this type of wire ever used on the Southwest border.

Federal authorities in the past have avoided using fortifications with such negative symbolism. Hundreds of miles of barriers going up in other areas have had to meet "aesthetically pleasing" federal design standards.

Critics say the new approach is inhumane and could leave illegal immigrants bloodied.

Border officials in San Diego say it was necessary and already is proving effective.

Los Angeles Times

Yes, very effective indeed:

Walking in the footsteps de los fantasmas

by: Duke Reed

Wed May 21, 2008 at 01:20:42 AM EST

They gathered early in the morning as the sun first began to peek over the horizon, like so many others before them. Quickly checking water bottles and backpacks to make sure all the provisions for the long journey ahead were in place.

It was a scene repeated a thousand times a year in border towns in the desert southwest. As the early morning purples and reds began to give way to bright blue, the group of about seventy-five travelers gathered on the dusty road outside of Sasabe and looked out over the vast expanse of sand and rock, knowing the journey ahead would test them body and soul. It would not be long before the temperature, reaching the triple digits, would start to slowly take its toll on their bodies. As the hot sun began beating down on them relentlessly, they were all well aware that this was the same burning sun that had taken the lives of eighty five other travelers in the past seven months.

For seven days they would be traveling through terrain that looked more like that of the moon than earth, trying to keep pace with the group. At 12 to 16 miles a day they would hopefully reach Tucson by weeks end.

A young boy of thirteen, when asked about the journey and why anyone would risk life and limb to cross the scorching desert on foot, replied, "Nobody would do this for a little extra money," he said. "This isn't about buying a nicer car. It's about putting food on your family's table."

Within days, 37 year old Joann Quintanilla would no longer be able to keep up with the group, her legs cramping up from a combination of heat and exhaustion. Another woman would be nursing feet covered with blisters and bandages.

As they walked, they followed a path well worn by thousands who came before them.  

Open Thread: Imagine! USA sings for Mexico

by: Duke Reed

Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 01:45:57 AM EST

Video Pick: Arivaca - Life on the Border

by: Duke Reed

Sat Apr 12, 2008 at 00:29:57 AM EST

Southern Arizona Human Rights Organizations

by: Manuel

Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 16:31:17 PM EST

A Record That Should Never Be Broken

by: Manuel

Tue Apr 01, 2008 at 22:23:04 PM EST

I know it's a constant drumbeat around here, but I refuse to let their deaths go unnoticed.

The number of illegal immigrants who have died trying to get into the United States is higher than ever this summer.

In the past few days, five bodies were found in remote crossing areas near Tucson, bringing border deaths for the year to 155, said Dr. Bruce Parks, chief medical examiner for Pima County. That is a 22 percent increase over the 127 people found dead as of July 30 last year in the area.

linkage

United States-born Americans need to understand they and their government are responsible for this deadly situation.  Most will refuse to see their connection to it, but all it takes is a little googling and common-sense thinking to see it.

Let's go back to 1994 with Operation Gatekeeper:

Will it ever end?

by: Duke Reed

Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 23:30:00 PM EST

Homeland Security preparing to seize Apache lands

The NSA, for one, has been specifically demanding that Elders give up their lands, telling them that they will have to travel a distance of 3 miles to go through checkpoints, to walk, recreate, and to farm and herd goats and cattle ON THEIR OWN LANDS.

Margo's mother just informed her that since Monday, November 13th,  the Army Corps of Engineers, Border Patrol and National Security Agency teams have been tracking down and confronting people; telling them that they have no choice: "the wall is going on these lands whether you like it or not, and you have to sell your land to the U.S."

Margo asks that you Please help the elders and indigenous women land title holders resist forced occupation in their own lands!