EXTREMELY URGENT ACTION: Stop Texas Deportations

EXTREMELY URGENT ACTION: 
Stop Texas Deportations
"PLEASE SAVE US. We as in my fellow inmates find ourselves in
the Torrance County Detention Facility and we are scared for our lives.”

Send faxes now


This was the first line of one of the four letters, received by No More Deaths this week, signed by a total of 21 people being held on immigration charges in New Mexico. All the letters expressed extreme fear of being kidnapped or murdered if they are deported through the border states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Tamaulipas (on the other side of the border from New Mexico and Texas). In these states, organized crime now has more power than the local government and migrants are regularly targeted upon arrival for extortion, violence, and forced conscription as gunmen and drug traffickers. Migrants who have spent many years in the U.S. and maintain connections here, such as citizen children, are especially vulnerable to predation by the cartels, which use their family to demand a high ransom payment.

The letter continues: “[One of the inmates here was last deported through Texas and he was] kidnapped and held hostage along with other deportees and was always at gunpoint. . . . Some of the group of deportees didn’t have family or had no money to pay the ransom so this group killed them and the ones that paid escaped death but not a beating . . . On the other side of the border of Texas is where this takes place every day.”

Send faxes now and see below for more actions. WE MUST DEMAND THAT ICE AND BORDER PATROL STOP ALL DEPORTATIONS THROUGH TEXAS—INCLUDING THE INMATES OF THE TORRANCE COUNTY DETENTION FACILITY.

The stories from this group of detainees are not random anecdotes or exaggerations. Over 34,500 people have been killed over the last four years in drug cartel and gang related violence, with over half the killings in 2010 taking place in Chihuahua, Sinaloa and Tamaulipas.

United States detention and deportation practices are exposing migrants to severe and unnecessary risks. Migrants given prison sentences for crossing the border are routinely separated from their belongings, including identification, all their money, and lists of phone numbers of family members. The lack of resources, proof of identity, and ability to contact support highly intensifies existing dangers. The United States regularly deports people at night, to regions they are unfamiliar with, where they can easily be exploited and harmed.

Cartels use corrupt police and government agencies intended to assist migrants to funnel recent deportees directly into their hands. According to one letter, “When one crosses the border the municipal police is just waiting and watching for deportees. They pull you over with the excuse that they are going to help you or that you fit a description of a criminal... this is a lie and part of the scam. These police work for the [cartels]. They take you to an abandoned alley or house and waiting for you is the [gang]. At gunpoint your eyes are bandaged and your feet and hands are tied. And so begins the nightmare.”

There is NO excuse for putting people at risk for being kidnapped or killed, especially when there are safe options that are intentionally neglected. The border ports of Agua Prieta and Naco, Sonora, Mexico have not been used for repatriation in over 8 months, even though they are known to be among the safest border towns and are, in fact, often closer to the detention facilities than the dangerous cities where migrants are being sent instead.

In reality, there is NO border city that is safe. Drug cartels and gangs are active in every border city and the violence targeting migrants can shift as quickly as the sites of deportation. However, the U.S. government still has a moral responsibility to take any action necessary to avoid unnecessary risk to human life and increased suffering. The inmates at Torrance County Detention Facility, held only for immigration sentences, as well as all others awaiting deportation, have a right to return to their county in the safest manner possible, including a complete return of their belongings and identification papers.

TAKE ACTION!

1. Send faxes now.
2. Call Janet Napolitano, Director of the Department of Homeland Security: (202) 282-8495
3. Call John Morton, Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE): (202) 732-3000
4. Call Alan Bersin, Commission of Customs and Border Protection: (202) 344-1780

Demands to be made by phone, fax, and email:

• End all deportations to dangerous border ports. There is NO excuse for putting people at risk for being kidnapped or killed, especially when there are safer options that are intentionally neglected.
• Ensure the safety of the inmates of the Torrance County Detention Facility.
• Everyone to be removed/deported to Mexico must receive their personal effects on departure. This can mean the difference between life and death for many.

Migrant Trail Walk 2011 Arrives in Tucson

Once again the annual Migrant Trail Walk made its way through the desert. The Migrant Trail Walk is a 75 mile walk from Sásabe, Sonora, MX to Tucson, AZ, USA.

The mission of the walk states, "The precarious reality of our borderlands calls us to walk. We are a spiritually diverse, multi-cultural group who walk together on a journey of peace to remember people, friends and family who have died, others who have crossed, and people who continue to come. We bear witness to the tragedy of death and of the inhumanity in our midst. Lastly, we walk as a community, in defiance of the borders that attempt to divide us, committed to working together for the human dignity of all peoples."

The real story here is that the deaths continue, year after year, and actually are increasing. 2009-2010 was the second deadliest year (282 bodies recovered), behind 2004-2005 (253 bodies recovered). As you scroll the list of recovered remains for 2009-2010 you will undoubtedly notice the overwhelming presence of unknown http://www.derechoshumanosaz.net/projects/arizona-recovered-bodies-project/. This is one of the realities desert. The conditions are harsh, get cold and extremely hot. Immigration policy changes have not become a reality and border security policy has created more dangerous and treacherous paths for migrants. Comprehensive changes are necessary. Human rights and dignity for all must be at the core of these policies.

More coverage of the walk can be found at:
http://www.fox11az.com/news/local/Migrant-Trail-Walk-comes-to-close-in-South-Tucson-123250088.html
http://tucsoncitizen.com/three-sonorans/2011/05/27/75-mile-trek-through-sonoran-desert-brings-attention-to-migrant-deaths/

Alarming Border Deaths

Below is a press release from Tucson-based Coalición de Derechos Humanos regarding border deaths.  The debate and political environment  in the country rights now is heating up with much hate, anger and division.  The reality that is all to often ignored is the reality of the border and what exactly we are doing there.  In reality deaths are happening, people are living in militarized zones, and people are still coming.  The pulls and pushes are too strong. 

Alarming Border Death Count Continues Unabated and Ignored:
Arizona Recovered Remains Reach 153

Arizona— The number of human remains recovered on the Arizona-Sonora border since October 1, 2009 has reached 153, reports the Tucson-based Coalición de Derechos Humanos.  The data is comprised of medical examiner reports from Pima, Yuma, and Cochise counties, and is an attempt to reflect more accurately the human cost of brutal U.S. border and immigration policies.

While the U.S. body politics is engaged in a one-sided discussion around "security" and "enforcement," communities continue to witness tragedy and death on the U.S. - Mexico border. Rather than directly addressing this issue, politicians and most organizations have ignored it.  Since 1995, when the first 14 deaths along the Arizona border occurred, Derechos Humanos has been a voice in the wilderness demanding justice.  Fifteen years and more than 2,000 deaths later, there is no end in sight to the unnecessary carnage on the U.S.-México border.

The count to date includes ninety-eight (98) males, nineteen (19) females, and thirty-six (36) individuals of unknown gender.  The identities of approximately one hundred seven (107) of the recovered individuals remain unknown, which is approximately 69.9% of the total recovered thus far this fiscal year.  This number is a 22.4% increase from last year, when the total of recovered remains as of June 30, 2009 was one hundred twenty-five (125).  Approximately thirty-six (36), or 23.5% of the remains were skeletal.

‘Unknown gender’ indicates that not enough of a body was recovered to determine gender, and without DNA, which is costly, it is impossible to know even this basic information about the individual, making identification and return to their families even more difficult.  The dramatic increase in these unknown gender cases are a troubling indicator of what might be to come as people are pushed out into more and more isolated areas, making rescue and detection less likely and death more certain.  It is unknown how many remains are currently near the border but have not yet been discovered.

The continued increase in the recovery of skeletal remains indicates that more and more individuals are being funneled into more isolated and desolate terrain of the Arizona-Sonora border.  This “Funnel Effect,” which has been documented by the Binational Migration Institute, has shown that the practice of sealing traditional crossing points ultimately pushes migration into the deadliest areas.  The extent of this crisis is not known as the numbers of human remains recovered in neighboring states are not available.

We call on this Administration and this Congress to respond to their first responsibility as human beings, and call for an end to policies that violate basic human rights and dignity.  It is time for a meaningful and honest dialogue on migration and our responsibilities, with most critical question: Will the deaths continue?

While these deaths and the policies that fuel them are unconscionable, we are deeply saddened to see the calluses that have grown on the hearts of those that continue to ignore such suffering. We must remember that we are all human beings, brothers and sisters who must share the earth, and the death and abuse of the least of us will eventually hurt us all.

 The complete list of recovered remains is available on the Coalición de Derechos Humanos website: http://www.derechoshumanosaz.net. This information is available to anyone who requests it from us and is used by our organization to further raise awareness of the human rights crisis we are facing on our borders.

Republican Border Amendments Defeated

Senate Democrats defeat Republican border amendments, set up war funds' passage

By Paul Kane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 27, 2010; 4:11 PM

Senate Democrats defeated a string of Republican amendments Thursday designed to tighten security on the Mexican border, setting up final passage of a nearly $60 billion spending bill that will fund President Obama's troop surge into Afghanistan.

With 69 votes of support, the Senate cut off debate on the overall legislation. More than half the money in the bill will fund the infusion of 30,000 troops into Afghanistan, and $5 billion will go toward a disaster relief fund. A final vote on the legislation could come Thursday evening.

Most lawmakers support the war funds. The most heated political issue in the debate has been Mexican border security after GOP complaints about mounting violence related to the smuggling of illegal immigrants, drugs and weapons. Democrats, who favor a new security proposal from Obama, turned back each Republican amendment, including an effort by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to put 6,000 more security troops on the border.

The McCain measure, which needed 60 votes for approval, fell short on a 51 to 46 vote. He attracted the support of 12 Democrats, including several up for re-election in November: Sens. Michael Bennet (Colo.), Barbara Boxer (Calif.) and Blanche Lincoln (Ark.).

Obama's former presidential rival said that his state -- which enacted the nation's toughest law against illegal immigrants and set off a renewed national debate on the issue -- would require 3,000 of the security forces.

Sensing the shifting political ground, Obama proposed a plan Tuesday that would increase funding by $500 million and temporarily send 1,200 members of the National Guard to the border to help shore up the Border Patrol. Republicans rejected Obama's effort as insufficient to deal with something they say is a national crisis.

"While it's important to have additional resources there, even on a temporary basis, even on a limited basis, there's a whole lot more that we need to do. We need permanent solutions, not temporary solutions," Sen. John Cornyn (Tex.), a member of GOP leadership and co-sponsor of McCain's amendment, told reporters Wednesday.

Most Democrats rejected the GOP offer of 6,000 more troops as unnecessary given the latest Obama proposal. "It's sort of throwing an enormous amount of money at the problem that is not as carefully thought out, not as targeted and as effective, quite frankly, as President Obama's plan," Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said moments before the vote.

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), the chamber's lone Latino senator, criticized the McCain plan as "militarizing the border" and the "definition of insanity" because it continued the previous efforts at building up a troop presence when a more compehensive solution is needed for immigration problems.

Democrats then also withstood a pair of other GOP border-security amendments, including Cornyn's effort to quadruple Obama's new border proposal with $2 billion in funding. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) proposed increased funding for a Justice Department program dealing with illegal immigration.

The Kyl and Cornyn amendments each received 54 votes, including 13 Democrats for each. The vulnerable Democrats voted with Republicans on those amendments as well, a potential sign of how some lawmakers up for reelection this fall feel a need to push for enhanced border security as a precondition to broader immigration reform.

"If they are strong on the border, it allows them to do a comprehensive bill," said Menendez, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Feelings toward Obama remained publicly raw after his Tuesday visit to the Senate Republican Conference, a 75-minute, closed-door huddle that provoked agitated Republicans to complain to reporters afterward about the president's efforts at bipartisanship. In particular, McCain made note Wednesday during a speech on the Senate floor, that Obama's aides announced his new border plan 30 minutes after he left the GOP meeting and yet did not tell the senators what he was about to do.

"You've got to laugh, in the spirit of bipartisanship," McCain said.

Welcome Ceremony for Migrant Trail

For Immediate Release

Contact: Lynda CruzMigrant Trail Media Representative: 520-437-7551

Welcome Ceremony for Migrant Trail Participants June 6, 2010

Tucson, AZ- Migrant Trail participants will arrive at 11:30am on June 6th at Kennedy Park (Intersection of Ajo and Kenny Rd), Ramada #3, for a closing ceremony.

The Migrant Trail is a non-violent event, and is free and open to the community. Participants and organizers of the Migrant Trail call on all people of conscience to stand in solidarity with our migrant sisters and brothers. On May 31, 2010, a diverse group of individuals began a 75 mile walk to call attention to the human rights crisis occurring on the southern border. The 7th Annual Migrant Trail: We walk for Life is a joint endeavor of community groups and individuals from both sides of the border walking in solidarity with migrants to demand an end to the deaths in the desert. Sponsors include the Migrant Trail Walk Committee, Coalición de Derechos Humanos, Mennonite Central Committee- U.S., Catholic Relief Services - Mexico Program, No More Deaths- Phoenix , No More Deaths Tucson, Coloradans for Immigrants Rights, BorderLinks, Cafe Justo, Humane Borders, JPIC Office of the St. Barbara Province Franciscans, Tucson SOA Watch, Casa Maria, AFSC Colorado, Shalom Mennonite Fellowship, Dhammaratanaram Buddhist Temple, El Centro Humanitario, Principe de Paz Church, Tucson Samaritans, Restoration Project, University Presbyterian Church, Fundación México, 8th Day Center for Justice, and Frontera de Cristo.

"The Migrant Trail is a call to action that shines light on one of the darkest chapters of our nation's legal and social history. Our failed immigration law and border policy causes hundreds of deaths per year. It punishes and dehumanizes hard working migrant laborers and destroys families," says Mel Rodis, a Phoenix attorney. "The walk helps others to empathize with migrants and to understand their plight."

Since the 1990s, it is estimated that more than 5,000 men, women and children have lost their lives attempting to cross the U.S./Mexico border. As the summer approaches, Arizona experiences triple digit temperatures and the number of migrants dying in the desert begins to increase dramatically. Many will die the horrible death of dehydration and exposure. These deaths, a direct result of failed and flawed border and immigration policies, must be prevented.

"The Migrant Trail is an act of solidarity. We refuse to let the deaths in the desert take place silently. As we work to end this inhumane system, we are speaking their names. We walk to remember. We walk to organize," says Stephanie Dernek of 8th Day Center for Justice, Chicago, IL.

National Guard to the Border

Border Communities Unite to Head Off Militarization

by Melissa del Bosque

Published on: Wednesday, June 02, 2010

National Guard troops are on their way to the border and Republican South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint can’t wait to build himself a 700-mile double layered fence. DeMint has attached his amendment to just about anything moving through the Senate – so far Democrats have defeated DeMint’s attempts.

But what happens when elected officials get down to horse trading over immigration reform? It may not come this year, but it more than likely will come in 2011. What happens when the Obama Administration and Democrats in Congress need Republican votes to pass immigration reform?

Border residents already know the answer. They only have to look out their windows at the rusty 18-foot wall. “We’ll get the shaft,” is how one resident aptly summed it up.

Residents are already bracing to become the sacrificial lamb for Democrats desperate for Republican buy-in on immigration reform. They're already seeing it with the 1,200 guard troops and a Predator Drone dispatched to El Paso.

Anticipating this backlash, border community organizations from across the southern border will meet in San Diego this month to strategize. Their goal is to come up with a unified platform of issues important to their communities, and to try and head off a raft of bad border security policies that will only make life on the border more insufferable.

“We’ve got to separate border security from immigration reform,” said Louie Gilot, director of the Border Network for Human Rights in El Paso. “We need to have an independent voice for the well being of the communities and so the border isn’t sacrificed the next time immigration reform is taken up,” Gilot says.

Participants in the meeting will include the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium (CA), the Border Action Network (AZ), the ACLU Regional Center for Border Rights (NM) and the Border Network for Human Rights (TX) and Texas Rural Legal Aid (TX).

Gilot pointed out that El Paso, where she lives, is the second safest city in the country. This is the case for most border communities on the U.S. side of the border. Despite this fact, where she lives is depicted in the media and by politicians as a “war zone.” So the solutions that policy makers come up with for the border “would be more at home in a war zone,” she says.

“In my opinion what we have already at the border is working,” Gilot says. “The fear of spillover violence is very real but there hasn’t been any spillover violence.”

El Paso doesn’t need National Guard troops, she says. What it needs is more investment in the ports of entry so that goods and people can flow more securely and efficiently between Mexico and the United States. “People wait for hours to cross,” she says.

Border residents would also like to see better training for Border Patrol and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.

In my opinion this is something that has needed to happen for a long time. The Texas Border Coalition, which consists of elected officials and business leaders has been advocating for border communities in Texas for the past four years or so. They even have the high powered lobby firm Via Novo working for them in D.C. in an effort to penetrate the D.C. bubble. They’ve had some success but it’s difficult to break through the panic inducing rhetoric in the national media and among D.C. politicians whenever they want to ratchet the fear level up a notch and turn out voters.

A more unified voice from the border is needed to temper the national rhetoric. Because right now, the rest of the nation forgets that the border is the United States too. They seem to think it’s perfectly acceptable for the federal government to seize thousands of acres of private land to build an ineffective fence.

And they also don’t have a problem with the notion of armed troops patrolling American streets. If it weren’t for the Posse Comitatus Act we’d probably have soldiers in the streets today. Soldiers on the border matter to residents because in 1997, 18-year old Esequiel Hernandez, of Redford, Texas, was shot and killed by a U.S. soldier sent on a covert mission to patrol for drug smugglers. Every border resident knows it could happen again.

I remember getting on a plane in McAllen a few years back and having to board under the scrutiny of a National Guard soldier holding a M-4 rifle. It was something you’d expect in a developing country but not in the United States.

Last year El Paso, with a population of 612,374 had 4 murders, while Washington D.C. with a smaller population of 591,833 had 66, according to 2009 FBI statistics.

D.C. officials need to dial down the fear and panic and listen to the people who actually live on the border. Then they might actually come up with a border policy that works.

In the meantime, let’s send the National Guard to D.C.. Sounds like they’ve got a real crime problem. And while we’re at it, let’s build a double layered, eighteen-foot wall around Senator DeMint’s luxury brownstone and see how he likes it.

(Texas Observer) http://www.texasobserver.org/lalinea/border-communities-unite-to-fight-border-bashing

Legal Action Against Racist SB1070

ACLU And Civil Rights Groups Ask Court To Block Implementation Of Arizona's Racial Profiling Law During Legal Battle

June 5, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

PHOENIX – The American Civil Liberties Union and a coalition of civil rights groups asked a federal court late Friday to block Arizona from implementing its controversial new law, known as SB 1070, pending a final court ruling on its constitutionality. The law requires police to demand "papers" from people they stop who they suspect are "unlawfully present" in the U.S. According to the coalition, the law would subject massive numbers of people – both citizens and non-citizens – to racial profiling, improper investigations and detention.

The civil rights coalition includes the ACLU, MALDEF, National Immigration Law Center (NILC), Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC) – a member of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice, ACLU of Arizona, National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP is acting as co-counsel in the case.

Last month the coalition filed a lawsuit challenging the extreme law and charging that it invites the racial profiling of people of color, violates the First Amendment and interferes with federal law. Friday's filing seeks to halt implementation of the law while the case is litigated. The coalition expects that the court will rule on its request before SB 1070's effective date, July 29, 2010.

The following quotes can be attributed to members of the coalition, as listed below.

Omar Jadwat, staff attorney with the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project:
"SB 1070 is a disastrous law that would endanger public safety, increase racial profiling and create an un-American 'show me your papers' regime if allowed to go into effect. Every day this law would be in effect would be a day too long, and we're confident that the court will understand the importance of preventing its implementation, even while our lawsuit is pending."

Nina Perales, MALDEF Southwest Regional Counsel:
"SB 1070 is an unacceptable and short-sighted attempt to take over the federal immigration system within Arizona's borders. Instead of helping to fix our fundamentally broken immigration system, SB 1070 will decrease the safety and security of all Arizonans by draining the resources of state, local and federal law enforcement."

Karen Tumlin, managing attorney with the National Immigration Law Center:
"Arizona's thinly veiled attempt to institutionalize discrimination puts a target on the back of every immigrant and person of color within their borders. We cannot allow the basic rights and liberties of these members of our society to be undermined simply because an unconstitutional law is now on Arizona's books."

Julie Su, Litigation Director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center:
"We seek a preliminary injunction to head off numerous harms that are imminent if SB 1070 goes into effect. As law enforcement officials from around the country, including Arizona, have stated, SB 1070 will lead to racial profiling of communities of color and unwarranted, prolonged detention of individuals. This will strain law enforcement resources in a way that compromises public safety for all."

Pablo Alvarado, Executive Director of National Day Laborer Organizing Network:
"Arizona can't pick and choose which portions of the United States Constitution to uphold. Federal law is very clear: Arizona can't subordinate the rights of Mexican-Americans or those with Latino appearance and it certainly cannot rewrite federal immigration laws. Throughout history, when states have gone rogue and when they have unjustly and unlawfully scapegoated their residents, the court has had to intervene to be the ultimate defender of bedrock constitutional protections."

Alessandra Soler Meetze, Executive Director of the ACLU of Arizona:
"Latino communities and families in Maricopa County are already terrorized by the abusive and discriminatory practices of Sheriff Arpaio, who has blatantly used racial profiling to target them in his so-called 'crime suppression’ sweeps. With SB 1070, the state is seeking to mandate such unconstitutional practices by all local law enforcement agencies throughout the state, and immediate court intervention is necessary to prevent that from occurring."

Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and Chief Executive Officer of the NAACP:
"African-Americans know all too well the insidious effects of racial profiling. As a nation we should ensure equality for all rather than require police to investigate and detain people based on color and accent. Laws that encourage discrimination have no place in this country anywhere for anyone. SB 1070 has no place on the books, not now or ever."

Organizations and attorneys on the case, Friendly House et al. v. Halliday et al., include:

• ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project: Jadwat, Lucas Guttentag, Cecillia Wang, Tanaz Moghadam and Harini P. Raghupathi;
• MALDEF: Thomas A. Saenz, Perales, Cynthia Valenzuela Dixon, Victor Viramontes, Gladys Limón, Nicholás Espiritu and Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal;
• NILC: Tumlin, Linton Joaquin, Nora A. Preciado, Melissa S. Keaney, Vivek Mittal and Ghazal Tajmiri;
• ACLU Foundation of Arizona: Dan Pochoda and Annie Lai;
• APALC: Su, Ronald Lee, Yungsuhn Park, Connie Choi and Carmina Ocampo
• NDLON: Chris Newman;
• NAACP: Laura Blackburne;
• Munger Tolles & Olson LLP: Bradley S. Phillips, Paul J. Watford, Joseph J. Ybarra, Susan T. Boyd, Yuval Miller, Elisabeth J. Neubauer and Benjamin Maro;
• Roush, McCracken, Guerrero, Miller & Ortega: Daniel R. Ortega, Jr.

The proposed brief in support of a preliminary injunction, can be found at:
www.aclu.org/immigrants-rights-racial-justice/friendly-house-et-al-v-halliday-et-al-proposed-brief-support-prelim

The motion for leave to file the brief can be found at:
www.aclu.org/immigrants-rights-racial-justice/friendly-house-et-al-v-halliday-et-al-motion-leave-file-motion-prel

More information about the Arizona law, including an ACLU video and slide show, can be found at:
www.aclu.org/what-happens-arizona-stops-arizona

National Day of Action Against S.B. 1070- Phoenix, AZ May 29th

National Day of Action Against S.B. 1070

National Day of Action Against S.B. 1070 - May 29th, 2010

There was a great sense of community within the midst of the struggle for justice at the March Against S.B. 1070 a new Arizona Law that allows for racial profiling. An article on the event is below.

Foes and Supporters of New Immigration Law Gather in Arizona By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD

PHOENIX — Two sides of the immigration debate converged here Saturday: a throng of several thousand marching for five miles opposed to Arizona’s new immigration law, and several thousand nearly filling a nearby stadium in the evening in support of it.

Organizers said the timing was coincidental, with both sides taking advantage of a holiday weekend to bring out the masses. But the gatherings encapsulated in a single day the passions surrounding the national immigration debate, recharged by the new law, which will expand the state’s role in immigration enforcement.

Both demonstrations made a point of waving a large number of American flags and issuing pleas for a national overhaul of immigration law, but they offered a jarring study in how polarized the debate has become here.

The demonstrators against the law were mostly Latino, with young people and families making up a large share. They played drums, whistled and chanted and gave speeches in Spanish and English denouncing the perceived racism behind the law. Many carried posters or wore T-shirts with the message: “Do I look illegal?”

At the rally in favor of the law, which began with the pledge of allegiance and the national anthem, any mention of Mexico or supporters of the law brought lusty boos — a video clip of President Felipe Calderón of Mexico especially fired up the crowd, which was mostly white and middle-aged or older. Placards like “Illegals out of the U.S.A.” were typical, though speaker after speaker ridiculed the idea that the crowd was racist.

Far more attended the earlier rally opposed to the law, which included a five-mile march to the Capitol in withering heat. It was one of the largest since Gov. Jan Brewer signed the law April 23.

Some were citizens, like Armando Diaz, 33, a mechanic born and raised here who believes the law has helped spread anti-Latino fervor in the state.

“This is not what Arizona is about, hate,” Mr. Diaz said as he neared the capitol, where people fled for what little shade they could find. “But that is what this law is about.”

The later rally, at sundown, was organized by Tea Party groups from St. Louis and Dallas who said they decided to take the lead and support the state against a wave of boycotts protesting the law, some by cities like San Francisco and Seattle.

“We are doing this to crush any boycott against the free market,” said Tina Loudon, a Tea Party member from St. Louis who helped organize the rally. “Arizona has a sovereign right to enforce immigration laws on the books.”

The law — barring any successful legal challenges — will take effect July 29. It would allow the police to check the immigration status of people they suspect are illegal immigrants when they have been stopped for another reason. It also makes it a state crime, not just a federal one, to not carry immigration papers.

Advocates see it as a tool for law enforcement to weed out illegal immigrants, while five lawsuits filed against it call it an infringement on federal authority and suggest that Latino citizens and legal residents will be swept up for questioning.

On another front, the governor and attorney general are disputing who will defend the state against the legal challenges and possible litigation by the United States Justice Department.

Ms. Brewer, a Republican, said Friday she had removed the state’s attorney general, a Democrat and vocal opponent of the law, from defending it, accusing him of colluding with the Justice Department as it nears a decision on whether to challenge the law in court.

But the matter remained in dispute on Saturday, as the attorney general, Terry Goddard, a Democrat and potential challenger in her re-election bid, said in an e-mail message that he was “definitely defending the state” in legal challenges to the law.

Ms. Brewer said she took action after Mr. Goddard met Friday with Justice Department lawyers, who then met with her legal advisers.

Justice Department officials said they routinely meet with a state’s attorney general and governor when considering legal action against their state.

“We continue to have concerns that the law drives a wedge between law enforcement and the communities they serve, and are examining it to see what options are available to the federal government,” said Tracy Schmaler, a department spokeswoman.

The United States attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., has said he worries that the law may intrude on federal authority and lead to racial profiling.

Protest rallies were also held Saturday at the state capitols in Texas and Oregon, as well as in San Francisco, according to The Associated Press.

At the Arizona demonstrations, opinions could not be further apart.

Mireya Chavez Cerna, 43, an illegal immigrant who works as a maid, marched with her 9-year-old son, who was born in the United States and wore a shirt reading “Made in America.”

She denounced the climate of fear in the state and said immigrants like her could not abide the wait of a decade or more for a legal visa while their families grow hungry.

“Do you think we would risk losing our lives crossing the border if we didn’t have a need to come here for a better life?” she said. Supporters of the law “don’t know,” she added. “They don’t understand. They don’t live in Mexico. They don’t know how it is.”

But Ann Hyde, a radiological technologist from Chandler, said she grew frustrated at supporters being tarred as prejudiced or worse.

“We are not racists,” she said. “This law is about respecting the laws of the nation and the economic impact of illegal immigration, which is enormous. My state is broke and they cost us with spending on schools, hospitals and other services.”

Though violent crime is declining in Arizona, as in most other states, and illegal immigration is down at the border, speakers played up crimes that illegal immigrants have been charged with over the years, including shooting of police officers.

“One is too many,” said Mark Spencer, the chairman of a union representing rank-and-file police officers in Phoenix.

NYTimes Ana Facio Contreras contributed from Phoenix.

Immigration Reform Actions Around the Country

Immigration Reform Actions Around the Country

Around the country there has been a wave of actions calling for comprehensive immigration reform and a call to Stop Arizona's S.B. 1070.

As part of a national week of action for comprehensive immigration reform, a coalition of labor, business, faith and community leaders -- including Alderman George Cardenas, in an act of peaceful disobedience were arrested outside of ICE's Field Office in Chicago.

The activists blocked the field office to draw attention to the economic benefit for the nation if a comprehensive immigration reform is approved and also stressed that Arizona’s enforcement-only policies that lead to racial profiling should be repealed before their implementation in August.

While supporters rallied around them, the 32 immigration activists risking arrest piled bags with dollar signs outside of the ICE Field Office and sat down blocking the entrance.

As expected, a Department of Homeland Security agent approached the group and told them they were in violation of the law, and that if they did not move they would be arrested. The group responded by chanting, "What does democracy look like? This is what democracy looks like!"

After the third warning the group sang "We Shall Not Be Moved" and the agents began making arrests.

These arrests, part of a wave of civil disobedience sweeping across the country, highlight just how urgent our need for immigration reform is. Politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, should take note - we aren't willing to wait any longer. We can no longer afford a broken immigration system that destroys families, drives down wages, and hurts our economy.

Chicago New Sanctuary Coalition Leaders Travel to Arizona

Jenny Dale, New Sanctuary Coordinator, and Stephanie Dernek, of 8th Day Center for Justice and active leader in the Chicago New Sanctuary Coalition, will travel this week to Arizona to participate in the National Day of Action Against SB1070 in Phoenix.

Click here for more information

Local Chicago Actions Against SB1070

Saturday, May 29th at 12noon meet at Plaza Tenochititlan, in Pilsen (corner of 18th, Blue Island, and Loomis) and then at 2pm march together to PetSmart on 1101 S Canal Ave, Chicago. (PetSmart is a national company based in Arizona, and we deman to denounce SB1070 or face a boycott)

Click here for more information

Saturday May 29th at 1:30pm at Wrigley Field Join us for a Rally asking the Chicago Cubs to move their spring trainins from Arizona to Florida.

Click here fore more information

For more information about these actions visit the Chicago New Sanctuary Coalition Website
http://www.crln.org/



Migrant Trail Walk: We Walk for Life

Jenny and Stephanie will then participate in the annual Migrant Trail: We Walk for Life, a 75-mile journey from Sásabe, Sonora to Tucson, Arizona in solidarity with our migrant sisters and brothers who have walked this trail and lost their lives. We bear witness to the lives that are lost, the families who mourn, and the communities that suffer the divisions that borders wreak on all of us.

The Migrant Trail Vision: The precarious reality of our borderlands calls us to walk. We are a spiritually diverse, multi-cultural group who walk together on a journey of peace to remember people, friends and family who have died, others who have crossed, and people who continue to come. We bear witness to the tragedy of death and of the inhumanity in our midst. Lastly, we walk as a community, in defiance of the borders that attempt to divide us, committed to working together for the human dignity of all peoples. Click here for more information about the walk.

Militarization of the Border

This post focuses on the border policies of the Obama Administration. There is a lot of talk about comprehensive immigration reform, changes in the process of visas and amending the legalization track. For us who have been to the U.S. Mexico borderland and seen the reality or heard the stories or those who have made the journey themselves, this leaves out the border polices. The increased violence at the border (whether actual or recently emphasized) is allowing for the discussion of (re)militarizing our border. A humane and just border policy must work in tandem with comprehensive immigration reform. We can't sacrifice one for the other!

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Troops on the border

Will the US eventually send troops to Mexico to battle drug cartels?

By Ruben Navarrette Jr. — Special to GlobalPost

Published: May 22, 2009 22:33 ET

^-A ⁺A

SAN DIEGO — Eager to be all things to all people, President Barack Obama tends to say one thing and do another. And so, when Obama said recently that he had no interest in "militarizing" the U.S.-Mexico border, it was only a matter of time before the administration drew up plans to do just that.

Sure enough, according to media reports, the Pentagon and Homeland Security Department are developing contingency plans to send National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.

The specifics have yet to be worked out, but the $350 million initiative would radically expand the role of the U.S. military in the drug war. The proposal does not mention troop deployments, only that the military would receive the funding "for counter-narcotics and other activities" on the border.

So, for some in the National Guard, it is goodbye Iraq and Afghanistan. Hello San Diego, Nogales and Brownsville.

Before you can get your head around whether putting troops on the border is a workable solution to the drug war or just a recipe for more problems, you've got to know what this is and what it isn't.

It isn't a plan to dispatch armed National Guard troops to the border to shoot it out with drug smugglers headed north or gun smugglers headed south. You're not going to have soldiers physically interdicting southbound vehicles into Mexico looking for loads of cash, weapons or ammunition. And you're certainly not going to have those troops doubling as border patrol agents and trying to keep out illegal immigrants entering the United States from Mexico — according to the Border Patrol, there is not much of that going on lately anyway, because Mexican immigrants are as afraid of the dreadful U.S. economy as American tourists are of drug violence and swine flu. For now, everyone is staying in his own neighborhood.

Rather, what Obama seems to have in mind is exactly what President George W. Bush had in mind when, in 2006, his administration spent more than $1 billion to deploy as many as 6,000 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in something called "Operation Jump Start." The goal then was to curb illegal immigration, and the guard played a supporting role.

The troops were unarmed, and they lent a hand to the Border Patrol by fixing vehicles, repairing fences, manning detection systems, building roads and performing other duties typically done by Border Patrol agents. This freed up the agents to do what Americans expect them to do: patrol the border in search of illegal immigrants. By all accounts, the program — which ended in 2008 — was a total success.

Administration officials have said the role of the National Guard troops in the drug war would be similar. Imagine a scenario where troops lighten the load on U.S. customs agents and thus allow those agents to inspect more vehicles than they do now. And no matter what, they won't be doing domestic law enforcement in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.

This is an idea that is both pragmatic and promising, but it might also be the first step in a long journey that will eventually take us where some Americans might not want to go: eventual deployment, with the permission of the Mexican government, of a manageable number of U.S. special forces to launch an Iraq-style counterinsurgency against Mexican drug cartels. Why not? The Pentagon has already labeled Mexico a state in danger of "rapid and sudden collapse." For those who believe that, how do they avoid sending U.S. troops to prevent that collapse, which would create something we can't afford at our back door: chaos.

Given that Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently made his own trip to Mexico City to meet with top officials and then returned to immediately brief Obama on — according to media reports — possible uses for the U.S. military in the Mexican drug war, my hunch is that there is more than one contingency plan in the works.

Instead of trying to be popular, Obama should start getting serious about the drug war by making the American people comfortable with the idea of sending troops into Mexico. After all, that's a reality that could be difficult to escape.

Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a nationally syndicated columnist, a member of the editorial board of the San Diego Union-Tribune, and a weekly contributor to CNN.COM.

Read more GlobalPost dispatches about the drug war:

Sizing up Mexico's war on drugs

Record number of guns in Mexico traced to the US

Trouble on the US-Mexico border

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Source URL (retrieved on May 23, 2009 11:05 ): http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/mexico/090503/troops-border

Military Aid to Mexico

Your voice is needed!!

Congress is currently poised to send hundreds of millions of additional dollars for helicopters, planes and other equipment to Mexico. Latin America Working Group (LAWG), and in Mexico tell us that military hardware isn't the solution to Mexico's challenges--and it avoids acknowledging the United States' responsibility for spiraling drug violence.

In May 2009, seventy Mexican human rights leaders and organizations wrote to the US Congress urging an end to US military support and instead calling for aid to support democracy, development and to fight poverty - addressing the root causes of violence and building long lasting change. To read the letter, click here.

Act Now! LAWG is urging the CRLN network to contact our legislators and help shape this new aid to Mexico--which is being considered as part of the 2009 Supplemental Appropriations Bill for Iraq and Afghanistan. Contact your member this week, as members from the Senate and House Appropriations Committees come together to reconcile the differences between the Senate and House versions of the bill. For a script and to find out how to contact your Members of Congress, click here: http://www.crln.org/Mexican_Human_Rights_Leaders_No_+Military_Aid

Border Deaths Increase

Death count rises with border restrictions Officials: Crossers now trek farther to dodge security

By Brady McCombs

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Illegal border crossers face a deadlier trek than ever across Arizona's desert.

The risk of dying is 1.5 times higher today compared with five years ago and 17 times greater than in 1998, the Arizona Daily Star's border-death database shows. That's a significant increase considering the initial spike of deaths in Arizona occurred in 2000-02.

Through the first seven months of fiscal year 2009, there were 60 known deaths per 100,000 apprehensions in the area covered in the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson Sector. That's up from 39 known deaths per 100,000 apprehensions in 2004.

The increased risk of death parallels the historic buildup of agents, fences, roads and technology along the U.S.-Mexico border, calling into question one of the Border Patrol's mantras that a "secure border is a safe border."

Even with 3,300 agents, 210 miles of fences and vehicle barriers, and 40 agents assigned to the agency's search, rescue and trauma team, Borstar, illegal immigrants are still dying while trying to cross the Border Patrol's 262-mile-long Tucson Sector. Border county law enforcement, Mexican Consulate officials, Tohono O'odham tribal officials and humanitarian groups say the buildup has caused illegal border crossers to walk longer distances in more treacherous terrain, increasing the likelihood that people will get hurt or fatigued and left behind to die.

"We are pushing people into more deadly areas," said Kat Rodriguez, coordinating organizer for Coalición de Derechos Humanos, a Tucson-based group that tracks the deaths. "When enforcement goes up, death goes up. We've been saying that for years." Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada and Sgt. David Noland, the Cochise County Sheriff's Office search and rescue coordinator, say body recoveries in their counties show that people are trekking through increasingly remote areas.

The Border Patrol doesn't stop anyone from coming; it only shifts the locations where they cross, said Rev. Robin Hoover, president of Tucson-based Humane Borders. His group's maps show that bodies are being found farther away from principal roads and water sources each year.

"The presence of the Border Patrol makes the average migrant hungrier, thirstier, more tired and sicker," Hoover said.

Border Patrol officials point to their rescue efforts as evidence that their presence prevents deaths rather than causes them. "Our presence is greater; we are getting to these people sooner," said Robert Boatright, deputy chief of the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector. The agency rescued 160 people through mid-May, compared with 151 at the same time last year.

He attributes the continued rise in deaths to better recovery methods and more thorough record-keeping.

"When somebody loses a loved one, a lot of times we're getting better information back and going back and finding those," Boatright said. The agency concentrates its agents and rescue teams in the desert west of Sasabe, where most of the bodies are found, to move them out of the most dangerous areas, he said. "I'm not driving them to a more hazardous location," he said. "I'm driving them toward Nogales."

Flawed statistics

Nobody knows exactly how many people try to cross the border illegally through Arizona.

There is no magic laser counter strung across the U.S.-Mexico border, and no agency estimates how many people get past the Border Patrol. That leaves the Border Patrol's apprehensions as the best, albeit flawed, indicator of the flow of illegal immigrants. It's flawed because apprehensions represent an event, not a person, and don't distinguish whether someone has been caught once or multiple times.

The apprehension figures show a clear downward trend in the Tucson Sector, the busiest on the Southwest Border, with the captures dropping 35 percent from 491,771 in 2004 to 317,696 in 2008. This year's numbers through April are down 31 percent from the same time in 2008.

The Border Patrol points to the gradual decrease as evidence that fewer are crossing. That theory is backed by several other indicators of a slowdown, including Mexican census data that show fewer people are leaving the country. Yet the number of bodies found hasn't followed that downward slope.

The body count has remained in the same range between 2004 and 2009, yo-yoing between 180 and 230 per fiscal year, the Star border-death database shows. The bodies of 86 illegal border crossers have been discovered from the beginning of fiscal year 2009 — Oct. 1 — through April, compared with 75 at the same time last year. The hottest and most deadly months for migrant deaths are still to come.

The Arizona Daily Star's border-death database only goes back to October 2004, but using the Border Patrol's death totals, which have long undercounted the number of deaths, the risk of dying has increased 17 times, from three per 100,000 apprehensions in 1998 to 51 per 100,000 apprehensions in 2009.

But Dr. Bruce Parks, chief medical examiner at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner, cautions that the yearly counts may not accurately represent that year's total, because many in recent years have been skeletal remains that could be people who died in previous years.

Each year since 2004, the total number of bodies found in the form of skeletal remains has accounted for a larger percentage of the total, increasing to 25 percent in 2009 from 4 percent in 2004, the Arizona Daily Star database shows.

Even without the skeletal remains, though, the number of bodies found per 100,000 apprehensions has increased from 38 in 2004 to 50 in 2009. And some of the people found as skeletal remains could have died months earlier within the same year, especially if death occurs in the summer, when heat speeds up decomposition, said Jerónimo Garcia, a representative of the Mexican Consulate in Tucson who handles the identification and coordination of the remains.

Skeleton found in August

One of the skeletons found in 2008 was the remains of Juana Pastrana Villanueva, a 57-year-old woman from Acapulco. On Aug. 6, 2008, her remains were found about 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, in the northern part of the Tohono O'odham Reservation. A jacket near the body contained the identification of a man from Acapulco. When Mexican officials contacted his family, they said he was alive in the United States. He told them the body was Pastrana's.

He left his ID in that pocket because Pastrana wasn't carrying any ID, and he wanted to make sure her family knew she was dead. He knew authorities would call his family.

Pastrana was supposed to cross the border somewhere north of Altar, Sonora, around mid-July of 2008. Her remains were found three weeks later southwest of Casa Grande. She likely walked for at least six days to get there, or she might have been picked up and driven north before being dropped off again, Garcia said. The medical examiner determined Pastrana died of hyperthermia, or heatstroke, the most common cause of deaths among illegal border crossers discovered in Arizona.

Known border deaths per 100,000 Border Patrol apprehensions:

• 2004 - 38.8

• 2005 - 52.4

• 2006 - 46.4

• 2007 - 59.0

• 2008 - 57.0

• 2009 - 59.8

Sources: Deaths come from the Arizona Daily Star border-death database, which compiles information from the Pima and Cochise county medical examiners. Pima County handles the bodies found in Santa Cruz County and some from Pinal County. Apprehensions are a Border Patrol figure.

Known border deaths, 2005-09

Border Patrol figures for the Tucson Sector

• 2004 - 142

• 2005 - 219

• 2006 - 169

• 2007 - 202

• 2008 - 167

• *2009 - 72

(compared with 66 at same time last year)

*Through April

Deaths recorded by Pima and Cochise county medical examiners

• 2004 - 191

• 2005 - 230

• 2006 - 182

• 2007 - 223

• 2008 - 181

• *2009 - 86

(compared with 75 at same time last year)

* Through April

* Pima handles bodies found in Santa Cruz and Pinal counties.

Summer plans

As the temperatures reach triple digits, the annual prevention and rescue efforts rev up to try to prevent summer deaths of illegal border crossers. The Mexican Consulate in Tucson will run a prevention campaign for the seventh consecutive summer, featuring posters and radio and TV public-service announcements warning potential illegal border crossers to stay home and avoid the dangerous desert.

The 40 active members of the Border Patrol's search, rescue and trauma team, called Borstar, will be on high alert on foot, in vehicles and in helicopters, ready to respond to 911 calls or reports from illegal border crossers about people in distress. Several Southern Arizona non-governmental humanitarian organizations also devote time, energy and money to the effort.

Humane Borders maintains and fills 102 water stations. No More Deaths helps run aid tents for deported illegal immigrants in Nogales, Naco and Douglas, Sonora, and operates desert camps to provide water, food and medical care to illegal border crossers trekking north.

The Samaritans of Tucson and Green Valley carry out daily patrols in the desert looking for illegal immigrants who need food, water or medical assistance. And while no decision has been made for this year, for the past six summers the U.S. and Mexican governments have offered Mexican illegal immigrants without criminal records a free flight home through the Interior Repatriation Program. The program flies people to Mexico City rather than busing them just across the border to Nogales, Sonora, to be approached by smugglers with offers to try again.

Contact reporter Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com.

All content copyright © 1999-2009 AzStarNet, Arizona Daily Star and its wire services and suppliers and may not be republished without permission. All rights reserved. Any copying, redistribution, or retransmission of any of the contents of this service without the expressed written consent of Arizona Daily Star or AzStarNet is prohibited.

Back to the Border

Back to the Border

On May 22nd Jenny Dale (Chicago New Sanctuary Coalition) and myself (Stephanie Dernek, 8th Day Center for Justice) will be heading back to the borderland in Tucson Arizona. We go to participate in the Migrant Trail Walk. As we mark the beginning of summer in the U.S. we also mark the beginning of the deadliest season in the desert especially in the Arizona sector of the U.S. and Mexico border.

The Migrant Trail: We Walk for Life May 25- 31, 2009

Our Vision:
The precarious reality of our borderlands calls us to walk. We walk together on a journey of peace to remember people, friends and family who have died, others who have crossed, and people who continue to come. We walk to bear witness to the tragedy of death and of the inhumanity in our midst. Lastly, we walk as a community, in defiance of the borders that attempt to divide us, committed to working together for the human dignity of all peoples.

If you can join us for the fifth annual 75-mile journey from Sásabe, Sonora to Tucson, Arizona in solidarity with our migrant sisters and brothers who have walked this trail and lost their lives. We bear witness to the lives that are lost, the families who mourn, and the communities that suffer the divisions that borders wreak on all of us.

Monday, May 25th, 2:00pm:
Sásabe, Sonora: Join us for the sending forth ceremony and the 4.8 mile walk to our first campsite on the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge

Sunday, May 31, 11:30am:
Tucson, Arizona: Join us for the welcoming celebration as participants complete the 75-mile journey, bearing witness to the gauntlet of death that has claimed more than 5,000 men, women and children on the U.S.-México border.

Chicagoborderblog.blogspot.com

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Phoenix AZ, part I

Phoenix, AZ

Both Jenny and I had been to Phoenix before but were amazed (and not in a good way) with the climate of fear, intimidation, and racial profiling that has become the norm.

Our first stop of our two day stay in Phoenix was to the Macehualli Day Labor Worker Center. The name Macehualli means, “the one who sacrifices for others”.The center is approved by the city of Phoenix and has been created in cooperation with local businesses, the neighborhood, law enforcement and the day laborers.

The amount of time the workers at the center have lived in the U.S. ranged from as recent as one week to over twenty years. Many had been deported before and came back to find work. Supporting their children is the priority. They are willing to risk jail time to support their families and find work. This situation can be found around the country but what makes this situation unique is the Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arpiao.

The second morning that we stopped at the worker center they told us that there had been five police cars near the entrance to the worker center, which is literally a parking lot with some established shade tents. Not only does this intimidate the workers who are already fearful that they could at anytime be picked up, regardless of their actually status, but this also keeps potential employers away.

Many of the workers recounted to us that the work has been slow. They surmised that it was because of the economic slow down and that many of the employers are also intimidated by the tactics that are being used by Arpaio and his police force.

Another level of intimidation is the vigilante, white supremacist, minute men folks who are continually camped out in front of the workers center. The one women that we encountered was video taping all traffic in and out of the center, had a gun holstered to her belt.

The workers asked us to not limit our work to immigrant rights, but to work on human rights for all. One worker suggested going to the United Nations with some of the human rights violations that are happening in Arizona and across the county to immigrants.

We later visited with Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) at their new worker rights center. They are being confronted with many families that are suffering from a loss of wages. Workers come in to the center for help getting back wages from employers who refuse to pay for work these people did, write checks that bounce or use scare tactics like threatening to call ICE. At IWJ we met with Rev. Trina Zelle who works with many of the workers that come in. Many are fearful but also feel betrayed and used. They trusted their employer and did good work for them. It is hard to understand how anyone could use people for slave purposes. Trina also highlighted the importance of continuing to raise up the all immigrants and workers as human beings who deserve to live with dignity.

(written by Stephanie)

Reflecting on the Journey, Part I

As we near closer to the closing of our journey to the Borderlands and AZ we are poised to look back at the people and experiences we have encountered along the way. When looking back over the last two weeks a highlight for me was our worship with Southside Presbyterian in Tucson, AZ. After all the hours in the car, being tired, and anxious for the journey barely underway, the spirit we found there and a commissioning of sorts for the experiences and action that lied ahead of us. Below is a prayer from that service.

CALL TO FAITHFULNESS – from Southside Church, Tucson, AZ

Let us declare together the way of peace, the way of non-violent resistance and the way of self-sacrificing love.

Guide our feet in the way of peace.

We will no conform to the pattern of this world.

Let us be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

With the help of God's Grace.

Let us resist evil where ever we find it.

With the waging of war… We will not comply.

With the legalization of murder… We will not comply.

With the laughter of innocents… We will not comply

With the laws that betray human life… We will not comply.

With the destruction of community… We will not comply.

With the pointing finger and malicious talk… We will not comply.

With the idea that happiness can be purchased… We will not comply.

With the ravaging of the earth… We will not comply

With powers and principalities that oppress… We will not comply.

With the raping of women… We will not comply.

With governments that kill… We will not comply.

With the theology of empire… We will not comply.

With the business of militarism… We will not comply.

With the hoarding of riches… We will not comply.

With the politics of fear… We will not comply.

Today we pledge our ultimate allegiance to the Kingdom of God… We pledge allegiance.

To the gospel of enemy-love… We pledge allegiance.

To the king who loved his enemies so much he died for them…We pledge allegiance.

To the least among us… We pledge allegiance.

To the homeless rabbi who had no place to lay his head… We pledge allegiance.

To the cross rather than the sword… We pledge allegiance.

To the one who rules with a servant's towel rather than an iron fist… We pledge allegiance.

To the revolution that sets both oppressed and oppressors free… We pledge allegiance.

To a peace that is not like Rome's… We pledge allegiance.

To a peace born not of violence but of love… We pledge allegiance.

Let us share a sign of God's peace with one another. Peace be with you… And also with you.

Crossing the Border

Crossing the Border

We drove south towards the US/Mexico border, to see for ourselves the human creation of this physical divide, cutting across land, animal habitat, communities, families and so much more.

Our first stop before crossing the border was Bisbee, AZ, a small town just 10 miles from the Mexico border. We met with Cecile Lumer, a member of Citizens for Border Solutions, who accompanied us to Naco, Sonora, Mexico to visit the Migrant Aid Center that she helps organize.

As we approached the border we could see the long stretch of metal fencing that cut across the land for miles. We crossed into Mexico and found a small building that said "Ofrecemos ayuda, informacion y comida completamente gratis." (We offer help, information and food completely free) This Migrant Aid Center just opened in January of 2008 and has been there to help migrants who are deported back to Mexico and are dropped across the border, left demoralized and without money or an orientation of where they even are.

The Migrant Aid Center has served 6,789 people since it opened. Along with offering material aid they record information about the experience of being in detention. Cecile reported that for the month of August some migrants were held in detention for up to 96 hours. Most of the time they migrants who are detained and are awaiting deportation do not get adequate food or water while in custody and some have been reported to have received nothing. The Aid Center has helped document abuses that helped support the No More Deaths report on human rights abuses on the Arizona/Sonora border mentioned in previous blog postings.

Cecile shared with us that the numbers of people deported has dramatically dropped in the last months due to the Repatriation program of the Department of Homeland Security.

This program offers migrants the opportunity to be deported to Mexico City instead of simply being dropped across the border. The idea being that if people are flown closer to their home it would be a deterrent for people to try and cross again. But, there are cases of people coming through Naco who have been flown back up to three times and still continue to try and cross in hopes of fulfilling their dream of finding work to support their family. This program is scheduled to conclude at the end of the Border Patrol fiscal year sometime in September. As Cecile said, Border Patrol has all this money they need to figure out how to spend, otherwise they won't get as much next year.

The ICE Detention and Removal Operation's Air Transportation Unit is responsible for providing oversight
and coordination of passengers from Tucson International Airport. Under the initiative, Mexican nationals apprehended in Arizona are processed at centers in Nogales and Yuma, Arizona, where they are interviewed by Mexican and U.S. officials for possible inclusion in the Interior Repatriation Program. Those who volunteer to participate in the program are then flown to Mexico City and provided bus transportation to their places of origin in the interior of Mexico. (From ICE Press Release in 2007)

Our next stop was East to Douglas, AZ, a town that borders Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico. We crossed into Agua Prieta to find the Agua Prieta Migrant Resource Center. Similar to the Naco Center, they offer food, water, clothing, and information about shelters and bus stations in the town.

The volunteer working at the center shared with us that they receive an average of 3 migrants every 4 hours. But there are days when they don't receive any migrants for six hours and others when they receive many more; last Thursday they received 73 people between 7am and 12pm. She shared with us that they have also seen a dramatic decrease in migrants being deported directly across to Agua Prieta because people are being flown in to Mexico City.

As we made our way back across the border into the U.S. and began our drive back north; watching as the massive wall got smaller and smaller in the rear view mirror as we drove away. We were back on the land that so many risked their lives to journey to, a land that offers so many hopes and dreams to so many. Yet, a land that does not treat them as human beings and creates fear and terror in their communities once they are here.