The 800 Mile Wall

Border deaths in Arizona may break record

2010-08-24T04:30:00.000-07:00

By Nicole Santa Cruz, Los Angeles Times

August 24, 2010

Reporting from Tucson —

This year, Arizona became known as the state with the toughest policies against illegal immigration. That's why Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Eric Peters didn't think thePima County coroner would see a surge in migrants killed while trying to cross Arizona's southern deserts.

But despite beefed-up efforts to stem illegal immigration and an economy that makes work harder to come by, migrants are still trying to get into the country. And many are dying.

In 2007, a record 218 bodies were found in Pima County. This year, the death toll could be worse. Already, authorities have recovered the remains of 170 migrants.

"We're kind of looking at a record-breaking year this year," Peters said.

July was the worst month of this year so far, with 59 people found dead. More than half of them died from heat-related causes. On July 15, the deadliest day of the month, seven bodies were found, among them the remains of Omar Luna Velasquez, 25. The high temperature that day was 108 degrees.

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More migrant deaths rights abuses likely as obama congress increase border security say orgs

2010-08-14T12:08:00.000-07:00

President Obama today signed a bill authorizing an additional $600 million to increase border security, strengthening a deadly border militarization strategy. It is a move that pro-migrant groups say will undoubtedly increase the number of migrants who die at the U.S.-Mexico border. They critique the bill which, they say, "contributes nothing to ensuring the safety and rights of migrants and border communities."

The new bill promises to enhance immigration-police collaboration and places more military technology, including surveillance drones, on the border. It enables an additional 1,000 Border Patrol officers, 250 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and 250 Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents. These increments do not include Obama's recent announcement of the deployment of another 1200 National Guard troops to patrol the border in Arizona.

The Coalicion de Derechos Humanos (CDH) based in Tucson, Arizona reports that the remains of 214 migrants have been recovered as of July 31, 2010, on the Arizona stretch of the border alone. The tally already surpasses last year's toll with still two months remaining in this fiscal year's final count.

As many as 8,000 migrant dead have been recovered on the U.S.-Mexico border since the U.S. government's current "prevention through deterrence" strategy was implemented in 1994. Human rights groups working to prevent migrant deaths and abuses on the border believe that for every migrant dead found at least ten others are missing in the desert.

Along with a record number of migrant deaths at the border, the U.S. under the Obama Administration is achieving a record number of deportations this fiscal year.

"The Southwest Border Security Bill is a reminder of what type of "CIR," or immigration reform, is being offered: A piece-meal enforcement approach that continues gutting the rights of immigrants, with more jailings and deportations and promises of restrictive access to "legalization" and guest worker programs," laments the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) in a statement in response to the new law.

Demilitarize, Decriminalize: End Border Deaths

The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) criticizes the Obama Administration's militarization of immigration control and border communities, a process that they say is "further fueling the criminalization of immigration status."

Their statement continues:

The U.S. must end the deliberate "funneling" of migrants through the border desert, stopping the death of migrants and the criminalization of status.

Instead the U.S. must:

increase access to legal immigration with the protection of rights,
provide more options for permanent residency and citizenship and
create routine programs of legalization.

But this will not be enough if the root causes are not addressed.

Fair and just immigration reforms must be accompanied with fair and just trade policies and initiatives. By taking such measures and steps, the Obama Administration can make immigrant families, workers and communities less vulnerable to abuse and exploitation and create safer environments and strengthen everyone's rights.

Raging Grannys on Border Fence

2010-08-14T08:18:00.000-07:00

July migrant deaths could set record

2010-07-16T09:54:00.000-07:00

Illegal border crossers are dying at record rates this month.

Since July 1, the Pima County Medical Examiner's Office has handled the bodies of 38 illegal border crossers, said Dr. Bruce Parks, chief medical examiner. That midmonth total puts July on pace to match or break the single-month record of 68 in July 2005.

"I never thought we would see that again," Parks said. "It's scary. Maybe the rain will slow these down."

Parks said his office has been picking up and examining between one and four bodies of illegal immigrants daily since the beginning of the month. Field agents were on their way to pick up four more bodies Thursday, he said. Most of the people are being found recently deceased.

The deadly month puts 2010 even further ahead of the pace from the past three years. From Jan. 1 to July 15, the office has handled 132 bodies of illegal border crossers, up from 93 at the same time last year and 102 in 2008.

It's been a deadly decade for illegal immigrants trying to cross through Arizona. The bodies of more than 1,750 men, women and children have been discovered since 2001 - about 175 a year.

The Pima County Medical Examiner's Office has handled about 1,600 of them.

The fact that the deaths continue at such high numbers despite widespread indications that fewer people are crossing the border has led many experts to conclude that illegal border crossers face a deadlier trek than ever across Arizona's desert.

Apprehensions in the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector have decreased each of the past five years; remittances to Mexico have declined and anecdotal reports show the economic recession has slowed illegal immigration. Yet more people are dying than ever.

Border-county law enforcement, Mexican consular officials, Tohono O'odham tribal officials and humanitarian groups say the buildup of border fencing, technology and agents 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.

The Border Patrol disagrees that it's pushing illegal immigrants into more hazardous terrain and points to its rescue efforts as evidence that its presence prevents deaths rather than causes them.

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

DHS backing off Mexico border fence

2010-06-18T05:55:00.000-07:00

It was once an ambitious plan, to build a fence with the most sophisticated technology along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Originally expected to run about 655 miles, the troubled, multibillion-dollar project has now been reduced to a plan for 387 miles, and its designers have lowered its technical standards “to the point that … system performance will be deemed acceptable if it identifies less than 50 percent of items of interest that cross the border.”

“The result,” said the Government Accountability Office in a withering report Thursday afternoon, “is a system that is unlikely to live up to expectations.”

DHS doesn’t even have “a reliable master schedule for delivering” even the “first block of SBInet,” as the Secure Border Initiative is known.

“As a result, it is unclear when the first block will be completed, and continued delays are likely,” the GAO said.

Meanwhile, DHS doesn’t have a realistic grasp of SBINet’s future costs, investigators found.

All in all, the report amounted to a grim picture of the project’s future, noting its “decreasing scope, uncertain timing, unclear value proposition, and limited life cycle management discipline and rigor ….”

It "remains unclear,” the GAO said, “whether the department’s pursuit of SBInet is a cost effective course of action, and if it is, that it will produce expected results on time and within budget.”

Indeed, DHS is rethinking the whole thing, SBINet’s executive directortold Congress, according to the National Journal’s Nextgov.com Web site.

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Rep. Steve King's Distortions About Border Security

2010-06-16T16:02:00.000-07:00

HUFFINGTON POST

by John Carlos Frey

A few days ago The Iowa Independent featured an article about U.S. Congressman Steve King's assertion that a 2,000-mile long border wall between the U.S. and Mexico would have prevented the shooting death of Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca, a fifteen year old Mexican National who was recently gunned down by a U.S. Border Patrol Agent. Congressman King also said, "A border wall would dramatically reduce illegal immigration." According to King, more border walls would prevent violence, death and illegal immigration. On all accounts Mr. King is factually wrong and possibly lying to score political points. A bullet killed the Mexican teenager, not the lack of a border fence. We have never had more border walls than we do today and the federal government that built the structures cannot even ascertain whether or not they are effective. Yes, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), after billions of dollars in contracts to build the current border walls, cannot determine whether or not they prevent illegal immigration.

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Arizona immigration law ignores migrant deaths

2010-04-27T08:51:00.000-07:00

Margaret Regan knows the Arizona border tensions up close. The Tucson journalist has written on migration from Mexico over the past decade and has poured her experience into “The Death of Josseline: Immigration Stories from the Arizona-Mexico Borderlands,” published by Beacon Press in February. The book focuses on Josseline Hernandez, a 14-year-old girl whose death during her crossing underscores the danger and chaos in the region. Regan believes Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigration overlooks a serious problem: the rising number of migrant deaths.

By Margaret Regan

When Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona signed the nation’s harshest anti-immigration law on Friday, she declared that federal policy had left the state dealing with “an unacceptable situation."

That’s about the only thing she got right when she unleashed a law that gives the police unprecedented powers to stop and interrogate anyone they suspect of being an illegal immigrant.

Brewer misidentified the real problem. To her, what’s unacceptable is that as many as 600,000 illegal immigrants are living in Arizona. What she should really be worried about is the deaths of some 2,000 border crossers in the Arizona desert in the past 10 years.

Since the year 2000, the state has been ground zero for immigration. Migrants from Mexico and Central America used to take safer routes through big cities like El Paso and San Diego, but the federal government cracked down on those urban crossings in the mid-90s. After that, migration shifted to the dangerous open terrain in between -- that is, to Arizona.

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Georgia: Making a Scapegoat of Immigrants

2010-04-20T05:09:00.000-07:00

from The Huffington Post

by John Carlos Frey

Georgia state lawmakers are discriminating against immigrants through proposed legislation SB 67 that would restrict driver's license exams to be issued in English only. Currently the state offers the exam in 13 different languages but according to State Senator Jack Murphy, the chief proponent of the legislation, restricting the privilege to English-only drivers is a matter of safety. The senator believes that foreign language drivers pose a danger because they cannot read English language road signs. If Georgia offered driving tests only in English it would eliminate the perceived problem.

I say perceived because I could find no evidence that non-English speakers are a danger. Even in legislative hearings, as the bill was being debated, there was no testimony by road safety experts to prove that English-only drivers would improve safety. Not only was there no evidence the bill would make Georgia roads safer, the proposed bill offers driver's licenses for illiterate drivers. Fifteen percent of driver's licenses in Georgia are issued to people who cannot read at all. According to Senator Murphy, they qualify as safer drivers than the non-English literate immigrants. If the bill passes, U.S. citizens and legal residents who are not proficient in English will be prohibited from driving.

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Report says immigration reform critical to border security

2010-04-19T04:43:00.000-07:00

By JARED JANES, The Monitor

A recent report by the Center for American Progress criticizes the Department of Homeland Security for repeated failures in its major border security and surveillance program.

The report by the Washington D.C.-based think tank highlights cost overruns and extensive delays in the Secure Border Initiative, the DHS plan developed to control the nation’s borders and stem illegal immigration through more Border Patrol agents, the border wall and use of technology to create a ‘virtual fence.’

But the report also includes recommendations on what can be done to improve border security, including passage of comprehensive immigration reform, greater collaboration with Mexico and outreach to border communities. It says the concept of fences, cameras and sensors can work if they are successfully integrated together.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, who chairs the Homeland Security subcommittee on border, maritime and global counterterrorism, said the report indicates that a comprehensive approach is needed to address security concerns along the Southwest border.

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Arizona A State With Hate

2010-04-06T17:08:00.000-07:00

Arizona state legislators are once again positioning themselves to be the most hate-based state in the union. Arizona State Senator Russell K. Pearce (R) is a perfect example of hate mongering and overt racism. I realize that terms like "hate monger" and "racist" are strong accusations but I can find no better terms to describe the current attempt to curb illegal immigration in the state of Arizona.

From Senator Pearce's own website:

"Republicans and Democrats in DC are terrified to oppose illegal immigration out of fear that they will be labeled racist. This assertion is ridiculous. There is nothing racist about upholding the law."

Senator Pearce's proposed legislation (SB1070) has nothing to do with upholding the law and everything to do with racial discrimination. According to Jennifer Allen, executive director of Arizona based Border Action Network who is working to defeat the bill, local law enforcement must make the eradication of undocumented immigrants a priority over other public safety responsibilities. Without any form of training, local law enforcement will be given authority to arrest someone if they have probable cause to believe they are undocumented. Who do you think they will suspect? This construct sets up a blatant system for racial profiling. The nearly 2 million Latinos in the state of Arizona will become prime suspects solely based on ethnicity. The bill's discriminatory tactics include attacks on day laborers and individuals that hire them as well as anyone who may transport, know, harbor, shield or protect undocumented immigrants. The bill represents nothing short of a witch-hunt with impunity. It sets up a system of law enforcement abuse that will drive immigrants, legal or not, deeper into the shadows of society.

When I was a child, I was out for a walk with my mother in a rural part of south San Diego County. We lived within walking distance of the U.S. Mexico border. This particular morning, like many others, I ran ahead to investigate the seasonal creek several hundred yards away. When I came back to meet up with my mother she was nowhere in sight. I looked everywhere and quickly ran home to tell my father. My family spent 24 hours searching for her -- calling everyone we knew including law enforcement. The next morning we received a telephone call from Tijuana, MX. My mother had been picked up by U.S. Border Patrol and deported. When I ran ahead of her, a Border Patrol agent suspected my mother was in the U.S. illegally. She tried to convince the officer that she was "legal" but he didn't believe her. My mother had deep brown skin and spoke poor English but had lived in the U.S. as a legal resident for 25 years. She had raised four children but was deported because of her ethnicity. It was a horrible case of racial profiling that scarred my mother and family for life.

State Senator Russell Pearce has been pushing racially motivated, anti-immigrant legislation in Arizona for years. He is endorsed by and has direct associations with known white supremacistsBuffalo Rick Galeener and J.T. Ready amongst others. Rick Galeener was cited for publicly urinating in front of a Latino mother and her child.
J.T. Ready has publicly campaigned for Senator Pearce and has close ties to Neo-Nazi organizations. J.T. Ready has publicly stated, "I firmly believe in having a minefield across the border, this is 100% effective." Senator Pearce did not return calls to comment on these associations nor has he denounced them publicly. Both Galeener and Ready have been monitored by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League and are classified as nativists, extremists and white supremacists but Senator Pearce remains silent.

Jennifer Allen of Border Action Network has collected and sent over 20,000 postcards to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer opposing the legislation, yet the governor continues to support the bill. The bill is opposed by the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police and dozens of Latino organizations and civil rights groups, yet the bill continues to make progress in the legislature. Scholars, lawyers, and fellow legislators believe Pearce's push to rid the state of undocumented immigrants violates basic civil rights and constitutional law, yet the bill has strong Republican support. Hate crimes against Latinos are up 40 percent, yet John McCain and his primary challenger JD Hayworth claim they are tough on undocumented immigrants and neither of them have the courage to denounce the racially motivated legislation.

If Arizona lawmakers were interested in resolving the complex dilemma of immigration they would address poverty, trade imbalances, work visas, corporate greed and family reunification. Instead, leaders of the great state of Arizona have grabbed their pitch forks and nooses and are continuing to scapegoat the voiceless and vulnerable for cheap political victories. Hate begets hate and hate solves nothing.

Time to fix immigration system, Campos says

2010-03-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

David Campos

Sunday, March 28, 2010

After more than a year of campaigning, President Obama finally won much-needed and long-overdue changes to our health care system. Achieving what four other presidents could not, Obama broke through the political impasse to obtain health care coverage for the vast majority of uninsured Americans. The president now needs to take this mandate and act quickly on what should be the next major item on his domestic agenda: modernizing our immigration system.

Comprehensive immigration reform requires a balanced and measured approach that includes a broad legalization component, a foreign policy that promotes meaningful and equitable economic development in the region, and humane enforcement measures that strengthen, rather than divide, local communities.

Right now, more than 12 million people live under the shadow of fear because they lack legal immigration status. Many are hardworking mothers and fathers who, rather than watch their families suffer under the brutality of poverty and political turmoil, made the difficult and often dangerous decision to leave their homeland in search of the American dream. Many are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people who fled death threats and persecution, or whose same-sex partners lack the legal right to file a petition on their behalf.

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The Case for Immigration Reform

2010-03-18T15:12:00.000-07:00

HUFFINGTON POST

John Carlos Frey

3/18/10

On March 21, 2010 immigrant rights advocates by the tens of thousands will be in Washington, DC to make their case known to the nation. For me, the need for comprehensive immigration reform is obvious. I was born in Mexico of U.S. citizen parents. My parent's citizenship automatically made me a U.S. citizen even though I was born in a foreign country. By birth, I have been afforded the privileges of U.S. society, for which I am grateful. Through my work as a filmmaker, I have come to personally know those that seek refuge and opportunity in the United States and are not as fortunate as I. I have met people that live in constant fear of deportation, of being ripped from stable jobs, family and loved ones. I have seen and documented the migrant corpses that litter the southwestern deserts of the United States -- people who are so poor and desperate they will risk their lives for a job. I was born to the "right" parents so I can live better and freer than 99% of the entire world's population. My U.S. citizenship was a gift. There are millions living and working in this country that were not so fortunate and millions more coming that will be forced to live underground, afraid, taken advantage of and without a voice. That is the system we have today and it is at best, reprehensible.

Several weeks ago I met a man named Fernando who had been deported after being pulled over for a burned out tail light on his truck. Fernando spoke English, but not perfectly. He did not have a driver's license and of course, he was Latino. In addition to dealing with Fernando's infraction, the police officer that pulled him over also asked Fernando for proof of legal residency. Fernando truthfully admitted to the officer he did not have any legal papers. He was detained and deported to Mexico several days later. What the officer did not ask was how long Fernando had been in the United States. If so, he would have answered, 25 years. Fernando was not asked if he had U.S. citizen children -- he has three -- ages 8 to 16. His wife is a legal U.S. resident. His parents are U.S. citizens. Fernando was deported in spite of all this information because it is irrelevant given our current immigration system. If that is not enough insult, Fernando will have to stay in Mexico for approximately 10 years while his application to legally reenter the U.S. is under consideration. The fact that he has worked on a U.S. farm providing manual labor for 25 years means nothing to immigration courts. The fact that he has no criminal record, never been late on his rent or utility bills, goes to church and coaches his son's soccer team is meaningless.

Some may say that Fernando should never have crossed the U.S. Mexico border without documents. Fernando was covertly invited to the U.S. to work amongst the millions of undocumented laborers in our agricultural industry. Each year we (businesses) import unauthorized labor to the United States by the hundreds of thousands. Yes, I say we, they are here, they are working and we are benefiting. We are a magnet for undocumented labor and we look the other way.

People say, "He should get in line." "My Grandparents got in line." Our current immigration system provides no line for Fernando. If our ancestral immigrants were subject to today's immigration laws they would have never gained legal access. There is no fine Fernando can pay to make restitution, there is no judge he can plea his case before, the cries of his family carry no legal weight and there is nothing he can do but apply for legal reentry and wait ten years to be with his family, maybe longer.

Fernando found himself in a shelter of deportees in Tijuana, MX. He was desperate. He had a wild, distant stare in his eyes. He appeared catatonic. The only thing he talked about was seeing his wife and children. He was thinking about crossing the border through the desert. He won't wait ten years for his immigration application to be considered. I told him the desert is dangerous, I even told him I made a film about migrants dying in the desert. I offered to show it to him in the hope he would not make that journey. He left yesterday, and crossed the border into the Arizona desert. I have no way to contact him. I have no way to know if he will ever find his way to his family. I have no way to know if he is still alive.

Inhumanity is the cornerstone of our current immigration system. The work is here and the poor are there. Desperate people will find a way to reach opportunity and reach the people they love. If I were in the same situation, I would do the same thing. The need for comprehensive immigration reform is urgent. People are dying, workers are being abused and Fernando should be with his wife and children.

On the eve of what may be the beginning of the immigration reform debate, are we a big enough country to consider the poor and desperate amongst us? Can compassion and forgiveness guide our judgment or will we hate, fear monger and slog it out healthcare style? I wonder how many of us are U.S. citizens by sheer luck and if so, can we extend the bounty that was freely given to us?

Work to cease on 'virtual fence' along U.S.-Mexico border

2010-03-17T15:48:00.000-07:00

By Spencer S. Hsu

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 16, 2010

The Obama administration will halt new work on a "virtual fence" on the U.S.-Mexican border, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitanoannounced Tuesday, diverting $50 million in planned economic stimulus funds for the project to other purposes.

Napolitano said the freeze on work beyond two pilot projects in Arizona was pending a broader reassessment. But the move signals a likely death knell for a troubled five-year plan to drape a chain of tower-mounted sensors and other surveillance gear across most of the 2,000-mile southern border.

That vision, initiated in 2006 by President George W. Bush, called for a series of networked cameras, radar and communications gear to help speed the response of U.S. Border Patrol officers to catch illegal immigrants and smugglers over the vast border area. However, the effort has been plagued by technical problems and delays with prime contractor Boeing Corp.

Obama officials embraced the program, known as SBInet, on taking office in 2009, setting out a newfive-year timetable for completion. However, the administration last month proposed cutting funding to finish SBInet's first phase by roughly 30 percent to $574 million, under new congressional questioning about the plan's feasibility.

In a four-sentence statement, Napolitano said the department will immediately redeploy $50 million of stimulus funds to other technology, including mobile surveillance devices, sensors, radios and laptop computers.

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Arizona Recovered Remains Reach 85, a 60% Increase From Last Year

2010-03-15T16:12:00.000-07:00

Kat Rodriguez

Coalición de Derechos Humanos

http://www.derechoshumanosaz.net

Arizona- The number of human remains recovered on the Arizona-Sonora border since October 1, 2009 has reached 85, 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 failed U.S. border and immigration policies.

The count to date includes fifty-four (54) males, ten (10) females, and twenty-one (21) individuals of unknown gender. The identities of approximately sixty-five (65) of the recovered individuals remain unknown, which is approximately 76% of the total recovered thus far this fiscal year. This number is a 60.3% increase from last year, when the total of recovered remains as of February 28, 2009 was fifty-three (53). Approximately twenty-five (25), or 28.3% of the remains were skeletal, and sixty-five (65), or 76.4% remain unidentified.

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. "The cold, along with the continued effects of the Funnel Effect, has resulted in a horrifically high number of skeletal remains and deaths due to exposure and hypothermia." says Kat Rodriguez, Coordinator of Derechos Humanos. "We also continue to see the tragic trend of the recovery of remains of unknown gender, which make up about 24.7% of the numbers this year. This means that approximately one in four individuals recovered are of unknown gender, making identification all the more difficult." '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 the likelihood of death more certain. It is unknown how many remains are currently near the border but have not yet been discovered.

"The continued appalling issue of human remains being recovered on the Arizona-Sonora border should be a measure we use when offered "comprehensive immigration reform"" continues Rodriguez. "We must strengthen our resolve to reject any proposal of reform that does not immediately and meaningfully address the issue of border deaths, and does not ensure dignity and respect for the human rights of all migrant and immigrant communities."

Coalición de Derechos
Humanos website: http://www.derechoshumanosaz.net

In Eagle Pass, divided view of border fence

2010-03-07T07:39:00.000-08:00

Many see 2-mile barrier as an eyesore and waste of money; some say it helps quality of life.

By Jeremy Schwartz

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Updated: 1:07 a.m. Sunday, March 7, 2010

Published: 10:55 p.m. Saturday, March 6, 2010

EAGLE PASS — As the sun dips toward the horizon, Shelby Park becomes an idyllic place, a rare patch of manicured green along the Texas-Mexico border. Kids practice soccer on the expansive sports fields, and joggers make their afternoon revolutions. A couple of Border Patrol trucks hover in the parking lot alongside the dense stands of cane that hide the Rio Grande from view. Above, two international bridges funnel traffic between Eagle Pass and its Mexican counterpart, Piedras Negras, Coahuila .

Jose Luis Zuniga, watching his two sons practice soccer kicks, takes in the park's newest addition: an $11 million, 14-foot-tall black metal fence.

This part of the fence, finished in October, has roiled emotions like little else in this fast-growing city of 50,000. Like many of his neighbors, Zuniga is bewildered and angered by the placement of the fence, which cuts through nearly two miles of downtown and leaves the city's golf course and premier parkland in what some see as a no man's land between the fence and the river. Illegal immigrants and drug traffickers will simply go around, reasons Zuniga, an engineer at a plant that builds Mossberg shotguns.

"I don't know why they did it," Zuniga says in Spanish as he watches his two sons practice under the lengthening shadows of the international bridge. "Imagine, all that money for nothing."

As construction of 670 miles of fencing along the Southwest border nears completion, at a cost of at least $2.4 billion, border communities like Eagle Pass are struggling to come to terms with their new reality. Is the barrier an effective way to stem the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs across what was an inadequately protected border? Or is it, as Zuniga contends, the physical symbol of a misguided — and expensive — policy that ignores the unique dynamics of the border?

Local Border Patrol agents say the fence plays a vital role in driving immigrant and drug smugglers to the city's edges, where agents have more time to catch them out in the brush — people crossing near downtown can quickly vanish into crowds.

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Border deaths topic of documentary

2010-03-06T15:28:00.000-08:00

‘800 Mile Wall' examines how increased security has affected immigration

NICOLE C. BRAMBILA • THE DESERT SUN • MARCH 3, 2010

Octavio Mendez wanted to see his mother before she died. He was found in November pitch black, his fluids leeched out and his body mummified about 20 miles east of Palm Springs.

“Less people are crossing and more people are dying,” said John Carlos Frey, a Los Angeles filmmaker. “We've never found a body 90 miles north of the border in the Coachella Valley.”

The coyote he paid to help him cross the Mexicali border — a six-day trip on foot — left Mendez to die in the desert last summer after he got sick from dehydration. He's not alone.

More than 3,800 people have died crossing the border since 1994, a 2009 report by the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial counties found.

In 2009, roughly 70 bodies were recovered in the California desert and canals, Frey said.

“The 800 Mile Wall” is a 90-minute documentary by Frey that looks at how the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, and the push for border security has shaped U.S. immigration policy and extended the border fence.

The documentary highlights the 500 drownings in the All-American Canal, which is a Coachella Valley water source, that have occurred since the fences were built.

A free screening will be shown at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Cinemas Palme D'Or theaters at Westfield Palm Desert Shopping Center.

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Death by design: border crossers dying in greater numbers

2010-02-27T07:33:00.000-08:00

by Demetria Martinez on Feb. 26, 2010

NCR Today

The Rev. John Fife, an immigrants' rights activist based in Tucson, Ariz., calls it "death by design." He's referring to the policy by immigration officials of sealing off traditional border crossing areas, leaving immigrants with no choice but to cross from Mexico into the United States in the most dangerous of areas. Fife's long-held observation has proven right once again. People forced to cross the border through mountains, canyons and other lethal areas are dying in ever greater numbers.

A new report from the Tucson-based Coalicion de Derechos Humanos indicates a dramatic increase in the number of human remains recovered on the Arizona-Sonora border. Between Oct. 1, 2009, and Jan. 31, 2010, the remains of 61 people have been recovered. This is a dramatic increase over the same period a year ago, when the total of recovered remains was 45. This year's count includes 40 males, four females and 17 individuals of unknown gender.

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A complex tragedy at the border

2010-02-22T05:51:00.000-08:00

Los Angeles Times

People need to know the full nuanced story of those who die trying to walk into the United States.

Hector Tobar

9:11 PM PST, February 21, 2010

John Carlos Frey wants you to be angry about the U.S.-Mexico border.

He wants you to feel such a deep sense of moral outrage that you'll get out of your chair and write a letter to your congressman.

That's why he invited me to the border town of El Centro, to stand in Imperial County's pauper's cemetery, a dusty field dotted with about 900 concrete markers the size of bread loaves.

Each was stamped with numbers or the name "John Doe." Several hundred marked the final resting place of Mexican and other Latin American migrants who've died walking across the desert or drowned trying to cross the nearby All-American Canal.

Frey, a 46-year-old filmmaker, blames the U.S. government for their deaths. In all, some 6,000 people have died crossing the Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California borders with Mexico since 1994, according to human-rights groups. About 500 more die every year.

In his new documentary film, "The 800 Mile Wall," Frey says this tragedy is the foreseeable result of a policy that sealed off urban crossing routes, driving migrants into the desert.

"Doesn't this qualify as an atrocity to you?" Frey asked, after we'd walked to the center of the cemetery on a warm winter day last week.

I thought about Frey's question for a moment and tried to imagine the individual stories that had brought all these people to this sad end.

I've lived in Mexico and I have family in Guatemala. I've been to the urban neighborhoods and the rural villages of adobe and cinder-block where migrant journeys begin. But I wouldn't apply the word "atrocity" to what I've seen, not in the sense that Frey means.

On our long drive to El Centro, he had compared the migrant death toll to horrors that no one would dispute deserve that stark label: genocide in Rwanda, ethnic cleansing in Bosnia.

"Their deaths are systematic and they're the results of a policy," he said of the border crossers. "And it's not just a few. It's thousands." Some people, he said, think the death toll might be as high as 20,000.

"You wonder how long it will take people to get angry," he said later. "How long did it take in Darfur?"

Comparing the deaths at the border to massacres of Darfur makes for a poor analogy for lots of different reasons. But Frey's hyperbole is understandable. "Maybe it's because I've seen the bodies," he tells me.

Frey's film contains gruesome images and heart-breaking stories. He interviews a tearful Guatemalan man who had to identify his wife's remains at an Arizona coroner's office before being deported.

We meet an artist who gathers the objects migrants abandon in the desert, including the journal of a girl crossing with her family. The girl sketched a picture of the truck that drove her to the border, and the green grass she imagined on the other side.

We're shown the mummified remains of a woman -- we never learn where she's from -- who was traveling to the Bay Area to meet her fiance. We see the long hair flowing from her skull and the bones that have been stripped by animal predators.

Frey told me he's going to take his film on a tour of the United States this year. "I think if Americans knew what was happening here, they would be compassionate," he said. "Maybe I'm naive."

He wants to use the film as a tool to build support for an immigration reform bill in Congress that would allow migrants a safe crossing to the jobs that await them.

That's a laudable goal. But there's something about the way he and a lot of other people see the issue of immigration that deeply troubles me.

As a son of immigrants, I just don't buy the constant portrayal of immigrants in U.S. media as either victims or victimizers.

A number of television personalities have sold the American people on the idea that Latino immigrants are a criminal force undermining U.S. society. In "The 800 Mile Wall" the ill-fated migrants are all victims of forces beyond their control.

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The Death of Josseline

2010-02-18T14:08:00.000-08:00

An excerpt from 'Weekly' scribe Margaret Regan's new book featuring dispatches from the Arizona-Mexico border

by Margaret Regan

Josseline shivered as she stepped over the stones and ducked under the mesquites. She was in Arizona, land of heat and sun, but on this late-January day in 2008, it was cold and damp. The temperature was in the 50s, and the night before it had dropped to near freezing. A winter rain had fallen, and now the desert path was slippery and wet, even more treacherous than it had been before.

Josseline was 7 miles north of the Mexican border, near the old ranching town of Arivaca, in prime Sonoran Desert. It was a wonderland of cactus and mesquite, beautiful but dangerous, with trails threading through isolated canyons and up and down hills studded with rocks. She had to get through this perilous place to get to her mother.

A little girl with a big name—Josseline Jamileth Hernández Quinteros—she was 5 feet tall and 100 pounds. At 14, young as she was, she had an important responsibility: It was her job to bring her little brother, age 10, safely to their mother in Los Angeles. The Hernández kids had never been away from home before, and already, they'd been traveling for weeks. Now they were almost there, just days away from their mother's embrace.

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Illegal Immigration Declining

2010-02-12T10:39:00.000-08:00

Homeland Security estimates show a decrease in 'unauthorized immigrants'

By Jim Fogarty
Epoch Times Staff

The U.S.-Mexico border fence. A Department of Homeland Security report estimates the number of illegal immigrants continues decline for a second year. (David McNew/Getty Images)

The number of illegal immigrants living in the United States has declined for the second year in a row, according to a recent Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report. The economic downturn appears to be the reason for the drop.

The report, prepared by DHS's Office of Immigration Statistics, estimated the number of “unauthorized immigrants” in the United States as of January, 2009. The report concluded that there were 10.7 million illegal immigrants in the United States, down from 11.6 million in 2008.

The trend of decline started in the 2008 report, with the number dropping slightly from a 2007 total of 11.78 million—a peak year over the last decade.

The 2009 total is still above DHS estimates for years 2000 and 2005, which come in at 8.46 and 10.49 million unauthorized immigrants, respectively.

The largest percentage of 2009 undocumented aliens —61 percent or 6.6 million—were between the ages of 25 and 44 years old; 58 percent of these are male.

The report's statistics were generated by using a method called “residual” methodology, where the number of legal immigrants is subtracted from the total of foreign-born U.S. residents.

The foreign-born estimates were obtained through the use of the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) sampling data, with a 10 percent error margin for “persons who should have been counted in a survey or census, but were not.”

The bulk of illegal immigrants in 2009 continue to come from Mexico, making up 62 percent—or 6.65 million—of the total number of undocumented immigrants. This total is a 5.4 percent decrease from 2008 statistics, which estimated the number of Mexicans without papers at 7.03 million.

The number of unauthorized immigrants from some Central American countries actually rose in 2009, with an 11.6 percent increase from Guatemala and a 6.7 percent increase from Honduras, compared with the report's 2008 totals.

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Shallow grave holds body of probable border crosser

2010-02-12T10:36:00.000-08:00

Brady McCombs Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Friday, February 12, 2010 12:00 am

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A group of five humanitarians found the remains of a likely illegal border crosser Tuesday afternoon northwest of Nogales near the town of Ruby.

At 3 p.m., volunteers discovered the body in a shallow grave covered with rocks and adorned with a handmade cross, a No More Deaths press release says, adding that it was in a narrow canyon about two miles east of Ruby.

The volunteers were walking a known migrant trail conducting humanitarian patrols when they found the decomposing body. Ruby is about five miles north of the border, southeast of Arivaca.

The group called the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office, and deputies recovered the body. Officials estimated the man died six to seven months ago, the press release says.

The Pima County Medical Examiner's Office had not yet determined the cause of death, said Dr. Bruce Parks, chief medical examiner.

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The Count of Arizona Recovered Remains is 61

2010-02-12T10:33:00.000-08:00

Four Months into the Fiscal Year, the Count of Arizona Recovered Remains is 61

from Derechos Humanos, AZ

Arizona- The number of human remains recovered on the Arizona-Sonora border since October 1, 2009 has reached 61, reports 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 failed U.S. border and immigration policies. This count includes forty (40) males, four (4) females, and seventeen (17) individuals of unknown gender. Approximately forty-seven (47) of the recovered individuals remain unknown, which is approximately 77% of the total recovered thus far this fiscal year.

This number is a dramatic increase from last year, when the total of recovered remains as of January 31, 2009 was forty-five (45). In addition, approximately twenty-three (23)-approximately 38%- of the remains were skeletal; last year, there were 13 skeletal remains (approximately 29%) at the same time last year. 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 of 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.

"This year, we have seen a record number of recovered remains in the month of January in Pima County, and an alarming spike in the numbers in Cochise County this winter. We continue to see the tragic trend of the recovery of remains of unknown gender and an alarming rate of unidentified individuals" says Kat Rodriguez, Coordinator of Derechos Humanos.

'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 the likelihood of death more certain. It is unknown how many remains are currently near the border but have not yet been discovered.

"Men, women and children continue to perish on our border, communities cry out for justice, and yet nothing has been done to address the policies that have pushed migrants into the deadly Arizona terrain" continues Rodriguez. "We truly are in the midst of a devastating human rights crisis."

THE 800 MILE WALL

2010-02-04T13:32:00.000-08:00

HUFFINGTON POST BY JOHN CARLOS FREY

A few years ago I grew concerned about the massive escalation of security infrastructure that was being built along the U.S. Mexico border. I was born in Tijuana, Mexico and grew up on the flip side of the border in San Diego, California only a few hundred yards from the actual borderline. As a kid, there were always border patrol around but I never felt threatened by our proximity to Mexico. As an adult, I couldn't figure out what had changed. Why, six long years after 9/11, were Mexico and our neighbors to the south a threat to our safety and sovereignty? They were not the perpetrators of 9/11. Why did we need to spend billions of dollars on border walls, technology and thousands more border guards? I decided this would be the subject matter of my next film and I would try to answer these questions.

From 2007 - 2009 I followed the construction of what is now close to 800 miles of border security infrastructure along the U.S.-Mexico international boundary. Vehicle barriers, pedestrian fencing, virtual fences, cameras, sensors and miles of new roads were being rapidly installed. I went from Brownsville, TX to San Diego, CA and points in between and what I found was disastrous. Dozens of environmental laws were waived in order to acquire land and build the new border walls and infrastructure. New technology was unproven, over priced and non-functional. Deserts and mountains were permanently scarred - all to protect "us from them." The assessments from scholars, government agencies and even border patrol was that this multi-billion dollar effort was not going to solve America's immigration problems. All of those details may have made a compelling documentary film. Even with all the blunders and cost overruns there was something else that caught my attention - something that the media left out of their "illegal immigration" reporting. The effect of increased border security was proving to be a massive killer.

Since 1994, when the first border fences were built, migrants began to perish in the deserts and mountains of the American Southwest. Because of the new border wall, they stopped crossing in the mild climate area of San Diego and for the first time, attempted to traverse deserts and mountains. With the exponential growth of border security infrastructure in recent years, migrant death continues to escalate. Migrants are being funneled into even more remote areas than ever before. More people are dying year after year and increased border security is the culprit. In 2009, because of the slumping economy, migration was down by thirty percent yet migrant death was up - less people crossing and more people dying. If that is not enough, the federal government is well aware that their effort to "secure the border" results in more death. It is U.S. border policy to make the migrant journey as treacherous, difficult and dangerous as possible. It is on purpose, it is intentional - I have the official U.S. Border Patrol document that reveals this inhumane strategy. It is called, "prevention through deterrence."

That's what caught my attention and is what our latest film, The 800 Mile Wall exposes. There is a human rights crisis occurring on U.S. soil. Thousands of people have died and thousands more are likely to perish. The human death toll is increasing at an almost exponential rate. I commend President Obama for reducing spending on the virtual border fence and halting construction projects but the infrastructure and policies that are now in place remain deadly. The only solution is not to keep the status quo but to reform it. If it is broke - fix it. If it is a killer - stop it. Comprehensive immigration reform has the potential to move migration from deadly deserts and rugged mountains to a legal port of entry. With reform, workers, relatives, and friends would be given visas, green cards and passes and have an opportunity to cross the border safely and legally - instead of risking their lives as the failed system supports and encourages today.

Migrants are drawn like a magnet to the U.S. with the promise of low wage jobs and then forced through a deadly obstacle course to get here. U.S. border policies are inhumane and not worthy of a country that calls itself a nation of immigrants. Many say, "If they didn't come, they wouldn't die" or "they should stay in their home countries." To those statements I say, I agree. They shouldn't come and they should stay in their home countries. BUT THEY ARE COMING AND THEY ARE DYING! All the logic, wishes and hopes will not keep migrants in their destitute, corrupt and broken home countries. They will come where there is opportunity and America has secretly and insidiously welcomed clandestine workers to our fields, meat packing plants, hotels, restaurants, constructions sites and homes as long as they risk their lives to get here and keep their mouths shut while they stay here and work and work and work so we can benefit before we scapegoat them and deport them. What part of inhumane don't you understand?

The 800 Mile Wall is about to embark on a nationwide tour to raise awareness about this under reported, ongoing atrocity. It is nothing less than that. A man made atrocity is occurring within the confines of the United States of America. Those that want to criminalize the undocumented population and block life saving immigration reform are contributing to the systematic death by dehydration, hypothermia, hyperthermia and exposure of thousands of economically deprived people. Those that blame the migrants themselves for their own demise know nothing of poverty or desperation and have an immature view of America and the world.

Hooray to the Obama administration for recognizing the failures of the "virtual border fence." Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, called for a reassessment of the project. She stated that the failed border security system was unacceptable and is searching for a "more efficient and economical approach." If the current administration believes border security will be achieved through more militarization or better militarization of more economical or efficient militarization, they will get what we have today - a failed border policy and more dead bodies. If comprehensive immigration reform fails to deal with migrant death at the U.S. - Mexico border, it is neither comprehensive nor reform. People will continue to risk their lives to flee oppression, seek opportunity, feed their families or unite with them. Forcing people to risk their lives by funneling them through deserts and mountains is inhumane. As a nation that prides itself on respecting human rights, it must be at the foundation of any immigration reform policy and the first place to start is by removing the death penalty from U.S. border security policy.

Border Fence Plagued by Glitches, Long Delays

2010-02-04T13:29:00.000-08:00

'Virtual fence' being built along Mexican border is plagued by glitches, may be scaled back

By JACQUES BILLEAUD Associated Press Writer

PHOENIX February 3, 2010 (AP)

An ambitious, $6.7 billion government project to secure nearly the entire Mexican border with a "virtual fence" of cameras, ground sensors and radar is in jeopardy after a string of technical glitches and delays.

Having spent $672 million so far with little to show for it, Washington has ordered a reassessment of the whole idea. The outlook became gloomier this week when President Barack Obama proposed cutting $189 million from the venture.

Ultimately, the project could be scaled back dramatically, with the government installing virtual fences along a few segments of the nation's 2,000-mile southern boundary but dropping plans for any further expansion, officials said.

"The worst that happens is that we have a system which gives us some value but we conclude that it's not worth buying any more of it," said Mark Borkowski, the government's director of the project at U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The first permanent segment of virtual fence — a 23-mile stretch near Sasabe, Ariz. — was supposed to be turned over to the Border Patrol by the main contractor, Boeing Co., for testing in January, but the handover has been delayed by problems involving the video recording equipment.

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Body of migrant recovered near Tubac recently

2010-02-02T14:53:00.000-08:00

By JB Miller

Published Tuesday, February 2, 2010 9:14 AM MST

An 18-year-old undocumented migrant spent two days seeking help for his father after the two men reportedly crossed into the United States from Mexico illegally looking for work.

On Jan. 21, 2010, Faustino Mendoza, 45, told his son, Senon Mendoza-Irlanda, that he was tired and needed to rest. He reportedly fell asleep and died.

At around 2:30 p.m. on Jan. 23 Mendoza-Irlanda was able to contact a rancher on the Sopori Ranch. Deputies from the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Officeresponded to Forest Service Road 684 and the West Frontage Road in Tubac where they were directed to the body. The body was taken to the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office in Tucson to determine a possible cause of death. Both men were from Oaxaca, Mexico.

Lt. Raoul Rodriguez of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office said this is the first reported death of an undocumented migrant in the county this year. He said that last year 25 deaths were reported in Santa Cruz County. On Dec. 27, 2009, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office received a 911 call reporting the discovery of a male body, possibly an undocumented migrant, who died in the vicinity of Cienega Creek near the Empire Ranch, 12-15 miles from State Route 83, milepost 40.

It was determined the site was in Pima County. Authorities from the Pima County Sheriff's Office responded and took over the investigation.

Film About Deadly, Failed Border Policies Set for Nationwide Tour

2010-01-24T09:07:00.000-08:00

Award winning filmmaker, John Carlos Frey’s latest documentary film, “The 800 Mile Wall,” will begin a nationwide tour in February 2010 to raise awareness about the current human rights crisis caused by U.S. Border policy. “The 800 Mile Wall,” highlights the construction of border walls along the U.S.-Mexico border and takes an unflinching look at the failed U.S. border enforcement strategy that many believe has caused the death of thousands of migrants and violates fundamental human rights.

Since border walls have been built, well over 5,000 migrant bodies have been recovered in U.S. deserts, mountains and canals. Some unofficial reports put the current death toll as high as 10,000 men, women and children. As a direct result of U.S. border policy, migrants are forced to cross hazardous deserts and mountains in search of low skill and low paying jobs in the United States. The New York Times writes, “Current border strategy is serving as a funnel through deadly terrain.” “The 800 Mile Wall” illustrates, in great detail, the ineffective and deadly results of this failed border policy and offers some thoughts and suggestions on how the current human rights crisis may be resolved.

“Director John Carlos Frey’s powerful independent film, “The 800 Mile Wall” sounds the alarm on the neglected human rights crisis on our nation’s Southwestern border and puts on the table the life and death questions we must address in comprehensive immigration reform." Congressman Raul Grijalva (D - Arizona 7^th District)

The national tour of “The 800 Mile Wall” will initially cover 25 cities with more to be added. The film’s tour is supported by the ACLU, American Friends Service Committee, The National Immigration Forum, Reform Immigration for America, CHIRLA, Humane Borders and No More Deaths among others.

Written and Directed by John Carlos Frey

Produced by Jack Lorenz

Total Running Time: 90 min.

For more information about the tour and the film, visit: http://www.800milewall.org/

###

Contact:

Jack Lorenz

Gatekeeper Productions, LLC

323-656-1619

213-324-6101 mobile

jack@gatekeeperproductions.com

National Geographic Channel Profits from Humanitarian Crisis

2010-01-19T18:23:00.000-08:00

HUFFINGTON POST

by John Carlos Frey

On Jan. 10, 2009 The National Geographic Channel premiered its new series entitled, Border Wars to the highest ratings in the history of the channel. That seems like a victory and an important milestone for National Geographic but unfortunately it comes at the expense of the worst humanitarian crisis occurring on U.S. soil today. According to National Geographic Channel’s Border Wars,

“Over the past few years the Border Patrol has raised the stakes for anyone attempting to cross. They are daily adding to their arsenal of high tech cameras, ground radar and cutting edge unmanned predator drones.”

What the show fails to mention is that “raising the stakes” has deliberately and inhumanely forced migration over deadly terrain resulting in the death of thousands of migrants on U.S. soil. Conveniently, Border Wars also fails to mention that current border policy and security infrastructure is not working. According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report recently featured on 60 Minutes,

“Three years and a billion dollars later, the "virtual fence" that is eventually supposed to secure America's entire 2,000-mile border with Mexico still doesn't work as it should.”

The multi-billion dollar project was supposed to be completed in 2008 and now is scheduled for completion in 2016 if at all. If that is not the most shocking evidence of a failed border security strategy, the GAO goes on to state,

“…despite the price tag authorities have not found a way to determine whether it is helping to halt illegal immigration.”

Billions of dollars, tens of thousands of border guards and horribly, thousands of dead migrants later, the National Geographic Channel’s ratings darling, Border Wars, forgets to mention the border policy they are glorifying in their program is deliberately forcing people to cross deadly terrain and may not be “halting illegal immigration.”

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Boat capsizes on smuggling run; 1 dead

2010-01-17T07:45:00.000-08:00

BY KRISTINA DAVIS, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JANUARY 16, 2010 AT 10:14 A.M., UPDATED JANUARY 16, 2010 AT 5:16 A.M

SAN DIEGO — The furtive journey by sea was nearly over for about two dozen illegal immigrants crammed into a small fishing boat in the pre-dawn darkness.

But unlike the hundreds of similar illicit landings each year along San Diego County shores, the one early Saturday ended in tragedy when the panga capsized in the surf at Torrey Pines State Beach, scattering people in the chilly water and ultimately claiming a man’s life.

Medical personnel tend to a victim on the beach. (Albert D. Johnson photo)

The accident marked the first known death associated with human smuggling by sea in the area’s recent history.

Illegal immigrants are increasingly ignoring the risks of marine smuggling as federal authorities continue to crack down on land crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego. The number of sea-smuggling arrests nearly doubled in the past year, prompting U.S.Homeland Security Department officers to beef up patrols along the region’s coastline, especially in North County.

Sixteen passengers were rescued Saturday from the 58-degree water or found along the shoreline. The search continued until sundown for the remaining people believed to have fled.

“This is our worst nightmare,” said Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “We’ve been warning about this dangerous activity, and unfortunately now we have our first fatality.”

Faced with unpredictable seas, shaky navigational tools and unreliable boats, illegal immigrants and their smugglers frequently underestimate the risks of sneaking into the United States via the Pacific, authorities say.

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US-MEXICO: Humanitarian Aid Criminalised at the Border

2010-01-08T13:27:00.000-08:00

ARIVACA, Arizona -- Humanitarian aid groups trying to avert migrant deaths on the U.S- Mexico border are facing increased roadblocks in their mission. The hazards are not connected to a spike in drug cartels’ violence, but rather restrictions from the federal government.

By Valeria Fernández, IPS

Transporting a migrant in despair to a hospital could mean a volunteer is charged with human smuggling. A simple act of kindness like leaving water in the desert can be subject to penalties as well.

"We’re being intimidated and criminalised as humanitarians," said Walt Staton, a 27-year-old volunteer with No More Deaths, a humanitarian aid group.

Staton knows this firsthand. He was convicted on Jun. 3 by a 12-person jury of "knowingly littering" for leaving unopened water jugs on the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge southwest of Tucson, Arizona.

Arizona, the main gateway for undocumented migration into the U.S., is ground zero to a human rights crisis, according to border activists. In the summer, triple-digit temperatures in the remote Sonoran desert have caused a deadly toll.

Over the past decade, it is estimated that at least 5,000 men, women and children have lost their lives attempting to cross the U.S-Mexico border.

No More Deaths (NMD) has been providing help in the form of water and food to migrants. This June, for the sixth consecutive year, they set up a campsite 24 kms from the border with volunteers from all over the country.

Water can be a lifesaver in some of the most remote areas of the treacherous Sonoran desert, explained Steve Jonston, 64, a volunteer with NMD.

Daily, volunteers set up hundreds of gallon-sized water containers at drop points in some of the most heavily transited migrant trails. Once the jugs have been used, they recycle them.

By the time some of the migrants find them, they have spent from three to four days lost in the desert, Jonston said.

"To ticket Walt Staton for littering would be to ticket an ambulance for speeding," he told IPS.

But not everybody agrees on the approach.

"There’s other ways it can be done," said Michael Hawkes, elected director and manager of the Buenos Aires Refuge. "Just leaving the jugs there is like leaving trash, it is like a McDonald´s happy meal in front of your yard, it is trash."

Hawkes said garbage left by migrants during their trek has been a challenge for preserving the 117,000 acres refuge. He believes Border Patrol beacons, which allow migrants to call for rescue, are more effective than putting water.

The refuge currently allows for at least two water stations set up in the area by another volunteer group. But Jonston argues that’s not nearly enough.

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THREE YEARS AND $1 BILLION LATER, "VIRTUAL FENCE" AT U.S.-MEXICAN BORDER STILL DOESN'T WORK SAYS THE GAO OFFICIAL FOR HOMELAND SECURITY ISSUES

2010-01-08T12:17:00.000-08:00

"60 Minutes"

Three years and a billion dollars later, the "virtual fence" that is eventually supposed to secure America's entire 2,000-mile border with Mexico still doesn't work as it should, says the director of Homeland Security issues for the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The GAO's Richard Stana tells Steve Kroft that the project's main contractor, Boeing, has failed to live up to promises it made when it originally received the contract. Kroft's report will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES, Sunday, Jan. 10 (7:00-8:00PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

"Here we are three years and hundreds of millions of dollars since SBI was first conceived of and where are we? We're still waiting for something that works," says Stana of the much vaunted Secure Border Initiative Network or SBInet project. "When Boeing first got the contract back in 2006, they made promises that they would be able to apprehend, at least detect and apprehend, 95 percent, plus or minus five percent, of all the incursions," he tells Kroft.

But there have been delays and problems with the system of cameras and radar mounted so far on strategically placed towers along a small stretch -- about one percent - of the border. The system is meant to greatly enhance the effectiveness of Border Patrol agents but when it was first deployed, it sometimes did the opposite. Says Stana, "The radar, they were very susceptible to weather.if it was raining, it would train on raindrops. If the wind blew mesquite leaves on a bush, it would train on that as an activity.you don't want agents out looking for bushes and raindrops."

A demonstration of the system for 60 MINUTES on a clear day indicated it was somewhat effective, but it has its limits says Stana. "The issue is, in what weather does it work? And how reliable is it?"

One of the main reasons for the problems and delays was Boeing and the Department of Homeland Security's initial failure to speak to Border Patrol agents about their needs and the conditions under which they operate. Stana says there was too much haste at the onset. "They wanted to go full-steam ahead with this virtual fence back in '05, '06, for whatever reason. So the kinds of things you would expect to see in a large multi-billion-dollar program, you didn't see right away," he tells Kroft.

So far, SBInet covers roughly 28 miles of the Arizona-Mexico border and is in the process of being replaced with new equipment originally due this month in response to the failures and limitations of the initial system. Boeing was supposed to hand over the first 23-mile section of the new system to the Border Patrol this month, but in the latest delay, it will not be ready for at least three months. The old, flawed system, now considered a "prototype," must do until the new one is implemented.

"Some people have called it a do-over," says Mark Borkowski, the executive director of SBI, who was brought in about a year ago to fix the program. He says the initial system was oversold. "We told Congress, 'It's going to work great.it's going to lock down the border for you.' Shame on us."

My Worst Fears Confirmed

2009-12-31T10:14:00.000-08:00

by John Carlos Frey

On Dec. 27, 2009 Brady McCombs of the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson published a sobering article about migrant death in the Sonoran desert. He concluded that, "illegal border crossers face a deadlier trek than ever." The reason migrants are more likely to die than in years past, according to McCombs is, "increased risk of death coincides with the unprecedented buildup of agents, fences, roads and technology along the U.S.-Mexico border, casting doubt on a mantra often used by the Border Patrol that a "secure border is a safe border." I didn't want this to be the case. "The 800 Mile Wall" is based on this very premise that increased border security increases the likelihood of migrant death. I wanted to be proved wrong.

The U.S. Border Patrol continues to assert that their increased presence along the border actually saves lives. They claim more agents are able to respond to more calls of distress. What they will not admit is that increased border security is driving people into more treacherous terrain. If less people are crossing because of the U.S. economic down turn, yet proportionately more people are dying, how can you assert you are saving more lives? One cannot say increased border security is humane or helpful or prevents migrant death if the death toll continues to escalate. It is a false assumption. It is an impossible conclusion. It is a lie.

U.S. border policy has set a house on fire and is claiming to rescue people from the burning building and denying more and more people are succumbing to the flames. They are claiming victory for the few lives they have rescued even though they started the fire. Those that believe tightened border security saves lives do not believe in fact. Those that believe we still need even more fencing and increased technology are advocating for more organized crime at the border, more women being assaulted, more children separated from their families, more brutality, more smuggling and more death. The FACT is more "border security" has not worked and more of the same will continue to not work. There is no military solution.

Our current border policy may not be well understood by many, especially the lazy press that only wants immediate gratification for it's readers and viewers. We have been sold the rhetoric that if one fence is good maybe two would be better or 700 more miles. If 8,000 border agents are a good idea let's have 16,000 or maybe 20,000 like we have today. Let's throw billions of dollars at the problem and that will work. Our current philosophy at the border is, the more - the better. The only problem with this kind of thinking is, IT DOES NOT WORK. We have never had as much infrastructure, fencing, technology and have never had as many border guards as we have today yet people are still coming by the hundreds of thousands and organized crime has skyrocketed.

As a result of this failed policy more people are dying and the likelihood of death is growing exponentially. Why isn't that the headline? Shouldn't that be the only concern? If U.S. border policy is ineffective and more people are dying and more people are likely to die, shouldn't the policy be scrapped? Based on humanitarian concerns alone shouldn't the policy be dropped immediately and reassessed?

U.S./Mexico border policy is one of deterrence. It was never meant to keep people from entering the U.S. but deter them, make it hard, make it dangerous so people would think twice about the attempt and choose not to come. The fences were never designed to keep people out of the U.S. but funnel them towards areas that would be considered too risky for crossing. The policy suggests that if hopeful migrants were given the option to stay home or cross a 120 degree desert they would not make the attempt. That is the current policy. It has resulted in the death of thousands of men, women and children. It doesn't matter what the racists, minutemen, border wall proponents, media, politicians and uniformed citizens say, the fact is thousands of people have died and many more will be sent to an early grave because of a failed border policy that protects no one and continues to kill thousands.

Canal buoy stringers avoid charges

2009-12-30T14:18:00.000-08:00

By DAVID STEFFEN, Staff Writer

Wednesday, December 30, 2009 12:36 AM PST

John Carlos Frey and John Hunter, the two men who illegally entered the All-American Canal to install a buoy line, will not face charges for their actions.

On Nov. 17, the men strung a buoy line across the All-American Canal to raise awareness about drowning deaths in the canal, particularly those of illegal immigrants.

“I think that there is a lack of awareness within the community at large in the Imperial Valley and San Diego County about the fact the canal continues to drown people on a regular basis,” Frey said.

An Imperial County sheriff’s deputy issued the men citations at the canal for breaking a county ordinance.

Frey said the Imperial County District Attorney’s Office rejected their cases based on a “matter of justice.”

“The unlawful entry into the canal did not warrant a criminal charge based on why we entered the canal,” Frey said.

The District Attorney’s Office declined to comment but did confirm that it had dropped the charges because there were more severe charges to handle.

Frey, of Los Angeles, directed and produced “The 800 Mile Wall.” The film focuses on illegal immigrant deaths in the desert and the All-American Canal.

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2009: Deadliest Year for Arizona/Mexico Border

2009-12-30T11:37:00.000-08:00

Sonoran Desert, photo by Marlene H. Phillips

For the border state of Arizona, the year 2009 will be remembered for a marked decline in Mexican immigration to the United States, a trend many economists attribute to the loss of jobs in the still-struggling American economy. But here in the Sonoran Desert, 2009 will also be remembered as being possibly the most lethal year for the Arizona/Mexican border.

According to a report in Tucson's Arizona Daily Star, the number of bodies recovered in the Tucson sector of the Mexican border in fiscal year 2009 (October 1, 2008 - September 30, 2009) was 206, the third highest ever recorded. But the article also shows that when comparing known deaths to apprehensions of migrants, 2009 was the most lethal year in history: the ratio for 2009 was 88 deaths to every 100,000 migrants apprehended, far higher than any other year. In comparison,the ratio in 1988 was 3 deaths for 100,000 apprehensions.

Underlying these statistics is the ongoing effort to beef up border security. The Obama administration, like the administrations preceding it, has taken a strong stand on cracking down on migrants crossing the Mexican border, adding a virtual fence of steel towers with infrared sensors, remote controlled cameras, radar, lighting and communications devices to the physical fences already in place. But the fact that deaths continue to rise against this backdrop of increased surveillance comes as no surprise to groups that moniter border fatalities. Isabel Garcia, head of the Tucson-based human rights organization Coalicion de Derechos Humano (The Human Rights Coalition), told the Nogales International Bulletin: "An increase of military and police-natured responses lead to more deaths. Even though less people are crossing, more people are dying.” The non profit organization No More Deaths/No Mas Muertes, also based in Tucson, has long believed that an increase in surveillance drives desperate people deeper and deeper into the desert, making survival more difficult; they reiterated that belief in their December 2009 newsletter: "The border blockade strategy has militarized the U.S./Mexico border, which drives migrants into remote desert regions." The group, bearing the motto 'Humanitarian Aid is Never a Crime,' recruits volunteers to illegally deposit water, food and blankets to help migrants survive the harsh Sonoran Desert, working with other border groups toward their goal "to end this needless death and suffering in the desert by providing humanitarian aid while advocating for a more humane and just reform of current immigration policies." When reporting on the number of deaths in the desert for 2009, the group made no effort to disguise their disgust with current immigration policies; their online article was titled: "A Border Success Story."

For most of the nation the U.S. Mexican border story is one of economics. For those of us who live in Tucson, Arizona the story goes beyond economics and becomes one of survival, as desperate men, women and children die in the desert we call home. Garcia feels "we have not seen the worst of it yet," leading me to wonder how high the toll must be before the rest of the nation takes notice.

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The 800 Mile Wall: A Matter of Human Rights

2009-12-24T11:31:00.000-08:00

Written by Brian Erickson
Friday, 18 December 2009
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has sought to assure us all that human rights are a priority for the administration. Unfortunately, the policies in place to secure the U.S.-Mexico border have hardly been humane. That’s why Thursday, December 10th, Representative Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) sponsored a showing of The 800 Mile Wall in honor of the 61st anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In his remarks after the film, Rep. Grijalva stressed that we have dehumanized the way we handle immigration at the border. The United States has turned to militarization, relied on enforcement, and chosen to build walls. The combination of these strategies has been lethal. By telling the stories of the many men, women, and children who have lost their lives just for seeking jobs to feed their families, Director John Carlos Frey’s film The 800 Mile Wall challenges viewers to remember our common humanity. As emphasized by Rep. Grijalva, the immigration debate should not be about us versus them. It’s about recognizing our shared humanity and returning to the fundamental values of this nation. One of those fundamental values must be the recognition of human rights. With around 5,600 migrant deaths, most caused by dehydration and over-exposure due to a lack of access to water and shelter, two basic needs, immigration reform should be prioritized by the current administration this upcoming year to address this humanitarian crisis. With that in mind, LAWG thanks Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) for getting the ball rolling on immigration reform. For those who are unfamiliar with the border, The 800 Mile Wall is an invaluable tool to illustrate how important immigration reform is to resolve the migrant deaths crisis. Please take a moment to visit The 800 Mile Wall website where you can view a trailer, buy a copy of the film, access resources to help you learn more about the migrant deaths crisis, and find ways to get involved by emailing your representatives or sponsoring a home screening of the film. Click here to visit the site. To read Rep. Luis Gutierrez’s remarks about releasing his Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity (CIR ASAP) bill, click here.

Billions for a US-Mexico border fence, but is it doing any good?

2009-12-17T06:19:00.000-08:00

The cost for adding 600 miles of new barriers is $2.4 billion so far. The new fencing has been breached more than 3,000 times, a government report finds.

By Daniel B. Wood Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor / September 19, 2009
Los Angeles
Some $2.4 billion has been spent since 2005 on a still-unfinished project to erect more than 600 miles of new fence along the US-Mexico border – a finding that is being met with surprise, anger, and consternation by immigrant groups and at least some border residents.
A report, released Thursday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), also says $6.5 billion will be needed to maintain the new fencing over the next 20 years. So far, it has been breached 3,363 times, requiring $1,300 for the average repair.
The US Border Patrol, for its part, agrees with some findings but says several conclusions are unknowable because building the wall has no precedent. And the agency defends the new fencing as effective at deterring illegal immigration.
The report has stirred a range of reactions.
"When our nation is in the midst of an economic crisis, we wonder how many teacher salaries, police officers, miles of road, or school books could be financed instead of throwing large amounts of money for bricks to fix a problem that requires serious, long-term solutions," says Angelica Salas of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, in a statement.
Dawn Garner, who lives on a ranch on the US-Mexico border in Naco, Ariz., says spending is so high because workers who are building the fence use local hotels for accommodations and food.
"They should live in tents near the wall and cook their own food, and that would save incredible amounts of money," says Ms. Garner, who reports that 40 illegal immigrants a day cross her small ranch. Money could be saved if the National Guard built the fence and if the Border Patrol itself maintained it, she suggests in a phone interview.
Despite the price tag of maintaining the border fence, authorities have not found a way to determine whether it is helping to halt illegal immigration, the GAO report says.
"While they [the GAO findings] have highlighted some risks and their factual statements are correct, we are not as pessimistic as they are," says Mark Borkowski, executive director of the Secure Border Initiative, part of US Customs and Border Protection. Trying to analyze a new endeavor like this fence is like trying to calculate the costs and benefits of planes in combat while they're still on the drawing board, he says.
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La Posada at border fence

2009-12-14T07:29:00.000-08:00

Hike shines a light on immigrants’ plight

BY J. HARRY JONES, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

MONDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2009 AT 12:35 A.M.

PEGGY PEATTIE / UNION-TRIBUNE

Participants in La Posada Sin Fronteras yesterday walked along the beach from the gates at Border Field State Park to reach the fence. The event brings participants face to face at Friendship Park along the U.S.-Mexico border. Fencing kept people far apart, except for groups of 25 allowed into a special area for a short period.

PEGGY PEATTIE / UNION-TRIBUNE

Enrique Morones (from left), Christian Ramirez and Jill Holslin led the group in song at the border. Luminarias represent-ing migrants who’ve died crossing the border were placed along the outside of the fence.

PEGGY PEATTIE / UNION-TRIBUNE

After meeting with people for 30 minutes on the Mexico side of the fence, participants in the Posada from the U.S. side were moved out of the area. The celebrants sang traditional Christmas songs in English and Spanish.

U-T Multimedia: For a slide show of La Posada at the border, go to uniontrib.com/posada09/

IMPERIAL BEACH — Faith groups from the United States and Mexico gathered yesterday afternoon at Border Field State Park in what was both a religious celebration and a political statement.

The 16th annual La Posada Sin Fronteras was a re-enactment of the biblical story of Mary and Joseph, who were forced to seek shelter after the birth of Christ and were eventually welcomed into a stranger’s home. Participants from both countries compared the biblical tale to the struggle migrants face trying to enter the United States.

One of the messages of the story, the idea of welcoming strangers — and immigrants — is under attack in our times, making the binational celebration even more significant, organizers said. Today, families on both sides of the border are separated by immigration policy and can no longer meet, even at the border fence, organizers said.

This was the first time the celebration was held since a second border fence was constructed earlier this year. The participants were not allowed to touch or exchange gifts with those who had gathered in Mexico for the celebration.

About 150 people, including many members of the media, gathered on the Mexico side of the fence, while on the U.S. side about half that number were present.

U.S. Border Patrol agents allowed 25 people at a time to go through the first fence to the Friendship Monument, which is situated to the north of the Tijuana bullfighting ring and a lighthouse. The remainder were forced to stay back behind the second fence, roughly 100 feet away.

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Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill to Be Introduced Dec. 15

2009-12-12T08:13:00.000-08:00

By DAPHNE EVIATAR 12/11/09 11:49 AM

Though there’s been lots of talk so far about comprehensive immigration reform from advocates, a handful of lawmakers, and even President Obama when he addresses Latino groups, no one has yet introduced a bill in Congress.
That’s expected to change on Tuesday, Dec. 15, when Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) is expected to introduce the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 (CIR ASAP), along with members of the Congressional Hispanic, Black, Asian Pacific American, and Progressive Caucuses.
“We have waited patiently for a workable solution to our immigration crisis to be taken up by this Congress and our President,” Gutierrez said in a statement released today. The bill “is the product of months of collaboration with civil rights advocates, labor organizations, and members of Congress. It is an answer to too many years of pain —mothers separated from their children, workers exploited and undermined security at the border— all caused at the hands of a broken immigration system. This bill says ‘enough,’ and presents a solution to our broken system that we as a nation of immigrants can be proud of.”
If yesterday’s House Homeland Security Committee hearing is any guide, expect a protracted debate over every provision.

How Are U.S. Immigration Policies Contributing To Border Crosser Deaths?

2009-12-04T13:14:00.000-08:00

BY MAUREEN CAVANAUGH, HANK CROOK

These Days | Thursday, December 3, 2009

LISTEN TO RADIO INTERVIEW

How are U.S. immigration policies leading to an increase in deaths of people who cross the border illegally? We speak to filmmaker John Carlos Frey, and Dr. John Hunter about the risks undocumented immigrants face as they cross the border in search of opportunity in the United States.

Maureen Cavanaugh: The debate over the deaths of illegal border crossers landed on the doorstep of the San Diego County Water Authority offices yesterday. A band of protesters displayed 17 body bags, representing the 17 people who have drowned in recent months trying to cross the All-American Canal.

The issue of providing more safety to people using the canal as illegal access into the US, is part of a larger debate about U.S. immigration policy.

This morning we'll talk about how U.S. immigration policies are adding to the risks illegal border crossers face, and some of the proposed solutions.

Man sentenced after leaving water bottles for immigrants

2009-11-28T08:39:00.000-08:00

By Taylor Gandossy
CNN

(CNN) -- An Arizona man caught leaving water bottles in the desert for illegal immigrants has been sentenced to 300 hours of community service and a year of probation, an aid group said.

Walt Staton was convicted in June of littering by leaving jugs of water in a wildlife refuge.

Walt Staton, a member of the group No More Deaths, left full water bottles in December in Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge for the illegal immigrants who routinely pass through the 18,000-acre refuge, according to court documents.

A judge sentenced him Tuesday to 300 hours of picking up trash on public property and a year of probation, No More Deaths said in a written statement. He is also banned from the refuge during that time, the group said.

Although the case involved only a misdemeanor charge, both sides used the divisive issue of illegal immigration in their arguments; Staton's lawyer argued that Staton's actions were humanitarian, but the government said otherwise.

In a sentencing memo, the federal prosecutors wrote that Staton's "actions are not about humanitarian efforts, but about protesting the immigration policies of the United States, and aiding those that enter illegally into the United States."

Noting the phrase scrawled on many of the plastic water jugs -- "buena suerte," or "good luck" in Spanish -- the prosecutors said, "The obvious conclusion is that the defendant and No More Deaths wish to aid illegal aliens in their entry attempt."

They also said, as did the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, that leaving the full plastic jugs on the refuge is detrimental to the health of the animals that live there.

Citing a biologist, the prosecutors said that animals could eat the plastic and that others could get feet or antlers caught on the bottles.

Prosecutors had requested a $5,000 fine, along with five years of probation, according to court documents.

Staton, who No More Deaths says is to begin seminary school at the Claremont School of Theology in Claremont, California, had initially refused to pay a $175 fine for littering, said Staton's lawyer, Bill Walker.

After his refusal, the government enhanced the charges against him, arguing that he "knowingly littered," said Walker, who is also a member of No More Deaths.

The charge can carry a $100,000 fine and a year in jail, Walker said. Charges against three other people who were cited with Staton in December were dropped, he said.

A jury convicted Staton in June of littering. Walker said he is appealing.

"We think that Walt did nothing wrong," he said. "We do not think that this conviction will be upheld on appeal."

He described Staton as "the kind of guy you'd want to have as your next door neighbor."

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Arizona declined comment.

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A truck carrying illegal immigrants plunged down a cliff in Texas

2009-11-27T08:42:00.000-08:00

November 26, 4:15 PMLA Border and Immigration ExaminerAurelia Fierros

Activists string buoys in All-American Canal

2009-11-18T12:16:00.000-08:00

Director John Carlos Frey and activist John Hunter plunged into the All-American Canal to string safety buoys in an act of civil disobedience on Tuesday, Nov. 17 2009

Activists string buoys in All-American Canal in act of civil disobedience

2009-11-18T11:49:00.000-08:00

By DAVID STEFFEN, Staff Write

Wednesday, November 18, 2009 12:25 AM PST

Director John Carlos Frey and activist John Hunter plunged into the All-American Canal to string safety buoys in an act of civil disobedience on Tuesday.

“We feel we have to take matters into our own hands,” said Frey, whose film “The 800 Mile Wall” premiered yesterday.

He and Hunter, of Citizens for All-American Canal Safety, strung the buoys after speaking at the Imperial Irrigation District board meeting.

Wearing wet suits and swimming fins, the two men swam across the canal to connect a buoy line, worth about $2,000.

“It’s really amazing how fast that can be done,” said Hunter’s wife, Laura. “It took no more than 10 minutes to go across the canal.”

A convoy drove out to the canal at Drop 3, about 28 miles east of Calexico. Immigration activist Maria Jimenez, the Hunters, Frey and a “CBS News-60 Minutes” production team were some of those in attendance.

Frey asked members of the group to call the Sheriff’s Office and Border Patrol. He hoped to be arrested in an act of civil disobedience.

Two IID trucks drove past without stopping, and a Border Patrol officer asked what the pair was doing.

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INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS SHOULD INVESTIGATE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER CROSSING DEATHS

2009-11-13T05:31:00.000-08:00

ACLU, Human Rights Group Petition Commission to Act to End Deadly Policies

November 12, 2009

SAN DIEGO – U.S., Mexican and international officials must recognize the deaths of migrants occurring during unauthorized crossings of the U.S.-Mexican border as an international humanitarian crisis and should address the ongoing violations of the right to life and identify protective measures, according to a letter sent to a commission of the Organization of American States (OAS) by the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego & Imperial and Mexico's National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH).

The letter calls on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to request the permission of the U.S. and Mexican governments to make an onsite visit to the region, conduct an investigation on the crisis, issue a report for the General Assembly of the OAS, and identify measures that both countries should adopt to bring them in compliance with their international human rights obligations.

The ACLU and CNDH documented the humanitarian crisis in a 76-page white paper, Humanitarian Crisis: Migrant Deaths at the U.S.-Mexico Border, which they presented to the Commission as documentation for their requests. The release of the report marked the 15th anniversary of the border enforcement policy, Operation Gatekeeper, which concentrated border agents and added walls and fencing along populated areas, intentionally forcing migrants to hostile environments and natural barriers that increase the incidence of injury and death. Since the program’s inception, an average of at least one migrant a day has died.

“More than 5,000 people have died crossing our border, and an estimated seven to eleven percent of them are children,” said Kevin Keenan, executive director of the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties. “Equally alarming are the hundreds of family members who are left in inconsolable limbo, never knowing the fate of their loved one.” The issue of state obligations to families of the deceased has not been raised in the context of migrant deaths at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Family members are confronted with complex and often contradictory bureaucratic mazes to located relatives who they believe have gone missing or died while attempting to cross the border. There is currently no centralized database for locating a relative, no uniform standards for identifying remains, and one-quarter of those who perish while crossing are never identified, leaving their families in permanent anguish.

Ten years ago, the San Diego ACLU submitted a petition to the Commission (Victor Nicolas Sanchez et al.) alleging that U.S. border enforcement-deterrence strategies violated the right to life under Article 1 of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man. While the petition was ultimately dismissed on procedural grounds, the Commission expressed concerns and agreed to monitor the situation.

“Since the Commission consented to monitor the border situation, we respectfully ask that they now act on their concerns,” said Jose Luis Soberanes, president of Mexico’s National Commission of Human Rights. “When they initially expressed unease, only 300 migrants had died. Today, nearly twenty times that number have died—many of their deaths directly attributable to U.S. border enforcement policies.”

Both the United States and Mexico are bound by the American Declaration. The failure of the governments of both countries to adopt domestic policies or laws or negotiate bilateral agreements to deal with the crisis highlights their abandonment of their obligations under international law to respect and ensure the rights of migrant populations.

In the face of continuing human rights violations, the ACLU and the CNDH urge the Commission to:
• Request the permission of the U.S. and Mexican governments to make an onsite visit to the region
• Conduct an investigation
• Issue a report on the crisis for the General Assembly of the Organization of American States that addresses the ongoing violations of the right to life and the right of families to identify, recover, and bury their deceased family members in a dignified manner
• Identify protective and preventive measures that the United States and Mexico should adopt to bring their actions in line with applicable human rights obligations

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, headquartered in Washington D.C., is an autonomous arm of the OAS, and is one of two bodies created for the promotion and protection of human rights in the Americas. (The other is the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, located in San Jose, Costa Rica.) It’s seven elected members act independently, without representing any particular country.

For more information and to download a copy of the report, click here for San Diego ACLU (English) and here for la Comision Nacional de los Derechos Humanos (Espanol).

The 800 Mile Wall Trailer

2009-11-01T07:05:00.000-08:00

5,000 Crosses Placed on U.S. Border Fence by Defenders of Mexican Emigrants

2009-11-01T06:59:00.000-08:00

TIJUANA, Mexico – Defenders of emigrant rights placed more than 5,000 white crosses on the fence dividing Mexico and the United States at the border city of Tijuana, to denounce the deaths caused by Operation Guardian.

The coordinator of the Migrant Defense Coalition, Esmeralda Siu, said that the act seeks to highlight the fatal consequences of the so-called Operation Guardian, established almost a decade ago by the U.S. government on the Mexican border.

The activist said that the total number of crosses is equal to the number of emigrants who have died in this period along the country’s northern border.

For his part, the coordinator of the Casa YMCA serving emigrant minors, Uriel Gonzalez, regretted the increasing number of deaths in recent years of people trying to get into the United States as a result of strong security measures that force them to traverse entry areas where they are at greater risk.

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Total of Recovered Remains on the Arizona-Sonora Border Reaches 206 despite continued claims of Border Enforcement Success

2009-11-01T06:57:00.000-08:00

Contact: Kat Rodriguez: 520.770.1373

Arizona- The final number of bodies recovered on the Arizona-Sonora border for the fiscal year that began on October 1, 2008 and ended September 30, 2009 is 206, reports Coalición de Derechos Humanos. The data, which are compiled from medical examiner reports from Pima, Yuma, and Cochise counties, are an attempt to give a more accurate reflection of the human cost of failed U.S. border and immigration policies. The final count includes 141 males, 33 females, 5 minors, and approximately 99, or 48% of unknown identity. Countries represented in the final count include México, Guatemala, and Ecuador.

This figure is higher than last year's total of 183 remains recovered, but the true total number of deaths on the border is impossible to calculate, particularly as the number of remains recovered in neighboring states is not available.

"In looking at the data from this year, an alarming piece that jumps out immediately is the staggering increase in the number of remains of unknown gender. Two years ago, that number was 5, then 19 last year, and this year we are at 31, an incredible 15% of the total recovered." says Kat Rodriguez, Coordinator of Coalición de Derechos Humanos.

Unknown gender indicates that not enough of the remains were recovered to determine gender, and without DNA, 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 or what might be to come, as people are pushed out into more and more isolated areas, making rescue and detection less likely, and the likelihood of death more certain.

There is information to suggest that the migration flow patterns are shifting due to the Funnel Effect, which has been documented by the Binational Migration Institute*. The high number of skeletal remains recovered this year, 36 (17.5% of total) support this likely shift in migration flow, and it is possible that the long periods of time before being recovered indicates that people are crossing in more isolated and desolate areas, with less chance of rescue or discovery. It is unknown how many remains are currently near the border but have not yet been discovered, and it is possible that some of these remains will never be recovered.

"Every year we total up the human cost of militarization and wonder when our government will acknowledge that these deaths are the direct effects of border militarization and immigration policies." continued Rodriguez. "As we watch politicians and many of the large immigrant rights groups negotiate on what they deem viable politically in discussions around immigration reform, we call on all people of conscience to denounce policies of militarization and enforcement.

"We must not waver in our opposition to any reform that will continue to militarize our communities. Doing so is not only being untrue to our commitment to human rights and dignity, but an affront to the thousands of men, women and children who have died on our borders, and the families who suffer the agony of their deaths or the bitter anguish of never knowing what has become of their loved ones."

The complete list of recovered bodies 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.

* The complete BMI study, The "Funnel Effect" & Recovered Bodies of Unauthorized Migrants Processed by the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner, 1990-2005, is available on the Derechos Humanos website:http://www.derechoshumanosaz.net/images/pdfs/bmi%20report.pdf

Death in the desert

2009-10-27T10:07:00.000-07:00

EDITORIAL

Los Angeles times

10/27/09

Operation Gatekeeper started in October 1994, focusing federal border security efforts on the five-mile stretch from the Pacific Ocean to San Ysidro. Within three years, the budget of the old Immigration and Naturalization Service -- since split into two agencies -- doubled to $800 million. The number of Border Patrol agents also doubled, along with the miles of fencing. Underground sensors nearly tripled.

In the 15 years since its inception,Gatekeeper, now shorthand for all federal enforcement efforts at the Mexican border, has had a range of consequences, some expected and others grimly surprising. For example, attempted crossings and apprehensions where enforcement is heaviest plummeted, just as officials had hoped. But migrants didn't stay home. Instead, thousands attempted to cross in the dangerous desert lands to the east, in Arizona and Texas -- and as many as 5,600 have died, according to a recent report by the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties and Mexico's National Commission on Human Rights. Illegal immigrants are now 17 times more likely to die while crossing the border than they were in 1998, according to the report.

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Body Count on the Border

2009-10-25T08:29:00.000-07:00

The Daily Beast

by Molly Kincaid

After nine years of stunning mortality rates along the Arizona-Mexico border, the medical examiners are fed up. Molly Kincaid on one morgue boss’s battle for Washington’s attention.

So far this year, 203 migrants have died along the Sonora-Arizona border. The number is nothing out of the ordinary. The death rates in this part of the country began rising notably back in 2001, and have not declined over the last nine years.

The body count along the border shows up from time to time in Washington’s immigration debates. But with the president’s agenda crowded with health care, Afghanistan and the aftershocks of last fall’s financial crisis, these fatalities are in danger of getting lost in the shuffle.

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Congress Strips New Funding for Mexican Border Fence

2009-10-21T07:31:00.000-07:00

The Washington Independent

By MIKE LILLIS 10/20/09 5:34 PM

In a move being cheered by environmentalists and community groups, Congress on Tuesday sent the White House a spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security which, for the first time, excluded mandatory funding for new construction of the controversial fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Although the Senate in July passed an amendment to build an additional 300 miles of pedestrian fence at the border, that provision, sponsored by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), was stripped during subsequent negotiations with the House. The Senate passed the altered bill Tuesday afternoon by a vote of 79 to 19. DeMint voted against the measure.
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Border fence boondoggle

2009-10-19T07:06:00.000-07:00

6:00 am October 16, 2009, by Bob Barr

The much-heralded and much-maligned 600-mile long border fence between the United States and Mexico, is morphing into a typical government boondoggle — way over budget, way behind schedule, and way short of its promised goals.

The border fence, designed to thwart illegal border crossings into the U.S. from our southern neighbor, was supposed to have been completed this year. However, estimates now place its completion date seven years hence — 2016, to be exact. Its construction costs have sky-rocketed, as has the amount of money needed just to maintain it, which now is estimated by the Government Accountability Office at $6.5 billion over the next two decades.

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Democrat puts down his marker for immigration reform

2009-10-14T06:36:00.000-07:00

OC REGISTER

October 13th, 2009, 5:20 pm · 24 Comments · posted by Dena Bunis, Washington Bureau Chief

With a throng of Latinos chanting ‘Yes we can’ in English and Spanish in the shadow of the Capitol, Rep. Luis Gutierrez laid down his marker for a comprehensive immigration reform bill he’s expected to introduce before year’s end.

Gutierrez, D-Ill., is the biggest champion in the House for a broad-based bill that includes legalizing the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants now living in the United States. He capped off a string of speakers organized by Reform Immigration FOR America, a group created to try and get a measure passed during this Congress after the failures in 2006 and 2007.

“Justice for immigrants is today’s civil rights struggle,” said Gutierrez, who made it clear to the cheering crowd that they have their work cut out for them. “We have a Congress to persuade. We have a president to convince. We have justice to deliver.”

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Time to rethink the troublesome border fence

2009-10-14T06:33:00.000-07:00

By Editorial Board
Posted October 14, 2009 at 12:01 a.m.

Corpus Christi, TX

Congress just may be waking up to reality about the fence it voted in 2006 to inflict upon our southern border. Last week, its members again voted on the fence, this time to strip an amendment from the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill that would require 300 additional miles.

Sen. Jim Demint, R-S.C., sponsor of the provision, last summer had convinced his colleagues that low-rise vehicle barriers and virtual fencing wouldn’t do the job needed for national security. But now, budget constraints — and perhaps the fact that border violence continues — have Congress looking for less expensive alternatives to the 18-foot-high metal fence.

Congress really ought to reconsider the entire project, or at least the part of the fence that’s in South Texas. The first step should be a visit by a congressional delegation to the Texas side of the Rio Grande Valley.

About 70 miles of steel fence have been erected there already. It has split up property, making it difficult to impossible for some to access parts of their own land and lowering property values. As David Sikes pointed out in his Sunday column, gaps in the fence have given rise to speculation about special exemptions being granted to influential landowners. The Texas Border Coalition, which includes most mayors and Chambers of Commerce along the 1,200-mile valley, also accuses the DHS of favoring wealthy landowners in deciding where to locate the fence. (Time magazine, May 21, 2008)

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Border fence funds pulled at request of lawmakers

2009-10-09T06:12:00.000-07:00

By GARY MARTIN Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

Oct. 8, 2009, 11:42PM

WASHINGTON — A provision to build an additional 300 miles of pedestrian fence along the U.S.-Mexico border has been stripped out of a $42.8 billion spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security.

The provision by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., was removed at the behest of House members from Texas, Arizona and California who called the fencing a waste of taxpayer money and an ineffective way to secure the border.

“We need to invest and secure our border and our land ports without being tied down to an amendment that is out of touch with border needs,” said Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, who spearheaded the effort to remove the provision DeMint tucked into a Senate spending bill earlier this year.

The provision, approved 54-44 in the Senate in July, was supported by both Republican and Democratic senators from Texas, California and Arizona. New Mexico's two Democratic senators opposed the additional pedestrian fence.

The House version of the bill did not contain the provision.

Cornyn's complaint

This week, the House and Senate negotiators writing the final bill chose not to include DeMint's provision, prompting a protest from Sen. John Cornyn.

“I'm very concerned with anything that sends a signal that we're not serious about continuing to provide security along our border,” said Cornyn, R-Texas, who supported the DeMint provision.

But the Texas Border Coalition, a collective of border mayors and county officials, applauded the move. They had urged Democratic leaders in the House to remove the provision from the bill, saying the money could be better used to upgrade busy ports of entry that routinely see traffic congestion and delays.

Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster, the Texas Border Coalition chairman, said the decision is the first time community leaders “have been able to defeat an effort in Congress to require fence construction.”

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Report on Border Crossing Deaths Makes the Invisible Visible

2009-10-02T13:34:00.000-07:00

Posted by Kevin Keenan, ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties September 30th, 2009 at 5:21 pm

So much of what human rights advocates do is try to make the invisible visible. The more marginal and vulnerable the victims and the more remote the geographic location, the harder it is to do.

That, in a nutshell, is the goal and challenge of the San Diego ACLU’s report on border crossing deaths, Humanitarian Crisis: Migrant Deaths at the U.S. – Mexico Border, which was released today and is well reported by Spencer Hsu in The Washington Post. Filmmaker John Carlos Frey also uncovers the crisis at the border in his new documentary The 800 Mile Wall.

Marking the 15th anniversary of the misguided border strategy known as Operation Gatekeeper, the report makes visible the following:

In the past 15 years, as many as 5,600 people have died.
These deaths were anticipated in the design of the U.S. border strategy, which deliberately pushes migrants away from inhabited areas into harsh desert and mountainous terrains.
The rate of deaths has increased despite the economic decline and a drop in migration.
The number of rescues has decreased despite a massive increase in Border Patrol agents.

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U.S.-MEXICO BORDER CROSSING DEATHS ARE A HUMANITARIAN CRISIS, ACCORDING TO REPORT FROM ACLU AND CNDH

2009-09-30T15:42:00.000-07:00

Death Rate Climbs Despite Economic Decline and Drop in Migration and Apprehensions

September 30, 2009

SAN DIEGO – U.S., Mexican and international officials must recognize the deaths of migrants occurring during unauthorized crossings of the U.S.-Mexican border as an international humanitarian crisis and respond with reforms that make human life a priority, according to a new report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties and Mexico's National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH). The report, Humanitarian Crisis: Migrant Deaths at the U.S.-Mexico Border, finds that border deaths have increased despite fewer unauthorized crossings due to the economic downturn.

The release of the report marks the 15th anniversary of the border enforcement policy Operation Gatekeeper that concentrated border agents and added walls and fencing along populated areas, intentionally forcing migrants to hostile environments and natural barriers that increase the incidence of injury and death.

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Border Deaths Are Increasing

2009-09-30T15:31:00.000-07:00

Rise Is Despite Fewer Crossers, U.S. and Mexican Groups Say

By Spencer S. Hsu

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Despite a 50 percent drop over the past two years in the number of people caught illegally entering the United States from Mexico, the number of those who died while trying to cross the border increased this year and is the highest since 2006, according to new U.S. data and a study by human rights groups in both countries.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Mexico's human rights agency allege that consistently high numbers of border deaths -- hovering around 350 to 500 a year, depending on which government's figures are used -- are a predictable but largely unrecognized result of border security policies.

"Border deaths have increased despite the economic downturn, fewer migrant crossers, and a steady drop in apprehensions," Mexico's National Human Rights Commission and the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties in California say in a report set for release Wednesday and obtained by The Washington Post. The rising fatality rates "signal an escalating humanitarian crisis that is not going away and requires more effective governmental responses," the groups say.

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Number of Undocumented Migrant Deaths Mount on Arizona Border

2009-09-29T15:30:00.000-07:00

Number of Undocumented Migrant Deaths Mount on Arizona Border

By Maria Leon

TUCSON, Arizona – The number of deaths of undocumented immigrants in the Arizona desert increased by 20 percent during the 2009 fiscal year, despite extreme vigilance and the efforts of humanitarian organizations.

Since Oct. 1, 2008 until Aug. 31 this year, 191 undocumented immigrants have died, mostly Mexicans, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector.

Last year during the same period, 159 deaths were reported.

“I’m sure that once all the deaths in September are added up, we will easily show more than 200 fatalities,” Rev. Robin Hoover, founder and director of Compassionate Borders, a group that every week puts water in the desert for illegal aliens, told Efe.

“In the past few years an average of 180 undocumented immigrants have died each year in the Arizona desert. Again this year we see the percentage of deaths on the rise,” said Hoover, who Sunday led a ceremony in Tucson in remembrance of the victims.

During the religious service, the names of each of the dead was read, while members of the congregation carried white crosses. Victims who could not be identified were simply referred to as “unknown.”

“In 1995 no deaths of undocumented immigrants were reported, and now we’re getting close to 200 or maybe more,” the minister said.

In his opinion, the deaths of illegal aliens are directly related to the aggressive Border Patrol strategy that obliges immigrants to cross at places farther out in the desert.

“This strategy is designed to cause more deaths,” Hoover said.

The activist said that while the Border Patrol has reported a decrease in the number of people crossing the border illegally, the percentage of deaths has significantly increased.

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Boeing's 'virtual fence' on Mexican border is full of holes, critics say

2009-09-28T13:56:00.000-07:00

After 3 years and $500 million, Boeing getting a chance to fix glitchy border system

By Oscar AvilaTribune reporterAlong the boundary between Arizona and Mexico recently, Border Patrol agent Michael Scioli weaved his SUV through unforgiving rock formations and hills of desert brush. Illegal immigrants covertly were crossing the border nearby, but Scioli's agency doesn't always have the manpower to know exactly where.

Scioli then passed a 98-foot-tall tower fitted with cameras, a high-tech extra set of eyes that he and other agents presumably would welcome. "Don't have much to say about that," the agent said tersely.

The tower is part of a network of cameras and sensors rolled out with great fanfare by Chicago-based Boeing Co. three years ago but now is largely disowned by Border Patrol agents and lambasted by lawmakers and government watchdogs.

The so-called virtual fence, which has received $500 million from the Department of Homeland Security, should have been fully in place already in southern Arizona. Instead, the department scrapped the first attempt, which cost Boeing at least $40 million in overruns.

Now, Boeing is trying to revive the troubled project after the U.S. government gave the company a second chance this month.

Homeland Security officials say technology is a necessary tool to track not only illegal immigrants but also violent Mexican drug smugglers and even potential terrorist threats.

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Up to 5,600 Mexicans died at US border in 15 years: report

2009-09-25T09:45:00.000-07:00

Fri, Sep 25, 2009
AFP

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO(AFP) - More than 5,000 Mexicans may have died in the past 15 years while making the often perilous journey to try and sneak into the United States, Mexico's National Human Right Commission said Thursday.

"The estimate on the number of victims is not certain, and ranges from 3,861 to 5,607," CNDH president Jose Luis Soberanes said, presenting the report based on official figures and completed in collaboration with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Some rights groups say up to 10,000 people may have lost their lives during the same period in trying to reach the United States, now home to an estimated 12 million immigrants.

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Border Fantasies

2009-09-22T07:16:00.000-07:00

EDITORIAL

Published: September 21, 2009

Members of Congress who voted for the Southwest border fence as the fix for illegal immigration professed shock — shock at the news that the project is running years behind, and billions of dollars ahead, of the Bush administration’s early, rosy projections.

Times Topics: Immigration and Emigration | U.S. Border Patrol

Auditors reported last week that the high-tech, 28-mile “virtual” section of the fence was running a mere seven years behind this month’s planned opening. Initially, designers talked of using off-the-shelf technology for the radar, cameras and other sensors, but problems cropped up. (Imagine, discovering that cameras tremble in rough weather.) “I’m trying to figure out why this is so difficult,” said Representative Michael McCaul of Texas. “These are basically cameras on a pole.”

The current cost estimate for the Buck Rogers barrier? $1.1 billion.

Investigators from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office report that the larger, actual fence — covering a 600 mile-plus stretch between San Diego and Brownsville, Tex. — cost $2.4 billion to build and will cost an extra $6.5 billion in upkeep across two decades.

Investigators also concluded that there’s no good way of gauging the effectiveness of the fence.

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GAO: Border fence will cost billions

2009-09-20T12:08:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Maintaining the border fence between the United States and Mexico will cost $6.5 billion over 20 years, the Government Accountability Office says.

The uncompleted fence, which will eventually stretch 661 miles, has already cost $2.4 million, the GAO report released Thursday said. Construction of the last few miles has been delayed by legal battles with property owners.

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Billions for a US-Mexico border fence, but is it doing any good?

2009-09-20T12:03:00.000-07:00

ROBERT HARBISON / SPECIAL TO THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR / FILE

The cost for adding 600 miles of new barriers is $2.4 billion so far. The new fencing has been breached more than 3,000 times, a government report finds.

By Daniel B. Wood | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the September 19, 2009 edition

LOS ANGELES - Some $2.4 billion has been spent since 2005 on a still-unfinished project to erect more than 600 miles of new fence along the US-Mexico border – a finding that is being met with surprise, anger, and consternation by immigrant groups and at least some border residents.

A report, released Thursday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), also says $6.5 billion will be needed to maintain the new fencing over the next 20 years. So far, it has been breached 3,363 times, requiring $1,300 for the average repair.

The US Border Patrol, for its part, agrees with some findings but says several conclusions are unknowable because building the wall has no precedent. And the agency defends the new fencing as effective at deterring illegal immigration.

The report has stirred a range of reactions.

"When our nation is in the midst of an economic crisis, we wonder how many teacher salaries, police officers, miles of road, or school books could be financed instead of throwing large amounts of money for bricks to fix a problem that requires serious, long-term solutions," says Angelica Salas of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, in a statement.

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