The Case for Immigration Reform

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?

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

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

Border deaths topic of documentary

‘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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A complex tragedy at the border

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 800 MILE WALL

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.

Film About Deadly, Failed Border Policies Set for Nationwide Tour

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

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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My Worst Fears Confirmed

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

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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The 800 Mile Wall: A Matter of Human Rights

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.

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

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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The 800 Mile Wall Trailer

Body Count on the Border

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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Report on Border Crossing Deaths Makes the Invisible Visible

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:

1. In the past 15 years, as many as 5,600 people have died.
2. 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.
3. The rate of deaths has increased despite the economic decline and a drop in migration.
4. The number of rescues has decreased despite a massive increase in Border Patrol agents.

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Border Deaths Are Increasing

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

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. read entire article

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

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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Migrant death count scrutinized

ANDREA ALMOND / The Associated Press | Posted: Friday, November 5, 2004 6:00 pm

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SAN DIEGO — Flying low over the Sonoran Desert, Border Patrol agents spotted a skeleton sprawled in the brush.

The harsh terrain along the southern edge of Arizona is a busy trafficking corridor for illegal immigrants and the remains could have been from a person who died while trying to sneak into the United States. But busy Interstate 8 runs nearby and it also could have been a slain U.S. citizen, a suicide, a runaway.

The Border Patrol is facing criticism for the way it counts the dead along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border.

"It's rarely a cut-and-dry decision," said Joe Brigman, spokesman for the Border Patrol station at Yuma, Ariz. "In some cases, you just don't know."

The agency says its increased vigilance has helped reduce deaths among illegal immigrants.

Human rights activists, however, say it's in the government's interest to keep its count low. They contend the agency tries to shave the number of deaths by excluding many skeletal remains, car-accident victims and bodies discovered by local law enforcement agencies.

"The American people have the right to know the human cost, the real human cost, of these policies," says Claudia Smith, a San Diego attorney with the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation.

From documents and other clues found on the body spotted east of Yuma, agents concluded the victim was indeed an immigrant — among 325 the Border Patrol counted in the fiscal year which ended Sept. 30, down from 340 the year before.

Smith, who has tracked migrant deaths for 10 years, says the counting method is inconsistent from one government agency to the next — and sometimes even from one Border Patrol sector to another.

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