Reclaiming the Border Patrol Museum by Karie Luidens

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After my morning in downtown El Paso, I drove 12 miles north of the city into the ever-more-rugged foothills of the Franklin Mountains to visit the National Border Patrol Museum. It’s the only one in the country dedicated to the history and culture of the U.S. Border Patrol, and it’s funded entirely by donation—meaning, I assume, by enthusiastic supporters of the Border Patrol. How could I pass up the opportunity to see how B.P. agents and their fans depict themselves?

During my visit, the museum was practically empty and perfectly quiet. At the time, I had no idea that the activist group Tornillo: The Occupation was preparing a demonstration at the museum that afternoon. I knew they were planning some kind of protest in El Paso as part of their Weekend of Revolutionary Love, but they didn’t publicize their specific agenda in advance.

Imagine my shock later when I saw the group post on Facebook that, just an hour or two after I’d left, they peacefully stormed the museum’s entrance, sang songs of love in the lobby, waved banners in support of migrant children, made speeches, and pinned their own text and photos to the permanent exhibits.

Remember when I said Albuquerque was a small world? I had just run into my friend’s brother Nicolas at an event in town. Now I almost ran into him a second time, as he was one of the leaders of the protest at the Border Patrol Museum. How strange it would have been to cross paths once again—once again partly because of our shared interest in border issues, but still mostly by chance. And not in Albuquerque this time, but hundreds of miles away in Texas at a quirky little museum on the outskirts of El Paso.

Tornillo: The Occupation was live.

Saturday, February 16, 2019 at 2:19 PM
https://www.facebook.com/creativebrownresistance/videos/327129841253945/

BREAKING! Direct Action: Reclaiming the border patrol museum and exposing the true violence of borders and border patrol.

Protesters Take Over U.S. Border Patrol Museum in El Paso

Staff Report, El Paso Herald-Post
February 16, 2019
https://elpasoheraldpost.com/protesters-take-over-border-patrol-museum/

The group sang and placed pictures of migrant children on several exhibits, until staff asked the group to leave. On one exhibit, featuring the photos of fallen agents, several photos of migrant children were placed on the display case.

By the time I read the group’s posts and watched their videos, the museum staff had demanded that they leave and called the cops. Military police from nearby Fort Bliss had blockaded the parking lot and temporarily detained all the activists while they collected everyone’s personal information and investigated the museum for potential damage. No one was arrested, but for a while there in the wake of the protest, tensions ran high.

I wonder—if I have known about the planned demonstration, would I have timed my museum visit accordingly and chosen to join the protesters?

If I had been a silent solo visitor in the exhibit at the moment they marched in singing, would I have stepped up and offered to help hold banners aloft, or would I have slunk away to watch from a safe distance?

If my car were blockaded into the lot with the others’ and the military police asked me whether I was with the protesters, how would I have answered?

I honestly don’t know. Having watched footage from the protest, I absolutely support the speakers’ message that this land was stolen from indigenous peoples and has, for ages, been a site of peaceful migrations in all directions; it’s a bloody shame for the latest nation-states on the scene to fence it off and prosecute the people trying to travel here. I agree that the messaging in the museum’s exhibits felt like sticky propaganda that glorified Border Patrol agents as heroes without providing any historical context, discussing the role of race and racism in border politics, examining agents’ use of violence in their work, or acknowledging the humanity of border crossers. After touring the museum, yes, I’d have been happy to jump into a pop-up protest against the museum’s biased messaging.

But my personal instincts are too reserved and nuanced to yell that border enforcement is genocide and agents are murderers. I’ve talked with and read books by multiple diverse Border Patrol agents; I know that their work involves rescues and first aid as often as it does chases and captures. That’s especially true these days as large groups of asylum seekers deliberately turn themselves in to the Border Patrol after crossing, at which point agents trained to perform law enforcement duties must suddenly try to provide shelter, water, food, medical attention, and transportation for dozens of families and children in remote, underequipped facilities. What good does it do to demonize every individual agent? Wouldn’t it be better for everyone involved if we instead advocated for more training and resources to immediately alleviate the humanitarian crisis on the ground, and pushed for changes in immigration policy in the long term so people could arrive safely and legally rather than desperately seek to cross in the desert and await the Border Patrol’s rescue?

I’d be a terrible speech-maker at a protest. No matter how strongly I feel about the issues—and I do feel strongly—I always end up sounding like a milquetoast moderate wringing her white hands rather than taking a stand.

If I’d been at the museum a couple hours later, or the protesters had arrived a couple hours earlier? I don’t know what I’d have done. I really don’t.

To Voyagers, Passers Through and Troubadors by Karie Luidens

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After a cup of coffee and some time browsing the newspaper, I spent yesterday morning exploring the city of El Paso.

The journey began with a drive from my motel along Texas State Highway Loop 375, a length of freeway that traces the city’s curving boundary of steel fencing, concrete river channel, and—mostly obscured beyond that—Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.

I parked at Chamizal National Memorial, a smallish park at El Paso’s southern edge that overlooks that fencing as well as the Puente Internacional Córdova De Las Americas, one of the city’s three bridges serving as official ports of entry to and from Mexico. At a glance, the bridge that arches over TX-375 and the Rio Grande looks like any other freeway ramp. Look closer and you’ll notice the tollbooth-style structures processing vehicles and passengers at its base. At the top of the bridge’s shallow parabola, U.S. and Mexican flags fly tall, framing the point where drivers and pedestrians cross from one nation to the next. Seen from the park, the port looked orderly and ordinary. I can’t believe I forgot to pack my passport—I bet I could’ve crossed over and back before lunch.

From the park, I drove a couple miles further west to El Paso’s downtown. I kept turning along back roads to get a feel for the rather rundown neighborhood closest to the border fence, and at one point briefly panicked when I almost turned onto the Puente Internacional Paso Del Norte by mistake. I’m sure if I did drive up to that port of entry without my passport, the officials there would just roll their eyes and direct me how to turn around on the U.S. side of the bridge before I hit Mexico. Still, I’d rather save everyone the trouble of dealing with me as an undocumented migrant attempting to cross the border.

When I made it downtown I parked on a side street and spent an hour walking among gleaming government buildings, office high rises, landscaped plazas, and the arts district. The day was bright, windy, and quiet—perfect for taking in the sights of what I found to be a beautiful city center. The handful of times I did cross paths with a fellow pedestrian, we each smiled in greeting—I said “good morning,” they said “buenos días.”

A few transcriptions to caption the photos I took:

  • Mayor Dee Margo’s letter in the “Visit El Paso” official visitors guide that I picked up in the motel lobby: “I would like to welcome you to El Paso—the Sun City. We are the 19th largest city in the United States, the sixth largest city in Texas and the largest city on the US-Mexico border—we are three states, two countries and one region of 2.7 million people. I sincerely hope you enjoy the rich culture that makes our border town a unique staple in our nation. Amongst many recognitions, we are proud to say El Paso has the lowest crime rate in the US for cities with populations over 500,000 for the fifth year in a row.”

  • Inscription beneath a downtown sculpture of Fray García de San Francisco, Founder of the Pass of the North, 1659: “TO VOYAGERS, PASSERS THROUGH AND TROUBADORS, FORAGERS CRAFTING A WORLD FROM SAND, GRANITE AND LIMITED WATERS”

  • Description painted on a mural in the El Paso Arts District: “This mural depicts five endangered species found in the US/Mexico borderlands: the Chiricahua Leopard Frog, Ocelot, Mexican Gray World, Northern Aplomado Falcon, and Steed’s Pincushion cactus. These species deserve freedom of movement and our protection.”

El Pasoans and Fronterizos by Karie Luidens

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First thing I did this morning, upon waking up in a motel room on the east side of El Paso: go buy a copy of the El Paso Times. I don’t normally spring for daily newspapers, but I was in a border city the day after Trump declared the border a national emergency. I had to see what the locals were saying.

The top headline came in question form: “Where will Trump find $8 billion?” Below that, still above the fold: “El Paso leaders blast Trump.”

El Paso leaders blast Trump

Emergency declaration called ‘dangerous’
Madlin Mekelburg and María Cortés González
El Paso Times
Saturday, February 16, 2019

El Paso leaders and immigrant rights groups Friday [2/15/19] criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to declare a national emergency to pay for the border wall, saying no such crisis exists and vowing to fight the order in court.

Here’s a sampling of what those leaders said in the body of the article, which spilled onto 4A and took up three quarters of that page, too:

  • U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar (D, District 16): “El Pasoans and fronterizos across the country know that there is no national emergency. Instead, this administration has manufactured a crisis that has used their communities as ground zero to implement President Trump’s cruel policies towards immigrants and asylum-seeking children and families.”

  • U.S. Rep. Will Hurd (R, District 23): “What we should be talking about is the strategy on how we defend our border, not one specific tool, which is the wall. And I’ve been very clear. Building a 30-foot-high concrete structure from sea to shining sea is the most expensive and least effective way to do border security.”

  • State Rep. César Blanco (D, District 76): “Trump’s national emergency declaration for his border wall is dangerous and radical. There is no national security crisis on the border. The only crisis we have is a humanitarian crisis.”

  • State Sen. José Rodríguez (D, District 29): “El Pasoans know the reality of the border firsthand. While I, and, frankly, the government's own security agencies categorically reject the notion that the border poses an unmet national security threat, we also all recognize the very real issue of smuggling of people and contraband that must be met with smart, focused law enforcement and adequate judiciary. El Paso meets this challenge every day without demonizing immigrants or border communities.”

  • U.S. Catholic bishops, including El Paso Bishop Mark J. Seitz and leaders from other dioceses such as Laredo, TX, Las Cruces, NM, and Tucson, AZ: “As Catholic bishops of dioceses along the US-Mexico border, joined by some of our brother bishops across the nation, we oppose further construction of a border wall.” Their statement went on to say that the wall would only further subject asylum seekers to “harm by drug cartels, smugglers, and human traffickers,” and force them into remote regions that would put them at greater risk of death. The bishops said that “we oppose the declaration of a national emergency and the transfer of funds to construct a border wall” and instead urge more humanitarian ways of dealing with immigration.

El Paso by Karie Luidens

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I’m not sure what’s next. No one ever is. (If they act like they are, exercise skepticism.)

For tonight, I just know that I made it to El Paso. And personally—maybe it’s just me—but I cherish seeing Mexico there on the horizon. Seeing how indistinguishable our two nations are, people intermingling at the border, the distinction reduced to a single bridge or two cities melded into one cityscape from the height of a mountainside. Knowing in my bones that the land is all one mass and always has been. Reminding myself that the border isn’t really an existential delineation, it’s just a row of little black popsicle sticks stuck in the dirt, for now, but not forever.

National Emergency, Personal Trip by Karie Luidens

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This morning, while President Trump stood in the Rose Garden announcing that there was a national emergency on the border, I was loading an overnight bag into my car. My plan: drive four hours south from Albuquerque through southern New Mexico to El Paso, Texas. To the border. To the heart of the so-called emergency.

I’ve been to El Paso once before. In fact, in the last two years I’ve visited the U.S.-Mexican border more times than Trump, who’s only come four times. Me, I’ve touched the steel slats that divide San Diego from Tijuana, driven east through the desert of southern California and Arizona, walked up to the fence separating Nogales, Arizona, from Nogales, Mexico. (Border cities tend to rise in symbiotic pairs.) 

I haven’t crossed into Mexico by foot or car—yet—but I’ve come close. I’ve peered across ports of entry from El Paso into Juárez, Del Rio into Ciudad Acuña, Laredo into Nuevo Laredo, and Brownsville into Matamoros. I’ve heard Pacific waves crash through the bollards that extend out into the ocean, sat cross-legged on the dirt banks of the Rio Grande eating a picnic lunch in Big Bend National Park across the way from a friendly fisherman (he waved and called “¡Hola!”), and walked the glistening sand of the Gulf of Mexico at Texas’s southeasterly tip where it slips into the sea. 

Sea to shining sea. All in the span of a few weeks last winter.

And today, in spite of the so-called crisis at the border, I packed my bag and followed the Rio Grande’s flow from Albuquerque south to El Paso, where it transforms from a silty wash of river into a moat channeled through a man-made concrete chute.

In Albuquerque, where the Rio Grande’s flow merely slides through a single city, I like to walk dirt trails through the cottonwood forests that line its banks and watch for migrating birds gliding on its surface.

In El Paso, where the Rio Grande suddenly becomes an international boundary, I won’t be able to approach it: ever since 2008, the river there is lined with more steel bollard wall. 

Still, I’m going. National emergency or no, I knew I’d be back eventually. Later maybe I’ll read and watch what the president had to say in the Rose Garden. For now, I’m going to go see what I can see for myself. 

Amor y Amistad by Karie Luidens

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Valentine’s Day—a day we celebrate love. I recently learned that in some Latin American countries it’s also called Día del Amor y la Amistad (Day of Love and Friendship) or Día del Cariño (Day of Affection).

I’m writing late in the afternoon. What’s happened so far today?

Immigrant rights activists gathered in Tornillo, Texas, to kick off their Weekend of Revolutionary Love. Per the press advisory the group posted on Facebook an hour ago:

Activists with Tornillo: The Occupation launch of their weekend of Revolutionary Love, from February 14th-18th, to disrupt migrant detention, deportation, and murder.

"The El Paso region is ground zero for a corrupt and broke immigration system, there are many detention centers that are operating with impunity and are largely unnoticed. This weekend aims to continue the spread of a culture of resistance in El Paso, and across the nation." Elizabeth Vega, organizer Tornillo: The Occupation.

The group will be doing art-based creative Direct actions over the course of the weekend bringing attention to other detention centers in the area that largely operate unnoticed.

Meanwhile, back in Washington:

Trump Plans National Emergency to Build Border Wall as Senate Passes Spending Bill

By Peter Baker and Emily Cochrane
Feb. 14, 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/us/politics/trump-national-emergency-border.html

WASHINGTON — President Trump plans to declare a national emergency so he can bypass Congress and build his long-promised wall along the border even as he signs a spending bill that does not fund it, the White House said Thursday.

The announcement of his decision came just minutes before the Senate voted 82-16 to advance the spending package in anticipation of final passage on Thursday night by the House. […]

The border security compromise, tucked into the $49 billion portion of the bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security, is perhaps the most stinging legislative defeat of Mr. Trump’s presidency. It provides $1.375 billion for 55 miles of steel-post fencing, essentially the same that Mr. Trump rejected in December, triggering the shutdown and far from the $5.7 billion he demanded for more than 200 miles of steel or concrete wall.

In opting to declare a national emergency, Mr. Trump would seek to access funds for the wall that Congress had not explicitly authorized for the purpose, a provocative move that would test the bounds of presidential authority in a time of divided government.

So. It appears the federal government won’t partially shut down (again) at midnight tomorrow night, as would have happened if Congress failed to pass budget legislation.

The legislation that the Senate just passed, and that’s set to pass the House tonight, is riddled with compromises on immigration and border security—funding for more Border Patrol agents and I.C.E. detention facilities, but nowhere near the amount of money Trump demanded to construct his long-promised wall.

What a strange mix of art-making and deal-cutting, inclusiveness and provocation, rallying together and dividing the country. Acts of love and acts of fearmongering. Offering some hope and declaring a crisis.

This is just the beginning. What comes next?

Don’t Just Imagine, Demand by Karie Luidens

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Weekend of Resistance for Migrant Justice

Public · Hosted by Tornillo: The Occupation
Feb 14 at 12 PM – Feb 18 at 12 AM CST
Tornillo, TX & Everywhere
https://www.facebook.com/events/384406728788192/

Activists in Tornillo, Texas are calling for a national weekend of Revolutionary Love February 14th-18th, 2019 to disrupt migrant detention, deportation, and murder. After holding an encampment outside the Tornillo youth detention camp since December 23rd, we are calling for all people of conscience to join us in a national weekend of action guided by love for our people. And that love turned to action means freeing all those detained in migrant detention facilities.

DEMANDS:

Tornillo: The Occupation demands the freedom and liberation of all people. We understand the current crisis at the US-Mexico border and throughout the US immigration system as part of a longer history of racialized violence, environmental injustice, queer and trans-phobia, and mass incarceration. This is why we believe it is important to connect the fight against migrant detention with indigenous peoples’ struggles to protect land and water, with access to clean water in Flint, with the criminalization of those who resist and provide humanitarian aid for migrants crossing the desert, and with the ongoing feminicides of cisgender and trans women of Juárez.

While we are at this moment directly placing the focus of our protests on those suffering inside immigration detention facilities and in solidarity with those immigrants in detention currently on a hunger strike protesting their treatment, we also understand the interlocking nature of ALL our struggles. We truly know that none are free until all are free. For this reason, we demand that the systems which oppress us, criminalize us, dehumanize us and continue to inflict genocide upon us END. While the work is ongoing, our goal of this weekend of resistance is to offer hope to people suffering inside immigration detention facilities and send a strong message to politicians and people of conscience around the country that we are fighting together through EL PODER DE NUESTRA GENTE!

OUR DEMANDS:
While we believe that the abolishment of ICE, Customs and Border Patrol and Homeland Security is essential to the liberation of all people, we also recognize that thousands of human beings are currently being directly impacted by these systems. For this reason, with regard to the kidnapping and detention of our people WE DEMAND:

That all forms of incarceration as "solutions" to processing migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees end immediately.

That families who present for asylum at the border not be held in Border Patrol jails ever and be released to their sponsors immediately. If they do have to await processing, that it is not in a jail but rather in alternatives that provide adequate nutrition, water, medical care and compassionate support provided by the US government, which is responsible for the destabilization of their countries.

The immediate return of ALL of the 10,000+ children still separated from their parents because of Trump’s zero tolerance policy and that all unification expenses INCLUDING travel be funded by the US government who separated these families.

The humane release of all migrants currently in detention and a stop to the cruel practices of mass releases of refugees on the street without proper support or resources to find their way to their sponsors or tend to their families. We believe that it is the US government’s responsibility to give them basic humane support upon release.

That the demands of the refugees who are currently on a hunger strike protesting the cruel treatment of asylum seekers in processing centers be met, an immediate end to the retaliatory and violent force feeding they are currently being subjected to and that their acts of courage not be used as an excuse for their deportation.

That charges are immediately dropped on the nine No More Death volunteers and we call for an end to the criminalization and destruction of humanitarian aid across the country.

Imagine True Greatness by Karie Luidens

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It doesn’t have to be this way. I mean—the U.S.-Mexico border doesn’t have to be militarized; ports of entry don’t have to meter asylum seekers; whether they’re coming in search of work or safe haven, people don’t have to risk their lives crossing remote deserts just to reach American soil.

If there is a border crisis, it’s one exacerbated if not created by U.S. policies. And U.S. policies can be changed.

Imagine if, instead of demanding we pour our tax money into constructing a border wall, the federal government poured money into expanding staff and resources at ports of entry.

Imagine if, instead of restricting people’s access to those ports of entry, federal agents proactively greeted would-be immigrants with the paperwork and translators they needed to efficiently submit their application for asylum.

Imagine if, now that asylum seekers were proceeding smoothly through ports of entry, the Border Patrol was no longer expected to handle a huge influx of humanitarian cases at remote desert facilities, and was free to pursue its actual mission of monitoring the terrain for criminal activity and performing basic law enforcement.

Imagine if, instead of paying millions of dollars to hold people in detention for days, weeks, or indefinitely, I.C.E. encouraged them to proceed to their sponsor’s homes to await their hearings or directed them how to seek humanitarian aid in the U.S.

Imagine if, instead of dumping busloads of newly-released, traumatized, penniless immigrants on the doorsteps of charities staffed by volunteers and funded by donations, the government redirected I.C.E.’s funding into coordinating each person’s travel plans and providing them with a few days’ worth of basic supplies to ensure they don’t end up suddenly homeless on our cities’ wintry streets.

Imagine if, instead of claiming that the wealthiest country on earth doesn’t have the resources to take in more than a handful of asylum seekers a day, the government reallocated millions of taxpayer dollars from showy military deployments on the border to hiring squadrons of lawyers who can help process their asylum applications as quickly as possible.

Do we Americans really believe that we’re simultaneously the greatest nation in the world, and yet incapable of absorbing a few thousand desperately poor newcomers who just want the opportunity to live safely and work hard and pay taxes like everyone else?

Imagine if, instead of insisting that Congress fund a towering barrier from the Pacific Coast to the Gulf of Mexico, our president honored the words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty and actually welcomed immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees to our land.

Is it so hard to imagine?

We Have Exacerbated Underlying Problems by Karie Luidens

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On Friday, the same day that New Mexico’s southern border received its 27th large group of asylum seekers since October 2018, Congressman Beto O’Rourke published a new essay. As the former U.S. Representative of Texas District 16, which includes the city of El Paso and its stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border, he apparently felt the need to speak up at this moment to address our immigration situation’s—well—symptoms and causes:

Beto O'Rourke
Feb 8
https://medium.com/@BetoORourke/the-president-is-coming-to-el-paso-monday-bbd4a023c77c

The President is coming to El Paso Monday [2/11/19]. He will promise a wall and will repeat his lies about the dangers that immigrants pose. With El Paso as the backdrop, he will claim that this city of immigrants was dangerous before a border fence was built here in 2008.

Beyond refuting his comments about border communities like ours […] it’s worth thinking about how we got to this place. How it came to be that 11 million undocumented immigrants call America home, how we came to militarize our border, how we arrived at such a disconnect between our ideals, our values, the reality of our lives — and the policies and political rhetoric that govern immigration and border security.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the challenges we face are largely of our own design — a function of the unintended consequences of immigration policy and the rhetoric we’ve used to describe immigrants and the border. At almost every step of modern immigration policy and immigration politics, we have exacerbated underlying problems and made things worse. Sometimes with the best of intentions, sometimes with the most cynical exploitation of nativism and fear.

He goes on to summarize the last century or so of the United States’ policies toward people’s migration from (and back to) Mexico. To summarize his summary:

  • In 1942, the U.S. and Mexico jointly instituted the “bracero program,” which encouraged Mexican workers to come to the U.S. as manual laborers and guaranteed decent living and working conditions for them while they were here.

  • In 1965, the U.S. ended this program. Legally, most Mexican workers were no longer permitted to enter the country or work here; in reality, none of the economic conditions changed overnight. A O’Rourke puts it, “after decades of employing this labor, with our economy dependent on the laborers and the laborers dependent on access to the U.S. job market, the system of low-cost Mexican labor didn’t go away.” Mexican workers continued to migrate here, but suddenly they went from documented to undocumented.

  • Politicians began using frightening language to “gin up anxiety and paranoia” and push “every more repressive policies to deter their entry.”

  • Ironically, these harsher and harsher policies actually “caused the number of undocumented immigrants in the United States to grow.” Militarizing the border meant it was no longer safe for laborers to cross back and forth seasonally. Instead, once they were in the U.S. they stayed put and gradually sent for their family members to join them here.

  • “In addition, walls and fences authorized by the Secure Fence Act of 2006 pushed migration flows to ever more treacherous stretches of the U.S.-Mexico border. More than 4,500 human beings died crossing the border from 2006 to 2017.

Which brings us to the present situation:

In recent years, as Mexican migration slowed and then reversed (more Mexican nationals going south to Mexico than coming north to the United States), and as total undocumented immigration reached its lowest levels in modern history, the country was met with the challenge of tens of thousands of Central American families fleeing violence and brutality to petition for asylum in our country.

This too is an unintended consequence. Our involvement in the civil wars and domestic politics of Central American countries, in addition to our ability to consume more illegal drugs than any other country on the planet while leading a military- and law enforcement-first drug control policy, has helped to destroy the institutions of civil society necessary for those countries to function. They can no longer protect their citizens, and their citizens are coming to us.

Symptoms and Causes by Karie Luidens

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How does anyone convince himself that a border wall would stop all activity on the U.S.-Mexico border?

How does he not see that it’s the bluntest, dumbest band-aid smacked atop a massively complex and organic situation?

If illegal border crossings are the problem, then I guess a “powerful barrier” is the solution.

But they’re not. They’re a symptom.

The root causes of illegal border crossings: Decades of European colonialism and U.S. interventionism in Latin America setting up banana republics and impoverished undemocratic states. Years of economic exploitation wreaking havoc on local economic self-sufficiency, driving Latin Americans to seek work in the U.S. and U.S. employers to hire them with or without documentation. The War on Drugs fueling an increasingly ruthless ecosystem of cartels and trafficking to meet the demands of American black markets. Rising poverty and violence driving people to leave their homes in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua—even while the U.S.’s immigration policies restrict who can come legally and where they can cross safely.

Trump doesn’t even acknowledge any of these root causes, let alone address them. He talks as if steel fencing and militarized enforcement will simply stop people from trying to immigrate. We know that’s not the case; we know that desperate people take desperate measures. The U.S. has helped create desperate situations in these people’s home countries. They will continue to come.

The question isn’t whether a wall or fence will “fix” this symptom. It’s whether we’ll acknowledge the root causes that drive people to approach our southern border—and whether, when they arrive, we’ll greet asylum seekers and other would-be immigrants with a humane and efficient immigration system, or continue to inflame the region’s troubles and endanger people’s lives with bottlenecks and backlogs.

The 27th Large Group of Migrants by Karie Luidens

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Two weeks later, to the day, it’s happened again:

Border Patrol takes nearly 300 migrants into custody near Antelope Wells

BY ANGELA KOCHERGA / JOURNAL STAFF WRITER - LAS CRUCES BUREAU
Friday, February 8th, 2019 at 6:35pm
https://www.abqjournal.com/1278602/border-patrol-takes-group-of-nearly-300-migrants-into-custody-in-antelope-wells.html

U.S. Border Patrol agents took another large group of migrants into custody Friday morning [2/8/19] near the remote Antelope Wells border crossing in southwest New Mexico.

“Border Patrol agents working at the Camp Bounds (Forward Operating Base) early (Friday) morning observed a large group illegally crossing the border and making their way into the United States,” according to a news release from Border Patrol.

The 290 migrants included people from Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras.

A child from Guatemalan who showed “signs of an illness” during the screening process was transported to an area hospital with his father for treatment. […]

The Friday group is the 27th large group of migrants taken into custody in Antelope Wells since October. Most are parents with children and unaccompanied minors from Central America seeking asylum.

Not a Realistic or Effective Approach by Karie Luidens

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Yesterday we heard the latest thinking on our southern border from New Mexico’s governor and three U.S. Representatives. Today: our two U.S. Senators.

NM senators offer border security plans

BY STEVE KNIGHT / JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
Published: Thursday, February 7th, 2019 at 6:04pm
https://www.abqjournal.com/1278002/heinrich-udall-introduce-measures-to-enhance-safety-in-remote-border-areas.html

“Instead of wasting billions of dollars on a border wall that New Mexicans don’t want or need, we should make smart, responsible investments,” Heinrich said in a statement. “I am proud to introduce pragmatic proposals that address the gaps in the border security debate and reflect the realities of our border communities.”

A “massive, wasteful wall” along the entire southern border, Udall said in a statement, is not a realistic or effective approach to keeping people safe or keeping the nation secure.

“We face complex challenges at our border, and those challenges demand serious and common-sense solutions like those included in these bills,” Udall said. “… I hope Congress can move beyond the president’s message of division and work toward these meaningful solutions.”

His Uninformed Campaign Promise by Karie Luidens

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February 7, 2019

Dear Karie,

Thank you for reaching out to me regarding President Trump’s proposed border wall. I appreciate you taking the time to write and help me serve as your representative.

President Trump’s insistence on a border wall to fulfill his uninformed campaign promise is a waste of taxpayer money, harms families, and does not solve the immigration issues we must address as a country. There are serious homeland security vulnerabilities that will not be addressed if the president is allowed to squander $5.7 billion on a border wall. This includes not being able to hire more law enforcement agents to focus on opioid, gang, trade, and child exploitation investigations. There will be no funding to hire additional customs officers to intercept illicit drugs and other contraband, almost all of which comes into our country through the ports of entry. And there will no increased funding for first responder grants to help states and localities better prepare and respond to terrorism and disasters of every kind.

The president's wall would split communities such as the Tohono O’odham nation in half, disrupting families and centuries old traditions. President Trump has already terrorized communities with his Muslim ban, separated families at the border, and attacked immigration policies that disproportionally aid women and children. A border wall only further enables this administration's obsession with cruel attacks on immigrants and their families.

What we need is to update our immigration system to fit the modern world. Immigration reform must be comprehensive, protect DREAMers and recipients of Temporary Protected Status, live up to our international human rights obligations, and show compassion to immigrants that contribute to their communities in the United States. I have voted to block the use of federal funding to plan the border wall and will fight the wall and all of President Trump’s abusive and inhumane immigration policies. I am proud to stand with you on this issue and hope to continue to represent you well in Washington.

Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts on this important subject. Please contact me again in the future as Congress debates issues that we all care about.

If you are interested in following my work for you more closely, please sign up for my newsletter here. You can also follow me @RepDebHaaland on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. I look forward to working for you and hope to hear from you again in the future.

Sincerely,

Deb Haaland
Member of Congress

I Reject the Federal Contention by Karie Luidens

NM to withdraw National Guard from border

BY ANGELA KOCHERGA / JOURNAL STAFF WRITER - LAS CRUCES BUREAU
Published: Tuesday, February 5th, 2019 at 6:36pm
https://www.abqjournal.com/1277228/gov-withdrawing-most-nm-national-guard-troops-from-bordered.html

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has ordered the withdrawal of most of the 118 National Guard troops deployed on the state’s border, but is leaving a small group in the Hidalgo County area.

“I reject the federal contention that there exists an overwhelming national security crisis at the southern border, along which are some of the safest communities in the country,” Lujan Grisham said in a news release Tuesday evening.

“However, I recognize and appreciate the legitimate concerns of residents and officials in southwestern New Mexico, particularly Hidalgo County, who have asked for our assistance, as migrants and asylum-seekers continue to appear at their doorstep,” she said.

New Mexico’s Bootheel has become a busy spot with large groups of Central Americans crossing the border asking for asylum. According to Border Patrol, since October more than 26 groups of 100 or more people have turned themselves in to agents in Antelope Wells. Most are parents with children and unaccompanied minors.

According to Border Patrol, some drug traffickers have used the large groups to time their smuggling operations to when Border Patrol agents are busy taking the families and kids into custody.

I Was Disappointed by Karie Luidens

2019-02-07 - KRQE.png

New Mexico lawmakers react to State of the Union

By: KRQE Media
Posted: Feb 06, 2019 05:57 AM MST
https://www.krqe.com/news/new-mexico/lawmakers-react-to-state-of-the-union/1758866230

“I was disappointed that the president went back to speaking about a wall instead of looking at these strategic investments,” said Torres Small, who represents New Mexico's southern district bordering Mexico.

She says lawmakers should focus on securing the border with technology, not a wall, which is something echoed by Assistant Speaker of the House Ben Ray Lujan.

“Scanning capabilities, cameras drones, those are the areas we are looking to make investments into modernize border security,” Lujan said.

The State of the Union by Karie Luidens

2019-02-05 - State of the Union.jpg

I’ve been mulling and mulling ever since I watched last night’s State of the Union address. I suppose I feel like there’s nothing new to say, because Trump didn’t say anything new. His speech sounded like a watered-down version of his campaign rallies—the crowd even gave him a few rounds of chanting. At least all they yelled was the relatively benign “U.S.A.” and not calls to lock anyone up or build any walls.

But we’ll get to the wall again in a minute.

When he got to the portion of his speech devoted to immigration, Trump spent fifteen minutes hitting all his usual vague, frightening talking points on the subject: “an urgent national crisis” on “our very dangerous southern border,” a place rife with “ruthless coyotes, cartels, drug dealers, and human traffickers.”

He asserted that “innocent Americans are killed by lethal drugs that cross our border,” without acknowledging that the vast majority of hard drugs smuggled from Mexico are concealed in vehicles that cross at legal ports of entry, not across open desert.

He reminded everyone that the “savage gang, MS-13, now operates in at least 20 different American states,” without mentioning that MS-13 actually sprung up in Los Angeles and then spread to Central America, not the other way around.

He reeled off statistics about the arrests “our brave ICE officers made” in the last few years, without noting that most of the “illegal aliens” currently in the U.S. are people who entered the country legally and then overstayed their visas, that U.S. citizens commit crimes at higher rates than immigrants, and that the number of illegal border crossings is actually at its lowest since 2000.

And then, yes, he insisted that we need to build “a new physical barrier, or wall, to secure the vast areas between our ports of entry.”

This is a smart, strategic, see-through steel barrier — not just a simple concrete wall. It will be deployed in the areas identified by border agents as having the greatest need, and these agents will tell you, where walls go up, illegal crossings go way way down.

San Diego used to have the most illegal border crossings in our country. In response, a strong security wall was put in place. This powerful barrier almost completely ended illegal crossings.

It didn’t, of course. It just shunted illegal crossings away from the populated urban area where Tijuana meets San Diego, diverting migrants further out into the desert.

Trump talks as if the un-walled lengths of border looping between ports of entry are magnetic, actively attracting a problem that wouldn’t otherwise exist—people who wouldn’t otherwise come. He talks as if the land itself is spontaneously generating crime and drugs and troublesome migrants. If only we construct a steel fence across that land, it would stop making trouble. The problems would melt away. The people would stop coming.

But we know that isn’t the case. The people will come.

“I hope to God that Trump listens to us,” Sonia said in the piece I quoted yesterday. “I will do whatever is necessary; I will do anything so we don’t die of hunger.”

If there were a wall along our southern border, would Sonia have chosen to stay in Honduras with her teenage son and wait for the gang members that threatened his life to follow through and kill him?

I wish, I wish, I wish that Donald Trump would listen. But his opinions and rhetoric haven’t shifted an inch since he descended that escalator in June 2015 and declared that Mexico was “sending us not the right people.”

It’s coming from more than Mexico. It’s coming from all over South and Latin America, and it’s coming probably— probably— from the Middle East. But we don’t know. Because we have no protection and we have no competence, we don’t know what’s happening.

He could know what’s happening. He should know; he has a moral obligation, as president, to be informed about the true history and context of what’s happening on the U.S.-Mexico border. He should listen to the motives and experiences of the people whose lives are at stake there. Maybe then he’d give up his cruel lines about Mexico “sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”

“We all deserve a chance,” Sonia said. “He should give us an opportunity as human beings. We need Donald Trump to listen, and he needs to be a human being.”

Sonia, I couldn’t agree more.

We Need Donald Trump to Listen by Karie Luidens

2018-12-12 - The Cut.jpg

When You Can’t Go Forward and You Can’t Go Back: Talking to the Women of the Migrant Caravan

By Anna Silman and Sarah McVeigh
DEC. 12, 2018
https://www.thecut.com/2018/12/talking-to-the-women-of-the-migrant-caravan.html

[Back in December] reporter and producer Sarah McVeigh visited Tijuana, where migrants are waiting in hopes of gaining access to the United States. In a large, makeshift camp on a concrete lot, thousands of people had set up tents or were sheltering under tarps, waiting in an uncertain state of bureaucratic limbo. Upon completing this harrowing journey, on foot and on the back of freight trucks, migrants must begin the convoluted process of applying for asylum. Because of the large number of people seeking entry into the United States, a limited number of applications are processed each day, and would-be asylum seekers are told to take numbers and wait. Most will have to wait weeks or months for their cases to be heard. And even then, their fate remains uncertain: Under Trump, the rules have changed, making it much harder to qualify for asylum even with valid claims of persecution. But the women the Cut spoke to remain hopeful about being allowed to enter the U.S. and attain better lives for themselves and their children.

Quoting Sonia, 53, from Honduras:

I had never left my country, and I never imagined living these dangerous days that we have lived. You can see how God is with us, even though so many horrible things have happened on this journey. All of this is for my son. Six months ago [gangs] killed my nephew, and I didn’t want to live with what my sister had to go through. I would prefer to see him suffer here than end up in a bag or a canal.

They gave me a little number — I’m getting closer to be able to go in. They say you have to show proof that what you are saying is true, and I have my police report that I filed a few days before the caravan. I hope to God that Trump listens to us. It’s not that we want to leave home; it’s because of the criminals. And it’s not because of the poverty because there is poverty in the whole world, but the crime that doesn’t even let you sleep, the crime that scares me and makes me nervous.

I pray to God that my boy can study, and I can clean or care for children or whatever I have to do so he can be someone in life, that he learns the English language. I will do whatever is necessary; I will do anything so we don’t die of hunger. All over, you can find work. We all deserve a chance. He should give us an opportunity as human beings. We need Donald Trump to listen, and he needs to be a human being.

They’re Gonna Have to Wait Their Turn by Karie Luidens

2019-01-25 - ACLU Tijuana Tents.jpg

Yesterday I shared a New York Times video about metering that included a quote from Kirstjen Nielsen, Secretary of Homeland Security:

We're metering, which means that if we don't have the resources to let them in on a particular day they're gonna have to come back. So, they're gonna have to wait their turn.

That’s such a common refrain among people who insist that they’re not xenophobic or anti-immigrant, they’re just opposed to people immigrating the wrong way. They need to follow the rules. They need to get in line. They need to wait their turn.

I’m not going to get into the immigration system as a whole and the many ways people enter our country legally or illegally and end up “undocumented” or “illegal aliens.” It’s messy and messed up and way too much to take on all at once.

So, staying focused on just the current situation on the ground at the U.S.-Mexico border: why don’t people who want to seek asylum do as Nielsen says and wait their turn at ports of entry?

Well, this recent post by the ACLU provides an eyewitness description of the conditions created by the Trump administration’s deliberate strategy of metering, as overseen by Nielsen herself. Read it and tell me: if you were the one who fled the threat of violence at home, walked a thousand miles with your children, and found yourself trapped in a crowded shelter or tent camp, with the promised land in sight on the horizon… how long would you wait? At one point would you decide you’d be better off just riding a bus out into the desert, crossing where there’s no one to block the entrance, and turning yourself in to Border Patrol agents once you’ve reached U.S. soil?

THE REAL BORDER CRISIS

By Amrit Cheng
January 25th, 2019
https://www.aclu.org/issues/immigrants-rights/real-border-crisis

The shelter [in Tijuana, Mexico] was small and dimly lit with rain leaking through the ceiling. The walls were closely lined with gray slab bunkbeds, and there was a hotplate in the corner by the window for cooking food. There were around 30 people staying there, although Erika said she’d seen as many as 80 on previous occasions. We also visited a “family shelter,” housed in a garage-like space with a concrete floor and corrugated metal roof.  Around 50 small camping-style tents filled the space, where families slept. […]

Unsanitary conditions plague all the shelters. Nicole Ramos, border rights project director at Al Otro Lado, reported “squalid conditions” at Benito Juarez, with “many migrants, including pregnant women and children, sleeping in the dirt with only plastic sheeting to protect them from the elements.”

Many people crowded out of the shelters are forced to stay in tent encampments out on the street. At one such encampment, one man called out to me, gesturing to a small tent on the sidewalk and said, “Esta es mi casa,” — “This is my house.”

In addition to dealing with inadequate shelter, asylum seekers have also become targets for organized crime. In December, two Honduran teenagers were killed after leaving a youth shelter to travel to Benito Juarez. Before that, 20 migrants were kidnapped outside Benito Juarez […].

The Practice of Metering by Karie Luidens

2019-02-01 - Metering.png

So here’s a question. If people fleeing violence in Central America have a legal right to seek asylum here in the United States, why aren’t they all simply walking through legal ports of entry in populated areas like San Diego and El Paso? Why would they travel by busload or crowds of three hundred out into the dangerously remote deserts of, say, New Mexico?

In a word: metering.

I had a whole draft going on the subject, but in the course of my research for it I found this four-minute video by the New York Times that pretty much says it all.

How This Trump Policy Is Triggering Chaos at the Border

By Christoph Koettl, Sameen Amin, Sarah Stein Kerr, Natalie Reneau and Drew Jordan

Since 2014, more families have been arriving, and many of them are seeking asylum, a human right protected by both U.S. and international law.

The Trumps administration's hard-hitting crackdown includes a tactic called metering.

Entering through an official border crossing is one way to request asylum. But that's become more difficult under Trump.

The practice of metering allows border agents to limit the number of asylum seekers that are processed each day by delaying them from setting foot into the U.S. We can see it in action here at the Paso Del Norte Crossing in El Paso, Texas. Officers are standing right at the border, trying to intercept people before they get to the border station.

This tactic is deliberate. Once people reach U.S. soil, they have the right to claim asylum.

But if they never cross the border, they have to come back another day.

Metering is not new, but the Trump administration has taken it to a new level. [...]

But as the government is limiting asylum seekers, they're still funneling people to these same ports of entry to seek asylum. [...]

This is creating bottlenecks. Here in Tijuana is a vivid example of how metering plays out. Thousands of migrants are stuck. Human rights observers say that some are camping in squalid and dangerous conditions.

The situation is leading migrants to try riskier routes through desolate terrain, where they're at greater risk of dehydration and other illnesses.

They're showing up in places like Antelope Wells, New Mexico. It's extremely remote and mountainous. Antelope Wells is part of the El Paso border area, which has seen a dramatic increase in the number of families crossing far away from official border stations.

As you can see here [below], this increase happened right when the practice of metering expanded. And many are crossing in groups of a hundred or more, like this one that arrived in January.

But these remote outposts lack facilities, especially to deal with children. […]

The practice of metering is forcing people through more remote routes, in turn overtaxing these far-flung outposts and putting a strain on officers. It’s also leading to ever more dangerous consequences for migrants.

They Have a Legal Right by Karie Luidens

Ciudad+Hidalgo+John+Moore+Getty+Images.jpg

To summarize the dozen-odd news articles I’ve quoted in the last few days:

Violence and poverty in Central America have driven thousands of people to leave their homes and travel north through Mexico toward the United States’ southern border in the hope of taking refuge in a land of opportunity.

Because the journey is difficult and dangerous, many of these people have sought to protect themselves and each other by joining together in large “caravans.”

They have a legal right to approach ports of entry and apply for asylum, or to apply for asylum once they’re on U.S. land even if they crossed the border illegally.

The gradual approach of these “caravans” became a political flash point in October, when Trump and Republican candidates seized on them as a visually dramatic example of migration. Despite the fact that these large groups included mostly poor, desperate families hoping to find a better life here through legal processes, politicians repeatedly described them as an “invading force,” possibly riddled with criminals or terrorists, whose plans to “amass” at the border posed an existential threat to the U.S.

In the buildup to the midterm elections on November 6, the Trump administration used that fearmongering rhetoric to justify sending thousands of troops to various points along the U.S.-Mexico border in California, Arizona, and Texas, where they set up the same sort of costly camps they’d use in a conflict zone.

Many people think “deploying troops” makes Trump sound tough on border security. But the fact is, there is no invading force for our military to engage in combat. By law, troops are prohibited from performing law enforcement on U.S. soil, which means they’re not permitted to apprehend, arrest, or otherwise engage with people who cross the border. Instead, their activity is limited to providing basic logistical assistance to the Border Patrol.

The vast majority of these people who’ve crossed from Mexico into the U.S. since October have either done so at legal ports of entry, or in remote areas where they deliberately, promptly turned themselves in to Border Patrol agents. Again, regardless of how they enter the country, once they’re in the U.S. they have a legal right to apply for asylum, per both U.S. and international law.

I think it’s pretty clear by now that I believe sending troops to the U.S.-Mexico border is a pointless, expensive stunt. We should be withdrawing the 2,000+ soldiers and marines who are still camping there, not sending 2,000+ more to join them in the coming months.

As for building a wall? I can understand that the people who live in New Mexico’s Bootheel are frightened or frustrated by the recent increase in large migrant groups crossing into their region, but I disagree with the kneejerk reaction that a big solid wall would solve their problems. Rather, I respect the analysis of their Congresswoman, Rep. Torres Small, who explained that different types of security are appropriate in different areas to detect and intercept traffickers without scarring the landscape and stranding asylum seekers.

Drug smuggling, human trafficking—these are real problems. Open borders don’t make sense to me. So, sure, we need border security.

But the blunt, simplistic approach of deploying troops and building walls doesn’t work. It doesn’t stop criminal enterprises, who find far more effective ways to subvert border security through tunnels and trucks. It doesn’t stop would-be migrants, who have already traveled all this way and are desperate enough to reach U.S. soil wherever and however they can.

And militarizing the border with troops and walls isn’t just an ineffective waste of taxpayer dollars, it contributes to a warped vision of the borderlands as a war zone, and of people who want to immigrate as a dangerous threat to the United States.

They’re not. They’re human beings, with fears and dreams, who have left the lives they knew and traveled hundreds or thousands of miles just to get here. They’ve come not because they want to harm the United States, but because they want to join us here. Like the most patriotic American citizens, they see the U.S. as a place of hope and possibility—a place where they can find work and make a home, and where their children can finally be safe and healthy.

And—no matter what the politicians say to drum up support with their base—no matter how much concertina wire our military strings up—no matter what kind of wall or fence everyone’s haggling over right now in Washington—I cannot say it enough: they have a legal right to seek asylum here.