Posts Tagged ‘border patrol’
DOJ Puts Sheriff Arpaio on Notice. Who Will Put the DOJ on Notice?
11:02 am By Maegan La Mala · Justice|U.S.-Mexico Border · No Comments
11 May 2012The US Department of Justice is attempting to position itself as tough on racial profiling and violations.
While its arguments in front of the Supreme Court last week against parts of Arizona’s SB1070 were more about asserting the DOJ’s power to enforce immigration laws than insuring the rights of others, especially Latinos, race and ethnicity was an unspoken subtext.
Most recently the U.S. Justice Department kept the pressure on Arizona by targeting Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Following a breakdown in negotiations pushing for his police department to be monitored because of racial profiling allegations, yesterday the department announced its intent to sue. The DOJ is seeking to federally monitor Arpaio’s practices including targeting Latinos (or those perceived as Latinos) for unjustified traffic stops and arrests and prioritizing low level immigration offenses over investigating a backlog of sexual assault cases.
While federal oversight of Arpaio’s office is long overdue (just do a search with Arpaio’s name in our own search box to see for yourself), the question that remains unanswered is how to we get the Federal Justice Department to monitor themselves?
So far the Federal Justice Department has refused to investigate the death of Anastasio Hernández-Rojas or any other death that has occurred on the U.S. Mexican border at the hands of Border Patrol. Some organizations, politicians like Senator Robert Menendez, Reps. Raul Grijalva, Xavier Becerra, Jared Polis and Lucille Roybal-Allard, and individuals are putting pressure on Attorney General Eric holder to open an investigation of all killings committed by the Border Patrol since 2010. Yesterday the American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security also demanding an investigation into border patrol related deaths.
If the Department of Justice is interested in doing more than just flexing it’s muscle to show states Federal supremacy, than it needs to take a look at how the U.S. Border Patrol treats both U.S. and Mexican citizens like Anastasio. Otherwise it’s hard to believe that Eric Holder is interested in anything resembling justice.
Border Patrol Plays Target Practice with Teenager
9:02 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · children|Immigration|mexico|U.S.-Mexico Border|Violence · 9 Comments
9 Jun 2010Yesterday I wrote how the homicide of Antonio Hernandez Rojas at the hands of U.S. Border Patrol agents was just the beginning based on how the Obama administration has chosen to go about immigration reform, that is by further militarizing the border with Mexico. I didn’t expect for my prediction to come true so quickly, especially not with the life of a teenager.
Yesterday U.S. Border Patrol shot and killed Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca (some reports say he was 14, some say 15) in Texas. U.S. Border Patrol is defending it’s actions, saying that the boy was part of a group that was trying to cross the border into the U.S. without papers. Border Patrol is also saying the group that the boy was with was throwing rocks at their men. Naturally, the proper response to someone throwing rocks at you is to shoot and kill them, especially if they are Mexican.
There have been reports that Sergio was just playing near the border when he was shot, another report I read said that he was visiting a relative who lived in el Norte. Regardless of why Sergio was on the border, regardless of if he had rocks in his hands or not, there is not justification for this. Where is Obama now? Now that he has ordered sending National Guard troops to the border when already this year, which is not even half way over, the number of injuries and deaths on the border at the hands of Border Patrol is higher than it has been in the previous two years. Where are his promises of reform and change? Seems like they are being buried along with the bodies of our children.
Anastasio Hernandez Rojas Death on the Border a Taste of What More Militarization Brings
12:04 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration|mexico|U.S.-Mexico Border|Violence · 80 Comments
8 Jun 2010Immigration reform, or the lack thereof, has many faces now. One is the faces of the students starving in front of Senator Charles Schumer’s office . Another face is that of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, a Mexican who was killed by U.S. Border Patrol using a baton and a Taser, last week.
Hernandez Roja was killed while being deported. Officers claim that he had become combative and were required to use force against him (hmmmm where have we heard that claim before). The San Diego Medical Examiner’s report listed the cause of death as heart attack, with methamphetamine abuse and high blood pressure listed as contributing factors. Border Patrol abuse is not apparently a contributing factor.
Website Makes Regular People Virtual Border Patrol Agents
10:42 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Drugs|Immigration|mexico|society|States|Texas · 1 Comment
13 Mar 2009
When you think “stay-at-home-mom”, what comes to mind? I think diaper changing, grocery shopping and picking up kids from school. But at least one mom in Rochester, New York thinks “patrolling the U.S.- Mexico border via webcam”. Uhhhh…
When her baby girl takes an afternoon nap, or on those nights when she just can’t sleep, Sarah Andrews, 32, tosses off her identity as a suburban stay-at-home mom and becomes something more exotic: a “virtual deputy” patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border. From her house in a suburb of Rochester, New York, Andrews spends at least four hours a day watching a site called BlueServo.net.
There, because of a $2 million grant from the state of Texas, anyone in the world can watch grainy live video scenes of cactuses, desert mountains and the Rio Grande along Texas’ portion of the international border.
That’s right, Texas has people on the other side of the country virtually patrolling its borders in what they call “virtual stakeouts”. According to CNN, those who are participating are doing so out of a “sense of civic responsibility”.
The Texas Border Sherriff’s Coalition, the entity that runs the site, says that crime has decreased as a result of the cameras. They claim that multiple arrest have been made, all related to marijuana trafficking.
I tried to test the site out myself but the videos don’t load for me. Perhaps the site knows my politics? The sign-up form contains questions like “Do you think the border is adequately protected from crime and terrorism?” and “Do you think BlueServo’s Virtual Community Watch program will aid and improve Texas border security?” They give you the option of skipping those questions, which I did. I wonder if that’s why I can’t see the video…
What do you think of this initiative? Are the people watching these cameras from their homes couch potato versions of the Minutemen? Or just concerned citizens? Do you think this well help quell crime on the border? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Via / CNN
Prosecuting the Death of a Good Illegal While Raiding the bad Illegals
1:00 pm By Maegan La Mala · arizona|California|Immigration · Comments Off
23 Oct 2008
Nancy Pelosi’s statements follow the “good vs. bad immigrant” discourse. Undocumented immigrants may not get that path to citizenship which according to some they never deserved anyway because they are “illegal”.
This same story played out yesterday in opening statements in a trial against a border patrol agent in Arizona accused of shooting and killing an immigrant. Meanwhile in parts of California ICE targeted the “worst” of immigrants, gang members.
Jose Can You See? Border Patrol Abusing Migrants
10:02 am By Maegan La Mala · crime|Immigration|Texas · Comments Off
21 Aug 2008
Color us shocked. The idea that a law enforcement agency would abuse people, especially migrants just astounds us. Ok, so sadly it doesn’t really but it adds another layer of anger. On Tuesday, a former Border Patrol agent pleaded guilty to assaulting an immigrant.
Santiago Perez, of Edinburg, admitted Tuesday in federal court in Houston to both cases of violating the civil rights of the two immigrants while working as a South Texas Border Patrol agent in 2006 and 2007.
One immigrant,from Guatemala, was hit in the face with a pistol, and the other was interrogated with a gun pointed at his head.
And yes, the Border Patrol agent was Latino, which is an example of how it is the culture of law enforcement that is racist, not just a matter of a few individuals.
Via / Citizen Orange
Border Patrol Goes After Nascar Crowd for New Recruits
1:23 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration|Sports · 1 Comment
24 Jul 2008
Not to stereotype or anything, but what kind of recruit does the U.S. Border Patrol hope to find by sponsoring a NASCAR racer? The same kind of candidate that they would get by having a Blackwater sponsored racer?
Why not recruit from the San Diego Minutemen? Seems they have the whole speech down packed based on how they acted outside the NCLR conference.
If NASCAR wants to gain fans in Mexico they may need to rethink their approach.
Via / Machochip, The Spy Who Billed Me, Citizen Orange, NASCAR
This Just Makes No Kind of Sense : Catching the Undocumented Leaving the U.S.?
3:44 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration|Politics · Comments Off
8 May 2008
Is the anti-immigrant movement so desperate to up it’s numbers of undocumented that they have resorted to catching undocumented immigrants when they are leaving the U.S. into Mexico? Seems so. SAN DIEGO — U.S. border authorities no longer apprehend illegal immigrants only as they enter the country. Now they’re catching them on the way out.
At random times near the Tijuana-San Diego border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers have been setting up checkpoints, boarding buses destined for Mexico and pulling off people who don’t have proper documentation.
Vincent Bond, an agency spokesman, said departing immigrants are fair targets.
“If our officers come upon people who are here illegally . . . regardless of whether they’re leaving the country, we detain them, make a record of the fact they were here illegally and return them to Mexico,” Bond said.
Um. OK. With people all up in arms of how much “illegal immigration” is costing the country, does this seem like a good use of resources?
Sticks and Stones at Arizona – Mexico Border
10:36 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · arizona|Immigration|Internet|mexico · 3 Comments
12 Apr 2007
Reading the headline of a recent article posted on the CBS Evening News website might lead one to envision scores of armed Mexicans shooting Border Patrol Agents. The headline alarmingly reads:Border Patrol Agents Under Attack Violence Against Agents In Yuma, Ariz. Up To 154 In First Six Months Of Fiscal Year. Reading further though, the weapons being used to “attack” are revealed as rocks.
Along the desert stretch where Arizona and Mexico meet, there’s more flying in the air than just dust. There are rocks flying back and forth toward the border agents, CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella reports.
It’s part of a nightly bombardment of Border Patrol vehicles and agents all along the southwestern border.
Of course getting hit with a rock has its potential consequences but don’t Border Patrol Agents have guns. Does this
accurately represents the locus of border violence?
National Guard on U.S. Mexico Border : Bush’s Announcement Tonight
12:22 pm By Maegan La Mala · Controversia|Immigration · 1 Comment
15 May 2006
The news is abuzz with the information that tonight at 8 p.m., U.S. President Bush will announce a plan to send thousands of U.S. National Guard troops to the U.S. Mexico border to assist border patrol agents. This announcement comes on the same day that the Senate is debating again immigration proposals on the floor. Criticism of the move is coming from both Democrats and Republicans, with some saying that National Guard troops are already spread to thin because of the ongoing “War on Terror” , while others see the move as pura politica, a way for Bush to appease hard line Republicans who feel that the President’s current immigration proposal is too soft on illegal immigration with its guest worker option.
Via / Yahoo
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