Posts Tagged ‘U.S./Mexico border’
Anastasio Hernandez Rojas Haunting in the Shadow of S.B. 1070
7:15 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Justice|U.S.-Mexico Border · 7 Comments
25 Apr 2012The criminalization of immigrants in border states like Arizona has been in the news this week since the Supreme Court today begins hearing the U.S. federal government make the case that parts of Arizona’s S.B. 1070 step on the toes of national enforcement and therefore should be nixed. Not so much in the news is the way that federal policy has contributed to that criminalization and in fact has led the way by militarizing the Mexico U.S. border with deadly results.
Two years ago Anastasio Hernandez Rojas was killed by border patrol agents. You can find our original post about it here. At the time of his death, DREAMers in New York City were holding a hunger strike in front of Senator Schumer’s Manhattan office. Today, there is no DREAM Act, no New York Dream Act, and no justice for Anastasio Hernandez Rojas and the family he left behind. What we do have two years later is more hard evidence that the border patrol agents responsible for the death of a father and a husband acted brutally.
Last Friday, the PBS news series, Need to Know, in partnership with the Nation Institute, aired an investigation on the use of excessive force by U.S. border patrol agents. In this episode there is video evidence that 42 year old Hernandez Rojas was beaten. On his hospital deathbed, he is bruised. Eyewitness video features graphic heartbreaking screams of the father of five pleading for his life. Never before released eyewitness video shows a dozen or so border agents standing over and around Hernandez Rojas handcuffed and hogtied on the ground being tased five times. Not in the video, evidence of Hernandez Rojas being aggressive and violent as claimed by officials.
Although the official cause of death on Hernandez Rojas death certificate is homicide, the names of of those involved remain unknown. There is currently no investigation.
Far from being a one off, eight people have been killed along the border over the past two years at the hands of the largest police force in the U.S., border patrol agents. In all the cases there were no investigations. No trials and certainly no convictions. In fact according to the report, when the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request for information regarding Border Patrol policy and procedure on the use of force, specifically taser and deadly force, the response was useless blacked out papers. Is this the additional “boots on the ground” border policy that Obama so proudly proclaims? Is this what is being argued in favor of by a Department of Justice who is defending its right to enforce immigration laws while arguing against state laws like S.B. 1070?
I am not denying the horrible nature of state anti-immigrant legislation which impacts the daily life of all Latinos. But I will also not ignore the spirits of the dead like Anastasio, Sergio Adrian Hernandez Güereca, the spirits of the women sexually assaulted on the border by law enforcement, and Ramses Barron Torres – all crying for justice.
The Other Arizona Shooting
10:09 am By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Immigration|mexico|U.S.-Mexico Border|Violence · 6 Comments
11 Jan 2011Before Congresswoman Gifford and others were shot in Tuscon, Arizona , 17 year old Ramses Barron Torres was shot and killed by a bullet originating in Nogales, Arizona. There have been no national moments of silence for the apparently unarmed teenager. No memes speculating on the sanity of the shooter(s) or if violent rhetoric played a role. That’s probably because Ramses Barron Torres is Mexican and was shot by U.S. Border Patrol.
The story on what actually happened to Torres depends on what source you believe. From Immigration Clearinghouse:
It took the players all day to get their stories to a point where it was agreed that the agents fired their weapons into the air, and they put Torres as either “in the US, throwing rocks at agents, when he fell and hit his head on a rock and died”, or, he fell from the fence which he was trying to scale while chunking rocks at BP agents, a truly awesome display of athletic ability were it to be true.
But something wierd happened. Torres body showed up at a hospital in Nogales Sonora with a gunshot wound, throwing all to hell the claims that he was in the US throwing rocks at BP agents.
…
The Sonora State Investigative Police, or PEI, said 17-year-old Ramses Barron Torres, who died shortly after 3 a.m. at a Nogales, Sonora hospital, was shot in the back of the right arm, with the bullet continuing into his chest cavity, puncturing a lung, and lodging in the left side of his ribcage.
In “the back of the right arm” meaning Torres would have had his back to the BP agents who murdered him.
Increase of Border Patrol Agents = Increase in Border Violence
1:55 pm By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|mexico|U.S.-Mexico Border|Violence · 1 Comment
9 Sep 2010Even before the recent increase of border patrol agents along the U.S. Mexico border, la frontera was not a safe place for those living, working and playing nearby.
An article in the L.A. Times published this week, the paper reports that in the last 18 months five Border Patrol agents have been accused or convicted of sex crimes or assaults including one agent who pleaded guilty in January to raping a woman while off duty, and another who is accused of sexually assaulting a migrant while her young children were nearby in a car. These are only the cases that we know of. Think about how many assaults go unreported or unprosecuted and like many of the recent alleged police brutality cases, some of the officials involved are Latinos.
So when DHS Secretary Napolitano crows about how the numbers that are supposed to be going up are going up, one has to wonder if she feels that the increase in sexual assaults and physical assaults are numbers that also are supposed to go up, as inevitable trade offs for the idea of safety for some.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano : “All the Statistics that are Going Up Are Supposed to be Going Up”
8:45 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Labor|mexico|Politics|U.S.-Mexico Border · 2 Comments
31 Aug 2010
If nothing else, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano is a woman of her word. During a telephonic press briefing yesterday, Napolitano proudly crowed the start of unmanned predator drone flights out of Corpus Christi, Texas, beginning on Wednesday, Sept.1.
The rest of the telephonic conference was more of the same with an emphasis on more. I think the Secretary of Homeland Security said the word “more” so many times creating a dramatic crescendo effect that drove home just how militarized the U.S. border with Mexico was becoming and just how far we are from comprehensive immigration reform.
The drones, which beginning tomorrow will be able to monitor the entire U.S. Mexico border, are meant to track the “illegal movement of drugs, money and people”. While I know many will say the “illegal movement” of people refers to the disgusting crime of human trafficking, I picture families and individuals crossing the frontera and wonder how is movement declared illegal and only the movement of certain people.
Read more…
Senate Border Security Bill Passes and Obama Signs On
2:38 pm By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Obama|Politics|U.S.-Mexico Border · 2 Comments
12 Aug 2010
The Democratic led Senate interrupted their summer recess in order to interrupt the lives of countless undocumented immigrants, those suspected of being undocumented immigrants, and those living on either side of the U.S. Mexico frontera.
The Senate approved a $600-million border security bill Thursday morning, sending President Obama his request for 1,500 more troops and immigration officials to beef up security along the border with Mexico…The bill passed without dissent
The National Guard troops that will be deployed to the border have received their orders.And President Obama happily put more boots on the ground and boots on the backs of immigrant communities by signing the bill into law.
The Triple D Immigration Reform Plan Expands
9:41 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Politics|Secure Communities|U.S.-Mexico Border · 2 Comments
11 Aug 2010Detain, Deport, and Disappear seems to be the official policy of the Obama administration and the Department of Homeland Security when it comes to immigration. It doesn’t need to be spoken or called that officially. All the community needs to do is look at the recent actions coming out of D.C. and reverberating throughout the country.
Just yesterday I wrote about some of the stats regarding the number of deported under Obama’s expansion of the Secure Communities program. Unfortunately, things have gone from bad to worse, with Secure Communities being expanded, specifically in southern border states, and with the U.S. House of Representatives agreeing to pump $600 million for security along the U.S Mexican border. What’s in the House Bill?
The bill includes $176 million for 1,000 new border patrol agents to form a strike force to be deployed at critical areas, $89 million for another 500 customs and immigration personnel, and $32 million to deploy unmanned aerial vehicles or drones.
It also provides $196 million for the Justice Department to bolster its forces of U.S. marshals, and FBI, DEA and ATF agents along the border.
Border Volleyball
10:23 am By la Macha · Immigration · 1 Comment
18 Jul 2010Thursday, July 13th, 2006: On the San Diego-Tijuana border American’s Brent and Josh initiate an impromptu volleyball game with two formidable opponents: Jerry and Eric. Playing over the dividing pylons between the two nations, the Americans ponder the implications of their game on U.S. customs law.
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.
I’m Sure Mexico Can Only Dream
10:14 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Funny|Immigration · 6 Comments
17 Feb 2010Pero they couldn’t think of a Spanish word for “asshole”? We have so many!!!
Mexico Builds Border Wall To Keep Out U.S. Assholes
Via / Our friends at The Latin Americanist
Hola!
VivirLatino is a daily publication published by Mamita Mala Media, dedicated to featuring all the latest politics, culture, entertainment of interest to the diverse Latin@ diaspora.
About | Advertise with us | Contact | Twitter
blog advertising is good for you
blog advertising is good for you
- Maegan La Mala: Thank you Julio! To be honest I was a little nervous. [...]
- Ana L. Flores: I was very excited when you decided to join us. I really wanted your voice there as it would add dep [...]
- Maegan La Mala: Hola Juliana and thanks for commenting. There is a dearth in activist/critical thinking Latino blogg [...]
- Julio Ricardo Varela: Good for you for asking. I got goose bumps just reading this and yes, yes, yes, to it all. Thank you [...]
- julianabritto: The sense that I get is that you might feel a little frustrated at the dearth in activist bloggers? [...]
- LATISM/Top Bloguera Retreat Reflection II : Yes There a Place for a Latin@ Political Blog
- Top Blogueras at the White House : Beyond Puppetry and Pendejas
- Washington DC Bound
- By Land & By Sea Drawing Attention to Puerto Rican Political Prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera
- Welcome to NY Secure Communities
- DOJ Puts Sheriff Arpaio on Notice. Who Will Put the DOJ on Notice?
- VL at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival: Babygirl
- 45th Precinct Residents to File Complaint Against Abusive NYPD Officers
- Monday Musica : Maga Bo – Quilombo do Futuro
- NYC : Confronting Police Violence in the Courts – May 19, 1-3pm – Justice Committee Workshop
