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This Week in Border Security: Week of October 29-November 5

Trump Administration Orders Troops To Southern Border

The administration has announced that it will deploy up to 15,000 troops to the southern border in anticipation of the migrant caravan’s eventual arrival. This deployment now goes by the name of Operation Faithful Patriot. The Pentagon has claimed that as of November 2, 2018 as many as 3,500 troops have been deployed.

Soldiers have been sent with the declared purpose of providing support to Border Patrol. By law, soldiers cannot enforce immigration laws, which in turn limits their engagement with immigrants. Mother Jones stated that soldiers will often find themselves bored with logistical tasks.

The graph above shows how on average a single border patrol agent apprehended 18 individuals last fiscal year, casting doubt on a need for military presence at the border. Additionally, the military involvement of 5,200 troops, the number Defense Department personnel were announcing, can cost the United States about $1.75 million per day. If 15,000 are deployed per the claims of President Trump, the total cost can reach perhaps $250 million by the end of the year. According to AP News, troops have begun installing coils of razor wire on a bridge and riverbank of the border.

Updates On Caravan

President Trump has made numerous public claims stating that the migrant caravan is heavily comprised of gang members and other criminals, not individuals fleeing violence and crime in their countries.

The caravan has dispersed into smaller groups of approximately four taking dangerous routes known for high crime rates. Some have already reached Mexico City while others have stayed in Veracruz or Oaxaca in Mexico. The leading group of the caravan consists of approximately 4,000 migrants. Assessments from historical trends predict that only a small percentage of this group will make their way to the U.S.-Mexico border. 70 buses were initially scheduled to help the caravan advance through Mexico but strong pressure from the Mexican government caused this to fall through.

The caravan is moving at a slow pace, it may take 2 weeks to a month or more to reach the U.S.-Mexico border. Border Patrol agents have been ordered to ask anyone they apprehend whether they are part of the caravan or not.

It is also notable that international and national law allows refugees to seek asylum regardless of how they entered. As the ACLU notes, law enforcement agencies would be in violation of their legal obligations if they deny caravan migrants the ability to seek asylum. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) claims to lack the capacity to process the present amount of asylum seekers.

Updates On Families Separated By Zero Tolerance Policy

It has been over four months since the Trump administration retreated from the aspect of its “zero tolerance” policy that was separating families. Though the majority of affected families have been reunited, over 150 reunited families are still being held in South Texas detention centers. Some children are being held past the 20 day limit set forth by the Flores Agreement.

Additional Readings:

Buch Jason, More than 150 Families Separated at the Border Remain Locked Up in Texas (Texas Observer, October 31, 2018)

Drake Shaw, Saldivar Edgar, Trump Administration Is Illegally Turning Away Asylum Seekers (ACLU, October 30, 2018)

Fernandez Manny, Panich-Linsman Ilana and Ferman Mitchell In South Texas, the First Signs of a Border Swathed in Military Might (The New York Times, November 1, 2018)

Gonzalez Daniel, Migrant Caravan Persists on Foot in Mexico After Bus Plan Falls Through (USA Today, November 1, 2018)

JFLCC Threat Working Group (Operation Faithful Patriot) (U.S. Army North Committee, October 27, 2018)

Lanard Noah, Operation Enduring Boredom: What Troops Will Actually Face When Caravan Members Eventually Arrive (Mother Jones, November 1, 2018)

Lind Dara, Border Patrol Agents Now Have to Ask Everyone They Catch if They’re Part of the Caravan (Vox, November 2, 2018)

Mariscal Ángeles, Cuatro Caravanas, Más de 10 mil Migrantes en Ruta hacia Estados Unidos (En El Camino, November 3, 2018)

Merchant Nomaan, Troop Deployment Creates Tense Atmosphere on US border (AP News, November 2, 2018)

—Juliet Peña

#border security #weekly update

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This Week in Border Security: October 14-20

Caravan With up to 7,000 Central Americans Heads to the Mexico-U.S. Border

On October 19, Honduran migrants set out on a caravan of 200 people heading to the United States from the city of San Pedro Sula. Along the way, many others joined the caravan to make a total number of over 7,000 migrants. President Trump has threatened to cut aid to Central American countries if the caravan is not stopped prior to reaching the United States. He has also threatened to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border if Mexico does not act against the caravan.

When it reached the Mexico border, riot gear-clad Mexican law enforcement officials prevented most from using the official crossing over the Suchiate River into the border town of Ciudad Hidalgo. Most migrants crossed the river by other means.

The goal of traveling in a big group is “safety in numbers”: to protect each other from the violent crime that so often afflicts those taking the long migrant trail through Mexico. Historian and Honduras expert Dana Frank told AP News, “the caravan’s rapid growth ‘underscores quite how desperate the Honduran people are.’ Many are fleeing violence, poverty, and lack of public services in their home countries.”

Children Separated from Deported Parents are Adopted by U.S. Citizens

Foster parents who took in a Salvadorian child, seized from her mother at the border, were granted full custody of the child by a state judge. Despite signing a promise not to seek adoption, the foster family filed for proceedings without letting the mother know. The mother of the then-2-year-old was deported back to El Salvador alone. Federally, foster parents are not allowed to adopt migrant children separated at the border from their parents. However, distinctions in wardship and adoption proceedings by counties allowed for the foster family to win custody.

Although the prior separation case occurred before the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance policy” against border-crossers went into effect, the case sheds light on the possibility of adoption affecting the lives of hundreds of children seized during the summer of 2018.

Trump Administration Developing New Plan to Separate Families at the Border

The Trump administration is considering new policies to deter immigration, which some are calling “family separation 2.0.” Options include detaining asylum-seeking families together for up to 20 days—the maximum by which a court settlement allows children to be held in detention outside a registered childcare facility—and then giving the parents a “binary choice”. This, as The Washington Post states, is a decision to either “stay in family detention with their child for months or years as their immigration case proceeds or allow children to be taken to a government shelter so other relatives or guardians can seek custody.” Another option under consideration is to withdraw from the 1997 Flores settlement setting the 20-day limit and await further court challenges.

A Congressional Research Service report stated that “practice and legal barriers” prohibit the use of family separations as a deterrent to immigration. Another obstacle to implementing the proposed policy is the lack of detention space available, and the $319 per day documented cost of keeping a family in immigration detention.

Additional Readings

Burke, Garance Mendoza, Martha AP Investigation: Deported parents may lose kids to adoption (AP News, October 9, 2018)

Dawsey, Josh Miroff, Nick Sacchetti, Maria Trump administration weighs new family-separation effort at border (The Washington Post, October 12, 2018)

Guthrie, Amy Migrant caravan swells in Honduras as group nears Guatemala (The Washington Post, October 14, 2018)

Lakhani, Nina. 'Yes, we can': caravan of 1,600 Honduran migrants crosses Guatemala border (The Guardian, October 15, 2018)

Migrant Caravan Highlights Humanitarian Problems in Central America (Washington Office on Latin America, October 16, 2018)

Perez, Monica D. Honduran migrant caravan crosses Guatemala border, US-bound (AP News, October 15, 2018)

President Trump Threatens to Cut Aid to Central America in Reaction to Migrant Caravan (Washington Office on Latin America, October 18, 2018)

The Caravan’s Journey, In Photos (CNN, October 21, 2018)

Semple, Kirk. What Is the Migrant Caravan and Why Does Trump Care? (The New York Times, October 18, 2018)

Sieff, Kevin. ‘It’s time for me to go back’: Deportees join migrant caravan to return to U.S. (The Washington Post, October 21, 2018)

9 Questions (and Answers) About the Central American Migrant Caravan (Washington Office on Latin America, October 22, 2018)

—Juliet Peña

#Weekly Update #Border Security #MIgration

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This Week in Border Security: September 29-October 5

Judge Temporarily Blocks Termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS)

San Francisco U.S. District Judge Edward Chen ordered the Trump Administration to temporarily stop plans to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) protections for citizens of Haiti, Sudan, Nicaragua and El Salvador. This will prevent the deportation of approximately 300,000 immigrants facing expirations of their status starting in November, which would have forced them either to return to their countries of origin or to become undocumented. The case dealing with the matter at hand, Ramos v Nielsen, was brought on behalf on nine individuals protected under TPS and their U.S. citizen children. It cites the decision’s violation of the Equal Protection Clause by targeting “non-white, non European immigrants”.

Undocumented Children Are Being Transferred to Tornillo Camp

Undocumented children are being transferred, often overnight, from foster homes and shelters all over the country to Texas’ Tornillo Detention Camp. The camp, which was supposed to be a temporary detention site for children, will now remain open until at least the end of the year. From over 13,000 unaccompanied migrant children currently detained nationwide, at least 1,600 are being transferred to Tornillo each week. According to the Department of Health and Human Service, children are being held in custody for an average of 34 to 59 days in air-conditioned tents. Most are between the ages of 13-17 and likely to be released soon or be placed with sponsors.

Tornillo, unlike other locations housing detained children, is not monitored by state child welfare authorities. This means that Tornillo does not offer schooling or follow other safety guidelines created by the Department of Health and Human Services. Additionally, the camp has limited legal services available. Children are being transferred overnight and with minimal notice to decrease chances of escape attempts.

Senators Introduce Body-Worn Camera Act

Border-state Senators Kamala Harris (D-California), Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico), and Tom Udall (D-New Mexico) introduced the Body-Worn Camera Act in the Senate. This would require agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to wear body cameras to address complaints against officers and provide more transparency. The practice, already adopted by other law enforcement agencies, would also provide evidence in criminal cases. The Democrats' legislation has support from the Border Patrol agents' union, which endorsed Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential primary. “Senator Harris worked with us to address concerns that the roll-out of Body Worn Cameras is handled with due care to ensure this technology is used with the utmost integrity and accountability,” the president of the National Border Patrol Council, Brandon Judd, noted in a statement from the senators.

Additional Readings:

Body- Worn Camera Feasibility Study Report (U.S. Customs and Border Protection, August 2015)

Dickerson, Caitlin Migrant Children Moved Under Cover of Darkness to a Texas Tent City (The New York Times, September 20,2018)

Flynn, Meagan Federal Judge, Citing Trump Racial Bias says Administration Can’t Strip Legal Status from 300,000 Haitians, Salvadorans and others – for now (The Washington Post, October 4, 2018)

Gomez, Alan Federal Judge Blocks Trump from Deporting Thousands of Immigrants Under TPS (USA Today, October 3, 2018)

Ramos v. Nielsen (ACLU Local, October 3, 2018)

SBCC Statement on ICE and CBP Body-Worn Camera Bill Introduced in Congress (Southern Border Communities Coalition, October 2, 2018)

—Juliet Pena

#Border Security #Migration #Weekly Update

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This Week in Border Security: Weeks of September 10-26, 2018

Trump Administration Seeks to Make Changes to the ‘Public Charge’ Definition

The Trump administration is expected to publish in the Federal Register a new definition of “public charge.” The change would make undocumented immigrants who receive federal public benefits like food stamps, Medicaid, and Section 8 housing subsidies ineligible for work authorization (green cards). Other factors taken into consideration for the new public charge standard may be health conditions including mental health disorders, heart diseases, cancer and other illnesses likely to make an individual dependent on public benefits at government expense.

Federal law has always required potential green card holders to prove they will not be a public charge. However, ‘public charge’ has been previously defined as someone who solely receives cash benefits like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

Immigrants who currently receive such benefits would not be penalized. The standard will be imposed after regulation has been finalized. According to the New York Times, the new rule would mostly affect immigrants seeking to reunite with their families in the United States, and those in the country with student or worker visas who seek to remain permanently. A report by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 20 million children in immigrant families relying on public assistance may be affected, 10 million of them U.S. citizens. Immigration advocates predict that immigrants will begin withdrawing from public benefits for fear of losing their legal status.

Trump Administration Diverted $10 Million from FEMA to ICE

The Washington Post reports that the Trump Administration has diverted ten million dollars from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) revealed the transfer, which was notified on a “Transfer and Reprogramming” budget document showing that the agency had requested the money for additional detention beds and transportation for migrant removal.

As critics questioned the transfer just at the onset of hurricane season, DHS (Department of Homeland Security) affirmed in a statement that the funds did not affect FEMA’s relief efforts. Tyler Q. Houlton, spokesperson for DHS, said in a series of tweets that money transferred to DHS came from a fund in FEMA that not designated for hurricane relief efforts due to budget limitations.

Tornillo Detention Camp Plans to Expand Beds for Unaccompanied Minors

The government announced plans to increase Tornillo Detention Camp beds for unaccompanied minors by 20% for a total of 3,800. The camp located east of El Paso, Texas was established in June 2018, during the zero-tolerance policy crisis, as a temporary detention center for unaccompanied minors. A source told Texas Monthly that once the camp is at its final stage it will cost approximately 100 million dollars a month to operate; this estimate—about$877 per child per day—seems a bit high.

U.S. Plans to Help Mexico Deport Undocumented Immigrants

A notice sent to Congress shows the State Department’s intent to give Mexico 20 million dollars in foreign assistance funds to help deport as many as 17,000 U.S.-bound undocumented immigrants in its territory. Most unauthorized immigrants in Mexico are Central Americans, some of whom make their way up to the U.S. - Mexico border.Department of Homeland Security Spokeswoman Katie Waldman said “the program was intended to help relieve immigration flows at the United States border with Mexico.”

Ice Requests Additional 1 Billion Dollars for Budget

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is lobbying for a $1 billion increase to its budget. The money would go to deporting a record high number of 253,000 immigrants in the fiscal year 2019. Though the agency was seeking approval by lawmakers on the “continuing resolution” bill keeping the government open until December 7, Congress did not agree.

Additional Readings

Blitzer, Jonathan The Case for Reuniting “Ineligible” Families Separated at the Border (The New Yorker, September 13, 2018)

Devereaux, Ryan Justice Department Attempts to Suppress Evidence that Border Patrol Targeted Humanitarian Volunteers (The Intercept, September 16, 2018)

Dickerson, Caitlin Detention of Migrant Children has Skyrocketed to Highest Levels Ever (The New York Times, September 12, 2018)

Harris, Gardiner and Hirschfeld – Davis, Julie U.S. Plans to Pay Mexico to Deport Unauthorized Immigrants There (The New York Times, September 12, 2018)

Lind, Dara Trump is Proposing a Regulation that can Change the Face of Legal Immigration – by Restricting Low – Income Immigrants (Vox, September 24, 2018)

Miroff, Nick and Sieff, Kevin Hunger, not Violence, fuels Guatemala Migration surge, U.S. says (The Washington Post, September 22, 2018)

Moore, Robert Tornillo Tent City Will Expand to Hold Even More Immigrant Kids (Texas Monthly, September 11, 2018)

Sacchetti, Maria ICE says it Needs a $1 Billion Funding Boost to Meet Trump’s Aggressive Deportation Goals (The Washington Post, September 13, 2018)

Shear, Michael D. and Baumgaertner, Emily Trump Administration Aims to Sharply Restrict New Green Cards for those on Public Aid (The New York times, September 22, 2018)

Solis, Dianne U.S. to Triple Number of Beds at Tent Camp for Immigrant Children near El Paso (Dallas News)

Stanley – Becker, Isaac Trump Administration Diverted Nearly $10 million from FEMA to ICE Detention Program According to DHS Document (The Washington Post, September 12, 2018)

—Juliet Pena

#Border Security #Migration #weekly update

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This Week in Border Security: September 5, 2018

Over a Month After Order of Reunification, Hundreds of Children Remain Separated from Their Families

It has been over a month since the expiration of a federal court-imposed deadline for the Trump administration to reunite children, separated by the zero-tolerance policy, with their families. Still, over 300 children, 22 of whom are under the age of 5, remain detained in shelters run by government contractors.

Approximately 360 parents were deported back to their countries of origin without their children. These parents await the return of their children; most do not know when they will see them again. Many agreed to deportation, waiving their right to seek asylum, under the false understanding that they would be sent back along with their children. Some agreed to leave their children in the U.S. to have a chance at a better life, few remain in detention centers themselves making reunification impossible and there are disputes about how many parents have indeed been contacted.

Parents who remain in communication with their children allege abuse and mistreatment including, in some cases, the use of psychotropic drugs and sexual abuse while in custody. Beyond such egregious cases, experts signal the substantial trauma and long-term psychological effects on children of such long periods of separation.

Advocates and attorneys are working to unify families. This has been made seriously complicated by law enforcement officials’ failure to keep correct information on parents and their relationships to children. Some parents have been denied reunification due to minor offenses on their record.

The Administration Proposed to Keep Children Detained Indefinitely

The Flores Settlement, a 1997 court agreement modified in 2015, set standards for the detention of immigrant children, based on the “best interest of the child”. This has meant avoiding holding a child for over 20 days, even with family members, in licensed facilities. The Trump administration, which remains determined to detain families awaiting asylum decisions, officially published in the Federal Register changes it seeks to impose on the Flores Agreement. Some possibilities include being able to hold a child until his or her case is adjudicated, which would allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to expand immigration detention centers. The current plan is for an expansion to 12,000 family detention beds from the current 3,000. Other requested adjustments include flexibility to decide when to give children snacks or transfers to other facilities and stripping away unaccompanied minors’ right to present their case in front of an asylum officer as opposed to an immigration judge.

U.S. Citizens are Being Denied Passports

Individuals in the Rio Grande Valley region of south Texas are being denied passports, even if they have birth certificates proving that they were born inside the United States, the Washington Post revealed. The Trump administration is citing accusations of fraudulent birth certificates given by midwives and physicians in the region during the 1950s through 1990s. Some individuals are being sent to detention centers. Others are having their passports confiscated.

After the news was made public, the State of Department issued statistics claiming, “passport denials were at the lowest level in years.”

Additional Readings:

Aleman, Marco El Salvador: 3 Kids Separated in US were Abused at Shelters (AP News, August 31, 2018)

Dickerson, Caitlin Trump Administration Moves to Sidestep Restrictions on Detaining Migrant Children (The New York Times, September 6, 2018)

Gonzalez, Daniel Supreme Court Ruling Could Upend Thousands of Deportation Cases, Sowing Chaos in Court (AZCentral, august 27, 2018)

Kassie, Emily Sexual Assault Inside ICE Detention: 2 Survivors Tell Their Stories (The New York Times, July 17, 2018)

Mirroff, Nick and Sacchetti, Maria Trump Administration to Circumvent Court Limits on Detention of Child Migrants (The Washington Post, September 6, 2018)

Sieff, Kevin U.S. is Denying Passports to Americans Along the Border, Throwing their Citizenship into Question (The Washington Post, September 1, 2018)

US: Deported Parents’ Agonizing Wait (Human Rights Watch, September 5, 2018)

—Juliet Peña

#border security #Migration #weekly update

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This Week in Border Security: April 20, 2018

Most Texans Oppose a Wall

A U.S.-Mexico border wall would affect Texas the most of all border states, since it comprises more than half of the shared border with Mexico and would require “disrupting or seizing nearly 5,000 parcels of property,” most of which are privately owned.

Such seizure of private property was attempted after the 2006 Secure Fence Act. The federal government filed more than 300 condemnation cases, synonymous with eminent domain. Twelve years later, 85 of these cases are still in litigation. Juan Cavazo, a Brownsville native who had two acres of border wall built on his land, explained to the Los Angeles Times that since the Rio Grande river has many twists in its course, the wall has to be built a large distance away from it, inevitably infringing on surrounding landowners’ properties.

This may help explain why a Quinnipiac poll found the majority of voters in Texas, 53 percent, opposed to a border wall. Of Hispanic voters, 72% opposed a wall. Additionally, 79% believe Dreamers—the 800,000 undocumented Americans who were brought to the United States as children—should be allowed to stay and have a pathway to citizenship. This is 2 points higher than the national average of a Quinnipiac University National Poll conducted on April 11.

Contrary to this majority, the Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol advocates for a wall. The Los Angeles Times reports that the region has “316 miles of border and only 55 miles of barriers, with 35 gaps that were left without gates for lack of funding.” To mitigate this, 35 new gates will be installed along this part of the border—to grant Texan landowners access to their lands while deterring migrants—starting this October at a cost of $49 million. However, locals expressed concern, saying that a 2009 gate installed in a local birding area rarely opened after its installation, isolating the area completely. “There are churches, cemeteries, RV parks south of the levees that would be potentially inaccessible. Even if there are gates there, it impacts the livability of those areas. You are stuck behind a wall, and if a gate doesn't open you have to drive miles to get around,” says John-Michael Torres, spokesperson for a community group, La Union del Pueblo Entero.

Tohono O’odham Nation Refuses to Let National Guard on Their Land

Though President Trump has sent up to 4,000 National Guardsmen to “secure” the border, the Tohono O’odham Nation in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico is refusing to let military personnel access their 75 miles of U.S.-Mexico border land.

According to Splinter, under the Gadsden Purchase in 1853, the United States paid $10 million for 29,670 square miles of Mexican land, splitting the Nation in two. Today, the Tohono O’odham Nation is “the second largest Native American land base in the United States” with 34,000 members, 2,000 of whom live in Mexico.

In addition to opposing the National Guard, the Tohono O’odham Nation has consistently fought against having a border wall built on its land, as it would intrude on cross-border cultural and religious activities. Tohono O’odham chairman Edward D. Manuel stated, “A wall built along the border we believe is not the answer to securing America. Walls throughout the world have proven to not be 100% effective.” Although the Nation cooperates with Border Patrol, it does not see either of these border security measures as sensible solutions.

Jurors are Considering a Second-Degree Murder Charge in a 2012 Border Patrol Cross-Border Shooting of a Mexican Teen

Five years after Border Patrol agent Lonnie Swartz shot 16 year old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez 16 times within 34 seconds through the border fence into Nogales, Mexico, Swartz is standing trial for second degree murder. The judge encouraged jurors to consider voluntary and involuntary manslaughter. Swartz used extreme lethal force against the teen who was throwing rocks over the fence, even though “the Mexican side of the fence where Elena Rodriguez died is about 25 feet lower than the U.S. side. Because of the arc an object thrown over the fence from Mexico would have to follow, it would be all but impossible for a rock thrown from Mexico to hit someone near the fence on the U.S. side” the Arizona Republic reports.

One of the qualifications for second-degree murder is “malicious” intent, which has been difficult to prove since it is unclear whether “Elena Rodríguez was alive or not while Swartz continued to shoot” according to the Arizona Daily Star.

Homeland Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen Claims “Crisis” at Yuma, Arizona Border

This Wednesday Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Arizona Governor Doug Ducey toured the Yuma, Arizona border to inspect infrastructure, physical barriers, and technological capabilities. Despite border apprehensions at a decades-long low, Nielsen asserted that “…we continue to see unacceptable levels of illegal drugs, dangerous gang activity, transnational criminal organizations, and illegal immigration flow across our border.” (Most illicit activities tied to drug trafficking occur through legal ports of entry.) Nielsen insisted the situation at the border is a “crisis.” By the end of the trip, Ducey announced he would increase the number of National Guardsmen at the border of Arizona from 338 to 440 members in order to aid in preventing “criminal aliens” from entering.

In addition to visiting Yuma, Nielsen also visited Calexico, California after a group of 61 migrants were apprehended there last week. Nielsen referred to fencing as “Trump’s wall” and pitched Congress for more border funding.

California Limits the Role of the National Guard at the Border

California’s National Guard told the Department of Homeland Security that it would not help Border Patrol perform maintenance, transportation, or surveillance, the Washington Post reports. This is after California Governor Jerry Brown sent 400 National Guardsmen to the border to play a “limited role,” on the condition that it would not include immigration enforcement. This makes Brown the only border-state governor to not comply fully with Trump’s request for a National Guard deployment to apprehend migrants.

Brown proposed a formal agreement to the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense which outlines the National Guard’s mission at the border as addressing criminal gangs, guns, and drugs but excluding immigration enforcement. The federal government has not yet responded.

Additional Readings:

Casillas, Mauricio Life of Border Patrol agent Jose Barraza remembered in second-annual 5K (ABC-7 KVIA, Apr 14, 2018)

Partlow, Joshua U.S. has been quietly helping Mexico with new, high-tech ways to fight opium (The Washington Post, April 15, 2018)

Barnes, Robert Divided Supreme Court says part of immigration law used for deportation too vague (The Washington Post, April 17, 2018)

Dibble, Sandra Otay Mesa Port of Entry slated for $122 million upgrade (The San Diego Union-Tribune, April 17, 2018)

Averbuch, Maya and Kinosian, Sarah Here’s The Truth About The Caravan Of Migrants Trump Keeps Going On About (The Huffington Post, April 18, 2018)

Southern Border Communities Coalition ‘Queen of the Hill” move should Protect Dreamers Without Militarizing Border Communities (Southern Border Communities Coalition April 18, 2018)

Prendergast, Curt Man sentenced to prison as human smuggler, now facing sex assault charges (Arizona Daily Star, April 18, 2018)

Gonzáles, Daniel Federal judge grants bond request to jailed immigrant rights activist (The Republic, April 19, 2018)

Diaz, Lizbeth Some 50 members of migrant caravan reach Mexico, U.S. border (Reuters, April 19, 2018)

Kopan, Tal Snapshots from the US-Mexico border (CNN, April 19, 2018)

—Monica Hayward

#border security #weekly update

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This Week in Border Security: April 13, 2018

Presidential memo seeks to detain all asylum seekers

Last Friday, Trump signed a memo that aims to end so-called “catch and release” practices at the border within 45 days. A detailed report by Vox describes the phrase as a “catchall term for any law or policy that prevents the federal government from keeping every single immigrant apprehended without papers at the US-Mexico border from being processed.” Thus an asylum-seeking migrant apprehended along the border who is released pending his or her asylum hearing would be considered a “catch and release.”

Although those most often “caught and released” are vulnerable populations like asylum-seekers, families, and children, the Trump administration would insist on detention. The White House, in Vox’s words, is pursuing policies “designed to push the federal government as far as it can legally go right now to make detention and deportation the rule for everyone crossing into the US without papers — regardless of circumstance.”

This is significant considering that a policy of strictly detaining and deporting would send hundreds of thousands of protection-seeking children and families into long-term detention, as they await a day in backlogged immigration courts. Those who prefer deportation to detention may risk death. This is what may happento Central American migrant Juan Carlos Guevara—a caravan asylum-seeker from El Salvador— whose life was threatened by 8 gang members after seeing two neighbors being dragged blindfolded from their house. One of the immigration lawyers providing legal assistance to these migrants, Allegra Love, stated, "Leaving your home country, with your children, on foot, into a whole another country that is hostile, towards another country where our president is actively creating stronger policies to prevent asylum seekers from being there, that is scary. They are in God's hands."

$73.3 million worth of fencing goes up in New Mexico, but Trump claims it’s a wall

The Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act for 2018 which passed March 23 and gave Customs and Border Protection $1.34 billion in funding for fencing, is now being implemented in New Mexico. According to the Dallas Morning News, “The construction will replace three-foot-tall posts and a taller mesh fence with an 18- to 30-foot barrier” made of bollard fence which is expected to cost $73.3 million. Although the 20-mile segment of barrier is clearly fencing, consisting of steel posts which allow one to see through into Mexico, and despite the fact that the Homeland Security Appropriations Act does not finance an actual wall, Chief Patrol Agent Aaron A. Hull of the U.S. Border Patrol El Paso Sector has rebranded the fence saying, “The president has started his project. It’s very much a wall.”

The Dallas Morning News reported, “The Trump administration has also shifted goalposts, saying any new updates, maintenance work, or replacements of existing barriers qualify as part of "Trump's wall." This glorification is likely an attempt to appease Trump’s conservative base to which he promised a “big beautiful wall” to during his presidential campaign, but for which Congress did not approve funding.

Lourdes Campos Nuñez, who lives across the border in Anapra, Mexico, said, “ I thought the wall would be made out of cement. That man, your president, is crazy, but if insists on wall, let's all call it a wall and maybe he'll leave us alone.” Lourdes’ son and daughter also agreed that it was a fence, that it was nonetheless dividing and ugly. In the meantime, 250 national guardsmen, out up to the 4,000 who may be deployed, were sent to New Mexico under Trump’s command in order to “secure the border”.

The caravan arrives in Mexico City Monday, while an alleged splinter from the caravan arrives in Arizona

Despite incessant media coverage of the caravan, a group of what started out as 1,200 predominantly Honduran Central Americans walking northward—prompting President Trump to send the National Guard to “secure the border”—the procession is slowing. As of Monday, a group of 500 migrants reached Mexico City, where they were welcomed by a shelter that could house them for 3 days. According to Arizona Central, after their arrival, the caravan migrants proceeded to march to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe where they denounced “Central American governments for not addressing the conditions that force people to leave their home countries, and singling out Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez.” Most of the migrants decided to stay in Mexico, though some have broken off from the caravan to attempt to reach the United States and request asylum.

Newsweek reported that one group of 60 migrants that arrived in Yuma, Arizona this Monday is thought to have splintered off the caravan. Of the 60 migrants apprehended, “90 percent were families and a third were less than 18 years of age.” However, this apprehension has been receiving much right-wing media coverage since the group did include one MS-13 gang member, Herberth Geovani Argueta-Chavez. In his interview, the 18 year old El Salvadoran admitted to being a gang member, but stated he was trying to separate from the gang.

According to Customs and Border Protection, the group is now being processed for immigration violations. This is likely due to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s order last week to begin a “zero-tolerance” policy for people who cross or attempt to cross the border illegally. The directive “instructs all federal prosecutors on the southwest border to prosecute all Department of Homeland Security referrals for alleged violations of federal immigration illegal-entry laws” in an attempt to stop “catch and release policies.” There was no mention whether the group was attempting to request asylum, or whether that process is underway.

Most migrants do not have the legal representation necessary to successfully claim asylum

A Texas Tribune report found that from October 2000 through February 2018, less than 30% of migrants in deportation proceedings in Texas had representation, and “nearly 70 percent of the Texas cases during the time frame studied ended with a removal order. By comparison, 74 percent of defendants in New York had a lawyer, and just 27 percent received a deportation order.” This demonstrates a correlation between legal representation and deportation.

Advocates and attorneys have stated that lack of representation multiplies a migrant’s likelihood of deportation: “80 percent of unaccompanied minors who entered the country between 2012 and 2014 and didn't have representation were deported.” A routine asylum case consists of 4 hearings and hours of preparation before each hearing, in a complex system and mostly in a foreign language.

Nonetheless, last week Attorney General Sessions established a quota for immigration judges to close 700 cases per year. The resulting fast-tracking of cases will likely lead to cut corners and violations of due process—but also to more appeals, causing more work for immigration lawyers and judges in the long term.

Further reading:

Miroff, Nick Trump administration, seeking to speed deportations, to impose quotas on immigration judges (The Washington Post April 2, 2018)

Splinter The Massive Legal Loophole That Lets Border Patrol Ignore Your Constitutional Rights (Splinter, April 2, 2018)

Gottesdiener, Laura; Kanuga, Malav; and Santos Briones, Cinthya ‘A Border Control Official Sexually Abused Me’ (The Nation, April 2, 2018)

Zabludovsky, Karla Other Migrant Groups Warned Against The "Caravan" Through Mexico (BuzzFeed News, April 2, 2018)

Dreier, Hannah A Betrayal: The teenager told police all about his gang, MS-13. In return, he was slated for deportation and marked for death. (ProPublica, April 2, 2018)

The Washington Post A fact for Trump: The border is more secure than it has been in half a century (The Washington Post April 3, 2018)

Morrissey, Kate Federal law limits Trump's proposal to send troops to guard border (The San Diego Union-Tribune, April 3, 2018)

Southern Border Communities Coalition SBCC Statement on Trump’s Plans to Send Troops to Guard Border (Southern Border Communities Coalition April 3, 2018)

Latin America Working Group LAWG Launches Report, Warns Conditions Driving Migrant Caravan Persist (Latin America Working Group, April 3, 2018)

Farah Gebara, Mauricio Trump, el muro, el ejército y la frontera (Grupo Milenio, April 4, 2018)

Valencia, Jorge Mexico’s Presidential Candidates Find Common Rival Amid Trump’s Border Plan (Fronteras, April 6, 2018)

Vanderpool, Tim A Standing Rock on the Border? (The Progressive, April 6, 2018)

—Monica Hayward

#border security #weekly update

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This Week in Border Security: March 30, 2018

U.S. border fails to contain a southbound threat: firearms

2017 was Mexico’s most violent year on record, with more than 29,000 homicides. Of the firearm related deaths, most involved guns trafficked to Mexico across the U.S. border. According to Al Jazeera, citing a 2016 U.S. Government Accountability Office report, from 2009-2014, 70% of guns recovered and traced in Mexican crime scenes were purchased in the United States and smuggled into Mexico. “Doing so is easy, since the U.S.-Mexico border is designed principally to facilitate massive volumes of trade.,” Al Jazeera noted. “The Border Patrol, fences, and militarized infrastructure on that border are to stop migrants moving from south to north, not threats that move from the U.S. into Mexico.” NPR reports that every year, approximately 253,000 firearms cross into Mexico.

Though the Trump administration has been focused on keeping “threats” out of the United States, it has failed to recognize southbound threats that contribute to organized crime and human rights violations across Mexico, especially the smuggling of arms and bulk cash from illegal transactions.

Most of these weapons are bought, legally, at U.S. gun shops and gun shows. To reduce the impact on security and human rights in Mexico, Congress and border states must focus on arms trafficking, more aggressively investigating and punishing the transport of assault weapons and magazines across the border.

Refugee caravan of 1,500 heads to California despite increased rigor to request asylum

Pueblo Sin Fronteras, a Mexican immigrant rights group, organized a caravan of 1,500 Central Americans, many of them families, women, and unaccompanied minors, that plans to make a 2,000 mile long journey through Mexico to reach the U.S. border. Along the way, migrants are attending workshops to prepare for how to request asylum once they reach California in about a month.

Despite the Trump administration’s efforts to deter refugees from requesting asylum, such as family separation at the border and prolonged detention, a Mexico-based organizer with Pueblo Sin Fronteras, Rodrigo Abeja, pointed out, “The number of people on this journey illustrates the desperation people have to stay alive…The journey is extreme. People say that if they stay where they are they’ll die. So they’re here because they’re trying to stay alive.”

If the caravan arrives, it will deal a shock to a U.S. asylum system already teetering under massive caseloads and multiple allegations of improper procedure. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Human Rights Watch filed a lawsuit against the US government over “evidence that the Border Patrol has abused asylum seekers and misrepresented their statements.” This Thursday in Seattle, Washington, U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez ruled that the Department of Homeland Security routinely failed to notify asylum seekers of the deadlines to file their applications. Martinez said that going forward, DHS must notify asylum-seekers of the deadlines and ”give those who missed the deadline another year to file their applications.”

New policy: pregnant refugees must be held in detention facilities despite inadequate medical services

Until now, pregnant women detained at the border would not be held in detention facilities while awaiting asylum-related court proceedings. However, under a new policy issued this Thursday, detention will be mandatory for pregnant women. According to the Houston Chronicle, “Since December 2017, when the policy went into effect, the agency has detained 506 pregnant women.… It currently has 35 such women in detention.”

This new policy comes despite prior allegations of neglect o fpregnant women in detention facilities. After being assaulted by a Border Patrol agent, Rubia Mabel Morales Alfaro, who was two months pregnant, requested medical attention for “abdominal pain, dizziness, and nausea” earlier this year at the Otay Mesa Detention Center south of San Diego. She was seen by the facility’s doctor but found out she had miscarried over a week later when she began to bleed.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security. According to the ACLU, “Several women in our complaint report that they were ignored and denied immediate medical care even in cases of extreme bleeding and pain. Others said that they were concerned about their pregnancies because of previous health issues and miscarriages.”

Immigrants don’t drive up crime, a report finds

This Friday the Marshall Project published an in-depth investigation on America’s perceptions of the “criminal immigrant.” The report found that although there has been a 118% increase in the U.S. immigrant population since 1980, violent crime has decreased 36% in those years.

This contradicts the nearly 50% of Americans who perceive immigrants as “worsening” crime. This perception is fueled by President Trump’s rhetoric. Just last week, he said, “Every day, sanctuary cities release illegal immigrants, drug dealers, traffickers, gang members back into our communities, they’re safe havens for just some terrible people.”

Further reading:

Ahmed, Azam Where Fear and Hope Collide: Images From Mexican Border, and Beyond (New York Times, March 25, 2018)

Blackhurst, Kathryn California’s Orange County Continues Trend of Bucking Sanctuary Policies (LifeZette, March 27, 2018)

Carranza, Rafael Why newly funded border barriers won't look like Donald Trump's prototypes (The Arizona Republic, March 27, 2018)

Ingram, Paul Swartz trial: Evidence shows boy still moving when shot in back, expert testifies (Tucson Sentinel, Mar 28, 2018)

Srikrishnan, Maya County Leaders Will Consider Joining Trump Lawsuit (Voice of San Diego, March 28, 2018)

Morrissey, Katie Deported veteran leader Hector Barajas is 'coming home' (San Diego Union-Tribune, March 29, 2018)

Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse Where Are Immigrants with Immigration Court Cases Being Detained? (Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, March 29, 2018)

Brannen, Kate Exclusive: Mattis Drafting Specific Options for Using Defense Dollars to Pay for Trump’s Wall (Just Security, March 29, 2018)

Schwartz, Jeremy Federal agencies clash over border wall’s impact on endangered ocelot (My Statesman, March 30, 2018)

—Monica Hayward

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This Week in Border Security: March 23, 2018

$1.3 trillion spending bill funds the government for 2018, provides no solution for Dreamers, funds some fencing but none of Trump’s other border priorities

On March 23 the Senate passed a $1.3 trillion budget for 2018, solidifying spending until the fiscal year ends 6 months from now. Included in this “omnibus” bill is the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, This bill provided:

$445 million for 25 miles of “levee fencing” in Rio Grande Valley, Texas;

$196 million for “primary pedestrian fencing” in Rio Grande Valley, Texas;

$251 million for 14 miles of replacement fence in San Diego, CA; and

$445 million for replacement fencing in unspecified areas.

Which amounts to

$1.34 billion in fencing, of which

$641 million is for new fencing, equating to $19 million per mile.

The budget law, which president Trump signed on the 23, prohibits the use of these funds to build a “wall” along the lines of the prototypes that the White House mandated be built in southern California. The law also denies the White House demand for a $25 billion “trust fund” for a border wall and other infrastructure. It rejects a Trump administration request to hire 500 more Border Patrol agents, to hire 1,500 new ICE agents, and to expand detention space for apprehended migrants. Despite largely rejecting Trump’s immigration policy, the omnibus bill does not provide a solution for DACA recipients, Dreamers— the 800,000 undocumented Americans who were brought to the US as children.

Although Trump threatened on Twitter:

“I am considering a VETO of the Omnibus Spending Bill based on the fact that the 800,000 plus DACA recipients have been totally abandoned by the Democrats (not even mentioned in Bill) and the BORDER WALL, which is desperately needed for our National Defense, is not fully funded.”

He ended up signing it later that same day, though he promised to "never sign another bill like this again.”

Border Patrol agent tried for 2012 homicide of Mexican teen through border fence

Five years after Border Patrol agent Lonnie Swartz shot 16 year old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez 16 times through the border fence in Nogales, Arizona into Mexico, Swartz will stand trial for second degree murder next Tuesday March 27.

On October 10, 2012 Border Patrol agents in the middle of the border city of Nogales, Arizona were pursuing two smugglers attempting to climb over the border fence back into Mexico. As the two men climbed, two others on the Mexican side, including Elena Rodriguez, began throwing rocks up a hill and over the fence in an attempt to inhibit Border Patrol. The Arizona Republic reports, “The Mexican side of the fence where Elena Rodriguez died is about 25 feet lower than the U.S. side. Because of the arc an object thrown over the fence from Mexico would have to follow, it would be all but impossible for a rock thrown from Mexico to hit someone near the fence on the U.S. side.” This did not stop Swartz from claiming the men hit his dog with a rock, which prompted him to fire 3 times into Mexico, after which Rodriguez fell face down. Once Elena Rodriguez was down, Swartz continued to shoot 13 more times.

Since Elena Rodriguez’s death, his mother Araceli Rodriguez has lobbied for justice by suing the U.S. government, keeping her sons’ case in the media, and traveling to Tucson more than half a dozen times for trial hearings. If Swartz is convicted, he will be the first Border Patrol agent held accountable for homicide in a cross border shooting.

Migrant in viral video torn from her screaming daughters by Border Patrol is released from detention

On March 3rd Perla Morales-Luna was walking in her neighborhood near San Diego when she was accosted by Border Patrol agents who shoved her into a U.S. Customs and Border Protection van in front of her 3 daughters. The incident was caught on video and went viral.

This Tuesday Morales-Luna was released from the Otay Mesa Detention Center, where she had been held since her arrest, after Judge Zsa Zsa De Paolo determined “that Morales-Luna is not a danger to the community,” the San Diego Union Tribune reported. Morales-Luna’s eldest daughter, 17-year-old Yessica Estrada, described the arrest of her mother: “I was in shock, I was angry and confused. They just left us there.” And how it felt not having her for weeks: “It was really awful, not having my mom with us, waking up and realizing she’s still not there, I just want to hug her.”

Despite Morales-Luna being the sole supporter of her daughters who are U.S. citizens, the case still needs to be transferred to the San Diego immigration court “to determine whether she can stay in the U.S.”

Border Patrol agents want increased tech and personnel along the border, not a wall

A report by Senate Homeland Security Committee Democratic staff summarizes the findings of an annual Customs and Border Protection data collection effort. It strikingly found that Border Patrol agents surveyed last year rarely recommended a border wall to solve “capability gaps” or vulnerabilities. “The Border Patrol identified a total of 902 southwest border capability gaps through its FY 2017 CGAP process,” reads the committee staff’s release. “The word ‘wall’ was suggested as a possible solution for just three of those gaps, and Border Patrol agents referenced ‘fence’ or ‘fencing’ as a possible solution to just 34, or less than 4 percent.” Agents’ feedback, which points to more technology and personnel instead, runs counter to Border Patrol’s strategic plan affirming the necessity of a border wall.

Trump’s nomination for Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection receives Senate approval

After waiting nearly a year for confirmation, the U.S. Senate approved, by a 77-19 vote on March 19, the nomination of Kevin McAleenan as commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. McAleenan has worked for CBP for 16 years and has been responsible for overseeing 329 ports of entry, including 48 along the U.S.-Mexico border. In this position, which he has been occupying as acting commissioner, McAleenan will be responsible for carrying out Trump’s travel bans, border wall prototypes, and expanding the number of Border Patrol agents, according to the American Immigration Council. Opponents to his nomination, such as Senator Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico) cite discontent with the administration’s border policies.

Further Reading:

Green, Miranda Tribe clashes with Zinke on need for Mexican border wall (The Hill, March 19, 2018).

Casey, Matthew U.S. Supreme Court To Decide Timeline For Detaining Immigrants After Release From Criminal Custody (Fronteras, March 19, 2018)

Lara, Genesis Children from U.S. adapt to new lives in Mexico (Nogales International, March 19, 2018 )

Hunte, Tracie; Nasser, Latif; and Reineke, Robin How Border Patrol Pushed Migrants to the Deadly Arizona Desert (New York Public Radio, March 21, 2018)

Carranza, Rafael Key witnesses recount Border Patrol agent's shooting of unarmed Mexican teen (The Arizona Republic, March 22, 2018)

Buch, Jason Report: Detainees at Texas detention center beaten, pepper-sprayed (San Antonio Express News, March 22, 2018)

Morrissey, Kate Dreamer hoping for permission to say goodbye to dying grandfather (The San Diego Tribune, March 22, 2018)

Kocherga, Angela Lawsuit seeks to block new NM border fence (Albuquerque Journal, March 23, 2018)

Nogales International Sheriff’s Office gets $605K Stonegarden grant (Nogales International, March 23, 2018 )

—Monica Hayward

#Border Security #Weekly Update

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This Week in Border Security: March 9, 2018

Asylum-seeking families are forcibly separated at the border. The appointment of a “refugee skeptic” to a State Department post points to more of the same

A 39-year old Congolese woman seeking asylum from violence in Congo was forcibly separated from her 7-year-old daughter by immigration agents at the U.S.-Mexican border.

The Trump administration is increasingly employing the tactic of forced family separation in the belief that it will deter others from seeking refuge in the United States.

This mother and child were kept detained over 2,000 miles apart in San Diego and Chicago, respectively, for this sole purpose. However, after the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit Ms. L v. ICE against the federal government, authorities abruptly released the mother from custody. In its lawsuit the ACLU “cites violations of the Constitution’s due process clause, federal law protecting asylum seekers, and the government’s own directive to release asylum seekers.” This case is an example of what thousands of asylum seekers, especially children and families from Central America, may soon be undergoing more often. Since May 2017 alone, the U.S. government has separated children from their parents 53 times according to The Washington Post.

This practice will likely persist if not worsen under the new appointment of Andrew Veprek as a deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) post at the State Department. Veprek is a Foreign Service officer who most recently served as a White House aide to senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, who advocates severely limiting the number of refugees and immigrants who can enter the United States. According to a Politico report, Veprek has been described as a “vehicle” for Miller’s strict immigration policies and as believing “international migration is something to be stopped.” A current official predicted that “some PRM officials could resign in protest over Veprek’s appointment.”

Trump administration sues California for policies protecting undocumented migrants against federal immigration enforcement

On March 6 the Trump administration filed a lawsuit in a Federal District Court in Sacramento against California’s so-called “sanctuary” city policies. These policies protect undocumented migrants by restricting “how local law enforcement can cooperate with federal immigration enforcement officers,” according to the New York Times. Non-cooperation has been enabled through state legislation such as the California Values Act, which limits local and state agencies’ sharing of information with federal officers regarding suspects and criminals; the Immigrant Worker Protection Act which prohibits federal immigration officials from obtaining employee records without a court order; and the Detention Review Act which requires the State Attorney General to review all detention facilities where migrants await federal deportation court dates. Proponents of limited cooperation with federal immigration agencies contend that time and resources which would otherwise be spent working with the feds, should be spent creating meaningful community ties for better policing.

The Justice Department called these practices “unconstitutional” and asked a judge to block them. California Governor Jerry Brown and Attorney General Xavier Becerra insisted on defying the administration’s attempts to target migrants. Attorney General, Xavier Becerra stated, “We’re in the business of public safety, not deportation.” In response President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions have threatened to prosecute public officials and to deny federal grant money.

Migrant is shown being torn from her screaming daughters by Border Patrol in a viral video

Perla Morales-Luna was walking in her neighborhood with her three daughters in National City, California on March 3rd when she was accosted by Border Patrol agents who shoved her into a U.S. Customs and Border Protection van. The incident was caught on video by one of her three daughters as they screamed and cried in the background.

Ms. Morales-Luna was detained on suspicion of being undocumented and on suspicion of having ties to a smuggling operation. The three daughters are currently staying with an uncle.

Virtual wall succeeds in Cochise County, Arizona

In 2011, Arizona lawmakers established a “border fencing fund” to accept donations to privately finance a barrier. Estimates predicted as much as $50 million in donations but after 6 years, the fund was closed in 2017 with only $270,000,The Arizona Republic reports.

In response, Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels took alternative measures when he took office in his border county in 2014. Dannels renamed a preexisting border enforcement unit “The Southeastern Arizona Border Regional Enforcement task force,” also known as SABRE, gave it expanded authorities; established a ranch patrol to address damages linked to human smuggling such as lost cattle; and placed a greater emphasis on tracking and capturing criminals, such as smugglers. The funds initially established for border fencing were then reallocated to a far less expensive project to install BuckEye cameras with motion-activated sensors. The results of the installations were promising: in “the first 11 months of the operation, deputies seized 4,000 pounds of drugs, and arrested 37 smugglers. They also detained 353 unauthorized border crossers.”

The federal government encroaches on New Mexico’s borderland trust

New Mexico State Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn demanded that the U.S. federal government “pay for the right of way for a one-mile stretch where the border barrier was built on state trust lands,” in a letter addressed to the Department of Homeland Security and Border Patrol in February. Dunn argues that the US federal government has unjustly built fencing on state lands without consulting the trust. After sending this letter, Dunn mounted a “No Trespassing” sign along the border fence and blocked off the road with yellow tape to inhibit Border Patrol agents from using the road until the federal government adequately compensates New Mexico public schools.

Further Reading:

Kocherga, Angela Two Nations One Water Summit looks at possible solutions (Albuequrque Journal, March 3, 2018)

CBS News Questions swirl around company selected to help build border wall (CBS News, March 3, 2018)

Caldwell, Alicia New Barriers to Replace Aging Border Wall in California (The Wall Street Journal, March 4, 2018)

Srikrishnan, Maya Border Report: Artists Hold onto Murals as Fence Construction Begins (Voice of San Diego, March 5, 2018)

Nystrom, Brittney This Is What Immigration Enforcement Looks Like Under President Trump (American Civil Liberties Union, March 6, 2018

US Customs and Border Protection Three Points USBP Agents Arrest Previously Deported Salvadorian MS-13 Gang Member (US Customs and Border Protection, March 6, 2018)

McDonell, Patrick and Wilkinson, Tracy Jared Kushner, in Mexico, meets President Peña Nieto amid tensions over NAFTA and border wall (Los Angeles Times, Mach 7, 2018)

US Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol Finds Bundles of Marijuana at Checkpoint (US Customs and Border Protection, March 7, 2018)

Morrissey, Kate Trump expected to get cheers and jeers during San Diego border wall visit (Los Angeles Times, Mach 8, 2018)

US Customs and Border Protection Southwest Border Migration FY2018 (US Customs and Border Protection March 8, 2018)

Castle, Lauren Pima County, New York Academy of Art partnership brings art, science together to help identify dead migrants (Arizona Central, March 8, 2018)

Trevizo, Perla Moments of high anxiety for deported dad on custody quest (Arizona Daily Star, March 8, 2018)

Carcamo, Cindy Border wall built in 1990s cut illegal immigration, but it also brought problems for small town (Los Angeles Times, March 9, 2018)

—Monica Hayward

#border security #weekly update

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This Week in Border Security: March 2, 2018

Eligible Dreamers are safe from the March 5 deadline, for now

President Trump abruptly decided to end Deferred Action for Child Arrivals (DACA) on September 5, 2017, giving Congress until March 8 to come up with a legislative solution that he found acceptable. (DACA, based on a 2012 executive order from President Barack Obama, protected from deportation undocumented people who had been brought to the United States as children.) Hopes for a legislative fix have been dashed, as Republican efforts to tie DACA to border wall funding, “chain migration,” the VISA lottery, and other immigration issues caused legislative gridlock.

Nonetheless, District Court Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California and District Court Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of the Eastern District of New York ruled illegal President Trump’s abrupt action. Both filed injunctions to keep DACA in place, with some strings attached. According to the Houston Chronicle, due to the rulings, “all of the 700,000 young immigrants who previously had the permits can keep applying to renew their permission. But no new applicants, young immigrants who turned 16 after September making them eligible for the program or others who didn't yet have the required high school certification, can apply.”

Moreover, The Arizona Republic points out that thousands of Dreamers whose renewals expire soon will lose deportation protections and work permits because “they haven't had time to send in renewal applications or because their applications are still being processed.” According to Vox, “Because not everyone who was eligible for renewals applied in time, an average of 122 immigrants are losing DACA protections each day right now; on March 5, that number is estimated to climb to over 400 a day, and around August 2018, it would climb to over 1,000 a day.”

Ordinarily, Trump would have to appeal this decision to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and depending on whether the court were to side with Judge Alsup or Trump, the case would respectively go to the Supreme Court or would not. However, Trump requested to circumvent the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and go directly to the Supreme Court. This unusual request is likely a White House attempt to bypass the liberal-leaning 9th Circuit in order to appeal directly to the Supreme Court—which would potentially be more receptive to the administration’s case. On February 26, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s request, which means DACA is now in the hands of the judiciary, starting with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The DACA deadline does not, for now, require an immediate act of Congress—although a legislative fix remains urgent.

Trump persists in demand that Mexico pay for border wall, Enrique Peña Nieto cancels U.S. trip, U.S. ambassador to Mexico resigns

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s tentative plans to visit the White House within the next few months were cancelled when a 50-minute phone conversation with President Trump, largely dedicated to the U.S.-Mexican border wall, ended badly. Trump would not compromise on his notorious campaign to make Mexico pay for a wall, and President Peña Nieto refused to entertain this “humiliating” demand.

According to the Washington Post, officials said that during the confidential call, “both countries agreed to call off the plan [for a U.S. visit] after Trump would not agree to publicly affirm Mexico’s position that it would not fund construction of a border wall that the Mexican people widely consider offensive.”

The same report cites former Mexican ambassador to the United States Arturo Sarukhan: “Even from the get-go, the idea of Mexico paying for the wall was never going to fly. His relationship with Mexico isn’t strategically driven. It’s not even business; it’s personal, driven by motivations and triggers, and that’s a huge problem. It could end up with the U.S. asking itself, ‘Who lost Mexico?’ ”

After nearly two years as U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Roberta Jacobson, announced March 1 that she will be resigning. She does so “amid strained relations between the two countries,” much of which stems from Trump’s vow to make Mexico pay for a border wall, the Associated Press reported.

Seeking asylum becomes harder in the United States

Amid severe violence from gangs and organized crime in Central America, families continue to make the perilous trek through Mexico to seek asylum in the United States. Once they arrive, agents following new Trump administration guidelines are aggressively prying migrants for suspected fraud.

Elmer Danilo Díaz Hernández, profiled in the Wall Street Journal, fled Honduras with his son because he was being pressured to join the MS-13 gang and when he refused, “MS-13 said they would come and kill me and my son.” Laben Perdoma fled with his 5 year old daughter after “My daughter saw the [gang] leader put a gun to my head and say I’m going to work for him.” Blanca Vasquez fled after gang members killed her husband and targeted her sons.

Once in the United States, it becoming increasingly common for parents to be separated from their children, something that U.S. authorities rarely did before. In some cases, it goes beyond separation. Blanca Vasquez’s 13 year old son was separated from her once immigration officials determined she did not have a legitimate fear to return home. Vasquez was then criminally prosecuted, the Houston Chronicle reports.

Migrants can be held indefinitely without the right to a bond hearing

On February 27 the Supreme Court ruled 5-3 on the case Jennings v. Rodriguez that migrants can be held indefinitely without receiving bond hearings, “even if they have permanent legal status or are seeking asylum,” according to The Hill. This overturned an earlier ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which held that migrants can not be detained indefinitely and that they have the right to a bond hearing every 6 months.

NPR reported that the average migrant is held for 13 months without bond; however, lead plaintiff Alejandro Rodriguez—a migrant who entered the US as a child—was held for 3 years without the right to ask for bond after being found guilty of possessing a controlled substance. Though Supreme Court rulings cannot be appealed, questions regarding the constitutionality of holding someone indefinitely without bail are likely to persist as cases like Rodríguez’s continue to surface.

California judge approves the border wall’s environmental waivers, but Trump unexpectedly threatens to halt border wall construction

On February 27 a California federal judge sided with the U.S. government in a lawsuit challenging dozens of environmental waivers the Trump administration has used to speed up construction of a border wall, under a 2005 law that exempts national security interests from such scrutiny. However, after the administration’s win, Trump tweeted:

“I have decided that sections of the Wall that California wants built NOW will not be built until the whole Wall is approved. Big victory yesterday with ruling from the courts that allows us to proceed. OUR COUNTRY MUST HAVE BORDER SECURITY!”

Despite the administration’s green light, Trump is still adamant about securing a $25 billion trust fund for border infrastructure, including at least $18 billion for several hundred miles of new border wall, before building. Nonetheless, according to the San Diego Tribune, “Administration officials could not point to any change in policy” and regarding several border projects “neither the White House nor the Department of Homeland Security responded to questions about whether Trump meant to delay any of those, and there was no sign that construction would stop.”

Border Patrol Agent released on pretrial supervision after attempting to smuggle 130 lbs. of marijuana

Border Patrol agent Alex Peña faces up to 2 years in prison after pleading guilty to helping smuggle marijuana in exchange for money, the Arizona Daily Star reports. On August 2, 2016 Peña stole a Border Patrol truck, which he intended to use to smuggle “more than 130 pounds of marijuana.” Upon further investigation, it was found that Peña regularly deposited large sums of money into his bank account, including one $30,000 deposit in 2016. Since he was found guilty February 22, “Peña has been released on pretrial supervision since March 2017, court records show.”

Further reading:

Zazueta-Castro, Lorenzo Fearing census undercount, local efforts combat limited resources, ‘anti-Latino environment’ (The Monitor, February 24, 2018)

Alvarez, Priscilla Trump’s Hardline Approach Is Forcing Immigrant Advocates to Readjust (The Atlantic, February 24, 2018)

US Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol Agent Rescues Honduran National (US Customs and Border Protection, February 26, 2018)

Lind, Dara MS-13, explained (Vox, February 26, 2018)

Dawsey, Josh and Miroff, Nick Trump expected to visit California to view border wall prototypes (Washington Post, February 26, 2018)

Thompson, Ginger Top Lawmakers Call for Investigation of DEA-Led Unit in Mexico (ProPublica, February 27, 2018)

Human Rights Watch In the Freezer: Abusive Conditions for Women and Children in US Immigration Holding Cells (Human Rights Watch February 28, 2018)

Montoya- Bryan, Susan Montana company nets $73M contract for border wall work in New Mexico (Great Falls Tribune, March 1, 2018)

Kopan, Tal How Trump changed the rules to arrest more non-criminal immigrants (CNN, March 2, 2018)

Mace, Mikayla General public invited to participate in Border BioBlitz (Arizona Daily Star, March 2, 2018)

—Monica Hayward

#border security #weekly update

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This Week in Border Security: February 23, 2018

Trump’s wall begins construction

On February 21, Customs and Border Protection began construction on a fence replacement project in Calexico, California, in CBP’s El Centro Sector. This 2.25-mile project is taking place using infrastructure and maintenance funds from CBP’s existing budget: it is not quite the launch of President Trump’s proposed “wall.” Nor does it follow the design of the eight border-wall prototype sections built last fall near San Diego. (CBP has not yet chosen a design.) Still, this bollard-type fence is some of the first along the border to reach Trump’s preferred height of 30 feet. It replaces existing fencing in Calexico, across the border from Mexicali, which had effectively prevented migration, but was being breached more often by smuggling organizations. In order to quickly begin construction, the administration exempted itself from environmental reviews under a 2005 law that exempts “national security interests” from such scrutiny. According to San Diego Public Radio, the administration has also issued these same environmental waivers to build in San Diego and Santa Teresa, New Mexico.

Humanitarian volunteer faces up to 20 years in prison for giving two migrants food and water; Border patrol agent faces 1 year in prison for beating a handcuffed migrant

On January 17, 2018 Scott Warren, a No More Deaths volunteer and instructor at Arizona State University, was arrested on charges of harboring aliens shortly after the release of a No More Deaths report and viral video depicting Border Patrol agents dumping jugs of water that volunteers had placed in the desert for undocumented border crossers. Warren was arrested in January after Border Patrol agents found he gave two undocumented immigrants food and water for three days while they sheltered in a remote desert building known as “The Barn.” The Tucson Sentential noted that the report accompanying No More Deaths’ video “said that from 2012 to 2015, 415 caches of water left for crossers in the 800-square-mile corridor near Arivaca were vandalized, spilling nearly 3,600 gallons of water into the desert. During this same time period, the bodies of 1,026 people were found in the Sonoran Desert, according to records from the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner. In 2017 alone, the office handled the remains of another 128 people.”

Despite these humanitarian adversities, a grand jury indicted Warren on “two counts for harboring illegal aliens and one count of conspiracy to transport and harbor illegal aliens.” This means that Warren faces up to 20 years in prison if he is convicted and sentenced to these terms.

Meanwhile on February 20, Border Patrol agent Roy Ammerman pleaded guilty “to a misdemeanor charge of deprivation of rights” for “repeatedly punching a man who was handcuffed and lying on the ground near Nogales,” according to the Arizona Daily Star. Ammerman struck the victim at least six times to the face and various times to the side. The agent may face up to “one year in prison, one year of probation, and a $100,000 fine.”

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ mission statement no longer describes the United States “as a nation of immigrants.”

The agency responsible for issuing green cards, visas, and naturalization changed its mission statement, it explained, due to “concerns” about the connotation of the word “customers” in its original mission statement. US Citizenship and Immigration Services Director L. Francis Cissna stated in an Intercept report, “Use of the term leads to the erroneous belief that applicants and petitioners, rather than the American people, are whom we ultimately serve.” Critics argue that the omission of the phrase is an extension of President Trump’s hostility toward outsiders, an attempt to radically alter the identity of the United States—a country founded by immigrants and for immigrants—as well as an abandonment of the country’s founding principle. Senior Vox immigration reporter Dara Lind stated that the change “encourages the notion that Americanness is a matter of blood and soil, of birth and descent, rather than an idea that anyone can be proud of regardless of where they were born.”

Original Mission Statement:

USCIS secures America’s promise as a nation of immigrants by providing accurate and useful information to our customers, granting immigration and citizenship benefits, promoting an awareness and understanding of citizenship, and ensuring the integrity of our immigration system.

New Mission Statement:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services administers the nation’s lawful immigration system, safeguarding its integrity and promise by efficiently and fairly adjudicating requests for immigration benefits while protecting Americans, securing the homeland, and honoring our values.

Expanding Border Patrol authority permits search without a warrant within 100 miles of a border

Last week South Texas rancher and lawyer Ricardo D. Palacio received national attention for filing a civil lawsuit against Customs and Border Protection for consistently trespassing onto his property and installing a surveillance camera near his home. The Department of Homeland Security defended these actions, stating it has the right to “patrol private property within 25 miles of the border without a warrant.”

Border-security agencies’ authorities far from the border are getting more attention under the Trump administration uses them to the fullest as part of its hard-line immigration agenda. The law permits checkpoints up to 100 miles away from land and maritime borders and permits the search of people and property without a warrant. Moreover, the New York Times reports, “in Florida, New York and Washington State, Border Patrol officers have been criticized for boarding buses and trains to question riders—mostly American citizens—about their immigration status.” These actions are not only a violation of privacy, but a potential violation of the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Approximately 200 million Americans—well over half the population—live within 100 miles of a border and are subject to these searches.

Potentially unconstitutional limitations along the US-Mexican border under investigation

The U.S. Court of Appeals’ Ninth Circuit is investigatng whether Customs and Border Protection is placing unconstitutional limitations on photographers and videographers along the U.S.-Mexican border. According to Courthouse News Service, Ray Askins, an environmental activist, and Christian Ramirez, a civil rights advocate, had their cameras confiscated and their photos deleted by Border Patrol in two separate incidents after taking pictures along the border. Both men claim a violation of “their First Amendment right to document issues of public interest.” Moreover, “The lawsuit cites another case where border agents forced people who had footage of the killing of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas by CBP officers at the San Ysidro port of entry on May 28, 2010, to erase their footage.” Hernandez was a Mexican citizen who allegedly died of a heart attack while high on methamphetamine during a dispute with Border Patrol officers who beat and tased him while handcuffed.

Opponents of unrestricted photography/videography along the border claim drug cartels would use the documentation to identify Border Patrol patterns and that “the policy helps protect the privacy of travelers and border security.” Proponents argue that, as the border is a public area, photos and videos are legal. Furthermore, “CBP’s policies could curtail reporting on immigration, drug trafficking, the environment and other border stories.” A final ruling has not been reached, and the lawsuit may be sent back to the trial court to determine whether or not these public areas are restricted or unrestricted.

Pot to Poppies: a shift in agricultural production in Chihuahua and Guerrero

Since states like California, Washington, and Colorado, have legalized marijuana there has been less of a demand for illicit shipments of the plant from Mexico. This is causing Mexican farmers to shift their efforts from cultivating pot to cultivating opium poppies—used to create heroine—to meet US opioid demands, primarily in the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Guerrero, USA Today reports.

Guerrero state government spokesman Roberto Álvarez Heredia told the paper, “Guerrero’s problem is not a problem originating in the (Mexican) state. It’s a problem linked to what happens in the United States.” Álvarez also attributed increased violence in Guerrero— currently rated the highest “do-not travel” warning by the U.S. Department of State— to “a public health problem from the consumption of heroin” and lax gun laws in the United States.

103 Central American migrants abandoned in freight along the US/MX border

103 Central American migrants— including 24 youths and 12 unaccompanied minors, mainly from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador—were found abandoned in a freight trailer near Ciudad Camargo, Mexico and Rio Grande City, Texas. The trailer was discovered by Mexican immigration agents who heard pounding and yelling during a routine patrol.

Further Reading:

Moran, Greg “Rubber pellet grenades and pizza: How San Diego spent $50K for supplies prepping for Trump's border wall prototypes” (The San Diego Union Tribune, February 19, 2018)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection “Tucson Border Patrol Station holds ‘Coffee with a Cop’” (U.S. Customs and Border Protection, February 20, 2018)

Leonnig, Carol; Miroff, Nick; and Nakamura, David “Melania Trump’s parents are legal permanent residents, raising questions about whether they relied on ‘chain migration’” (The Washington Post, February 21, 2018)

McDonough, Denis “America has turned its back on refugees. Here’s how Trump can fix that.” (The Washington Post, February 22, 2018)

Public Radio International “Make your way through the maze of seeking asylum in the US” (Public Radio International, February 21, 2018)

Fernández, Valeria “She escaped violence in El Salvador, but there’s little time or resources to heal while seeking asylum in the US” (Public Radio International, February 21, 2018)

Dorfman, Ariel “A Lesson on Immigration From Pablo Neruda” (The New York Times, February 21, 2018)

Hauser, Micah “Their daughters were held at the border – then the blackmail from fake Ice agents began” (The Guardian, February 23, 2018 )

Lima, Cristiano “Amid gun debate, Trump pushes for border wall and hits Dems on DACA” (Politico, February 23, 2018 )

#Border Security #Weekly Update

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This Week in Border Security: February 16, 2018

Senate rejects 3 immigration bills to protect Dreamers

This week witnessed the open debate on immigration that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) promised earlier this year. The February 15 exercise, however, turned out to be futile. A lack of consensus led to the Senate rejecting two bipartisan bills, as well as a White House-backed bill that, according to the New York Times, “would have committed $25 billion for a wall along the border with Mexico, placed strict limits on legal immigration, ended the diversity visa lottery and offered 1.8 million Dreamers an eventual path to citizenship.” Dreamers—the undocumented Americans brought to the United States as children, protected from deportation under the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which President Trump discontinued—could lose their documented status when the program expires on March 5th.

The difficulty in passing legislation to protect Dreamers stems discord over the unrelated measures—border wall funding, border security funding, family-based migration restrictions, and cutbacks to legal immigration, that were attached to legislation aimed to help Dreamers in order to win Republican votes and avoid a presidential veto.

Federal judges urge Trump Administration to keep DACA, contend that ending the program is likely illegal

U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn has joined U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup for the Northern District of California in ordering the Trump administration to keep honoring DACA renewal applications from previously approved Dreamers. This makes Garaufis the second federal judge in two months to issue an injunction to keep the program in place, and to question the legal grounds on which the Trump administration arbitrarily ended DACA.

Customs and Border Protection’s surveillance measures pose mounting discontent among U.S. citizens and indigenous nations

South Texas rancher and lawyer Ricardo D. Palacios filed a cilvil lawsuit after various disputes with Customs and Border Protection starting in 2010 when Palacio’s son was “‘body-slammed’ by agents at an immigration checkpoint several miles south of Encinal,” according to the San Antonio Express News. Since then, Palacios has frequently found Border Patrol agents on his property, along with Border Patrol artifacts such as a “fiberglass spike.” Most recently, a surveillance camera was found near his home.

Legally, the Department of Homeland Security has the right to “patrol private property within 25 miles of the border without a warrant,” but Palacios is pleading to a Laredo federal judge to declare his ranch, which is north of Laredo, outside of the 25 mile border zone so that his property and home will no longer be trespassed. Additionally, Palacios is seeking “$500,000 in damages for mental and emotional distress and for unspecified punitive damages.”

Beyond the individual impact of Customs and Border Protection’s surveillance practices, the Tohono O‘odham Nation, whose lands span Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, is concerned about proposed Integrated Fixed Towers (IFT)— 120 to 180 foot fenced-in surveillance towers with a 50-160 foot wide foot-print— to be built on their nation’s land. According to an article published by Archinect, “On what was until 1917 O’odham land, there is now a United States National Park, a United States Air Force Base, and a United States border. In short, the United States federal government, in one form or another, exercises jurisdiction over ninety one percent of O’odham ancestral lands.” These towers would require building additional parking lots, power lines, drainage ditches, and roads for access. “By claiming the tribal ‘common’ land of the reservation as the space of surveillance and militarization—as property of the federal government and within its sovereign territory—Border Patrol forces tribal members into a space that they can easily define as private property of their own,” the investigation by Caitlin Blanchfield & Nina Valerie Kolowratnik concludes.

California’s last migrant crossing sign removed

Due to the consistent decrease in border crossings over the past three decades and increased fencing measures around California highways, the state has removed the last of its yellow “migrant crossing” warning signs along interstate freeways.

The Los Angeles Times reported, “Fewer people have tried to sneak into the U.S. over the last two decades, further decreasing the need for the immigrant crossing signs.… In San Diego, Border Patrol agents apprehended 26,086 people in fiscal 2017, an 83% drop from the 151,681 people caught in fiscal 2000.” In addition to decreased migration, fences erected along busy highways have reduced the amount of deadly migrant-vehicle crashes.

The signs had been critiqued for stereotypically portraying Mexican migrants—depicting a man with a mustache running with his wife in a long dress and daughter—to trivialize the gravity of migration and for their place within the immigration enforcement context.

Border Patrol comes to communities’ aid

In Tucson, Arizona on February 6 and February 11 respectively, Border Patrol agents saved a child from a burning house and resuscitated a toddler, according to US Customs and Border Protection. A Border Patrol agent reported the house fire to the local fire department and proceeded to help the child and relatives trapped in the house. Meanwhile an agent provided first-response measures to save a 2-year-old who had suffered a seizure.

Further Reading:

• Higareda, Diana “México deja a refugiados en limbo” (El Universal February 4, 2018)

• Ballí, Cecelia “Two Cities, Two Countries, Common Ground” (New York Times February 5, 2018)

• Burnett, John “FBI Finds No Evidence Of Homicide In Death Of Border Patrol Agent” (NPR February 7, 2018)

• Torbati, Yeganeh “Trump administration may target immigrants who use food aid, other benefits” (Reuters February 8, 2018 )

• Center for Biological Diversity “Federal Judge in San Diego to Hear Border Wall Challenge” (Center for Biological Diversity February 8, 2018)

• Batalova, Jeanne; Hallock, Jeffrey; and Zong, Jie “Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States” (Migration Policy Institute February 8, 2018 )

• Lind, Dara “The Senate’s immigration debate, starting next week, is really at least 7 different debates” (Vox February 8, 2018)

• Althaus, Dudley and Meckler, Laura “Where Donald Trump’s Border Wall Would Start” (Wall Street Journal February 8, 2018)

- By Monica Hayward

#Border Security weekly update

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This Week in Border Security: February 2, 2018

Trump’s state of the Union Address and its implications for immigration in 2018

On January 30 President Trump gave his State of the Union Address in the House of Representatives chamber of the United States Capitol. The speech outlined the White House’s four pillar approach to border security and immigration reform, as presented in a one-page “framework” document the previous week.

Although Trump’s first pillar does provide a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million Dreamers—the undocumented Americans who were brought to the United States as children—the plan is not a “Clean Dream Act.” That is, it does not provide a pathway to citizenship for these Dreamers without demanding hardline border-security and immigration measures in return. Trump reiterated his demand for a $25 billion trust fund for border infrastructure, including hundreds of miles of new border wall.

“For decades, open borders have allowed drugs and gangs to pour into our most vulnerable communities,” Trump said. “They have allowed millions of low-wage workers to compete for jobs and wages against the poorest Americans. Most tragically, they have caused the loss of many innocent lives.” Contrary to Trump’s statement, illegal migration to the United States has actually been decreasing since 2000 and is at a 40 year low, as WOLA and many others, citing U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics, have repeatedly pointed out.

Moreover, Trump advocates closing “the terrible loopholes exploited by criminals and terrorists to enter our country.” According to Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration policy analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute think tank, only nine terrorists have entered illegally and carried out or planned attacks on U.S. soil between 1975 to 2017, and these killed zero people, “Of those nine terrorists who entered illegally, only three did so along the border with Mexico: Shain Duka, Britan Duka, and Eljvir Duka crossed as children with their parents in 1984.” The White House is using the term “loophole” principally to refer to U.S. laws allowing people who claim credible fear for their lives in their home countries to petition for asylum.

The third pillar of the immigration agenda is to end the visa lottery program, which aims to diversify the US immigrant population by randomly selecting 50,000 immigrant visas from countries which have low immigration rates to the US. The fourth pillar would severely curtail legal immigrants’ ability to bring family members into the country.

Facial Recognition scanners to be piloted along South Texas port of entry

According to an Austin American-Statesman report, Customs and Border Patrol will launch a pilot facial-recognition program to scan the faces of drivers and passengers in moving vehicles outside the Anzalduas Port of Entry near McAllen, Texas. The technology is so advanced that it can penetrate car window-tinting that is too dark to see through with the naked eye. The stated purpose is to verify travelers’ identities in order to spot criminals and terrorists. However, the new program poses concerns of eventual “mission creep,” violation of privacy rights, and misidentification.

Prospects of a SpaceX launchpad in South Texas are threatened by the proposed border wall

Elon Musk, the CEO and founder of SpaceX, a space transport company that has publicly expressed its intentions to colonize Mars—plans to build a spaceport in Boca Chica, Texas. However, Boca Chica is narrowly separated from the Mexican border by the mouth of the Rio Grande River, “as little as 250 meters from the road in places and 2.5 miles from the SpaceX launchpad by the beach,” according to a Guardian report.

The potential space-travel, “economic, educational and tourism opportunities” for Boca Chica and neighboring towns like Brownsville are being undercut by Trump’s proposed wall which “cuts off large parcels of land north of the border and renders them undesirable, while tighter constraints on movement of people and goods through legal ports risks severing family ties and hampering economic progress.”

Two different responses to the wall from border communities in California and Texas

In San Diego, where local authorities have spent more than $1 million to guard the site where Homeland Security contractors built eight border wall prototypes last fall, activists have tended to avoid the site. Interviewed by The Guardian, Christian Ramirez, director of the Southern Border Communities Coalition, stated that immigrant rights activists sensed “a trap in which protests create a negative view of our community being belligerent and violent…There was this narrative and desire to create tension between protesters and law enforcement and we didn’t want to be part of that. We went the route of fulfilling our obligation as citizens to push our elected leaders to respond legislatively.” Instead, activists have focused on Customs and Border Protection agents in the area illegally turning away “migrants attempting to claim asylum” at ports of entry.

Meanwhile, on January 27 more than 600 people gathered in the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley not only to celebrate its 75th anniversary, but to resist a border wall and to support a Clean Dream Act.Santa Ana will be one of the first communities to feel the wall’s impact, as in mid-2017 Customs and Border Protection, using existing funds, began surveying building sites and taking soil samples. As it is federal land, Santa Ana is not subject to the same eminent domain proceedings as private property. Allyson Duarte—a university student at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, a protester at the site, and a Dreamer—stated, “Being used as leverage to promote the border wall and nationalistic immigration policy is not only disempowering, but dehumanizing. Even though our lives are at stake, by no means are we willing to trade our protection for border wall funding.”

Further reading:

Stargardter, Gabriel “Exclusive: U.S., Mexico explore placing armed U.S. air marshals on flights” (Reuters January 29, 2018)

Cantú, Francisco “Confessions of a Former Border Patrol Agent” (GQ January 30, 2018)

Grillo, Ioan “Opinion: In Mexico, Trump’s Bark Has Been Worse Than His Bite” (New York Times January 29, 2018)

Guerrero, Jean “Border Communities React To Trump’s State Of The Union Address” (KPBS San Diego Public Broadcasting January 31, 2018)

Carranza, Rafael “On the border, Trump’s State of the Union sounds like either ‘compromise’ or ‘blackmail’” (The Arizona Republic, January 31, 2018)

Green, Erica “With DACA in Limbo, Teachers Protected by the Program Gird for the Worst” (New York Times February 1, 2018)

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, “Off-Duty Border Patrol Agent Renders Aid to Woman in Distress” (U.S. Customs and Border Patrol February 1, 2018)

Bova, Gus “Fear and Loathing at the San Antonio Border Security Expo” (Texas Observer February 1, 2018)

Bier, David “With Border Crossings At A Trickle, Why Build A Mexico Wall?” (Newsweek February 1, 2018)

- By Monica Hayward

#Border Security #weekly update

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This Week in Border Security: January 26, 2018

This is a feature we plan to publish regularly this year.

The Government Shutdown—and what it means for Dreamers

The U.S. government shut down between midnight Saturday, January 20 and late evening Monday, January 22, as the U.S. Congress failed to agree on a provision to extend funding. At the center of the disagreement was Democrats’ demand that any spending measure include a path to legal status for “Dreamers.” The term refers to about 800,000 undocumented Americans who were brought to the United States as children and barely know their countries of citizenship. In September, President Trump set a March 5 expiration date for an Obama-era policy, Deferred Action for Childhood arrivals (DACA), that had given these individuals documented status.

On January 22, the Senate voted 81-18 to pass a short-term spending package prolonging the U.S. budget at 2017 levels until February 8. This marks the fourth short-term spending bill passed since the start of the fiscal year in October 2017. The vote occurred after Senate Democrats withdrew their demand that DACA recipients’ situation be addressed in the bill to end the shutdown. Instead, they got a verbal promise from Republican Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) to allow a Senate floor debate on immigration before February 8.

Congressional Democrats—especially in the Senate, where rules requiring 60 votes to consider budget bills give their 49-51 minority more power—are scrambling to find a legislative means to prevent DACA recipients’ loss of “legal” status. However, the White House and congressional Republicans are demanding a package of hard-line border-security and migration policies in return, among them taxpayer funding for border wall construction, hiring of Border Patrol and ICE agents, and restrictions on legal immigration. The head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Democratic Representative Michelle Lujan Grisham, accused Trump of using Dreamers as “bargaining chips for sweeping anti-immigrant policies.”

On January 25 Trump declared himself open to a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million Dreamers—the 800,000 plus about a million who did not apply for DACA—over a 10-12 year period. However, a “framework” document laying out what the White House wants in return calls for $25 billion for a border wall and other construction, new Homeland Security hiring, drastically reduced protections for migrants and unaccompanied children seeking asylum, reduced family migration, and the elimination of the visa lottery program.

More Americans support legal status for immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, but not a bigger border wall

Across racial, educational, age, and religious spectrums, a total of 74 percent of Americans want to grant permanent legal status to Dreamers, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of 1,503 U.S. adults. Opinions regarding a border wall are more varied among these spectrums, but taken together, a total of 60 percent of Americans oppose it. Trump’s plans to erect a $25 billion wall, then, run strongly counter to public opinion.

While the White House seeks funds for a wall, ports of entry languish

Most heroin, fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine cross the U.S.-Mexico border at ports of entry—the 44 official border crossings through which hundreds of thousands of people and vehicles pass each day. Yet the January 19 Washington Post found that U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency that operates the ports of entry, is so understaffed that it has had to transfer personnel from airports, and that it is now common for agents to work 16-hour double shifts. The agency’s nationwide deficit is 3,700 officers.

Effectiveness concerns about the border wall

The proposed border wall will do little to address the number of undocumented migrants who come to the United States to flee violence and to find work. 42% of undocumented immigrants in the United States enter legally through ports of entry and overstay their visas, according to data cited by conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg.

Meanwhile, two former smugglers— of immigrants and narcotics respectively— affirmed to the Texas Tribune’s Jay Root that Trump’s border wall would not inhibit them from smuggling immigrants or drugs into the United States. “There’s always a Border Patrol agent or customs official willing to take a bribe and look the other way,” one smuggler explained. Moreover, the U.S. governments’ own reports confirm that most drug smuggling occurs primarily through ports of entry—the openings in the border, not the areas where walls exist or might be built.

Waiving environmental regulations to build in New Mexico

The Trump administration is waiving dozens of environmental laws to speed up the construction of several miles of wall, using existing funds, in New Mexico just outside El Paso, Texas. Laws that would be waived include “the National Environment Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Historic Preservation Act and the Antiquities Act, among others,” reports The Hill’s Jacqueline Thomsen. The Center for Biological Diversity, which led a lawsuit about the wall last year, is considering taking legal action in response to the New Mexico waivers. Meanwhile, the McClatchy News Service reports that rugged terrain in Texas also poses challenges and environmental concerns and would require building through national parks such as Big Bend.

Arizona State University instructor and others arrested for providing humanitarian aid to migrants

On January 18, the Arizona-based humanitarian aid organization No More Deaths published a report and a viral video depicting Border Patrol agents dumping jugs of water that volunteers had placed in the desert for undocumented border crossers. Days later, a No More Deaths volunteer and instructor at Arizona State University, Scott Warren, was arrested on a harboring charge for giving two undocumented immigrants food and water for three days at a desert building dubbed “the Barn.” Humanitarian efforts in the region have defended their work citing that 58 remains of migrants—dead of dehydration, hypothermia, or snake bites—were discovered on Arizona’s side of the border in 2017.

In addition to Warren, eight other No More Deaths volunteers have been arrested for similar “harboring” charges in the last few months.

Asylum seeker alleges that she miscarried after abuse from Border Patrol agents

A 28-year-old asylum seeker from El Salvador, Rubia Mabel Morales Alfaro, told the San Diego Union Tribune that she was “shoved to the ground and kicked in the back by a Border Patrol agent who arrested her for crossing illegally” on December 22 south of San Diego. Morales said she told the agent that she was pregnant, to which the agent responded, “That is your problem, not mine.” She miscarried on January 10 at the nearby ICE-run Otay Mesa Detention Center. Morales Alfaro blames the miscarriage on the treatment she received. “The San Diego Border Patrol Sector has no knowledge of this alleged incident,” Border Patrol told the Union-Tribune, while ICE told the paper it is “committed to ensuring the health, safety, and welfare of all those in our care.”

Special Forces have trouble climbing border-wall prototypes

U.S. military Special Forces were at a site outside San Diego where, in October, contractors built eight 30-foot-long prototype designs for president Trump’s proposed border wall. There, they tried to defeat the wall segments with power tools and climbing implements in order to test their impermeability. “The highly trained testers scaled 16 to 20 feet unassisted but needed help after that,” acting deputy commissioner of Customs and Border Protection Ronald Vitiello told the Associated Press.

Further reading:

Morrissey, Kate “Asylum seeker says Border Patrol assaulted her, then she miscarried” (The San Diego Union Tribune, January 19, 2018)

“Mexico: Migration authorities unlawfully turning back thousands of Central Americans to possible death” (Amnesty International, January 23, 2018)

Nowrasteh, Alex “The Dangerous Myth About Terrorists Crossing the Mexico Border” (Newsweek, January 22, 2018)

Ramos, Jorge “Trump’s useless wall” (Univision, January 23, 2018)

Carranza, Rafael “Unfilled jobs at Arizona border ports likely add to your grocery bill” (The Arizona Republic, January, 24 2018)

Sesin, Carmen “Two-thirds of Americans live in a border zone; what are their rights?” (NBC News, January, 26 2018)

Quinn, Carrot “Why was this man arrested for giving water to migrants crossing the border?” (The Guardian, January, 26 2018)

—by Monica Hayward

#Weekly Update #Border Security #Migration

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