-
-
New bill would tighten rules for DHS border laptop searches
After a public outcry about no-reason-needed searches of laptops and electronic gadgets by Border Patrol and Customs agents, Rep. Loretta Sanchez introduced a bill to slap a few more rules on the process. Also, you'll get a receipt when your laptop is taken away. After a public outcry about no-reason-needed searches of laptops and electronic gadgets by Border Patrol and Customs agents, Rep. Lore... more
-
Border Park Visitors Face New Controls
Community groups are concerned about the Department of Homeland Security's plans to build a giant fence down the middle of a park that marks the westernmost border between the United States and Mexico.
"This is an area where families with members on both sides of the border can get together on the beach and have a picnic, or bring a new born baby to show to a relative on the other side," said John Fanestil, executive director of San Diego Foundation for Change. "All that will be lost if this new fence is built."
The area, officially known as Border Field State Park, is called Friendship Park by most locals. It spans the southernmost part of San Diego, in the United States, and the northernmost part of Tijuana, in Mexico.
Border Field State Park was first bisected by a fence in 1994 as part of "Operation Gatekeeper," a Clinton administration effort to reinforce border controls. The fence installed at that time is a simple chain link fence that visitors can see through as they socialize with friends and family on the other side.
The new fence, currently under construction, is mandated under the Secure Fence Act, which was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2006. It is expected to be much more imposing.
Representatives of the Department of Homeland Security did not return phone calls and e-mails by deadline, and a spokesperson for California State Parks system told OneWorld she had "no idea" about the new fence's design or route. But observers say there's little doubt what form the new barrier will take.
"If it's like the fencing put up elsewhere along the border near San Diego, there will be two fences made with triple strength concertina wire," explained David Danelo, a former Marine Corps Captain and author of the new book The Border: Exploring the U.S.-Mexico Divide. "There will be one fence, 150-meter dead zone that's big enough for a vehicle to drive, and then the second fence."
The system, Danelo said, is called Sandia fencing, because it was developed at the Energy Department's Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico. According to the organization Taxpayers for Common Sense, Sandia fencing costs $800,000 per mile to install and $7,000 a year to maintain.
**continues** Community groups are concerned about the Department of Homeland Security's plans to build a giant fence down the middle of a park... more -
Construction begins on $57M San Diego border fence
Scrapers and bulldozers began filling a deep canyon Friday to make way for a border fence in the southwestern corner of the United States after 12 years of planning, environmental reviews and legal challenges.
The 3 1/2-mile stretch extends from a state park on an oceanfront cliff through a canyon known as Smuggler's Gulch. The gorge was overrun by illegal immigrants until U.S. authorities launched a crackdown in the 1990s that pushed traffic to the remote mountains and deserts of California and Arizona.
At a cost of about $16 million a mile, the fence will be far more expensive than fences the U.S. government is building elsewhere along the nation's 1,952-mile border with Mexico. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the average cost along the entire border is $2 million to $3 million a mile.
The stretch near San Diego will cost about $57 million under a contract awarded to Kiewit Corp. of Omaha, Neb., said James Swanson, a Border Patrol special operations supervisor.
The lion's share will pay for filling Smuggler's Gulch with nearly 1.9 million tons of dirt and for building a concrete culvert to handle rainfall flowing downhill from Tijuana, Mexico, Swanson said.
The border is currently marked by a decaying fence made of surplus Navy landing mats. Border Patrol agents swarm the area in jeeps and pickups as they wait for migrants in Tijuana to dash about 2 miles through trees to the closest patch of stores and homes.
It is a far cry from the early 1990s, when large groups blitzed across the border and easily overwhelmed the Border Patrol.
U.S. authorities insist new fencing is needed, despite an increase in patrols and objections from environmental groups who say the dirt shift threatens the Tijuana River estuary, home to more than 370 migratory and native birds.
"We're not seeing the thousands, the hundreds who streamed through in the past," said Mike Fisher, chief of the Border Patrol's San Diego sector. "However, it's still a vulnerability that's being exploited today." Scrapers and bulldozers began filling a deep canyon Friday to make way for a border fence in the southwestern corner of the United Sta... more -
Laptops may be detained at US border
Seriously, is nothing sacred in the US anymore. It seems that when it comes to hypocrisy, the current administration has no qualms whatsoever. Seriously, is nothing sacred in the US anymore. It seems that when it comes to hypocrisy, the current administration has no qualms wha... more
-
Tribe says border fence restricts sacred rites
Calling it an affront to religious freedom, representatives of an Arizona Indian tribe have asked the federal government to halt construction of a border fence across the tribe's Arizona reservation.
Leaders of the Tohono O'odham nation say the fence, currently being built along the U.S.-Mexican border by the Department of Homeland Security, will prevent members of their nation from crossing into Mexico for traditional religious ceremonies.
"This wall and the construction of this wall has destroyed our communities, our burial sites and ancient Tohono O'odham routes throughout our lands," said Ofelia Rivas, according to the Washington Times.
Rivas argued that the fence will violate the 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act, which guarantees free exercise of traditional religious practices for Native Americans. She said that the fence would disrupt such practices by limiting travel to and from O'odham land in Mexico.
The Tohono O'odham reservation straddles the Mexican border for 75 miles in Arizona, and extends south into Mexico. According to the 2000 census, 18,000 people live on the reservation, which spans an area roughly the size of Connecticut.
Rivas' statement is the latest salvo from the Tohono O'odham nation protesting the fence. The community has been at odds with the federal government in recent years over how best to deal with undocumented immigrants and smugglers who cross through tribal lands.
Testifying in front of a House subcommittee last April, the nation's chairman, Ned Norris Jr., called the Department of Homeland Security "inflexible" and "unreasonable," and framed the fence as part of a larger problem facing the nation.
"Our land is now cut in half, with O'odham communities, sacred sites, salt pilgrimage routes, and families divided," Norris said. "We did not cross the 75 miles of border within our reservation lands. The border crossed us." Calling it an affront to religious freedom, representatives of an Arizona Indian tribe have asked the federal government to halt const... more -
Border Police: Oops! we are missing 40,000...
The Canadian border police have lost track of more than 40,000 people who have been ordered deported, and the military has lost supplies needed to support the war in Afghanistan, Auditor General Sheila Fraser charges. The Canadian border police have lost track of more than 40,000 people who have been ordered deported, and the military has lost suppli... more
-
US to replace inefficient, pilot program virtual fence on Mexican border
United States Border Patrol, in an ongoing effort at reinforcing physical barriers along the United States-Mexico border, has announced that it will scrap its "virtual fence" along the Arizona-Mexico in favor of new towers, radars, cameras and computer software. U.S. Customs and border patrol officials determined that the new existing system -- which cost $20 million -- is ineffective to detect border crossers. The Department of Homeland Security will be spending even more money to replace the current infrastructure with 17 towers equipped with new cameras and radar. A price tag has not been identified yet, but $45 million will be spent on a custom computer program to collect surveillance data for U.S. Border Patrol. Read more on this story in the International Herald Tribune.
Photo: San Luis, Arizona; photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel. "On the Arizona side of a vehicle barrier, Border Patrol agents have smoothed the sand with old tires so they can "cut sign"—track the footprints of migrants tempting fate on this remote desert route." Image courtesy of National Geographic. More photos by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel accompany Charles Bowden's feature "Our Wall" in National Geographic.
"Our Wall" by Charles Bowden
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0705/feature5/ind... United States Border Patrol, in an ongoing effort at reinforcing physical barriers along the United States-Mexico border, has announce... more -
A Day With the Minute Men
With immigration such a hot topic, I spent the day with the minute men to see the current status of our southern border. What a day it was! With immigration such a hot topic, I spent the day with the minute men to see the current status of our southern border. What a day it... more
-
Wire found between 2 border fences
The wire was strung between two sections of fence separating California from Mexico, and was placed at just the right height so that when pulled taut, it could decapitate anyone who happened to be riding an ATV...like the ones border patrol agents ride around on. Yikes!!! I know that border agents get a bad rap a lot of the time - they're the ones who "bust the poor immigrants risking their lives coming to the US to make a better life for their families back home" (using all the cliche lines here)...but stringing up a wire to decapitate them?! That's pretty harsh, no? The wire was strung between two sections of fence separating California from Mexico, and was placed at just the right height so that w... more
-
Smugglers clone FedEx and Border Patrol vans
No, really? Anyone ever seen "The Italian Job"?
-
New law "e-tracing" U.S.-Mexican gun-drug trade
With over 100 drug-related casualties in the first month of 2008 alone, the U.S. is attempting to solve the supply of guns coming across the border. What can be done to stop the violence of the drug trade and would this threaten non-drug related demand to own guns both in the U.S. and Mexico? With over 100 drug-related casualties in the first month of 2008 alone, the U.S. is attempting to solve the supply of guns coming acro... more
-
The EU Expands Its Border-Free Zone
Good news for backpackers and undocumented itinerants! Traveling between nations in Europe without a passport has just gotten a bit easier. The border-free zone has been expanded to include the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Initially the lifting of internal controls involves just land and sea borders, but that will be extended to airports at the end of March 2008. Good news for backpackers and undocumented itinerants! Traveling between nations in Europe without a passport has just gotten a bit ea... more -
no border camp in context
I think that people should really understand that the border is a totally militarized zone and that this isn't your normal police repression at a demonstration. This is an occupation force protecting its institutional apparatus of occupation. And that is the real context of what happened today, rather than simple policing tactics.
It is critically important to situate this recent violence within the larger context of border enforcement, for which the violence perpetrated to enforce the border is not exceptional but daily. For the over four hundred migrants buried in Holtville cemetery (since 1994) who died trying evade the very forces we confronted today, this violence is not exceptional but a fact of life and a fact of death. The brutal, uncoordinated, random violence you can watch on the event footage is both symptomatic and systematic. The Border Patrol is not law enforcement, and can only be understood as an occupation force whose mission is to control a contested space. Like all occupation forces, they end up trying to control the conflict they create, and displace the consequences of that control onto the population. The result is a sustained level of violence which tears apart communities, families, neighborhoods, and peoples lives. The occupation of the borderlands is a projection of state values in which peoples lives are acceptable casualties of economic objectives. The cheap exploited labor of the Mexican workers in the Maquiladoras we visited on wednesday were behind the wall we protested all week. Operation Gatekeeper began the same year NAFTA was signed. As the militarization of the border increases in man power and sophistication, so does the extent to which this racist system can jeopardize peoples lives. Our action today both confronts and exposes the violence of the border system, but so long as the holes we put in the fence today are repaired this occupation will continue to enforce a border state in which some lives are worth more than others, in which some people are given choices that others are denied, and in which justice is relativized and racialized.
Finally, if you can hear how at the final everybody was screaming "fucking america," whatever, 95% of our border patrol agents are Mexicans. well where I am from Europa? Africa? so , since Mexico, canada peru,chile,brazil and other countries are stablished in the american continet everybody is american, I am mexican and I feel bad for everybody who says "Fuck america" I really dont like offence myself. border is nesesary , racism is not nesesary !!! ask Dr.guinn. I think that people should really understand that the border is a totally militarized zone and that this isn't your normal police... more -
Visiting Tijuana -Travel Guide
Tijuana has a reputation for partying that is rooted in the rich history of the city dating back to Prohibition in the U.S.. You can find plenty of entertainment on the it's most famous street, Avenida Revolucion, but there is also a vibrant culture to explore outside of the party scene. Tijuana has a reputation for partying that is rooted in the rich history of the city dating back to Prohibition in the U.S.. You can ... more
-
Failure at borders
Us and Mexico cannot catch a Mexican national with a dangerous strain of tuberculosis due to him using a fake name
-
related topics
Border Patrol
Contributors (113)
Border Patrol
