F*ck the Southern Border Patrol and their Bosses by Storify
Their Bosses: Chief of the Border Patrol, Carla Provost, her boss: DHS Secty. Kirstjen Nielsen who recently replaced John F. Kelly; the reports from 2010 on are from the Obama era, of course, under Chief Jeh Johnson.
(Thedisappearereport.org, pdf, 23 pages)
The Guardian, (and I’m glad they picked up the story. It just may help, who can say?)
“Caitlin Deighan, a spokeswoman for No More Deaths, said the policy of militarising the border and funnelling migrants into remote, perilous desert, where thousands died, dated from President Bill Clinton’s era. “It’s been ongoing throughout every administration since.”
“The report also cited anecdotal evidence from volunteers and an unnamed former border patrol agent interviewed last year who was quoted saying: “I remember people smashing and stepping on water bottles, I remember that being imparted on to us in one way or another.”
The report also quoted a 37-year-old Mexican border crosser named Miguel: “They break the bottles so you can’t even use them to fill up in the tanks. I needed water, some of the other people in the group needed water, but we found them destroyed. [I felt] helplessness, rage. They [the US border patrol] must hate us.”
The report came amid renewed rancour in Washington over Donald Trump’s desire to build a border wall and his alleged racism towards non-white immigrants. Congress is scrambling to reach a deal on immigration and border security before federal funding expires on Friday, raising the spectre of a government shutdown.
In addition to building a wall Trump wishes to hire another 5,000 border patrol agents.”
Via Popular Resistance: ‘The Consequences Of Chase & Scatter In The Wilderness’ By Staff, , January 19, 2018, some snippets:
“Since the mid-1990s, the US Border Patrol’s policy of Prevention Through Deterrence has intentionally pushed migration into increasingly remote corridors in the Southwest borderlands. This policy has turned the natural landscape into a lethal weapon that injures, kills, and disappears border crossers. Our report shines a light on the deadly practices that characterize enforcement in these hostile wilderness areas. The result: thousands of known deaths of undocumented border crossers, and an even greater number of disappearances—a crisis that has received far less attention. These individuals do not simply go missing, they are disappeared as part of a violent and deadly border-enforcement strategy carried out by the US government.
The missing-persons cases collected by the Missing Migrant Crisis Line in 2015 include 84 in which an incident of chase and scatter in the wilderness was explicitly named as the event that caused the person to go missing. Of these cases, 36% ended in death or disappearance.
The use of helicopters is particularly dangerous, causing increased injury during chase and increased incidence of scatter. In our survey, 36% of the chases involved pursuit by helicopter. When a helicopter was present in a chase, it was significantly more likely that someone would end up lost afterward.
Based on our research and continuous on-the-ground observation of border-enforcement activities, we assert that there is no policing method for interdicting border crossers in wilderness terrain that does not carry a high risk of injury, death, and disappearance. Consequently, we consider the first of this report’s five recommendations to be the most urgent: we call for the immediate end of Prevention Through Deterrence as an enforcement doctrine, as well as the removal of all walls, fencing, barriers, and other border infrastructure that serves to push migration into the deadly backcountry. We will only see the end of the crisis of disappearance with the complete demilitarization of the US–Mexico border. Federal immigration policy must be rewritten to protect human life and human rights, and to address the US-sponsored violence and economic disruption causing so many to seek refuge within these borders.”
Well the government did shut down Friday night, bleeping Senators are griping about having to work today, a Saturday no less, although no votes are planned, so the shutdown will last until next week sometime. This is part of Eric Londen’s report on the charade:
“Politico reported that Democrats made a counterproposal Friday that included an additional $50 million in military funding in exchange for protection for DACA recipients as well as already agreed-upon increases for border militarization. Republicans called this right-wing proposal a “nonstarter.”
The Democrats have already made clear that they are willing to support construction of a border wall and massive expenditures for militarizing the border as part of a deal that includes extensions for DACA recipients. Last week, Bernie Sanders declared, “I don’t think there’s anybody who disagrees that we need strong border security. If the president wants to work with us to make sure we have strong border security, let’s do that.”
The assurances by Sanders and the Democrats of support for added security comes as videos published this week by the pro-immigrant No More Deaths organization showed border guards pouring out over 3,500 gallons of water left by rights groups in the harsh borderlands desert. In the last 20 years, up to 27,000 immigrants have died of dehydration, starvation, heat stroke and hypothermia while attempting to escape the violence and poverty in Mexico and Central America.”
As he says, the planes with US bombing sorties will still fly over ME nations, weapons will still be sold to ‘our enemies’, the NSA will still be unconstitutionally spying on all of us, but 850,000 federal employees will be furloughed without pay, including 60% of the employees of the CDC.
Comments
"But DACA is teh 'llegal immagintz!!11!"
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEux8I2wMY0]
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
ay yi yi & lol
"i'm really gonna miss you..."
Years ago
my undocumented defendant guy sat in jail, and his wife and 10 kids had their water cut off for non-payment.
I hauled water to her every day until the case ended. She lived maybe 15 miles away.
The cop that arrested him was so ashamed that he, too, hauled them some water, asked the prosecutor to just drop it all to a misdemeanor, cut him loose.
Cops used to care. I had asked the cop to come and observe.
Cops used to care.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
what loving kindness you performed for their family,
do we assume that the family was able to stay, then? and at least some cops used to care, but that's a much longer conversation, isn't it? (increasing militarization, veterans hiring preferences, 1188 amerikans killed by police in 2017, virtually no prosecutions, very few in jail, etc.)
They stayed.
The man was arrested for public intoxication, and not understanding a word of English, bit the cop on the arm.
He was refused a bond, could have served 35 years for that.
His church raised money and hired me.
The preacher and a couple of deacons brought it in a paper bag, and it was about $235 in ones and coins.
After he got out of jail, he never committed any further crimes.
Aside from the wife and kids out in the yard hauling water out of my truck, I saw a yard full of chickens. No water, no chickens. No chickens, no food.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
The Statue of Liberty is shut down this weekend
because congress is playing their yearly game. National parks in Utah are open, but they won't have anyone to take the entrance fees because the rangers are at home. The WWII memorial is closed though. It's up to congress whether people will receive their back pay. I've read some people saying that congress shouldn't get paid while the government is shut down, but I doubt that they rely on their money for playing at government. You?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
No, I don't think many of our unrepresentatives are living
This is a ridiculous system of governance and yet all we hear is complaining, moaning and groaning and absolutely zero calls to change it. Professional leftist "alternative" journalism is a big culprit in all this. Alternative media has become corporate media. The intent may be different but the end result is the same, a continuous news loop that keeps focus off long term goals and solutions, and most importantly, keeps the focus on the duopoly without any calls for change.
I could riff into an essay with this.
One problem is, the public is allowed no real electoral choice
Please do!
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
You mean like Trump or Clinton?
No, the elephant in the room is being ignored.
I might give that essay a try. I've noticed changes over the last fifteen years with alternative media on the internet with money being a key factor.
I'm noticing this too
Time after time I'll read an article about what is wrong with this country and yet no plan on what can be done to change it.
We can protest, but the media will ignore them. And one thing is for sure is that the police will come and create violence and an excuse to lock us up. With as many states passing legislation that makes protesting pretty much illegal and threatening prison sentences, how many people will take the chance of going to prison and losing everything?
Sigh, I have no other answers than to try boycotts and work stoppages, but we'd need millions involved for them to have any effect.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
i'd like to read it myself,
especially what your plans and strategies would look like. i was having a bit of a conversation on a couple different café threads about the two women's marches on saturday in olympia (where an erstwhile great and voluminous café denizen is now living in a homeless encampment), and seattle, former home of anarchist and leftist radicals, and the glaring absence of anti-war signs. plenty about indigenous rights, muslim 'we intend to stay' signs, daca, 'what oprah said', etc., register to vote, run for office, etc. but all of it was centered around funneling women to the dems cuz: party of the people' and all that hokum. just another D cul de sac to prevent rage from taking hold at what's really afoot in amerika now, and what spineless, hypocritical punks Dems are.
and of course US foreign policies, military misadventures, and alliances with the worst of the worst governments are what's driving so many around the globe into diaspora, and some want to come to the US and the EU. which is a huge reason that cindy sheehan and rick sterling said that the womens marches should be anti-war.
by the by, i did dig out your exposé on st. tulsi, and gave it to you on the other thread, noting that now she's being lauded for prez for saying that the US is the reason why the DPRK ain't about to give up its nuclear ambitions...or close to that. but her close alliance with the thug narenda modi would disqualify her as a moral individual, imo.
Some congress members are refusing pay during shut down
Here's a nice symbolic act where a few members say that if the troops aren't being paid during the shutdown then they won't accept pay either.
Rep. Mia Love among members of Congress refusing pay during shutdown
facepalm
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Once again the democrats fold
Is anyone surprised by this?
Senate breaks Dem filibuster
Democrats climbed onboard after two days of negotiations that ended with new reassurances from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that the Senate would consider immigration proposals in the coming weeks.
And after he considers whether to consider immigration proposals and decides that he doesn't want to do it, what then? Oh, I know. The democrats will okay the funding for the wall and everything will be hunkydory again in congress, amirite?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
The two sides of the oligarchy used the self imposed
no, i'd seen the wapo version word salad
but this is key to me: "A block of liberal Democrats — some of them 2020 presidential hopefuls — stuck to their opposition. Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Dianne Feinstein of California, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Cory Booker of New Jersey voted no, as did Independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont."
a lot of this, imo, is not a moral/ethical position, but seeking the growing and growing Latino demographic, said to be set to outnumber boss-man whitey by 2045.
Latino demographics California, 2015 has come and gone
California Latinos Now Outnumber Whites in Long Predicted Shift
From the s.o.s. page Report of Registration, The Trends since 2015:
Has anyone else ever helped someone study for the citizenship test? I did, and was totally appalled at the plutocracy brainwash, it begins at the very start. I remember asking my friend who she would vote for D or R? In fact she never even thought about voting before I asked her, she just wanted to become legal after all her years here. Her two sons were both deputies in the California Sheriff system, married with kids of their own. Obama fucked up the border so bad she couldn't take the chance to visit relatives in Mexico anymore. The first thing she did was go home, after she got her "papers". I would to.
only 49 more to go!
thanks for that, amigo. a long-time, though seldom, commenter at the café and before that on my diaries at my.firedoglake, contributes to the chicano veterans newspaper online. he identifies as both indigenous and chicano, and we gently spar over his adamant belief that brown politicians are more...moral, uncooptable, guess i'd say, than the average.
while i admit that i've developed somewhat of a preference for people w/ non-white skin, there are plenty of compradors among people of any skin complexion, aren't there? but still, i'll bet you could count on one hand the number of darker-skinned congressional R's, although i'm far too lazy to look it up. (smile) meaning, the Blue Team has traditionally been the Party of the Irregularly Complected, on accounta 'Party of the People!!!' the Port in the Storm!'
Oooooo, I have an idea!
Lock 'em in and make certain that they can't come out until they make an agreement that human beings would approve of.
Edit: not even to use the bathroom.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
sigh.
Hola, WD! It's great to see
you posting here more often. Particularly enjoy your very informative long-form posts.
Thanks for this essay on the plight of immigrants. I've only known one Dude who got to the US via Arizona, and he was Guatemalan--a super nice guy. He didn't elaborate, but made it quite clear that the crossing was a very difficult experience.
Hope your weather's been better than ours. For the first time since we moved back to the Lower 48, we saw temps dip slightly 'below 0' for a couple of days, and saw a snowfall of 5-6 inches in less than a day. Whew!
"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart."--Helen Keller
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
'allo,
JtC cleared up a kerfuffle misunderstanding that i'd thought existed between us, and he's generously cross-posting anything from the café that has any tweets in it, as my firefox easy copy simply won't do it...no matter how many times i keep banging my head against the wall, trying strategy after version, settings, yada, yada.
this rubbish has been going on at the border for along time, including the vigilante militias at the border in AZ, but having so much of it packaged together in a four-part report was still mid-boggling as to the abject cruelty, and worse...seeming enjoyment of the border cops. and so many from the south are fleeing persecution from drug lords, political opposition death threats, etc. obomba's answer was to convince pena nieto to stop them from even getting into mexico. brilliant. but yeah, his daca was at least something, if only a wee answer. oddly, dubya was far more progressive on immigration reform.
9 degrees here this a.m., five inches of blessed snow a day ago. can't wait to see the spindrift off the la plata mountains when the clouds lift! (alberta clippper's been makin' it a bit windy). it's been so dry and warm here this winter that it's worrisome. hope you're well.
Bernie: "I don’t think there’s anybody who disagrees"
Nothing personal Senator Sanders, but fuck you very much, please proceed inside that book touring millionaire bubble that propels you to fail up. Eff you and the horse you rode in on.
I know this isn't "bernie's fault" but this is what is happening and how is he helping? Used to be he'd chain himself to that fucking fence, not go on TV and say how insecure it all is. Where are the NVDAs, the non-violent direct actions to prevent further harm? Jammed up in the corrupt justice system that's where, and buying ballot access for the values vote. One of his last primary stops was Cloverdale, reaping the poors vote he was. Good job Bernie.
Field workers here used to travel back home during winter break, so they'd leave their cars street parked for a few weeks after the holidays. Cars are now being ticketed, some towed. I never saw that before, and the number of "suspicious" people "moved along" is chart breaking as far as I can tell. Not newsworthy. Yesterday I helped two guys jump a dead battery so they wouldn't have to push their friend's ticketed truck. Nothing says D-Value like impounding your workers car during their vacation time. To me it is unreal, what they print on the news pages, and what is actually happening before my eyes. Pussy hats don't give a shit about towed cars, they are back on the job this morning, safe and sound in their law wrapped cocoons.
Wah! It's all a rich man's trick.
Bernie has a gun at his back these days
Has had ever since just before the 2016 Dem Convention. Not sure whether it's literal or metaphorical - probably the latter - but it's been very effective in muzzling him.
Toothless watchdogs are no deterrent, particularly if the kleptocrats know they are toothless (or have done the extractions themselves).
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
He is only human like the rest of us
On the other hand, belief in that "rich man's trick" video from 2014 would assume he'd be accidentally killed on purpose if he ever started telling the truth. In that movie he is still fighting nazis I guess, which is a righteous thing to do if that is what you believe in. Right on.
peace IMAGINE
OTOH
if he's too afraid to speak truth to power, he could STFU and retire from the (non)battlefield, couldn't he? always remember: democratic socialism is just reform capitalism, not anti-capitalism, and of course not anti-imperialism.
an oldie but a goodie...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acT_PSAZ7BQ]
i'm pretty disgusted w/ the bern's schtick, myself,
some revolution. it may have been in my MLK day diary that i'd quoted a wsws author on his fake left rubbish at the guardian just ahead of MLK day:
‘Bernie Sanders seeks to derail growing working class opposition to capitalism’, wsws.org (in a nutshell):
“Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders issued a call, published Sunday in the Guardian, for a global effort to overcome mounting economic inequality. It cites evidence of gross disparities in wealth, but offers not the slightest prospect for a genuine struggle against the economic system that has produced such levels of social inequality. Indeed, it is aimed at preventing such a movement.
What is most remarkable about the statement issued by Sanders is that in the course of nearly 1,200 words, there is not a single mention of either capitalism or socialism. Perhaps most significantly, Sanders says nothing about the growing danger of imperialist world war, one that would be waged with nuclear weapons. He makes no reference to North Korea, Iran, Syria and other global hotspots, or to the record of the Democratic Party under Obama in bombing Libya, escalating the war in Afghanistan and making drone warfare a staple of American foreign policy. “Military” is another word that makes no appearance in his Guardian column, because Sanders is a supporter of American imperialism.”
humbug. but where were all the calls from Big Dems to massively protest orange julius's Tax plan and jobs act on the streets? more: 'hey, ya wanna sign this petition?'
a few more tweets from the border:
may you soon rot in hell, you racist, criminal; how sick it is that herr hair pardoned you. hard line? people died in your tent cities for ‘illegal aliens’ while you made chain gangs of them wear pink underwear. stay classy, joe!