The same mindset that has brought us freeway cameras is behind a Border Security Expo being held this Tuesday through Thursday at the Phoenix Convention Center.  The event is sponsored by Raytheon, a company that manufactured a missile that killed 62 civilians in a Baghdad market in 2003*.  Some of these technology companies are raking in millions, even billions of dollars to “secure the homeland”.  But where does that leave us?

What does it mean that Homeland Security has nothing to do with making sure we all have homes?

Especially when so many people are losing their homes, security should mean shelter, food, health care, safety…  Not more creepy biometrics devices.  The government clearly is more concerned about fortifying the military and helping big business than it is about us.

Why are we allowing the government to manufacture enemies so it can award contracts to private companies?  We know that private companies are making loads of money off of being part of one war or security effort or another.  We know that lots of people profited from the lies that led to the US involvement in Iraq.  The same companies (Boeing, Halliburton, Blackwater) are profiting or looking to profit from the continued militarization of the US-Mexico border. 

The information communicated through the media about immigration is often created or distorted by white nationalists and others such as business owners who have an interest in the migrants being scape-goated.  They would like us to blame the desperate and vulnerable migrants for our economic problems, rather than those who are profiting from those problems.  They want workers to not get along, based on a silly concept like race, so they can continue taking advantage of us all, but especially immigrants.

What is the threat?  Let us keep in mind that the first border patrol and physical barrier on the border are less than one hundred years old, yet some act like we’re doomed if we’re without a border wall.  The billions upon billions of dollars to build a wall, buy border security technology, pay border patrol agents, detain hundreds of thousands of migrants, and deport them is hardly justified by the alleged costly impact migrants have on the economy.  The impact of supposed over-population is nothing compared to the impact that big corporations- especially weapons manufactures- have on the planet.

And now the big deal is the drug cartels?  The criminalization of drugs and people have created the unsafe conditions related to drug and human smuggling.  Even though studies show that drug treatment is far more effective than enforcement, the government wants to perpetuate the violence at the border by increasing militarization. 

How can we expect people to not migrate here if we are not willing to correct the damage we benefit from?  Rich guys from the US who have investments in Mexico, such as car-parts factories, have an interest in and the power (with the participation of rich powerful Mexicans and cooperation of other US-based forces) to maintain the poor economic conditions in Mexico that ensure a cheap labor pool.  US citizens benefit from the cheap products from Mexico, turning a blind eye to our participation in maintaining a situation in which people from Mexico need to seek better opportunities. 

Do you think the increase in technology on the border will not affect you?  What about the pastor from Tempe who got tased and beat up by DPS officers after refusing to open his trunk for the border patrol?  How long till the border patrol check points are as maddening as going through security at the airport?

No to increased border security!  No to the created divisions between us and our brothers and sisters based on immigration status!  No to continued invasions on Indian land to supposedly secure the homeland!  No to destroying the environment to build a wall!

*Corpwatch.org

CIPO-RFM: Who We Are and Why We Fight

“Interview with María Jiménez: The Militarization of the
U.S.-Mexico Border”.  http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/mj1.html

Introduction
Maria Jiménez
is director of the Immigration Law Enforcement Monitoring Project
(LEMP), a project of the American Friends Service Committee. Founded in
1987, it's goal is to reduce the abuse of authority in the enforcement
of immigration laws. LEMP works with community based groups in four
areas of the U.S.-Mexico border: San Diego; southern Arizona; the El
Paso/New Mexico area; and the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.
In
Texas, LEMP works with the Valley Coalition for Justice. Their work is
primarily in the McAllen area of the Border Patrol and covers a large
area including Brownsville, and Harlingen County. In El Paso, LEMP
works with the El Paso Border Rights Coalition. In Arizona LEMP works
with the Derechos Humanos Arizona Border Projects Coalition, a
coalition of social justice groups, unions, and members of indigenous
nations effected by border policies. In San Diego, LEMP works with the
AFSC Office of the U.S. Mexico Border Program. Nationally LEMP works
with the National Network of Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the National
Immigration Project of the Lawyers Guild, and Coordinadora 2000.
Cross-border, LEMP coordinates with human rights organizations on the
Mexico side of the border, and, in Arizona, with indigenous nations
whose members are on the Mexican side of the border.
The interview was conducted and later edited by Nic Paget-Clarke in Houston. Published in In Motion Magazine, February 2, 1998.
Community organizing on the U.S.-Mexico border
In Motion Magazine: What's is an example of your work, and how many people are involved in a major campaign?
Maria Jiménez:
You can't quantify. In each of the areas it's a coalition matter. There
are many, many people involved in the different phases. Sometimes in a
certain campaign there will be many more involved who we meet on the
way and who we may never know - for instance in the area of public
awareness.
A
concrete case that I can point to is the young man, Ezequiel Hernandez,
shot by the U.S. Marines on a drug patrol in Redford, Texas.
In
that particular case, we had been monitoring the activities of Joint
Task Force 6 since their formation in 1989. We were highly critical of
their involvement because of the implications of using the military in
policing civilian populations. World-wide this involvement has always
resulted in serious human rights violations and a deterioration of
democratic institutions.
We
were aware. We had been monitoring incidents of shootings between
military units and civilians along the border. When we heard of the
Ezequiel Hernandez case it was unfortunately not a surprise to us. It
was to be expected.
We
went down to Redford the week after the incident and we were part of a
town hall meeting. We talked to the family. We explained that we were
there to coordinate work with them not to substitute for them or to do
anything that was not in coordination with them. One of the ways we
coordinate our work is to make sure we are synchronized with the people
who are directly affected.
With
the town hall meeting, with the family, we planned a two-part strategy.
One part , so that the incident wouldn't be forgotten, was to develop a
national movement. We called for national days of reflection and days
of action on the 20th of each month, the day he died.
Then
we talked about a delegation to Washington, D.C. with many of the
Redford people, members of the family. They commented that they were an
isolated community, that they would be forgotten. The community had
invited their congressional representatives but they didn't show up to
the meeting. Our work is to give voice to the voiceless.
The
delegation went to D.C. in July. They met with the Assistant Secretary
of the Department of Defense in charge of these operations, with
General McCaffrey, the Drug Czar; the Hispanic Caucus; with the Senate
and House members of the National Security Committee; individual
Congressional people; and with the INS. It was the Redford residents
who put forward their view of what had happened and why it was
important to keep the military out of border communities.
And
with the delegation went a lot of press. It was the first time for many
parts of the country that people knew that there were military units
along the border. Before then they had not known. That of course helped
to create a current of opinion which ultimately lead the Department of
Defense to withdraw ground troops. Although they haven't withdrawn all
military operations because they do have other types of military
operations in place, but ground troops have been withdrawn from the
border. This is a reversal of ten years of policy that had been growing.
Many
actors became aware of the problem. I had calls from people who said "I
see you are working on this and I'd like to give a donation to the
Redford committee". That is you create a current of public opinion
which then tends to take part in effecting decisions such as this. We
felt there were many thousands of people involved from the reporter who
made this an issue and placed importance on it, to the editor of the
newspaper who did the editorial once they found out this situation
existed, to the person who read about it and called their Congressman
and said "Hey I didn't know this was happening. Something should be
done."
It
is a very collective process. We begin with the victim, the community
affected, and help them to articulate the problem, as opposed to
substituting. Occasionally we'll have to be spokesperson for the
community when we're asked to testify before Congressional committees.
We have always approached this not as advocates but as organizers. From
the beginning, the momentum we set in defining this particular project
was the involvement of the local border residents in defining the
politics. That's why we organized these coalitions and work with
persons who articulate their own reality. We simply provide the means,
the technical support, to be able to affect these policy decisions and
outcomes.
Holding the Border Patrol Accountable
Sometimes
the outcomes have not been positive. For example, the Dario Miranda
case in Arizona in '92. This young man was shot in the back by a Border
Patrol agent. That Border Patrol agent was the first agent charged with
murder, capital murder.
The
agent was taken to the state court. We organized a monitoring both in
the local community and border-wide. People would come to monitor the
trial, provide voice for the press, as it was happening. But the jury
found the agent not guilty even though the strongest witness against
him was his own partner. It reflected the prejudice that the American
people have against the undocumented.
We
worked nation-wide to get this case tried at the federal level for
civil rights violations. The Department of Justice responded. We wound
up with a very good case, but again he was acquitted. The federal jury
found the agent not guilty. Again his partner was against him, and as a
matter of fact Tom Watson, the partner, was fired from the Border
Patrol.
Even
though it was very disappointing to have this agent acquitted, we can
say, and all the editorials were shocked by the decisions of the
juries, it was the first time that an agent had been charged with
murder. Secondly, even though he was not found guilty the fact that the
community could move and take them to court I believe creates the
awareness within the institution and with the agents that they will be
held accountable in some way, even if it's through the public scrutiny
of different sectors of the community. Ultimately, even though there
was no formal justice for the victim, the actual community involvement
and the remembrance of Dario Miranda, and he is remembered in Arizona,
brings some sort of relief at least at the community level.
Accountability and Direct Involvement
In Motion Magazine: Do you feel your work develops the idea of what democracy ought to be?
Maria Jiménez:
It does develop it because it obligates accountability of government
and, I think the most important thing, highlights the need for citizen
direct involvement. For me, one of the most interesting things about
the Redford delegation, and probably Washington has seen few
delegations like that, is that these were ordinary citizens at the
border. They've lived there many, many years. Many grew up at the
border. There wasn't any direct lobbyist or direct national
organization who spoke for them. These residents were able to deal with
the highest level of decision-makers on these issues very adequately,
very forcefully. In that sense, this shows that citizen involvement is
key and important. Decision-makers need to be sensitive not just to the
professional groups that do lobbying on Capitol Hill but to the
ordinary citizen who experiences the policies they pass without many
times their consultation or involvement, such as border policy. It is
important in that sense - the issue of accountability and citizen
involvement.
The Militarization of the U.S. Mexico Border
In Motion Magazine: At what point did you realize you were going to start using the word 'militarization'?
Maria Jiménez: Immediately.
The first thing I did when I was hired in April of '87 was to do
document research of what the problem was. I wrote an article for the
National Immigration Project newsletter called "The Militarization of
the Border". It was immediate that the context of our work would be
this. One, because of the large number of not only Border Patrol agents
and INS concentrated on the border, but also numerous federal agencies.
Currently about 46 federal agencies work on the border. Secondly, we
had already begun to see sectors speaking about the use of the military
directly. There were even some laws like the 1986 law which authorized
the use of military bases for keeping undocumented people.
Even
though we won many battles in the area of accountability, the area of
holding individual agents accountable for their actions as well as
targeting policies and being able to get recommendations we were making
accepted, in the area of a de-militarized border -- we were losing the
war.
The
anti-immigrant sentiment was growing because of the changes in the
global economy, the re-structuring in the country that was exciting the
economic insecurity of residents of the U.S. There was the view that
problems come from south of the border. Statistically, the Urban
Institute in '94 indicated that out of ten undocumented people in the
United States only four crossed the southern border, but the national
view is that everybody who is undocumented comes through the southern
border. Again the Urban Institute found that out of 100 undocumented
people in the United States only 39%, the INS says 55%, are Mexican
nationals. Yet 90% of the people arrested are Mexican nationals, and
85% of the resources to deal with "the undocumented problem" are placed
in communities along the U.S.-Mexico border. That problem, the problem
of the national perception of viewing the border as a war zone and
immigrants as enemies and subsequently border communities - you can
conclude when you have military patrols in your town that somehow
somebody thought you were the enemies of this country -- that was why
we were losing.
The
Ezequiel Hernandez case highlighted the very serious nature of how we
were defining our border politics with respect to, in this particular
case, the drug issue. Redford had not seen an arrest of a drug
trafficker in ten years according to the DEA ( federal Drug Enforcement
Administration). Again according to the DEA, and even General McCaffrey
admitted it, 70-85% of the drugs in the country come through legal
ports of entry. It's one of the courtesies of NAFTA. The fact that they
don't check conveyances on the Mexican side. The Attorney General of
Texas calls it the North American Free Trafficking Agreement.
Why
have covert military operations in a little town like Redford where, as
a resident said, somebody would be crazy to run drugs in an isolated
place like this, knowing that they could easily go through El Paso?
In Motion Magazine: Why are there covert military operations in Redford?
Maria Jiménez: Again
it's because of these perceptions that people have in the interior of
the country. There's drugs in Washington D.C., why don't they put
covert military operations in Washington, D.C.? The border is viewed as
a war zone, where evil enters, as if economic problems ended and began
at the border. Particularly the populations at the border are seen as
suspect.
I
remember the words of Enrique Madrid, one of the residents of Redford
who went to Washington, when he said, "My grandfather was one of the
original founders of Redford". He had the charter that his grandfather
had for the land at Redford. Generations grew up in Redford. He served
his country in the military. In many different ways they built the
community. Now all of a sudden there are covert operations, "My God we
suddenly realized we were an enemy."
The
perception is that there are expendable populations in terms of what we
would call democratic institutions. With all its sophistication, the
military in the training of these Marines could not tell the difference
between the good guy and the bad guy, so to speak. This shepherd fit
the profile of a drug-runner. So if he fit the profile of a drug-runner
then it means everybody on the border fits the profile of a
drug-runner. There are stereotypic views that are concretized into
policy and institutionalized.
I
think militarization deals with the historical relations of the border
- the fact that these were lands violently incorporated in the United
States. Also there is the persistent view of how some look at the
people of Mexico - the prejudice that exists among the population. I
think it deals more with the prejudice than the facts.
Decisions are made by transnational corporations that are not democratic
In Motion Magazine: It
does seem ironic that at the same time as we have free trade which you
would think would make the border more open, the border is actually
being closed. How do you explain that?
Maria Jiménez:
I don't think it's an irony. I think it's a function of the global
system in which the decisions are being made by transnational
corporations and by entities that are not democratic. When we look at
the function of mobility across the border we must look at that global
system. The U.N. says there are five billion people in the world. Two
billion are in the labor market, and of those something like 125
million are actually people who live outside of their countries of
origin. The U.S. receives 1% annually of these migrants. Each year,
since the '80s, there's been an increase in the number of refugees,
people who move across international borders because of natural
disasters or civil strife. There's also economic migrants, people who
move to incorporate themselves into labor markets. Of these there are
about a million a year.
When
you look at the scheme of globalization and restructuring one sees that
the economic and political elites of the world have no problems in
getting across borders. The CEO's, wealthy refugees - we saw the case
of Kuwait - can easily come into the United States. If you are in a
political elite you have no problem moving back and forth legally
between countries. The militarized borders, the walls, the agents, are
really to impede the mobility of the international working poor who
attempt to cross borders. In that sense border politics for me is a
strategic aspect of economic development policy apparent in our global
system. It's a policy that seeks to create a world of low wages and
high profits.
When
you regulate labor but do not regulate capital then you create the
conditions of: 1) attempting to immobilize populations that are left in
countries to which you can move your assembly plants and pay workers
very low wages. And 2) if people can get across illegally into your
country then the illegality creates the conditions for a group of
people who are socially disenfranchised, politically disenfranchised,
and economically vulnerable. They are placed in industries where again
the motive is low wages and high profits.
From Slave Patrol to Border Patrol
The
only comparison I can make on the issue of mobility in the United
States is during the slavery period in the South. I think one of the
first police forces to be paid by governments were the famous slave
patrols of the South. The function of the slave patrols was to impede
the mobility of the slaves and to insure that if one did escape a
plantation that person would be returned. This reinforced the existing
social and economic structure. It's in the same sense that we have a
Border Patrol and the INS. We have a police force whose function is to
reinforce immobility, to reinforce the conditions that maximize profits
and ensure low wages.
I
remember once our (INS) District Director was present at a presentation
here . I said "Isn't it true that in terms of employer/employee
relations, of labor/management relations, the only area enforced
through the use of force, through the use of armed agents, is the one
where the international worker is not authorized to work?"
Of
all the labor laws of the United States, violations of safety and
health, violations of minimum wage, violations of the use of toxic
entities in plants, of all the violations of laws between labor and
management, none of these are enforced by a group of armed individuals
who come to your work site to make sure that you comply with these
laws. The only area is the area of the international worker - the
authorized or unauthorized worker.
That's
why I think it's similar to the slave patrols of the South. Why is it
so important in our economic system to have armed agents come into a
work site to enforce this? That's what gives me the impression that
it's a key area that ensures and reinforces the existing inequalities
on an international level. It guarantees for the transnational
corporate strategy the mechanism of low wages, high profits.
That's
why it's not illogical. It's illogical from our view because what we
seek is justice for all sectors of the world politic. Many times I talk
about the idea that the real issue in border politics is the issue of
equality of border mobility. Border mobility is not equal. The wealthy
can go all over the world without any problem.
In Motion Magazine:
So the work of the Border Patrol is not so much to keep Mexican workers
out of the United States as to keep them being available for work in
Mexico?
Maria Jiménez: And
highly exploited if they do cross. We saw this for example with the
incident of the deaf people who were brought from Mexico to New York
and who literally lived in slave conditions.
In Motion Magazine: What are the primary reasons that people cross the border?
Maria Jiménez:
I think that the driving force is the conditions in the countries of
origin -- economic deprivation and the closing of democratic practices
and spaces. Most of Latin America has fallen under structural
adjustment programs of international banking institutions which demand
a reduction in government services, privatization and readjustment of
land policies. Because these are very harsh measures, the apparatus of
political repression grows. This creates the conditions for people to
cross the border. In the case of Mexican immigrants there is the added
facet that there over a hundred years of migratory streams. We have a
lot of family connections that move people from one side over to the
other side of the border. Many people will also return.
The
primary constant is economic disparity and the need in the U.S. for
workers in certain areas of economic growth. Originally these migration
patterns began because U.S. employers went to Mexico for contract labor.
Life and culture in U.S.-Mexico border communities
In Motion Magazine: What is the relationship between the Border Patrol and the Houston police?
Maria Jiménez:
In Houston, precisely when the current new Mayor Lee Brown was chief of
police, the organization of Spanish-speaking officers who grew up in
the philosophy that Lee Brown brought to Houston, which is
community-oriented policing, these particular officers pushed so that
there would be an internal regulation in the City of Houston in which
the local police and the local city jails would not be associated with
the INS. The officers argued that this was not about less enforcement
but about more effective local law enforcement. That is, if the major
component of community-oriented policing is gaining the confidence and
trust of the population that you police, and if your role is more of
peace officer and the idea that you should be using more the skills of
arbitration and conciliation and less of the tough cop mentality, then
that trust and that confidence is immediately eroded in the immigrant
population if you associate with the INS. This regulation would show to
the immigrant population that public safety and police protection are
there for them as well. That they could access these services.
This
is critical in the case of domestic violence. Many times all the woman
wants is for the man to stop the abuse. She does not necessarily want
him be charged or for herself or him to be deported. If she knows she
or he are going to be deported she's not going to report him.
The
same thing is true for other forms of abuse. For example, an
undocumented group of Mexican and Honduran workers went to protest the
fact that a contractor had robbed them of wages. This contractor took
out a gun and began shooting at them. He shot one of them in the foot.
The injured man was taken to a hospital. When the security guard at the
hospital insinuated that if the worker did not give the name of the
contractor to him he would call the INS the worker left the hospital
untreated. This indicates the degree of fear of local authorities
reporting to the INS that makes the immigrant population more
vulnerable to crime and to the lack of reporting of crime.
So
this is the current policy in Houston. But under current immigration
law within the counter-terrorism act it is now authorized that a local
jurisdiction can ask the Attorney General to be deputized as INS
agents. As far as I know Salt Lake City is one of the first cities to
do this. From our perspective, because we've learned from the
Spanish-speaking officers here in Houston, this a serious situation
regarding public safety for everyone. It's not about less enforcement
but about more effective enforcement at the local levels. People won't
report crimes or help in an investigation. It leaves a whole group of
people vulnerable to the criminal element. This is a deterioration of
the community per se.
In Motion Magazine: What is the long-term impact on the community of the constant presence of the Border Patrol?
Maria Jiménez:
Often when I address Mexican-origin audiences in the United States, I
talk about how we are the only ethnic group in the whole country who
can claim to have a national police force we can call our very own.
When
I've addressed Border Patrol agents, because I have addressed them at a
couple of training sessions, I tell them about the complexity of our
relationship, given that policy has thrown us together. It wasn't their
choice to police us. It is policy that has placed them in the position
of policing us. We are the police constituency. There's a whole
folklore about it. There's songs, there's jokes, there's stories. And
the jokes particularly are revealing. Sometimes the agent is the butt
of the joke, sometimes it's the immigrant, sometimes it's both of them
together.
I
tell them about La Jornada, one of the most widely-read newspapers in
Mexico. Every Sunday has a cartoon column called "When the Border
Patrol Catches Up with Me". The Border Patrol is such an ingrained part
of our existence in the United States, I tell them, I can't imagine
living in the United States without the INS. They are part of our
existence.
There
was an old (INS) sector chief who retired in El Paso and a reporter
from Juarez told me that he asked him "What do you think of Mexicans?"
He said "I know them very well. I've been arresting them for 25 years."
And the same is true for us, we who have been arrested. We are always
confronting them. In that sense there is a complex relationship
developed with them.
Some
were surprised that people weren't afraid to go to the INS offices
during amnesty. A Mexican wouldn't be surprised. Why? Because when you
know them, you know both their good and their bad. Many times I see the
anger expressed more by the native-born, the U.S. citizen, "You stop
me, you question me", more than the Mexican immigrant who deals on a
daily basis with the Border Patrol. There are even songs like "The
Migra (the Border Patrol) - I Eat It like an Appetizer".
By
the same token, our detention facilities are staffed 90% by Latinos and
Mexican-origin people. Why? Well, part of it is the poverty, that's the
job that is available. But the second thing is the familiarity. I
coined a phrase - the abused-community syndrome - like the
battered-wife syndrome. It's gone on for so many generations that we no
longer see the abuse. It's become a way of life. Part of our work is
increasing public awareness that we are an abused community. This
doesn't happen to other communities. Particularly the issue of U.S.
citizens being stopped, and questioned and detained, and sometimes even
deported. It doesn't happen to Anglo Americans, African Americans. It
happens to Americans of Mexican origin.
When
I address Mexican American audiences I talk to them about the fact that
even in our own self-definition, if you listen to Mexican Americans, we
are the only ones who keep saying, "Oh yeah, I'm a 4th -generation,
5th-generation, 8th-generation American." We are continually
reinforcing our right to be here because we are constantly being
questioned about our right to be here. I hear many Americans saying "It
doesn't bother that they stop me and ask me for my papers." But it
doesn't happen to anybody else. Its a 4th amendment violation to be
stopped based on appearance.
There's
a song, a very popular salsa song. The guy proposes to the girl. He
says "Let's live together 'till the INS separates us." When I talk to
agents, I say "That's how predominant you are in our lives. It's no
longer until God do us part, it's until the INS do us part."
On
career day here in Houston, talking with second and third graders in
ESL classes, which are predominantly Spanish-speaking I tell them about
the work I do. I ask "Do you know anything about the Border Patrol?"
I've discovered nobody raises their hand. "How about La Patrolla
Fronteriza?" Nobody raises their hand. I say "La Migra" and invariably
out of a group of twenty about eleven will raise their hands and say
that they've had experience with la Migra. They begin to tell me their
family stories. When it happened to them at the bridge, at the
checkpoint, to their mother and their father. Then I'll say "Any other
stories?" Someone will always say, "We ran into one on the street the
other day." Then I ask them "What color was the uniform?" "Oh it was
blue." And I say, "No that's the Houston police department." What I
tell the Border Patrol is "You are so predominant in our community that
for these children the first uniformed authority that they learn to
fear and learn to interact with is the INS or the Border Patrol. All
other uniformed authorities extend from there." It's a predominant
experience.
The
Border Patrol destabilizes the community. Our own history tells us that
if you raid a factory today, in a week, a week and a half, everybody's
back. What does this do? The individual becomes unstable. The family
unit is destabilized. The parents are gone, or the father is gone,
whoever is gone, until they come back. You destabilize the community.
You create a lot of instability. I think this is part of the mechanism
of oppression.
In Motion Magazine: Is that still true that everybody is back within a week?
Maria Jiménez:
It's harder to get back. It used to be when we started in 1987 and
talked to immigrants, they could usually could come through on the
fourth try. Now it's taking them from eleven to fourteen tries. In some
areas if they catch you again they are prosecuting. The Department of
Justice has instituted special prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's
office to deal with repeat-crossers. Some of them are serving jail time
in federal prisons.







Published in In Motion Magazine - February 2, 1998

Check out David Bacon's website at http://dbacon.igc.org/

http://www.truthout.org/100508D

»

After DNC/RNC, fight ICE and support immigrant rights struggle: a call to
action

please read, forward widely, discuss with others, and ACT!

AFTER DNC/RNC, FIGHT ICE
Recently I was talking with a friend about DNC/RNC and ICE's (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) assault on undocumented workers. So credit for some of these ideas---and for inspiring this writing---goes to them.

There has been some amazing anarchist organizing around the DNC/RNC. There has been national networking, talking tours, workshops, and very strategic planning of protests. It even seems to me like we haven't seen this kind of energy and organizing effort among anarchist projects for a while. Anarchist activity in general is on the rise. It's pretty exciting. There was also an immigrant rights contingent at the RNC protest. Anarchists also haven't seen this level of police repression recently. While cops attacked, brutalized, and arrested so many comrades, street medics, legal teams, arrestee supporters, media teams, folks in the streets, and others provided important services, looked out for one another, and kept the resistance going. Protesters had some important successes, as well. They blockaded the delegates and disrupted the convention to a degree. Regarding police brutality and government repression, anarchists obviously aren't the only targets, and we don't see the worst of it. This repression is part of a pattern, the pattern that is government, capitalism, racism, sexism—hierarchical organization. Other folks, people of color, women, children, and immigrants bear the brunt of government targeting and tyranny.

After the DNC/RNC, as we are rinsing pepper spray residue off our bodies and clothes, recovering from coughs caused by teargas, hugging our friends and loved ones, debriefing with comrades, analyzing what we witnessed, thinking about the marches and direct actions we took part in, and learning from our mistakes, strengths, and victories against the empire, let's sustain the momentum created. Let's take the energy, the friendships we've made, the networks we've expanded, the trust and solidarity we've built, the firsthand
experience of facing a monster, fighting an oppressive system, and together
let's fight one of the most important struggles of our time. Many of us are
weary from confronting a faceless system, and in this struggle it is hard to
see evidence of change. Let's continue to fight the system and at the same time have a tangible positive impact on the lives of individual people, changes we can see, lives improved. Let's work with immigrant communities, let's support them and help tear down the terrorist organization known as Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

ICE'S FASCIST TACTICS
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement rips apart families, invades communities, and destroys lives. ICE is part of Department of Homeland Security. ICE's mission is to find undocumented residents ("illegal immigrants"), tear apart their families, hold them in secretive detention centers for indefinite periods and with little to no legal rights, and deport them to their land of origin. Some people detained were born here and/or are citizens. ICE detains first, and asks questions later.

Human rights groups and others have condemned the brutality of recent ICE raids against immigrant communities and workplaces as well as inhumane conditions and human rights violations at ICE detention centers.

ICE is careless in their detention process. In Tacoma, Washington, a man from nearby Lakewood, a citizen and army veteran, had been sent to jail for a crime and served his sentence. When his sentence was over, he was sent to the Northwest Detention Center, held for seven months, and almost deported to Belize, where he was born but left as a child. Then it was discovered that he was a citizen and had been held by "mistake" (http://tacomasds.org/node/817). Not only is ICE careless and negligent, ICE and the prison companies it contracts with are responsible for the deaths of dozens of people. More than 80 immigrant detainees have died in ICE custody from 2003 to 2008 (http://seattle.indymedia.org/en/2008/08/268550.shtml,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Immigration_and_Customs_Enforcement). At the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, WA there has been gross mistreatment of detainees. In 2007, 300 detainees got food poisoning (
http://immigrantdetention.blogspot.com/2007/12/food-illnesses-at-geo-detention.html).  In 2008, reports of mistreatment of pregnant women detainees surfaced (http://www.tahomaorganizer.org/pregnant-women-mistreated-at-the-northwest-detention-center/).
In 2007, at a detention center in Los Angeles, authorities refused crucial
medical attention to a transwoman with AIDS, allowing her to die, despite the
pleas for help by her cellmates (http://la.indymedia.org/news/2007/08/205928.php).

ICE's repressive tactics have reached new levels of terror. ICE goes so far as
to establish illegal traffic checkpoints ("DUI" checkpoints), search grocery
stores, raid worksites, invade schools and now even daycares (
http://seattle.indymedia.org/en/2008/08/268531.shtml), stops people they
suspect to be undocumented workers (obvious racial profiling), and demands
legal documentation proving citizenship---but who carries this with them? ICE
then takes these people to detention centers and eventually deports them.

After a recent ICE raid (August 2008) on a Laurel, Mississippi manufacturing
plant---the largest raid in US history---Bill Chandler, the executive director
of the Mississippi Immigrants' Rights Alliance (MIRA) told Reuters "People
are very, very fearful. People in the Latino community are afraid to go out of
their homes. In many cases they are afraid to go to work." Families have been
separated, in some cases with both parents of a child held in custody, leaving
children suddenly without care. Chandler continues, "If you have young children
going to school, and they come home and find their parents gone, that is a
major crisis" ( http://seattle.indymedia.org/en/2008/08/268550.shtml).

Although undocumented workers are just that---workers---in some cases there has
been not only a lack of solidarity from non-immigrant union bosses and members,
but there has been blatant racist behavior. When ICE was detaining workers at
the recent raid in Laurel, Mississippi, some union workers reportedly
applauded. It's possible that a union worker tipped off ICE in the first place.
Yet some union workers have criticized their racist counterparts, nationalist
union bureaucracies, the complicity of the two corporate political parties, and
the divide-and-rule policies of the government and made calls for solidarity
with immigrant workers. ( http://seattle.indymedia.org/en/2008/08/268550.shtml,
http://seattle.indymedia.org/en/2008/08/268539.shtml)

ICE DETENTION CENTERS
ICE has regional detention centers around the country (and in Cuba) and
contracts the maintenance of the detention facilities with prison and detention
corporations. The largest of such corporations are GEO Group (
http://www.thegeogroupinc.com/) and Corrections Corporation of America (
http://www.correctionscorp.com/). GEO Group runs the infamous Guantanamo Bay.
Wells Fargo is one of GEO Group's largest shareholders. Kellogg Brown and Root,
a subsidiary of Cheney's Halliburton, also has ties to GEO Group. These
for-profit companies, with dozens of facilities around the world, benefit from
tearing apart families and locking up people. The more individuals in a
detention center, the more profits for the corporation.

OPERATION ENDGAME
Under ICE, the Office of Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) is executing
Operation Endgame, a plan to round up and deport all undocumented people (12
million people) by 2012 ( http://notinmycounty.org/?p=202). See the plan at
http://www.aclum.org/pdf/endgame.pdf. The American Civil Liberties Union of
Massachusetts asserts that "Endgame uses tactics similar to the ethnic
cleansing we saw in the Balkans during the 1990s -- lightning raids, mass
arrests, packed detention centers, and mass deportations" (
http://www.aclum.org/issues/ice_doc_gallery.php).

In 2004, KBR business skyrocketed after the passing of "Operation Endgame" with
their profits jumping about twenty percent. With Operation Endgame, the plan is
to ensure the "departure from the United States all removable aliens..."
Companies like GEO Group and Kellogg Brown and Root will continue to make money
off of the despair and suffering of those taken in the middle of the night by
people with guns. Taken screaming from their families to private Lagers*,
called detention centers, hidden far away from the public eye.

(*Lager was the German word for prison camps, which held both German criminals
and those who had committed no specific crimes, but were considered undesirable
and a threat to the state by Nazi authorities (i.e. Jews, Roma, homosexuals,
and radicals) ( http://www.myspace.com/tacomasmashice). This article discusses
ICE's plans for massive concentration camps, compared to similar fascist camps
of the 20th century:
http://www.yuricareport.com/Civil%20Rights/TheCampsOfICE.html.)

DETENTION CENTERS FOR US ALL
Ultimately, as in Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, these detention centers are
intended for all people who threaten the authority of the State. The US already
holds over 2 million people in jails and prisons, and Operation Endgame wants
detention centers to hold millions of immigrants. This goes along with an
increase in police and government surveillance; discussion of a National ID;
long-term murder and brutalization of communities of color; harassment,
intimidation, and unprovoked arrests of eco-activists, anarchists, and other
activists, the most recent examples being the police raid on Berkeley's Long
Haul Infoshop and police raids, arrests, repression of free speech, and brutal
treatment of activists at the DNC and RNC. It may not be long before the
government is putting activists and everyone who questions authority in
detention centers. In addition to organizing to shut down detention centers and
stop ICE in the struggle to keep immigrant communities safe, we must also fight
against detention centers because they are intended for us all.

EXAMPLES OF ANTI-ICE ORGANIZING
There have been actions, events, alliance building, and other forms of
organizing against ICE and detention centers around the country. I am only
aware of a few among many examples, and I will mention these here.

On May Day 2006 and 2007, millions (mainly immigrants) marched in massive
immigrant rights demonstrations, some cities witnessing the largest
demonstrations in their history ( http://www.mayday2007.org/,
http://www.maydaymovement.blogspot.com/)

The entrance and exit to an ICE processing center in Houston, Texas was shut
down for several hours in 2007 by activists who chained themselves to the gate
( http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2007/06/58635.php). There has been
community resistance and human rights organizations' condemnation of the T. Don
Hutto Detention Center (for children and families) in Taylor, Texas (
http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2007/08/60555.php,
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/tdonhutto/,
http://closehuttonow.blogspot.com/).

In November 2007, there was a No Borders Camp on both sides of the US-Mexico
border between Calexico, California, and Mexicali, Baja California (
http://www.noborderscamp.org).

In 2007 and 2008, protests/marches and a week of actions including benefits,
workshops, teach-ins, media outreach, and lectures have been organized against
the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, WA (
http://www.myspace.com/tacomasmashice). In addition, monthly vigils to lend
support to visitors have been held at the detention center (
http://www.notinmycounty.org), as well as speaking at city council meetings.

An April 2008 Workers' Assembly on Immigration was held in Tacoma, WA (
http://laborcenter.evergreen.edu/Workers%27%20Assembly%20on%20Immigration.htm).
In May, Bridges Not Walls organized an Immigration and Border Dialogues
Conference in Olympia, WA ( http://oly-wa.us/bridges/).

IMPORTANT WORK BEING DONE; LET'S TAKE IT FURTHER AND DESTROY ICE
There is great work being done against ICE and in support of immigrant
communities, mostly by those directly affected by ICE. But how much support and
solidarity work have anarchists been doing? This is not to marginalize the
organizing that anarchists have been doing against ICE and in solidarity with
immigrants, or to deny that there any anarchist immigrants. There has indeed
been lots of hard work. But we can do more. We have done great work for
DNC/RNC. Imagine what we can do—-with the networks, friendships, and contacts
we've made—to fight the fascist, neo-colonial aggression of ICE.

SOME JUMPING OFF POINTS
Here are some ideas for organizing against ICE and in support of immigrant
communities. A couple I have witnessed or participated in and the other ideas
I've heard of from comrades or found online or was inspired by others'
organizing to come up with an idea. Of course, I trust that folks who get
involved with this work will organize in ways that are suitable for their
communities, so I'm not trying to tell anyone how to organize. But I have
provided some ideas, like I said, so feel free to try them out, use what suits
you, and forget what doesn't. And share the ideas that are successful.

It's important to keep in mind that the goal of organizing (in my opinion) is
to stop and dismantle ICE and its detention centers and to support immigrant
communities' struggles for livelihood, safety, dignity, and autonomy. To this
end, we must be very strategic and tactical in our organizing. We should do
whatever it takes to stop ICE. The means for this may be legal, illegal, direct
action, fundraising, or perhaps even through legislative means. I don't know
what will work best, and the best tactics may depend on each situation, but we
should be open-minded to a diversity of tactics in order to stop ICE and
support immigrant communities.

It is also crucial that we respect the work of immigrant communities, find out
what they need from those of us who aren't from these communities, how we can
plug in, and what we can do work in solidarity with them, rather than working
on their behalf as some kind of savior. Whenever possible, we should try to
follow the lead of immigrants, people of color, and women. We don't want to
fall into the same old patterns---though often unconscious---of white men
assuming leadership roles and marginalizing folks of color and people of other
genders.

THE IDEAS
So here are some ideas I've come across or come up with:
* Learn how ICE operates (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Immigration_and_Customs_Enforcement)
* Locate immigrant detention centers, jails, and ICE offices near you, and work
to shut them down ( http://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/dwnmap,
http://www.thegeogroupinc.com/northamerica.asp?fid=73,
http://www.correctionscorp.com/facilities,
http://www.ice.gov/pi/dro/facilities.htm,
http://www.bordc.org/threats/detention.php)
* Find ICE officials, administrators of GEO Group, CCA, Wells Fargo and other
shareholders. Boycott these companies, harass employees and investors, wage
direct action and other campaigns against them. For some direct action tactics,
visit  http://www.animalethics.org.uk/i-ch3-4-directaction.html. Some CCA
investor information:  http://investor.shareholder.com/cxw/. Some GEO Group
investor info:    http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=91331&p=irol-irhome
* Find immigrant rights and related groups in the area or start one. Places you
can look include MEChA, Brown Berets, campus diversity centers, cultural
community centers, Bill of Rights Defense Committee, and immigrant rights
projects
* Organize benefits to raise funds for bail money for folks in detention
centers and for visitors' costs. If you can't find someone to give money
directly to, check out National Immigrant Bond Fund (www.immigrantbondfund.org)
* Protest city governments that allow detention centers on city land
* Wage campaigns to make your city a sanctuary city, which makes undocumented
folks safe from ICE. Olympia, WA and Modesto, CA have waged so-far unsuccessful
campaigns, while Watsonville, CA, San Francisco, Oakland, New York, Los
Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Denver claim immigrant sanctuary status (
http://modestobrownberets.com/cms/content/view/28/2/)
* Fight local and state initiatives and legislation that broaden the scope of
law enforcement, allow detention centers to be built and expanded, and/or limit
rights and movement of undocumented people
* Talk to people in your community about ICE. If you live in a city with a
detention center, expose its presence. In the case of Tacoma, most people
didn't know there was a detention center and were appalled to find out. Host
events, speakers, tabling, film showings, go door-to-door, and talk to people
about what's going on in our communities and across the country (the authors of
this book may be willing to speak:  http://thepoliticsofimmigration.org/)
* Distribute fliers and posters around town
* Get unions and worker organizations to support undocumented workers and stand
up against ICE raids and intimidation
* Some churches offer sanctuary to immigrants; maybe work with them
* Work with college groups to support immigrants both on and off campus
* Create support networks for detainees, families, and immigrant communities
* Try to find out about raids and traffic checkpoints in advance and warn
people to avoid them. Maybe even directly stop the raids if possible
* ICE works closely with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, so organize
against them also
* Protest ICE and CBP recruitment efforts (deface billboards, expose and
confront them at college and career fairs). ICE recruitment calendar:
http://www.ice.gov/careers/0709recruitmentcalendar.htm; CBP upcoming recruiting
events:
http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/careers/recruiting_events/rcruit_evts_near.xml; CBP
virtual job fair:  http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/careers/
* Protest recent federal plan to give local police power to arrest undocumented
immigrants ( http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/11459100/detail.html)
* Protest Minutemen and similar racist groups; a list of anti-immigrant groups
and reports of anti-immigrant events:

http://buildingdemocracy.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=12&id=250&Itemid=93

RELATED LINKS
- Immigrant Solidarity Network ( http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/)
- National immigrant justice center ( http://www.immigrantjustice.org/)
- Video about ICE, Operation Endgame, Northwest Detention Center and northwest
resistance ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTrR1s7du6s)
- Video about ICE threat to legal residents (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4-6w16WjTY)
- No Lager - Nowhere, film about global detention center resistance (
http://www.noborder.org/nolager/more/video.html)
- Tacoma Smash ICE ( http://www.myspace.com/tacomasmashice)
- National Immigration Law Center ( http://www.nilc.org)
- Article: "Responding to ICE worksite raids" (
http://www.nilc.org/immsemplymnt/wkplce_enfrcmnt/wkplcenfrc025.htm)
- National Capital Immigrant Coalition (
http://wordpress.com/tag/national-capital-immigrant-coalition/)
- Mexicanos Sin Fronteras ( http://www.mexicanossinfronteras.org/)
- Portland Sin Fronteras May Day statement (
http://www.ainfos.ca/en/ainfos19412.html)
- Portland Olin Study Group ( http://www.myspace.com/sinfronteras_olin)
- Malkriad@s Media Distribution for analysis and literature (
http://www.myspace.com/malkriadas)
- Children of Men is a futuristic, dystopian book that deals in part with the
government's response to immigrants (
http://www.amazon.com/Children-Men-P-D-James/dp/0307279901/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220421750&sr=8-2).
The movie doesn't deal with immigrants as much but is good (
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0206634/)
- Al otro lado: film about stories of the lives of immigrants (
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419424/)
- Letters from the Other Side: documentary film featuring video letters between
families in Mexico the US ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0495137/)
- Detention Watch Network (www.detentionwatchnetwork.org)
- Delete the Border ( http://deletetheborder.org)
- Houston Sin Fronteras ( http://www.myspace.com/houstonsinfronteras)
- Article: International Anarchist Conspiracy Communiqué 6: Regarding The
Manifold Ways In Which ICE Can Be Fought (
http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20070929203036713)
- Video: Know your rights when dealing with ICE (La Migra) (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKw6dYNNNB8)
- Video: Know your rights ( http://www.immigrantrights.org/knowrights.asp)
- Funny spoof website pretending that Lou Dobbs is running for governor of New
Jersey ( http://www.dobbsforgovernor.com/)
- Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children (
http://www.womenscommission.org/projects/detention/index.php)
- Drawings from children in Hutto detention center (
http://www.aclu.org/immigrants/detention/hutto.html)
- Mexica Movement: uniting indigenous people of "North America" (
http://mexica-movement.org)

PAMPHLETS/ZINES:
http://host-a.net/SmashTacomaICE/A%20Glimpse%20at%20Tacoma.pdf
http://host-a.net/SmashTacomaICE/I.C.E.pdf
http://host-a.net/SmashTacomaICE/ice%20news%20zine.pdf
http://anti-politics.net/distro/download/totheimmigrants-imposed.pdf
http://anti-politics.net/distro/download/undesireables-imposed.pdf
http://www.geocities.com/insurrectionary_anarchists/patrassolidarity.html
http://www.geocities.com/insurrectionary_anarchists2/immi.html (immigration
struggle/solidarity in Canada)

SEE YOU AROUND
Friends, dear ones, and comrades: I'll see you out there somewhere, sometime,
someplace, fighting the terror that is ICE, shutting down detention centers,
standing up in support of our communities, and working in solidarity with other
communities. Let's fight hard and plan strategically to defeat the empire, the
system, and to create communities based on equality, love, autonomy, and
solidarity. What other choice do we have? I'll see you around.

Be safe, be effective, and take care of each other.

in love and struggle,
a primate against ICE