By Dave Feldman,
Candidate to the Master of Arts in International Relations and Diplomacy, American Graduate School in Paris
Posted on September 18th, 2012
I spent last summer far away from Paris, doing advocacy and aid work with migrants on the US/Mexico border. Although immigration reform in the United States has become a hot topic in recent years, the human impact of the current regime has been largely absent from the debate. Draconian immigration laws such as Arizona’s SB1070 and Alabama’s HB56–coupled with the Obama Administration’s aggressive deportation policy and controversial Secure Communities program–ensure that the effects of the inhumane system are felt throughout the entire nation. Nonetheless, the Southwest borderlands remain the front line in what can justifiably be described as a war.
Crossing into the US from Mexico used to be a relatively easy endeavor, but things began to change with the entry into force of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, which destroyed the livelihoods of—and thus displaced—millions of Mexicans. Correctly anticipating a massive migration northward, the Clinton Administration simultaneously launched the Southwest Border Strategy to stem the influx of undocumented migrants, building fences and beefing up patrolling in urban areas serving as points of entry, such as San Diego/Tijuana and El Paso/Ciudad Juárez. This militarization trend has continued up to the present day, with predator drones flying in the sky and members of the National Guard joining a record 20,000 Border Patrol agents—many of whom are Iraq War veterans themselves—at the border.
The supposed logic behind this policy is to deter people from crossing in urban areas by making it unbearably difficult, but as a result migrants are being funneled into the Sonoran desert, where they must be wary of heavily-armed Border Patrol agents, vigilante groups such as the Minutemen, and Mexican drug trafficking organizations such as Los Zetas, as well as unscrupulous “coyote” smugglers, who charge upwards of $5000 for the trip. They must also contend with the extreme dangers of the desert terrain, including rattlesnakes, black widows, mountain lions, a lack of potable water and–during the summer–temperatures in excess of 100 degrees and flash floods. As a result, hundreds of Mexicans and Central Americans perish in the desert each year.
In order to minimize suffering in these harsh environs, the group No More Deaths maintains a permanent camp on the outskirts of Arivaca, Arizona, which volunteers use as a base for daily hikes and “drops” in the desert, of which I participated in more than half a dozen over four days. Always making sure to have at least one Spanish speaker and one medic in the group, we traveled in groups of four to eight, taking our vehicles as far as they could go on the rough terrain before setting out on foot. Using detailed maps and handheld GPS devices, we hiked along migrant trails to designated drop sites, where we would leave several gallons of water, food and blankets. I was never out hiking for more than six hours at a time, and was fortunate enough to have boots and clothing in good repair, an American passport, and adequate food and water. Migrants, on the other hand, can spend more than a week in the desert with none of these things. Although they often travel at night to minimize detection, the empty jugs that we found along the trail let us know that our work was making an impact—unless we noticed that they had been callously slashed, a sure sign that Border Patrol had discovered them first.
I also spent three weeks in the border town of Nogales, where every day I would walk over to Mexico with other volunteers and provide aid to those who had either been recently deported from the US or were traveling north and making a final stop before attempting to cross. Partnering with local Mexican aid centers, we provided free phone calls and clothing, helped recover personal belongings that had been confiscated, performed basic medical care and simply listened to the stories migrants had to tell. A common theme was abuse suffered at the hands of Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, such as the denial of food and water; the crowding of hundreds of detainees into a single cell; and various types of physical, verbal, sexual and psychological abuse, much of which amounts to torture. In terms of numbers, Obama has actually taken a harsher stance on deportation than Bush, and although the administration claims to prioritize dangerous criminals and avoid breaking up families, I spoke to many people who had their removal proceedings initiated due to a simple traffic violation, despite having lived in the US for decades and having children in the country. As a result, many parents said they would brave the enormous risks and once again attempt the journey north in order to reunite with their children. Indeed, although the recent downturn in the economy has precipitated a steep drop in border crossings over the past few years, one of the patterns currently being observed is that the same people are now being deported over and over again, precisely because they have such strong ties to the US.
No More Deaths is a non-hierarchical organization, operates around consensus decision-making principles and offers a true volunteer immersion experience. In Tucson, volunteers learn about the history of the border and are given a general overview of the corporate actors profiting from the current “round ‘em up and lock ‘em up” policy, from private prison firms such as the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the Wackenhut buses used to transport detainees, to the role of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in drafting model anti-immigrant state legislation. Volunteers can also attend a session of Operation Streamline, a daily proceeding in which seventy shackled detainees are brought before a federal judge and charged en masse with illegal entry or reentry in what amounts to a mockery of a supposedly fair judicial system. No More Deaths also engages in advocacy work, such as calling ICE officials to halt the deportations of non-violent immigrants who have grown up in the US, and documenting incidents of abuse in reports, such as last year’s A Culture of Cruelty. Representatives from the organization have even met with White House advisors, members of Congress and Customs and Border Protection; we are calling for an investigation by the Department of Justice into the widespread abuse being perpetuated by the Border Patrol and an independent mechanism to oversee the Department of Homeland Security.
I am currently writing my thesis on the militarization of the border, as seen through the lens of neo-Gramscian hegemonic theory. While I believe that a truly just solution necessitates a reimagining of the current nation-state and global capitalist economic system, more practical steps could be taken to minimize the suffering on the US/Mexico border and in immigrant communities around the United States. These include repealing NAFTA and CAFTA; ending Obama’s aggressive deportation policy and the militarization of the border; citizenship for undocumented people residing in the US; and the abolition of private prisons, which aside from promoting incarceration are poorly regulated and thus hotspots of abuse. Furthermore, we must personally reject the corporate media’s “otherization” and dehumanization of immigrants, and refuse to be complicit in this undeclared war.
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