Maurice Sherif Blog » La Linea HR6061

Hysteria, of course, has become a feature of the American diet.

maurice — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 09:19:46 +0000

About 11.8 million people live in the US-Mexico border area. Approximately one-quarter of the population in the US counties bordering Mexico live at or below the poverty line. This is over double the rate of the national average (12 percent) of the US population living in poverty. Furthermore, the unemployment rate in US counties on the southern border is 5.6 percent compared to 4.7 percent in the rest of the country. Mexican border states have an average poverty rate of 28 percent, significantly below the Mexican national average of 37 percent. (Sources: Environmental Protection Agency; Pan-American Health Organization/World Health Organization; Inter-American Development Bank; CIA World Factbook)

The border area in the United States consists of 48 counties in four states. Approximately 300,000 people live in 1,300 colonias in Texas and New Mexico. Colonias are unincorporated, semirural communities characterized by substandard housing and unsafe public drinking water or wastewater systems. Communities on the Mexican side of the border generally have less access to basic water and sanitation services than border communities in the United States. (Sources: Environmental Protection Agency; Pan-American Health Organization/World Health Organization)

Two of the 10 fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States, Laredo and McAllen, are located on the Texas-Mexico border. Estimates indicate the population of many border cities will double in 30 years. The population along the Texas border region is increasing at twice the rate of Texas as a whole. (Source: US Census Bureau)

100-mile radius raises debate over Constitution, civil rights

maurice — Mon, 17 May 2010 16:55:49 +0000

100-mile radius raises debate over Constitution, civil rights

WASHINGTON — Vince Peppard was cruising up the highway toward San Diego, wife in the seat next to him and a bunch of tile in tow.

The 53-year-old retired social worker was driving north from Tecate, Mexico, on his way to fix up an old house.

“I breezed right through the checkpoint,” Pepper recalled. “Then a half-hour later, when I got into the U.S., they were opening my trunk and searching my car. I didn’t feel like I was in the United States. I felt like I was in some police state.”

Peppard was stopped about 20 miles north of the Mexican border by customs officials who demanded to search his car, he said. When he refused, Peppard said, a customs official brought in search dogs, hassled his wife — who is from Syria — for her citizenship papers and detained him for more than 30 minutes.

He was ultimately let go. But he can’t let go of the fact that he was stopped inside the United States.

“I actually feel nervous that I’m going to be pulled over,” Peppard said via a video hookup at a news conference Wednesday. “Now I have to have my passport when I go to the Home Depot or something.”

It was stories like Peppard’s that prompted a civil rights group to challenge the constitutionality of practices carried out by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The American Civil Liberties Union charged Wednesday that searches by customs agents within 100 miles of the U.S. border threatens the rights of millions of Americans.

The civil rights group released a map showing that nearly two-thirds of Americans – 194.7 million people — live within a 100-mile-radius of the U.S. borders and could be subject to an infringement of their Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches.

“This is an area where the government is attempting to turn into a Constitution-free zone,” said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office. “The federal government has been allowed to turn areas of this nation into places where anyone can be stopped and searched for any reason — or no reason at all.

“It is a classic case example of law enforcement powers expanding far beyond the proper boundaries–in this case literally.”

The group said it will push for legislation in the next administration to curtail customs officials’ search authority.

Customs and Border Protection, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, was authorized by Congress nearly 50 years ago to operate within a “reasonable distance” inside the border, which it designates as a 100-mile radius. The agency operates 33 checkpoints, and the ACLU said complaints about the checkpoints have risen since Sept.11.

But border patrol officials say that the checkpoints are anything but unconstitutional.

“The 100-mile zone absolutely is not a Constitution-free zone,” said Jason Ciliberti, a supervisory border patrol agent with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. “Those 100 miles are what essentially is said to be a reasonable distance from the boundary from the United States, and the Supreme Court has come down firmly on our side and said that what we’re doing is not unreasonable.”

Ciliberti said that the department is sensitive to citizen complaints about checkpoints and has tried to smooth the process.

“The vast number of those encounters is very brief,” Ciliberti said. “If [necessary], agents do take some time to conduct investigations. But, of course, they conduct those investigations with due diligence and as minimally invasive as possible.”

“In order to arrest that person, we still need probable cause as anywhere in the United States,” he added.

But, he noted, the agency will continue its searches as part of its efforts to stop drug smugglers and illegal immigrants.

“We do have a job to do and we don’t have the opportunity to be wrong — even once,” Ciliberti said. “So, we understand if people are offended by our tactics. We take the Constitution very seriously, we take it to heart.”

by Erica L. Green

Stimulus plan includes “virtual Wall”

maurice — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:00:47 +0000

One of the many unnoticed projects included in the massive “$800,000,000,000″ economic stimulus plan is “$100,000,000″ for Boeing Inc. to resume work on the troubled “virtual fence”, the “$8,000,000,000″ 2006 plan to construct a highly sophisticated electronic barrier along the U.S. border with Mexico.

As a result of the technical problems, the Department of Homeland Security put the virtual Wall project on hold in 2008 after spending billions to make technology take the place of a physical fence. In total, DHS built only 28 miles of virtual Wall in a pilot project.

The debate over constructing Walling on the US-Mexico is not new

The Clinton administration, for example, passed legislation in the mid-90s that called for Walling around the major US metropolitan centers on the border.

Yet, the extent of the inflow of illegal immigration (roughly 500,000 annually) as well as the growing Hispanic demographic in the United States has caused many people to view a more extensive walling system as increasingly urgent.

The Wall is intentionally placed in the least dangerous border crossings, while leaving open treacherous routes. Given the strong desire to cross, many will attempt to make these crossing fatally. Hundreds die each year already. Hundreds more could be expected. After the construction of the San Diego fence, many illegal immigrants began crossing through the Arizona desert, which caused many of San Diego’s border agents to move out there. According to T.J. Bonner, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, the main union for Border Patrol agents, “Tucson now has 2,600 plus agents. San Diego has lost 1,000 agents. Guess where the traffic is going? Back to San Diego. San Diego is the most heavily fortified border in the entire country, and yet it’s not stopping people from coming across.

From west to east, the border city twinnings and border crossings include the following:

San Diego, California (San Ysidro) – Tijuana, Baja California (San Diego-Tijuana Metro.) (I-5 and Mexico 1 highway)
Otay Mesa, California – Tijuana, Baja California (California State Route 905 and Boulevard Aztecas)
Tecate, California – Tecate, Baja California (California State Route 135 and Mexico 3 highway)
Calexico, California – Mexicali, Baja California
Calexico, California (Eastern border checkpoint) – Mexicali, Baja California
Andrade, California – Los Algodones, Baja California
San Luis, Arizona – San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora (US 95 and Mexico 2 highway)
Lukeville, Arizona – Sonoita, Sonora
Sasabe, Arizona – Altar, Sonora
Nogales, Arizona – Nogales, Sonora
Naco, Arizona – Naco, Sonora
Douglas, Arizona – Agua Prieta, Sonora
Antelope Wells, New Mexico – El Berrendo, Chihuahua
Columbus, New Mexico – Puerto Palomas, Chihuahua
Santa Teresa, New Mexico – San Jerónimo, Chihuahua
El Paso, Texas – Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua
Fabens, Texas – Práxedis G. Guerrero, Chihuahua
Presidio, Texas – Ojinaga, Chihuahua
Heath Canyon, Texas – La Linda, Coahuila (closed)
Del Rio, Texas – Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila
Eagle Pass, Texas – Piedras Negras, Coahuila
Laredo, Texas – Colombia, Nuevo León
Laredo, Texas – Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas
Falcon Heights, Texas – Presa Falcón, Tamaulipas
Roma, Texas – Ciudad Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas
Rio Grande City, Texas – Ciudad Camargo, Tamaulipas
Mission, Texas – Reynosa, Tamaulipas
Hidalgo, Texas – Reynosa, Tamaulipas
Pharr, Texas – Reynosa, Tamaulipas
Progreso Lakes, Texas – Nuevo Progreso, Tamaulipas
Los Indios, Texas – Matamoros, Tamaulipas
Brownsville, Texas – Matamoros, Tamaulipas.

References:

National Immigration Forum
US Chamber of Commerce[16]
American Immigration Lawyers Association
American Farm Bureau
National Association of Homebuilders
Catholic Charities USA
Associated Builders and Contractors
United Auto Workers
Families First, a conservative religious organization.
Federation for American Immigration Reform FAIR
Weneedafence.com - A project of the Let Freedom Ring Foundation, advocating constructing a “multi-element fence” along the US-Mexico border, similar to the Israeli fence.
The Minuteman Project – “a citizens’ Operation monitoring immigration”.
You Don’t Speak for Me, a Latino American group that favors border security and the enforcement of immigration laws.
Debatepedia
Border Angels

Protected: La Linea HR6061 – MIGRANT DEATHS

maurice — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:30:28 +0000