Police State Palestine to Police State USA

Edited by Carolyn Bennett

ANTI-IMMIGRATION ARIZONA 15 years on

From Derechos Humanos featured on Wednesday’s edition of Flashpoints (KPFA)

Immigration and ‘border security’ issues [again] grip the U.S. public to an astonishingly hysterical level.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) fiscal year 2006-2007 saw human remains of 183 men, women and children recovered on the Arizona-Sonora border. 

Since the implementation of border policies in the mid-1990s, an estimated 5,000 migrants have died.  Migrants have been driven into the desert as urban crossing points have been closed. Border communities have suffered division and xenophobia brought by militarization.

We must use tragedy upon tragedy to raise the question why. …The United States government’s mid-1990s launch of ‘prevention-through-deterrence’ policies — also known as Operations Gatekeeper, Safeguard, Hold the Line and Rio Grande — resulted in the funneling of drugs and immigrants through areas in the Arizona-Sonora border. 

Malice with intent

This was the intended strategy and the deadly effects that border communities have since suffered were not only expected. They were included in the plans.

“In the 1994 memo ‘Border Patrol Strategic Plan: 1994 and Beyond’ prepared by the U.S. Border Patrol, then-Commissioner Doris Meisner cited a series of phases to be implemented by the Southern Border Strategy — including the expected effects these strategies would have.  Some of the expected outcomes outlined in the memo included more violence, more sophisticated methods of smuggling, and more lucrative criminal operations.

“Since the implementation of these policies, we have witnessed deadly consequences every day on the Arizona border.

 

“More than 2,000 deaths of migrants have been documented on the Arizona-Sonora border.  Among them —

The killing of 18 year-old U.S. citizen Esequiel Hernandez, Jr., murdered on his family ranch by U.S. Marines,

The fatal shooting of a 15 year-old youth on the El Paso border by a U.S. Border Patrol agent,

The killing of local rancher Rob Krentz, murdered on his ranch land

The killing of 18 year-old Bennett Patricio, Jr.

A Tohono O’odham tribal member killed on his native land by U.S. Border Patrol

14 year-old Josseline Jamiletha Hernandez Quinteros who died in the Arizona desert

The killing of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry

“These deaths are not only unnecessary; they can be clearly viewed as a direct consequence of U.S. immigration, border and drug policies.…

“U.S. Immigration policy has been a total failure and needs to be changed.  It has not prevented people from attempting to cross the border but has put the lives of thousands of men, women, and children in serious danger. Their deaths result directly from U.S. policy.

Coalición de Derechos Humanos

“Derechos Humanos (‘The Human Rights Coalition’) calls upon all people of conscience to work together to demand change on the borders and in communities.

Coalición de Derechos Humanos is a grassroots organization promoting respect for human/civil rights and fighting the militarization of the Southern Border region, fighting discrimination and fighting human rights abuses by federal, state, and local law enforcement officials [migration concerns as a direct result of U.S. foreign and domestic policies, whether economic (like NAFTA), military, or political], which affect both U.S. and non-U.S. citizens.

For more than fifteen years, Derechos Humanos has been actively engaged in the long struggle to defend human and migrant rights. … Our responsibility as human rights advocates lies not in supporting what is ‘politically feasible,’ but in defending the just and legitimate rights of our communities.…

The Human Rights Coalition works to defend human rights through —

Promotora de Derechos Humanos (human rights promoters) Program that began in 2002

Bi-weekly Abuse Clinic where we have documented abuses and assisted community members with labor, housing, and law enforcement abuse since 2006

Community consejos (community-defense trainings) that began in early 2007, these also replicated by allied organizations across the state

Work to end the deaths along the border since 1994

Efforts to report/locate migrants who have gone missing while crossing the border

Coalición de Derechos Humanos (‘The Human Rights Coalition’) urges communities to engage in rational and meaningful dialogue. 

Sources and notes

“Another Border Death Underscores the Need for Meaningful Dialogue,” December 15, 2010

Contact: Derechos Humanos: 520.770.1373, December 15, 2010,

http://www.derechoshumanosaz.net/

“Support the Struggle for Human Rights and Border Justice in Arizona and Beyond!” 

December 30, 2010, http://www.derechoshumanosaz.net/

Goals of Coalición de Derechos Humanos (‘The Human Rights Coalition’):

To strengthen the capacity of border and urban communities to exercise their rights and participate in public policy decisions

To increase public awareness of the magnitude of human rights abuses, deaths and assaults at the border resulting from U.S. policy

To seek changes in government policies that result in human suffering because of the militarization of the U.S. border region

To influence Public Policy

Derechos Humanos holds press conferences and interviews, hosts media crews, has demonstrations, weekly vigils, symposiums and marches to draw attention to the unjust policies and inhumane treatment of immigrants. The Human Rights Coalition counters anti-immigrant hysteria and works to change the stereotypes and misinformation about immigrants,

http://www.derechoshumanosaz.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=26

Flashpoints, KPFA, January 19, 2011 (GUESTS: Isabel Garcia, Civil Rights Attorney, co-chair of Coalicion De Derechos Humanos, Maria Federico Brummer, Tucson Public School teacher in Ethnic Studies), January 19, 2011, http://www.flashpoints.net/

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