Posted on 07/30/2002 4:05:02 PM PDT by sarcasm
The U.S. Border Patrol recently recovered four bodies outside the town of Ocotillo in the scorched desert of California's southern border region. On the same day, the Imperial County coroner removed a corpse from an irrigation canal near Calexico to the east. And over the previous weekend, U.S. authorities found five more bodies in western Arizona. All of the deceased were from Mexico, part of an ever-growing death toll among migrants crossing the U.S. boundary without authorization.
These fatalities helped the United States reach an ignominious milestone during July: 2,000 dead migrants along the southern divide since 1995, soon after Washington began to significantly enhance boundary policing. That's roughly one corpse per border mile, or one per 1.4 days. Just as the deaths of would-be migrants trying to overcome the Berlin Wall led to outrage and calls for the militarized line of control to come down, moral and political consistency requires a similar response to the ever-deadly U.S.-Mexico boundary.
When Washington, D.C., began its "territorial denial" strategy in the mid-1990s, officials predicted that it would discourage many migrants from crossing by pushing them away from border cities and towns into harsh mountain and desert areas where they would rationally decide to forgo the risks and return home. These predictions soon proved false, as the number of fatalities -- largely from exposure to the elements and drowning -- rose dramatically.
Denying any responsibility for the deaths, U.S. officials' typical response has been one of hand wringing, or outrage directed at the "coyotes" -- smugglers whose services are made more necessary by the very boundary build-up championed by these same officials. More proactively, officials promised increased search and rescue efforts.
Yet, June was the deadliest month on record, with 70 migrants perishing, including two girls, 11 and 12. And over the last year, the death toll in proportion to the number of migrant apprehensions -- a rough indicator of the actual migrant flow -- has actually risen.
Such numbers and the human suffering they embody demonstrate there is nothing surprising about the fatalities. They are the predictable outcome of a lethal, predictable charade, one in which Washington provides ever-increasing amounts of boundary enforcement resources in full knowledge that they will do little to diminish unauthorized immigration, but will instead have increasingly deadly consequences.
A report last August from the General Accounting Office found "no clear indication" that unauthorized crossings along the Southwest boundary have declined since 1994. An in-depth study released recently by the Public Policy Institute of California confirms this, while attributing the rise in migrant deaths to enhanced boundary enforcement.
Growing socioeconomic ties and widening inequality between the United States and Mexico (and increasingly beyond) -- combined with the will of migrants to escape poverty and to pursue their basic human right to work, maintain their families and have an adequate standard of living -- make unauthorized migration inevitable.
The Bush administration's proposed increase of $1.2 billion for immigration enforcement will do nothing to change this. To pretend and behave otherwise is to effectively sentence hundreds of migrants to death each year.
For such reasons, America's border policy must change. This does not mean the end of the U.S.-Mexico boundary, but the nature of it. Only by recognizing the inevitability of immigration and welcoming -- rather trying to repel --immigrants can we stop the deaths. At the same time, putting an end to U.S. policies abroad that contribute to political-economic instability and injustice would prove to be far more effective, in addition to more humane in diminishing immigration that is unwanted -- at least officially.
American capital has long had a voracious appetite for highly exploitable labor, thus attracting "illegal" immigrants, whose presence is widely accepted at the highest levels of society. Moreover, Washington has aggressively pushed the liberalization of foreign economies such as Mexico's, a process that has predictably intensified migratory pressures among those displaced in the name of economic efficiency.
U.S. officials are not deliberately killing migrants. But they have helped to drive migrants here, and created and maintained an enforcement apparatus that inevitably results in their deaths -- in numbers far greater than occurred in East Germany. Its time to tear down America's Berlin Wall.
PNS contributor Joseph Nevins (josephnevins@hotmail.com) is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of "Operation Gatekeeper: The Rise of the 'Illegal Alien' and the Making of the U.S.-Mexico Boundary" (Routledge).
Any surprises here?
Also there is no wall along the US-Mexico border. The desert isn't a wall and an irrigation canal isn't a wall. The corpse in an irrigation canal has nothing to do with the border either because the border isn't defined by irrigation canals ---they just happen to be on both sides of the border for other reasons.
Yep. Sounds more like the Great Wall of China. Keep out the invading hoards.
Let me see if I can respond with the words I think another lady might say, if she could speak:
I know I am beautifull and highly desirable.I epitomise all that is good in humanity.Many want to possess me.I am only one, and I have certain standards and needs of my own.It is universally known I have no real need to associate with strangers, but I am always wellcoming to like minded companions.
I allow a controlled number of suitors to apply for an audience with me. Most come in the hope of gaining my esteem and a place in my heart and my home.I embrace these, and few are refused admittance.
Some come to conquer me, to make me subserviant, as if I would change my nature upon their command.They come to destroy me.
Some come because they falsely believe they will be able to use my innate longing for like minded companions to rape and to steal from me,and my true companions, with impunity.They have no true conception of who we are,they do not wish to join us, they wish to use us, and they selfishly and ignorantly attempt to destroy us by their very presence.
I refuse to be robbed and raped by unwelcome guests and unlawfull invaders!
Signed, Statue of Liberty, sinking in the harbor.
Well
theres
a
simple
solution
STAY IN YOUR OWN COUNTRY
If they had broken into my house and were busily going through my property looking for something to steal.
In a New York minute!
In this curious paragraph, it would seem the author is asserting that capitalism is what is attracting these immigrants to the USA. At the same time, he contends that it is the introduction of capitalism in foreign countries that is driving them here.
So, according to this line of reasoning, the only thing that will save the USA (and the rest of the world) is the immediate adoption of socialism.
This being Pacific News Service, I'm certain that is exactly what he meant to say...
BINGO!
the only thing that will save the USA (and the rest of the world) is the immediate adoption of socialism.
I believe this is the agenda of those who call themselves International Socialists. They reason that until the entire world is socialist the concept will not work. The previous failures in implementing socialism are due to localize inefficiencies. If you implement on a global scale then you finally have a plan for success!! It is clear that they have taken Star Trek too seriously and believe Capt. Pickard is a real "caring" leader of the Federation.
It is extremely sad but these intelligent and well meaning folks really believe this International Socialism crap. This is basically due to liberal university training in the US, Canada and Europe.
If I was an Islamist I'd be really happy to have these guys running interference for you.
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