chaparral's blog
The following is text i wrote that was printed on a flier that was distributed during the rally at the end of the march to sheriff joe's jails. The other part of the flier is Blood on the Line: Resistance, Empire and Repression at the Border.
We've heard the stories: Undocumented immigrants are getting kidnapped and held for ransom, and perhaps found in drop houses if the police get a tip. The migrants are vulnerable targets because they have been criminalized by the state. Something we don't hear too much about is that the biggest armed gang in the country is kidnapping migrants and holding them against their will. They're not holding them in drop houses; these uniformed kidnappers are handcuffing the migrants and incarcerating them in jails and detention centers.
If we feel that it is tragic when traffickers do it, why do we let the police get away with it? Whether they are "rescued" from traffickers, stopped while driving in one of Arpaio's sweeps, or confronted with the ridiculous charge of conspiracy to smuggle themselves, migrants get caught up in the US prison system for no other reason but crossing a man-made line in the sand.
Arpaio, taking pleasure in humiliating brown-skinned people and getting cheers from racists, stands out as the villain of Maricopa County. But the other police departments are acting in similar, more quiet ways. While migrants and activists wait to hear what the federal government will do to save us from Sheriff Joe, the Department of Homeland Security is holding hundreds of thousands of people- triple the number of people in detention just ten years ago- in detention centers. If they end 287g they will only replace it with something more tasteful; something called "Secure Communities" which will target our "criminal alien" population. Meanwhile our legislature is coming up with new ways to criminalize migrants.
Migrants have been criminalized for who they are and where they are from- not for doing harm. If anything is harmful, it's punishing people for trying to survive the results of colonialism, capitalism, and globalization (which most US citizens enjoy the benefits of). When it is nearly impossible to make a living and nearly impossible to migrate legally, anyone would travel to where they have more opportunities. Why then would advocates for immigrants' rights legitimize the arrests of undocumented immigrants by complaining only about the "legal" people who get caught up in the racial profiling sweeps? We mustn't buy into the efforts to divide us! We need to bring down the walls between us, as well as the physical walls- the border walls, the jail walls, and the walls of the detention centers.
It should be a crime to imprison people for trying to survive!
from http://www.iww.org/en/node/4707:
Immigrant Detainees on Hunger Strike in South Texas ICE Facility
By Greg Rodriguez, grodrigueziww@yahoo.com
Rio Grande Valley, South Texas --It is known that nearly one-hundred of the immigrants being detained at the Department of Homeland Security(DHS)/Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s(ICE) Port Isabel Detention Center (PIDC) have been on a hunger strike since April 22, 2009. PIDC is a prison used to detain immigrants arrested by the United States government. It is located in an extremely isolated area of the remote South Texas town called Los Fresnos.
The detainees have resorted to this form of non-violent direct action after months of demanding adequate medical attention and an end to abuses by guards; to no avail.
The responsible parties are DHS, ICE and more specifically, Field Director for ICE - Michael J. Pitts - who has been trying to break up the hunger strike by planning the isolation of participants, pressuring them to eat, and calling for the speedy deportation of detainees engaging in the strike – tactics which will not solve the problems, but instead deny justice to the struggling detainees. Dora Schriro, Special Advisor on ICE and Detention/Removal to DHS, is also among the responsible heads for her failure to report to the public on the conditions at PIDC.
More...
It's always good news when inmates are organizing. This latest hunger strike in Sheriff Joe's jails is the 2nd or 3rd i've heard of in the last few years. So far i think things have only gotten worse, but somehow i feel that the people have more power lately.
It would be interesting to see how much the march to the jails last weekend had to do with this hunger strike, besides what Reza says, quoted below, about how the inmates were not allowed to bathe, etc. while on lockdown because of the march.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Concerned about Overpopulation?
I've heard that the anti-immigrant movement has been renewing its efforts to get more of the environmentalist movement on their side of the immigration issue. Andrea Smith makes some really good points in Chapter 3 of her book Conquest. This is some text i put together for a flier...
Read more...
Plan Mexico and the SPP/NAFTA
I realized while researching more on the merida initiative, that there is a lot of evidence that the initiative is part of the larger globalization picture, specifically as it relates to the Security and Prosperity Partnership, what some are calling "NAFTA on steroids". Please view/read the following for more info. (The video doesn't touch on NAFTA as much as the piece below, but is still informative and relevant).
more...
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Important Items
This article makes me suspect that the federal investigation into 287(g) in maricopa county might just happen to result in an end to that program and an implementation of a new "improved" law enforcement strategy...
more...
- By chaparral at Apr 20 2009 - 7:39pm
The video of Lou Dobbs's show on which Al Sharpton and a representative of ACORN named Bertha Lewis criticized Arpaio has been emailed around. It exemplified my concern about the focus on Arpaio and racial profiling, which overshadows the real issues. Because they don't want to take a stance on "illegal" immigration they skirt the issue and focus on how it hurts the people we should be more concerned about.
- By chaparral at Apr 20 2009 - 7:30pm
- Read more
It is interesting to see how quickly the debate about border security has become dominated by the issue of violence and drugs. I thought i was just hearing more about it because i became interested in the parallels between the drug war and the war on migrants, turning to narco news for information, which also resulted in me getting google news alerts on the merida initiative or plan mexico. I have several articles bookmarked, waiting for me to read so i can better understand the implications of the plan mexico and other responses to the violence and the drug trade.
The drug cartel violence has been in the news in the US more lately because Hillary Clinton went down to Mexico to talk about it, and Obama recently decided to send more agents down to the border. I believe that some people are mainly afraid of the violence touching US citizens. I believe there are other stronger political motivations for getting involved.
What i have made of it so far is that the violence has increased because the drug war in Columbia caused cartels to form or grow in mexico to transport the same cocaine, along with marijuana and other drugs. The political corruption in Mexico is well known. In fact, most people figure that in the war on drugs, it's just that one cartel has been favored over the others, leading to more access to resources and impunity and therefore more war over turf. Of course the mexican government would rather control the cartels, and several within the government probably want there to be no cartels. However, since illicit drugs are the number one source of revenue in Mexico, it's no wonder that so many people, from poor youths to police officers, to the president, and from what i hear even people in the US DEA, are involved in it.
What should the No Borders/Freedom of Movement/Solidarity with Immigrants Struggle in the U.S. look like?
CAROB (central arizona radicals opposing borders) is calling for submissions for a zine to answer this question and more.
There is a lack of discussion on strategy among radicals/anarchists/anti-capitalists/anti-authoritarians regarding borders in the U.S.
We are looking for
essays, interviews, proposals, articles about experiences
Think about address some of these questions:
what should we be doing?
what has worked and what has not?
what does solidarity with undocumented immigrants look like?
what can we learn from other movements?
what are the targets/audience/focus? the state, white supremacist groups, whiteness, citizens, capitalism, etc?
how do we organize on a larger scale around these issues?
how does a struggle for no borders fit into larger struggles?
what are the particular roles of people with privilege?
what is an accurate analysis of what's going on?
email carob@riseup.net with questions or submissions
http://www.myspace.com/carobphx
Phoenix is the kidnapping capital of the U.S.. Why are those of us in the area barely hearing about it? Because it's happening to undocumented immigrants and drug dealers, not to those considered "us" by the media and the authorities. Can you imagine what things would be like if mexicans were kidnapping white people here in phoenix? It would be quite a different attitude coming from the media and government officials. Of course they're worried that the drug-related violence, which is much worse in Mexico, will touch "us" soon enough, which is partly why they are throwing money into the drug war in Mexico. Notice the statement below about not one involving a "truly innocent victim" in the article called Human smuggling makes Phoenix kidnapping capital of U.S.
In the past year, there were 359 kidnappings in Phoenix, and not one was legitimate involving a truly innocent victim, said Mark Spencer, head of the union which represents more than 2,500 Phoenix police officers. He said all the kidnappings were connected to illegal immigration and the numbers may represent just the tip of the iceberg.
"The investigators up at the violent crimes bureau are estimating that this 359 represents just one-third of the reported kidnappings that take place in Phoenix," Spencer said.
Also view Napolitano's recent statements on putting more agents on the border.
"Every American has a stake in this," Janet Napolitano said in a phone interview with USA Today. "Violence on the border easily seeps into our communities. It also creates a fear in border communities that the rule of law doesn't apply anymore, and that's just unacceptable." (Source).
The kidnapping and associated violence are part and parcel of the underground economies which have resulted from the criminalization of drugs and unauthorized movement into the U.S.. Yet the police, such as sheriff Arpaio, use the kidnapping and violence as pretext to further terrorize undocumented immigrants. The police and homeland security are doing almost exactly what the kidnappers are doing: holding people against their will and profiting from it.
There was a raid by the marcopa county sheriff's office (MCSO) monday morning, according to Illegal Immigrants Arrested At Painting Company.
The sheriff's office started investigating after several calls came in from former employees of the Cochran Painting Company located on West Frier Drive in Glendale. The calls claimed that U.S. citizens who worked there were recently fired while the illegal immigrants were not, the sheriff's office said.
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