What is happening to all the Minutemen's money? An ABC 15 News clip out of Phoenix.
Connie Foust, a Minuteman information officer, denies the claims made in the report.
Friday, April 28, 2006
Three Points, AZ: adios media
Good ol' Patrick Lundy gets the big heave-ho from the Minutemen for spending a few moments with A.C.L.U. legal observers. Connie goes to town. I'm pretty sure that she hates us.
So that you know, Lundy is riding his motorcycle along the entire U.S.-Mexico border, compiling data and experience for what he calls a "personal narrative" on border life. Sounds vaguely familiar.
So that you know, Lundy is riding his motorcycle along the entire U.S.-Mexico border, compiling data and experience for what he calls a "personal narrative" on border life. Sounds vaguely familiar.
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Three Points, AZ: the bust
This was my official welcome to Minuteman Campaign '06. Dated to April 1st and requires Quicktime.
The Minuteman of One arrive upon a migrant pick-up. Watch 'em wave those guns. The supposed "coyotes" were actually two Sheriff's Department vehicles, and the Border Patrol agent really did say what you thought she said.
The Minuteman of One arrive upon a migrant pick-up. Watch 'em wave those guns. The supposed "coyotes" were actually two Sheriff's Department vehicles, and the Border Patrol agent really did say what you thought she said.
Three Points, AZ: news clip on vigilante groups
Here's a must-see news clip from CBS 5 of Phoenix. A glimpse into the Minutemen, Border Guardians and the Minuteman of One. Not far from what we've been seeing in Three Points day in and day out.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
from the border: AZ Daily Star article on apprehension numbers
I wonder what the Minutemen would say about this...
Migrant tally called misleading
Experts: Apprehension numbers aside, most entrants make it in
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 04.22.2006
In late February, Border Patrol agents apprehended and deported Roberto Robledo Sandoval after finding him with others inside a drop house in Mesa.
Robledo Sandoval, 45, called the experience — armed men kept them in the house waiting for family members in Mexico to wire more money — the worst nightmare of his life.
Nonetheless, after Border Patrol agents dropped him off the border in Nogales, he found another coyote — a people smuggler — and tried again the next day. A couple of days later, while walking in the Altar Valley southwest of Tucson, Border Patrol agents caught him again.
His story is a common one among the estimated 500,000 illegal entrants who make their way into the country each year, said Princeton professor Douglas Massey. He said research suggests that apprehensions don't stop migrants but rather force them to try repeatedly until they make it.
Yet, apprehension numbers kept by the Border Patrol don't reflect this reality.
Under the agency's guidelines, Robledo Sandoval would count as two apprehensions because the agency counts the event of each apprehension, not the number of people apprehended.
Internally, the Border Patrol tracks how many times each illegal entrant is caught, said Shannon Stevens, a spokeswoman with the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector. However, the agency doesn't release that number and didn't have an estimate on how many detainees have been caught previously.
The agency views the 11 percent decrease in apprehensions from fiscal year 2004 to fiscal 2005 and the 8 percent decrease so far in fiscal year 2006 in the Tucson Sector as an indicator of declining traffic in the sector and validation of the increased agents and technology devoted to the sector.
"I don't think it's due to the fact that we aren't catching as many," Stevens said. "I just don't think as many are crossing here."
But professors who study migration patterns such as Massey, Trinity University's David Spener and the Migration Policy Institute's Demetrios Papademtriou doubt that Border Patrol actions change the actual number of illegal entrants who make it into the United States.
Massey said the probability that a man or woman would leave Mexico to migrate illegally into the United States has fluctuated at around 1 percent for the past two decades despite the increase in Border
Patrol agents and budget. Nearly all make it, Massey said.
"Almost everybody gets in," Massey said. "It's just a matter of how many times it takes."
The number of Border Patrol agents and agency budget has been on the rise since 1992. The number of agents has more than doubled nationally from 4,139 in 1992 to 11,384 in 2006. When adjusted for inflation, the agency's budget has increased 220 percent since 1992 to $1.413 billion in 2005.
"There is virtually nothing one can infer about the volume of illegal migration from the number of apprehensions," said Massey, the author of "Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in the Age of Economic Integration."
Spener, a sociologist at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, who studies U.S.-Mexican border relations, said that when border-wide apprehension numbers bulge in one sector they usually drop in nearby sectors or vice versa. But, like a balloon, the overall numbers remain nearly the same, Spener said.
Current numbers support his theory.
As Tucson Sector apprehensions declined by 10 percent in fiscal year 2005, apprehensions increased by 41 percent in the Yuma Sector to the west and by 18 percent in the El Paso Sector to the East. That trend continues so far this year as well.
Borderwide apprehensions for 2005 were only 5 percent higher than they were in 1984. In between, though, apprehensions peaked as high as 1.6 million in 1986 and in 2000 and below 1 million in 1988-1989 and again in 2002-2003.
Border Patrol officials recognize the funneling or bulging theory.
"If it makes it harder for them to cross, we are going to see a decrease because they are going to cross somewhere else," said Stevens, about increased resources in the Tucson Sector.
Massey and Spener said the Border Patrol deterrent programs, which started in El Paso in 1993 with Operation Hold the Line, Operation Gatekeeper in San Diego in 1994, and Operation Safeguard in Arizona in 1995, have done a better job at keeping illegal entrants in the country than out.
As it became more difficult to travel back and forth, married men brought their families and single men got married and had kids, Spener said.
"The longer they are away from their town or village in Mexico, there is less to go back to in many ways," Spener said. "So, it really encourages settlement."
Papademtriou said it would be incorrect to call this locking-in effect an "unintended consequence" because it's been happening for a decade, enough time for legislators to see the results. He said legislators in Washington "throw money" at the border as an easy way out of a problem they can't control.
"Clearly, we know this is happening, and we keep doing more of the same so clearly we must be comfortable with the consequences," said Papademtriou, president of the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank that studies international migration
As he sat in the Nogales office of Grupo Beta, Mexico's special force for protecting migrants, Robledo Sandoval was already contemplating another attempt.
The reason: Back home in Mexico he can only make $80 a week as a painter, a fraction of what he can make in the United States.
If he tries and gets caught again, he'll add another digit to the ambiguous apprehension numbers.
Migrant tally called misleading
Experts: Apprehension numbers aside, most entrants make it in
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 04.22.2006
In late February, Border Patrol agents apprehended and deported Roberto Robledo Sandoval after finding him with others inside a drop house in Mesa.
Robledo Sandoval, 45, called the experience — armed men kept them in the house waiting for family members in Mexico to wire more money — the worst nightmare of his life.
Nonetheless, after Border Patrol agents dropped him off the border in Nogales, he found another coyote — a people smuggler — and tried again the next day. A couple of days later, while walking in the Altar Valley southwest of Tucson, Border Patrol agents caught him again.
His story is a common one among the estimated 500,000 illegal entrants who make their way into the country each year, said Princeton professor Douglas Massey. He said research suggests that apprehensions don't stop migrants but rather force them to try repeatedly until they make it.
Yet, apprehension numbers kept by the Border Patrol don't reflect this reality.
Under the agency's guidelines, Robledo Sandoval would count as two apprehensions because the agency counts the event of each apprehension, not the number of people apprehended.
Internally, the Border Patrol tracks how many times each illegal entrant is caught, said Shannon Stevens, a spokeswoman with the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector. However, the agency doesn't release that number and didn't have an estimate on how many detainees have been caught previously.
The agency views the 11 percent decrease in apprehensions from fiscal year 2004 to fiscal 2005 and the 8 percent decrease so far in fiscal year 2006 in the Tucson Sector as an indicator of declining traffic in the sector and validation of the increased agents and technology devoted to the sector.
"I don't think it's due to the fact that we aren't catching as many," Stevens said. "I just don't think as many are crossing here."
But professors who study migration patterns such as Massey, Trinity University's David Spener and the Migration Policy Institute's Demetrios Papademtriou doubt that Border Patrol actions change the actual number of illegal entrants who make it into the United States.
Massey said the probability that a man or woman would leave Mexico to migrate illegally into the United States has fluctuated at around 1 percent for the past two decades despite the increase in Border
Patrol agents and budget. Nearly all make it, Massey said.
"Almost everybody gets in," Massey said. "It's just a matter of how many times it takes."
The number of Border Patrol agents and agency budget has been on the rise since 1992. The number of agents has more than doubled nationally from 4,139 in 1992 to 11,384 in 2006. When adjusted for inflation, the agency's budget has increased 220 percent since 1992 to $1.413 billion in 2005.
"There is virtually nothing one can infer about the volume of illegal migration from the number of apprehensions," said Massey, the author of "Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in the Age of Economic Integration."
Spener, a sociologist at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, who studies U.S.-Mexican border relations, said that when border-wide apprehension numbers bulge in one sector they usually drop in nearby sectors or vice versa. But, like a balloon, the overall numbers remain nearly the same, Spener said.
Current numbers support his theory.
As Tucson Sector apprehensions declined by 10 percent in fiscal year 2005, apprehensions increased by 41 percent in the Yuma Sector to the west and by 18 percent in the El Paso Sector to the East. That trend continues so far this year as well.
Borderwide apprehensions for 2005 were only 5 percent higher than they were in 1984. In between, though, apprehensions peaked as high as 1.6 million in 1986 and in 2000 and below 1 million in 1988-1989 and again in 2002-2003.
Border Patrol officials recognize the funneling or bulging theory.
"If it makes it harder for them to cross, we are going to see a decrease because they are going to cross somewhere else," said Stevens, about increased resources in the Tucson Sector.
Massey and Spener said the Border Patrol deterrent programs, which started in El Paso in 1993 with Operation Hold the Line, Operation Gatekeeper in San Diego in 1994, and Operation Safeguard in Arizona in 1995, have done a better job at keeping illegal entrants in the country than out.
As it became more difficult to travel back and forth, married men brought their families and single men got married and had kids, Spener said.
"The longer they are away from their town or village in Mexico, there is less to go back to in many ways," Spener said. "So, it really encourages settlement."
Papademtriou said it would be incorrect to call this locking-in effect an "unintended consequence" because it's been happening for a decade, enough time for legislators to see the results. He said legislators in Washington "throw money" at the border as an easy way out of a problem they can't control.
"Clearly, we know this is happening, and we keep doing more of the same so clearly we must be comfortable with the consequences," said Papademtriou, president of the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank that studies international migration
As he sat in the Nogales office of Grupo Beta, Mexico's special force for protecting migrants, Robledo Sandoval was already contemplating another attempt.
The reason: Back home in Mexico he can only make $80 a week as a painter, a fraction of what he can make in the United States.
If he tries and gets caught again, he'll add another digit to the ambiguous apprehension numbers.
Friday, April 21, 2006
Tucson, AZ: Press on the Minutemen
Since the start of this month I've been in Three Points, Arizona, west of Tucson by a good thirty-five miles. I've been volunteering as a legal observer of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a group that monitors for undocumented immigrants crossing through Arizona's southern deserts. For those reading along from Arizona State, a former alum, Ray Ybarra, is directing the legal observer efforts as a fellow with the American Civil Liberties Union (A.C.L.U.). He's a great person to learn from.
Three Points is a very strategic, intelligent spot for the Minutemen to patrol. It's a major corridor for migrant traffic, and it's far enough north of the border that the Mexican human rights arm, Grupo Beta, isn't making as extensive an effort at redirecting crossers away from the Minutemen as they did last year. At least that's the rumor. In any case, thus far the Minutemen have reported sightings of a thousand-plus migrants, and roughly a third of that number in apprehensions.
I'm inclined to believe that their numbers are inflated, judging from the chatter--or therefore lack of--on their radios. Spotting fifty-plus migrants is possible, although highly improbable. I'd venture to say that they're spotting closer to thirty.
For the last two days, the Minutmen have dropped from three full-time shifts to one afternoon shift. Their number of volunteers have decreased as well, from a peak of thirty on either morning (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.) or evening (4 p.m. to midnight) patrols to roughly fifteen on the lone evening shift. This, however, excludes the recent arrival of the "Raging Grannies", a retired crew of women ostensibly sent out to do public relations work with local and international (Belgian, I think) press.
From what observers have told me about last year, the press is largely absent from this year's round of Minutemen patrols. The first weekend was really busy. There was a Spanish news team out, along with, of course, Fox News, serveral Indymedia groups and plenty of local stations. The one-time Minutemen line of fifty quickly shrank to around half that size. Recently, however, the founder and C.E.O. of the Minutman Civil Defense Corps., Chris Simcox, announced that the Minutemen had allied with several ranchers to erect fencing on their property at or near the border. I imagine that this will bring them some more attention in the coming weeks. Personally, I don't see that ranchers or the Minutemen will make any movement on fencing i.e. walls. At best, they might have a nominal rise in volunteer applications.
I write "applications" because the reported "thousands" of Minutemen patrolling the border are nowhere to be found. Although volunteers might apply, they remain largely absent from the actual efforts along the border. This shouldn't really come as a surprise to anybody. People sign up, but they don't always show up. This is how volunteering normally goes.
Three Points is a very strategic, intelligent spot for the Minutemen to patrol. It's a major corridor for migrant traffic, and it's far enough north of the border that the Mexican human rights arm, Grupo Beta, isn't making as extensive an effort at redirecting crossers away from the Minutemen as they did last year. At least that's the rumor. In any case, thus far the Minutemen have reported sightings of a thousand-plus migrants, and roughly a third of that number in apprehensions.
I'm inclined to believe that their numbers are inflated, judging from the chatter--or therefore lack of--on their radios. Spotting fifty-plus migrants is possible, although highly improbable. I'd venture to say that they're spotting closer to thirty.
For the last two days, the Minutmen have dropped from three full-time shifts to one afternoon shift. Their number of volunteers have decreased as well, from a peak of thirty on either morning (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.) or evening (4 p.m. to midnight) patrols to roughly fifteen on the lone evening shift. This, however, excludes the recent arrival of the "Raging Grannies", a retired crew of women ostensibly sent out to do public relations work with local and international (Belgian, I think) press.
From what observers have told me about last year, the press is largely absent from this year's round of Minutemen patrols. The first weekend was really busy. There was a Spanish news team out, along with, of course, Fox News, serveral Indymedia groups and plenty of local stations. The one-time Minutemen line of fifty quickly shrank to around half that size. Recently, however, the founder and C.E.O. of the Minutman Civil Defense Corps., Chris Simcox, announced that the Minutemen had allied with several ranchers to erect fencing on their property at or near the border. I imagine that this will bring them some more attention in the coming weeks. Personally, I don't see that ranchers or the Minutemen will make any movement on fencing i.e. walls. At best, they might have a nominal rise in volunteer applications.
I write "applications" because the reported "thousands" of Minutemen patrolling the border are nowhere to be found. Although volunteers might apply, they remain largely absent from the actual efforts along the border. This shouldn't really come as a surprise to anybody. People sign up, but they don't always show up. This is how volunteering normally goes.
Saturday, April 01, 2006
from Alternet: Maria Luisa Tucker on Cesar Chavez
Viva la Immigration Debate
Maria Luisa Tucker, AlterNet
April 1, 2006
(Editor's Note: This story was originally posted in The Mix.)
Yesterday, as eight states recognized Cesar Chavez Day as an official
holiday, some groups recalled Chavez's memory in their own fight for
legislation that would provide 11 million undocumented immigrants with
a path toward citizenship.
The conflation of Chavez's work and the fight for compassionate
immigration reform is both right and wrong.
In spirit, it makes sense. Chavez, after all, worked on behalf of the
underdog and always clung to a spirit of nonviolence (just as
pro-immigrant demonstrators have done over the last week). A farm
worker who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, he has
become a legendy figure of social justice and civil rights for
Chicanos. He followed Gandhi's example and fasted in 1968 to draw
attention to the poor treatment of farm workers. It was this sense of
justice and equality that makes Chavez a person to remember during the
debates on immigration.
However, Chavez was no friend to undocumented immigrants during his
time. He was born a U.S. citizen in Arizona and was loyal to American
farm workers. In fighting for the rights of agricultural workers, in
1969 his union protested farms that hired illegal immigrants as scabs
during a union strike. They even reported some suspected illegal
immigrants to INS.
I point out these two images of Chavez in order to make a point about
the immigration battle that will continue for weeks to come: Just as
Chavez was not a simple man, immigration reform it is not a simple
issue. It is not black and white. There is no perfect answer.
Those who support legalization of undocumented immigrants are not
against unions or worker's rights. Rather, we see that the ability for
families, no matter where they are from, to stay together and make
enough money simply to eat is a human right. The anti-immigrant
legislation that the House has already passed would rip families apart
-- parents who are illegally here would inevitably leave their
children and grandchildren who were born U.S. citizens -- and proposes
to send millions of immigrants back home to starve. I don't believe
this is the kind of "justice" that Cesr Chavez would condone.
Rather than pitting poor American citizens against poor illegal
immigrants, I propose that we take Chavez's vision of social justice
and apply it to all. Let's fight for legalization and workers' rights.
We can demand both, and I believe there is enough American wealth to
support all our nation's laborers and service workers, citizen and
noncitizen, alike. We need to concentrate on forcing those who own the
wealth to share it with their employees, rather than blaming our
nation's newest immigrants for our crappy wages. So, rather than
fighting one another for the pennies that corporations throw at their
workers, let's make the Wal-Marts of the world pay up.
After all, the problem is not a lack of wealth, it is the disparity of
the wealth. Why else would so many Latin American immigrants come
here?
--
www.border101.org
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