I've read many of his articles and I read something excellent, very recently,
but I don't think it was an entire book. I also remember seeing video reports
that he's done of what is happening on the border.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey
(Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Sunday, August 16, 2020 12:28 PM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] The Roots of Trump’s Immigration Policy
The Roots of Trump’s Immigration Policy
https://socialistaction.org/2020/08/15/the-roots-of-trumps-immigration-policy/
August 15, 2020
By BARRY SHEPPARD
Sand and Blood: America’s Stealth War on the Mexico Border By John Carlos Frey
Bold Type Books, 2019
This book presents a harrowing well-researched description of Washington’s war
against immigrants on the Mexican border. The author is an investigative
journalist and documentary filmmaker.
Frey was born in Tijuana, Mexico. His parents moved across the border to
southern San Diego in 1965, where he could see Tijuana as a child. His mother
was Mexican, and his father was a United States citizen, so he was a U.S.
citizen too, which enabled him to move fairly freely back and forth between the
U.S. and Mexico.
Americans are well aware of Trump’s cruel treatment of immigrants and asylum
seekers at the border. Less well known is how the stage was set for Trump’s war
against immigrants by previous administrations.
A qualitative turning point came in 1986 under the Regan administration, as
immigration from Mexico grew, with what became known as the “amnesty bill”
because it allowed legal status for many undocumented immigrants who had worked
in the U.S. for years and had put down roots.
“But the bill did not address the root causes for the migration …. [T]he bill’s
authors also made sure to provide for a militaristic approach to border
enforcement. [It] would be fortified with physical barriers, and more border
guards would be deployed” Frey writes.
“If the United States was going to grant an exception to codified immigration
law by granting amnesty, it was going to make sure, by sheer force, that
migrants would not come illegally again.” But, of course, they continued to
come anyway.
Frey also says, “Southern California was the destination for undocumented
immigrants, and they would gain access to the United States through Tijuana and
cross into San Diego …. But in the late eighties and early nineties, this
pristine area became one of the main centers for the militarization of the
border with Mexico.”
Under the administration of George H.W. Bush, 1989-93, the size of the Border
Patrol was doubled and seven hundred miles of new border fencing was built. But
the real militarization of the border began under Bill Clinton as immigration
continued to grow along with anti-immigration sentiment whipped up by the
Republicans.
Sensing a winning issue, Clinton out-Republicaned the Republicans on
immigration. Under Clinton’s order, the Border Patrol issued the Border Patrol
Strategic Plan 1994 and Beyond – National Strategy, which became known as the
“prevention through deterrence strategy,” which is still being employed today.
The strategy was to build up fencing and Border Patrol agents at the border
between El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico, and to do the same between Tijuana
and San Diego. This would force those entering the U.S.
without documents to cross the border in the inhospitable and sometimes
scorching hot terrain of mountains and desert.
The trek across this terrain is long and difficult. Many die along the way,
most often from dehydration – this is the “deterrence.” The border between El
Paso and Juarez is the Rio Grande, crossed by bridges. Some try to evade the
Border Patrol by swimming or using rafts to cross the river, and there are
drownings – another “deterrence.”
It isn’t known how many migrants have died in the deserts and mountains since
“prevention through deterrence” was implemented, for reasons Frey explains, but
it is in the thousands. Many bodies and skeletons have been found by
humanitarian volunteers who venture into these areas to leave water for the
migrants.
These heroic volunteers notify local authorities, who sometimes can bury the
bodies. But most of the time they can only advise the Border Patrol where the
bodies are. Although the Patrol has the resources to find and bury the corpses,
and keep track how many there are – and are supposed to do so – they most often
do nothing.
In his State of the Union address to Congress in 1995, Clinton struck many
themes and presented falsehoods still used today by Trump:
“All Americans, not only in the states most heavily affected but every place in
this country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens
entering our country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or
legal immigrants. The public services they use impose burdens on our taxpayers.
That’s why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders by
hiring a record number of new border guards, by deporting twice as many
criminal aliens as ever before, by cracking down on illegal hiring, by barring
welfare benefits to illegal aliens….”
When Clinton ended “welfare as we know it” in 1996, included in the bill was
the provision that barred even legal immigrants from accessing welfare for the
first five years of their stay in the U.S.
Also in that year, Clinton signed the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death
Penalty Act, after the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City bombings.
The Act allowed the government to increase prosecutions and arrests of
suspected “terrorists.” But it also allowed immigrants, legal or otherwise, to
be apprehended and detained without due process, if they were convicted of
certain felonies. As a result, the number of immigrants held in detention
doubled.
Another law signed by Clinton, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant
Responsibility Act, placed new restrictions on immigrants anywhere in the
country who were caught without documents, denying them due process. If an
undocumented immigrant was deported, they could not apply for any legal means
to re-enter the U.S. for ten years. This meant families of mixed-status
undocumented, documented and citizen members could be separated for ten years.
Most likely, those deported would try to re-enter the country without
documentation.
The law also allowed the Attorney General’s office to, in effect, deputize
local law enforcement as federal immigration officers. Sheriffs and cops could
stop anyone and demand proof of legal residency. This measure sent shock waves
of fear in Latino communities. People stopped trusting police, and avoided
reporting crimes to local police, lest they be deported.
Clinton also made it even harder for migrants to apply for legal documents to
enter. The reason there are so many immigrants crossing the border without
documents, is that it can take years – even two decades – to get legal
documents for migrants from Mexico and points South.
Also under Clinton, the military increasingly was used at the border to enforce
anti-immigrant laws. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 said the military cannot
be used as a police force domestically – unless the Congress or the President
authorizes it. This loophole was rarely used, but that has been reversed in the
war against immigrants at the Mexico border.
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the “War on Terror” was launched
justifying the war against Afghanistan and Iraq, and with attacks on civil
liberties domestically. The border with Mexico was falsely claimed to be an
entry point for terrorists, and the militarization was greatly increased. Under
George W. Bush, the annual budget for the the Border Patrol jumped from $1
billion to $2 billion. Under Obama and Trump the amount continued to rise and
is now around $4 billion.
Bush established the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Bureau of
Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which took over all functions of Customs,
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), including the Border Patrol,
creating the largest police force in the country – some 60,000. It was composed
of Customs and Border Patrol agents, and immigration inspectors. ICE did not
fall under the CBP, but was part of DHS.
The George W. Bush administration added another law, making crossing the border
without papers a crime for the first time.
The Trump administration’s cruel border policies required no new laws.
The laws passed under Clinton and Bush – whose policies were continued and
expanded by Obama – sufficed.
Under Obama, ICE ballooned to 20,000 employees, with 400 offices around the
country. Its duties morphed to include a massive immigrant detention center
complex, and deportation force, with a budget of $6 billion. ICE operates
throughout the country, but also in the border area where the Border Patrol
operates.
“Obama continued the legacy of all U.S. presidents and administrations since
Ronald Reagan, making life more difficult for immigrants,” Frey writes.
“Obama’s rate of deportations of immigrants already established in the country
was higher than any president before or since. During his eight years in
office, Obama deported more than five million people, and, so far [2019] even
Trump has not beat that record.
Frey notes that, “Obama also expanded family detention facilities for women
with their children,” as a response to an influx of thousands of Central
Americans fleeing violence and poverty.
The stage was set by both Democrats and Republicans for the openly racist Trump
to intensify and deepen the war against immigrants on the border, in all the
horrific manifestations we see today.
End the deportations! Immediate legalization and full equal rights for all
immigrants! Open the border!
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“Every aspect of Nature reveals a deep mystery and touches our sense of wonder
and awe. Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to
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