The Likelihood of Harm is Reduced Somewhat by the Mexican Government’s Commitment

Trump Administration Can Keep Sending Asylum Seekers to Mexico, Court Rules

By Miriam Jordan
May 7, 2019
The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/07/us/asylum-seekers-trump-mexico.html

LOS ANGELES — A federal appeals court on Tuesday [5/7/19] ruled that the Trump administration can continue to enforce a policy that returns asylum seekers to Mexico while they wait for an immigration court to decide their cases. […]

The Trump administration unveiled the “Remain in Mexico” program in December [2018] for migrants entering the country in San Diego and has since expanded it to El Paso.

It is intended to crack down on asylum claims, which have soared as Central American migrants have crossed the United States’ southwestern border in ever-larger numbers over the past year.

But forcing asylum applicants to remain in possibly dangerous conditions in Mexico represents a major break from longstanding practice that permitted most migrants who requested asylum to live in the United States while they awaited the outcome of their cases. […]

Legal advocates for migrants have denounced the policy, saying a spike in violence and overwhelmed shelters in Mexican border towns put the migrants at risk.

Being forced to remain in Mexico while their asylum cases are being prepared also limits the migrants’ access to legal counsel because they cannot reach the help that is available on the American side of the border, immigration lawyers said. […]

[One lawyer] said that families are being dropped off on the streets of Ciudad Juárez, across the border, where they cannot find space in shelters that are at capacity. Many, she said, are being targeted by robbers and kidnappers. “We have had multiple families kidnapped for extortion,” she said.

But a majority of the three-judge panel concluded that allowing the policy to remain in place for now was not unreasonable.

To summarize…

When people approach our country and file paperwork requesting asylum, normally they’d then remain in the U.S. while they await their day in court. But six months ago the Trump administration created a new policy: immediately send asylum seekers back to Mexico. While they wait, they languish for months in crowded shelters in Tijuana and Juarez, just across the border from San Diego and El Paso.

There’s no practical reason for this policy—there’s no reason why these people shouldn’t be allowed to spend those months in the safety of the U.S. It’s simply punitive, more harsh treatment meant to scare off potential future border crossers.

As such, civil rights groups challenged the policy in court. This week a three-judge panel in San Francisco ruled that, while their legal challenge plays out, the administration can continue to enforce the policy.

The main logic behind that decision appears to be that, although the “Remain in Mexico” policy goes against both the spirit and the letter of international law, it’s acceptable in practice because, where the U.S. falls short in providing asylum seekers with due process and physical safety, Mexico is picking up the slack.

Here are a few quotes from the article reflecting the opinions of those involved:

• The Republican-appointed judge who wrote the panel’s opinion: “The plaintiffs fear substantial injury upon return to Mexico, but the likelihood of harm is reduced somewhat by the Mexican government’s commitment to honor its international-law obligations.” In other words: The U.S. government is failing to guarantee the safety of these asylum seekers—failing to honor its international-law obligations—but that’s fine, because Mexico is doing it for us.

• Meanwhile, in Mexico, the article’s author writes: “Mexican officials have said that while they disagree with the policy, which they have described as a unilateral decision by the Trump administration, they would accept the asylum seekers, protect their rights and allow them to lawfully remain in Mexico while their cases wind through the American courts.”

• The Democrat-appointed judges who dissented: “The government is wrong. Not just arguably wrong, but clearly and flagrantly wrong.” “I’m at a loss to understand how an agency whose professed goal is to comply with non-refoulement principles could rationally decide not to ask that question.“

Detention Settings Compound Previous Trauma

Central American women fleeing violence experience more trauma after seeking asylum

By Laurie C. Heffron
April 25, 2019 · 11:45 AM EDT
Public Radio International
https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-04-25/central-american-women-fleeing-violence-experience-more-trauma-after-seeking

According to many studies by scholars like psychologists Katy Robjant and Kalina Brabeck, locking immigrants up can damage their mental health by increasing risks of depression, post-traumatic stress and anxiety. The effects can last years and even a lifetime. For parents, the damage extends beyond detention and may harm children of the detained.

Because detention relies on control, coercion and containment, it inherently makes frightened people more fearful, disrupts sleep and restricts access to medical, legal and social services. […]

Many detained women say they have been abused while being held by US immigration authorities in what appear to be inhumane conditions marked by incidents of sexual harassment and sexual assault.

The Department of Homeland Security itself has documented dangers that include the provision of food that isn’t safe to eat, like moldy bread and rotten meat, and delayed medical care.

There are signs of threats and intimidation as well. A woman I’ll call Adelia told my research team that when she asked an immigration official how much money she would have to pay to be released, she was told: “Stop asking me, or I’ll raise the amount.”

Investigative media outlets, immigrant rights advocates and researchers have documented that ICE detainees often face threats, insults, humiliation and stress brought on by constantly changing rules and expectations.

ICE itself has disclosed that 28 women had miscarriages while in detention during the 2017 and 2018 fiscal years.

I have heard directly and through media reports that these immigration detention centers sometimes isolate detained women, either in response to perceived mental health issues or as punishment, leaving them unable to interact with one another, their own children or the volunteer lawyers who are trying to help them.

These practices echo and exacerbate survivors’ experiences with past abuse and violence. That is, detention settings may resemble control tactics used by abusers, traffickers or other perpetrators, compounding previous trauma.

New Tent Structures Built to Detain Migrants

The Reality At The Border: Inside A New Migrant Tent Facility

By REYNALDO LEAÑOS JR.
KSTX Texas Public Radio
MAY 2, 2019
https://www.tpr.org/post/reality-border-inside-new-migrant-tent-facility

DHS recently announced the agency will expand its border detention facilities in Texas with the opening of two new tent-like structures, which were completed this week.

Media gathered inside the 40,000 square foot facility, which is nearly the size of a football field, in Donna for a press briefing and tour.

Executive Officer Carmen Qualia of Border Patrol led the tour.

“What you are in right now is what we refer to as a pod -- one of four detention pods -- and the pods are approximately 8,000 square feet,” said Qualia. […]

The pod had high ceilings with tarp-like walls and was nearly empty. Stacks of thin-black plastic mattresses were pushed up against one wall.

The facility is meant to hold 500 people but could hold even more if necessary. Qualia said the facility was needed.

“I hope it’s enough. I hope it’s enough,” she said. “We would like the flow to slow down and stop all together.” […]

The structure was one of two new tent structures built to detain migrants when they are apprehended at the border or turn themselves in to border officials. The other facility is in El Paso. […]

The agency said migrants detained in these facilities will be released under 72 hours either to Immigration and Customs Enforcement or, if they are unaccompanied minors, to Health and Human Services for placement in a shelter or with sponsors.

CBP said they don’t provide legal services to migrants at the temporary holding facility because the facility is not meant for long-term detention.

The first migrants were expected to arrive on Friday [5/3/19].

Over 670 Apprehended by Border Patrol Within 24 Hours

Border Patrol Apprehends 3 Large Groups of Aliens within 24 hours

Border Patrol media release
Release Date: May 3, 2019
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/border-patrol-apprehends-3-large-groups-aliens-within-24-hours

On May 1 at approximately 1:30 a.m. Border Patrol agents took custody of a large number of illegal aliens at the Camp Bounds Forward Operating Base adjacent to the Antelope Wells port of entry. The majority of individuals from this group are from Central America. The group included family groups with small children as well as unaccompanied juveniles that continue to put their trust and money in smuggling organizations while undertaking the dangerous journey. This particular group had a total of 243 individuals that made the treacherous journey.

About 40 minutes later at 2:10 a.m. U.S. Border Patrol agents in El Paso also encountered a large group of illegal aliens crossing the border and entering the U.S. illegally at the border wall near downtown. This group was made up of 219 people.

On Thursday morning [May 2] another large group was apprehended in Antelope Wells with a total of 209 illegal aliens. This bringing the total to three large groups, and over 670 illegal aliens being apprehended by Border Patrol within 24 hours. This group, like others before, is comprised primarily of Central American families and unaccompanied juveniles.

Strict—Even Cruel—Measures Will Not Stop Those Fleeing for Their Lives

Violence drives immigration from Central America

Sarah Bermeo
Brookings Institute
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2018/06/26/violence-drives-immigration-from-central-america/

The U.S. government argues that people fleeing these places do not fit the technical definition of a refugee, so the U.S. is not obligated to offer them asylum. Yet they fit the spirit of agreements on refugees adopted after World War II. The U.N. refugee agency has concluded “that a significant percentage of those fleeing… may be in need of international protection, in line with the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.”

Under current U.S. policy, most individuals from Northern Triangle countries are subject to deportation. The Obama administration stepped up enforcement following the 2014 surge in unaccompanied minors, in an attempt to deter future arrivals. The Trump administration has recently implemented an even tougher stance. MSF calls these policies “a death sentence for Central Americans fleeing violence.” There are documented cases of individuals being murdered in their home country after being deported by the U.S. […]

U.S. lawmakers call for tougher policies to deter arrivals. But strict—even cruel—measures at our border will not stop those fleeing for their lives. If the violent route through Mexico is not a deterrent, it is unlikely that U.S. policy will be one. With tougher border rules, people fleeing violence are more likely to use traffickers and to pay higher prices, thus providing more resources that strengthen organized criminal groups.

The International Crisis Group, Doctors Without Borders, and the U.N. refugee agency have called for host countries to provide protection instead of repatriation. This would reduce the need to use traffickers to enter the U.S. illegally, keep people out of the shadows, and allow host governments to manage the flow of refugees. The vast majority of those detained at the border from Northern Triangle countries are not gang members, but innocent people fleeing violence. Screening and security precautions can be used to vet arrivals.

In 2016, the U.S. government detained 224,854 people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras —less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the U.S. population. If they were allowed to stay, and even if the rate were maintained for a decade, it would still be a much smaller share of the U.S. population than previous waves of Irish, Italians, and Russian Jews. These groups were also greeted with suspicion, but now few would deny their value as Americans. Far from being an economic drain, refugees contribute to the economy, driven to succeed and often innovative.

A Legal Challenge to Barr’s Order to Imprison Asylum Seekers Indefinitely

Yesterday the American Civil Liberties Union announced it was filing a lawsuit challenging the Attorney General’s order from a few weeks ago.

Remember the order? William Barr instructed immigration judges to reverse years of precedent in which they allow border crossers who request asylum in the U.S. to be released on bond while they await their court hearing. If this order is implemented, thousands more immigrants will be incarcerated indefinitely.

This is an absurd decision to make at a time when DHS spokespeople say that immigration detention centers are already filled to capacity and they need to construct new tent cities to house everyone they’re arresting. A logical leader would be looking for ways to decrease the number of people in detention, not increase it.

More to the point, the order is an affront to human rights: it deprives immigrants of due process.

I’m so glad we have organizations like the ACLU that fight abusive policies and defend people’s rights and liberties. Here’s an excerpt from their press release on the latest turn of events, which not only explains the basic legal arguments in question but describes what they (and I) believe to be the true motivation behind Barr’s otherwise counterproductive move: treating immigrants inhumanely as a way to deter future immigration.

Attorney General Barr Says ICE Has Power to Lock Up Asylum Seekers Without Hearings

By Michael Tan, Senior Staff Attorney
ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project
MAY 2, 2019 | 7:30 PM
https://www.aclu.org/blog/immigrants-rights/immigrants-rights-and-detention/attorney-general-barr-says-ice-has-power-lock

Today the ACLU, the ACLU of Washington, the American Immigration Council, and Northwest Immigrant Rights Project launched a legal challenge to the Trump administration’s latest assault on people who have come to the United States to seek refuge from persecution: jailing asylum seekers without even allowing a judge to decide if there’s any reason to lock them up. Attorney General William Barr’s recent decision in Matter of M-S- seeks to eliminate this basic form of due process and puts thousands of asylum seekers at risk of being wrongfully imprisoned.  […]

For more than a century, the Supreme Court has held that all persons who have entered the United States have due process rights, and the Court has emphasized that “[f]reedom from imprisonment . . . lies at the heart of the liberty” protected by the Due Process Clause of the Constitution. The bedrock form of due process against unlawful detention is a hearing, before a neutral adjudicator, to decide if the person should be locked up. M-S- violates that basic right.

The decision is also pointlessly cruel and irrational. It makes no sense to lock people up without even having a judge consider whether they should be detained—it simply guarantees that we will imprison people who don’t need to be imprisoned. That is especially true when it comes to asylum seekers. Studies confirm that asylum seekers pose no threat to public safety and are highly motivated to fight their cases and show up for court. And nothing about a hearingprevents detention in the rare case where someone does pose a risk: the judge can just deny release. 

But ultimately this isn't about rational immigration policy or protecting public safety. The Trump administration always has made its real motives clear: it wants to deter immigrants from seeking refuge in the United States and punish people who apply for protection under our laws. But our Constitution does not allow the government to put people behind bars without due process of law.

Asylum Officers Forced to Refuse Safe Haven to People Facing Peril

Exclusive: Civil servants say they’re being used as pawns in a dangerous asylum program

Asylum officers worry they’re being forced to send some Central Americans to wait in Mexico — even when they’re in danger of persecution there.

By Dara Lind
May 2, 2019, 11:20am EDT
Vox.com
https://www.vox.com/2019/5/2/18522386/asylum-trump-mpp-remain-mexico-lawsuit

The first time that one immigration officer interviewed an asylum seeker under new Trump administration protocols, the officer went back to their hotel room, turned up the shower as hot as it would go, and tried to wash off the feeling of being manipulated.

The officer had just listened to the Central American’s story of threats from drug cartels during his journey through Mexico en route to the US, and believed the man’s life was in danger. “This was a guy truly afraid he was going to be murdered, and frankly, he might be,” the officer told Vox.

But the officer “wasn’t even allowed to make an argument” that the asylum seeker should be allowed to stay in the US to pursue his case. They signed — feeling they had no choice — a form stating the migrant wasn’t likely to be persecuted in Mexico, and therefore could be safely returned.

Many asylum officers are concerned that the integrity of their office is at stake — along with their names. […]

As unprecedented numbers of Central American families come to the US-Mexico border, most of whom enter the asylum process, the Trump administration has put asylum officers in the crosshairs. The White House is pressuring the Department of Homeland Security to raise the standards for traditional screening interviews, and reportedly laying the groundwork for Border Patrol agents — who are assumed to be “tougher” on migrants — to conduct those interviews instead.

To human rights advocates, those plans risk running afoul of international law. The administration’s rhetoric, from President Trump’s tendency to mock asylum seekers at rallies to the claims of pervasive “fraud” in the system, conjures a future in which officers on the ground will be forced to refuse safe haven in the US to people who may well face peril when sent back.

But the asylum officers who spoke to Vox under the auspices of their union believe they’ve already seen that future — they see a US asylum system that has all but turned its back on people fleeing persecution in their home countries. And even if the specific “return to Mexico” policy is held up in court, they worry a fundamental norm has been broken that can’t be repaired.

What Is Unlawful is Turning Away Asylum Seekers

Turned Away at the Border

“There isn't enough space”: Customs and Border Protection tells a young Guatemalan migrant seeking asylum to go back to Mexico.

AJ+
Facebook video
Posted Monday, April 29, 2019
https://www.facebook.com/ajplusenglish/videos/845876599109461/

U.S. border agent, standing in the center of an international bridge, speaking to a Guatemalan girl attempting to to cross from Mexico into the U.S. to claim asylum: Did you hear that more than 100,000 people are coming every month? That’s a lot of people. There isn’t enough space and so Mexico has been so gracious in helping us provide lodging to people.

Cynthia Pompa, ACLU Border Rights Center, explaining the scene to the camera: A young migrant girl showed up to present herself at a port of entry and was told by a CBP official that she needed to go back and find an agent, a Mexican agent, and get herself on a list. She was really confused and lost.

I saw a young boy who showed up by himself to request asylum.

What is unlawful is how CBP is standing in the middle of international bridges, right on the international line, turning away asylum seekers.

The State is Legally Bound to Listen to Refugees’ Stories

A Citizen Is Obliged To Listen

When a refugee flees to another country and claims asylum, she is, in effect, petitioning the state to listen to her story.
Ankita Chakraborty
Longreads
February 2019
https://longreads.com/2019/02/26/a-citizen-is-obliged-to-listen/

When a refugee flees to another country and claims asylum, she is, in effect, petitioning the state to listen to her story. The state provides the refugee with lawyers, asylum officers and immigration judges who, each in their own capacity, have to just listen. According to the 1967 Protocol of the Refugee Convention, the refugee has every right to tell her story to the state and the state is legally bound to listen to it. Listening to a story might also expose the state to the possibility of a change of mind and even a favorable decision for the refugee. It is for this reason, in a clever evasion of legal responsibility, that countries like France, Italy and the United Kingdom now surveil the seas, intercepting migrant boats en route and returning them to where they came from before they’ve even arrived; or why Donald Trump last December put a ban on asylum seekers from entering the country and has since then been keeping them detained in Mexico; or why he has recently attempted to ban Central American children from applying as refugees when they are already in the U.S., advising them to instead apply from where they live, through a process that does not exist. The point is to distance refugees from their legally-bound listeners, protecting the listeners from being moved by those stories. […]

In the world’s “safe” countries, there is still no stigma against deportation. When talking about refugees, we have been so focused on the number of them moving in, that it is appalling how little we talk about who is being sent back. […] this is not a world of citizens beleaguered by a tide of refugees, but a world of refugees trapped in the age of the citizen.

This Strategic Exploitation of Our Nation’s Humanitarian Programs

Today, our president issued a memorandum to the attorney general and secretary of homeland security. Click here to read the whole document in PDF form; I’ve pulled excerpts below.

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Office of the Press Secretary

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 29, 2019

MEMORANDUM FOR THE ATTORNEY GENERAL / THE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY

SUBJECT: Additional Measures to Enhance Border Security and Restore Integrity to Our Immigration System

In March, more than 100,000 inadmissible aliens were encountered seeking entry into the United States. Many aliens travel in large caravans or other large organized groups, and many travel with children. The extensive resources required to process and care for these individuals pulls U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel away from securing our Nation's borders. Additionally, illicit organizations benefit financially by smuggling illegal aliens into the United States and encouraging abuse of our asylum procedures. This strategic exploitation of our Nation's humanitarian programs undermines our Nation's security and sovereignty. The purpose of this memorandum is to strengthen asylum procedures to safeguard our system against rampant abuse of our asylum process.

Within 90 days of the date of this memorandum, the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security, as applicable, shall take all appropriate actions to:

(c) propose regulations setting a fee for an asylum application not to exceed the costs of adjudicating the application, as authorized by section 208(d)(3) of the INA (8 U.S.C. 1158(d)(3)) and other applicable statutes, and setting a fee for an initial application for employment authorization for the period an asylum claim is pending; and

(d) propose regulations under section 208(d)(2) of the INA (8 U.S.C. 1158(d)(2)) and other applicable statutes to bar aliens who have entered or attempted to enter the United States unlawfully from receiving employment authorization before any applicable application for relief or protection from removal has been granted, and to ensure immediate revocation of employment authorization for aliens who are denied asylum or become subject to a final order of removal.

DONALD J. TRUMP

###

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Here’s what that means for people who flee their home countries and cross our border to seek asylum: they’ll be required to pay a fee to file their asylum request, and they won’t be allowed to apply for a temporary work permit while they wait for the courts to process that request.

Here in the borderlands, on the ground, churches, charities, volunteers, and local governments are doing everything they can to provide asylum seekers with basic help when they’re released from detention—hugs, hot soup, the first shower they’ve had in days or weeks, cots and blankets so they’re not sleeping on rocky dirt or concrete floors.

Back in Washington, far from the people affected, the Trump administration’s response to the border’s humanitarian crisis is always to criminalize and crack down. To victimize the victims, more and more, over and over. Now? Now they’re monetizing the asylum process, demanding money from the destitute while denying them any way to earn money in our country.

There’s a Huge Sentiment That We Want to Be Helpful and Supportive

Reading about my country’s anti-human, anti-immigrant policies, practices, and militias has been depressing the hell out of me.

But reading about my state’s communities and leaders has restored my faith in humanity. Thanks, New Mexico.

Governor tours migrant shelters in Las Cruces

BY ANGELA KOCHERGA / JOURNAL STAFF WRITER - LAS CRUCES BUREAU
Thursday, April 25th, 2019 at 11:35pm
Albuquerque Journal
https://www.abqjournal.com/1307361/governor-tours-migrant-shelters-in-las-cruces.html

LAS CRUCES – Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Thursday [4/25/19] visited emergency shelters set up to receive migrants dropped off by Border Patrol on a daily basis. The governor stopped at the Crisis Triage Center and San Jose Catholic Church and met with city officials who are managing the humanitarian response with the help of volunteers.

“What I saw today was an open, kind, productive service-oriented atmosphere,” Lujan Grisham said. […]

Her visit came as the Las Cruces City Council, in an emergency meeting, approved an additional $500,000 to help pay for migrant services. In the past two weeks, Las Cruces has received more than 2,100 migrant parents with children. Most are Central Americans seeking asylum.

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GOOD FOR YOU, ALBUQUERQUE!

The bright side of this week’s news

By August March
ALIBI V.28 NO.17 • APRIL 25-MAY 1, 2019
https://alibi.com/news/58471/Good-For-You-Albuquerque.html

During the week that culminated in Easter Sunday, the [Albuquerque] Office of Immigant and Refugee Affairs announced that it aided 100 asylum seekers. The City of Albuquerque is providing basic support resources—in conjunction with faith communities across the state, the City of Las Cruces and the community group Indivisible Nob Hill—to make these refugees’ journeys less stressful and more humane.

Last month, Mayor Tim Keller called on all Burqueños to come together in support of these people in our city. In conjunction with Holy Week festivities, Keller noted, “For many of us, it is our faith that guides us to helping others, no matter where you're from, the color of your skin or who you love. Holy Week is a poignant reminder that we must stand for the least among us. These families have traveled thousands of hard miles to legally apply for asylum in our country and to forge a new life for their families. We have seen many Burqueños step up to help in recent weeks by donating and volunteering. Local faith organizations of all types have also stepped up in a huge way and have led the support for these folks on their journey.” Good for you, Albuquerque!

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Santa Fe won’t shelter asylum-seekers but plans other aid

BY MEGAN BENNETT / JOURNAL NORTH REPORTER
Thursday, April 25th, 2019 at 11:35pm
Albuquerque Journal
https://www.abqjournal.com/1307393/santa-fe-decides-not-to-help-in-sheltering-migrants.html

SANTA FE – Santa Fe won’t provide shelter for asylum-seekers who have crossed the border in southern New Mexico, after Mayor Alan Webber had said last week the city was preparing to do so.

Instead of processing and temporarily housing asylum-seekers arriving in New Mexico, Webber now says Santa Fe will focus efforts on fundraising and organizing volunteers to help migrants. […]

Because most asylum-seekers are looking to leave the state to get to sponsors in other parts of the country, Albuquerque was considered to be a better central location because of its larger size and more transportation options, Webber said.

Taking migrants to Santa Fe and then transporting them back to Albuquerque for bus or plane service would not be an efficient use of resources, the mayor said.

“In some ways, you have to let your head overrule your heart on this one, because there’s a huge sentiment that we want to be helpful and supportive in a visible way,” Webber told the Journal on Thursday.

He said the city will organize ways to provide money, clothes, blankets, sheets, nonperishable food, personal care items, and other goods, along with recruiting volunteers to help in Albuquerque and Las Cruces.

The Resources to Police and Incarcerate but Not to Aid

Isn’t it wild that, as we’ve seen in the last few days, the U.S. government is relying so utterly on charities and volunteers to help asylum seekers transition to their sponsors?

Federal agencies are apparently concerned with these people when they’re walking in the desert and when they’re incarcerated in detention centers. From the moment they’re released, though, our government wants nothing more to do with them (until their scheduled appearance in immigration court).

This, in a country that supposedly prides itself on being a nation of immigrants with a Statue of Liberty to welcome refugees. The U.S. is the wealthiest, most powerful country in the world. Don’t we have the resources to care for those who make the desperate, dangerous journey to seek asylum here? That is, couldn’t immigration authorities ensure people are safe and on course when they’re released by providing them with bus tickets, travel information, a fresh change of clothes, a last hot meal, snacks and a stipend to pay for shelter on the journey?

Of course we do. We have the resources to wage war, to police, to incarcerate.

Of course the U.S. government has the resources to care for these people, rather than pass them off as the responsibility of overburdened charities.

All it lacks in the political will.

A Warehouse Converted Into a Hospitality Site

For months now, immigration authorities have been arresting people who cross the border to request asylum, holding them in detention for several days, and then releasing them by the busload on the doorsteps of charities and churches in nearby cities.

Yesterday we heard a description of that process from a volunteer who’s been working to temporarily shelter and assist these asylum seekers in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Today I was happy to learn the latest developments from a Catholic charity doing similar work in El Paso, Texas: Annunciation House.

Per the Annunciation House website:

Close to 100 years old, somewhat dilapidated, located on the fringe of El Paso’s biggest barrio, and some ten blocks from the US/ Mexico border, this two-story, red brick building has been home to thousands of refugees and migrant poor. This building, this house of hospitality, this sanctuary, is known as Annunciation House.

In the winter of 1976, a small group of young adults first gathered to consider and discuss the possibility of undertaking a journey that would one day be known as Annunciation House. Their gathering was fostered by a desire to experience the Gospel more deeply. Especially strong was the realization that the Gospel calls us all to the poor and that the life and presence of Jesus in the Gospels is so completely in relation to the poor.

For over one year this small group met weekly for prayer, discussion, and discernment. Little by little the principles that would guide Annunciation House came into being. Whatever was done, it would have to be in solidarity with the poor. The lifestyle would be simple and lived in community. Any work or service would be offered freely. Those accepting this journey would be volunteers, receiving no pay or wages. In order to better understand the insecurity and instability with which the poor live, it would never be possible to seek or accept permanent funding sources.

And so, 33 years later, the volunteers of Annunciation House are continuing to live that original mission by providing shelter and care for the most vulnerable at the U.S.-Mexico border. As the need has grown, so has their work: they’re creating a new hospitality center for the sole purpose of welcoming migrants and helping them on the next step of their journey toward asylum.

You can see that center below in a video produced this week by the El Paso Times. I’ve also transcribed a portion of the audio, an explanation given by Annunciation House’s director, Ruben Garcia.

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Annunciation House Opens 125,000 Square Foot Migrant Center in El Paso

MARK R LAMBIE
10:28 p.m. MDT Apr. 24, 2019
El Paso Times
https://www.elpasotimes.com/videos/news/2019/04/24/annunciation-house-opens-125-000-square-foot-migrant-center-el-paso/3567708002/

Annunciation House has been making use of hotels as one of the ways of trying to receive all of the refugees that are being released.

As all of you know, the numbers are, between El Paso and Las Cruces, the numbers are clearly in the thousand per day range, and that’s what we’re seeing released in the two cities.

Annunciation House has been making use of hotels, and that has become prohibitively expensive, and we need to find a way to stop using the hotels while at the same time trying to find a way to increase the capacity. And so the idea of finding a building that we could then convert into a hospitality site came about, and we’ve been working on it.

And so this is the building. It’s a warehouse that is little by little being converted into a hospitality site.

We presently have 500 cots and we’re using only part of the building. Eventually our hope is that we will be able to accommodate somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 refugees upon their release.

And as you go through you’re going to see many more examples of the artwork that has been done on the building that is little by little really changing the feel and the spirit of this building.

View fullsize

View fullsize

The Church in Las Cruces

Churches have been providing temporary shelter for migrants released from ICE detention.

From there, volunteers and donations have powered the effort to care for those asylum seekers as they make arrangements to travel to their sponsors’ homes around the country.

I’ve already posted about what happens next—an account I recorded back in January by a volunteer helping at a church in Las Cruces. At that time, though, I hadn’t gathered or shared much context for what I was hearing. This feels like a good time to revisit her narrative, so I’m posting it again today.

I volunteer at a makeshift shelter based out of a church in Las Cruces. All of us who volunteer there have had a background check, we all were trained, we’re very very concerned about preventing—the history of the Catholic Church is unfortunately at play, so they’re really scrupulous about providing checks and training for people who are working in the shelter. Everyone that’s there is a parent with children.

The way that it works is the detention centers are very full. Recently an article in the El Paso Times talked about cells designed to hold ten people holding closer to thirty or fifty people. Migrants tell us they’re getting one bottle of water a day. And so when we think about the young girl who died in New Mexico, her father says she was given one bottle of water a day. I can’t go on one bottle of water, especially if I had come from a journey. There’s freezing temperatures, it’s really horrible for people. And they’re kept in cells, and they’re sleeping on cement floors.

When they come to our shelter, they’re being released because of the ruling that children cannot be kept longer than I believe it was 21 days. So they’re being released with their parents.

I.C.E. actually drops them off at our shelter. They have this very tenuous situation where they’re releasing people to shelters into Las Cruces. They create a lot of chaos, they don’t communicate, they’re very difficult. We don’t have good things to say about them, but they do have to release people somewhere and we’re willing to support people that are released.

When they first get released, they have nothing but the clothes on their back. Many of them have experienced tremendous violence, they have had everything taken from them, and they have nothing. They’ve been through a lot of trauma.

We, before they get there, we set up the shelter with cots, which is better than the cement floor they’ve been on. We get new clothing for them so they can have a change of clothes. We have hot showers so they can shower. They have no clothes except the ones they journeyed in. We make a caldo, it’s a really healthy comfort food with like chicken and veggie stew, we have tortillas, we have oranges and fruit, we have a volunteer doctor who does a medical assessment on everyone who comes in, and there are really people who are sick and children who are sick. This is all volunteer staff. It’s all donations, we use donations to run it.

When they come off the bus, they don’t know where they’re coming to and they’re very afraid. All they’ve experienced has been people being horrible to them. And so we make a welcome line so as they come off the bus and they enter the shelter, we’re welcoming them, we hug them, we greet them. When we serve them caldo we sit with them and we eat with them, we’re not standing over them, we’re eating with them. If they want to tell us their story they can, but we don’t question them. We just want to eat with them.

The children start to warm up. There’s toys, they realize it’s not a detention center. The first thing they notice is there’s a hallway, they can run. Some of them start running up and down the hallway! I mean, they’ve been locked up in jail. Up until now they’ve been on a journey where they have to be quiet, they have to hide—and now they can play, they can run. Some of the kids are too traumatized and they don’t run in the hallway, they sit in the corner and we might get a puzzle out for them.

People are able to go shower, pick out fresh clothing. Some of the women have been carrying babies and we offer to hold their babies so they can finally shower and to give them a break.

And then we have a travel room. That’s the room people really want to go to, and everyone gets to eventually, it takes all day and all evening. It’s the first time they can use a phone. We give them our phones and they call their family. They call their sponsor. One time a man took my phone and the battery was dead so he brought it back, but he was so happy to finally get to talk to someone, to say “I’m safe, I made it, how do I get to you?”

Everyone needs to get to their sponsor. And their sponsor is not in New Mexico. So at this point they have the case for asylum, and their sponsor might be in Kentucky, Indiana, Florida, or Rhode Island, Wisconsin, West Virginia, and we have to get people all over the country. So in the travel room, we have all our volunteers, and our job is to help find a bus or a plane ticket that can get them from Las Cruces to wherever they’re going.

I had a woman ask me, how far is it by bus to Kentucky? I said maybe two or three days, and she just started crying. She had all these children with her, and she thought she was finally to her sponsor. But our country is so large, land-wise, and so, she was just realizing that.

So. We stay up till ten o’clock at night trying to get everyone’s bus tickets. Then people can sleep there, and in the morning we have another group of volunteers that takes people to the bus station and the airport. People have not ridden our planes, some of them don’t speak English, they don’t speak Spanish, they only speak their indigenous language. So this is a really hard process of like, how do you get people on the bus that’s gonna transfer from here to Texas, Texas to Atlanta, Atlanta to Florida, Florida to—I mean, trying to explain that.

The donations you brought today for food, for snacks—we don’t always have money to give people. And so we’re packing their bags with as many healthy snacks as we can, because they might be on a 3-day bus journey with children and no money. Someone really generous in Albuquerque at a donation drive just put an envelope full of $20 bills. I don’t know who it was. I was so moved that they trusted me. It felt so good to go down there that night and give a $20 bill to every person that was getting on the bus with their children. I though, okay, at least I know that they’ve got $20 between here and Rhode Island.

I want to lift up these incredible women in Las Cruces. It’s almost entirely women, I was comparing notes with Eleanor in El Paso and it’s almost entirely women there too doing this work at Annunciation House. These are the people who are resisting. These are the people who are showing a different version than the oppressive system that we’re in. We need radical system change, but we also need to help people each day. We need both.

Volunteers and Donations Have Powered the Effort

City councilor proposes $250K to aid asylum seekers

BY JESSICA DYER / JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
Published: Monday, April 22nd, 2019 at 5:55pm
Albuquerque Journal
https://www.abqjournal.com/1305950/city-councilor-proposes-250k-to-aid-asylum-seekers.html

Organizations including Catholic Charities, Lutheran Family Services and Albuquerque Interfaith have been working to aid the asylum-seekers bused into Albuquerque by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The groups provide food and shelter, generally for a couple of days, while the migrants await transit to meet their sponsors elsewhere in the country.

Volunteers and donations have powered the effort up to now, aiding an estimated 1,700 migrants in recent months. […]

Albuquerque Interfaith has been accepting two 50-person busloads per week.

Usually, the immigrants stay only two days, during which time organizations generally house them in hotels or churches, provide meals and clothing, and ensure they get any necessary medical care. The clothing and medical care is often donated, [one volunteer] said, so the primary expenses are shelter and food.

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Customs and Border Protection officially denies that Border Patrol agents collaborate with vigilante militias to track and detain border crossers. But there’s evidence to the contrary, including the militias’ own assertions that Border Patrol is happy to have them lend a hand.

That said, CBP makes no secret of the fact that it collaborates with volunteers on the other end of the process—after tracking and detaining border crossers, when they’ve filed their asylum paperwork and it’s time to release them.

In theory, monitoring the country’s international border is exclusively the responsibility or jurisdiction of the federal government. And yet, if you cross in that region today, it’s possible that you’ll deal unofficially or quasi-officially with a number of civilians, too: first an aggressive right wing militia that holds you hostage in the desert, then a federal agent that takes you into custody and transports you to a detention facility, then a charity operated by sympathetic volunteers who want to welcome you and offer care.

What a head-spinning series of encounters. What a crash course in our country’s strange politics. Welcome to America.

Churches Have Been Providing Temporary Shelter for Migrants Released From ICE Detention

Border Patrol drops off migrants in Las Cruces for first time

Blake Gumprecht
Las Cruces Sun-News
Published 11:05 a.m. MT April 12, 2019
https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/local/2019/04/12/central-america-migrants-arrive-las-cruces-gospel-rescue-mission/3447694002/

LAS CRUCES - The border crisis expanded 36 miles north on Friday [4/12/19] when the Border Patrol for the first time dropped off migrants at a homeless shelter here.

Local emergency officials said that the Border Patrol is likely to drop off more migrants in coming days and weeks.

While churches in Las Cruces and Doña Ana County have been providing temporary shelter for migrants released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention for months, until now those migrants were distributed in an orderly fashion by ICE to a network of shelters in El Paso and New Mexico.

But on Friday morning, seven Border Patrol vans dropped off about 70 mostly Central American migrants at the Gospel Rescue Mission on Amador Avenue. More were expected to arrive throughout the day. As many as 150 were expected.

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More than 1,000 migrants have now been dropped off in Las Cruces

From Staff Reports
Las Cruces Sun-News
Published 3:58 p.m. MT April 18, 2019
https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/local/2019/04/18/more-than-1-000-migrants-have-now-been-dropped-off-las-cruces/3513372002/

LAS CRUCES - Border Patrol has released more than 1,000 migrants in Las Cruces in the past seven days. […]

In response, the city established a network of temporary shelters to house migrants while the asylum-seekers — men, women and children — look to travel elsewhere in the United States.[…]

[Las Cruces Mayor Ken] Miyagishima was in talks with his counterparts in Santa Fe and Albuquerque on Thursday and Friday about assisting migrants on a rotating basis among the three cities to give volunteers and aid facilities a chance to rest. […]

[Miyagishima said] that volunteers and employees helping manage the migrant drop-offs in Las Cruces are "tired" and "overworked."

"“It’s nonstop. They’re bringing them at all hours of the night, he said.

"We could easily handle 200, but not 200 a day, and that's why I'm thinking if Santa Fe can do 150 to 200 every three days, I think it's more manageable,” Miyagishima said. “Right now, we just can’t handle it."

They Are Placed at the ‘Tent’ to Await Their Turn to Be Processed

So, the militia leader who made it his mission to ensure border crossers were arrested and detained has now himself been arrested and detained.

Good.

He’s supposed to appear in court today in Las Cruces, so soon enough we’ll know more about “wherever they’re gonna take him,” so to speak. For now—where did they take the hundreds of people his vigilantes held hostage in the desert last week? We know Border Patrol agents took them into custody. Then what?

Last week I read up on the general conditions of immigration detention facilities around the country. But over the last few months, as thousands of families and children from Central America have crossed into the U.S. to seek asylum, Customs and Border Protection has repeatedly warned that their resources are stretched to the breaking point—they don’t have enough facilities to detain everyone they arrest.

One could, at this point, have a serious discussion about whether it’s necessary or appropriate to incarcerate all of these people, even temporarily.

But, of course, that’s not the discussion anyone in power is having. To the contrary, just a few days ago our Attorney General issued an order that will exponentially increase the number of immigrants in detention at any given time by discontinuing the option of release on bond and instead imprisoning people for months as they await their asylum hearings. That change is not only cruel and pointless, but mind-blowingly stupid if his goal is to facilitate CBP’s functioning. It’s almost as if he wants to exacerbate the crisis of cramped, overflowing detention facilities in order to create the visuals and talking points the Trump administration uses to inflame anti-immigrant sentiment and rally political support, or to funnel more money into the for-profit private prison industry.

Ugh.

I’m sure we’ll return to this subject in the weeks ahead.

For now I want to answer the question implied by the militia’s camerawoman the other day: where did Border Patrol take the migrant families after their arrest?

I don’t know about the specific individuals from her video, but here’s what’s been happening to others.

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As Border Crossings Rise, Migrants Held in Makeshift Detention Center Under a Texas Bridge

By Tara Law
March 30, 2019
Time Magazine
http://time.com/longform/texas-el-paso-bridge-migrants/

Faced with an unusually high number of incoming migrants, 65% of whom are families with children, the Department of Homeland Security has begun holding those seeking asylum in makeshift detention centers while they await processing.

In El Paso, Texas, one of those detention centers has been installed under the Paso Del Norte Bridge, which spans over the Rio Grande.

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“It’s Hell There”: This Is What It’s Like For Immigrants Being Held In A Pen Underneath An El Paso Bridge

US immigration officials are holding hundreds of people in a temporary outdoor detention camp under a Texas bridge, where migrants are surrounded by fencing and sleeping on dirt.

Adolfo Flores
Last updated on March 30, 2019, at 12:30 p.m.
Buzzfeed News
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/adolfoflores/border-bridge-migrants-detained-camp-el-paso-texas

The immigrants, held behind a chain-link fence topped with razor wire, said they’ve endured cold and windy nights sleeping on bare, rocky dirt underneath the Paso Del Norte International Bridge that links Ciudad Juarez and El Paso. Most of the immigrants had nothing but thin, mylar blankets. Above, roosting pigeons dropped feces on them. […]

Roger Maier, a spokesperson for CBP, previously said officials set up the enclosure and tent underneath the bridge because of the large number of apprehensions in the area.

“As illegal aliens arrive at the processing facility, they are placed at the ‘tent’ to await their turn to be processed,” Maier said in a statement. “This tent serves only as a transitional shelter and is not a temporary housing facility. It was established within the last month.”

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Border pen for migrants under bridge in El Paso now empty after detainees moved

Daniel Borunda,
March 31, 2019
El Paso Times
https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/immigration/2019/03/31/migrants-under-bridge-makeshift-holding-site-empty-paso-del-norte-border-patrol/3325667002/

A chain-link fence pen holding migrants under the Paso Del Norte Bridge was empty Sunday after detainees were transported to U.S. Border Patrol stations.

The temporary outdoor satellite processing facility under one of the international bridges connecting El Paso and Juárez, Mexico, was set up to deal with a large influx of Central American migrants.

The undocumented migrants that were held at the site were taken to a Border Patrol station to be processed, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Sunday.

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Border Patrol Holds Hundreds of Migrants in Growing Tent City Away From Prying Eyes

Asylum-seekers are forced to wait days inside surplus Army shelters in a parking lot, with no beds and little food or showers.

Justin Glawe, Justin Hamel
04.15.19 11:18 AM ET
The Daily Beast
https://www.thedailybeast.com/border-patrol-holds-migrants-in-el-paso-tent-city-away-from-prying-eyes

EL PASO, Texas—Hundreds of migrants are being held for days in an emerging tent city at a Border Patrol station in a preview of what the Trump administration is reportedly considering to absorb a surge on the border.

Five U.S. Army tents meant for battlefield hospitals have been repurposed to hold men, women, and children, including infants. Two of the tents were erected over the past week, expanding the facility’s capacity by several hundred people. The tents are tightly surrounded by fences topped with barbed wire, leaving virtually no space for people to roam outside. Inside the tents, according to a congresswoman who was granted access, hundreds languish in fetid conditions. […]

The tents contained no cots and migrants slept on a temporary floor that covered the asphalt parking lot beneath, with babies sometimes sleeping on their parents’ legs to avoid the hard floor. […]

The practice of keeping migrants in tents appears to be part of the Trump administration’s plan for dealing with the surge of Central American asylum-seekers who have overwhelmed the U.S. government at the border in recent months. […]

Last Tuesday [4/9/19], officials from the Defense Department and Homeland Security met at the White House to discuss using military resources to construct and staff new tent cities in El Paso and Donna, Texas, NBC News reported. It’s a favorite idea of White House senior adviser Stephen Miller.

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Temporary immigration detention facilities to open in El Paso, Rio Grande Valley

BY JULIÁN AGUILAR
APRIL 18, 2019
Texas Tribune
https://www.texastribune.org/2019/04/18/texas-host-new-tent-city-migrant-families/

El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley are less than two weeks away from the scheduled opening of temporary detention centers that will each house up to 500 migrants who have crossed the border to seek asylum.

The facilities, commonly referred to as a “tent cities,” are the federal government's response to the ongoing crush of migrants, mainly from Central America, who continue to cross into Texas after traveling through Mexico.

“U.S. Customs & Border Protection urgently needs to provide for additional shelter capacity to accommodate individuals in CBP’s custody throughout the southwest border,” CBP said in a written statement. “The overwhelming number of individuals arriving daily to the U.S. has created an immediate need for additional processing space in El Paso, Texas and Donna, Texas.”

F.B.I. Arrests Leader of Right-Wing Militia

FBI arrests member of armed civilian border group in NM

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: Saturday, April 20th, 2019 at 4:26pm
https://www.abqjournal.com/1305276/armed-civilian-border-group-member-arrested-in-new-mexico.html

LAS CRUCES – A New Mexico man belonging to an armed group that has detained Central American families near the U.S.-Mexico border was arrested Saturday [4/20/19] in a border community on a criminal complaint accusing him of being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition, authorities said.

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F.B.I. Arrests Leader of Right-Wing Militia That Detained Migrants in New Mexico

By Simon Romero
New York Times
April 20, 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/20/us/militia-arrest-border-new-mexico.html

The firearms charge against Mr. Hopkins is relatively minor. But it is likely the start of a deeper investigation into his activities and those of the militia, and opens the way for the authorities to bring more serious charges like kidnapping and impersonating a police officer or an employee of the United States.

Wherever They’re Gonna Take Them, I Don’t Know

I don’t want to give border militias a platform from which more people can hear their violent message.

At the same time, I do want to know what they’re saying—I want to understand where they’re coming from and why they’re doing what they’re doing. How do they justify traveling to the desert with their trucks and guns, camping out, and waiting to for others to walk into their path? What makes them think that the country needs them there, brandishing weapons and glaring across the border into Mexico? Do they truly believe that, as private citizens with no mandate, they nevertheless have the right to pursue and detain people at gunpoint?

I saw militia members while I was in Arizona, but only from a distance. I didn’t get to pose these questions to them in person.

So I watched all 41 minutes and 33 seconds of the video that the United Constitutional Patriots filmed in Sunland Park, New Mexico, on Tuesday night. This is the video that drew the attention of the ACLU and national media this past week, leading to the New York Times headline “Militia in New Mexico Detains Asylum Seekers at Gunpoint.”

The footage begins in media res. It’s dark, somewhat grainy; the framing is vertical. An unseen woman is recording with her cell phone and narrating intermittently. We see before us on the ground a crowd of people who have apparently just walked across the border from Mexico into the U.S. The militia intercepted their path and, based on their spokesman’s account, instructed them in Spanish to sit. And they did. (Of their own volition, he marveled, as if a bank teller empties her till and hands you cash of her own volition when you demand it of her while brandishing a gun.)

If I’d kept the footage muted, I’d have focused on what I was seeing: dozens of young parents crouching on the sand in the cold black of night, wrapping their arms tightly around their toddlers or clutching their children’s wrists to keep them close. They look tired and nervous in the spotlights shone by unseen people.

Thanks to the audio, I could hear that those spotlights were aimed by Americans speaking English. We can’t see them—the shot fixates on the families, rather than turn to reveal those in control of the situation. We therefore don’t know how many militiamen there are, but their footsteps can be heard in the background, pacing the edges of the group. It sounds like they’re all men; the only female voice is the one behind the sometimes-shaky cell phone camera.

If I didn’t already know that this video was shot by armed vigilantes who had detained these migrants independent of any law enforcement agency, I might assume that the unseen Americans are Border Patrol agents. That’s probably what the people on the ground assumed, too, at least at first—that the gun-toting figures in the night who greeted them and began issuing orders were official U.S. immigration authorities.

In that case, they were probably glad that things were going according to plan. We know that Central Americans seeking asylum in the U.S. are crossing the border in large groups for safety, to attract Border Patrol attention as quickly as possible so that they won’t be lost in the desert for hours on end but will instead by arrested promptly. Arrest is their goal: they want to make contact with authorities to begin the process of applying for asylum as soon as possible.

I wonder if these militia members know that. I wonder if they knew that their presence in the night accomplished exactly nothing, because this group of people wanted to be caught. They wanted to be instructed to sit, to gather, to get into vehicles. Border Patrol was on its way regardless and would follow an identical procedure with or without gun-wielding bystanders on hand. Did they know that? Or did they think they’d accomplished a heroic feat, forcing these people to stop and sit, preventing them from walking further north into New Mexico?

It’s hard to say what these militia members know or don’t know. Their voices can be heard offering commentary in the background, on and off, sometimes muffled, but they don’t describe any insights beyond vague right wing talking points.

Here’s a representative slice. At 9:52, a man’s voice pontificates:

We're just allowing people from all over the world to rush our borders, and this is the new exception to things. Like I said, we need to build the wall. [inaudible] Bottom line, we gotta support Donald Trump, he’s the only guy that’s telling the truth. The media’s not telling the truth. No one's telling the truth.

The woman holding the camera echoes him:

We need the wall, folks, please share this.

The man continues:

Unfortunately, because of the fact that they’re not armed and they’re coming in and invading us, it’s not an invasion. How do you define an invasion? How many people have to come through the borders, how many people have to come before you consider it an invasion?

View fullsize

He goes on, insisting that what we’re witnessing here is very much an invasion and a national security threat, part of a larger pattern of foreigners rushing our open borders.

And what do we see on the screen as these words are spoken?

Children in their parents’ laps, blinking and turning away from the light.

This is the invasion the militias warn are a threat to the nation.

You cannot pretend that we’re looking at an aggressive army, violent gang members, or ruthless drug traffickers when the evidence is huddled before us. We can hear your words, but we can also see for ourselves what’s taking place. These people are persecuted, worn down, frightened. The last thing they want is violence. To the contrary—they want peace, safety, sanctuary. It is evident that they didn’t “rush” the border—there’s more violence and risk of bodily harm when a crowd of shoppers “rush” the doors at Walmart on Black Friday. A wall wouldn’t protect us from their presence or change the fact that they need refuge—it would divert them or trap them elsewhere and deepen their desperation.

This is not an invasion. It is not.

Amid all this man’s nonsense—rhetoric that we already know to be wrong, but that has never sounded more nonsensical than when it’s spoken in the presence of these poor families—there’s one phrase I find particularly chilling. Unfortunately, because of the fact that they’re not armed. As if he wishes they were armed. Then there’d be no more quibbling over the word “invasion,” and he’d be justified in shooting at them, right? He could claim self-defense, national defense. His fantasy of combat is disappointingly under-served by the present reality, in which he hunts unarmed people on foot. If they came armed, he could engage in a real gun battle; he could claim he was a vigilante hero.

Unfortunately, because of the fact that they’re not armed.

Those are the words of someone lusting for violence and blood.

Someone going out of his way to stir up drama and conflict and power. Someone who feels gratified when he can lord over a crowd of cowering innocents and declare that their presence validates his political opinions and militaristic behavior.

A few minutes into his monologue, Border Patrol vehicles arrive on the scene. Agents yell instructions in Spanish; for the first time the migrants are given some explanation as to what is going on. They do exactly as they’re told, standing, shuffling across the shadowy dust, making their way like a flock of sheep toward the vehicles that will transport them to detention.

The militia members continue to prowl the periphery, guns in hand, supposedly helping the agents ensure that no one hides in the brush or makes a run for it. The camera follows directly behind; the woman’s narration continues, informing us that the people at the back of the group look sick, they’re walking so slow, one woman is pregnant, they’re holding the children’s wrists so tight.

Watching this tedious drama unfold for forty minutes gave me a stomachache. But I refused to look away.

Eventually the camerawoman, having slipped and tripped a few times on a rocky slope, declares that this is as far as she’ll go in following the crowd’s slow trudge toward the trucks. Here are her closing lines before she stops filming:

Alright guys, I'm gonna sign off. They're well on their way to wherever they're gonna take them, I don't know. But our men are walking down with them, following them. So, I don't know if you can still hear me, but if you can, God bless you all, and please say a prayer for all of our men out here on the border. And please share, share, share the heck out of this video everywhere. God bless y'all. Good night.

And the screen goes black.

They're well on their way to wherever they're gonna take them, I don't know.

You say you don’t know. But you can know. You’re apparently so invested in the border crisis that you’ve chosen to camp in the desert to witness and participate in what’s happening there. You’re so obsessed with these people that you consider it your duty to help detain and arrest them. You spent nearly an hour training your flashlight and your camera on their faces and describing their coughs to the world. And yet you haven’t given a thought to what will happen to them.

I’ve given more thought, at home at my computer, to these militias—trying to understand where they’re coming from and why they’re doing what they’re doing—than they’ve given to the migrants whose movements they’re hellbent on patrolling.

Wherever they’re gonna take them, I don’t know. But our men are walking down with them. She doesn’t really care what will become of the migrants, those coughing foreigners on the ground; she only cares about the men. Her men. Our men. Please say a prayer for all of our men out here.

The men who’ve chosen unasked to patrol the night with their firearms and detain frightened families? I don’t think they’re the ones who need our prayers.

Militia in New Mexico Detains Asylum Seekers at Gunpoint

Militia in New Mexico Detains Asylum Seekers at Gunpoint

By Simon Romero
April 18, 2019
New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/18/us/new-mexico-militia.html

ALBUQUERQUE — A right-wing militia group operating in southern New Mexico has begun stopping groups of migrant families and detaining them at gunpoint before handing them over to Border Patrol agents, raising tension over the tactics of armed vigilantes along the border between the United States and Mexico.

Members of the group, which calls itself the United Constitutional Patriots, filmed several of their actions in recent days, including the detention this week of a group of about 200 migrants who had recently crossed the border near Sunland Park, N.M., with the intention of seeking asylum. They uploaded videos to social media of exhausted looking migrant families, blinking in the darkness in the glare of what appeared to be the militia’s spotlights. […]

“If these people follow our verbal commands, we hold them until Border Patrol comes,” Mr. Benvie said. “Border Patrol has never asked us to stand down.” […]

The video of this week's episode in the New Mexico desert shows Border Patrol agents arriving on the scene at some point after members of the militia have already come into contact with the migrants. Before the arrival of the federal agents, a woman narrating the video tells a man who appears to be a militia member “Don't aim the gun” in the direction of the families. The migrants can be seen kneeling on the ground and embracing one another.

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ACLU: Group illegally detaining migrants

BY ANGELA KOCHERGA
Friday, April 19th, 2019 at 12:05am
Albuquerque Journal
https://www.abqjournal.com/1304698/aclu-group-illegally-detaining-migrants.html

SUNLAND PARK – The ACLU of New Mexico is calling for the governor and attorney general to investigate an “armed vigilante group currently engaged in unlawful detention of hundreds of migrants” on the border near Sunland Park. […]

At a small camp near the border fence in Sunland Park, members of the United Constitutional Patriots said they are not breaking any laws.

“We are detaining people but not illegally. If they do not surrender to our verbal commands, we do not force them to stay with us,” said Jim Benvie, United Constitutional Patriots spokesman.

He said that when his men spot a group of migrants coming through the area, he issues a command in Spanish. “Sientate, that means sit. If they don’t sit, they might run. We will pursue them,” said Benvie. […]

Militia members were infuriated by news of the ACLU letter to the governor and attorney general.

“I think somebody needs to read the frickin’ Constitution because we have a right. Yeah we have a right to bear arms, defend our country,” a man with a bullet-resistant vest said.

“I’m not contesting their use of firearms,” Simonson said [executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico]. “I’m contesting the fact that they are portraying themselves as federal border enforcement agents. They are holding people against their will. They are exposing them to the possibility of violence and danger.”