"Sarah Towle joins The Great Battlefield podcast to talk about her book "Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Borderlands" where she writes about how unwelcoming our government is to...
Valerie Lacarte, Ph.D., Aug. 2024 "The charge that immigrants are taking jobs from U.S.-born Black workers has made its way from conspiracy circles to the broader public conversation this election...
I have some thoughts for the Harris/Walz team, the Supreme Court, Congress, DHS, DOL, and DOJ regarding the border. Please consider subscribing to my free Substack . Comments welcome via Substack,...
Eric Asimov, New York Times, Aug. 27, 2024 (gift article) "Arjav Ezekiel rose through the restaurant ranks becoming a sommelier and opening Birdie’s in Austin, Texas. Few knew of his past...
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the ACLU, the ACLU of Louisiana, Immigration Services & Legal Advocacy, National Immigration Project, Aug. 26. 2024 "A coalition of immigrants’ rights groups...
Melissa del Bosque, The Border Chronicle, Aug. 9, 2022
"Every week, Joel Smith, a former Marine, drives into the desert to leave water for migrants trekking through the Devil’s Highway and other deadly corridors in the Sonoran Desert. Smith is operations manager for Humane Borders, a nonprofit volunteer organization founded in Tucson, Arizona, more than two decades ago. The organization came together in response to migrant deaths in the desert, which had been increasing since 1994, when the Border Patrol adopted its “prevention through deterrence” strategy. The centerpiece of this strategy was to close off urban crossing points, pushing migrants into more remote and dangerous routes. The thinking, according to former Immigration and Naturalization Service commissioner Doris Meissner, who oversaw Border Patrol at the time, was that because the journey would now be so deadly, migrants would stop trying to cross. Migration would, she claimed, “go down to a trickle once people realized what [it’s] like.” But that never happened. Last year, 225 bodies were recovered in the Arizona desert—the highest number since 2010. Most people who die perish from dehydration and exposure. An untold number will never be found, says Smith. “To me, our border policy is a conscious and deliberate policy of death,” he says. ... In Arizona, as in the other border states, 2022 looks like it will be another devastating year for deaths. As of July 1st, 126 bodies were already recovered in the Arizona desert. Whether it’s a Republican or a Democrat in the White House, Smith says, the deaths continue. “This started with Clinton, and it continued during Bush, Obama, and Trump. It doesn’t matter who is in power,” he says. “If I was in Biden’s shoes, I’d sit down and write an executive order and have the Border Patrol putting out water to save lives. Instead, he’s finishing Trump’s wall. No matter who’s in charge or what party it is, the deaths continue, which is the biggest tragedy of all.” "