struggle for the border

Mexico

Mexico launches ‘Operativo Frontera Norte’

Mexico has launched a massive deployment of 10,000 troops to cities and towns on the border with the United States. Videos and photos posted on social media by Mexico’s Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) showed military and National Guard troops lined up boarding transport planes and rows of army trucks rolling out from bases in Mexico City, Tlaxcala and other cities. The response—dubbed “Operativo Frontera Norte”—is part of an agreement reached between US President Donald Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum postponing trade tariff threats for a month. (Photo: SEDENA via Peninsula360)

North America

Quakers sue to stop ICE raids on houses of worship

Five Quaker groups filed a lawsuit to stop immigration agents from conducting raids on houses of worship. The complaint alleges that the new Department of Homeland Security policy that allows Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to conduct searches and arrests at schools and religious institutions violates the First Amendment to the US Constitution. The lawsuit claims that the new policy has forced certain congregations to cancel worship services due to fear of ICE enforcement. On the first week of the new policy’s implementation, a church in Georgia said it had to lock its doors to prevent ICE agents from conducting an arrest in the middle of a service. Pacifism is an integral component of Quaker beliefs, and the lawsuit asserts that the possible presence of armed agents in Quaker meeting houses is a fundamental violation of “a founding principle of their faith.” (Photo: Wikipedia)

North America

Trump rushes out hardline migration agenda

During his first days back in office, Donald Trump rapidly started implementing his hardline migration agenda, including by declaring a state of emergency at the US southern border. The move allows his administration to access billions of dollars to expand the building of a border wall and to deploy the military and national guard to the area. Around 1,500 active duty soldiers are already being deployed. Trump also reinstated the controversial “Remain in Mexico” program from his first administration. This policy, which requires people to wait for asylum appointments in Mexico, helped to create a now-perennial humanitarian crisis in northern Mexico. The Trump administration has also shut down CBP One—a cell phone app for scheduling asylum appointments—leaving thousands of people stranded in Mexico, and suspended the US refugee resettlement program, as well as cancelling travel plans for refugees who had already been approved to enter the country. Trump’s promised mass deportation of millions of undocumented people has yet to get underway, but his administration has begun laying the groundwork for expanded immigration raids—potentially including on schools, churches, and hospitals—and has threatened to prosecute any local officials who don’t comply. (Image: White House)

North America

Biden executive order restricts asylum seekers at border

President Joe Biden signed an executive order barring asylum claims from anyone who crosses the US-Mexico border illegally. The ban will be suspended if border agents observe a seven-day average of fewer than 1,500 “encounters,” which include apprehensions of undocumented migrants within 100 miles of the border or entry refusals at US-Mexico land border crossings. However, if border authorities record a seven-day average of 2,500 or more encounters, the restriction will be reinstated. Shortly after the proclamation was signed, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) vowed to challenge it in court. The civil rights group said the order “will severely restrict people’s legal right to seek asylum, putting tens of thousands of lives at risk.” (Photo via FWS)

North America

Feds blame Texas in deaths on US-Mexico border

Two migrant children and their mother drowned while trying to cross from Mexico into the United States, after Texas authorities prevented US Border Patrol agents from reaching the victims to render life-saving aid, charged US Rep. Henry Cuellar, who represents a district on the border. The US Department of Homeland Security said the three migrants drowned near Shelby Park in the border town of Eagle Pass after Texas Guardsmen “physically barred” Border Patrol agents from entering the area. Mexican officials recovered the bodies the next morning on their side of the Rio Grande, in Piedras Negras. “This is a tragedy and the State [Texas] bears responsibility,” said Cuellar in his statement detailing the series of events. (Map: Google)

North America

Judge blocks feds from cutting Texas border fence

A US district judge granted a temporary restraining order enjoining the federal government from interfering with fencing erected by Texas state authorities at the US-Mexico border. As part of Operation Lone Star, the Texas Military Department has deployed concertina wire fencing to deter illegal crossings at the border. The suit, brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, alleged that federal agents have implemented a policy of destroying the state-erected fencing, and providing support to those attempting to cross after swimming the Rio Grande. Judge Alia Moses found that “the balance of interests favors granting an injunction, but just barely.” The decision weighed Texas’ interest in deterring unlawful activity and avoiding the costs associated with repairing broken fencing, against US Customs & Border Protection’s interest in “allowing [Border Patrol] agents to address medical emergencies.” The order includes an exception to permit CBP agents to continue cutting the concertina wire to aid individuals in medical distress. (Photo: Christoph Buchel via Radical History Review)

North America

US to settle class-action suit on family separation

The US government announced that it will settle a 2018 class-action lawsuit that challenged the Trump administration’s family separation practice at the US-Mexico border. The proposed settlement would create a process to reunify families who were separated. Additionally, the government is to provide health services and housing support for affected families, and arrange legal services through the Executive Office for Immigration Review. Another provision of the deal bars the federal government from immigration policies that separate parents from children for eight years. The settlement does not provide any monetary relief for affected people. (Photo: BBC World Service via Flickr)

North America

Biden admin approves new section of border wall

The Biden administration announced that it has waived 26 federal laws in an area of South Texas by executive order to allow border wall construction—a tactic used often during the Trump presidency. The Department of Homeland Security posted the waiver on the Federal Registry, affecting a “high illegal entry” sector in Starr County, Tex. According to government data, about 245,000 illegal entries have been recorded in this sector during the current fiscal year. The Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act and Endangered Species Act are among the laws suspended by the order. (Photo via FWS)

Mexico

US leans on Mexico to increase deportations

Mexico will step up efforts to deport asylum-seekers and migrants to their countries of origin in order to “depressurize” northern cities bordering the United States, the country’s National Migration Institute announced following a meeting with US officials. Texas border cities such as El Paso and Eagle Pass are scrambling to find shelter space as thousands now cross the border on a daily basis, overwhelming reception capacity. But thousands more still wait in northern Mexico, trying to make appointments using a government cell phone application to enter the US and lodge asylum claims. (Map: PCL)

North America

Deaths linked to Texas-Mexico floating border barrier

Mexican authorities confirmed that they recovered two bodies from the Rio Grande near the border town of Piedras Negras, Coahuila state. Authorities recovered one of the bodies, a Mexican national, from buoys recently floated by Texas in an effort to impede border crossings from Mexico. The second body, that of a Honduran national, was recovered further upstream. The incidents have renewed attention on the floating barrier, which is now the subject of a lawsuit between the US Department of Justice and the state of Texas. (Map: Google)

North America

As Title 42 ends, US troops to Mexican border

President Joe Biden is deploying 1,500 soldiers to the US-Mexico border ahead of the end of a pandemic-era entry restriction known as Title 42. The soldiers are to perform administrative tasks, but critics say the move sends the message that migration is a threat. Tens of thousands of asylum seekers and migrants currently stranded in dire living conditions in northern Mexican border cities by US policies are growing increasingly desperate and frustrated. More than 15,000 people–mostly from Venezuela–crossed the border in the vicinity of Brownsville late last month, overwhelming shelter capacity. And in El Paso, nearly 2,000 people who recently crossed the border are sleeping on sidewalks in the city center. The Biden administration has introduced a number of policies aimed at extending asylum restrictions at the border, having reached a deal with Mexico that for the first time allows the US to deport non-Mexicans who enter the country irregularly back across the border. (Photo: Savitri Arvey, The Conversation)

Planet Watch

Podcast: against global paramilitarism

In Episode 168 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg examines the suddenly booming global phenomenon of paramilitarism—the official armed forces of a given state or its repressive apparatus seeking an extension in the private sector, citizen militias, or irregular forces. This is a method generally resorted to when state power is in crisis, and contributes to a general militarization of society. Examples from Russia, West Africa, Sudan, Burma, Ecuador, Israel and finally Texas point to a dangerous and ultimately fascistic new model of both imperialism and internal policing and repression. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Photo: Contagio Radio)