Border Journey – Dogcatchers for migrants
by
pault on June 15, 2013
Dear friends,
I was driving along a dirt road, about five miles north of the border, when I saw two men sitting by the road. “We’re lost and we want to turn ourselves in to the Border Patrol,” they told me as I stopped alongside them.
They had walked two days from Nogales and Mario was not able to go any further. “I’ve got diabetes and it’s affecting me,” he said. His arms were scratched, his pants were torn, and he was having difficulty walking.
Mario is 43 and his cousin Fernando is 19. They’re from Mexico City and they had traveled three days by bus to get to Nogales.
There was no cell phone coverage so I drove them to the nearest paved road to wait for the Border Patrol. It was already warm at 8 A.M. and it would reach 100 degrees that afternoon. After just a few minutes, a Border Patrol truck came by and I flagged him down. I explained that Mario and Fernando wanted to turn themselves in because they couldn’t go any further and that Mario had diabetes which was affecting him.
Agent Stransky drove into the pull-out and parked about 20 feet away. He got out of the truck, opened the door of the small enclosure on back, and yelled “Yo!” at Mario and Fernando. He didn’t say another word to them as they walked to the truck, stepped up on the bumper, and stooped down to get inside. There was no acknowledgement that Mario and Fernando were human beings and not stray dogs. He then closed the door and quickly drove away.
The migrants call these Border Patrol trucks “dogcatchers.” There’s a bench on both sides of the enclosure about 12 inches above the floor and the roof is very low – Mario and Fernando were both hunched over as we said good-bye. There’s just one small window on the back door and another small window on the front. If Stransky had been in an accident because of driving so rapidly, there were no safety devices that would have protected Mario and Fernando from being injured.
The “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act” that is being debated now in the senate calls for hiring another 3,500 border agents. That will likely result in even more migrants being treated like stray dogs.
In love and solidarity,
Scott
Photos of Mario and Fernando, and Stransky’s “dogcatcher:”
Military Coups – Never Again!
The Collective Honduras USA Resistencia = Libre & the Latin America/Caribbean Solidarity Committee of the International Action Center
INVITE YOU TO THE DEMONSTRATION
Military Coups – Never Again!
NOT IN HONDURAS, not in any country of our Americas!
Friday June 28
4:00pm – Gather at Times Square – 41st Street & 7th Avenue
5:00pm – March to the Honduran Mission to the United Nations
5:30 – 6:30pm – Rally at 1st Avenue & 48th Street
After almost four years, since the bloody and illegal imposition of the de-facto government headed by Porfirio Lobo Sosa in Honduras, the anti-war and progressive movement CONDEMNS the systematic and selective killings now sweeping Honduras. We condemn also the ongoing violation of human rights since the U.S.-supported coup of June 28, 2009, perpetrated against the constitutionally elected President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales and the people of Honduras. Since then, journalists, lawyers, teachers, human rights defenders, LGTB, women, peasants and members of the Unified Peasant Movement of Aguan and other movements
that are part of the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP ) and its political arm, the Libre – Libertad y Refundación Party, have been murdered systematically and with absolute impunity. The FNRP and the Libre Party are coordinated by ousted President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales.
According to the New York Times and the Washington Post, Honduras has become the most violent country in the world. It’s estimated that about 22 Honduran citizens are assassinated each day.
We demand respect for the life of the people of Honduras and an end to the threats and intimidation against members of the FNRP and the Libre Party. The Libre Party and the mass supporters have selected Xiomara Castro de Zelaya as a candidate to the presidential elections that will be held on Sunday, November 24, 2013.
The party is struggling to take power and implement the refounding of Honduras, through a National Constituent Assembly, to establish a true democracy with full participation.
We demand the demilitarization of elections in Honduras, without foreign interference, to become completely open — to have as many electoral observers worldwide as possible and the implementation of proper mechanisms to ensure transparent elections, — without intimidating the electorate and within a peaceful atmosphere.
We commit to remain in permanent monitoring of the political situation and to take appropriate action to cease human rights violations against the Honduran people.
We pledge to continue supporting and accompanying the Honduran people in their struggle for a return to true democracy and their right to peaceful coexistence in full respect for human rights.
