Grande ... for victims of Life's not so grand in the immigration control US
process, and in fact often fill out the fomis in last five years has been one of the INS and its Border Control Agents constantly tightening legal restraints. Indeed In 1984 the Harlingen INS office declared that it would not even lodge "affirmative" asylum applications - that refugees samply This policy was in breach of both the United Nations Convention on Kefugees, and the Uniled Stales' own 1980 Kefugees Act. The consequence of the policy was that SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 18, October 1989 they got to the Border Patrol station, Jose was PL also highlights the undercover world of generated by immugration controls. The PL newsletter explains that "what is happening is a number of Nicaraguan hustlers borbitant prices for what basically amounts to translating asylum foms. Since the INS won't allow refugees to apply in Spanish, the huck- sters crowd people into motis and rip them off for thousands of dollars for "permisce" (permits). They do not explain the asylum The history of the Rio Grande valley in the the screw, with only occasional and temporary Ruiz, a Mexican couple who were taken off u lingen. Josefina, who was pregnant, was yanked down from the boxcar by agents, and Tell five feet. Afterwards she felt pain, bled. and had diffeulties with her pregnancy. When "advisors that the rip-off artists, notary publics, includ- ('frecdom fighters'), are charging refugees ex- such a way as to undermine a person's claim. freight train by Border patrol agents near Har- Chronology of victimisation tuming up and making applications. intrigral on is from central American parastic beaten by agents. Fighting a tide of state racism: anti-racist demonstration in Georgia bogus. ing The main source of legal help for refugees (PL). This is an immigration law centre hased the INS also has its local headquarters. PL's October 1988 newsletter gives vivid examples of the opcration of immigration laws in the It shows how difficult it in for refugees to obtain asylum at all, descrihing one successful dent who had distribuled leaflets for the Movimento Estudiantil Revolucionario Sal- vadoreno (MERS) fled the country after a Judge Vomacka, making him only the fourth Salvadoran asylum granted in the valley to a One case is being fought under the Federal Tort Claims Act on behalf of Jose and Josefina Judge D.J.Lerma announced that "The words on the Statue of Liberty don't tell people to welcoming the "poor and huddled masses', hut of course it was erected at a time when the US actively en and migrants in the area is Proyceto Libertai at Harlingen, just outside Brownsville, where case this way: "Joc Guem, a Salvadorn stu- friend disappcared, he was granled asylum by PL is fighting cases alleging INS violence, put a strain on social services, diminished the quality of life, and increased crime. It re- quested the state legislature of Texas to purge One official proclaimed: "We don't know what diseases these people are bringing in ... all they are here for is to get on relief, County The Statue of Liberty in fact speaks of the USA run across the Rio Grande illegally': Proyecto Libertad couraging more immigrant labour. was as an immigrant country aliens from the voter mlls. PL client in 7 ycars*. It is perhaps irrelevant from the point of others. However the enforcement of controls ment of immigration laws generally. It in also a salutory waming of the extremes to which The above quotations, taken from border newspapers, show how refugees and migrants from central America are confronted with the twentieth century equivalent of a shark-filled gangsters and la migra' (the colloquial name In the Rio Grande there is a powerful racist lobby supporting controls - the rhetoric of which finds strong echoes in the UK. In November 1988 the elected officials of includes Brownsville, the horder crssing town closest documented aliens on the grounds that they "The body of a woman ww was found dead and recovered from the waters of the Rio Grande near a place called Lay Piedras.... at first sight she did not present signs of violence, nonetheless the coroner established that she had bled from her private parts, in- dicating that she could well have been attack- view of those on the immediate receiving end of immigration controls to argue that restric- tions in some countries arc worse than in on the USA/Mexican border, particularly in the Rio Grande valley, is a shocking indict- moat, namely the Rio Grande, infested both by for the US Immigration and Nationality Ser- crossing smugglers) slowly appeared Gloating in the waters of the Rio Grande ... the pateros who saw the police coming shouted to the Nicaraguans throw your- selves into the water, here comes the police. only a few saved themselves: the majority went down in the Rio to Mexico, passed a resolution against un controls in the UK are also rapidly heading. which County, ed with some object. first sight she did vices, the INS) Camero crossing Page 10 Grande
PASSAIC COUNTY SHERIFF OFFICERS CORRECTION DEFICERS LOCAL 197 FEATURES ENDORSES HAWTHOR CB.A PATERSON
tion workers: 16 special agents, and 141 INS, sonnel. Parallel to all this would be a massive State Depurtment and immigration court per- number To house the expocted Bush courting votes from the law and order enforcement community: now the Rio Grande has been turned into a concentration camp prison allocation programme Rio Grande valley while their applications Refugee applicants resoncd to living in doned buildings and church shelters. Even the trees, under bushes, in primitive camps, aban- were being considered. refugees had to wait to be arrested and go to court to ask for asylum: the only exception was for Nicaraguans. In July 1987, then Attor- ney general. Edward Moese, issued a directive that Nicaragun should be given favourable
detainces, the iNS was to croct a tent city at its (PISPC), bear Bayview in Texas. There was to he provsion for 5,000 people. There were to Port Isabel Service Processing Centre he 200 additional places at Webb County and several hundred detainces would be sent to El Paso. In addi- tion there would be "soft detention", sub-con- tracted private facilities, mainly for families cally go out, but would be subject to daily roll-calls: ong such centre was to be the Rod Nelson 'justified' this quite incredible plan by saying that the new measures would send a strong signal to those people who have the mistaken idea that by merely filling • frivolous asylum claim they may stay in the with children, where detainees could theoreti Cross Shelter in Brownsville. facility detention Democratic candidate for Vice President and bot known for any advocacy of the rights of Texas intes a massive detention centre with In addition lo this, the INS declared that plicants. This is similar to the little-publicised provision, hidden away in the Schedule, of the Such laws are in contravention of Article 17 ments to protect refugees' rights to engage in work authorisation would be refused 1o ap- Eatest 1988 UK Inmigration Act. whereby denial ol work authorisation can for the first time be made a condition of temporary entry: of the UN Convention, which obliges govern They are turning The 'legal massacre' of gainful employment refugees, said thai freatment in axylum applications. This in itself is a clear indication of the political motivation Echind the USA's meatment of refugees: no asylum for those feeing US-backed military dictatorships in El Salvador. Guatemala or Handuray, hut a welcome for those leaving tilled hy US-hacked Contras Ar Inte as Fehruary 1988 a Guatemalan woman assisted by Pl. in filling out an asylum for was told to leave the INS offee because Guatemalans can't apply only Nicaraguans, She was later Asa result of presme and campaigning by PL and the Incal refuge Rights Coalition, the INS was forced in May 1988 to start accepting affimative applications from other central Americans Between May and December Nicaragua, whose economy has boen devas arrested walking down the street.
United States, This wilful manipulation of On Fchruary 21, a day described by PL as "a legal massacre', Noison's scenario became a reality. Of the 233 applications processed on that day, only two were granted - both refused and im- mediately imprisoned in Port Isabel. 16 were tation. Interviews Tasted only 30 or 40 given two weeks to produce further documen- minutes, and lawyers from PL were forcibly ejected when they attempted to advise refugees in the Port Isabel poson teni city. This denial of legal help to refuges was con- trary lo a recent US District Court decision Page 11 America's genemsity must stop," Nicaruguans. On February 20, the head of the INS. for south Texas: This road like a declaration of war on relugees It called for an "capedited to Bownsville lo publicise a nes "action plan" der Patrol agents; 74 INS 'adjudicators" and support statt: 30 more derention and deporta- Commissioner Alan Nelson, flew personally on asylum claus, and im- mediate detention of those who do apply and The 'action plan" involved an increase of at least 500 new INS personnel just for lie Harlingen district - comprising 269 more Bor- February 1989 1988 there were over 27,000 axylum requests In respense to this, the INS decided to paign. Omer Sewell, its local director, claimed that the INS was like 'the Dutch boy with his finger in the dam, except we don't bave our da, the INS in southern Texas announced a: finger in the dam - the asylees are just pour- ing through here. According to the Sum An- tonio Express: Border patrol agents said the new policy has hampered their efforts to con- plying for asylum had to stay physically in the launch its own alien invasion' scare cam trol the border'. Backed up by this propagan new policy in December 1988: all people ap SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 18. October 1989 at the INS Harlingen office.
thusiasm of the Vietnam War heing brought to mic, magnetic and infra-red sensors along the bear on the control of immigration of people from the third world" into the hinterland of By Steve Cohen The war-zone has been extended to other areas having a land border with Mexico. In January 1989 the INS announced a huge scheme to contruct a ditch running though San Ysidro in Califomia: it will be 14 feet wide, 5 Federation for American Immigration Refonn (FAIR) has recently issued a document Ten steps to securine America's borders These include such deterrent" measures as the con- truction of metal and concrete fencing along aging devices such as low light television and infra-red scopes, and the increased use of seis reconnaissance flights over the border, miniature transmitters been scattered thoughout the area to detect movement of vehicles and people. Added to this are compact television cameras, night-vision cameras and a growing array of computer-based su- gun in the victim was to pay the smugglers to lake him and at least 12 other Guatemalans from the Rio Grande valley to For at least the Jast five years the Rio Grande valley has been both a detention centre refugees, There are regular INS feet decp and 4 miles long. Even this is insuf tbe entire land border, the greater use of 'in The Rio Grande as a and a militarized zone ficient for thic anti-immigrant lobby. technology and respect to migrants for audio surveillance war zone the USA - land of the free This truly is the Houston' veillance techniques. IFL ULOP In Britain, desperafe familles like this, faced with the threat of deportation under racist were trying to get air through holes in the unidentified man in Brownsville offered to get "A 31-yeat old Guatemalan was shot and rohhed during negotiations with professional illegal smugglers. ... Odilio de Jesus Ceron Lima was shot at least five times with a shot- Getting out of the Rio Grande valley is not to put their lives at risk, this time trying to es- cape further north Two newspaper repons *Thirly five dehydrated Salvadorans were temperatures nearing 130 degrees, authorities women and two 14 year old boys had heen locked inside the car for five hours. Some boscar... the aliens told Border Patrol that an tence and no fine... the 15 year old Mexican detainee, estimated to be five leet tall and easy for the undocumented. INS officers raid Greyhound buses in the valley demanding every hispanic-looking person shows iden- fication. Refugees are compelled once again laws, have sought sanctuary - here in a mosque in central Birmingham Getting out of the valley a The Salvadorans. including FEATURES them to Houston for 300:600 dollars'. weigh 100 pounds, died June 2nd found inside a sweltering help illustrate the problem cynicism has heen displayed by the British Home Office, notably when in 1987 Tamils- The detention of minors by the INS has been a long-standing scandal. An estimated prehended in 1986, and it is estimated that at any one time hetween 150 and 200 children are detained by the agency. frequently being used as bait" to capture their undocumented Who are these young people? One was a ways had the option of abandoning their portrayed Port Isabel as some kind of holiday camp: spokesperson Virginia Kice said some people say it is inhumane to keep people bere. But they are clothed, fed, sheltered, and receive medical care. I think tbat in some situations they're living in better conditions were incarcerated on the prison hulk the Earl William, and the Home Office said • We think: 5,500 young central Americans were ap- International Law, Alan Nelson argued that all detentions were "voluntary", since refuges al- asylum claims and returning home! The INS the accomodatice is really very comfortable Detention of Children than in their home countries. parents who come looking for them. prompted the INS into for its actions, At a tives Judiciary Sub during implementation of this House of Representa which condemned the Catholic bishops in Texa denounced Port Isabel as the 'creation centration camp on US Jupanese The visible public of the largest con refusal of such help. soil since the incarcera- committee on Immigra World War 2' Americans Lion
WERE BURNING COPS SORRY! I THOUGHT YOU A FLAGI The treatment of detained minors in the 16-year old wounded veteran of two yews Salvadoran army at 13, Another Salvadoran hay detaince, also press-ganged, described how he had seen subversives decapitated at With the legal massacre of February, the detention of minors increased. Some were held in an already existing centre for refugee children in Los Fresnos. In addition the INS centre: ar combat who had been press ganged into the planned to constrict a new Brownsville to house 58 children. the military base.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 18, October 1989 ПИЦТ of legally sanctioned torture. Here is one news report: "Servande Betancount, convicted of criminally negligent homicide for snapping the nock of a Cameron County juvenile Rin Grande appears to have reached the level detainee, received a one-year probated sen Page 12
starts, teachers, pupils, lecturers As the new term EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT Tory