INDIANAPOLIS (April 5, 2016) – The head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection is calling Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border “impossible.” R. Gil Kerlikowske, the federal agency’s commissioner, met with economic and law enforcement leaders in Indianapolis Tuesday. The visit was part recruitment, part policy for Kerlikowske, who was appointed by President Barack Obama to oversee the agency and its 60,000 employees. In an interview with CBS4, Kerlikowske was critical of the Republican presidential front-runner’s immigration proposal. Continue reading

  By Alicia Caldwell WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency is asking the private sector for suggestions on camera systems that could be worn by border agents or mounted to patrol cars. The proposal to have agents wear cameras came amid concerns that border agents have been too quick to use force, including shooting people along the U.S.-Mexico border. Continue reading

  Border Rights Groups Urge DHS to Investigate Widespread Dispossession of Belongings LAS CRUCES, NM— Today, civil and human rights organizations in Mexico and the United States filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on behalf of 26 people. Immigration officials confiscated and failed to return the people’s personal belongings, exposing them to severe risk of harm upon their return to Mexico. The complaint shows how U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in the El Paso Border Patrol Sector—which covers West Texas and all of New Mexico—routinely dispossess people of their personal belongings, deporting them to Mexico without money, identification and legal documents, mobile phones, and other important personal possessions. Continue reading

  The immigration crises in Europe and in the American Southwest have inspired powerful, polarized reactions. In this country, we’ve seen increased deportations and a groundswell of support for more fences and walls on the border. In Europe, borders have been closing, and anti-immigrant backlash has been building. There’s no easy solution to the suffering of refugees and the economic plight of many undocumented immigrants. But on both continents, some people see it as their duty to help these needy populations. This is the story of two churches trying to work together half a world apart. Marta Bernardini was walking a few feet from the tall, rusted wall that separates Nogales, Arizona, from Nogales, Mexico. But she doesn’t like to look at it. “We want to separate the people and say we are better than you,” she said, describing the feeling she believes the wall emits. “Because we are in the right side of the wall, the rich part of the wall, and you are in the poor part.” Bernardini was on the Mexican side that morning. She’s used to these kinds of divisions, just not man-made ones. Her home is on Lampedusa, an Italian island where the border is the rough, churning ocean. She’s a social worker there for migrants on behalf of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy. Now, she’s nearing the end of four months spent on these borderlands as she learns how people are helping migrants here. Continue reading

  By Associated Press Houston — A former Customs and Border Protection officer in South Texas has won an appeal that overturns his murder conviction and 25-year prison sentence for the fatal shooting of a bar owner. A divided Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Wednesday that 37-year-old ex-agent Jose Guadalupe Elizondo is entitled to a new trial because a part of the instructions to jurors at his 2011 trial in Edinburg was improper. The court's 5-4 ruling reverses a lower appeals court decision that affirmed Elizondo's conviction. Continue reading

  By Erica Phillips A new electronic customs system is off to a rocky start, with some shippers reporting their goods held up at the U.S. border for hours. The technology, which the U.S. Customs and Borders Protection began phasing in on Thursday, is supposed to automate the filing of customs forms and transmit data gathered from shippers to nearly 50 government agencies. Continue reading

  By Christian Ramirez Arizona se convierte, por enésima vez, en escenario de conductas vergonzantes. Y es que el gobierno del estado vecino, no conforme con su siniestro legado de racismo e intolerancia, continúa en su afán de suprimir cualquier indicio de democracia en esa entidad fronteriza. Durante el proceso electoral que se llevó acabo en el estado del Gran Cañón, se registraron todo tipo de irregularidades: número reducido de casillas, inmensas filas, errores, purga de votantes, falta de información. Todo esto orquestado por el gobierno de ultra-derecha en Arizona, que de manera deliberada, violentó el derecho a votar para miles de sus ciudadanos. Irónicamente, el mismo día que los arizonianos esperaban hasta siete horas para votar, el presidente Obama daba una cátedra de democracia al pueblo de Cuba. Es evidente que funcionarios electorales de Arizona, como Helen Purcell, hicieron caso omiso al discurso de Obama en La Habana. Ya que Purcell, encargada del proceso del registro electoral en el condado de Maricopa, el más poblado de Arizona, hizo todo lo posible por desalentar la participación de la ciudadanía en los comicios. Durante las elecciones primarias de 2012, el condado de Maricopa contaba con 200 casillas. En 2016, el número de casillas se redujo —por orden de Purcell— a 60 casillas. Lo que significó que cada casilla recibiría a un promedio de 20 mil electores, situación que ocasionó inmensas demoras para que los ciudadanos depositaran sus votos en las urnas. Continue reading

  By New York Times Editorial Board Turn away, for a moment, from the generalized idiocy of the presidential campaign to consider a specific instance of monumental dimness. It happened Wednesday. Continue reading

By Elise Foley WASHINGTON — Bernardo Hernández Rojas’ brother, Anastasio, died in 2010 after border patrol agents used a Taser on him and struck him with a baton repeatedly as he cried out for help — caught on tape by witnesses — and took him into custody for crossing the border illegally from Mexico. His family’s efforts to get justice for his death have been unsuccessful. Their civil suit has been pending for years and in November, the Department of Justiceclosed its investigation without pursuing federal charges against any of the agents involved. Continue reading

  The family of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas will file a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. By Tatiana Sanchez The family of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, a San Diego man who died following a confrontation with Border Patrol agents in San Ysidro, will file a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, D.C. Continue reading