Friday, November 15, 2019
Monday, June 3, 2019
"Criminalizing Compassion': Trial Begins for Humanitarian
'Criminalizing Compassion': Trial Begins for Humanitarian Facing 20 Years in Prison for Giving Water to Migrants in Arizona Desert
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/05/29/criminalizing-compassion-trial-begins-humanitarian-facing-20-years-prison-giving?fbclid=IwAR0jxHm_XDEntjvbyAZHHiEKZr6G7Rp50eZmGJPAHhJ2r0R0Wzf83jLFYd8
PLEASE SIGN PETITION:
https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/drop-all-charges-against-7?source=s.fb&r_hash=Hp6dqDZN&fbclid=IwAR1wlQJtIplk4NfXFrnDmxPqsczVUHlWzjQbN9VRQh_IyNcHByGK8TEqf40
Friday, April 12, 2019
One Simple Immigration Question
Why does not or has not one Washington politician ever suggested that Washington deal directly with the governments of the undocumented to fix the problems in the undocumented's home countries so that they (the undocumented) will not need to come here?
Illegal immigration always boils down to the greed of the "haves" and the need of the "have nots".
Billions of US tax dollars are spent annually to keep this system "dysfunctional" and "broken". There is simply too much profit being made by the "haves" in both the United States and in the undocumented's home countries for any of the governments involved to actually to solve the problem.
The war against illegal immigration is not unlike the never ending military and drug wars that the US is perpetually "fighting". The US military industrial complex must have illegal drugs, terrorists and illegal people to keep fighting and profiting from their "wars".
Most voters do not look beyond Washington's decades-long immigration narratives to understand what is actually taking place. One side is accused of trying to let them all in and the other is accused of trying to boot them all out. Meanwhile decades pass and very little changes.
Of course we all know who really pays the price of this insanity. Not only the US taxpayers at home but the undocumented themselves suffer the consequences of their own governments' insatiable greed.
Illegal immigration always boils down to the greed of the "haves" and the need of the "have nots".
Billions of US tax dollars are spent annually to keep this system "dysfunctional" and "broken". There is simply too much profit being made by the "haves" in both the United States and in the undocumented's home countries for any of the governments involved to actually to solve the problem.
The war against illegal immigration is not unlike the never ending military and drug wars that the US is perpetually "fighting". The US military industrial complex must have illegal drugs, terrorists and illegal people to keep fighting and profiting from their "wars".
Most voters do not look beyond Washington's decades-long immigration narratives to understand what is actually taking place. One side is accused of trying to let them all in and the other is accused of trying to boot them all out. Meanwhile decades pass and very little changes.
Of course we all know who really pays the price of this insanity. Not only the US taxpayers at home but the undocumented themselves suffer the consequences of their own governments' insatiable greed.
Monday, January 21, 2019
Trump's Wall - You Can't Get To There From Here
As a retired US Border Patrol/INS/ICE agent I say:
There are no walls or laws that will stop undocumented hungry people or the illegal drugs people are hungry for.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/more-than-100-central-american-migrants-recorded-scaling-border-wall-officials-say/ar-BBSEPdu?ocid=ob-fb-enus-280&fbclid=IwAR2uB6H6NXmizd1m62l9qHDF7ispM2DNPfoLQJHqXGwqQeJOHjzryPZ8uPI
There are no walls or laws that will stop undocumented hungry people or the illegal drugs people are hungry for.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/more-than-100-central-american-migrants-recorded-scaling-border-wall-officials-say/ar-BBSEPdu?ocid=ob-fb-enus-280&fbclid=IwAR2uB6H6NXmizd1m62l9qHDF7ispM2DNPfoLQJHqXGwqQeJOHjzryPZ8uPI
Washington’s border and drug enforcement narratives ignore this premise as corporate cronies profit from Washington’s decades-old, insolvable enforcement policies.
Washington’s corrupt cronies who run the undocumented’s governments
profit too.
Reminds me of the old saying “You can’t get to there from
here”.
Until all governments involved address why their own
citizens go hungry for food or why their own citizens use or sell illegal
drugs - this insidious border fiasco will never end.
Until American citizens educate themselves and answer why billions
of US tax dollars are annually being pumped into corporate coffers based solely upon people’s
hunger for food or addictions to drugs - nothing will change.
PS I forgot to mention the most disturbing aspect of Washington's immigration/drug enforcement injustices.
How many people die crossing the border each year? How many people are slaughtered each year because of the US backed drug wars in Mexico and Central America? How many US citizens die or are jailed because of the US drug epidemic du jour?
"Oh it's the undocumented's faults". "Oh it's the drug users' faults". "Oh it's Mexico's fault." "Oh it's America's fault."
How about it being all governments' faults as they turn their backs on their own citizens in order to turn a profit for their corrupt corporate cronies?
PS I forgot to mention the most disturbing aspect of Washington's immigration/drug enforcement injustices.
How many people die crossing the border each year? How many people are slaughtered each year because of the US backed drug wars in Mexico and Central America? How many US citizens die or are jailed because of the US drug epidemic du jour?
"Oh it's the undocumented's faults". "Oh it's the drug users' faults". "Oh it's Mexico's fault." "Oh it's America's fault."
How about it being all governments' faults as they turn their backs on their own citizens in order to turn a profit for their corrupt corporate cronies?
Saturday, January 12, 2019
Who Pays The Price Of Failed Immigration Enforcement
Erin Marie is with Amy Smith.
We spent all day yesterday at the ICE detention center in Denver waiting to free a good friend. He has no criminal record nor any minor infractions of any kind.... In his life, and the 14 years he has lived in the states raising his son (who was born here) he has had zero interaction with the law. He is a beloved Community member and a family man. He has been actively working with a lawyer for years to update his legal status. There isn’t a hoop he hasn’t jumped through. In mid-December he went to the courthouse in telluride to pay his first and only speeding ticket. ICE was waiting outside, and after he paid his ticket, they threw him in an unmarked SUV and took him to the detention center in Denver where has has been imprisoned in sub-human conditions for three weeks.
The story of his imprisonment and the conditions he was subject to will stop you in your tracks. If you have a heart, even a small one, it will bring tears to your eyes. I can barely wrap my mind around the details. There are 1000 inmates spilling over in a facility that holds 600 at the maximum. The overflow is NOT due to the incarceration of rapists and drug dealers and criminals, but of hardworking family men, mothers, grandmothers and grandfathers and mostly those (legally) asking for asylum. Sure, there are some criminals that have justly earned their way in. But you would be hard pressed to find even a few cases in which a wall would have quelled their entry.
Historically, ICE has focused their energy on apprehending people with some prior record or offense. Not so much nowadays. There has been a major shift in our own community, with numerous recent arrests, indicating that someone in a position of power within our little town is working very hard to target even those people with no record, wasting resources and lots and lots of $. My heart hurts knowing this.
And then to end the day watching a public temper tantrum of lies and fear-mongering, realizing that we are now personally, inextricably, woven into the web of this “manufactured crisis”...I’m so ashamed for my country.
But, I am grateful to know I will not be on the wrong side of history. I am grateful that my friend will see his family tomorrow. I am grateful that I know many brilliant, energetic people that will not stand for this wasteful, baseless ignorance. I am grateful for my privilege and the opportunity to bear witness to the truth. I am grateful that it will never be hate that calls me to action, but instead, overwhelming love.
See MoreHistorically, ICE has focused their energy on apprehending people with some prior record or offense. Not so much nowadays. There has been a major shift in our own community, with numerous recent arrests, indicating that someone in a position of power within our little town is working very hard to target even those people with no record, wasting resources and lots and lots of $. My heart hurts knowing this.
And then to end the day watching a public temper tantrum of lies and fear-mongering, realizing that we are now personally, inextricably, woven into the web of this “manufactured crisis”...I’m so ashamed for my country.
But, I am grateful to know I will not be on the wrong side of history. I am grateful that my friend will see his family tomorrow. I am grateful that I know many brilliant, energetic people that will not stand for this wasteful, baseless ignorance. I am grateful for my privilege and the opportunity to bear witness to the truth. I am grateful that it will never be hate that calls me to action, but instead, overwhelming love.
I speak as a retired US Border Patrol/ICE agent. Ultimately our insidious system of immigration is about political profit, corporate profit from cheap labor and billions of US tax dollars poured into the US Border Enforcement Complex.
This enforcement fiasco - by design - will never stop or solve the problem and was never designed to do so. The political and financial elite who run all countries involved will continue to enrich themselves as long as their never-ending failed programs and failed political promises rule.
Ironically Washington’s immigration argument swings back and forth. “Let them all in” or “boot them all out” and “keep them all out” – all depending upon the administration du jour. And yes, changes in immigration laws have been made.
Yet overall - the madness goes on. Greed runs the show and poverty is the result. Poverty that exacerbates the flow of illegal immigration and illegal drugs into the US. Meanwhile the elite running all countries involved keep getting richer while the good people on all sides of the border suffer the financial, emotional and life-threatening consequences.
Your example exemplifies perfectly who pays the price. The good people caught in the middle. Those who want to better their lives and those of us who have compassion for those who try.
Friday, January 4, 2019
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