BORDER ENFORCEMENT WITHOUT OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY IS IRRESPONSIBLE.

The rapid buildup of enforcement at the border has not come with any additional resources for oversight and accountability.

For example, the budget for the Office of Inspector General, which investigates complaints, has not increased at all. As a result, border agents act with impunity when they harass border residents and violate civil and human rights. We do not want agents in this region that cannot be held accountable.

WE CANNOT IGNORE THE DEADLY CONSEQUENCES OF OUR BORDER ENFORCEMENT POLICIES

Border enforcement policies that force people to migrate through the deserts, mountains, and waterways of the border to meet their deaths is inhumane and must end. Our enforcement policies must include a zero-migrant death standard. The loss of human life–which now averages out to at least one migrant death a day and totals more than 5,000 deaths over the last 15 years–should not be an acceptable collateral consequence of our policies.

TALK OF “SECURING THE BORDER” IS NOTHING BUT FEAR-MONGERING

Sending troops to the border is Obama’s form of buying into the fear-mongering tactic used by Republicans, which we were told to believe would end with his administration.  Republicans use the “Secure the Borders” argument to oppose any kind of immigration reform.  The idea of a violent and out-of-control border is a myth and it must cease being an obstacle in the way of immigration reform, nor must it be a bargaining chip to win immigration reform.

OBAMA FORGOT TO MENTION THAT THE BORDER IS THE SAFEST REGION OF THE COUNTRY.

The border cities rank among the safest cities of their respective sizes in the country. The border region is so secure that border patrol agents take naps whenever convenient.  Customs and Border Protection spokesman Lloyd Easterling has said, “The border is safer now than it’s ever been.” The AP cited a study by the Department of Homeland Security showing that 3 percent of Border Patrol agents were assaulted last year, mostly by rock-throwers, compared to 11 percent of police officers and sheriff’s deputies in the country assaulted in the same period, usually with guns and knives.

WHAT ABOUT ANASTASIO HERNANDEZ ROJAS AND SERGIO ADRIAN HERNANDEZ HUEREKA?

These are the men who were killed by border agents in the last month. If the President is willing to have a beer over a racial-profiling incident on the East Coast, what is he going to do about two killings at the border in less then two weeks? Despite an active homicide investigation into the death of Anastasio in San Diego, the agents involved remain on the job. How will immigration reform address and prevent deaths at the border resulting from broken border enforcement policies?

WHAT ABOUT FIRST NATIONS?

Tribal members of indigenous nations on the border like the Tohono O’Odham are being racially-profiled by border agents in Arizona.  Indigenous communities must have a say in border and immigration issues.

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