Amnesty International: In Hostile Terrain – Human rights violations in immigration enforcement in the US Southwest

  "The architecture of international human rights law is built on the premise that all persons, by virtue of their essential humanity, should enjoy all human rights." -- David Weissbrodt, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Non-Citizens   Amnesty International’s report, In Hostile Terrain: Human rights violations in immigration enforcement in the US Southwest, examines the human rights violations associated with immigration enforcement at the border and in the interior of the ...

The Border Wall: The Last Stand at Making the US a White Gated Community

by: Mark Karlin, Truthout | News Analysis   This is the first in an occasional Truthout series on viewing the US "immigration" and Mexican border policies through a social justice lens, focusing on the lower Rio Grande Valley. Brownsville, Texas, area. Mark Karlin, editor of BuzzFlash at Truthout, visited the region recently to file these reports.   The physical Mexican-American wall starts as a newly fortified metal barrier extending 300 feet into the warm, balmy waters of...

PROMISES, PROMISES: Securing US border impossible

AUSTIN, Texas—Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have promised to complete a nearly 1,950-mile fence. Michele Bachmann wants a double fence. Ron Paul pledges to secure the nation's southern border by any means necessary, and Rick Perry says he can secure it without a fence—and do so within a year of taking office as president. But a border that is sealed off to all illegal immigrants and drugs flowing north is a promise none of them could keep. "Securing the border is a wonderful slog...

Cain Proposes Electric Fence To Kill Immigrants – Includes MSNBC Update

by Jessica P. Dear Republican Presidential candidates. Herman Cain will see your border fence and raise you one. On a campaign tour through Tennessee, Cain elaborated on what will be a central portion of his immigration policy: a big electric fence. Cain’s fence, he announced on Saturday, would be electrified and run the entire course of the US-Mexican border with voltage high enough to kill anyone trying to enter illegally. Cain’s ideal fence would be 20 feet high with barbed ...

Flagrant Human Rights Violations on U.S. Soil

By John Carlos Frey When most people think of the U.S.-Mexico border, they rarely think about a zone where U.S. policy and U.S. agents violate human rights on a daily basis. In the border region it is common practice. I know it doesn't sound possible or true, but it is real and happens regularly. Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The term "no one" means w...

San Diego and Tijuana Migrant Rights Coalitions Denounce Growing Pattern of Border Brutality

Este mensaje se repetirá en español San Diego and Tijuana Migrant Rights Coalitions Denounce Growing Pattern of Border Brutality Contacts: Ricardo Favela San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium (760) 468-4519 www.immigrantsandiego.org San Diego, CA José A. Moreno Mena Coalición Pro Defensa del Migrante, A.C. (686) 137-1381 (664) 607-7077 Tijuana, B.C. Tijuana/San Diego - The Migrant Defense Coalition (based in Baja California, Mexico) and t...