The border security and immigration debacle gets new life and lots of new money.

As two expensive wars near their close some of the largest military contractors head to the buffet table to stock up on billions of dollars in federal funds that will be diverted to border security. With a trade show of new technology and equipment developed for overseas conflict and surveillance  becoming available at home new contracts will certainly be a prize.  Politicians in bed with government contractors are swarming to the floor with bills to increase border security.

If  things were to work out positively there just might be some equitable solutions that might brig the left and right a little closer.   Forget the far right and left because ther is no hope for them.  The present solution is increased border security or should I say just about close the border, and then a pathway to legal citizenship for those who are here and crime free.  The biggest problem besides a very expensive prison system  the  is the drug business and all the cartel lobby money in washington, this should be an interesting battle. Maybe the big money security contracts and legalization of  marijuana will.

Another plus to the new technology and surveillance systems along the border is a safer working environment for our Border Patrol Agents.  Also all the humanitarians and people smugglers could go home.

The New York Times June 6th

by Eric Lipton

As Wars End, a Rush to Grab Dollars Spent on the Border

TUCSON — The nation’s largest military contractors, facing federal budget cuts and the withdrawals from two wars, are turning their sights to the Mexican border in the hopes of collecting some of the billions of dollars expected to be spent on tighter security if immigration legislation becomes law.

Half a dozen major military contractors, including Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, are preparing for an unusual desert showdown here this summer, demonstrating their military-grade radar and long-range camera systems in an effort to secure a Homeland Security Department contract worth as much as $1 billion.

Northrop Grumman, meanwhile, is pitching to Homeland Security officials an automated tracking device — first built for the Pentagon to find roadside bombs in Afghanistan — that could be mounted on aerial drones to find illegal border crossers. And General Atomics, which manufactures the reconnaissance drones, wants to double the size of the fleet under a recently awarded contract worth up to $443 million.

Read Complete Article

 

Photo by Karl W Hoffman

Another plus to the new technology and surveillance systems along the border is a safer working environment for our Border Patrol Agents.  Also all the humanitarians and people smugglers could go home.

Karl W Hoffman

Photojournalist

Multimedia Reporter

Documentary Film Producer

Watch the complete documentary (96min)  ”Living on the Border”

Every developed country that borders or can be accessed by a 3rd world country has a critical border security and immigration problem.  Many european countries are facing the same issues.

Interesting enough, a known fact in the film business, is that objective documentaries don’t go to far.  Without courting one side or the other while riling  up the opposite  view, a good objective presentation just doesn’t get the attention here as it does internationally. I guess the American public is so used to being entertained, that major media just has to sensationalize story segments slanted toward the particular viewpoint of their viewers. No thought process is required with this agenda so compassion fades and the gap widens.

I am honored to be a guest speaker and take part in this international exchange of ideas. It is very important to present an objective insight to the border and immigration debacle from here in Southern Arizona.  I look forward to bringing new ideas and possibilities back and opening new discussions here at my TC blog.

“Living on the Border” documentary series and blog is back after a long winters rest. Actually I had to stop for a while and make a real living in fine art. (www.karlwhoffman.com)

Originally I told my wife that I wanted to take 5 years off to document the happenings here on the border and produce the documentary “Living on the Border”. This project is my gift to future generations. However, I was informed last fall that it had been 6 years. I do owe a special thanks to my wife Audrey for all her support and understanding of the importance of this project so as of now she is my official assistant and will have to accompany me to Paris.

Starting with a solo exhibit of my border photography at the Tubac Center of the Arts the beginning of the documentary was born.  Six years later, thousands of hours in the field, post production editing,  and freelancing for major publications (internationally) the  film premiered at the loft cinema to a packed house.

Thanks to all the wonderful people, organizations, and government agencies, who have showed such great support and encouragement for the “Living on the Border” documentary series.

Arivaca is a small quiet border town in the middle of nowhere but at the center of everything. Struggling to maintain a normal rural lifestyle while recovering form the preverbal border war zone, Arivaca has its hidden gems.  Contrary to mainstream media sensationalism the people of Arivaca have a unique  comfort and acceptance of multicultural and quiet varied political views.   Magnified in the various community projects Arivaca locals  are always ready to support area functions with a warm and friendly welcome to visitors

Photo by Karl W Hoffman

The small farmers market that grew over the years from two women sitting under a tree selling their eggs and cheese is now grown to a budding farmers market called “Marian’s Market.”  Open from 9am to noon every Saturday the local produced products and organic produce are worth the drive. For more information visit the Arivaca on line news and directory

Photo by Karl W Hoffman

Nestled in the hills of the high Sonornan Desert Arivaca has a lot to offer.  Before the market as you are coming into Arivaca is the Cafe Aribac for a great cup of coffee or breakfast. After visiting the market, try the Arivaca Artist Co op and The Cactus Rose Gallery or a cold one at the Cantina.  Opening soon is Sweet Peas Cuisine, Cafe and Catering, offering 3 great meals a day.  The Arivaca Mercantile will surprise you and the drive to Arivaca Lake or through the 117,000 acres of the Buenos  Aries Wildlife Refuge is a rewarding experience. Area Links

Photo by Karl W Hoffman

Mark you calendars for  other Arivaca events and come back here for coverage.

Saturday November 5th 2011

The Day of the Dead and Annual Folklorico Festival and Parade, starting at 11:00 am

Saturday, November 19th

3rd Annual Grassland Fair at Buenos Aries National Wildlife Refuge

Exhibits, Demonstrations, Music, Crafts and Food, Talks and Walks.

Karl W Hoffman

Activist Alison Bane (Miller) McLeod DOB 1963, photo from the video " Border Patrol in The Bushes"

Bisbee anti government activist, Alison Bane McLeod lives at 939 E Border Rd AZ (520-432-1476), a few miles east of Bisbee where she confronted Customs and Border Patrol Agents from the Horse Patrol in the process of apprehending illegal border crossers.  Holding a video camera McLeod approached the agents and was asked courteously, not to video their faces (this is on the film.) McLeod ignored their request, got closer with her video camera and began verbally heckling them and then asking questions.  She was repeatedly asked to stand aside and not film their faces or the face of the man in custody but simply ignored their requests.  One of the CPB agents then explained to her that they were not authorized to answer her questions and gave her the number at CBP headquarters where she could contact a public relations officer.  This is standard procedure for just about every agency from police to fire departments and many corporate entities.

McLeod took detailed video of the CPB Agents after being asked repeatedly not to video their faces, then irresponsibly posted a very derogatory video showing the CBP Agents faces on YouTube. YouTube removed the video.  The border in that area has become a very dangerous sector and it is definitely a reasonable request for CBP Agents to want to protect their anonymity and respect the identity of the man in custody.

McLeod states she has the right to video government officials in public but these men where government workers doing an assigned job. Professional multimedia reporters have the courtesy and respect for agents safety, and blur direct face shots if the video is of course not accusatory but still news worthy.    This video was neither, but if anything should prevail in the video, it would be how the CBP Agents handled the situation with a great deal of patients and professionalism in dealing with McLeod and the respect showed for the individual in custody.

This shoddy video is merely another piece in the No More Deaths campaign (Culture of Cruelty) to systematically assault  US Customs and Border Protection. McLeod was immediately  defended by the ACLU. Of course  McLeod did not include any personal information of her own in the video. McLeod’s information in this article came form public web search.

An interesting note is that McLeod had no concern for any rights but her own when she even used copyrighted music of the popular James Bond Series as the soundtrack for her video which the ACLU posted on their website with total disregard for copy right protection laws, the safety of CPB Agents or the rights of the man in custody.

ACLU Says Bisbee Activist Has First Amendment Right to Post Border Patrol Video on YouTube     

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, September 30, 2011

CONTACT:

Alessandra Soler Meetze, ACLU of Arizona, (602) 773-6006 (office) or 602-301-3705

PHOENIX – In a letter sent Thursday to YouTube administrators, the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona criticized the online company for censoring a video of United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents arresting a man with a bloody nose.

The 5-minute video, dubbed “Border Patrol in the Bushes,” was taken by Bisbee activist Alison McLeod, who pulled out her video camera and started filming Border Patrol agents arresting an individual after she heard helicopters and saw several agents, on horseback and on foot, on her property on August 31^st.  The video shows four CBP agents walking an individual in handcuffs through her property to a white CBP truck parked on a public road. McLeod posted it on YouTube on September 2^nd where it received “hundreds” of views within hours. Ten days after the video was posted, YouTube officials took it down, citing privacy complaints by CBP agents.

“This is yet another example of a private online community trampling on our First Amendment rights and trying to exercise greater control over what we share and watch online,” said Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona. “People have the right to film government officials carrying out their duties in public places. By censoring this type of protected speech, YouTube officials not only violated their own guidelines, but they’ve managed to silence debate around U.S. immigration practices along the U.S.-Mexico border.”

According to YouTube, three complaints about the video were filed; two of them were posted by CBP agents. Within hours of the YouTube posting, a CBP supervisor showed up unannounced at McLeod’s doorstep, telling her 19-year-old daughter who was home at the time that he was inquiring about the YouTube video. The agent then offered to give McLeod and her daughter a tour of the Border Patrol facilities and the local search area.

“This is the reality of border enforcement for those of us living on the border,” said McLeod, who has been living on the border since 1997. “Rather than trying to intimidate residents like me who are simply trying to make CBP more accountable to the public, they should respect the rights of all people living on the border.”

The ACLU sent a separate letter to the CBP’s Tucson Field Office, arguing their involvement in trying to remove the video constitutes “severe government interference with McLeod’s constitutional rights.”

“Customs and Border Protection is now the nation’s largest federal law enforcement agency and it operates with total impunity, accountable to no one and with little government oversight,” added Meetze. “This video and CBP’s response to it underscores the need for greater transparency.”

Although YouTube has privacy guidelines that allow them to remove content where an individual is “uniquely identifiable,” the ACLU argues in its letter to both YouTube and CBP that public officials have no reasonable expectation of privacy while exercising their official duties in public places. The ACLU letter also points out that “nothing distinguishes McLeod’s videos from the hundreds of videos already on YouTube demonstrating various law enforcement activities.”

“YouTube boasts that it is the biggest news platform in the world,” wrote ACLU of Arizona Legal Director Dan Pochoda in his three-page letter to YouTube. “One of the goals of a free press is to hold government officials accountable for their actions. Granting law enforcement a de facto veto over materials they find objectionable or unflattering would violate and jeopardize that mission.”

The letter to YouTube asks the company to allow McLeod to repost her video and any future videos of government officials performing their duties. The ACLU also is asking CBP to stop interfering with McLeod’s efforts to videotape and photograph CBP activities on her own property or public land, and to rescind its complaints seeking the removal of the video from YouTube.

Click here to read the letter to YouTube.

Click here to read the letter to CBP’s Tucson Field Office.

 

A remake of the video titled Border Patrol in the Bushes Dos has been posted again on YouTube.

Update:  Alison McLeod now tries to silence this blog 

Attacking the United States Border Patrol with such wild and fictitious allegations is totally irresponsible. The fact is that this action is merely a smoke screen to divert attention from their illegal activities.

They claim to be faith-based humanitarians, except by the social and cultural standards of the United States they are just antigovernment anarchists.

This new book, Culture of Cruelty by No More Deaths is no better than the previous one in that it is entirely based on hearsay information from a biased source. Not independent moderation of oversight, they just wrote it.

Hear say evidence has never been admissible in a court of law. Even if you swear that the story you heard is correct and you swear that you have not embellished it for you own gains. Interview techniques are the same as surveys you can prove anything by the way the question is asked and then recorded and then presented. This applies to both sides of the coin. If you are going to put on the gloves lets be honorable, fair in our presentations and professional and objective in the information gathering.

It is called the “chain of evidence”  (physical or real property) Interviews, statements confessions, etc, must be recorded or signed and notarized and the victim must be available to testify under oath in a court of law. There are many criminal cases that are dismissed because this chain was broken or not conducted properly.

If law enforcement where allowed to collect evidence in the manner that NMDs did in their new book, we could just wing our constitution out the window and embrace a dictatorship.

As quoted in part from the 6th Amendment:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.

Border Patrol Agents must be allowed the same rights as all United States citizens.

Excerpt from “Living on the Border” Documentary 

Controlling the media was very important, so not only did they bring in their own international media teams sympathetic to their cause but they began carefully screening journalists who wanted to cover their work in the field and any that are approved, are assigned special media persons and given a false tour with no interaction with volunteers who have not been briffed or illegal migrants.

They also realized that right wing conservative news won’t criticize faith based humanitarian groups and left wing liberals are supportive of it with out asking to many questions. This puts government officials and politicians in an uneasy spot.  So with decades of experience No More Deaths and the Samaritan’sleaders who were no strangers to organizing anti government tactics, began their new agenda by first creating a cloud of false government persecution in which to operate under.

First there is “Abuse Documentation” or stories they have heard or made up that will foster sympathy for their cause and open a can of worms for any government agency that takes to close a look at their activities. Playing this abuse documentation angle also keeps them very well funded, with large grants from the Unitarian Universalistic Funding Program and tens of thousands of tax free dollars from other churches and non profit activist groups under the disguise of the Social Justice Ministry. The term they like to use for their actions is “Civil Initiative”, nothing more than a gentle  for euphemism for revolutionary or anarchist.  To give this trump card an air of validity, they even published a book.

Feature length documentary is available on DVD at www.livingontheborder.com

Karl W Hoffman

Documentary Film Producer

Freelance Photojournalist

Multimedia Reporter

For information on photography exhibits and prints, lectures, interviews, photo usage, border tours and to order the documentary on DVD and view Living on the Border documentary trailer please visit: www.skullcreekmedia.com

Young man at the border fence attempting to return to his family. Photo by Karl W Hoffman

The Obama administration has already deported more than 1 MILLION people.

So I went to the border, not just a border crossing but the border between America and Mexico deep in the Sonoran Desert to personally ask an illegal border crosser, why?

The answer I got;  This young man said he had been working in a restaurant in Illinois. He has been in the US for over 15 years, originally coming across as a child with his parents. Juan (not his real name) has a wife and children he is supporting. He was stopped for a tail light out and arrested for being in this country illegally. Juan spent the next few months in a detention facility and then was transported to Arizona and deported at Nogales.  His entire family had to contribute to raising the $2,000 it would take to pay for the Coyote to get him back into the US plus travel expenses.

Separate the issues of drugs and criminal actions, forget your party or your stand on border security and immigration and lets look at this from a purely logical and objective viewpoint.  Lets forget that Juan is here illegally and how and why he got or came here and whither or not he should be here. It is a case of human nature and the bonds we adhere to.  Just the fact that a man or women is separated from his or her family and transported several thousand miles away in another country does not mean he or she will not return to his or her family.  This is who we are as people! Holocaust victims have spent their entire lives searching for their lost loved ones. Every one of us would do the same thing.

Taxpayers are going to pay for a public defender and the prosecution, plus the court costs, inflated incarceration fees, transportation and deportation, then of course for the family to go on welfare. The icing on this cake is that the Cartels laugh all the way to the bank with the family’s savings. So is deportation a great idea?

Even if one has no compassion for families being torn apart or the immense financial burden on U.S taxpayers, how hard is it to see some simple solutions that even a politician could understand?  Secure the Border by any and all means, and then repair the country through comprehensive immigration reform by whatever the citizens of the U.S deem to be fair and compassionate. I do have great faith in the humanitarian and civil rights directions that our country eventually takes but immigration reform will not happen over night.

There should be plenty of fodder for liberals, humanitarians and open border activist to keep them busy away from the border, anti government types can sign up for voluntary deportation, the Sierra Club has enough to do in their own back yard, and No More Deaths can concentrate on their Middle East projects, conservatives can quit worrying about the foreign invasion and the high cost of ammo, and the minutemen can go home and drink beer knowing they helped defend our country.  Did I leave anyone out? Oh yea, Russell Pierce and Raul Grijalva can please just fade away and empty the prison space can be used for a new reality show “Break Out.”

Karl W Hoffman

Documentary Film Producer

Freelance Photojournalist

Multimedia Reporter

Reporting from the field not the desk

For information on photography exhibits and prints, lectures, interviews, photo usage, border tours and to order the documentary on DVD and view Living on the Border documentary trailer please visit: www.skullcreekmedia.com

Both Israel and the U.S. have urged the flotilla not to violate the Gaza blockade. The mission is a dangerous attention getting stunt.

The United Nations and European Union have backed Israeli and the U.S. in their position, which calls for the flotilla to dock in an Israeli or Egyptian port and transfer their cargo to Gaza legally over land. Activists reject this peaceful solution for getting aid into Gaza, and say that the blockade is illegal and immoral. Breaking the blockade and drawing international attention to themselves seems to be the activists’ highest priority and not actually getting aid and medical supplies to the people in need.

Speaking from Athens, Greta Berlin says the mission to Gaza will go ahead.

”Our intent is to sail; it’s always been our intent,” Berlin added.  “And we don’t give up very easily. We will continue to sail until Gaza is free.”

Israel has warned the flotilla that if it does try to break through the blockade to Gaza, the Navy will intercept. The naval blockade is necessary to prevent weapons and outside communication, which the activists are also carrying, from reaching the Palestinian militant group Hamas that rules Gaza. Israel and the West consider Hamas a terrorist organization and a threat to world peace.

The Greek government has stepped to the front by curbing tempers, preventing an international incident and ultimately saving the activists from themselves

July 2, 2011

 

U.S. Boat to Gaza Seized by Greek Authorities

and Captain Jailed

Passengers Determined to Free Captain

and Set Sail Again

Athens–After a two hour stand off at sea, the U.S. Boat to Gaza - The Audacity of Hope - was seized by the Greek Coast Guard and forced to return to the port of Piraeus under military escort. The boat’s captain has been put in jail, charged with disturbing sea traffic–which includes endangering the lives of those on the ships– and disobeying a police order to remain at dock. The crew is being detained on the boat, which is being held at a military dock just outside Athens. Most of the 36 passengers remain on the ship in solidarity with the captain and crew.

Earlier today the U.S. Boat to Gaza - The Audacity of Hope – was stopped by the Greek Coast Guard. After a stand off that unfolded over several hours a 2nd Greek Coast Guard boat arrived. This boat carried heavily armed Greek commandos and this shifted the dynamic. Soon after a decision was made to bring the boat back to a dock in Athens, not the same one the boat had previously been at.

Once docked the flotilla learned that the Greek authorities are most likely going to bring some type of charges against the captain of the boat, and that should happen tomorrow (Saturday) morning. In solidarity with the captain, most of the activists and crewmembers decided to spend the night on the boat. It is reported that they do not yet know what their plans are for tomorrow, or what the next steps in all of this will be. Up dates will be posted as they come in.

Of course the activists feel that the good news today was not that they were turened back, but that there was a tremendous outpouring of calls and emails sent to the Greek Embassy in Washington, DC as well as Greek consulates around the country. According to the activists on the flotilla with limited communication, they state that many people have also contacted the U.S. State Dept. urging them to stop supporting the Israeli efforts to undermine the flotilla.

Currently detained by the Greek Coast Guard with a second, more heavily armed ship arriving, the Flotilla humanitarian aid ship named, The Audacity of Hope, has now agreed to return to the Greek port.

USTOGAZA

Who we are;

We are a coalition of organizations and a grassroots campaign of individuals who together are joining to launch a U.S. BOAT TO GAZA. When the U.S. boat, THE AUDACITY OF HOPE, sails it will take its place in the next Freedom Flotilla to participate in the great international effort to break the blockade of Gaza and to end the occupation of Palestine. From the deck of The Audacity of Hope, we will be in a powerful and unique position to challenge U.S. foreign policy and affirm the universal obligation to uphold international law and human rights.

We agree to adhere to the principles of nonviolence and nonviolent resistance in word and deed at all times.

 

Humanitarians claim there has been pressure put on Greece by Israel and the U.S. to block the flotilla. They further claim Israelis have threatened economic sanctions if Greece did not cooperate in preventing the flotilla from leaving Greek ports. Greek authorities have blocked the boats from leaving by levying unwarranted administrative burdens. A complaint against The Audacity of Hopeboat turned out to have been filed by a Jerusalem based organization called the Israel Law Center, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayahu publicly acknowledged the Greek prime minister’s cooperation in efforts to stop the flotilla.

The issues involving Israel and the Gaza Strip are complex and have been at the center of social and religious conflict for centuries

Involved in anti American and international affairs it is not surprising to find the subversive anti government group No More Deaths behind this international demonstration, with several of their members aboard the Ship.  It is interesting that this group will use the American Flag to give a false impression of sanction and validity.

“The U.S. Boat to Gaza, THE AUDACITY OF HOPE, is committed to breaking the siege of Gaza by sailing a U.S. flagged ship in the International Freedom Flotilla this summer.” Gabriel Matthew Schivone is a Chicano-Jewish American from Tucson. He is the founder and coordinator of the initial chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace at the UA campus, one of nearly 30 JVP chapters throughout the country, which has a mailing list of 100,000 – and thereafter branches in the general Tucson and Northern Arizona communities, and at Arizona State University, in Phoenix. Schivone is also a member of No More Deaths and a passenger on the flotilla.

The risk of an Israeli attack on the flotilla is real. Israeli commandoes assaulted a similar flotilla in international waters on May 31 of last year, killing nine people on board one of the vessels, including Furkan Dogan, a 19-year old activist and U.S. citizen. Scores of others, including a number of Americans, were brutally beaten and more than a dozen others were shot but survived their wounds. The Obama administration never filed a complaint with the Israeli government.

This administration appears to have given a green light to Israel to defend them selves from activists who seem bent on aiding and supporting their enemies. Either at our own borders or internationally there should be no sanctions or support from the U.S Government for those taking the law in to their own hands even if it is passive and non violent.

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Secretary of State

Treaty Room

Washington, DC

June 23, 2011

 

SECRETARY CLINTON: “Well, we do not believe that the flotilla is a necessary or useful effort to try to assist the people of Gaza. Just this week, the Israeli Government approved a significant commitment to housing in Gaza. There will be construction materials entering Gaza and we think that it’s not helpful for there to be flotillas that try to provoke actions by entering into Israeli waters and creating a situation in which the Israelis have the right to defend themselves.”

 

 

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of Consular Affairs

Israel, the West Bank and Gaza

June 22, 2011

The Mexican Cartels are in a feeding frenzy.  No crime is beneath them, no person beyond exploitation, and now no industry is safe from the race for money at all costs.

The drug business in Mexico is booming but so is the jobless rate.  Desperation is gripping this country as organized crime takes over government enterprises. There is an army of street thugs stealing every thing and any thing to survive and hyaenas crimes are rampant. Violence has spilled over, exploiting illegal immigration, people smuggling and armed robberies of drug shipments on the US side and it is not just limited to the border areas any more, but at destination points through out our country.

At the top, cartels are expanding into large scale theft of Mexico’s natural resources by strong arming their way into the lumber industry with armed caravans invading timber rich areas with every intention of clear cutting. With money, there comes corruption and the ability to buy technology, so taping into pipelines to steal huge quantities of fuel should be of no surprise. Cutting into the government budget will have a catastrophic affect on the government’s  ability to keep what little control it has over the federal police or the army. The  take over of the cell phone business, one of the only privately owned monopolies in Mexico will be a prize for sure.  Its a dangerous free for all down there, its right next door and incase any one hasn’t noticed, the doors are wide open.

Mexican Gangs Stealing Growing Amounts of Fuel

 

Published June 19, 2011

| The Wall Street Journal

No More Deaths Statement:

No More Deaths community is fulfilling its commitment to “Global Movement Building.”

With each new generation there are those youth who aspire to change the world and bring peace to humanity through their own actions. With each new generation we as the human race actually get just a little closer.  As a nation we should admire our youth for not accepting the media representation at face value and praise them for taking the initiative to get their hands dirty learning about the border issues first hand in the field. Unfortunately our youth are at the mercy of a well established and very manipulative group called No More Deaths

So lets take an in depth look at this particular group, No More Deaths. Many of this organization’s key members go back decades to the earlier Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s involving El Salvadorian political refugees whom the Regan administration refused to give asylum. They took the law into their own hands, and led by the Reverend John Fife (also a reported instigator in the 1960s university anti war demonstrations and riots), the Sanctuary Movement began at the South Side Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Arizona. Its purpose was to smuggle undocumented immigrants from El Salvador in to the United States. Gorilla fighters, rebels and criminals, who were fleeing to escape execution were included in this literal underground railroad, that smuggled illegal immigrants not just from El Salvador, but it gathered immigrants along the way through Central America and Mexico. Then through a network that stretched all the way to Canada, it eventually provided safe haven to tens of thousands of illegal immigrants and involved over 500 churches and synagogues nationwide.  This movement would create a foothold for illegal immigrant families and provide a destination point for other family members and continue to attract illegal immigrants for a generation.

With out any screening process or controls over who was being smuggled into the United States, another one of the adverse effects was a large very undesirable element that was relocated to our inner cities and formed the most notorious street gang in the history of our world. The Salvadorian gang MS13 (Mara Salvatrucha 13) is one of the most violently dangerous gangs and one of the most organized. This gang has grown to international proportions, with an estimated number of 70,000-gang members today, in the US alone and is a direct result of the Sanctuary Movement.

Although the article below states that all members were acquitted of federal charges, it neglects to say that recent charges were only reversed on a technicality and in the past many of the original group in the Sanctuary Movement, were convicted.

Including the arrest of the Reverend John Fife, eight activists where convicted on various federal charges in the 1990s. Several years ago, these same individuals resurfaced to form the group No More Deaths. This group is now walking a fine line between humanitarian aid, which should not be a crime, and indiscriminate but organized smuggling, which is a crime even if you are a church or a university. Considering the past and the present, it is of no surprise that contemporary government agencies are reluctant to work with groups that have such a subversive past and thrive on illegal activity and anti government agendas.

The war on our border has catapulted  activists and subversive antigovernment groups such as No More Deaths into powerful positions progressing at an alarming rate through internet channels and social networking sites and they are rapidly gaining a foot hold on many college campuses. Creating a serious threat to national security, No More Deaths is also attracting the attention of global intelligence agencies.

Israel’s harassment of US-Mexico border human rights activist raises many questions
by GABRIEL MATTHEW SCHIVONE on JUNE 14, 2011
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On May 16, a 19-year-old American student from a Southwest university was stopped by Israeli security agents and held for several hours as she attempted to enter the occupied Palestinian West Bank with 17 other schoolmates and two professors. At one point in a grueling interrogation that lasted until 2 am, she was harassed about her affiliation with No Más Muertes/No More Deaths, a humanitarian group that operates along the U.S.-Mexico border.

No More Deaths is a prominent U.S. humanitarian group, well known for its numerous volunteers who have been indicted over the years by the federal government (though all acquitted) for advocating fundamental change in U.S. Immigration and Border Enforcement policies and, in the process, helping save the lives of migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border. So why is Israel so concerned about a human rights group that operates in a humanitarian border crisis zone several thousand miles away?

A report in recent weeks by Israel’s leading newspaper, Ha’aretz, suggests a possible answer, or at least provides some interesting insight on Israel’s efforts to deal with what it perceives as “delegitimization”: people and groups around the world opposing Israeli state crimes, organizing a mass withdrawal of support for them, and attempting to press accountability for such crimes under international and domestic law.
Following “an upsurge in worldwide efforts” of these sorts, according to Ha’aretz which cited senior Israeli officials and Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) officers whose Military Intelligence (MI) research division “created a department several months ago that is dedicated to monitoring left-wing groups” overseas and that “will work closely with government ministries.”

The Israeli officials were not reluctant to admit that the monitoring unit was created in the wake of a supposed intelligence failure prior to Israel’s lethal raid on the humanitarian convoy “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” last May in which nine international civilians were shot to death “in the manner of summary execution” and dozens were seriously injured, according to a UN fact-finding mission that investigated the attack.

According to the Ha’aretz report, the intelligence unit has been participating in high-brass discussions preparing for Flotilla 2. The unit’s interest might well be piqued, then, by the fact that the main No More Deaths Tucson General group announced last month on its website its support for two volunteers traveling to break the siege of Gaza, one being this author and the other a Palestinian student wishing to remain anonymous.

Ha’aretz described an official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office explaining that the unit’s “quality of information” about foreign targeted groups has “improved” and the “quantity” of such information “has increased in recent months.”

One Military Intelligence (MI) official explained to that “[t]he enemy changes, as does the nature of the struggle,” and so “we have to boost activity in this sphere.” Doubtless the intelligence unit is doing its job. But whether Israel regards No More Deaths and its volunteers and supporters as enemies of the state remains unconfirmed.

What other information in the public sphere has the unit been—or would be—able to “collect” on No More Deaths in order to “adequately prepare” for challenges posed to Israeli policy by civil society actions such as the flotilla?

Probably most relevant to the case of the student who was interrogated for her involvement with the group concerns the No More Deaths University of Arizona (UA) chapter (UANMD), which has been leading the No More Deaths community in fulfilling its commitment to “Global Movement Building.”

In November 2010, UA NMD allied with fellow campus groups Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace in organizing tours of the U.S.-Mexico border, starting with Nogales, AZ-Sonora, a border community bisected by the border wall. The effort aimed to highlight the “concrete connections” between the U.S. and Israel in their monetary and material exchanges in security technology, training and resources in maintaining state policy in both areas.

The groups followed their border tours with a national student conference, Concrete Connections, held in February, in which students and teachers from nearly a dozen states from across the U.S. attended to discuss comparisons and differences between US/Mexico border issues and the Israel/Palestine conflict and how solidarity movements can internationalize their commitment to each other’s struggle for justice in both areas.

One of the topics discussed by some activists was a “mock wall movement” to employ atcampuses across the U.S., modeled off the “mock shanty towns” that proliferated on U.S. campuses during the mid-1980s to symbolize student support for divestment from companies supporting South African Apartheid. On March 21—incidentally the same day Ha’aretz ran the above report—the largest mock apartheid wall in the U.S. was erected, dividing the 40,000-student UA campus for ten days, sponsored by numerous groups but chiefly organized by none other than the UANMD, Students for Justice in Palestine, and Jewish Voice for Peace. Numerous other schools across the country followed suit with their announcements of erecting similar walls later in the spring and this coming fall.

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu sent a letter of support to the students, echoing their call for mock walls to spring up across the country. In April esteemed public intellectual Dr. Cornel West echoed Tutu’s call for divestment, in particular supporting the students’ Ethnic Studies solidarity program bringing together youth from Arizona and Palestine to exchange experiences and strategies of resisting U.S./AZ and Israeli state attacks on education.

Whatever Israel’s intention, it is clear that groups such as No More Deaths pose a serious threat to Israel’s ability to carry out state crimes and policies of illegal settlement and occupation unimpeded.

Gabriel Matthew Schivone lives in Tucson, Arizona. He is a Chicano-Jewish American and native Tucsonan, a volunteer and media/policy analyst with the U.S./Mexico border humanitarian organization No More Deaths/No Más Muertes, and an AZ coordinator of Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine. He is a passenger and a U.S. representative for the AZ/Southwest on the upcoming “Gaza Freedom Flotilla 2″. He is also co-editor and a contributing author of the forthcoming book, Concrete Connections: Militarization, Migration, and the Political Economy of Human Rights in the Mexico/U.S. and Palestine/Israel Borderlands. Schivone may be reached at: gabrielm@email.arizona.edu Twitter @GSchivone

 

While there are many humanitarian groups and organizations involved in the border arena and doing very positive work both in the field and politically, helping people and raising awareness for immigration reform and change on both sides of the American/Mexican border. I would in no way want to cast a shadow on their work or create a stigmatism for the good they are achieving.

A faith based humanitarian organization (No More Deaths) in southern Arizona has the slogan is “Humanitarian Aid is never a Crime”. Funded by churches, they recruit volunteers who venture into the deserts along the borders of America and Mexico to give life saving aid to illegal border crossers caught in an economical and political cross fire, or so they would like you to think. What is their real agenda? Are they really a subversive anti government cult like group of smugglers using the various churches to fund their illegal operation?

The Truth about No More Deaths

Karl W Hoffman

Documentary Film Producer

Freelance Photojournalist

Multimedia Reporter

Reporting form the field not the desk.

For information on photography exhibits and prints, lectures, interviews, photo usage, border tours and to order the documentary on DVD and view Living on the Border documentary trailer please visit: www.skullcreekmedia.com

Border activists groups and humanitarian organizations would like you to believe this.

The 1900 mile border between America and Mexico stretches throughout four states, where border security and illegal immigration issues poses much of the same dynamics.  The main difference is that the demography of southern Arizona is mostly retirement communities that only started to thrive after WWII when air conditioning was invented.  New Mexico, Texas and California have had centuries on multicultural intertwining and have an understanding of the difference between the working hispanic community, the migrant workforce, illegal immigration and drug smuggling, all quite separate entities. Arizona has become a magnet for attracting liberal activists, so called humanitarians, the Sierra Club, incompetent  politicians on both sides, sensationalizing media, and dime store novelists, the list goes on. The common ground is that those who come  here to Arizona have no concept about the true nature of the border dynamics, they only focus of their own particular agendas, and are blind to the big picture. Lumping all of the complex issues of the border and immigration debacle into one bag and labeling it raciest, is ludicrous and makes solutions impossible.  Subversive left wing anti government activists seem to enjoy tying the hands of law enforcement and government agencies with out any grasp or concern as to the collateral damage they may cause and fuzzing up the right wing conservatives is just icing on the cake. Are we getting anywhere? No

The border has become a dangerous place, this must be accepted. In Texas where the US Border Patrol works together with law enforcement agencies things are handled quite different.  Calling in an elite law enforcement agency familiar with the border arena, such as the Texas Rangers, to help fight the drug trade and control border violence while protecting all ethnicities is not racist.

photo by Karl W Hoffman