Border Wall

Immigrant Rights Group Says Raids are Failed Approach
Migrant Stories

Immigrant Rights Group Says Raids are Failed Approach

Quaker group responds to DHS statement and root causes of migration PHILADELPHIA, PA (January 5, 2016) In the wake of a series of controversial immigration raids to detain and deport Central American asylum seekers, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson released a statement defending the Obama Administration’s actions. The […]

Department of Homeland Security calls McCaul & Congress Border Bill HR 399 “extreme”
Border Wall

Department of Homeland Security calls McCaul & Congress Border Bill HR 399 “extreme”

DHS rejects Congress’s “Secure Our Borders First Bill” In a statement released yesterday by the press office of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, DHS Secretary Jeh C. Johnson called out the Congress for proposing a border bill that he claims will actually undermine border patrol capacity to adapt to emerging […]

San Diegans Concerned About McCaul Bill Calling For Militarization of Southern Border
Border Wall

San Diegans Concerned About McCaul Bill Calling For Militarization of Southern Border

San Diego: The San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium (SDIRC) expresses its concern about the H.R. 399, “Secure Our Borders First Act,” a border enforcement-only bill introduced on January 16, 2015 by Representative Michael McCaul (R-TX), which seeks to further militarize border communities. The bill is a misguided attempt at addressing […]

Operation Gatekeeper: 20 Years of Militarizing the Border
Border Wall

Operation Gatekeeper: 20 Years of Militarizing the Border

San Diego, CA:  On October 1, 1994, the federal government implemented Operation Gatekeeper along the California border with Mexico, as part of a larger border enforcement strategy. Gatekeeper had the intention of pushing the migrant flow away from urban areas and into less visible, but inhospitable and harsh terrain. Today, on its […]

Questions remain in Border Patrol shooting of Nogales teenager José Antonio Elena Rodríguez
Border Wall

Questions remain in Border Patrol shooting of Nogales teenager José Antonio Elena Rodríguez

UPDATE: January 5, 2015   Former CBP Internal Affairs Chief describes surveillance video of the border shooting. In September 2014, Border Patrol Agent Lonnie Swartz was indicted by a federal grand jury for second-degree murder. In an interview with Telemundo, James Tomscheck, the ousted former head of U.S. Customs and […]

Deported U.S. Veterans wait in Tijuana, hope to return home to families
Border Wall

Deported U.S. Veterans wait in Tijuana, hope to return home to families

“What would happen if we tore down this wall at the border? Look at the world we live in.” Hector Barajas understands the need for the United States to guard its borders, he tells me, as we sit next to the border wall in Tijuana, Mexico. “Look at where we’re […]

Border wall in Jacumba
Border Wall

Border wall in Jacumba

The border wall, first built as a barbed wire fence in 1911 to restrict cattle crossing, visible for miles in the distance.                                                         […]

Outsourcing workers: deported grandfather finds a U.S. job in Tijuana
Migrant Stories

Outsourcing workers: deported grandfather finds a U.S. job in Tijuana

Robert Vivar, a father and grandfather, made a good living working construction in Corona, California. That is, until he was tracked down by ICE and deported in 2011. Now, along with thousands of others recently deported from the U.S., Vivar works at Telvista, a call center and one of the […]

Border wall at La Rumorosa
Border Wall / Jacumba

Border wall at La Rumorosa

Just south of the tiny town of Ocotillo, California, and high up in the rugged mountains, a barbed wire fence marks the boundary between San Diego and Baja California.

Feeling powerless: one deported migrant’s story from Tijuana
Migrant Stories

Feeling powerless: one deported migrant’s story from Tijuana

Jose Luis Cisneros’s face still bears the marks of the violence he suffered more than 10 years ago. Cisneros, now in his mid-50s, spent 20 years working as a migrant farm worker in Washington, Oregon and California, crossing back and forth following the harvests. But Cisneros’s life changed dramatically in […]