Migrant Stories
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 […]
Border Wall
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 […]
Border Wall
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 […]
Border Wall
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 […]
Border Wall
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 […]
Border Wall
“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
The border wall, first built as a barbed wire fence in 1911 to restrict cattle crossing, visible for miles in the distance. […]
Migrant Stories
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 / Jacumba
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.
Migrant Stories
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 […]