Tag: mexico immigration

US Border Patrol Agents Are Passing Around a Commemorative Coin Mocking Care for Migrant Kids

The coin is part of a tradition of unofficial “challenge coins” which are common in the military and law enforcement as a way for members to celebrate achievements and build camaraderie.

An unofficial commemorative coin has been circulating among Border Patrol agents at the US-Mexico border, mocking the task of caring for migrant children and other duties that have fallen to agents as families cross into the US.

On the front, the coin declares “KEEP THE CARAVANS COMING” under an image of a massive parade of people carrying a Honduran flag — a caricature of the “caravan” from last fall, which started in Honduras and attracted thousands of people as it moved north. (While the caravan included many women and children, the only visible figures on the coin appear to be adult men.)

The coin’s reverse side features the Border Patrol logo and three illustrations: a Border Patrol agent bottle-feeding an infant; an agent fingerprinting a teen boy wearing a backwards baseball cap; and a US Border Patrol van. The text along the edge reads “FEEDING ** PROCESSING ** HOSPITAL ** TRANSPORT.”

The coin appears to poke fun at the fact that many border agents are no longer out patrolling and instead are now caring for and processing migrants — including families and children.

Government officials told ProPublica the coin was not approved or paid for by the government, unlike official “challenge coins” that go through an agency approval process. One Customs and Border Protection official, who was not authorised to give his name, characterised the coin as “something that somebody’s doing on their free time” – comparing it to woodworking. “A lot of the agents have little hobbies on the side, they build little wooden figures that they have at their homes,” the official said.

It’s not clear who created the coin or how widely it’s been circulated among border agents. But Border Patrol agents in California and Texas – on opposite ends of the US/Mexico border – had seen the coin circulated at their workplaces. One of the agents received a coin in April when a colleague brought several to pass around at the office; the other was shown an online order form for the coins by a colleague at work.

Also read: The Holes in Trump’s Immigration Policy and His Warped Conception of Borders

Both said the coins were promoted via the secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol officials that, as ProPublica recently detailed, included racist and violent posts.

The coin is part of a tradition of unofficial “challenge coins” – which generally outnumber official ones – which are common in the military and law enforcement as a way for members to celebrate achievements and build camaraderie.

But outside observers found this particular coin anything but harmless.

Theresa Cardinal Brown, who worked at CBP under the Bush and Obama administrations, said that the coin was evidence (like the 10-15 Facebook group) of “reflexive dehumanisation” by Border Patrol agents, and that the “tolerance for shenanigans” by supervisors and leadership had gone too far. “You have to say, ‘This is affecting the integrity and authority of us all.’”

The coin appears to have been designed, ordered and distributed months into the surge of Central American families at the border. Coins were being distributed to agents by late April, before the current wave of public attention and outrage over conditions for migrants in Border Patrol custody.

Customs and Border Protection officials said they did not know about the coin until contacted by ProPublica. They said they would investigate it for potential trademark violation since the coin includes the Border Patrol’s logo.

“US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has a firm policy on the use and production of challenge coins bearing CBP identifiers,” a CBP official said, including the US Border Patrol logo. “The coin in question is not an officially approved CBP coin. CBP intends to investigate the matter and will make a determination when all the facts are known.”

However, officials implied that if the coin had not used the official logo, it would be beyond their control. “If it’s something that somebody’s doing on their free time,” said the official who asked not to be named, it is not something the agency can control.

Detainees sleep in a holding cell at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility in Brownsville, Texas June 18, 2014. Photo: REUTERS/Eric Gay/Pool

Hector Garza of the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing Border Patrol agents, said he had not seen the coin either. When shown pictures of it by ProPublica, and in response to follow-up questions, he said, “I have no thoughts about the coin.”

Challenge coins have spread throughout the federal government, but are especially popular within Border Patrol. They depict individual offices or stations or particular missions. If official visitors come by to tour a station, a coin may be presented.

In this case, the “mission” being mockingly commemorated is the unprecedented amount of migrant care and processing Border Patrol agents did in the spring of this year.

Also read: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Describes ‘Horrifying’ Conditions at Texas Migrant Centre

Taking care of migrants (including children) in short-term custody is part of the Border Patrol’s job. When the intake system for migrant children is overwhelmed, as it was in 2014 and has been again in 2019, Border Patrol often holds children for longer than the 72 hours prescribed by the federal Flores settlement (a court agreement that governs the treatment of children in immigration custody), often in spaces not designed for children — or anyone.

In recent weeks the government has greatly reduced the number of children in Border Patrol custody, thanks in large part to funding from Congress that expanded the intake system’s capacity.

Some agents say that childcare and support have an opportunity cost: Any time an agent spends driving a van full of children to a child-only facility, for example, is time not spent “in the field” apprehending people who are trying to get away.

“Us caring for kids and families, that’s not the frustration,” Garza said. “Drugs coming into the country? That is a frustration. People with criminal records coming in and us not being able to catch them? That is a frustration.”

That tradeoff appears to be fueling the emotions expressed by the coin — with the back side depicting the tasks that agents must do instead of being out “on the line,” and the front side referring to the legal “loopholes” that make it harder to detain and deport migrants under 18 and families.

One Border Patrol agent, when asked about morale among agents detailed to care and transport, replied with a photo of a dumpster floating down a flooded river.

Dara Lind is a reporter at ProPublica.

This article was originally published on ProPublica.

Devastating Photo Shows Father, Daughter Drowned in Rio Grande on Mexico-US Border

Authorities found the bodies of 25-year-old Oscar Ramirez and his daughter Valeria on Monday, after a 12-hour search.


A photo of a drowned father and his two-year-old daughter at the US-Mexican border surfaced on Wednesday. The two died attempting to cross the Rio Grande that divides both countries.

The image, which showed the girl still holding on to her father, lying face-down in the water, was taken by journalist Julia Le Duc and published by Mexican newspaper La Jornada, and it has served to highlight the high-risk migrants face on the perilous journey to the US.

Authorities found the bodies of 25-year-old Oscar Ramirez and his daughter Valeria on Monday, after a 12-hour search. The mother, Tania Vanessa Avalos, who attempted to cross the river too and survived, recounted the tragic story to authorities and media outlets.

La Jornada reported that the family had been in Mexico for two months on a humanitarian visa they obtained at the Guatemalan border. On Sunday, they went to a point of entry to request asylum on the Mexican city of Matamoros, which borders the US city of Brownsville, on the easternmost part of the border.

Also Read: Migrant Children Relocated as US Border Agency Commissioner Resigns

As the Mexican border office was closed on Sundays, the family then set out on foot along the river, until they reached a point where they tried to cross. Frustration with the inability to process his family’s case appears to be what motivated the father to attempt the dangerous crossing.

Ramirez swam to the US side of the river bank of the river and left his daughter there, to head back to the Mexican side and help his wife cross. But the child jumped into the water as he was on his way.

The father rushed back, managing to grab his daughter and hold on to her, but a strong current swept them away.

A US border patrol agent looks over the Rio Grande river at the border between US and Mexico, in Roma, Texas, US, May 11, 2017. Credit: Reuters/Carlos Barria

‘The American dream’

Rosa Ramirez, the mother of the 25-year-old father of one, told the Salvadoran daily El Diario de Hoy that she begged the family not to leave, but could not get them to “give up their hopes of the American dream.”

“He put her in his shirt and I imagine he told himself: ‘I’ve come this far’ and decided to go with her,” the mother and grandmother told AP of her son’s final moments.

Her daughter Wendy Ramirez told El Diario de Hoy that her brother had grown anxious about the asylum case. “They said they were scared of how the situation of migrants was unfolding, under Trump’s pressure. That is why they decided to cross,” she said, adding that their original intention was to hand themselves over the US immigration authorities.

Just days before, US President Donald Trump had announced a plan of mass deportations, which he halted for two weeks, while he negotiated with Democrats the future of asylum policies. Since he was elected, Trump has focused on deterring migrant crossings, increasing deportations and generally lowering migration levels in the US.

Also Read: Is Cutting Central American Aid Going to Help Stop the Flow of Migrants?

The White House has not commented on the specific case of the Salvadoran family, but on Tuesday, Trump blamed Democrats for wanting “open borders” and said that migrants were flocking to the US because of its good economy.

El Salvador mourns

President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador expressed sorrow for the deaths and began procedures for repatriating the bodies. “Someday we will finish building a country where migrating will be an option, not an obligation,” Bukele said in a statement.

He acknowledged that poverty, a lack of opportunities, inequality and the desire to reunite with family, were factors driving many Salvadorans north.

In a press conference, foreign minister Alexandra called on local media outlets to do more to highlight the risks of emigrating. “I implore you to not expose your children and yourselves to this risk,” Hill said, in an appeal to her fellow citizens.

Also Read: Struggles, Not Protection, Greet Central American Refugees in Mexico

“We ask president Donald Trump to let president Nayib Bukele show that migration from this country will stop, but what has been going on for 20 years cannot be stopped in just two weeks,” she warned, adding that her country was working closely with the US Congress and with Mexico’s government to solve the crisis.

Mexico’s president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador lamented the death of Ramirez and his daughter during a daily press briefing on Monday, according to La Jornada.

But he cautioned that while authorities could legally stop migrants who seek to cross, he added that it was “not a legal issue.”

“We have to deter the migrant flow, but respecting human rights, focusing on the root causes,” Lopez Obrador said.

Deadly border crossing

According to the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a total of 283 migrant-crossing deaths were recorded at the border in 2018. The figures represent deaths that occur on the US side of the border, not those of the Mexican side, as was the case of the Ramirez family.

The highest number of deaths recorded from 1998 to 2018 was 471 in 2013. CBP’s data shows that the year with the lowest number of deaths on the border was 1999. As such, a clear trend is not discernible, as figures seem to rise and fall each year.

Much of the border is covered by desert and the Rio Grande. Many migrants attempt to cross the river, which is said to cover roughly 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) of the 1,933 miles of the border.

While it appears calm, the Rio Grande is a fast-moving river and through it flow dangerous currents. Migrants rights organisations say the number of deaths on the US border is higher than CBP’s data shows, as many go missing and statistics on the Mexican side are harder to come by.

This article was first published on DW.

Trump Warns Mexico on Migrant Caravan, Threatens to Close Border

Trump, who has made curtailing immigration and building a border wall on the Mexican border a key platform, has previously threatened to shut off aid and dispatch troops there.

Washington: President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would to deploy the US military and close the southern border if Mexico did not move to halt large groups of migrants headed for the United States from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

“I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught – and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Trump threatened to withhold regional aid as a caravan with several thousand Honduran migrants journeyed this week through Guatemala toMexico in hopes of crossing the US-Mexico border and escaping endemic violence and poverty in Central America.

The president also dispatched US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto in Mexico City on Friday.

Trump, who has made curtailing immigration and building a border wall on the Mexican border a key platform, has previously threatened to shut off aid and dispatch troops there.

In a string of tweets on Thursday, Trump also appeared to link the issue to trade and a newly minted deal with Mexico to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement pact that is awaiting ratification.

“The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA. Hopefully Mexico will stop this onslaught at their Northern Border,” Trump wrote, referring to the newest trade deal known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

(Reuters)

Mexico Votes for New President, Leftist Candidate Favoured to Win

Lopez Obrador has led opinion polls throughout the campaign and would be the first leftist to take the presidency in decades in Mexico if he ousts the ruling centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Mexico City: Mexicans vote for a new president on Sunday in an election tipped to hand power to an anti-establishment outsider who would inject a new dose of nationalism into government and could sharpen divisions with Donald Trump’s US.

Former Mexico City mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has led opinion polls throughout the campaign and would be the first leftist to take the presidency in decades in Mexico if he ousts the ruling centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Runner-up in the 2012 and 2006 elections, Lopez Obrador pitches himself as the only man capable of cleaning up a political class whose credibility has been ground down by persistent graft, soaring crime levels and years of sub-par economic growth.

“The new president of Mexico will have moral and political authority to demand everyone behaves with integrity and make honesty a priority as a way of life,” Lopez Obrador said in his campaign finale in a soccer stadium in the capital on Wednesday.

The law bars current President Enrique Pena Nieto from seeking re-election. But his popularity crumbled as his name became tainted by investigations into alleged conflicts-of-interest and embezzlement scandals engulfing top PRI officials.

Campaigning relentlessly around Mexico for the past 13 years, Lopez Obrador has watched political careers rise and fall as established parties were consumed by the country’s social and economic problems and the responsibility of power.

“Let’s hope Mexico changes,” said Oswaldo Angeles, 20, a Lopez Obrador supporter from Atlacomulco, a longstanding PRI bastion some 55 miles (90 km) from Mexico City and hometown of Pena Nieto. “Right now, we don’t know if we’re coming or going.”

Lopez Obrador, 64, has been vague on policy details. Seeking to harness support from economic nationalists, leftist liberals and social conservatives, he vows to reduce inequality, improve pay and welfare spending, as well as run a tight budget.

A vocal opponent of the government’s economic agenda, his criticism has been tempered by business-friendly aides.

But he has played with the idea of referendums to resolve divisive issues like whether to continue with Pena Nieto’s opening of the oil and gas industry to private capital.

His rivals Ricardo Anaya, an ex-leader of the centre-right National Action Party (PAN) heading a right-left alliance, and PRI candidate Jose Antonio Meade, a former finance minister, differ only in nuance in their support of the energy reform.

Their efforts to catch Lopez Obrador have been hampered by attacks on each other, allowing him to build a lead that some opinion polls have put in excess of 20 percentage points. They also represent the only two parties to have ruled modern Mexico.

Mannequins are seen in an exhibition inside National Electoral Institute (INE) headquarters ahead of the upcoming July 1 presidential election, in Mexico City, Mexico, June 30, 2018. Credit: Reuters/Daniel Becerril

Trump Threat

If victorious, Lopez Obrador faces a tougher security situation than did Pena Nieto. The election campaign has been the bloodiest in recent history and murders are at record highs.

The next president will also inherit a simmering dispute with US counterpart Donald Trump over migration and trade, with talks to rework the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) unresolved, pressuring Mexico’s peso currency.

Trump has threatened to pitch North America into a costly trade war over NAFTA, and his insistence that Mexico pay for his planned border wall has deeply angered many Mexicans.

Lopez Obrador has trodden carefully and wants to broker a deal with Trump under which Mexico would work to rein in illegal immigration in return for economic support.

If that proves impossible and Trump keeps provoking Mexico, few think the fiercely patriotic Lopez Obrador will stay silent.

How much heft Lopez Obrador can bring to bear both domestically and internationally will depend significantly on his control of Congress, where no party has held an outright majority since 1997 in Latin America’s no. 2 economy.

Polls suggest his National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), a party that has only existed formally since 2014, could be close to reaching a majority. However, markets may react negatively if voters give him too free a hand in Congress.

Lopez Obrador has been a divisive figure in Mexico since bringing much of the capital to a standstill for weeks with massive demonstrations to protest his 2006 election loss.

His commanding poll lead this time around has led analysts to question how deep-rooted the support really is.

“There’s a sense of poor old (Lopez Obrador), he’s not had a go yet, it’s his turn. We may as well give it a shot,” said Sofia Lara, 25, a graphic designer in Mexico City backing Anaya.

(Reuters)