Secret Deaths of Dozens at Privatized Immigrant-Only Jails

"This Man Will Almost Certainly Die": The Secret Deaths of Dozens at Privatized Immigrant-Only Jails

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/2/9/this_man_will_almost_certainly_die

Democracy Now, Feb 9, 2016

A shocking new investigation about private prisons has revealed dozens of men have died in disturbing circumstances inside these facilities in recent years. The investigation published in The Nation magazine documents more than 100 deaths at private, immigrant-only prisons since 1998. The investigation’s author, Seth Freed Wessler, spent more than two years fighting in and out of court to obtain more than 9,000 pages of medical records that private prison contractors had submitted to the Bureau of Prisons. We speak to Wessler about his piece, "This Man Will Almost Certainly Die."

40 percent of the people inside of these prisons are incarcerated for the criminal offense of crossing over the border. In the early '90s, 4,000 people were prosecuted criminally for crossing over the border. By 2013, at the peak of these prosecutions under the Obama administration, 91,000 people were prosecuted criminally for illegal entry or illegal re-entry, for crossing the border—something we usually think of as a civil offense. You know, usually, people are detained and deported as a result of crossing the border without papers. But we've started to incarcerate, sometimes for years, tens of thousands of people.

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/2/9/this_man_will_almost_certainly_die

Migrantes Centroamericanos

Caravan of Mothers of Disappeared Migrants
Movimiento Migrante Mesoamericano, Americas Program, 10 / December / 2015

It is estimated that there are between 70,000 and 120,000 migrants missing in transit in Mexico since 2006. There are no reliable statistics that determine their quantity. The puny official figures reflect that the families of the disappeared lack the resources or migration documents to come to Mexico and file formal reports in the public ministries, which are the only door to the official registry system and cannot be considered even remotely adequate. These estimates are based on the second Special Report on Kidnapping of Migrants in Mexico by the National Human Rights Commission, published in February 2011 that counted 214 kidnappings with a total of 11,333 victims in only six months.

http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/17946


Deportation, Detention and Abuse on the U.S.-Guatemala Border
By Laura Carlsen. Americas Program, Sept 8, 2015

Mexico’s southern border has become the line of contention of the most powerful country in the world. The victims of this extraterritorial policy are Central American migrants who cross every day, seeking to save their lives and their families from the violence and hunger plaguing their countries. They try to arrive to USA, but the Mexican Migra stop them.

Centroamericanos en Mexico: de migrantes a refugiados
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2015/10/21/politica/005n1pol

Deportados "repatriados" a Mex 2014 vs Mojados y Deportados de Mex 2014. http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2015/10/17/politica/012n1pol

More Mexicans Leaving the U.S. than Entering

More Mexicans Leaving the U.S. than Entering. 
Aljazeera, Dec 4, 2015

Is Mexican Immigration to the U.S. a Thing of the Past? Mexican Immigration Is Going South. More Mexicans Leaving the U.S. than Entering. But why?  

https://www.facebook.com/ajplusenglish/videos/652337551574422/?fref=nf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q9H1n_-EKE

Border Patrol Brutality

Francisco Ceceña, December 2014
Protest Along Mexico Border for Man Who Died While in CBP Custody

Doris Quintanilla- Protesters rallied along the San Ysidro Port of Entry Saturday afternoon, demanding justice for the man who died while in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody on Christmas Eve. Community members and relatives of 40-year-old Francisco Cesena held up signs and chanted in front of the Port of Entry. His mother and best friend were among those present. NBC San Diego, Jan 10, 2015

Family of Man Who Died in CBP Custody Creates Quilt

Brooke Martell- A man who died after being tased by U.S. Border Patrol agents in San Ysidro is being remembered through the creation of a quilt panel. The family of Francisco Cesena will create a quilt to represent their loved one and 170 others in order to raise awareness about border militarization and accountability. CBS San Diego, April 21, 2015

Protestan en garitas contra asesinato de mexicano

Mexicali, 26 de octubre.- En las garitas de Calexico (Mexicali) y San Ysidro (Tijuana) activistas en apoyo de migrantes protestaron contra la forma de actuar de la Patrulla Fronteriza y exigieron justicia por la muerte de Miguel Ángel Galeana a manos de un agente estadunidense, quien le disparó por supuestamente sentirse amenazado. La Jornada de Baja California, 27 Nov 2015

No One is Illegal - Me dicen el ilegal.html

Outsourcing a Refugee Crisis: U.S. Paid Mexico Millions to Target Central Americans Fleeing Violence.

Democracy Now, October 13, 2015

As immigration has become a key issue on the campaign trail, we look at a startling new report that finds "the United States has outsourced a refugee problem to Mexico that is similar to the refugee crisis now roiling Europe." In her New York Times opinion piece, "The Refugees at Our Door," Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sonia Nazario describes how the Obama administration is paying the Mexican government to keep people from reaching the U.S. border—people who often have legitimate asylum claims. We speak to Nazario about the harrowing stories she heard from Central American refugees in shelters in southern Mexico.

Remesas ganan a petroleo y turismo

Remesas ganan a petroleo y turismo

Las remesas se consolidaron como una de las principales fuentes de divisas para el país, arriba de la exportación de petróleo y la llegada de turistas extranjeros, en un momento en que la migración hacia Estados Unidos comenzó a crecer nuevamente después de varios años de permanecer prácticamente sin cambio, de acuerdo con información divulgada este jueves por el Banco de México y analistas privados. http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2015/10/02/economia/023n1eco

Deported to Mexico: a lost generation

Nina Lakhani. The Guardian, Sun 17 May 2015


At least 500,000 young people, whose Mexican parents illegally crossed into the United States, have been forced back across the border, often knowing nothing of their new home. Nina Lakhani meets some of those they call the ‘dreamers’

For the children of undocumented Mexican migrants in the United States, life demands secrecy. They learn to navigate between the two cultures while hiding their illegal status – all the while praying for immigration reform. Their Mexican memories – if they remember at all – are replaced by American dreams. After a few years, they often feel, look and sound so American, they can forget that, in the eyes of the law, they are aliens.

But they are, and they can be arrested at any moment. At least 500,000 young adults who grew up in the US have been deported or have decided to return to Mexico in the past decade. For many it is akin to arriving in a foreign country for the second time, but this time they lack a child’s ability to acclimatise. For years, little was known about what happened to these youngsters, but a picture is now emerging of a well-educated, bilingual, bicultural group whose traumas and talents are being ignored. This is in part due to groups trying to raise awareness of their plight. One such network is Los Otros Dreamers – the Other Dreamers. The name is a reference to the young migrants who would benefit from the Dream Act, a US bill first introduced in 2001, but still not passed, which would have paved the way to citizenship for those brought to the US as children.

Las Patronas: The Mexican women helping migrants

The Romero Vazquez sisters have been helping migrants for almost two decades

Will Grant, BBC Mundo, 31 July 2014

Nineteen years ago, the Romero Vazquez sisters were standing at the side of the railway tracks with their grocery bags, waiting to cross.

Little did they know that the approaching train would change their lives.

"We'd gone to buy bread and milk for breakfast," Norma Romero remembers, nodding towards a small yellow store on the other side of the tracks.

"As it came past, a group of people on one of the wagons shouted at us: 'Madre, we're hungry'. Then another group passed by and shouted the same thing: 'Madre, we're hungry'."

"So we threw them our bread, and then our cartons of milk."

That simple, instinctive act of kindness by the young girls was to lead to the creation of Las Patronas, a charitable organisation which has helped tens of thousands of Central American migrants over the past two decades and which was awarded Mexico's most prestigious human rights prize last year.

The village of La Patrona lies in an otherwise forgettable corner of the eastern state of Veracruz…

United Nations Report on International Migration 2013

United Nations Report on International Migration 2013

The number of international migrants worldwide reaches 232 million- The number of international migrants world-wide reaches an all-time high. In 2013, the number of international migrants worldwide reached 232 million, up from 175 million in 2000 and 154 million in 1990. Between 1990 and 2000, the international migrant stock grew by an average of 1.2 per cent per year. During the period from 2000 to 2010, the annual growth rate accelerated, reaching 2.3 per cent. Since then, however, it has slowed, falling to around 1.6 per cent per year during the period from 2010 to 2013. In 2013, 136 million international migrants lived in the North, while 96 million resided in the South (figure 1). Since 1990, the share of international migrants living in the developed regions has increased. In 2013, the North2 hosted 59 per cent of all international migrants; up from 53 per cent in 1990.

United Nations Report on International Migration 2013

Life in the Deportee Slums of Mexico

Life in the Deportee Slums of Mexico

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWjsCts1Jpg

Vice News, Jun 5, 2013, video, 32 min.

About 40 percent of Mexican immigrants deported from the US are sent back through Tijuana. Many of the deported border crossers have established a makeshift shantytown inside a dry, concrete riverbed where the Tijuana River once flowed—called El Bordo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWjsCts1Jpg