The United States has long been home to exclusionary immigration policies. Under the Trump administration, the hardline position that deems undocumented immigrants criminals defines immigration enforcement operations, with ICE calling the shots.
A new report documents the detrimental impact on families and communties brought about by the increased Border Patrol presence in the Olympic Peninsula area of Washington State. It also shows the importance and power of resistance to the Border Patrol's efforts to expand its geographical reach.
A former U.S. Border Patrol and ICE agent offers a perpective on immigration and boundary enforcement almost never heard of in the halls of power in the United States.
On August 30, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that deportations would continue to be "very robust." Why? Because of a recent federal decision to impose the controversial Secure Communities program on the entire country by 2013—a program, opponents say, that is tearing families apart.
Given the impossibility of U.S. drug interdiction efforts in the borderlands, the beauty of the drug war for those championing—and profiting from—its undertaking is that there can never be enough resources. In this regard, nothing succeeds like failure.
This NACLA audio interview with the Center for Biological Diversity looks at the myriad environmental and Native American heritage laws that the Department of Homeland Security waived in 2008 to construct 470 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. While environmental groups and Native Americans say that waiving these laws has done tremendous damage to ecological and human communities along the border, this law-waiving-fervor has gone in vogue in some sectors in Washington, all in the name of "securing our borders."
