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Congressional Staff Visit the AZ Border |
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Martes 08 de Septiembre de 2009 15:12 |
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From August 24-26th a group of staff from key Congressional offices and committees toured the Arizona-Sonora border to get a better understanding of the complexities of border communities and border policy. Staff came from Senators Bennet and Udall’s office, Congressman Becerra’s and from the House Judiciary Committee, as well as from the National Immigration Forum, Catholic Charities and Pikes Peak Collaborative of Colorado. The trip had a profound impact on people who critical to shaping immigrant and border policy.
In a non-stop, three-day schedule the group got both big picture and the details of the issues and solutions for border communities and border policy. They started out with presentations on the history of the Arizona-Sonora border region and on U.S. and global economic policy and how it contributes to the need to migrate. With that foundation established, we proceeded on to a border economic development summit hosted by McDonald’s, the Arizona-Mexico Commission and others. The summit participants, who included Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, emphasized the importance of efficient and effective ports of entry.
We then met with the Tubac, Amado and Green Valley members of the Coalition for a Safe and Secure Border who not only hosted a wonderful dinner at a member’s ranch in Amado, but also presented on their concerns and alternatives to the Border Patrol’s proposed permanent checkpoint on I-19.
The following day we met with the Pima County Medical Examiner who described the harsh realities of being the office that receives, tries to identify and stores the hundreds of bodies of men, women and children who lose their life attempting to enter the United States through the Arizona desert. From there, we trekked out to Arivaca to witness some of the paths taken by migrants and to meet with staff of the Sky Island Alliance, Defenders of Wildlife and Sierra Club who talked about the disastrous border wall and its economic toll and environmental destruction.
Back at the Rex Ranch in Amado (our beautiful home of our participants for two nights) we met with Douglas Police Chief Alberto Melis, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Toni Estrada and Tucson Police Chief Roberto Villasenor who spoke about their opposition and concerns with 287g agreements and the importance of working effectively with the community. The law enforcement leaders were joined by Professor Raymond Michalowski who presented recent research looking at immigrants and crime rates based on citizenship and length of time in the country. Finally, Vicki Gaubeca of the ACLU in New Mexico presented on some of their concerns with the 287g agreements between immigration and local law enforcement and Operation Stonegarden, a Dept of Homeland Security grant program for local law enforcement.
The final day of the trip included spending the morning with the Border Patrol and ICE in Nogales, Arizona. Border Patrol provided a tour of their facility and operations while ICE tried to showcase their newly announced interior repatriation program (flying groups of migrants twice daily to Mexico City as a means to prevent them from quickly attempting to re-enter the U.S. after they’ve been detained by immigration authorities). This stop was eye-opening –the Border Patrol holding facility was filthy, detained women were crying, an ICE-contracted Wackenhutt employee yelled at newly arrived migrants about to searched, and detained men said they’d been held at the “short-term” facility for more than 30 hours in spite of us just being told that no one is at the facility for more than 12.
Immediately afterward, the delegation headed up to Tucson to meet with a group Arizona experts in the realm of detention and deportation who helped dissect the mornings activities in legal terms, describing the patterns, trends, challenges and recommendations for improvement in detention, deportation and operation streamline.
To send off the participants, Border Action members held a final event in which committee leaders from Douglas, Sierra Vista, Nogales, and throughout Pima County gathered at Southside Presbyterian Church. Members shared personally testimonies about the urgent need to reform immigration for the benefit of Arizona, the economy, for families, and the community as a whole. Arizona members representing the faith community (Mark Adams, Delle McCormick, Randy Mayer) of the US-Mexico Border and Immigration Task Force presented concrete recommendations for border policy.
And off they went, back to DC! The participants found the trip eye-opening and reshaped and expanded their understanding of the border. Linking this experience to the upcoming debate on immigration policy reform, the participants recommended that we organize another trip to bring out House and Senate Judiciary Committee staff asap. Those two committees are the first to shape bill language so their understanding of border policy and border communities is crucial. We’re taking that recommendation into consideration –if we can pull together the resources in time to do it, you’ll be hearing more about it!
Educational trips like this one, which directly link policy makers to the experiences of our communities and the policy recommendations we’re putting on the table, couldn’t happen without your support. Please contribute today to ensuring that we can bring the voices and solutions of/from the border directly to Washington, DC!
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