▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ⟶
Just a few hours south of Tucson, on the other side of the border, there’s a quiet, dusty Mexican town called Sásabe. The streets are empty, the pavement rutted in places, overcome by the sandy earth in others. Like countless towns along the border, Sásabe feels less like a place where people are born, grow up, live, work, marry and raise children; and more like a way station, a place designed for an itinerant population of migrants and would-be border crossers. Somewhere to rest. A place to buy water and food. A place to consider the journey thus far, and prepare for the trials to come. At midday the heat is blinding. After dark, the desert is cold and unforgiving. There are few shops or restaurants, and no identifiable center of town. Sásabe long ago gave in to the reality of its unfortunate location. Everything feels temporary, and one imagines that the houses themselves could pack up and go, if they were called upon. There’s an image: This cluster of anonymous, dun-colored buildings trudging north across the scrub brush. Of course they would stop at the wall because Sásabe’s defining feature is the border fence, rising to the north, marking the town’s beginning and its unfortunate end.
In fact, the border fence is the only construction in Sásabe that feels remotely permanent.
The offices of Grupo Beta sit on Calle Primera, not far from the border. There’s no number on the building, but you wouldn’t need it in a town this small. I visited there in September 2011, a few days after a rare heavy rain. The desert had responded with a tentative dash of color — a blooming cactus here, a hint of green or red there. It wasn’t much, not renewal exactly, but the suggestion of it; but even so the landscape and its muted palette felt suddenly full of possibility. I mention this because when I think of Grupo Beta, I think of them first as a color. The employees, three of them the day I showed up, wore bright orange jump suits, a vaguely space-age uniform, as if their mission were a dress rehearsal for a trip to a distant planet. There’s something in that, of course, an echo of interstellar travel in their work: Grupo Beta was founded by the Mexican government in the 1990s to help migrants. They provide counsel, aid, refuge. But, as the workers explained to me that day, their primary task isn’t to help migrants cross. Instead, they’d been dropped on this Sonoran moonscape to dissuade them. To tell them: No. It’s not worth it. Turn back and head home. For migrants who accept the advice, Grupo Beta offers subsidized, one-way bus tickets back to their homes.
The centerpiece of the sparsely furnished Grupo Beta office was a map of the Sonoran desert. It included roads and highways, towns along the Arizona border, but this map wasn’t a guide for border crossers. If anything, it was posted there as a warning. The map was dotted with crosses, one for each body that had been found since the office had been opened. There were dozens upon dozens. This was Grupo Beta’s message to the migrants.
Did it work? I asked.
Not really.
Imagine, the Grupo Beta workers told me: You’ve come from El Salvador, or Honduras. Or Chiapas. You’re running from something — crippling poverty, the narcos, the maras and their homicidal violence. Corruption. A broken heart. A failed marriage. Or you’re running toward something: You have family on the other side of that wall, a future that feels so close it no longer requires much imagining. Its shape is visible to you: green lawns and suburban houses, or vast cities dense with women and work and money waiting to be spent. You’ve left your home. You’ve survived The Beast. You’ve been robbed, you’ve been extorted, you’ve been beaten or raped, and you’re here now. You’ve come so far. The finish line is in sight.
Or at least that’s what it feels like.
To those people, the orange-clad workers told me — to these migrants, those crosses in the desert don’t mean anything. They don’t seem real. How do you convince men and women who’ve risked everything and fear nothing that they can’t keep simply walking?
You can’t. But you tell them anyway, knowing that they’ll be on their way at dusk, knowing some of them will end up as crosses to add to the map.
—
Since 2001, at least 2,600 migrants have died while attempting the perilous crossing from Mexico into Arizona. Each circle in the interactive visualization below corresponds to the known location of someone’s death.
Interactive: A visualization of migrant deaths in Arizona, 2001-2016. Data courtesy of Humane Borders and Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner.
Josh Begley
Text by Daniel Alarcón. Data visualization by Josh Begley. Alarcón is the author of At Night We Walk in Circles and executive producer of Radio Ambulante. He teaches at Columbia University’s School of Journalism.
I don’t see what the problem is. The people who are trying to cross this section of desert are criminal elements. Look at the justice system in mexico. Not a few years back 97% of the 30k+ homicides went unsolved in ALL of mexico, not just cartel regions. When these people commit a crime, to the states is where they head and through the sonoran desert. This is common knowledge. The fact that they are dying there is good, less of that filth in our country.
The hateful, ignorant xenophobes come crawling out of the bushes to spew their nasty stupidity on stories like this.
Here’s ^^^ another one.
I wonder if they would be so bold if they were required to use their real identities.
Do you anyone who has illegally crossed into the us? I do. I’ll tell you about one of them. His name is Cisco, or Pancho. He crossed the desert when he was 8, with his immediate family. They had zero money and his parents were looking to give their children a chance at life. Pancho is now 38. He was “illegal” until two years ago. He was not allowed to go back to see family in Mexico, wasn’t able to travel in the us, until he became a citizen. How did he become a citizen? He married a Jewish girl here where I live and they have a beautiful five year old daughter. All three are American and I’m proud to be his friend. Not all immigrants are who you think. Stop listening to trump.
Where are you getting these figures and your idea of per capita from, anyway? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate If someone kills people in Mexico, their first idea isn’t “let me run to America”. The gross majority of immigrants, especially ‘illegal’ immigrants (and yeah I wonder when anybody read that ‘Statue of Liberty’ statement recently or thought about how THEIR families were immigrants) come to the US to try to chase the idea of an American Dream that generally doesn’t exist (anymore… I suspect at various times it did to varying degrees up until around not long after the end of WW2/mid-20th Century when the wage split went haywire). The fact that almost every one I’ve met has worked harder than most people whose ancestors have been here for a century or two also speaks volumes. Like Mike, I’ve met and known a lot of people who came here seeking freedom, who know more about America than most ‘Americans’, who work harder and care more about this country than many Americans, and who want, more than anything, for America to be great. So there’s that. But hey, let me know when you’re living 6 people to a one-bedroom apartment while working 80 hours a week for about 3 dollars under the table and sending 2/3rds of that back to your relatives in another country so that they won’t starve to death. But of course you’ll say they’re taking your jobs — despite the fact that many places would very much like to pay documented workers, but noone wants those jobs, and if they do they only manage to last a few days to a few weeks.
Life is hard for all of us. Why do you think you’re so special? Because someone said so and you got lucky in a geographical, genetic, and/or socioeconomic/political lottery (for now)?
What crimes is it you think these people do? Because the ones I’ve known have gone out of their way to live MORE legally than others so they WON’T get tossed out after having been discovered accidentally by INS.
*Should have read 3 dollars per hour under the table, not 3 dollars (for 80 hours) obviously.
An easy fix for illegal immigration and excess legal immigration
• Build a triple layer wall along the U.S./Mexico border with ground sensors to detect tunneling.
• Freeze all immigration into the U.S. until we get our house in order.
• Revoke all visas and give each alien $5,000.00 to go home.
• Give each “Illegal Alien” $10,000.00 to go home.
• Give each “Permanent Resident Alien,” “Resident Alien Permit Holder,” and “Green Card Holder” $20,000.00 to go home.
• Give each person in the U.S. with “dual citizenship” $40,000.00 to renounce their U.S citizenship and go home.
• Suspend all Visa programs including the business (visa category B-1), tourism, pleasure or visiting (visa category B-2), or a combination of both purposes (B-1/B-2) until the Biometric Exit Tracking system is complete and verified to be 98% accurate.
• End the Diversity Visa lottery
• End the Visa Waiver Program
• End the Family Unification Program
Every year the US bureau-rats give approximately 40 BILLION of the taxpayer money to our enemies. Use that money to the wall and protect Americans.
Why stop there? What figure do you think makes sense to pay people to get irreversibly sterilized so they can’t reproduce? Or reimburse people we don’t want to reproduce after declaring they need to be sterilized for the betterment of this fine country we claim cares about ‘freedom’?
While we’re at it why don’t we just send everyone back to where their relatives are from because only the Native Americans have any actual claim to this land. Actually Mexicans have far more of a right to this land than Europeans. So there’s that little logic problem.
Maybe Mexcio should build some sort of safety barrier to keep there citizens safe.
My god, the scope of the death toll is staggering. Clicking on the interactive and scrolling through the images felt much like seeing the names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in D.C. You knew about the death toll in an abstract sense, but seeing it all laid out in front of you like that…
As has been said, down with NAFTA. And while I support human rights, I am adamantly against mass immigration. From coast to coast, America is being invaded (I use that word because it more than applies). American’s think its just their region, but its not, its everywhere. I don’t want America to turn into another Mexico, I like the diversity we have, and it is being destroyed.
I don’t on the whole blame the migrants, though they certainly have a role in this, for the most part this is Washington, working to undermine the middle class and the unity of the people, and its working.
To be clear, I am not saying anything about busing anyone or building a mythical wall, the ONLY answer, which is why the media/politicians never mention it, is work place enforcement. Lock up a few businesses that hire illegals, and watch the problem fix itself. Oh, and absolutely get rid of the ludicrous “anchor baby” bull shit law. The 14th amendment to the Constitution was written to insure slaves would bear US citizens, not provide a path to citizenship for illegals having children. Only Zionist Washington DC could create such a destruction interpretation of such a well meaning law.
“I don’t want America to turn into another Mexico. . .”
Yeah, well, the Mexicans didn’t want the Americans to cook up a war of aggression to steal half of their country . . . but we did.
As I pointed out just below, “Nosotros no cruzamos la frontera, la frontera nos cruzó a nosotros” is the absolute truth.
LOL, ah the hypocrisy of the American hater. Mexico was no saint, so come on down from the Cross. I am so sick of the anti American bastards who can’t have an honest discussion without bringing up history we cannot change. Mexico has its history of oppression as well.
But the people of today ARE NOT leagally or morally responsable for the crimes of the past, that is established law, in about every nation, so get over it.
Now, as for TODAY, American, LIKE MEXICO have every right to their laws and to enforce those laws, REGARDLESS of what someone did 100 years ago.
Your type of ignorance and anti-US citizens is counterproductive and pointless. Unless you want to hold every person, every religion and every nation accountable for their past MEXICO included, move the on!
I remember some Mexican in Minnesota no less telling me about Arizona, too bad I went to School in Arizona and reminded him of the atrocities brought upon the native people of Arizona by Mexicans…he knew nothing but his one anti American line, fed to him by the Zionist media…
I think you’ve exposed yourself sufficiently that we can leave it for others to decide what sort of human and what sort of “American” you are.
So now you make it personal, I am not allowed to have an alternate opinion, otherwise the Nazi PC police will judge me. You sound like a real neo-liberal yourself. Like controlling other people opinions eh? Who are you to “judge”?
Suffice it to say, I am nothing like you, thank God, I don’t criticize a nation for the evils of its governemnt, and I don’t bias my opinions based on national origin. Your a hypocrite, Americans have been subjected to zionist propaganda, telling us we have no right to borders or a language, similarly in Europe, form your same ilk.
I don’t give a dam what “others” think, morality and justice are NOT subject to popularity. Your ilk whines for the troubles of the Latinos, yet ignores the challenges and hardships it delivers upon the America native population. Your disgusting, because you think yourself moral, but you are a racist through and through, and yet think yourself righteous. So, hate Americans, hate yourself, but instead of attacking a person, like a true zionist, try attacking the idea, its the first step on a long road to mutual respect, if that is possible.
I’m sorry and how long was that “stolen” land part of Mexico? How many Mexicans actually lived there? As opposed to now when there are millions of Mexican nationals living there? And which Mexico are we talking about here? Spain, France, The Mexican Empire, the very brief Republic, the dictatorship of Santa Anna that most Mexico rebelled against. No one wanted to be part of Mexico. If that land had remained Mexico, Mexicans would just have to travel that much further to flee Mexico. And exactly how does your anti-free trade ethos work with open borders anyways?
Thieves often have excuses for their thefts. One of the silliest is to argue about the political identity of the victim of the theft. Another is to argue, “since we stole it a long time ago and we’re better people than the ones we stole from, it’s all OK.”
You have a serious ethics problem.
“And exactly how does your anti-free trade ethos work with open borders anyways?”
Ummm. . . labor should be as mobile as capital. Back to the books with you.
OK “Salzmann”, thanks for your continued useless analysis. “Thieves” yet you don’t site president as to what laws punish the children for the great great great grandparents crimes? There is none.
As for “ethics”, you seem not to be able to square the harm done to Americans by this illegal mass migration, so you simply ignore it…if that is what you call “ethics”, you belong in Washington, with the rest of the traitors.
And since when is “labor mobile”, and who are you to define what is and it not acceptable, anti democratic are we, “you know best Mr/Mrs Central planning/banking” (your a real EU propagandist aren’t you). Your a self-righteous ignoramus, who thinks you can bully your way past your nonsensical excuse for morality.
You have not made one cogent argument, just ad hominem attacks, which add nothing to the discussion. I can, and did back up my ideas, and you responded like a true neo-liberal zionist, ignore the facts and the rights of the citizens, then dictate YOUR version of morality. Your a piece of work. Your time has come and gone. Try your misplaced guilt on someone else.
Just pointing out that Mexico was basket case of a country and that the mostly uninhabited land traded hands on paper many times before the present. You won’t find many acres on earth that haven’t been “stolen” at one point.
So why are you griping about NAFTA, which was a Mexican plan from the beginning?
Well said, I lived in Arizona and many of the people of Latino and Indian decent were not fans of the thousands coming across the border, for reasons unique each person. But I quickly learned (I also went to school at the UofA) that history of the South west was not as neat and clean as the liberals in Washington would have us believe (I am a liberal, just not one that hates myself).
Mr Salzmann, and his ilk rely on American’s ignorance of history, so they fill in the blanks for them. And the US corporate media is all too happy to assist in the misinformation. I am NO fan of the US government, but the people of the US have been under constant manipulation and conditioning for decades, and that is incontrovertible. We have been pit against each other, right vs left, male vs female, all to distract us, while the fox was in the hen-house (or White House as the case may be).
We are heading into dangerous times, when you have millions upon millions of “foreign speaking” peoples who are being educated/manipulated into believing their hosts stole from them, it is only a mater of time, and numbers till you start to have serious social unrest. I don’t believe this is by accident, but by design, and “Salzmann” is the tool to which they limit our ability to have an honest discussion, for just like support for Israel is automatically classified as “anti-Semitic”, this is all about manipulation against one’s own national interests, on a grand scale.
Tj- what if you weren’t so lucky to be born here? What if your family had little to eat and even less options to work? What if your only chance at a real life was in another country? Would you risk everything to give your children hope? Would you do something illegal to make sure your 8 year old could learn how to read and write? Or at the very least not have said 8 year have to step over dead bodies on the way to his soccer game on a dirt field. It’s called empathy. And it’s a human trait. I feel horrible for the shitty life you must lead. I have empathy for you, you should try it out on others.
As a non-expert on the issues of immigration and US border crossing, as well as a foreigner, I have found the following helpful:
A docu-fiction: Who is Dayani Cristal?, see: http://whoisdayanicristal.com/
and a documentary available free on line: Harvest of Empire, see: http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/harvest_of_empire
Oh please, another bla bla bla about the poor immigrants from Mexico, and the evil Americans. NEWS FLASH, the US governemnt does NOT represent the will of the American people, no more than does the Mexican governemnt represents the will of the Mexican people. But the haters will hate. You seem to have unlimited sympathy for those sneaking into America to take advantage of the jobs and benefits (while the lying Zionist media focuses on individual immigrant use of benefits, and say, look ” fewer Latinos use benefits, the native Americans”, but when you look at HOUSE HOLDS, suddenly a different picture emerges, the vast majority of Latino immigrant house holds get governemnt assistance (primarily because of anchor babies).
How about a documentary about the devastation to the American middle and especially lower class?! You wont find that because the powers that be love immigration, cheap labor and adds to social instability.
I wish to God you immigration bleeding hearts would share some of your empathy to the millions of African American and white folks who have no power (voting is a joke and you know it) to change anything, yet pay the price for YOUR altruism.
You might be interested in this. It’s close to home. Ma
Here is something for people who don’t understand immigrant motivation and have no sympathy for their plight to listen to:
Calle 13 Pa’l Norte (English / Spanish translation with introductory commentary)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qZGbf7kAYtY
Down with NAFTA!
That 2 deaths a day – day in and day out, over 15 years.
Yet we still have over 30 million illegals in America, sounds actually rather low. A whole lot more people die from Mexican gang violence in America.
TJ, please understand that most of the deaths inside Mexico come from violence exerted by the drug cartels… which are kept well fed and well armed from the millions of USA drug users, from many different levels; form the poor drug junkies to the many hi-earning, well paid ones.
I just love all the self-righteous nonsense about Mexicans and other Latinos “invading our country.”
The truth is that the US started a war of aggression by annexing the Mexican territory of Texas and then, by defeating a much weaker Mexican military, seized and occupied about half of the total territory of Mexico.
All of Utah, Nevada, and California, along with parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Wyoming were seized by the victorious US.
The war was enormously popular in much of the US, with Americans rushing to join the army (we Murkans have always love our wars). It was less popular in New England, where many were suspicious of a war that would result in adding another slave state to the Union. Henry David Thoreau’s famous refusal to pay a local tax was in opposition to this war and his famous essay, “On Civil Disobedience,” was an effort to encourage others to resist it.
Congressman Joshua Reed Giddings, of Ohio, called it “a war against an unoffending people . . . for the purpose of conquest; with a design of extending slavery . . . I will not bathe my hands in the blood of the people of Mexico.”
Ulysses S. Grant, fought in the Mexican war, but called it, “one of the most unjust ever waged on a weaker country by a stronger.”
So, when you hear, Hispanics say, “Nosotros no cruzamos la frontera, la frontera nos cruzó a nosotros,” believe it. It’s true.
And I have bad news for all of you jingoist xenophobes: You’re losing, big time. Here in California, we’ve had an Hispanic plurality for the past couple of years and it’s only going to get better (well, worse for the haters).
Sugiero fuertemente que usted y sus hijos a aprender a hablar y entender un poco de español. Se le servirá bien.
“The truth is that the US started a war of aggression by annexing the Mexican territory of Texas and then, by defeating a much weaker Mexican military, seized and occupied about half of the total territory of Mexico.”
South Carolina born President James Knox Polk (may he burn in hell) intentionally provoked the war by crossing the Nueces River (the border) and stopping at the Rio Grande (farther south), in order to expropriate over half of Mexico’s land and therebye create additional Slave States.
THAT according to Ulysses S. Grant (who along with General Robert E. Lee participated in the invasion), led directly to the US Civil War.
Some Americans wanted to annex ALL of Mexico but that would have meant giving US citizenship to Mexican Nationals and was ruled out for that reason.
Why aren’t these indisputable facts included in United States History classes?
“Why aren’t these indisputable facts included in United States History classes?”
Oh, you know why: because, as the kidz say on the Internet, it wouldn’t fit the narrative — of the Land of the Free, the Home of the Brave and the Protector of the Free World™.
Why should we feel bad that economic migrants are dying trying to breach the sovereign borders of the United States? They’re criminals. Let them live and work in their home countries throughout Central America. America is for Americans – and legal immigrants – only.
“Why should we feel bad that economic migrants are dying trying to breach the sovereign borders of the United States?”
Why? You ask why?
Nota bene: The above may have limited application to carbon units who have lost their humanity.
I kind of have this “joke” saying that if you want to understand how evil America is right now, look at Mexico. It’s disturbing and shows the underlying deep inequalities that any nation or business must expect to experience when dealing with Americans. Mexico doesn’t sit there shining next to its dazzling partner, does it? It’s shit, corrupt, full of desperation and crime, hopelessly embroiled in being the arsewiper of America, providing an endless stream of skivvies and whores and thugs and drug dealers. Yip-di-do for Mexico, living next door to hedonistic psychopaths.
Maybe when Trump builds a good enough fence,these migrants will give up,return home,and right their prospective nations instead of being surrender monkeys to the Caudillo.
Their best and brightest will not brain drain their nation into complete misery and will not leave their fellow citizens in harms way.
See how easy it is,the truth?
Open borders,and national divide and conquer is on page 693,paragraph 47 of the US Constitution.(lie)
Kudos on this superb piece.
Imagine, you’ve come from Peru or Guatemala. A Canadian firm came and said all roads lead to Topolobampo. You just have to get to the Santa Rita’s first.
Fight for your World.
Not your Country!
Not to diminish the tragedy of migration deaths which itself is really bad, the planet has a more serious problem – and it is not migration deaths. Migration deaths are a symptom of the problem. If you want to solve a problem, it is futile to keep patching the symptoms. Making an issue of the symptoms should not be the impetus for patchwork but a wake-up call to see, tackle, and solve the underlying problem.
Blaming anyone moreso than the root cause is a con. Say someone has a fear of pitbills. Big fear. And you put that person and the pitbull together in close quarters. And the person immediately kills the pitbill. You are going to blame the person? Or are you going to blame that which put the two together?
Efforts should be greater and focused on the root problem. And absolutely every medical professional knows this. It is called EPIDEMIOLOGY.
Grupo Beta? Founded and supported by the mexican gov? swell.
Epidqemiology is the study of pattern of health disease. Yes, the US overlloks itself as being the beginning of a pattern of many evil patterns. This is what is meant whe US leaders say “we have a right to defend US interests overseas” which is toally wrong because once overseas, or outofcountry, it does not belong to you, and yes– just like in kindergarten you must share! Not sure about your analogy to pitbulls except the US has forced its people to live with them, and the people thinking they get rid of dog will get rid of problem? Think there might be a better way of saying it.
The people who migrate these days are NOT Mexican. They are coming from Central America, and they are fleeing horrific violence perpetrated on their nations and their people by a U.S. funded drug cartel. They have also had their entire economies destroyed, again, by U.S tactics. Most of them are children, fleeing villages that are war torn by drug wars, gang wars, and puppets place into power, again, by the U.S. They are not economic refugees, they are war refugees.
Just like cities destroyed and terrorized by ISIS, the Central Americans havae roads lined with heads of decapitated people who, for pretty much any reason, displeased the Cartels or the gangs.
Coming to the U.S. border is absolutely harrowing. Five years riding tops of trains; children and young adults being kidnapped by human traffickers; gangs murdering these children for fun; then, of course, they must make it through Chiapas, or, La Bestia (The Beast), which is where border checkpoints begin (the southern most state of Mexico is Chiapas), and where Central Americans are hated and killed for no other reason that their nationality.
If they make it to the U.S. border, they then have to find smugglers to get them across.
Usually these children have a mother in the U.S. who, after the economic destruction of Central American via U.S. puppets resulted in men coming to the United States, which left the women alone, and then the men never came back, so the mothers left in desperation to find work (no jobs down there for women after they hit 23, unless they are white looking), leaving the children often orphaned but still sending them as much money as they can earn to provide for them. Then the cartels came to power, along with gangs such as Mara Salvaducha, who created war zones and butchery and kidnapping of children for the illicit sex trade and to use as child soldiers, etc.
These kids are running away from hell to find the safety of their mothers, who cannot return because they too would be massacred.
So when children find someone willing to smuggle them, the smugglers find the mothers and extort HUGE sums of money from them. 27,000 is a common amount requested. The mothers scramble to find the money, resorting to payday loans, neighbors, anyone, anything. Unfortunately, often after they wire the money, some kids never make it across anyway.
Then there’s the crossing:
–military controlled border
–drones
–infrared military tanks that can see into all hiding places, even traincars, etc.
–the Cartel
–More gangs
–drowning
–human traffickers
–starvation
–thirst
–abandonment in deserts, etc.
Under Obama, with Hillary Clinton as Sec. of State, the U.S. armed the Cartel and provided many other types of aid. The idea being that if we can keep a gang/drug war going in Latin America, we keep the region unstable, and can march our multinationals in and take the land, the minerals, oil, etc.
As far as Mexicans are concerned, there has actually been a negative migration to the United States–more are going back than coming in. People assume that because someone crosses the Mexican border, they are Mexican.
While I know the Syrian migrant situation is bad, I also know that Latin America is, in many ways worse, because not a single country is waging a war against the Cartels and Gangs, (the U.S. is a fat liar about this, and I promise you, El Chapo will somehow escape prison, and btw, the cartel is so invasive that there are CIA members who are members of the cartel.) Whereas there are several countries who are fighting to stop ISIS.
Further, the media is basically guilty of a total blackout on Central American terror, they just let people think Mexicans are pouring across the border to make money and sell drugs, when that is NOT the case at all. Again, it benefits the U.S. to keep up the destruction of Latin America.
Remember, the U.S. created ISIS, but when ISIS actually gained a huge amount of power, and is spreading terror all over the world, suddenly the U.S. was like “Oh no! We created a monster!” and then, “Great! now we have a reason to keep war going in the Middle East FOREVER!” and if we hype up terror of the “Islamic” kind we can have a field day over in oil paradise, keep the region totally unstable and makes lots of money from war and oil!
The U.S. doesn’t care to stop the violence or to stop aiding it in Central America, because we are able to control the gangs and cartels. And if the gangs and cartels kills each other, or a bunch of indigenous or mestizo (non white, dirt poor people either down there or in the U.S. , then all the better!
trying to stop the terror, or providing humanitarian aid,
Yes, if there is troubl, thugs, terrorists, etc, just look behind the curtain and you will some US concern.
Very well said. You are smart!
The number of Mexican immigrants living in the U.S. illegally has declined. In 2014, 5.6 million unauthorized immigrants from Mexico lived in the U.S., down by about 1 million since 2007. Despite the drop, Mexicans still make up about half (49% in 2014) of unauthorized immigrants. At the same time, unauthorized immigration overall has leveled off in recent yearst
That last comment posted by itself (very curious!). That was a quote from Pew Research. The actual number of Mexicans crossing the border illegally is significantly higher. As is the case with all hotly contested political issues, the facts of the case are not governed by reason.
Pew as in phew.Gallup as in gullible.
This is heartbreaking, that map crashed my computer. It hurts even more that there is so much hatred in this country for these migrants. They are risking their lives, for their families, and they make our economy stronger with their hard work. We could not be the world power we are without them. Embrace it.
Quite true Lou. Only highly motivated, determined people succeed in crossing the border. For most of them, it is a long, hard perilous journey. But I have found most of them, once in the USA, perform hard jobs that are left vacant by most north americans… and many excel when properly fed and paid, becoming very skilled hard workers. Just look at many TV car shows, where the very best painters, body repairers and some mechanics happen to be mexicans or born from mexican origin. Same for many jobs in the film industry, as well as many others.
I’ve always felt that a Sonoran desert crossing would be a good part of any test for U.S. citizenship – give the applicant a GPS and plenty of water and a radio, and set them off on their 100-mile trek; if they can’t make it, they can call for a rescue. Consider how many American citizens would fail this test; but the determination and fitness required to make it – who wouldn’t want someone like that on your team?
It’s certainly a lot safer than trying to cross the Mediterranean in a rickety wooden boat; over 1000 such immigrants to Europe died trying to do that in the past two weeks, by many estimates. The chaos in Libya and Syria brought on by the Obama-Clinton-Kerry regime change games in those countries accounts for the majority of the refugees streaming into Europe right now, although global warming has contributed (particularly in sub-Saharan Africa) to the refugee stream, which will become steadily worse over time.
As far as what is driving the migration, many Americans simply don’t understand the dynamic, but that’s because the corporate media owned by Wall Street won’t explain it. Here are the actual main factors:
1) NAFTA, the “North American Free Trade Agreement”
This trade deal pushed through by the Clinton neoliberal Democrats with Republican support on behalf of Wall Street interests, and sold to the American public by lying ‘free-market economists’ and a dishonest corporate media.
NAFTA drove up unemployment in Mexico by allowing U.S. agribusiness to dump cheap corn on the Mexican market, putting many small- and medium-scale farmers out of business. Their option was either to migrate to the U.S. or move to the slums and work in the sweatshop factories that had been shipped there from the United States (another NAFTA provision that did so much to destroy American manufacturing and the middle class in this country). In the sweatshop factories, they got paid what, $0.25 an hour? Wall Street loved NAFTA for that reason – labor costs plummeted, and many millionaires became billionaires. Screw the American middle class, that was the mantra, wasn’t it? Clinton was their little hero for pulling that off.
2) Undercutting the labor market in the United States.
This isn’t hard to understand, and is much broader than just quietly encouraging undocumented immigrants to flood into the American labor markets. While manufacturing can be sent overseas, Wall Street knew that many other jobs were not out-sourceable – agribusiness, food service, hotel service, construction, janitorial, etc. However, if they could staff these positions with sub-minimum wage undocumented workers, they could gradually use them to replace moderately-paid American citizens by people for whom $5 an hour was a 20-fold improvement over what they made in a Mexican sweatshop.
This was so successful that the likes of Microsoft’s Bill Gates took notice and began to push for an H1B visa program so he could get rid of higher paid tech employees (making perhaps $100,000 a year) with educated workers from India and China who might accept as little as $25,000 a year to do the same jobs. That’s what Silicon Valley billionaires are pushing for; Hillary Clinton is their darling Trojan Horse in this effort.
It’s rather sad that so many Trump supporters (like General Hercules below) are so woefully misinformed about this issue; likewise, many Obama-Clinton supporters are ignorant of the fact that Obama has been deporting hundreds of thousands of parents of U.S.-born children, really just to appease the anti-immigrant faction in Congress.
But as far as the solution, Trump (and Sanders) is right about one thing: get rid of NAFTA. This will prevent the dumping of cheap U.S. agribusiness products on the Mexican market; Mexican farmers can go back to work and this will reduce the pressure to immigrate to the U.S. U.S. agribusiness can make ethanol out of their excess corn – or just reduce production. Put high tarrifs on manufactured goods coming into the U.S. from Mexico, and the factories and high-paid manufacturing jobs will come back to the United States, boosting middle class economics.
But for this to happen, Hillary Clinton absolutely must be defeated – preferably by Sanders, but if not, Trump is the better choice.
Regards;
and thanks for the comments you made. It’s very illuminating for a Brit!
FYI over 250 to ??? more migrants heading to Italy (It’s thought) have been estimated as drowned in the past two days. 2000 since whenever this last couple of month and the UNHCR commented on it, this last week.
TPP, TTIP…. It’s a great worry for attraction of cheap labour from outside (the UK and EU) and degradation of current standards here and there. But you seem yourself to be versed in the argument. Here for example in the UK Brexit is argued for because of migration from eastern Europe to fill cheap labour. And our net imigration numbers are seen as unsustainable!
Well, I hate to suggest of the USA…
But further…
Here Greece is as is Italy too, we’ll they are becoming parking bays and almost internment camps for the refugees.
Turkey is reluctant to (as with Brussels despite chats) to entertain Syrian (mainly) people as free entities too, beyond its own camps. Although there is agreement to receive them back from Greece etc etc. but it’s not going well.
My point to comment to you here and on this subject is:
the possibilities in this sort of instability as a driver for the existence of the very business agreements(TPP and TTIP) being argued. (You’ll see France instability in the face of Hollande’s push for working reform, as an example.) I mean, instability as a business model?!
It’s a little out there, yet if business is expanding itself into a fought world and by the hand of western governmental legislation! And further, it’s a stable profit margin over the period. Then the current Obama administration could be in cahoots (so to speak) as is our EU system (in many ways) to see through the corporate agenda with all legislative usage available! To privatise the very social maelu we have as our freedoms. And capitalise upon its form and in faux defence of it.
We here in the EU and UK are eyeing up Libya as a particular point of contact for further action by us. Infact, it’s a US zone too and together with us lot, it’s the next conflict area to be hit.
It will turn into a vortex of self sustained feedback of people’s being devastated and enforced migration, whilst then their feeding and shelter becomes a caterers dream.
North Africa, near Asia and… Will be managed by private outfits and the UNHCR will filter the residents for fitness to come to the European continent.
Sorry I’m not as able to articulate as clearly as yourself. . Yet trade, economies and conflict! It’s all coalescing into the language here of Brexit or Remain. And it’s spilling over and out of our borders….refugees are becoming a norm. And I suggest business models are currently eyeing them as profit margins via use of governments to instigate their existence.
I could go on…. But I won’t.
Global economics is creating the conditions that force migrants toward the west. The moneyed classes are always best positioned to benefit from their cheap labor. They are also best positioned to be least affected by their presence as they can afford to live in exclusive areas (e.g. gated communities etc) and are not directly dependent on government aid to survive.
TPP is just the monsters realization that they’ve elevated China to the worlds most advanced nation,and are horrified at their stupidity.
We need new slave labor camps,and the dictators of SE Asia are glad to oblige.
CapCom conquers all.
You raise the interesting point of whether or not the chaos brought on by these economic and military policies was pre-planned and deliberate, or whether the chaos is being opportunistically taken advantage of by the architects of those policies.
Take the flood of refugees into Europe, which is pushing the rise of outside political parties – far-right neo-Nazi parties on the right, Green socialist parties on the left. (I’m thinking about Austria). This has pushed the architects of the policy out of power, however – the centrist corporates are now universally loathed. So that doesn’t look like something they wanted to see happen.
On the other hand, the corporate interests could opportunistically take advantage of the refugee crisis to cut wages and undermine European social safety nets – France’s corporate push to undermine unions and cut wages is right in line with this mentality.
I actually don’t believe that the architects of the trade policies like NAFTA and TPP have too much capacity for long-range planning; they operate more on a quarterly basis, a casino mentality – but they are highly opportunistic, so if they see a flood of refugees, they’ll try to exploit it for their short-term personal profit, without having any understanding at all of the dangerous long-term instabilities they have created.
So, if we look at the Libya regime change project, I think it was more a case of the neocolonialists trying to exploit the Arab Spring discontent with their dictatorial leaders to overthrow those governments and place their preferred puppet in power (certainly that’s Libya); their puppet fell within six months and now chaos rules; that chaos makes Libya an attractive smuggling route for human traffiking gangs; refugees flood into Europe – an unforeseen consequence, I’m guessing.
Likewise, in Syria, Obama and Cameron got together with Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Israel to promote the overthrow of Assad; that effort included massive support for the Islamic radicals who formed the core of ISIS and the Al-Nusra Front; rather than a quick overthrow of Assad (the plan), there was a bloody civil war that sent some millions of refugees fleeing Syria and led to the rise of ISIS (including its unplanned terrorist attacks on Europe).
So, I’d say our so-called ‘leaders’ are more like children playing with matches, than calculating long-term plotters. Just my take, though.
The main reason why Mexicans want to migrate here is because they are sick and tired of their own country, and they want to get the facilities that we extend to our people, including the loving Obamacare. There are a couple of win-win methods to achieve this.
1) They can all merge their whole country into our Federal structure and call it the State of Mexico, USA. That way no one will be left behind, and all the rapists and murderers included will be eligible for the soothing balm of Obamacare from the next day.
2) They can divide their country into two parts, and while one can merge with us the other can still keep their crooks there.
3) We let them in, then train them like we have trained the Iraqis army and the Syrian rebels (only a bit better this time), and then send them back to “Make Mexico Great Again”.
Instead of doing any of the right things we are creating our own problems and then we can’t figure out how to solve it. We will be moving towards a solution once Mexico pays up for the wall that we will build, but till then it will be wait and watch.
I can’t tell if you are being sarcastic or delusional.
If you look at actual facts, more Mexicans have been leaving the US to return to Mexico than have been coming to the US from Mexico for the last 8 years, meanwhile, the numbers of US citizens immigrating to Mexico have been steadily increasing.
I would recommend going to your local hardware store and asking their friendly salespeople if they can assist you in finding replacement hinges, to replace those that were severely damaged when you became so unhinged.
I can’t stop laughing at your hinges joke. Hysterical! Do you have any more jokes? Funny, funny man!
“If you look at actual facts, more Mexicans have been leaving the US to return to Mexico than have been coming to the US from Mexico for the last 8 years, meanwhile, the numbers of US citizens immigrating to Mexico have been steadily increasing.”
Source?
Where did you get those statistics,the American Open Border Society?
What’s truly unhinged is acceptance of self hating suicide.
Exactly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You’re unfortunately somewhat misinformed – Mexico, for example, has free healthcare for all its citizens. Trump’s position on NAFTA is what you should be talking about, not this mythical wall business. By undermining Mexican agriculture by allowing the dumping of cheap U.S. corn and other products on the Mexican market, NAFTA created mass unemployent in the Mexican agriculture sector; that’s where the flood of undocumented immigrants came from.
That’s also why Wall Street hates Trump (and Sanders) so much; if he reduces the flood of cheap undocumented labor, it will raise labor costs all across the United States (good for the American middle class), cutting into Wall Street profits – which will be hit again, if the sweatshop factories that Clinton and Bush helped ship to Mexico come back to Detroit and elsewhere.
Come on, it’s not a hard dynamic to understand – so let’s make a deal: if Hillary Clinton and the sleazy DNC manage to steal the election from Sanders, I’ll help you support Trump in the general election. Just lose the racist rhetoric about ‘rapists and murderers’, that’s all I ask.
I won’t be surprised if the Chinese, the Saudis and the Russians flood Mexico with millions of cheap guns and ammo. Then the immigrants will become refugees. That will be another problem, so we need to build the wall fast.
I don’t know, if things continue the way they are here in the United States, we might see poor Americans trying to get into Mexico to get some free health care, and that wall might turn into the East German version, i.e. to keep the population from escaping – after all, who would clean the toilets for the aristocrats if everyone runs away? Think about it – we’ve already got the NSA/FBI version of East Germany’s STASI in place, don’t we?
I doubt Trump would actually build a wall, since gutting NAFTA would have the exact same effect. But who knows? All I know, for certain, is that Hillary Clinton would continue to screw over the American middle class on behalf of Wall Street interests, no matter what. At least with Trump, there’s a question mark.
We have to get rid of both Nafta and Obamacare. The walls are also important. Canada has imported many Syrians, and those guys will find their way here soon, maybe with some guns and allahoakbars. I am glad that you are going to vote for Trump, and I hope you can convince the Jihadi type people to vote for Trump also, since Trump is the only person who is not responsible for a single Muslim death in the world – unlike all the rest of the folks. The Jihadi people can’t appreciate this, which is the very reason they are being slaughtered like pigs all over the place.
The Mexican people have suffered terribly at the the hands of
The Mexican and American political elite…… To wit, Nafta and
the destruction of the ejido system. What resulted was a rising
tide of impoverished migrants since the late 1970’s.
Mexico needs revolution……….forget Trump. Attack your
enemy…..the Mexican political elite. They support the drugs
Cartels and the parasites who call La Jolla and West Los Angeles
Home.
Peace to the souls of those departed, and to their loved ones.
There’s a large, concrete parking garage, three or four stories tall, with about a 6,000 square foot, commercial rectangular building in front of it. I see it several times in the map. What is this building?
Hey there, unhappily I’m sensing in myself a compulsion to jot off a note here in comment. And before I’ve fully figured the text to leave.
Still, I ought to read more if the Intercept…never-the-less where you have principally desert, rocks and rivers and yes, walls or fencing to dissuade the migrant/refugee. I’m thinking I’m commenting on likelihood of success or conversely, risk of any failure. Should America at large seem a draw and the Eldorado of freedom. You can bet Europe seem similar for those currently taking risks to get here too.
It’s a sad indictment and irony (I believe) the we here are as attractive now, ensconced within our sovereign nations, as you were after your great help out some post world war time, second time around. Sad, in that we really do have a lifestyle and comparative safety to offer too. And ironic, because it’s at a time of great upheaval, yet may I suggest it being in continuation due to the West’s (and now in part Russian Federation) mishandling.
But you’re USA and South America is, as I’m learning, some cookie.
I’m not surprised now by the EU and USA southern borders both. Being inundated to this crisis level. So I’ll finish my extemporaneous musings here and say, the likelihood of failure is now radically not one of inconvenience for a migrant/refugee trying to travel to either continent. It’s the death stats showing us of that unfortunate permanent condition arrived at by so many now! Yet the stats are all we have to infer this tally. My point: when a great country or grouping of such don’t know how many are dying to reach there. Then, we have real issues!!! Both sides of the pond.
Don’t you agree?
There is no denying the human tragedy on the US southern border. An even larger tragedy is the politicians’ failure to make immigration a legal, properly controlled, and feasible activity which unites families and provides deserving individuals a path to be registered, permitted to work, and eventually to become legal citizens. The hateful rhetoric of some against these refugees from broken countries is not what America is. There has been a failure of the US corporate government to stop the “push to go” in many countries in central, and south America as well as Mexico. Higher wages, economic opportunity, and clean government free of the cartels is needed. The human trafficking is directly related to the gun and drug trafficking and must be stopped by a combination of strategic political planning
“The hateful rhetoric of some against these refugees from broken countries is not what America is.”
An outrageous lie. And this murderous rhetoric is the best your country can do.
Come on steve, you need to learn to think like a U.S. Congressmember who relies on Wall Street to finance their election campaigns. Consider your comment from that point of view:
“An even larger tragedy is the politicians’ failure to make immigration a legal, properly controlled, and feasible activity which unites families and provides deserving individuals a path to be registered, permitted to work, and eventually to become legal citizens.”
Now, if they were allowed to become citizens, they’d have to be paid full wages! Then what would be the point? They’re supposed to serve as a source of cheap illicit labor – and, bonus, if they cause problems, like complaining about working conditions or trying to form a union, the corporation can just call in Obama’s ICE and have them deported back to Mexico! That’s how Wall Street keeps profits high and labor costs low, in non-outsourceable domestic sectors like agribusiness, construction, etc. Can’t ship the farmland and housing overseas, can they?
Anyone who thinks Obama and Clinton are not playing this game needs to look at statistics – for example, from 2010-2012, more than 205,000 parents of U.S.-born American citizens were deported by Obama, and he’s not exactly pushing for ‘paths to citizenship’, quite the opposite.
Tis is very bad and is the result of the US governmnent aiding and encouraging its Global Empire reach through the economic engagement of B$CEOs corporations and predatory capitalism as a means of force, including theft, denial of native citizens, and finally outright murder under the cape of Drug War military aid and support. Trump has only partial truth when he talks about building a wall. All organisms share 5 requirements to exist, 1st is a wall/membrane to maintain all vital functions within the organism. Corporations are able to enter countries and disregard their protective wall mechanisms and yet we expect others to respect our borders ? PresObama qualifies TPP as “strategic” in military terms. The US is becoming desperate now and will sacrifices will continue. 2) The catholic church denies women rights and needs to tear down its walls and welcome all its citizens and care for them. 3) Turkey PresErdogan will therefore open his borders to all muslims not using birthcontrol.