Posted on 08/04/2010 6:59:35 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
SAN JUAN, Aug. 3 - La Unión del Pueblo Entero leaders will meet tomorrow to consider what legal options are available to stop what they believe is the harassment of colonia residents by Border Patrol.
The group has invited Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and the South Texas Civil Rights Project to participate.
“We are disappointed that CBP feels the need to harass local residents and make their lives even more difficult than they already are,” said Juanita Valdez-Cox, executive director of LUPE.
Valdez-Cox said her organization has received dozens of calls from members reporting a heightened presence by Border Patrol agents in colonias and at local commercial outlets.
“People are feeling very uncomfortable now. Everyone, documented and undocumented alike, is feeling oppressed and is losing the freedom to move about and conduct their daily lives without worry,” she said.
A spokesman for Border Patrol told Univision that the agency has not stepped up its operations in the Rio Grande Valley. However, Valdez-Cox said her group has heard through “indirect channels” that Border Patrol has increased its presence in the colonias and commercial centers because fewer immigrants are crossing the river during the flooding. In other words, the agents have more time to go after residents living in the Valley because there is less activity on the Rio Grande itself.
“One thing is very clear to us: CBP is profiling local residents, not by race but by class. They certainly have not been bothering people in North McAllen. Perhaps we should tell folks to shop there,” Valdez-Cox said.
An immigrant who wished to remain anonymous contacted the Guardian on Monday evening to say there was a heavy Border Patrol presence at Junior’s Supermarket in Las Milpas. There were other reports of Border Patrol agents at H-E-B and Wal-Mart stores in the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo area.
“Our community is being terrorized and it is illegal,” said the colonia resident who wished to remain nameless.
Last week, at a prayer vigil in San Juan, LUPE members reported increased Border Patrol activity in the Mid Valley cities of Mercedes, Weslaco and Donna.
Valdez-Cox said LUPE needs to explore all legal options with groups such as Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and the South Texas Civil Rights Project. “We will explore a range of actions available to the community and develop an action agenda going forward. One item sure to be adopted is to seek a meeting with the CBP sector chief where we can ask for an explanation of their recent activities,” she said.
Valdez-Cox said there is only one real solution to “this entire mess.” She said Congress must address comprehensive immigration reform. “Everyone agrees that our system is broken. We are living in the 21st Century but our immigration system is stuck in the 19th century. Both Democrats and Republicans have a responsibility and an obligation to this nation to fix an immigration system that is a complete mess. Only then will the growing oppression along the border be rolled back so families can live their lives in peace and security,” Valdez-Cox said.
LUPE’s prayer vigil last week was held in protest at SB 1070, the tough new immigration law passed by the state of Arizona. A 40-year-old mother and her 19-year-old daughter, both from Edinburg, spoke to reporters at the event. However, they said they did not want their names given out or their photos taken.
The mother and daughter were stopped by Border Patrol at about 6.30 a.m. on June 1 in Val Verde Road in Donna on their way to work at a tomato packing plant. They were asked for their documents which they could not provide. They were immediately taken to a Border Patrol office.
“We were asked to sign volunteer exit forms but my mom refused,” said the daughter, who was born in Mexico but spoke perfect English. “She refused to sign for about four and a half hours but she had to sign in the end because they threatened to send my younger sisters to Child Protective Services.”
The younger daughters are nine and six and were born in the United States. Within 30 minutes of signing the volunteer exit forms, the mother and daughter were taken to the Mexican side of the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge. They stayed with friends for four days before crossing the Rio Grande again on a small boat.
“We do not want to live in Mexico. Everything is here; this is my life. I do not know anything about Mexico,” said the daughter, who is hoping to become a registered nurse.
“I got good grades at school and though I do not have a social security number I hope to become a nurse,” the daughter said. Asked what message she would like to send to the elected officials in Washington, the teenager said: “Pass immigration reform. Give something to the Mexicans, the Dream Act, something to help our education.”
That attitude among politicians, illegal aliens and illegal alien sympathizers is the reason we have so many problems with our social services and cannot enforce our laws.
Linda V. www.texasbordervolunteers.org
"God grants liberty only to those who love it and are always ready to defend it." Daniel Webster
Coming soon to a paper in your town: “Police Asked To Stop Terrorizing Child Molesters”
Blame your parents for bringing you here in the first place then, and go back to Mexico where you belong whether you want to be there or not. Then, once you are there, start the legal process to live LEGALLY in the USA. Plus, how do you intend to become a Nurse, by sucking off the tax payer teat or do you intend to pay your own way?
Hey, chicas stupidas!
If you are Mexican, you belong in MEXICO, where they EDUCATE you to hate Gringos.
Go back to mexico where you belong, stupidas idiotas goombahs!!
Mexican squatters on the Texas side of the border are reclaiming that land for Mexico. But they do like cashing their welfare checks and buying food and booze with their Lone Star cards, thoughtfully furnished by the USA. They have all those anchor babies to feed.
Yes. That is the problem. Your community is illegal.
Loco ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
Good. Deport ‘em. Fire ‘em back across the Rio Grande in catapults if you have to (and hopefully the Meheecan government will put some mattresses on the other side for them to land on).
I’m assuming a “colonia” is the Mexican-Texan equivalent of a Palestinian “refugee camp”?
}:-)4
They need to go in there with AFVs and gunships to round them up, and cattle trucks to haul off the survivors.
Colonia is Spanish for colony.
Do a sweep thru that SLUM and round them all up and Deport their arse back to Mexico.
Hundreds of thousands of Mexican peasants squatting on unimproved "subdivisions" AT AN ENORMOUS COST TO TAXPAYERS. On the federal level, Kay Bailey Hutchison, alone, has obtained more than $600 million dollars for "improving colonias," going back to 1993. In Texas in 1989, the Legislature established a program to provide grants and loans for water and sewer services to border counties. Texas voters approved a $100 million bond issue that year and another $150 million in 1991. The Texas Water Development Board has awarded more than $500 million in state and federal money to install water and wastewater services in colonias. In 2005, lawmakers expanded the program's eligibility to the entire state. And in 2007, voters approved another $250 million in general obligation bonds so the Texas Water Development Board could provide water and wastewater infrastructure through the Economically Distressed Areas Program.
Why is this happening? Toleration for illegal immigration. Why isn't it being stopped instead of encouraged? You get more of what you reward. Unscrupulous developers sell these illegals small patches of land with no water, no sewer, no drainage, no roads, no electricity, no gas, NO NOTHING. They set up their Third World cardboard shacks, and then a nice big government comes along and taxes other people to pay to provide them with water, sewer, drainage, roads, electricity and gas, conveniently allowing the developers to keep their ill-gotten gains. The developers return the favor by supporting the politicians who support these programs to "improve" colonias. And then idiots like this reporter come along and write about the poor, struggling inhabitants.
“Colony.” Unfortunately appropriate term, it sounds like.
}:-)4
““People are feeling very uncomfortable now. Everyone, documented and undocumented alike, is feeling oppressed and is losing the freedom to move about and conduct their daily lives without worry,” she said.”
People involved in criminal behavior are usually ‘uncomfortable’ when law enforcement is around!
These colonias are hell holes and the perfect cover for cartel criminals!
What is a Colonia? THE THIRD WORLD IN THE USA
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/search?q=what+is+a+colonia
This is interesting. A couple polls from Police Magazine
http://www.policemag.com/WebPoll/Page/3.aspx
ICE is reportedly restricting 287g, which allows specially trained local officers to investigate detainees’ immigration status. Should local officers be involved in immigration enforcement?
Yes(79.7%)
No(20.3%)
A new law in Arizona requires officers to enforce immigration laws. Would you want to take on this duty?
Yes(75.8%)
No(24.2%)
BUMP
Does crossing into Texas imbue one with bravery, or does crossing into Mexico fill one with cowardice?
Illegal criminals are complaining that US laws are being enforced.
Who’s got the world’s smallest violin?
I do. I play myself to sleep every night. I'm hoping to one day have the opportunity to serenade 0 with it.
“These colonias are hell holes and the perfect cover for cartel criminals!”
The colonias in California are about 50% illegals.
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