La Linea

Blowing the whistle on government misconduct may be right and just, but as anyone who’s done it will tell you, it’s not exactly fun. Whistleblowers risk losing their jobs, careers and friends, and frequently end up mired in long court battles. So it’s especially unusual to find someone who’s done it twice.

Yet Robert McCarthy, a 55-year-old lawyer, has found himself in the unenviable position of serial whistleblower. “The last time was so stressful, I never imagined getting into this situation again,” he says in a telephone interview from his home in El Paso.

A former lawyer for the U.S. Department of the Interior, McCarthy had already been through a rough couple of years in California, serving as a key witness in a massive class-action lawsuit filed by Native American tribes against the U.S. government. McCarthy’s testimony in 2007 that the Interior Department couldn’t account for income from leases it managed on behalf of Native American landowners was crucial in winning the case for the plaintiffs.

Congress created the Whistleblower Protection Act in 1989 to legally protect federal employees when they report agency misconduct. Despite those protections, McCarthy felt that his role in the lawsuit made it impossible to return to the Interior Department. He figured his days as a federal employee were over.

“I never thought I’d be hired by another federal agency again once it was known that I was a whistleblower,” he says. So he felt lucky in January 2009, when he was hired as general counsel at the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission in El Paso. Whatever qualms he might have had, the promise of federally funded health insurance and retirement benefits beckoned.

The commission is a key federal agency along the border. Created in 1889, the panel handles border treaties with Mexico and operates several international dams and water-treatment plants. One of its jobs is to keep levees along the Rio Grande from crumbling. After six months at the agency, McCarthy was fired after reporting that its officials allegedly conducted secret surveillance of agency employees, altered official government records, made false reports to the Inspector General, manipulated payrolls and mismanaged $220 million in Recovery Act money for reinforcing river levees.

McCarthy says he brought his concerns to his superiors before blowing the whistle, but nothing was done. “Sure, I could have given up and done what I was told,” he says. “But when you do that, you are just as responsible for those violations.”

In September, McCarthy sued the commission for wrongfully firing a whistleblower. Now he pursues his case from his home in El Paso. His house in California is in foreclosure, he says. He never expected to be without an income for so long. The case could take months to resolve, and in a whistleblower case, the plaintiff can only sue for relief, not damages.

On the bright side, McCarthy says his wife found a job in El Paso, and the couple is enjoying their new home. “The city is great, and the people are extremely friendly,” he says. Ultimately, McCarthy hopes to get his job back at the boundary commission.

The life of a whistleblower can be lonely and difficult. “I’m working on the suit every day. It’s stressful and time-consuming,” he says. “I would say only if you are willing to lose your job and move on, should you attempt it.”

Last week U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that it will be auditing 1,000 businesses across the nation looking for immigration violations, 161 of those businesses are in Texas.This is the new, improved Department of Homeland Security response to a crackdown on illegal immigration. Before Obama took office, the Bush Administration favored immigration raids which destroyed families and communities and seemed very well, un-American. How politicians react to this new emphasis on audits over raids says more about our political system than it does about fixing our broken immigration system. Workers and businesses are stuck in the middle of an untenable situation trying to muddle through as the government patches up the sinking boat that is our immigration system. Will it float for one more year? Will we ever have sane immigration policies? Don’t hold your breath.According to a Houston Chronicle story, U.S. Rep Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, is truly disappointed that our government won’t be rounding up workers in workplace raids this holiday season. Nothing says Christmas more than a workplace raid, after all!”It is hard to conceive of a worse time to cut work site enforcement efforts by more than half,”  Smith said in a statement. “There are 16 million Americans out of work. And yet, the administration has chosen to ignore the fact that there are nearly 8 million illegal immigrants.  Those stolen jobs should be returned to out-of-work citizens and legal immigrants.”In response Matt Chandler, a spokesman for Homeland Security, told the Chronicle that just looking at the decline in criminal or administrative work site enforcement arrests — without considering ICE’s new strategy — reflects a “myopic, outdated and distorted view of effective enforcement.”Vermont dairy farmers are also feeling the ICE heat. Vermont’s dairies can’t find laborers locally to do the hard work year round. They can’t bring in guest workers legally because the U.S. government doesn’t allow foreign workers to remain the entire year. Now ICE is knocking on their doors with subpoenas, asking to go through their books.According to the Vermont newspaper Times Argus, Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy is none too pleased about it. Leahy issued a rather tepid statement, however, saying he was disappointed in the timing of ICE’s crackdown.”We have a broken system that does not work well for anyone, and especially for dairy farmers and the workers they need to keep their farms running,” he said. “This is all the more evidence that we need workable reform of the agriculture visa system, and it can’t come soon enough.”Leahy told the Argus that he had directed his staff to monitor the situation with the U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Nice of him to check in, but it doesn’t really help a dairy farmer struggling to make it through one of the toughest economies in U.S. history. He can’t afford to wait around while Congressional members dither.On either side of the aisle in Congress the message, or lack thereof,  is clear when it comes to comprehensive immigration reform – don’t count on us to do anything about it.

Most folks order their books online these days (myself included I confess.) It’s convenient and sometimes cheaper. Still there’s nothing more satisfying then perusing a well-stocked bookstore, thumbing through the pages of a book that catches your eye. The serendipity of discovering a book on the shelves you’d never heard of but can’t wait to take home and read.

I feel better knowing that bookstores exist.

Laredoans are already mourning the loss of the last bookstore in their city. The city’s independent bookstore — Bookmark Books — closed in 2000. Now the B. Dalton bookstore at the Mall del Norte is slated for extinction at the end of January.

“There’s just something comforting about having a bookstore,” say Xochitl Mora, the public information officer for the City of Laredo. “A city needs a bookstore.”

Mora helps spearhead Laredo’s One City, One Book initiative. It’s a citywide bookclub that gets Laredoans reading and discussing important issues such as immigration and historical events such as the the Holocaust. Mora would order the books through B. Daltons — sometimes 500 books or more and Laredoans would purchase them there.

Not long ago Mora had award-winning journalist Sonia Nazario present her book “Enrique’s Journey” as part of the citywide bookclub.  “It had a lot of meaning for the author to be here because part of the book took place in Nuevo Laredo, our sister city,” says Mora.

She says the biggest pity is that the B. Daltons in Laredo is profitable from her understanding but as a division of Barnes and Noble it has not been so successful. The mega bookseller has decided to downsize its B. Dalton chain across the nation. Laredo is just one link in that chain.

So what are literary Laredoans to do? Mora says that she and other communications professionals in Laredo have formed a group called “Laredo Reads.” They are putting together a publicity campaign to lure a bookstore to the border city.  “We’ll find a way,” she says.

Perhaps bookstores will have to become nonprofits as so many media outlets are doing these days?

Next time I’m going to drive to my local bookstore and buy a book instead of giving Amazon my credit card number.

 

These days Mexicans fleeing drug-cartel violence are faced with two lousy options: the threat of death in Juarez or detention in El Paso. With more than 1,900 people having been killed this year in the ongoing battle over Juarez’ lucrative drug corridor, there is no shortage of folks in that unenviable position — including those working to improve conditions on the Mexican side.

On Oct. 15, Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson, a 63-year-old lawyer who investigates the Mexican military’s homicides, kidnappings and tortures for the Chihuahua Human Rights Commission, was jailed for attempting to cross legally through an El Paso port of entry. During a routine immigration interview, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent asked de la Rosa whether he feared for his life in Juarez. The lawyer answered honestly: Yes, he did fear for his life, but he did not want to seek political asylum, which would have prevented him from continuing his work in Chihuahua. The agent responded by handcuffing de la Rosa and placing him in an El Paso detention facility.

De la Rosa, who has documented 170 cases of military abuses, has perhaps done his job too well. In early October, while he was idling at a traffic light in Juarez, a man pulled up on a motorcycle and cocked an imaginary gun at his head. One of de la Rosa’s bodyguards has been badly beaten; another had his house burned down. De la Rosa has received many death threats.

Asked about de la Rosa’s detention, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson Roger Maier said he couldn’t talk about the specific case, but that the agency’s policy is to refer anyone who expresses fear of persecution to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for further questioning.

After six days in detention, de la Rosa was released, thanks to the efforts of his El Paso attorney, Carlos Spector. Spector’s wife, Sandra Spector, said that after being released the human-rights advocate crossed back into Juarez, then legally re-entered El Paso with his border-crossing card, which allows him to reside there for 30 days at a time. As he continues to advocate for prosecuting cases of military abuse in Juarez, de la Rosa is negotiating with the Chihuahua Human Rights Commission to beef up security for himself and his family.

Other Mexicans fleeing violence have spent months in detention. Emilio Gutierrez Soto, a longtime journalist from Acsension, Chihuahua, fled his hometown after his reporting on military abuses led to death threats. He spent eight months in detention in El Paso before he was released to pursue political asylum. His 15-year-old son also spent three months in detention.

Human-rights advocates in El Paso are asking Congress to look at de la Rosa’s treatment and review the Homeland Security guidelines used to detain him.

“It’s baffling that he was handcuffed and incarcerated, because he was absolutely not a danger to anyone,” says Louie Gilot, a spokesperson for the El Paso non-profit Border Network for Human Rights. “Even if he had asked for political asylum, you shouldn’t be put behind barbed wire while you pursue your case.”

 

Marfa has been courting artistic types for a few years now. They may be thinking twice about courting Hollywood again after actor Randy Quaid and his wife model/actress Evi Quaid get through with Marfa.

A few weeks ago there was a brief article about the Quaids getting busted in Marfa for an outstanding $10,000 hotel bill at the San Ysidro ranch in swanky Santa Barbara. Too bad for them, I thought. But now I see in the Big Bend Sentinel today that the City of Marfa has obtained  a no-trespassing citation against Evi Quaid after a meeting at city hall turned combative. According to the story “Mrs. Quaid is alleged to have damaged some city documents and hurt a city employee.”

Apparently, the Quaids have taken up residence in Marfa and the entire county knows it. Both of their neighbors have filed civil lawsuits against them. Evi Quaid is also being sued for libel by a Presidio County deputy sheriff, the subject of a sign (I’m guessing not too flattering) hand-painted by Quaid that appeared on the couple’s GMC truck parked along North Highland Avenue.

This is only a small sample of the numerous charges that are piling up against the Quaids in Marfa. Do they not get enough cable channels at home?