La Linea

The Department of Homeland Security announced some long awaited changes to immigrant detention policies today. While it’s a step in the right direction it sounds like it’s going to be a Herculean task to centralize the more than 300 contracts operated by disparate Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices across the country. You can check out the new DHS guidelines here.I called Bob Libal, from the nonprofit Grassroots Leadership, someone way more knowledgeable than I on immigrant detention matters. I was wondering whether these new initiatives will make a difference in curbing the numerous human rights abuses that have been reported over the years in these facilities. Texas has more immigrant detention facilities than any other state in the nation.Libal’s organization focuses on immigration reform and stopping the expansion of prisons. He said he was happy to see the Obama Administration addressing the numerous problems with immigrant detention facilities. But he was disappointed that  the Administration is going to continue to build detention facilities.He brings up a good point. On top of the world’s largest prison population it looks like we are also going to have the world’s largest immigrant detention population at this rate (if we don’t already). Libal said he’d like to see some really poorly run detention facilities like the Willacy County “tent-city” detention facility in South Texas be shut down. For more on the long and sordid history of the Willacy facility check out our Observer coverage. In addition, I should also mention that Grassroots Leadership is helping organize a candlelight vigil to be held in front of the Willacy facility that will take place on October 16th. For more info contact Bob Libal who will be organizing a caravan from Austin.”There’s been all kinds of neglect, abuse and lack of healthcare at this facility,” Libal said. “Also at the Port Isabel facility which is actually federally run there have been hunger strikes for the last several months because of the long periods of time they’ve been detained and lack of access to legal representation.”Of course closing down these county cash cows will be a huge political minefield for the politicians. It’s awful that counties ever embarked on jails as a concept for economic revitalization in the first place. Now they are hooked.According to Libal, there are 4,200 detainees in the Rio Grande Valley alone and only three immigration judges to hear their cases. This means detainees wait months if not years in detention facilities for their day in court.One new DHS initiative I was glad to see was that they will develop a system to place detainees in a facility that matches their risk level be it non violent offender or a detainee with a long criminal rap sheet. According to Libal, currently DHS has no way to determine the security risks of its detainee population. People seeking asylum from persecution in their own countries, for example, are being held in U.S. jails until they get their day in court. One thing that really struck me while helping my co-worker Forrest Wilder report on his latest story in the Observer which details two riots at an immigrant detention facility in West Texas was the differences in criminal backgrounds among the detainee population. There were guys in there who had crossed illegally to look for work serving time at the Pecos facility alongside men with long criminal histories. The only thing this policy does is create more criminals and problems for both Mexico and the United States.The good news is that Homeland Security will now seek alternative forms of detention for low risk immigrants. Instead of jails they are looking at other solutions such as repurposed nursing homes or hotels.

At least the Department of Homeland Security is moving ahead and trying to make positive changes instead of leaving everything to fester as it did under former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and his boss “W”.

I was speaking with a law enforcement official from the border today and he remarked how arrogant Chertoff was and that his arrogance reflected in his DHS representatives. This official was glad to report that under the new Secretary Janet Napolitano the agency was finally willing to listen to law enforcement in the field. Hopefully, we’ll see Napolitano’s DHS make good on its promises.

Poor Sheriff Joe, how are you going to get re-elected if you can’t persecute brown people? I just had to laugh when I saw this news clip today saying that the federal government has finally limited Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s ability to conduct immigration raids and road blocks. Now his relentless campaign to harass brown people and check their immigration status on the streets of Arizona has been seriously curtailed.

I’m waiting for a Native American road block to send him back to Italy.

Spying on employees, altering federal documents, giving yourself (or a friend) a pay raise…Just another day at the office at the International Boundary and Water Commission, according to its former general counsel.

Investigators from the Inspector General of the State Department are in El Paso right now investigating these serious allegations made by whistleblower Robert McCarthy. The lawyer was fired by the IBWC’s commissioner in July after reporting the misconduct to the State Department, which loosely oversees the agency.

Not many people are familiar with the IBWC, but they are a key federal agency along the border. Created in 1889, the IBWC carries out border treaties with Mexico and operates several international dams and water treatment plants and (supposedly) keeps levees along the Rio Grande from crumbling into dust.

If the USIBWC and its Mexican counterpart don’t function properly then it means millions of lives, billions in property and several important levees and dams are at stake on the Rio Grande. We have to only remember the disastrous flooding in Presidio last year and the millions of dollars of damage from flooding in the Mexican city of Nogales.

The (now former) USIBWC General Counsel Robert McCarthy reported to the Inspector General that the agency had violated several federal laws and regulations. Among those allegations are that the agency mismanaged $220 million in Recovery Act money to raise levees along the Rio Grande. 

He also reported that agency officials conducted secret surveillance of agency employees, altered official government records, made false reports to the Inspector General, manipulated payrolls, and misappropriated funds.

IBWC Commissioner C.W. “Bill” Ruth fired McCarthy three days after he made his report to the Inspector General. In 2008 President Bush appointed Ruth commissioner after the tragic death of Commissioner Carlos Marin who died in a plane crash while surveying the flooding in Presidio.

If even some of McCarthy’s allegations are true then the executive leadership and Commissioner Ruth should be replaced.

The IBWC is tucked away in a musty, dusty corner of the State Department. It has little oversight other than “foreign policy guidance’ from the State Department. The Commissioner is even allowed to set his own salary. Wouldn’t we all like to have that option?

This is not the first time the IBWC has been investigated by the State Department IG for complaints of mismanagement. In 2006, the IG wrote:

“The agency is simply too small, too isolated, and too vulnerable to management abuse to continue without the protection and oversight of a major government department.”

 The IBWC is far too important to border residents to be treated like a government orphan. Hopefully, the Obama Administration will clean up the mess and put the IBWC under the oversight of a larger agency.

The nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility is assisting McCarthy with his whistleblower case against the agency. Jeff Ruch, executive director of the nonprofit, said that this is not McCarthy’s first time crying foul on a federal agency. In 2007, he was a whistleblower at the Bureau of Indian Affairs in California where he helped manage accounts for Native American landowners in the Palm Springs area. McCarthy was a key witness against the federal government in a multi-billion dollar class action lawsuit that claimed among other things that Native American leases were mismanaged and landowners were charged exorbitant fees by the federal agency.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Under the Obama Administration, there’s been a renewed push by the Department of Homeland Security and other law enforcement agencies to take a more bilateral approach with Mexico on fighting narcotrafficking. So far our efforts at bi-lateralism mostly include using the words “Mexico” and the “United States” side by side in Power Point presentations.

Along these lines, the Southwest Border Sheriff’s Coalition, which encompasses every border sheriff from Brownsville to San Diego, extended an invitation to the Mexican Attorney General’s office to speak at their conference in Yuma last week.

Ariel Moutsatsos, an adviser to the Attorney General of Mexico, gave a presentation about his country’s efforts to fight narcotrafficking. (Actually it was more about the United States but I’ll get to that a little later.) In the 33 months since President Felipe Calderon had taken office, Moutsatsos said that more than 230 high level government officials had been arrested for working with the drug cartels.

In his fight to root out corruption Calderon was having to build his state and local police forces from scratch as well as some of the higher levels of government, Moutsatsos said.”We are flying the plane while we build it.”

As he was talking about this corruption, I thought of the recent arrests on this side of the border of drug and immigration officials. Just two weeks ago, Richard Padilla Cramer, the former U.S. attaché for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Guadalajara was arrested for working as a consultant to drug dealers.

Before his talk, Moutsatsos told me that the U.S.’s insatiable demand for drugs had turned Mexico into hell. “First it was Colombia, now it’s turned my country into hell and the United States could be next,” he said.

I wasn’t so sure about that. But he elaborated on this theme during his presentation by showing a slide called “The Monster in the U.S. Basement.” It turned out this monster in the basement, as he put it, is the one million gang members living in the United States. That coupled with the U.S.’s lax gun purchasing rules and the ability to buy assault weapons could convert our cities into something like what’s happening in Juarez. (He didn’t make the Juarez analogy I did.)

What could prevent this from happening? He asked rhetorically. I heard a deputy behind me mutter through clenched teeth “Two million armed law officers.” He and his partner smiled at their joke.

Moutsatsos then made the point that there are 7,000 authorized gun dealers along the U.S.-Mexico border.  Much of the arsenal owned by Mexican narcotraffickers comes from the United States.

“The same argument about Mexico supplying drugs needs to be applied to the U.S. as well with arms,” he told the sheriffs.

Moutsatsos suggested that the federal ban on assault weapons be reinstated.  “It would be a hell of a good start and helpful to Mexico in its fight against crime. Don’t tell me Americans need an Ak-47 to feel safe?” he joked.

I looked around the room. No one was smiling. You could practically hear the wind whistling under the doors of the conference room it was so quiet.

Next he suggested that the United States government create a civilian firearm ownership registry. “I think it’s crazy that guns sell like pancakes in the United States and the government doesn’t know who has them,” he said.

Imagine if Obama tried to start a civilian firearm ownership registry? The entire country nearly ran out of ammo a few months ago because someone said that someone said that he might reinstate the ban on assault weapons.

Anyway, I digress. The next statement was guaranteed to be an even bigger crowd pleaser. He made the point that 50 percent of narcotraffickers’ profits come from marijuana. “You’ve already legalized it in 13 states,” he said referring to medical marijuana laws. “You’ve legalized the consumption but not the production.”

I think the man is on to something there.

Moutsatos says he doesn’t see Mexico’s battle against narcotraffickers as a war at all. “In a war you are killing the enemy, but our objective is to bring the enemy to justice and strengthen the rule of law in our country,” then he added. ” A war is something you can win or lose. We’re never going to have a clear victory this is going to be a continuous pursuit.”

With that he wrapped up his presentation. In the end it was more about what the United States could do to help Mexico in its fight against narcotraffickers than it was about Mexico’s efforts. In most presentations by U.S. officials they do just the opposite, they harp more on what Mexico can do to help the U.S. fight the narcos.

It struck me that Mexico and the United States are like two siblings with different fathers who keep hurling blame at each other for the bloody narcotrafficking mess. The long and complicated history between our countries makes it difficult to foster trust or to work together on coordinated law enforcement and intelligence efforts. We have so much in common yet we see things so differently.

Until we can get past the distrust and long held grievances we’re not going to make much of a dent in the problem.

U.S.-Mexico Border Czar Alan Bersin paid border sheriffs a visit yesterday in Yuma at their annual southwestern border sheriff’s conference.

What in the @$#& am I doing in Yuma you ask? It’s 103 degrees today.  I’ve asked myself that question a couple of times since I arrived here to cover the conference. Especially since I’ve come down with some terrible cold – I don’t think it’s the dreaded ham fever as we call it jokingly around the del Bosque household – no offense to pork products.

Let’s just say it’s a long story (well not that long) that will soon be told in an upcoming issue of the Observer. Stay tuned!

So what was on Bersin’s mind?  A pretty wide range of things starting with embracing 287 (g) (I’ll explain in a little bit), offering a helping hand to Mexican law enforcement and accepting that social networking should be a part of law enforcement.

The border sheriffs are a tough audience. They are a no nonsense bunch of blue-collar guys who wear handcuffs on their belts and pack heat. When they don’t like something they start to grumble or check their phones for messages. Some just close their eyes and take a snooze.

Bersin wears a tie and has a chummy yet absentminded Ivy League college professor demeanor. He’s no stranger to a podium. At times it seemed like he was lecturing a class of college freshmen.

At least he doesn’t show up in desert fatigues like he’s visiting Afghanistan. Former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and the previous Bush Administartion officials were very fond of khaki ensembles.

Bersin does travel with more handlers than Cher, however.  He was trailed by at least 10 Border Patrol and government public affairs officers.  I tried to ask him a question after his presentation and they waved me away and whisked him out the back door of the Indian casino where the sheriff’s conference was being held.

I looked around the hallway. It was just me and two local TV camera crews for chrissakes, not a ravenous media pack.

In contrast Ariel Moutsatsos, a special advisor to Mexico’s attorney general showed up alone after a flight from Mexico City to brief the sheriffs on Mexico’s efforts to fight drug trafficking. Several officials from the Mexico’s attorney general’s office have been assassinated for investigating cartel crimes in the past few months.  Of course Moutsatsos is much safer in Yuma than Juarez but I was surprised to see him travelling alone. Maybe Bersin could have shared some of his crew with Moutsatsos?

Anyway, back to Bersin’s speech. He made a pitch that Sheriffs start using 287 (g) under DHS’s new guidelines. I haven’t read these new guidelines yet. But here’s the controversy over 287 (g) in a nutshell (folks, please correct me if I am wrong): many human rights and immigrant advocates and some law enforcement hate it because it means they have to do a federal immigration officer’s job. In the past it has been very controversial because some law enforcement officials used it to deport undocumented immigrants in their jails. This undermined trust between immigrant communities and law enforcement.

Bersin argues that many communities will be okay with 287 (g) if it is used to deport criminals only and not people who have committed a civil offense by crossing illegally to work in the United States:

“287 (g) is not about using immigration law to pursue a painter or a construction worker. Yes those people acted illegally when they entered this country…but this can be a tool to remove dangerous criminals from other countries.”

Bersin said that for many local officials 287 (g) has been a “political nightmare.”

“I am asking you to be open. We need to deal with the perception among law enforcement that 287 (g) is a political nightmare for local officials and the best people to persuade them that it is doable are the local sheriffs.”

He also asked the sheriffs to put aside their negative experiences and prejiduces against Mexican law enforcement. He suggested that the sheriffs make an effort to train law enforcement agencies in Mexico. (He didn’t explain whether Mexico would welcome U.S. law enforcement training.) Bersin called Mexican President Felipe Calderon one of the bravest political leaders since WWII for his battle againt narco traffickers and against government corruption.

“Here is a political leader that has basically acknowledged that state and local law enforcement is unreliable and corrupted. It’s an extraordinary admission for a political leader to make,” he said. Bersin said Calderon was using the Mexican Army for basic public safety purposes until he could rebuild law enforcement.

He predicted it would take Mexico at least a generation to root out the corruption and rebuild law enforcement. He equated it with the U.S.’s own battle for many years to fix corrupted law enforcement agencies. “We raised the pay, the status and the education and created accountability systems. It took us a long time in some agencies to create honest law enforcement,” he said.

He told them that in an effort to coordinate more with Mexican officials, the new Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske who is the former police chief of Seattle has invited several law enforcement officials from Mexico to the upcoming International Association of the Chiefs of Police conference in Denver in October.

“I’m asking you to seek out honest cops in Mexico, local heroes and put out your hand to the honest effective law enforcement,” he said. “I hope you will embrace them as IACP has.”

Apparently, one of the biggest threats to law enforcement these days is Facebook and Twitter. A lot of Sheriffs are not too happy about it as they imagine their deputies twittering away their time. The Department of Homeland Secuity has plunged into social media by starting a blog and hooking up with Facebook and Twitter. Bersin launched into a rambling bit about how law enforcement is undergoing a labor transition. The new younger employees use Facebook and Twitter to communciate, he told the sheriffs many of whom are in their 50s and 60s.

“We can put our heads in the sand and say that’s not where the world is going but we would be out of step with where young people are in the world,” he told them. Obviously social media wouldn’t be used for sensitive law enforcement intelligence, Bersin said, but it could be used to “build communities of interest and undertsand what people are thinking.”

There was some grumbling and phone message checking among the sheriffs at Bersin’s comments. Clearly, they were not buying the social networking spiel. It looks like Bersin may not be Border Czar for much longer anyway. He is up for confirmation to be the new commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

After that Bersin took a couple of questions from the sheriffs then was out the door. Cher, I mean Bersin, had left the building.