ustxtxb_obs_1993_03_12_50_00003-00000_000.pdf

I n most daily newspapers in the European Community large corporations soliciting employees include in their ads the requirement that applicants carry passports issued in one of the 12 member nations of the Community. What was finally negotiated by the Eurocrats who wrote the Treaty of Maastricht is the near-complete managed integration of 12 economies. “They eliminated remaining barriers to the free circulation of … workers in the Community,” wrote international trade lawyer Antonio Garrigues Walker. A proposal never seriously considered by the Americrats who negotiated North America Free Trade Agreement. The free movement of labor is the genie Presidents Clinton and Salinas cannot let out of the bottle. The tacit \(and perhaps reasonparity of levels of income between the Canadian/American and Mexican workers, one border must remain closed. But at what cost? “In Juarez by dark,” was the rule recited to me by domestic workers who cross into El Paso each morning. “Never cross alone near the Puente Negro,” a woman told me, referring to the black railroad bridge where gangs of cholos lay in wait for day laborers. She said she is reassured by the presence of the Border Patrol Suburbans when she returns home to Juarez in the afternoon. But many border crossers, both Mexican and American, don’t look so kindly on the officers of “la Migra”: The November courtroom fight waged by El Paso high school students determined to reassert their Constitutional rights of freedom from unreasonable search and Border Patrol officer in the shooting death of Dario Miranda Valenzuela at Nogales, Ariz. armed and hooded DEA agents on the house of an Rio Grande City Protestant minister. All suggest that federal law enforcement officials themselves often make the border a dangerous or inhospitable place. Last year El Paso Times reporter Paul Salopek undertook an investigative series on the Border Patrol in El Paso. That so much documented material appeared under the byline of one reporter is a tribute to Mr. Salopek. That the Times published such a critical story over three days in December in a place where the border patrol dominates the political and economic landscape is a tribute to the editors of the Times. We persuaded Mr. Salopek, who now lives in Washington, to condense his work into a magazine-length piece. As so many of the subjects of this story, and so many of those who most frequently come in contact with the Border Patrol, speak only Spanish, we decided on a journalistic experiment and translated Mr. Salopek’ s work. We publish it, with a special emphasis on circulation along both sides of the border, in the spirit of free trade. L.D. Vigilando la frontera puando las grandes empresas solicitan Nilempleados por medio de los peri6dicos publicados en los paises de la Communidad Europea, se menciona como requisito tener un pasaporte emitido por uno de doce paises que integran en la Communidad. Los eurocratas que redactaron el Tratado de Maastricht lograron una integracion casi completa de doce economias. Segtin dice Antonio Garrigues Walker, “eliminaron los obstaculos a la libre circulacion de obreros en la Comunidad.” Un prop6sito nunca considerado por los americratas que negociaron el tratado de libre comercio norteamericano. La libre circulacion de mano de obra es el genio que los Presidentes Clinton y Salinas no se atreven a sacar de la botella. El acuerdo taclos diferentes niveles de ingresos entre obreros canadienses-estadounidenses y los mexicanos, es que una frontera quede cerrada. I,Pero a que costo? “Por la noche en Juarez,” me contaron unas trabajadoras domesticas que cruzan el rio cada dia. Evitamos pasar solas cerca del Puento Negro”, refiriendose al lugar donde los cholos asaltan a los transeuntes que vuelven de su trabajo. Me contaron que la presencia de las Suburbans de la Border Patrol, para ellas es una garantia. Pero para muchos mexicanos y estadounidenses en la frontera la migra representa otra cosa. La demanda que en noviembre pasado llevaron ante la corte unos estudiantes de El Paso, denunciando las reiteradas violaciones de sus derechos constitucionales por parte de la Border Patrol. La absolucion de un agente acusado de matar a disparos a Dario Miranda Valenzuela en Nogales, Arizona. El asalto por agentes armadas y encapuchados de la DEA contra la casa de un ministro protestante en Rio Grande City. Todo esto sugiere que los agentes federales han hecho de la frontera un lugar peligroso e inhospitalario. Durante el ario pasado un reportero de The El Paso Times, Paul Salopek, realizo una raw THE TEXAS 111 server MARCH 12, 1992 VOLUME 85, No. 5 FEATURES Border Patrol’s Wall of Silence By Paul Salopek 1 Assuming Risk By Molly,Ivins 11 Iran-Contra Comes to A&M By Peter Cassidy 12 Give Bill a Chance By James Ridgeway 14 DEPARTMENTS Editorials 3, 4 Bad Bills 5 Books & the Culture Indochine: Autumn of an Empire Movie review by Steven G. Kellman 22 Political Intelligence 20 Special Report Border Patrol’s Wall of Silence Por Paul Salopek 24 Cover photos by Jeff Bowen and Alan Pogue serie de artIculos acerca de la Border Patrol en El Paso. Que tanto material documentado apareciese firmada por un solo periodista es algo loable. Como lo es que en una ciudad dominada por la presencia de la Border Patrol The El Paso Times publicase tal informacion. Persuadimos al senor Salopek, que ya vive en Washington, D.C., para que resumiera su investigacion. Debido a que muchas de las personas que aparecen, asi como muchos que tratan con el Border Patrol, son hispanoparlantes, decidimos llevar a cabo un experimento periodistico y traducirlo al espariol publicandolo bajo el espiritu de un comercio libre. L.D. Errata Due to an error in editing “Race from Hell,” the book review in the 2/26/93 issue incorrectly suggested that Edwin Edwards was defeated in his 1983 re-election bid. EDITORIALS Watching the Border THE TEXAS OBSERVER 3