Justice

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The Alarming Rise of Migrant Deaths on U.S. Soil—And What to Do About It

 

More migrants’ lives could be saved with a few inexpensive adjustments in water availability, rescue beacons, and search-and-rescue capability. A directive by the Department of Homeland Security for the Border Patrol to establish water drums, particularly alongside rescue beacons, would be an important step to avoid preventable deaths on U.S. soil. Increasing the number of rescue beacons, as well as providing additional funds to expand Border Patrol Search, Trauma, and Rescue Unit teams (BORSTAR), particularly in southwest border sectors with high numbers of migrant deaths, could also help to assist migrants in distress.

Many of the recovered remains of migrants, which now number in the thousands, are unidentified. Local officials in Brooks County, Texas, estimate that the costs of dealing with the unidentified dead, including mortician fees and autopsies, amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. No unified procedure exists to process remains and DNA samples of bodies found in the border region. Many remains have not had their DNA sampled, and there has been no consolidated effort to match the DNA of unidentified remains with family members searching for missing loved ones.

Measures such as the following would greatly contribute to identifying these remains and provide answers to family members of missing migrants about the whereabouts of their loved ones:

  • Providing federal funding to counties and tribal governments for the handling and DNA analysis of migrant remains;
  • Creating a Missing Migrants program within the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs); and
  • Encouraging genetic laboratories receiving federal grant monies to process samples from unidentified remains and compare the resulting genetic profiles against samples from the relatives of missing migrants

Immigration reform legislation currently before the U.S. Senate (S. 744) includes billions of dollars in new funding for border security. It makes no mention, however, of steps to prevent needless deaths of migrants on U.S. soil, or to help cash-strapped counties identify the dead. The current bill offers an important legislative opportunity to stem the rise of this alarming human tragedy on the U.S. side of the border.

 

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Source: www.wola.org

 

Texas recently sent 1000 National Guard to the border. That should prevent some deaths. But we need to prevent all the deaths.

 

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Lives in limbo: A guide to who’s waiting for immigration reform

 

Immigration policy is leading to broken families, children in crisis and border deaths.

 

Since border security has increased, deaths of (im)migrants and refugees has escalated.

 

The data: This year, an average of 31,410 captives were held daily in U.S. detention facilities. In 2012, 478,000 foreign nationals were detained — an all-time high. Officially, 2013 saw the second-highest number of migrant remains found on the U.S.-Mexico border.

 

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Source: www.washingtonpost.com

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The process Congress wants to use for child migrants is a disaster

 

A secret UN report obtained by Vox reveals Border Patrol agents are failing to protect Mexican children.

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Mexican children are treated differently than Central American children at the border

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BY LAW, AGENTS SHOULD ASSUME CHILDREN ARE IN DANGER; IN PRACTICE, AGENTS ASSUME THEY’RE NOT

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It’s not that Central American kids need to be protected less; it’s that Mexican kids need to be protected more

 

Source: www.vox.com

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Why Are There No Black Men on Argentina’s Roster?

 

There are no black players on Argentina’s roster. Actually, there are hardly any black people left in Argentina period.

In colonial times, the proportion of Africans hovered around 50 per cent in half of Argentina’s provinces. General José de San Martín, the revolutionary who lead the charge to gain independence from Spanish rule, estimated that there were 400,000 Afro-Argentines who could be recruited to his armies. Black men made up 65 per cent of his troops.

 

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Source: www.huffingtonpost.ca

 

This article reminds me of what Germany did to Jews; of what the U.S. did to Native Americans; and of what the U.S. continues to do to Black and Brown people in the U.S.

#Genocide

 

In 2010 Native American’s made up about 1% of the U.S. population. They used to make up 100% before Europeans arrived.

 

Black and Brown people are targeted in the U.S. by Mass Incarceration, the War on Drugs, New Jim Crow, and Planned Parenthood Centers.

 

Planned Parenthood Centers are opened in Black and Brown communities to offer free birth control and abortions.

 

#PopulationControl

When the War on Drugs removes Black and Brown people from the community, that eliminates their ability to procreate while they are incarcerated. When they are released, they have a felony conviction and can’t get a decent job to support raising a family.

 

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The War On Drugs

 

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Let’s call it what is is – “Retroactive Abortion”! For example, if a million black men are incarcerated, two things happen. First, they offender usually lose their right to vote. Secondly, if you take a million  incarcerated black men and each of them could have on average three children, this would eliminate, based on this count, three million black people from existence, which means removing three million voters at some point.

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Source: thoughtprovokingperspectives.wordpress.com