CBP Complaints of Abuse of Migrants. Claims of Out of Control

Is Border Patrol out of control? Study points to abuse of migrants.

Critics say the study confirms that the Border Patrol lacks meaningful oversight. The growth of the Border Patrol and its potential role in immigration reform has brought the issue to the fore.

Tucson, Ariz.

A new study is adding to long-standing concerns that the Border Patrol is subject to inadequate oversight, with border-crossers claiming mistreatment and abuse at the hands of agents.

The issue has grown in importance as the Border Patrol itself has more than doubled in size during the past decade to more than 21,000 agents. The Border Patrol recorded 1.67 million apprehensions on the Southwest border form 2009 to 2012. With border enforcement central to immigration reform proposals in Washington, the Border Patrol's footprint could grow even further.
About 1 in 10 migrants detained for crossing the border illegally reported some form of physical abuse – such as hitting, kicking, and pushing – at the hands of border agents, according to the study, released this week by the Immigration Policy Center, a liberal think tank in Washington. And about 1 in 4 reported that while in custody they were yelled at, threatened, or verbally abused, some with nationalistic or ethnic slurs.

    

"This is an agency that has almost total impunity in many, many areas," says David Shirk, a border expert and political scientist at the University of San
 Diego who was not involved in the study. "We need the Border Patrol to take criticisms, to respond thoughtfully and seriously to these kinds of questions and
 allegations."
Under current practices, if an agent is reported for bad conduct, he says, "It all stays within the agency, and it is not subject to outside scrutiny."
For its part, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Customs and Border Enforcement, which includes the Border Patrol, did not respond directly to the study, but released a statement saying it takes seriously the safety of detainees as well as complaints against its employees.

 

"Accusations of alleged unlawful conduct on or off duty, are investigated thoroughly and if substantiated, appropriate action is taken," the statement reads.
The new study is based on interviews with 1,110 migrants surveyed shortly after deportation in six Mexican cities – Mexico City and the border cities of Nogales, Ciudad Juárez, Tijuana, Nuevo Laredo, and Mexicali – from 2009 to 2012. About 1 in 3 migrants said they did not recover possessions taken from them while in custody; such as money, clothing, jewelry, and identification cards. In addition, a handful of women reported inappropriate touching during searches.
"They felt the way they were searched was taken too far," says Daniel Martinez, a sociologist at Georgetown University who was a co-author of the study.
Researchers say the lack of oversight and accountability goes far beyond the Border Patrol.
"This is not a question of a few bad apples, this is a systematic and consistent problem at the institutional level," says Jeremy Slack, a researcher at the University of Arizona in Tucson who worked on the study.
The findings echo complaints from human-rights groups and border-watch organizations. Indeed, criticism against the Border Patrol has escalated in recent years as confrontations between border-crossers and agents have left several migrants dead on both sides of the border. Calls for greater oversight of the agency, as well for agents to stop firing guns against rock-throwers, have grown louder.
After a September report by the DHS inspector general concluded that many border agents were unclear on when to use lethal force, Customs and Border Protection announced new guidelines that included enhanced training, better record-keeping and more nonlethal tactics.
But in November, the agency rejected a recommendation from the nonprofit Police Executive Research Forum, which reviewed agency practices and policies, to eliminate deadly force against rock attacks.
"We shouldn't have carve-outs in our policy and say, except for this, except for that," Border Patrol chief Mike Fisher told the Associated Press. "Just to say that you shouldn't shoot at rock-throwers or vehicles for us, in our environment, was very problematic and could potentially put Border Patrol agents in danger."
To Erik Lee, executive director of the North American Research Partnership, a think tank that looks at the strategic relationship of the US, Canada, and Mexico, the study shows there is a long way to go. It is too early to assess if the new guidelines are having an impact on an agency that is resistant to change, he adds.
"The large issues remain, and it takes time for any of these agencies to change."

 

Mexican AG, confirms 6 have Symptoms of Radiation Poisoning

Tests conducted on 6 persons with symptoms of radiation sickness in Hidalgo, Mexico

Personnel of the Attorney General of the Republic in Hidalgo have applied security protocols on radioactive materials and instructed state health authorities to give medical attention to six persons exposed to cobalt-60.

According to the Hidalgo health secretary, Pedro Luis Noble Monterrubio, five adults and a 16-year-old male were in Pachuca General Hospital because of the symptoms they presented, which are associated with radiation exposure.

He confirmed that the Attorney General instructed them to care for more victims of exposure to the substance, used for medical purposes, and then to begin corresponding inquiries.

The state office of the Attorney General said that owing to the magnitude of the case, the Secretariat of the Government will release official information on the patients' health and the progress of the investigations.

Drug Krokodil or Desmorphine Effects

The dangerous Russian codeine creation known as krokodil has apparently spread to parts of Mexico and caused people to be desperate enough to inject it into sensitive body parts.
Desmorphine, also known as krokodil, a drug that is a cocktail of codeine and other chemicals, has mesmerized the media and the medical community due to its spread across countries and detrimental physical effects.
The Huffington Post reported that another addict has made headlines in Mexico based on where she injected the heroin-like concoction.
It reported on Friday that Mexican newspapers spoke to officials about a case where a 17-year-old woman administered the drug into her genitals.
"The young woman who used this drug had an infection that had rotted her genitals,” Mexico’s National Institute of Migration said in the report.
According to El Periodico Correro on Monday, the teenager from Jalisco, Mexico has been getting the drug for the past two months. She showed up to the Instituto Mexicano Social Security building with noticeable sores on her genital area.
Poorer areas have apparently taken to the drug because of its potency and low price. The most gruesome side effect is that the drug damages a person’s vascular system and triggers a rotting effect to limbs.
The effect makes people appear scaly like a crocodile, hence it’s street name.
Initial reports came out of Russia that the drug was spreading among poorer youth, but soon spread to other areas of the world.
A medical journal removed a suspected case of the drug in a patient from St. Louis, Missouri from a paper.
The St. Louis Dispatch reported on Tuesday that doctors claimed that they treated a man who injected krokodil and was suffering from missing tissue due to the drug.
St. Mary’s Health Center pulled the article over patient confidentiality concerns. Spokespeople said that the article was published too soon without a comprehensive review.
There have been very few cases of the drug in the state or elsewhere in the U.S.

radioactive high jackers, shipment recovered.

Officials were engaged Thursday in the delicate task of recovering a stolen shipment of highly radioactive cobalt-60 abandoned in a rural field in central Mexico state.
The material, which the International Atomic Energy Agency called "extremely dangerous," was found removed from its protective container. The pellets did not appear to have been damaged or broken up and there was no sign of contamination to the area, the agency said Thursday, quoting Mexican nuclear safety officials.
Juan Eibenschutz, director general of the National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards, said it could take at least two days to safely get the material into a secure container and transport it to a waste site.
"It's a very delicate operation," Eibenschutz said. "What's important is that the material has been located and the place is being watched to guarantee no one gets close."
The missing shipment of radioactive cobalt-60 was found Wednesday near where the stolen truck transporting the material was abandoned in central Mexico. The atomic energy agency said it has an activity of 3,000 curies, or Category 1, meaning "it would probably be fatal to be close to this amount of unshielded radioactive material for a period in the range of a few minutes to an hour."
Hospitals were on alert for people with radiation exposure, though none had been reported so far. Mardonio Jimenez, a physicist for Mexico's nuclear safety commission, said those who exposed themselves to the pellets could not contaminate others.
A family that found the empty container that had been used for the radioactive material was under medical observation, he told Milenio television. Hueypoxtla Mayor Javier Santillan later told the TV station that the family suffered no harm.

Alerts issued in 6 Mexican states

The cobalt-60 that was missing for nearly two days was left in a rural area about a kilometre from Hueypoxtla, a farm town of about 4,000 people. Officials said it posed no threat to the residents and there was no evacuation. Federal police and military units on the scene threw up an armed cordon about 500 meters around the site.
Alerts had been issued in six Mexican states and the capital when the cargo went missing, and also with customs officials to keep the truck from crossing the border, Eibenschutz said.
The White House said Thursday the Obama administration has no reason to believe that the stolen shipment posed a threat to the United States. White House spokesman Jay Carney said that U.S. President Barack Obama was briefed about the status of the shipment Wednesday.
But townspeople complained they hadn't been given any information about what had been found in the nearby field.
"We just want to know," Maria del Socorro Rostro Salazar, a lawyer who has lived in the town eight years. "There's a kindergarten about 50 meters away [from the cordoned area] and they were operating normally yesterday. No one told them the container was nearby."
The cargo truck hauling the cobalt-60 was stolen from a gas station early Monday in the neighbouring state of Hidalgo, about 40 kilometres from where the material was recovered, Jimenez said.
The material had been removed from obsolete radiation therapy equipment at a hospital in the northern city of Tijuana and was being transported to nuclear waste facility in the state of Mexico, which borders Mexico City.
Eibenschutz said there was nothing to indicate the thieves were after the cobalt or in any way intended for an act of terrorism. The thieves most likely wanted the white 2007 Volkswagen cargo vehicle with a moveable platform and crane, he said.

Truck stolen at gunpoint

According to authorities, a truck marked "Transportes Ortiz" left Tijuana on Nov. 28 and was headed to the storage facility when the driver stopped to rest at a gas station in Tepojaco, in Hidalgo state north of Mexico City.
The driver told authorities he was sleeping in the truck when two men with a gun approached him. They made him get out, tied his hands and feet and left him in a vacant lot nearby.
Eibenschutz said the transport company did not follow proper procedures and should have had GPS and security with the truck.
"The driver also lacked common sense because he decided to park along a highway so he could sleep," he said.
The company that owns the truck couldn't immediately be located for comment. One Mexico City company called "Transportes Ortiz" said the truck was not theirs and they had nothing to do with the incident.

Selena Gomez to headline BorderFest 2014

Pop singer Selena Gomez is returning to the Rio Grande Valley to headline BorderFest 2014.
Festival organizers made the announcement during a Friday morning press conference.
The theme for BorderFest 2014 is "Celebrating Argentina."
Gomez is scheduled to appear at the State Farm Arena on Saturday, March 8th.
Tickets for the show go on sale at 10 a.m. on Saturday, December 14th.
According to the singer's website, she will spend January and February on tour in Japan, China, Malaysia and Australia before coming to Hidalgo.
The former Disney Channel star-turned-pop princess is no stranger to the Valley.
Gomez previously headlined BorderFest back in April 2011.

Thieves Likely to Die via Stolen Cobalt-60

Stolen Cobalt-60 Found;

 

A cargo truck stolen early on Tuesday while transporting cobalt-60, a radioactive cobalt isotope, was found yesterday afternoon. The truck, along with its contents, had been abandoned in a rural area about a kilometer from the farm town of Hueypoxtla, Mexico, the National Post reported.

Mexican authorities had been searching urgently for the truck — and its contents — since it was nabbed by two armed men en route to a nuclear waste storage facility.

During the search there was some concern that the thieves had stolen the cobalt-60, originally used for radiation therapy in a Tijuana hospital, to make a “dirty bomb” — in other words, a bomb that uses conventional explosives to “disperse radiation from a radioactive source,” as per CBC News. However, the consensus now is that the men were only after the truck and its movable platform and crane.

Mardonio Jimenez, a physicist and high-ranking official with Mexico’s nuclear safety commission, told The Washington Post, “I believe, definitely, that the thieves did not know what they had. They were interested in the crane, in the vehicle.”

Unfortunately, in their ignorance, the men removed the cobalt-60 from its protective casing. Jimenez believes that as a result they will have “severe problems with radiation” and “will, without a doubt, die.” Residents of Hueypoxtla will not be affected.

Garment units in Mexico’s border regions to pay 16% VAT

November 29, 2013 (Mexico)

Garment manufacturing units in Mexico’s border regions would have to pay value-added tax (VAT) at the rate of 16 percent from January 1, 2014, as compared to the current VAT of 11 percent.   It is because Mexico’s Congress has passed a tax overhaul proposal of President Enrique Pena Nieto that would make changes to customs practices and raise the VAT on export assembly plants (known as maquiladoras) in the regions bordering the US.   The VAT increase in the border region states like Baja California Norte, including Tijuana, Rosa Lido, Ensenada and Tecate, will bring the tax in these area at par with the 16 percent VAT currently being paid by the businesses in the rest of Mexico.   The maquiladoras along the US-Mexico border had enjoyed a low tax rate for years, as they were intended to increase competitiveness of these regions with US cities, and thereby attract businesses to Mexico.   The new rules also mean an increase in the retail sales tax along the border, from the current 11 percent to 16 percent, to be effective from January 1, 2014.   The new reforms would especially trouble the Chinese-American garment manufacturers that produce apparel in the border areas between the US and Mexico.   Industry analysts opine that the American firms operating in the border areas might cut-down their operations, but may not move their plants back to the US, although President Barack Obama has outlined proposals to revive American manufacturing sector and bring back jobs to the US.   In 2012, there were 8,750 active apparel companies in Mexico, according to Cámara Nacional de la Industria del Vestido (CANAIVE or National Chamber of the Clothing Industry).