I left the border by train

I left the border by train.

I had arrived by the usual route from my home state of North Carolina; I flew to the large Dallas/Ft. Worth airport and continued on to El Paso.

But when I left, I left by train.

Although I am back home in NC now, I did not arrive here immediately.  The train I took was headed West to California.

I had a chance to say one final adios to El Paso, Cd. Juarez, even the Asarco stack as the train hugged the border on its way out of Texas.

I spent nearly my entire train trip talking to people in the Club/Observation Car.  I spoke to a retired black woman

traveling with her granddaughter back to California after spending the summer in Arkansas and Texas with family; a portly woman traveling with her son from Florida back to their home in CA (because of the routes they had traveled through Chicago first, though!), a middle-aged white man from Rhode Island with a background in diplomacy and intelligence who was traveling to Arizona to administer some kind of program to the military; and a hispanic man in his 30s who teaches 2nd grade in Lynwood, CA. I talked to each of them for a while, and I really encourage anyone who has the time to take at least one long train ride during their lifetime, preferably outside New England.  You will likely meet at least a couple people you wish you hadn’t but it’s worth it.  I had real conversations with people I would likely never have spoken to otherwise.

The train-ride gave me time to reflect and decompress, though I can say throughout the 16-hour ride, I slept very little.

When I arrived at Union Station in Los Angeles, California I had a week of fun with a great friend awaiting me, but I have to say, my head was still stuck in El Paso a little bit. Perhaps it was just the lack of sleep. Unlike last summer, my first summer on the border, there were no tears.  I felt like I had accomplished and learned what I had wanted to.  I have been to El Paso three times now (last summer, winter break and this summer), so whether it will be sooner or later, my return feels pretty inevitable. This was no final goodbye.

Hasta la vista, El Paso y la frontera.

Putting a face to an A#/alias/pseudonym

Today I went to the EPSPC (the Detention Center),  and interviewed potential clients.  Las Americas gets phone calls all the time from people in detention, or their family members, hoping to get assistance.  We get minimal biographic information over the phone, and that which is collected is often erroneous.  What’s most important is to obtain the detainee’s A-Number.

The A# is an identification number used by the various immigration related agencies that fall under the umbrella of DHS (Department of Homeland Security), including ICE, CBP and USCIS.  I could go on about how we should not be identifying non-criminals by numbers, but rather their names, but that argument is pretty weak.  A lot of the detainees, for example, use aliases  because of their fear of persecution.

We handed the ICE agent the necessary form for each detainee we were going to interview so that they could bring them over to that part of the facility. And then we waited.

We actually did not have to wait that long, at least in comparison to other visits I’ve made.

Andrea and I interviewed four people [I will continue with pseudonyms]:

(1) Rosa is a middle-aged woman from Juarez who has been living in the USA for nearly 10 years.  Another woman who had been threatening her, who allegedly wanted to steal her boyfriend, called Immigration since she knew of Rosa’s undocumented status.  A plainclothes ICE agent brought Rosa in and detained her.

Judging the Judge, part 2

In my previous post, I began to probe [I feel myself slipping into border talk...finding words in English and Spanish that sound similar and that have similar meanings right now, ie probar-to try, prove, test / probe- to poke at] the issue of Judges in immigration court.  They play a really great role in deciding individual cases and setting a standard for the rest.

I cannot find the specific figures on the number of Mexicans granted political asylum in the United States from the El Paso Immigration Court, but in the past few years, these cases have been denied across the board.

Although El Paso’s judges are tough on all asylum seekers as I pointed out in my last post, only ONE of the many Mexican asylum seekers has been granted relief.  Cipriana Jurado, a human rights activist in Cd. Juarez and Mexico in general, was granted asylum through the affirmative process.  Because Cipriana already had a Visa to be in the United States, rather than presenting herself at the Bridge between Cd. Juarez and Mexico as do many, she was not detained and was not required to go before a judge as a part of her asylum application.

Judging the Judge: Yeah, it’s meta, folks.

Throughout the summer, and especially over the past few days, I have been thinking a lot about the impact that individual immigration judges have on the lives of large classes of people.  There are about five immigration judges in El Paso who rule on countless cases each year.  These five judges not only review the cases of people detained after crossing in the El Paso area, but also immigrants from all over America who are transferred to El Paso for their cases.

As you may already know, immigration is handled by the Federal government (although recently some states seem to be confused about that).  Depending on the court’s venue, the judge follows the case law of the circuit to which it belongs.  Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, belong to the Fifth Circuit.  From what I have seen, Texas seems to live up to its reputation of being tough on “crime”.

Recently the El Paso Times did a story on the asylum denial rate of El Paso immigration judges: 83%.  The national average for asylum denial is 53%.

A little behind, but Speed(y)ing up

I’ve gotten behind on writing over this past week or so, though I’ve had the opportunity to do a lot of interesting things! I was able to take a couple of days off work and re-arrange some work hours since I had a special visitor in El Paso this last week. We were able to do a lot of entertaining, informative, and fun things…

• Hiking in the Franklin Mountains at McKelligon Canyon
  

We got up pretty early this past Saturday morning to go hiking in the Franklin Mountains in El Paso. It was very close- no more than a 20 minute drive from my house located in the downtown area.  Despite being just outside the city, it was a fairly strenuous hike.  At certain points it was more like rock climbing than hiking. The view was pretty incredible and we could see the far reaches of the city in the distance.  On the way down, I ended up sliding down feet first for certain stretches as it became increasingly steep. It was a great work out!

• Art museum, history museum

   We also hit up the downtown museum scene.  I had noticed the banner outside the El Paso Art Museum advertising the Paul Strand in Mexico exhibition, but I hadn’t yet made a trip over to see it.  So, in addition to visiting the museum’s permanent collection on display, I also paid the $5 to see the Strand exhibit.  I appreciated the photography, but I was particularly interested in the film piece that was played on loop at the far end of the gallery, Redes (1936).  Commissioned by the Mexican government, the half-hour-long film encouraged Mexican laborers to organize against unfair bosses.  The film depicted  fisherman, for whom the short film was named, uniting against their oppressors [Redes means nets].  In terms of cinematography and editing, Redes was not that impressive, despite Strand having crossed paths with the likes of Eisenstein. Of more interest to me, however, was how the message of the propaganda film relates to what Mexicans are dealing with today.  A friend recently brought a NYT book review of Jorge Castaneda‘s book Manana Forever? to my attention. I can’t say I’ve read the book, and I can’t cite the review directly because I have already exceeded my NYT article limit for the month (Brandeis, please work on making it more accessible for your students!), but the gist of Castaneda’s argument is that a major factor contributing to Mexico’s continued violence, governmental corruption, etc. is that Mexicans do not believe in collective action. Maybe someone needs to commission some more Paul Strands to make pro-organizing film propaganda. But you can bet it wouldn’t be the government this time, especially since the people against whom they better be organizing are primarily elected officials and military.

In addition to the art museum, we also went to the El Paso Museum of History , which also happened to be showing a very interesting exhibition.  It focused on the Mexican Revolution along the border.  It seemed to pay special attention to media (books. newspaper, pictures, newsreels, etc. ) during the Revolution, which I found to be particularly interesting.  I ended up snapping a lot of shots of the descriptions written by the curators in order to look up authors and artists they mentioned.

• Press conference for Emilio Gutierrez Soto

Even though I took a couple of days off work, I ended up going back to the office on one of them, last Friday, to attend a press conference about the case of Emilio Gutierrez [pictured in the middle wearing a pink shirt], a Mexican journalist who has made some headlines himself regarding some the articles he has written in recent years that criticize the Mexican government and military.  After being threatened back in 2005, Gutierrez filed a complaint with the federal Human Rights agency in Mexico after receiving threats from officials and following the raid of his home.  He is now applying for asylum in the United States with Carlos Spector [to the left of Emilio] as his attorney.

Recently back in June, Gutierrez finally received an official response from the Human Rights agency–over five years later.  In its response, the agency reported that the raid could not have happened on date X because the government did not conduct any raids on day Y. The report is full of blatant errors and holes, which demonstrates a total lack of respect for the process and its complainants.  It’s not entirely surprising, but as an American, it’s just a bit shocking for corruption to be so “in your face”. The agency goes even further, stating in its report that an investigation of the complaints will take place [it's a little late now, no?] and it will conducted by the military. Wait, is that allowed? Can the military investigate itself? The answer is NO.  As a result of this ridiculous response, Paso del Norte Civil Rights Project lawyer Chris Benoit [right of Emilio]  filed a petition against the state of Mexico with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a commission of the OAS [Organization of American States]. The petition claims the Mexican government is not doing enough to protect journalists from human-rights violations by the military. It will be interesting to hear the commission’s decision and how Mexico reacts, especially given that Mexico officially recognizes decisions made by the OAS.

• Music and dancing

We also had the chance to appreciate some live music at Music Under the Stars and took an outdoor Cumbia/Salsa dance lesson at Dancing in the City where a live band played.

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Eventually, I had to go back to work.  The beginning of this week was kind of rough.  I oscillated between feeling  overwhelmed/confused/frustrated by the work I was supposed to perform and feeling totally bored.  Today made up for it, though.

The two other interns and I accompanied Betsy to court this morning at the detention center for a hearing about the asylum case of a Somali woman.  Betsy had been able to get affidavits from legal experts in Mexico regarding the Mexican immigration system and their adjustment process, as I described would be necessary in my previous blog post.  We needed to show that she had not been offered a path to “firm resettlement” in Mexico, through which she had passed in order to arrive in the US.  In order to officially submit their expert testimony documents as evidence, however, the government had to be afforded the opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses.  That”s a bit difficult when they are located in Juarez and Mexico City, however.  The plan was to reach the two expert witnesses telephonically.  This proved to be more difficult than any of us anticipated. Because it was an international call, Betsy had purchased a phone card for the government to use [with her own money b/c she's a saint].  I was really glad that we interns were there, because I am pretty sure that the Judge was more patient as a result.  I took detailed notes for us to review later. We were eventually able to reach one of the two expert witnesses, however, he was the weaker of the pair. We have scheduled a follow-up hearing for later in the month in order to try and get the more credible of the two.  I hope it works out and the Somali woman is considered eligible to pursue her asylum claim.

After the hearing, another intern and I had been planning to meet with several detainees to talk about their cases.  As has been apparent in many posts, I haven’t had any trouble getting into the visitation area. I had a background check and my name was on the list. The end. Not so today. Somehow they magically only had the old  list, which had names of employees at Las Americas that I’d never even heard of.  We headed back to the Las Americas office since there was nothing more we were allowed to do at the detention center.

When we arrived back at the office around 12:40 PM, we found out that the matters pertaining to one of those clients were very urgent: we had to submit his asylum application by 3:30pm and we didn’t have his declaration [a written statement explaining the relevant details of an event or circumstance] ready to go! We knew that the volunteer attorney who had been working on his case, Seigi, would be able to see the client because he’s a lawyer and has a “bar card” to prove it.  Seigi, however, doesn’t speak Spanish. Either I or Kimee would normally just go with him and translate, but they won’t let us in! The director as Las Americas made a few calls…repeatedly… and eventually the EPSC (detention center) acquiesced and stated that Kimee and I were indeed on the list.

-Seigi and I drive over there and finally get in to see the client around 2:15 pm.

-When we see him, we find out that he hasn’t written his declaration yet! Great. I explain to him what he needs to write, and he starts scribbling.  As he finishes a page, I read through it, translating to English as I go so Seigi can review it with me.

-The clock is ticking!

-We leave sometime after 3:00 pm and rush down the street to Eddie’s new office to use his copier and printer.  I feverishly bang out the translation of his three-page declaration on my laptop as we speed down the street in Seigi’s Mustang.

-We run into Eddie’s office and I keep translating.  I’ve never translated a document that quickly in my life.  I look up one word, alacran, and then it’s done. We print it out. We make copies. It’s 3:26.

-We have to have it stamped by 3:30 because their offices close early on Fridays.

-We rush out of there, go about 80 mph and make it to the EPSC at 3:31.  Seigi runs in to get the brief stamped, but they’ve already pulled the curtain at the window.  He starts talking to the person behind the curtain, though he knows they’ve closed up.  Then he spots it…her Libra tattoo. He recognizes it because he’s a Libra, too. “Libras get along with each other. Wanna help another Libra out?“

-The briefs are stamped 3:32.  Mission accomplished.

Speedy Gonzales and I had quite a bit in common this afternoon!

my beef with border patrol

Friday was Las Americas’ first day without its managing attorney,Eddy. He is starting his own private practice and for the month of July will only be working at Las Americas part time. There is plenty of work to be done, but somehow, between the absence of Eddy and the long weekend on the horizon, things just moved a bit slower.  Andrea, Kimee, and I ended up leaving early and went on a semi-educational field-trip. We went to the National Border Patrol Museum.

With its Transmountain Road location, one cannot help but notice the unforgiving mountains and rocky, sandy terrain. It’s not as built-up and covered in asphalt and concrete as other parts of the city.

We went with the intention of learning what is it that they tell people, what is their narrative?

I wasn’t expecting to hear, see, or read (smell? taste?) anything that would leave me feeling especially satisfied. That wasn’t the objective.

to Socorro and back…twice.

El Diario came by Las Americas today to interview Alicia, a client from the Valley of Juarez seeking asylum in the US.  How did she get to Las Americas, you ask? The Andrea/Dara Express picked her up 45 minutes away and brought her there.  Ed sends us on the most random missions.

She’s pretty darn ballsy to be denouncing the Mexican military and police as being corrupt out in the open like this. Everyone knows it’s true, but it’s another thing to see it in print or to watch it on Youtube. I hope it doesn’t land her or her family in trouble.

Here is the article based on the interview she gave at Las Americas yesterday).

I’ve copied and pasted/translated a couple of short selections:

Narra cómo huyó, con su esposo herido, de militares mexicanos

[...]

Dice que desde el 2008, algunos miembros del Ejército Mexicano se han coludido con el crimen organizado en esa zona del estado de Chihuahua, fronteriza con Texas. Son varias las familias, agregó, a las que les han pedido sus tierras de siembra.

bullets, but not the deadly ones…

I find that the longer it’s been, the harder it is to catch up. No duh, Dara.

I merely wish to document a few things I’ve done in the past few days so I don’t forget them. Apologies for the lack of the usual witty commentary.

In no particular order:

• Met Rabbi Bach of Temple Mt. Sinai who is on the board at Las Americas. Very cool guy. Why you should care: The Catholic Church actually does NOT have a (complete) monopoly on social justice work in El Paso, contrary to my initial impression. They may do most of it, but not all.
• Went to press conference for Marisol Valles Garcia, the 21-year-old former police chief of Praxedis G. Guerrero in the Valley of Juarez, an area known to be exceedingly dangerous due to its lucrative location for the drug trade. After persecution and many threats, Marisol –aka the bravest woman in Mexico– and her family are seeking asylum in the US.  Her attorney is Carlos Spector, an outspoken El Paso immigration attorney whose office is located across the street from Las Americas. [He's the gingery-looking guy to the left of Marisol in the video].  I was amazed by how tiny she was.

Filing (feeling?) to the max

What have I been doing over the past few days? Alphabetizing, Binding, Classifying, Dividing, [insert E-word here], Filing, [om]G.

In previous posts I had talked about how happy I was to be doing so many exciting things.  I think I’ve been paying the price over the past couple of days, though. Karma? Since the managing attorney will be leaving soon, we have been trying to get everything in order.

We went to the immigration court early on Monday morning, arriving at the detention facility at 8:15am. We discovered that the judge didn’t have the discretion in the case to re-evaluate our client’s credible fear interview [the first step to seeking asylum] because the client had a standing deportation order.  What’s funny is that the judge in question had been the one to  order his deportation in the first place.  The execution of deportation orders is handled by ICE/border patrol, so it was out of his hands.  Oh, bureaucracy.

Anyway, so after that I met with a couple of clients in the detention center. First, with the client mentioned above, and then with a 2nd client to have her sign some documents for her U-Visa and to help her edit her “Declaration of Good Moral Character”.

Then, the waiting game began.

The devil is in the details

Las Americas has recently been working on the case of an El Salvadorean young woman X around my age who is seeking asylum. While in ES she had been living and working in the home of a particular family with its own host of issues; members of this family virtually enslaved her and abused her in nearly every possible way a woman can be abused. I have done a bit of research for her case, including

1. the legal protections (both in theory and in practice), or lack there of, in El Salvador for women in situations of domestic violence
2. current status of human rights in El Salvador in general
3. the location of her relative in the US

Yesterday, I offered to search for X’s relative after Betsy (the representative who is in charge of the case) mentioned that although we had the relative’s name, the phone number no longer worked. I joke with my friends at Brandeis that I know how to find out just about anything about a given person using my super-stalking-sleuthing-skills. I don’t whether that’s entirely true, but I have to say, they did return excellent results this time.

I first began my search for X’s relative by searching for her name, especially since the phone number didn’t work. I tried this for a while. No luck. Then, I decided to try doing a reverse phone look-up. Although the number was no longer in service, there was still a record for it. It turned out that the name X had gave us wasn’t correct…a couple of letters had been left out. The location and estimated age list seemed about right considering what X had told us about her relative (one whom she had never met, by the way).