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.

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.

(2) Maria is a middle-aged Filipino woman who has been in the USA for about 2 years.  She entered legally with a fiance visa and within a month of arrival married a US Citizen.  He physically and emotionally abused Maria and they got divorced 6 months later.  Maria failed to adjust her status because she did not have enough money and did not completely understand the process.

(3) Alberto is a middle-aged El Salvadoran man who has been in the US for about 5 years.  Before entering the US illegally he had been living in Mexico for over 20 years.  Alberto fears being deported to El Salvador, his country of origin, because of the terrible pandillas.

(4) Juan is a young El Salvadoran man who has been living in the US for under 5 years.  He fled El Salvador because of the pandillas who had been threatening and assaulting him, spending about 30 days in Mexico as he made it up to the United States. He entered illegally but now has a US Citizen girlfriend. He fears returning to El Salvador.

Who might have a shot? I wish I could say all of them, but I’d be lying. Before reading on, I encourage you to think about the basics of each case. Consider which ones you think might be able to stay, and why.

(1) At first, it may seem that Rosa  has no recourse.  After a few questions though, it appears that Rosa‘s family’s proximity to the border, like many other juarenses (people from Cd. Juarez) may have a positive effect on her case, and the rest of her life.  Rosa claims that her father, as stated on her birth certificate, is actually a native-born El Pasoan… a US Citizen, which means that she is also probably a citizen.  If Rosa  is able to get the paperwork together she will be able to claim her citizen status and leave the Detention Center in a better legal state than when she entered it.

(2) One fact that Maria has going for her is that she entered the US legally. She obtained a K-fiance visa since she was planning to marry a citizen. After hearing about the domestic violence she experience, my first thought was VAWA. 

The Violence Against Women Act   acknowledges the vulnerable position of undocumented people when they marry a USC (US Citizen) or LPR (Legal permanent resident).  Undocumented people can easily be manipulated and abused because their husband or wife can hold their immigration status hostage.  They can refuse to petition for them, or threaten to turn them into ICE if they don’t do what they say.  VAWA allows victims of domestic violence, when the abuse is committed by a USC or LPR spouse, to petition for themselves in order to adjust their immigration status.

My main concern about Maria’s case is that her marriage was so short, only 6 months (I am guessing its brevity is due to the abuse), and that the facts of how they met seem unclear.  It is possible that Maria was what we might call a “mail order bride”, and I do not know how that might affect her VAWA claim.

(3) Alberto may very well have good reason to fear returning to El Salvador, but he has zero case for asylum.. the only apparent recourse available to someone like him.  He was firmly resettled in Mexico.  Is there a way for him to be returned to Mexico rather than El Salvador? Perhaps. Let’s hope so. Otherwise, he’s got a long journey back to the north of Mexico where he had been living before.

(4) Juan might have an asylum case. Maybe.  He first has to pass a “credible fear” interview, a closed-door session with an immigration judge who will determine if Juan is afraid and may have a possible basis for applying. If so, Juan will need to show proof of past persecution by the gangs, perhaps by using scars, submitting affidavits or police reports from El Salvador.  Building an asylum case, even when the claim is sufficiently strong, can be extremely difficult.  If Juan is found not to have “credible fear”, the first step in being allowed to pursue an asylum application, he could appeal, but would then most likely be removed/deported.

As we interviewed Juan I realized towards the end why he looked so familiar.  During the first “master calendar” hearing I attended at the Immigration Court, there was a large group of detainees who were all in removal/deportation proceedings.  All of them were given deportation orders that day except for Juan. Juan said he was interested in asylum.  When i realized that I kind of knew who he was, I got so tongue-tied.  You have to maintain a certain amount of emotional distance, or you’ll just break after hearing so many of these stories.  Once I could place him, though, he was real.  That’s why I couldn’t speak.  He was suddenly one of the many good friends I made while at Annunciation House last year.  We could have been playing basketball after dinner or cleaning up the office together.

I know I said before that I shouldn’t criticize the A# system because it is so good at keeping track of people and their cases, especially when names may not always be consistent.

I have to say though, when I spoke with Juan I didn’t recognize his A#, the alias he provided ICE, or his real name which he divulged to me.

I recognized his bright eyes and serious look.  What had an impact on me this afternoon was a face. A familiar one.

Will things work out for Rosa, Maria, Alberto or Juan? At this point, who knows. Only time will tell.

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.

Cipriana presumably had an attorney help her write up her I-589 Asylum Application compiling relevant documentation, including a declaration of the past persecution that she and her family had faced as well as reports and articles documenting the Mexico’s “country conditions”.   All asylum-seekers go through this process, whether they are detained, paroled out of detention, or if they remain detained for the duration of the application process.

While asylum-seekers not applying affirmatively will go before a judge (those judges I mentioned by name in my last post) Cipriana went to the USCIS office and met with an Asylum Officer and went through a bureaucratic application process.  This USCIS representative presumably interviewed her to establish her credibility and reviewed the facts of her case as stated in her paper application and in the interview. This process is a bit easier on the applicant and usually much less intense.  If you are interested in learning more about what asylum officers do, I suggest watching a documentary titled Well-Founded Fear (2000).

If an affirmative asylum applicant does not get recommended for asylum with the asylum officer, they actually get a second chance in court, too, before a judge.  I’m not saying that the affirmative asylum application process is a cake-walk by any means, but there does seem to be more institutional lenience, or at least room for luck in terms of finding a sympathetic Asylum Officer, or one who’s having a good day.

Considering that the only Mexican to get asylum down here in El Paso in the recent past is Cipriana, who had an exceedingly strong case and who went before an Asylum Officer, rather than a judge, there is clearly something going on. That much has been clear to the people on the border for quite a while.

It’s clear that none of these judges wants to set a precedent for giving Mexicans asylum because they fear that the flood-gates will open.

I challenge these judges to think about the purpose of Asylum.

They need not open the doors for everyone. That’s not the point.

Right now, Mexico is generally not a safe place for its inhabitants, but for those people whose circumstances are truly exceptional, of which I have encountered a number during my time at Las Americas: take the time to read their applications before deciding to deny.

Listen to their stories objectively.

I’m not asking them to put on a powdered wig, but please consider taking off the hat of government attorney, at least until the case is over.

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%. This article is based on research conducted by Syracuse University, in which investigators profiled the Bench of immigration judges at each court location across the country.  Two judges in El Paso,  Abbott and Roepke, were given extended profiles in the research summarizing their personal record on asylum rulings.  J. Abbott had a denial rate for asylum cases of 74.6%. He rejected 144 asylum applications and granted 49. A plurality of those cases he reviewed were from Mexico and El Salvador, though 73% were from countries outside Latin America.  I’ve been in the courtroom a number of times with J. Abbott and I am very appreciative that he allowed us, the interns, into the courtroom to observe as the Las Americas attorneys did their jobs. That being said, I have noticed that although he seems to make an effort to be fair, he is naturally predisposed to doubting the immigrant and siding with the government.

Considering the origins of most Immigration judges, at least in El Paso, this should not be a surprise.  With few exceptions, nearly all Immigration judges are former trial attorneys who used to represent the government.  If you’ve been fighting for one side for decades, it should be no surprise that the same patterns of thinking persist, even if the uniform may have changed.

I have only been in J. Roepke’s courtroom once, so it’s hard for me to comment on his demeanor or habits, but his denial rate is even higher: he denies 96.7% of all asylum cases.  Roepke’s is the third highest denial rate among immigration judges nationwide.  J. Roepke is the sole judge responsible for seeing the detainees from the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral, New Mexico.  Typically detainees with the worst criminal records are sent to Otero, which has a higher security standard than the El Paso Processing Center.  In theory, I have no problem with rapists and murderers being detained apart from others, especially those whose only offense is crossing the border. As we all know too well, though, separate is rarely equal.  I’m not talking about the quality of the food, or beds, or anything like that (though there have been complaints on those grounds as well).  From what I have heard from clients and Annunciation House guests, being in detention is pretty awful, regardless of which Center it is.

What makes the Otero detention center particularly problematic in my eyes is its location.  Detainees at the Otero detention center are typically unable to attend their own court dates in person.  Only when special arrangements are made ahead of time can detainees can be connected telephonically in order to be “present” for their court dates. Furthermore,  because the detention center is located out in Chaparral, NM, lawyers, especially non-profit lawyers based out of El Paso who would represent indigent clients (which are most of them) don’t have the time or resources to go all the way out there.

Regardless of the facts of the case, if a client lacks legal representation he/she is much more likely to be removed (deported).  The Otero clients are (1) largely un- or under-represented and (2)  unable to attend their own hearings in person.  I’m not suggesting we give the felons at Otero a free-pass, but I do think that the rule of law requires they be afforded the same rights and protections that others facing the same proceedings are.

I may add more to this post later. It’s a serious topic. This is it for tonight, though.

• 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.

—————————-

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!

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.

When we first walked in, I asked if they had anyone who could talk to us or give us a guided tour.  We wanted to hear their side of the story, after all. After a little while, an older woman whose rheumatoid arthritis made getting around more challenging appeared.  She was the head curator of the museum.  Boy, did she like to talk.  She showed us a twenty-minute-long DVD that talked about the history of the Border Patrol (which ended up being a glorification video. We weren’t surprised.) In terms of scale, the museum reminded me of an old Coast Guard Museum that I visited a few summers ago on St. Simons Island, GA near Savannah. That museum also had a “history” video that glorified the Coast Guard. Cool. That video was informative and told a seemingly objective  version of history that highlighted its strengths and triumphs. That video did not, however, use a menacing husky-voiced narrator and images and heavy-metal music akin to some of the US Military recruitment advertisements that have appeared over the past few years.The Border Patrol Museum “history” video did.

But okay, fine. My sole objective is not to whine about it.

One of the main things that irked me in terms of content and rhetoric was the focus on September 11th.  Yes, Border Patrol received more funding after 9/11 because of its association with the new Department of Homeland Security. Fact. I don’t appreciate how the events of 9/11 were used over, and over, and over again to explain and justify EVERYTHING that they do.  I think it’s disgusting and disrespectful to repeatedly use the people who died on 9/11 to promote a certain political agenda. Yes, if you are concerned about Homeland Security, please point of flaws in the system, but you don’t need to exploit the pain and loss of the 9/11 victims’ families, an even that occurred TEN YEARS AGO to talk about concerns we have today. Really. Don’t juxtapose pictures of the Twin Towers with glorified images of Border Patrol. Please, just don’t.

Another important part of their narrative, aside from the repetition of the September 11th creed, was their humanitarian role. “We save countless lives every year.”  The curator, who we found out later is the wife of a former Border Patrol Chief in El Paso, told us how “sad” it was for a certain group of people who were being trafficked across the US/Mexico border. Apparently their coyote had brought them part of the way, and then abandoned them without water after having crossed into the US.

Nativists, if you really insist that English become the sole official language of the United States, please learn to use it correctly. Tortillas cannot possess things: they are inanimate objects.

“They would have died” she said, had it not been for the Border Patrol. Regardless of how I or anyone else feels, that logic is just silly. Yes, Border Patrol picked them up, gave them water, and then returned them to Mexico. They would  have died in the desert if those agents hadn’t picked them up.  Would those people have tried to cross in the desert there if Border Patrol hadn’t obstructed every other path? No.  Border Patrol forced them into the desert. I’m not the first to say this.  People don’t hire coyotes and spend their life savings for fun. They do it because they are fleeing terrible circumstances, possibly even death itself.  Thank goodness Border Patrol was there to save us from the situation they forced us into!

But beyond that, a greater problem I have with the humanitarian argument as support for Border Patrol on the US/Mexico border is this.  There are non-profit organizations like No More Deaths whose sole mission is preventing deaths of migrants in  the desert by filling up potable water stations.  They don’t advocate people crossing without documentation in the desert, but they don’t think “illegal entry” warrants a death sentence. We have due process in the United States… at least in theory.  Then why is Border Patrol going out of its way to arrest people for doing this kind of humanitarian work? It should ease the burden on Border Patrol, no?

Apparently not.  This is supposed to be a historical museum, not an episode of Glenn Beck.

As much as CBP/Border Patrol causes my gag-reflex to engage, I know they serve an important role. They are doing their jobs. If we had “open borders” I think chaos would likely ensue.  As it is now, however, Border Patrol is a swollen department. It is too big and has too many powers for its own–or anyone else’s–good.  Can we please, Congress, can we please come up with some POLICY changes for immigration so that we don’t have to stopper-up the border with CBP?

Thanks.

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.

“Me golpearon con una arma; me tiraron al piso, y después me pegaron en la espalda, en el estómago, con los pies”, narra. “Ellos querían las tierras, ya nos habían pedido cuota de 30 mil dólares, pero nosotros apenas sacábamos para la comida”.

She says that since 2008, some members of the Mexican Army have colluded with organized crime in this area of the state of Chihuahua, bordering with Texas. The families are varied, she added, those who have been asked for their farmlands.

‘They hit me with a weapon; they threw me to the floor, and afterwards they hit me in the back, the stomach, with their feet”, she told. ‘They wanted the land, they had already asked us for 30 thousand dollars, but we hardly were making enough for food.”

[...]

Eduardo Beckett, abogado de migración del organismo de El Paso, asegura que el caso tiene características valiosas para ser aprobado por el gobierno de Washington.

Afirma que miembros de las redes del narcotráfico que operan en el Valle de Juárez han cruzado la frontera y le han dejado amenazas de muerte en su propio domicilio, en Socorro, Texas, municipio ubicado del lado Este del Condado de El Paso.

Eduardo Beckett, the immigration lawyer from the organization in El Paso affirmed that the case has characteristics that merit approval by the government in Washington.

He affirms that members of the narcotics trafficking networks that operate in the Valley of Juarez have crossed the border and are leaving death threats at her own home, in Socorro, Texas, a municipality located to the east side of El Paso County.

[...]

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.
• Had a pot-luck farewell/thank you lunch for volunteer attorney Betty and office volunteer Benito.  It was tasty.
• Heard presentation by El Paso Victims Services Assistance with a focus on domestic violence. Cool. Money from traffic violations helps to fund the program.
• While cleaning out the file room, I found cases of Jews fleeing persecution in the former Soviet Union. One of them was a Jew from Odesa, Ukraine…the same city my paternal grandmother’s family fled due to pogroms (gov’t organized/provoked violence against Jews in the 1890s). Apparently 100 years wasn’t enough for the Ukrainians and Russians to clean up their act.  When I reached the end of the file I learned that he had won his case.
• Went to take a Zumba class at Fort Bliss since Kimee and Andrea both have military IDs due to their dad/stepdads. It is huge. The gym was really nice. The workout at the Zumba class down the street from where I’m staying left me more sore, though.
• Went swimming at the Marriott Double Tree pool in downtown El Paso. Hush! Got sunburned. It was over 108 degrees. My phone flashed a warning message TEMPERATURE and shut itself off.
• Learned the hard way at which times “the count” is performed at the El Paso Processing Center (detention center). 11am. 3pm. Some other time time too…im guessing 7pm.  Had a long conversation with Seigi, a volunteer attorney about a number things including but not limited to: the Casey Anthony case, the ills of junk food, which nightspots in EP are better than others, law school, how incredibly sickly the picture of Janet Napolitano looks compared to the healthy and vibrant looking one of Obama hanging beside it on the wall of the waiting room.
• Went to the Museo Urbano in el Segundo barrio. This eensy museum is dedicated to honoring the place of this poor, highly immigrant neighborhood in not only El Paso but also US history. One interesting display traced the residents of the building at 500 Oregon St., and I was shocked to see that one of the dates on the timeline was:

1971: Resident Nancy Green, daughter of Maria O. Palacios, is accepted to Brandeis University. Green is a cultural activist, educator, and musician.

I’ll write more later.

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. We had to meet with client #1 again in order to collect a payment, but they had just started “the count”.  The guards/officers take an official count of all the detainees three times a day, and we would have to wait until they had completed the count to meet with him. I ended up staying with another intern until after 11 am. We played hangman. It was a long day.

And it’s felt like a long week.

I am constantly reminded how important all of the work is though, even the mundane details of filing.  The services that Las Americas provides can be, and often are, mean the difference between life and death for the clients.  In addition to that service, which directly affects the clients, each and every person who works there is an advocate beyond each case.  A group of students participating in an academic program based out of UTEP for the summer, one focused on border security and related topics, came by Las Americas.

Our executive director Louie gave her spiel about the kind of work that Las Americas does, and then opened the floor to questions. I am certainly aware that other Americans feel* differently about these issues than I do. It’s a good reality check, though, to be faced with their questions and comments.

I spoke with this one woman who kept muttering under breath throughout Louie’s presentation. I just wanted to soften her up a bit, try and engage her in a conversation.  I’m talking about a woman who can’t get behind the DREAM Act, which is about as benign as you can get, in my opinion. Although we were coming from totally different perspectives, I appreciated that she would at least talk to me. I overheard this one guy saying that he had questions, but that he didn’t want to ask them because he knew they’d upset some people. I told him that I heard what he said, and encouraged him to go ahead and ask. He shrugged it off saying that he didn’t know enough to really ask his questions. It was a cop out.  I don’t like the woman who disagreed with me, per se, but I respect that she expressed her opinion and engaged in a conversation.

*If people truly THOUGHT about it critically, rather than just falling back on soundbites from their favorite conservative pundits, I really believe that most would end up at an understanding much closer to mine than that of Glenn Beck or Bill O’Reilly.  At this point, I both think and feel that the work we do is what’s right.

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).

I continued my search, this time entering the correct name. A result appeared on Linkedin of all places! For those of you who aren’t familiar with Linkedin, it’s basically Facebook for professionals: you can list your CV/resume, skills, job history, skills, etc.

X’s relative’s Linkedin profile was completely filled in. I found out that the relative had been in the US Army for decades, worked for a major computer company, and currently owned a restaurant. After finding the restaurant’s website and discovering that it featured El Salvadorean/Mexican fusion cuisine, I knew I had found the right person. I took down the phone number and passed it on to Betsy.

I found out from Betsy today that she had called the restaurant and asked to speak with the owner, X’s relative, and that it was indeed her! The relative has already written a certified letter saying that she would provide a place for X to stay and may even pay her bond so that she won’t have to stay in detention indefinitely while awaiting her case for asylum.

Reflecting on this whole process, I think it’s just incredible that despite everything X has been through, she was able to accurately remember this (now out-of-service) phone number, and that using the internet we were able to use it to speak to her relative and have a letter offering to provide for her needs the same day. Wow! Just a few years ago, we would have had to hire a private investigator to do all this. Despite all the criticism that internet technology and social media get for compromising privacy, at moments like this one, I can’t say I mind.

Today at work, related to another asylum-seeker’s case, I went with Betsy, Sergio (an awesome paralegal and scholar) and the other interns to El Instituto Nacional de Migracion which is located right at the Cordova Bridge of the Americas (the free bridge).

In a very recent asylum case , one whose decision was only released about a month ago, a new and challenging precedent was set. When the judge is considering whether to grant someone asylum, it is usually based upon his/her discretion considering the facts presented. That being said, however, there are certain conditions that BAR or that make it impossible for a judge to grant asylum, regardless of the rest of the facts. One of those conditions is a characteristic called “firm resettlement”. At face value, this bar to asylum makes complete sense. If a person has settled in another country where he/she is safe and can become a permanent resident or citizen then why should the US give up resources to accommodate them? This new case, the way it defines “firm resettlement” constitutes a real challenge to certain asylum seekers who have legitimate claims. The decision from the case states:

Evidence that permanent resident status is available to an alien under the law of the country of proposed resettlement may be sufficient to establish a prima facie showing an offer of firm resettlement, and a determination of firm resettlement is not contingent on whether the alien applies for that status”

When the asylum seeker in question, a Somali woman, was on her way to the US she traveled through Mexico. A fellow fleeing Somali told her that she needed to get a document from the Instituto Nacional de Migracion, the Mexican version of ICE before she went to the US to ask for asylum. When she went there the first time, she was told she had to pay money for the free service, so she went back the next day. The next day when she returned, no one tried to exact money from her she got the paper and then was detained for 20-some days. Soon thereafter she came to the US, bearing this document which including her picture. Although she had no other documents like a birth certificate or state-issued ID from when she fled Somalia, she had this proof of ID from Mexico. In the past, it was not uncommon for asylum seekers in a similar situation to use this kind of document to verify their identity in US immigration proceedings. So, Las Americas submitted it as a form of ID. Then, just as the case was about to go to trial and be done, the case I quoted above came out. It turns out that the document in Spanish, the one issued by the Mexican INM, might be construed by the government attorney to be an offer of permanent residence! Ridiculous, huh?

It turns out that the Somali asylum seeker didn’t need to get the document, didn’t need to present the document in court, and had no intention of staying in Mexico. I mean, there are Mexican filing for asylum in the United States because it’s so dangerous. Is that really a good place for a single black Somali woman to be seeking refuge? Anyway, because the Mexican government’s (which is known for being disorganized, unnecessarily bureaucratic and corrupt) INM has no official policy for people like the Somali woman we are representing when, we had to go to the INM office in Juarez at the bridge to get an official statement. We were nervous. Will they be able to give us what we need in time? The official request has been sent to DF (Mexico City) and hopefully we will know within the next week or so.

Oh boy. It’s never easy, is it?

——————–

In other news, Betsy generously took us out to lunch at the Rock n’ Roll Cafe near the bridge. I had a FANTASTIC (and cheap!) burrito de chiles rellenos. Mm! I’m definitely going back there. It’s hard to miss with its bubble-gum pink exterior.