July 2019 Issue [Folio]

“Just Keep Going North”

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At the border

I am called Ingrid and my mother is called Basilia and we left our house [in Guatemala] well. We came sad to look for a new life for my family. One risked life boarding the buses and the train fighting to reach the border. . . . There are persons that treated us well and others bad when they delivered us to the line. There were Mexicans that were telling the police how come the “guatemaltecos” came. I asked god why he had not come because that is my dream to go there.
—Entry (11/16/18) in the guest book…

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William T. Vollmann

was born in California in 1959. He has written many books and articles, some of which focus on the border.

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Arizona Daily Star, February 7, 2019 (Associated Press, “Migrant caravan detained in Mexican factory near US”).

Arizona Daily Star, February 7, 2019 (Associated Press, “Nogales tells federal gov’t to take down razor wire or face lawsuit”).

Arizona Daily Star, February 8, 2019. (Norma Coile, “Official: Driver shot after trying to run over CBP officer in Nogales”). At the DeConcini Port of Entry “the driver was shot by a CBP officer or officers.” Fortunately, another article on the same page hinted at some kind of happily-ever-after (Alan Fram and Andrew Taylor, Associated Press, “Prospects rise for accord on border security”).

Arizona Daily Star, February 7, 2019.

Needless to say, ICE looks on the sunnier side of this question: “The agency makes every effort to assist in placing family units with NGOs and faith-based organizations however when they cannot assist, we offer a courtesy ride to the nearest transportation hub to assist them in getting to their final destination,” a spokeswoman for the agency wrote in an email.

Other highlights from that interview:

“We understand that some folks from No More Deaths have been convicted recently for handing out water, and we were wondering whether it would be possible to meet one of those people.”

“Sure,” she replied. “So none of our defendants are currently doing interviews before sentencing, so that won’t be possible.” “Are there any water drops going on in the next few days that we could go on?”

“No. We generally need a few weeks’ notice to take journalists into the field, and we’ve had a really high volume of requests lately. You can definitely contact [name redacted] about going into the field in the future, but anytime we agree to take media into the field it’s taking our facilitators away from our programming.”

The sense of constraint was amplified by her manner of speech, for in the fashion of ideologues she spoke like a tape recording, not once directly responding to my own comments, not that these were particularly brilliant; all the same, I came away with a repellent impression that marred my gratitude for her commitment. How I had wanted to like her and help her! Would I have been as withholding had I been in her shoes? Maybe, if I knew whatever it was she did.

He probably meant 2017.

I met him exactly one month later.

At that time, around $56.

The fixer’s colloquial translation.

This might explain why no interviewee mentioned to me these wonderful accommodations.

“CBP facilities provide for the security, safety, and well-being of those in our custody, and are maintained in accordance with applicable laws and policies. These facilities are designed to be short term in nature and to house individuals until they can be processed, turned over to another agency or repatriated,” CBP said in an email.

This was followed by the acronym sondeh, which is a human-rights NGO in Sonora.

The cast of Trumpeters also included Kris Kobach, the former Kansas secretary of state, and Brandon Darby, the editor of Breitbart Texas.

Meanwhile, Rachel Wilson remarked: “One thing that really bothers Trump supporters is how many undocumented people there are in the United States. But that’s the direct result of the military buildup on the border. Once crossing the border became so difficult, people just stayed. That is the direct result of having extreme border barriers. So if you make it harder to cross, people will stay.”

I failed to ask him how far his sector went. CBP data tells us the following: there were a total of 4,911 border apprehensions in the Tucson sector in February 2019, when I visited. The following month there were 7,257.

Asked for corroboration, the Mexican policeman replied: “I really don’t have much to say about that because we don’t get information about that.”

I presume that she was named after not the town but the saint, whose gruesome martyrdom figures in one of Federico García Lorca’s great poems.

She informed me that some women in her cell wore khaki. “Orange is for the first crossing. Khaki is for more than one crossing or for false papers.” Rachel Wilson meanwhile stated: “Everyone has scrubs based on what level of threat. Highest is dark green; lowest is tan.”

ICE addressed this question with its usual transparency: “ ‘Classification’ is a process of categorizing detainees as low, medium or high custody and housing them accordingly. Research has shown that discretionary decisions about custody classification are more objective and consistent when guided by a process that systematically uses verifiable and documented information, and scores those factors appropriately. In making classification decisions, facilities use the recommended custody classification generated by the ICE Field Office, or utilize the ICE Custody Classification Worksheet (or similar system) to systematically produce a classification score for each detainee.”

Another sad detail. Eulalia could not simply state that her father had abandoned them; she must have never known him, since she needed to take her mother’s word for it.

I met her not quite eight months later, on February 13, 2019.

This word suggests that her conception of the American legal system was informed by the Guatemalan or Mexican one.

The interpreter and I could not quite entirely understand this sentence, but I have left it for its poetic value.

Who was Mexican.

In fact, there is no GEO facility in North Dakota.

Timothy McVeigh’s masterwork, I presume.

The ICE response to a fact-checking question about restraints may be of interest: “Restraints are used as a precaution against escape during transfer. The following restraint equipment is authorized: 1. handcuffs: stainless steel, 10 oz.; 2. leg irons: stainless steel and must meet the National Institute of Justice standard; 3. martin chain; 4. waist or belly chain: case-hardened chains with a minimum breaking strength of approximately 800 pounds; 5. handcuff cover: cases for the security of handcuffs used on high security detainees; 6. soft restraints: nylon/leather type with soft arm and leg cuffs containing soft belts with key locks; 7. plastic cuffs: disposable; and 8. any other ICE/ERO-approved restraint device.”

The border.

The Mexican policeman had in fact said that the number of would-be border crossers had increased in his sector. But “a bipartisan group of 58 former senior national security officials” stated that “illegal border crossings are near forty-year lows.” Homeland Security statistics indicate that from 2006 to 2016, “undetected unlawful entries” from Mexico fell from approximately 851,000 to around 62,000 (Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post, February 25, 2019 [“Ex-officials claim ‘no factual basis’ for wall emergency”]). (These were evidently per-year figures.)

Genevieve identified that place as “south of Nuevo León, smack in the middle of northern Mexico.”

Here I mentioned that I often saw transgender streetwalkers in Mexicali. She replied: “Unfortunately trans women often have to work in prostitution because there are no other jobs available to them.”

Emended for clarity from “turned the air conditioning up higher.”

The interpreter suspected that the events mentioned in the rest of this paragraph occurred slightly earlier in the ordeal.

For a partially different categorization of uniform colors, see Eulalia’s story above.

When I raised the matter with ICE, another spokeswoman wrote back: “Allegations of ICE detainees being physically chained to one another while in their designated living area without access to the restroom is [sic] factually incorrect. ICE detainees are able to move freely in their designated living spaces without physical restraints; they have full access to the restroom at their convenience.

“ICE cannot research or provide individual comment on any allegations of medical mistreatment without the specific details, including the names and signed privacy-waiver forms of the current or former detainees who have made these allegations.

“ICE is committed to ensuring that those in our custody reside in safe, secure and humane environments and under appropriate conditions of confinement.”

Presumably from “basement” injections of silicone or the equivalent during a breast-augmentation procedure.

Nobody else alleged this. Eulalia, for her part, said: “They draw blood; there’s a doctor. I’ve been really well, so I don’t go to the doctor often. They’ve never drawn my blood.” José, her fellow Eloy inmate, asked once to see the doctor, at which time they did draw his blood, but never again.

Presumably, “Port of Entry: Tucson.”

I have written that Eloy appeared white to me. Perhaps Rachel got to see more of it. The interpreter remembers that doors and other parts of the place were in fact blue.

According to ICE: “Pregnant females are not fitted with ankle monitors.”

He had three and a half years left to go.

Asked about the Sandinista regime, he opined: “In the past I thought they were normal people, but lately they have become corrupt and cruel.” About the Contras he said: “They’re from a war in the past. In a way we’re alike . . . ”

“Back when we started,” said the Mexican policeman who covered his face, “the majority was Hondurans, Russians, a few Cubans, Ukrainians.”

The Spanish word is hielera.

First he said “a woman judge.”

The other Nicaraguan José was unfamiliar with this phrase, or at least with my translation of it.

The imputation here must be that he was like a child.

In Venezuela.

A waiting place. Thanks to Brenda, Father Sean, and others, asylum seekers no longer needed to sit in the border line day and night.

A nun from the Missionary Sisters of the Eucharist.

For her part, the volunteer from No More Deaths cited “root causes of migration in U.S. foreign policy in Central and South America over the last thirty years.” As for illegal migration across the American border, she added, in a perfect contradiction of what the Trumpeter Swans kept arguing, “It also comes down to the militarization of the border, when they sealed the urban centers in the Nineties and directly pushed traffic out into these remote areas and weaponized the desert. In some ways these enforcement policies are a gift to the cartels, to really commodify human life” (emphasis added by W.T.V.).

“The permitting process was about civil penalties. It did not actually in the document include any criminal penalties unless you were going to be flying a drone. We kind of get a feeling from Fish and Wildlife that they do not feel that it is their job in any way to protect human life in the areas they have jurisdiction over,” she said.

On August 17, 2017, the four were discovered by an employee of the Fish and Wildlife Service, which, as the No More Deaths volunteer put it, “adjudicates” Cabeza Prieta, “and they had a conversation about whether or not our volunteers were with our organization and they said they were, and they asked whether we were putting out food and water, and they said they were. What’s in contest here is that they were driving on a road for about 0.8 miles. These roads are not designated for personal use. And then they were met by Fish and Wildlife, who took them back to an area where they had left food and water by Charlie Bell Well, which is a water catchment for animal use, not safe for human consumption. They had left a cache of water there because one of the ways people can get sick while traveling is by drinking contaminated water. And they were driven back to the Cabeza Prieta office. The Fish and Wildlife officer who met them took all the food and water and put it into his vehicle and drove it back to his office, and they were then given their supplies back after taking an inventory. That was kind of the last we heard of it until the case at some point was suggested for prosecution. On the day of that exchange our volunteers were not arrested. There was no indication that this would lead to anything besides a potential civil ticket.”

“What was the tone?”

“I think the Fish and Wildlife officer that day was fairly polite. They can be respectful in their enforcement of inhumane policies. And then there was no indication that this would lead to further charges. And then our volunteers were indeed charged criminally.”

Two counts of harboring and one of conspiracy.

She later remarked: “They [the Border Patrol] would like to target us because we are bringing to light instances of systemic abuse.”

I don’t think he was referring to the United States.

“Just Keep Going North”

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