By Miriam Raftery

Photo, left:  Lilian Serrano, Director, Southern Border Communities Coalition

May 18, 2023 (Jacumba Hot Springs) —the U.S. Immigration Policy Center (USIPC) at the University of California, San Diego, issued a blistering report accusing Border Patrol of endangering migrants’ lives by depriving them of food, water, shelter, medical care and other necessities. The damning report is titled Lives in Danger:  Seeking Asylum Against the Backdrop of Increased Border Enforcement. It was published on May 16, two days after ECM broke the story of some 1,000 to 2,000 migrants in Jacumba Hot Springs who were aided by residents after Border Patrol failed to provide food or shelter.

In addition, the nonprofit humanitarian group Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC) has filed a federal complaint with Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, alleging mistreatment of the Jacumba asylum-seekers and violations of both U.S. and international law.

Lilian Serrano, director of SBCC, told ECM in an interview for KNSJ radio that volunteers withessed ”families, children, elders waiting outdoors for days without access to food or water.”  Regarding filing the complaint, she said, ”Our hope is that we can find out why were there outdoor detention facilities in our area, what was the reasoning behind that, and why were agents in full, clear violation of their policy – but more importantly, what can we do to prevent this from every happening again? Because regardless of your situation, whether you are coming in for asylum or not, basic standards need to be met. We cannot allow another child to go hungry in front of a federal agent.”

By Miriam Raftery

May 6, 2022 (San Diego) -- Today, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a memo announcing the elimination of Border Patrol Critical Incident Teams (BPCITs), which critics have accused of repeatedly interfering with law enforcement investigations of agents involved in killing or harming community members. The memo shifts responsibility for investigating critical incidents to the Office of Professional Responsibility.

East County News Service

November 12, 2021 (San Diego) – A coalition of legal groups representing asylum seekers say that dozens of requests for urgent humanitarian parole have been ignored for weeks while others have been denied without adequate explanation.  The applicants include individuals and families with life-threatening medical conditions.

476 of 605 officer deaths in 2020 and 2021 in the U.S. were due to COVID-19

By Miriam Raftery

October 17, 2021 (San Diego) – Law enforcement officers risk their lives daily to protect the public. Yet many have voiced fear over COVID-19 vaccines as their unions push back against mandates.

The irony is that according to the “Officer Down Memorial Page,” the greatest risk by far to the lives of police and other law enforcement officers isn’t an armed criminal. In 2020 and 2021, COVID-19 killed by far more law enforcement officers nationally and statewide than anything else. In California last year, COVID took the lives of more officers than all other causes of death combined.

East County News Service

July 22, 2021 (Dulzura) --  Members of U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) San Diego Sector’s (SDC) Border Patrol Search, Trauma and Rescue (BORSTAR) team rescued a Mexican citizen yesterday who was lost in East County San Diego and suffering from a heat emergency.

By Miriam Raftery

February 11, 2019 (San Diego) – California Governor Gavin is withdrawing most of the 360 National Guard troops from deployment at the Mexican border, leaving in place a limited number to enforce drug smuggling laws.

By Ken Stone

Reprinted with permission from Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

Photo:  A Border Patrol agent walks along newly installed concertina wire at Border Field State Park. Photo by Chris Stone

January 9, 2019 (San Diego) - Albert Vieira, working as a border officer in San Diego, hasn’t been paid since the partial government shutdown began Dec. 22. Now he’s the named plaintiff in a major lawsuit against the federal government.

By Miriam Raftery

January 19, 2018 (San Diego’s East County) – A new report by humanitarian organizations  reveals that Border Patrol agents  have been systemically destroying water bottles left in desert areas for undocumented immigrants in the Arizona desert, condemning people to die of thirst.  While its unknown if this is occurring in California, this article in Britain’s The Guardian hit home for me in a visceral way, reminding me of an experience that brought me to tears.

On the 4^th of July In 2008, I rode alongwith Border Angels founder Enrique Morones. We discovered sabotage of water bottles his group had left in rugged locations--all slashed open, empty. My article, Dying to Come to America, was published in our very first edition of East County Magazine. Morones vividly described what it is like for people to die of dehydration – hallucinating, throwing off clothes and shoes. We saw the signs of this torment – a woman’s high-heeled shoe cast aside, a man’s crumpled shirt.  The heat was triple digits.

I went along to learn about experiences faced by people so desperate to come to America that they rely on water left by benevolent strangers to survive. I learned that coyotes, or human traffickers, often lie to the migrants, telling them it's just a short walk to freedom; some women dressed up to meet their husbands are unaware of the dangers. I choked up, imagining their pain. My story included photos of those slashed water bottles and graves of people--some so very young--who died crossing East County's rugged border mountains in their failed quest to find freedom.

“DHS policies confirm that ICE can target anyone who is removable for detention and deportation, even if they fall outside of the broad ‘priorities’ of the President’s executive order.” –Community advisory issued by the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild

By Miriam Raftery

April 2, 2017 (San Diego) – The National Immigration Project (NIP) of the National Lawyers Guild has issued a Community Advisory on memos issued by the Department of Homeland Security in late February  to implement President Donald Trump’s executive orders ramping up deportation of  immigrants.  The immigration attorneys warn of sweeping changes that represent “a major shift and escalation in immigration enforcement.”

The NIP includes legal and policy analysis of key changes in immigration enforcement that “we believe will most impact community defense strategies," along with tips and suggestions for immigrations and those who assist immigrations.

East County News Service

January 18, 2017 (San Diego) — In mid-October, the Border Patrol launched Task Force Otay, focused on targeting criminal organizations that exploit the vast network of human smuggling routes on Otay Mountain. Since the onset of Task Force Otay on October 16, Border Patrol agents arrested more than 1,000 people who illegally entered the U.S. on Otay Mountain. 

November 12, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) – A woman who ran a Border Patrol checkpoint in Pine Valley, after agents found a person hidden in her trunk, led authorities on a chase at speeds up to 120 miles per hour last night. 

The chase began shortly before 5 p.m. and continued for 30 miles, despite tack strips laid down to try and half the driver, who was in a Ford Mustang. Border Patrol and California Highway Patrol officers were involved in the pursuit. The driver exited the freeway in El Cajon, where she crashed into the back of a Jeep s at Madison and Second Street, Customs and Border Patrol reports.  The CHP site and several media outlets reported that the suspect struck more than one vehicle.

By Miriam Raftery

June 29, 2014 (San Diego) – The Border Patrol has announced that starting this week, it will bring undocumented Central American immigrants from Texas to California.  The first groups will include families, not unaccompanied minors, to ease overcrowding of facilities due to an influx of children fleeing violence in Central America.

The families will be brought to San Diego and El Centro to ease what President Barack Obama has called a humanitarian crisis. 

ABC News this week interviewed a 17 year old girl who was among those immigrants apprehended attempting to cross into the U.S.   In a tearful voice, she told them that she fled her home in Central America after her brother was murdered and a gang threatened her with harm if she would not join.  On her journey here, she was gang-raped by several men before reaching the U.S. She was  detained after reaching the U.S. but eventually released into custody of a relative in Florida, where she awaits an asylum hearing to determine if she can stay in the U.S. or not.

By Trevor Hill

June 5, 2014 (San Diego)--Last week, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP) finally released a report written by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) in February of 2013, which criticized the Border Patrol’s Use of Force policies. The release comes after months of public pressure applied by faith leaders, border communities, and law enforcement since the leakage of some of the report’s findings last November. This event marks a significant victory for those who oppose excessive use of force and support increased transparency in government agencies.