This is something i wrote in response to this article and particularly because Sheriff Joe went into Buckeye claiming he was trying to do something about the crime against immigrants there. I had been thinking a lot about how the violent crimes exist because of the illegal status of unauthorized immigration as well as the drug trade.
the article talks about the violence in border towns in mexico, but since it's also touching areas in the u.s. it also relates to the latest sheriff's sweeps.
it is so fucked up that the sheriff is justifying his sweep by talking about the violence people face due to human smuggling. it gets violent because it's illegal! if it wasn't illegal, if it wasn't so hard to cross the border and find work, if there wasn't a shit ton of money to make off vulnerable desperate people, there wouldn't be that violence involved. how dare they claim to care about this violence when they perpetuate it. not only do they allow it to happen, they do it themselves by terrorizing the immigrant communities, arresting people, putting them in detention centers, many of them run by private corporations for profit. of course when there's profit involved there's going to be bad conditions that cause health problems, violence, and death. the police and the detention centers are just as much to blame, if not more, for the violence that undocumented people face.
criminalizing people and activities makes it easier to paint certain types of people criminals. make it so the only way to make money is to get into the drug and/or human smuggling business, make it so people can be held for ransom with no hope for help from the police (except when the police wants to find them to throw them in detention centers and make themselves out as heroes), make it that profitable for a section of the population to get into organized crime and then allow it to reflect on everyone else in that population by stereotyping and scapegoating and use it as an excuse to terrorize everyone in that community.
if you really want to stop the violence, stop criminalizing immigrants. stop criminalizing drugs. stop criminalizing all people of color.
but we know they don't care about the violence because they are just as guilty. they kidnap people, kill people, make money off them.
(check out this video too: On the Edge - Part 6 of 10 - Narco-trafficking)
Feds have plan if Mexico drug violence spills over
If Mexican drug violence spills across the U.S. border, Homeland Security officials say they have a contingency plan to assist border areas that includes bringing in the military.
“It’s a common sense extension of our continued work with our state, local, and tribal partners in securing the southwest border,” DHS spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said Friday...
The plan includes federal homeland security agents helping local authorities and maybe even military assistance from the Department of Defense, possibly including aircraft, armored vehicles and special teams to go to areas overwhelmed with violence, authorities said...
In the last year, more than 5,000 people have been killed and police and military officials have become common targets for violent drug cartels who are fighting with each other and the government for control of lucrative drug and human smuggling routes across Mexico.
More than one-fifth of the deaths have occurred in Ciudad Juarez, the hardscrabble border city just across the Rio Grande from El Paso.
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