[ad_1]
(Mexico City) – Human Rights Watch and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security say border deterrence policies have led to an increase in deaths and disappearances of migrants coming to the United States. Colibri Center for Human Rights In a web feature article published today.‘Nothing but bones’: 30 years of deadly deterrence at the U.S.-Mexico border” tells the story of nine people who died or went missing while trying to cross the southern border of the United States, and their surviving family members.
U.S. Border Patrol Reported About 10,000 people have died since 1994 Prevention through deterrence When first implemented, Local human rights organizations at the border believe This number may be Up to 80,000and thousands more are missing. The dead are mostly indigenous, brown, and black people.
“The death toll is staggering, but every death represents a person, a family, a community,” Ali SawyerU.S. border researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The U.S. government should end its policy of lethal border deterrence and enact policies that protect human life.”
Deterrence prevention and its derivatives are a series of policy Clearly targeted Forced illegal immigration By turning the southern border of the United States into a “hostile zone” and making crossing the southern border of the United States so dangerous that people don’t even attempt it, these policies intentionally direct migrants to crossings where their lives are at risk. Deterrence Policy include Punitive immigration policy and dangerous infrastructure such as borders wall,shaver metallic linearmed Soldier, Surveillance TechnologyIn Texas, River buoy equipped with saw blade and other infrastructure.
After being driven back to Mexico, criminal gangs and corrupt government officials systematically target migrants for kidnapping and violence, while missing persons reports Rarely resolved and humans Immigrant remains-A known Mass graves— Still unidentified.
Former Border Patrol officers who witnessed the first implementation of the “prevention by deterrence” measure told Human Rights Watch that when the U.S. government began directing migrants to more dangerous crossings, they saw an immediate spike in deaths. Death toll It is higher in the U.S.-Mexico border area.
Over the past three decades, “deterrence as prevention” and its derivatives have Proven ineffective Reducing immigration is harmful to both immigrants and Border Patrol agents. Agents say being asked to enforce deterrence policies that are inconsistent with their values has led to the Border Patrol’s Suicide rates hit record high.
Former President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden have both used deterrence tactics Targeting asylum seekersBiden Administration Close cooperation Along with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, he has closed asylum ports of entry and sent many non-Mexican migrants back to Mexico. A record high period Biden’s term.
The accounts on the pages reflect the varied experiences of different individuals and demonstrate the profound and detrimental impact that deterrence policies have had on families. Some of the accounts describe how families have suffered untold grief because they did not know what had happened to their loved ones.
In one case, a 19-year-old woman who died while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border wanted to reunite with her aunts and earn money to send home to her chronically ill parents. Although her aunts were both legal permanent residents of the United States, this status did not allow them to sponsor their very close niece.
“I waited for her with so much love, but now I come to see her for the last time and all she has left is bones?” her aunt said when her niece’s body was finally found.
The U.S. government has a responsibility to protect the right to life when setting border and immigration policies. The United States should end its lethal border deterrence policies, expand safe and legal pathways for immigration, and support Colibrí’s efforts to collect DNA and identify human remains.
“No one should lose their life trying to reunite with their family, find a better job, or flee persecution,” Sawyer said. “The Biden administration should change course and establish a border that respects human rights and is humane.”
[ad_2]
Source link
