Border News: New Suit Over CBP Abuses, No Need for More Agents, the Art of the Border, Trumpist Illiteracy

“Not Forgotten”: Graves of people who died trying to cross the border. Photo: David Bacon

U.S. Illegally Denying Immigrants Their Right to Seek Asylum at the Mexican Border, According to Lawsuit

By Ryan Devereaux, The Intercept

November 16, 2017

The Trump Administration may be engaged in widespread violations of U.S. and international law at the southern U.S. border, according to new filings in a California lawsuit. The filings offer the latest piece of evidence of a systematic campaign aimed at turning away asylum-seekers, actions linked to the embrace of hard-line immigration enforcement policies at the heart of the president’s rise to power.[…]

Read the full article:

https://theintercept.com/2017/11/16/immigration-asylum-seekers-denied-border-entry-lawsuit/

The Border Patrol Doesn’t Know What to Do With the Thousands of Agents Trump Wants to Hire

By Kathryn Casteel, FiveThirtyEight

November 15, 2017

President Trump signed two executive orders soon after his inauguration calling for the Department of Homeland Security to hire thousands of new Border Patrol and immigration agents. But now, two new government analyses show that there may be major obstacles to meeting those expectations. The department has not only fallen short on hiring efforts even before Trump issued his orders but also can’t provide data to show how it would use additional agents — or that there’s even a need for them.[…]

Read the full article:

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-border-patrol-doesnt-know-what-to-do-with-the-thousands-of-agents-trump-wants-to-hire/

The Art of the Border: Looking for Kikito

[T]he way the border is objectified and used can make people in Mexico suspicious about how people on the other side of the wall see them, when they see them at all. 

By David Bacon, Capital and Main, American Prospect

October 26, 2017

For almost an hour Laura, Moises and I drove through the dusty neighborhoods of Tecate, looking for Kikito.  Tecate is a small city in the dry hills of Baja California, next to the U.S. border.  It's famous for a huge brewery, although today most workers find jobs in local maquiladoras.

When we asked for directions, a couple of people had heard of Kikito, but couldn't tell us where he was.  Most didn't know who we were talking about. […]

Read the full article:

https://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-art-of-border-looking-for-kikito.html

https://capitalandmain.com/the-art-of-the-border-searching-for-kikito-1026

http://prospect.org/article/art-border-searching-kikito

Immigration Reform Law Institute's Brian Lonergan: "America has seen enough tragedies result from its open boarders"

The White House, Office of the Press Secretary

November 14, 2017

That’s right—with all of Trump’s ranting about borders, his White House press office doesn’t know how to spell the word.—TPOI editor

Read the press release:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/11/14/immigration-reform-law-institutes-brian-lonergan-america-has-seen-enough