Anger grows at Arizona’s ‘bullying’ Border Patrol as funding for border protection increases
Anger grows at Arizonas bullying Border Patrol as funding for border protection increases
By Edward Helmore, The Guardian
Saturday, June 21, 2014 11:47 EDT
Arivaca is a town with a difference. While most of America backs the White House announcement last week to curb surging numbers of migrants crossing the US-Mexican border, many residents of this dusty, former gold-prospecting town 10 miles north of Mexico have chosen a different foe: the Border Patrol.
Theirs is an odd counterpoint to the political drive to tighten the border against impoverished migrants overwhelmingly women and children from Latin America. But Arivacas stand has become a beacon for more progressive policies in what has become a complex but defining voter issue.
The Border Patrol, townsfolk claim, has become an interior police force operating outside legal authority which subjects migrants to racial profiling and unlawful searches. Flush with a $30bn boost in Washington-authorised spending, the agency is planning to double the number of border agents to 39,000 hypothetically enough to place one every 100 yards along the entire 1,900-mile US-Mexico border.
This is the face of militarisation, says Peter Ragan of the Arivaca group People Helping People, gesturing toward a Border Patrol checkpoint well inside US territory. Searches are done to intimidate and harass. They can assert control at any time. Theres no accountability, no transparency and no oversight.
More:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/21/anger-grows-at-arizonas-bullying-border-patrol-as-funding-for-border-protection-increases/