Category: immigration industrial complex

Is border security an “ungodly stupid” get-rich scheme?

· 2 Comments ·

An By Alan Bean

We face two unsettling truths.  1. The immigration reform legislation passed by the Senate is essentially a make-work project for the military-industrial complex.  2. The Senate bill is unacceptable to the conservatives who control the House of Representatives because it includes a path to citizenship.

Cram both those facts into your head and you will understand why a spit-the-difference moderate like Barack Obama can’t move his legislative agenda.

Immigration reform advocates face an ugly Catch-22.   If we say no to a fruitless militarization of the border, are we ensuring that no immigration legislation will pass?

There are two strategic responses to this dilemma.  Either we shame Congress into passing a reform package free of additional pork for the private prison and military industries; or we make our peace with bizarre new levels of border militarization (with all the misery that entails) as the price for getting some kind of reform bill to the president’s desk.

Conservative senators were willing to sign off on reform because they want to win the next presidential election and their buddies in the defense industry need a new war.  House conservatives, desperate to placate the base, are willing to cede the White House to the Democrats.  How can a reform agenda survive this kind of political opportunism?

If you question the wisdom of pouring billions of dollars into enhanced “border security” please read Joshua Holland’s article in Salon.

An “ungodly stupid” get-rich scheme: The real border security story

With two wars ending, the “defense” industry sets its sights on its next chance to hit pay dirt: The U.S. border

SATURDAY, JUL 6, 2013 02:15 PM CDT

BY 

Last week, John McCain gleefully announced that the Senate immigration bill would result in the “most militarized border since the fall of the Berlin Wall.” Indeed, an amendment authored by Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and John Hoeven, R-N.D., authorizes a massive increase in border security dollars — including $30 billion for hiring and training 19,000 new border patrol officers over the next 10 years, and over $13 billion for a “comprehensive Southern border strategy” (including 700 miles of high-tech fencing).

What the senators didn’t tout was that the wall is both functionally useless – and will enrich some of the largest military contractors in the world. (more…)

United Methodists refuse to endorse Senate’s immigration bill

· 1 Comment ·

By Alan Bean

Reaction to the immigration reform bill passed by the Senate has been mixed.  The Evangelical Immigration Table has heralded the legislation for striking an appropriate balance between national security and compassion.

But the bill’s provisions calling for a massive buildup of immigration forces at the border caused the Detention Watch Network to conclude that “The private-prison industry and other enforcement industry contractors stand to gain the most from the legislation while families and communities will suffer.”

The Centrist National Immigration Forum focused on the defeat of a series of “poison pill” amendments that would have rendered the bill unacceptable to progressive senators.  Since this bill was the best outcome we could get from this Congress, they argue, it is a good bill.

Bill Mefford, speaking for the United Methodists’ General Board of Church and Society, has refused to either endorse of oppose the legislation.  Noting that none of the progressive provisions of the bill will go into effect until immigration officials can document a secure border, Mefford lays out a depressing scenario: (more…)

Immigration debate draws attention to Operation Streamline

· 1 Comment ·

By Alan Bean

The immigration debate unfolding in the halls of Congress is directing increased attention to the nuts and bolts of American immigration policy.  Republicans insist on “securing the border”.  Democrats insist the border is already secure.  But what is the cash value of “border security” rhetoric and what price, in dollars and in human misery, are we willing to pay to achieve it.  As things presently stand, we are building border walls, establishing dozens of new immigration detention centers (half of them run by private prison companies), turning police officers into immigration agents and generally transforming the border region into a draconian police state.

It is very gratifying to see Operation Streamline getting a sliver of the publicity it deserves.  This program is highly controversial in federal legal circles because it is very costly, it deflects prosecutorial attention from serious crimes of violence, and it involves legal procedures that are tantamount to human rights abuse.  Until recently, Operation Streamline was rarely mentioned by the mainstream press.  If this ABC story is anything to go by, that might be changing.

ACLU: US Too Tough on Illegal Immigrants

By  (@JimAvilaABC) and  (@SerenaMarsh)

Feb. 22, 2013

The American Civil Liberties Union says United States border security treats people crossing the border illegally to look for work as criminals instead of as desperate people trying to feed their families.

Border security continues to be a central point of the ongoing immigration reform debate, with Republican saying they won’t move forward without it and Democrats arguing the borders are already secure. (more…)

Libal: Operation streamline must end

·

By Bob Libal

Immigration Reform Must End, Not Expand, Operation Streamline

The debate over the proposed “comprehensive immigration reform” bill is intensifying, with a “gang of six” senators attempting to hash out a bill that would regularize the status of some undocumented immigrants but may also include increased funding for harsh border enforcement policies.

This debate overlooks the astounding fact that federal spending on immigration enforcement now surpasses all other federal law enforcement activities combined. One of the most costly of these programs is Operation Streamline, a little-known enforcement program that is part of broader trend funneling immigrants into the criminal justice system. These policies channel billions of dollars to private prison corporations and are fueling the explosive growth in numbers of Latinos in prison. The “gang of six” are reportedly considering expanding funding of Operation Streamline. (more…)

NPR exposes the immigration industrial complex

· 2 Comments ·
A Border Patrol agent offers water to two men caught after illegally entering the U.S. through the Arizona desert. Roughly 80,000 federal workers have jobs related to immigration enforcement.

NPR’s Morning Edition story on September 12 is the first mainstream mention of the immigration industrial complex I have encountered.  Hopefully, it won’t be the last.  As the story suggests, the United States has poured over 200 billion dollars into the border war since 1986 with nothing to show for it but broken lives.  Actually, that’s not quite accurate.  Thousands of men and women owe their jobs to the anti-immigration boom and a long list of corporations (and politicians) are profiting from an insane policy.  Removing the little piggies in their starched white shirts from their trough won’t be easy.  AGB
September 12, 2012

The United States’ southern border bristles with technology and manpower designed to catch illegal immigrants and drug smugglers. Since 1986, the government has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on fences, aircraft, detention centers and agents.

But even as federal budgets shrink and illegal immigration ebbs, experts say that there’s no end in sight for the growth of the border-industrial complex.

A Growing Investment On The Border

Stocked with equipment like Blackhawk helicopters — hundreds of aircraft fly daily missions — much of the southern border has grown into an industrial complex that is fed by the government and supplied by defense contractors and construction companies.

The infrastructure includes a border fence that in some places has been built and rebuilt several times. And up to 25 miles north of the border, towers, sensors and permanent checkpoints spread across the landscape. (more…)