BORDER NEWS A Haitian woman and mother of two US citizens died in a Haitian jail four days after being deported. Claudette Etienne fled to the US in 1980. She was twice sentenced to a year on probation, once for threatening her husband during a fight, and then for selling a small amount of crack to an undercover police officer. She was arrested by the INS when visiting her probation officer. After seven months in detention, she was deported to Haiti. When she arrived, she, along with all the other deportees, was put in jail, where the conditions are horrible. Overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions are common, and the police do not feed prisoners, who must rely on family members. Etienne, who had no family left in Haiti, had to rely on fellow prisoners for food. After a few days in prison, Etienne became ill from drinking the water, and despite her pleas and the pleas of other prisoners to get her medical attention, she was not transferred to a hospital until a few hours before her death.
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Last week federal agents arrested a Border Patrol agent stationed in Nogales, Arizona on charges of accepting bribes to allow drugs into the US. Hector Hugo Esquinca is the fourth INS employee to be charged with a felony in the past month and a half. The others are charged with sexual assault, computer fraud, and smuggling immigrants.
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Copying the efforts of a group in California, a group in Arizona called Humane Borders is planning to set up water stations in the Sonoran Desert, where about 70 people have died in the past year. Water is provided in two one-gallon jugs marked by blue flags. Leaders of the effort believe it is shocking and inhumane that people die trying to enter the US. However, not everyone applauds the efforts. The US consul in Nogales worries that it will give migrants a false sense of security. It is already difficult to convey how dangerous crossing the desert is, and officials worry that the effort to provide water will undermine the campaign to stop undocumented border crossings. The Border Patrol says it will not interfere with the effort to provide water so long as it stays within the law. Providing water is not illegal, but providing transportation or shelter to an undocumented immigrant is.
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Over the past few months, the INS has stepped up its enforcement efforts in Key West, Florida, resulting in 74 arrests. The new efforts are part of the INS’s plan to expand out of Miami. Before moving to Key West, enforcement was increased in Fort Myers and Palm Beach. Fifty-seven of those arrested had criminal records, while the rest were simply here without authorization.
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The Border Patrol has opened a new station in Harlingen, Texas, to replace the crowded and outdated station previously used. The new facility is 45,000 square feet, a tremendous improvement over the old one, which was less than 2000 square feet. Two-hundred forty agents will be stationed there immediately, a number that is expected to grow to more than 300 in the near future.
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This week the US Coast Guard repatriated 28 Cubans found at sea and turned 19 others, who were discovered on an island in the Bahamas, over to Bahamian immigration officials. The people were found in three separate groups. Four men were discovered by a cruise ship, and the rest were apprehended when the Coast Guard stopped their boat. Two of those men were suspected of being smugglers and were turned over to the Border Patrol. Four of those repatriated were taken to the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for further INS interviews.
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The Border Patrol has been the subject of criticism for years, and with each new program designed to stop undocumented border traffic, complaints about the agency grow. It is routinely accused of rudeness, racial profiling and civil rights violations. One of the latest people to register their complaints about the Border Patrol has added to the calls for changes to be made in the way the agency works. Filemon Vela was stopped twice by the Border Patrol in a single day. What makes his case different, and the reason the Border Patrol issued an apology, is that Vela is a federal court judge in Brownsville, Texas. The recent stops were nothing new for Vela, who last year was stopped on the very same road. Asking why he was being stopped, agents told him both that there were too many people in a new Ford Explorer, and that the windows were tinted too darkly. Vela says neither reason is adequate. The Border Patrol will be expanding training of agents in border areas in an attempt to ensure that innocent people are not stopped. < Back | Next > Disclaimer: This newsletter is provided as a public service and not intended to establish an attorney client relationship. Any reliance on information contained herein is taken at your own risk. | 
