Texas Tribune Reports on Border

Surrounded by a lot of hype, the online non-profit news start-up The Texas Tribune launched today. There is much to be said about the website’s fresh approach to the news, but for the sake of this blog I will discuss the attention that the site has paid to U.S. – Mexico issues.

Perhaps the first thing I noticed on the site was the topics page. Here, you have Tribune coverage organized by topic sections. In the leader to the topics page there were three issues that jumped out at me: border cameras, immigration, and the Texas-Mexico border.

When you click on each topic you will be directed to a page that gives some history and recent developments regarding the topic. I was really impressed by the use of links in the descriptions because each link was extremely relevant and very useful in understanding the topic at hand. Underneath each description you will find a list of relevant stories written by Tribune staffers. So far there aren’t many stories, but the site was just launched today and expect to see many more in the future.

I was happy to come to this site today and find that the Tribune has a devoted an area to U.S. – Mexico relations. It will be interesting to see how well the Tribune reports on the issue, and to observe how much coverage they devote to this extremely critical topic.

New Location

Border Brief has been moved to U.S. – Mexico Relations

Immigration Detention to be reformed

High reports of abuse and mismanagement has led  the Obama administration to alter the way that immigrants are detained. In one new plan announced on October 5, immigrants awaiting deportation would now be held in hotels and hospitals converted into detention centers. This system would be different from the current immigrant detention system which includes holding immigrants in U.S. jails and prisons. According to an article by the BBC, accusations have been made that current detainees receive poor medical care and are denied due process. The BBC states that, “On 1 September, 2009, ICE had 31,075 immigrants in detention at more than 300 facilities across the US.” The article goes on to describe how the majority of this population, 66 percent, were subject to mandatory detention, and that the other 51 percent were felons, and that 11% of those had committed violent crimes while the majority were seen as low risk.

The overhaul to immigrant detention was explained in a New York Times interview with Janet Napalitano, the secretary of homeland security. In the interview, Napalitano said that it was wrong to send those accused of immigration violations to jails and private prisons. “‘Serious felons deserve to be in the prison model,’ Ms. Napolitano said, ‘but there are others. There are women. There are children.'”

In addition, the Fort Worth Star Telegram released an article stating that part of the Obama plan would “permit additional nonviolent illegal immigrants to await deportation proceedings wearing ankle bracelets outside prison walls rather than locked up in costly jail cells.” Federal officials were quoted as saying that this process would keep families together, reduce the number of imprisoned immigrants without criminal records, and save money.

Global Public Policy Forum at UTEP

As the drug violence along the Texas-Mexico border continues, most seem dumbfounded as to how to address the problem. Last week, The University of Texas at El Paso hosted a bi-national drug conference to talk about the problems in order to better understand them. The conference hosted 30 speakers from both Mexico and the U.S.

An article by the San Antonio Express News quoted retired federal agent Terry Nelson as saying, “The global war on drugs is probably the greatest public policy failure of all time.” The Express article goes on to quote a California state judge, James Gray, as saying that drug crimes are one large part of why the U.S. leads the world in incarceration of their own people.

The El Paso Newspaper Tree, an online news site, pointed out in their coverage that two Obama admistation officials opted out of the conference at the last minute. “At a panel discussion organized by the El Paso Press Club on Saturday, UTEP Professor Kathy Staudt announced that President Obama’s border czar Alan Bersin and National drug control policy czar Gil Kerlikowske surprised organizers by bowing out days before the start of the conference.”

The fact that the federal officials did not show up was no surprise to El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles. “”I don’t know why you’re all so surprised about the federal government’s unwillingness to address this because, quite frankly, they’ve ignored the problem for years, and that’s why we’re in the situation we’re in now,” Wiles told the Newspaper Tree.

Perry to Deploy “Recon Rangers”

In what he is calling a move to make Texans more secure, Texas governor Rick Perry has announced the deployment of a special team of Texas Rangers along the Texas-Mexico border. The special team is being called the “Recon Rangers” and was described in the Fort Worth Star Telegram as “resembling a military style commando unit in a foreign war zone.” In addition to the recon team, Perry has asked that a 200 member task force of Texas’ National Guard be deployed to assist in the operations. Perry said that in August of this year the team of recon rangers began monitoring private farms and ranches where cartels and human trafficking activities are thought to occur.

In a speech in Irving, Texas on September 10, Perry said that the creation of the recon rangers is necessary because the federal government has not paid enough attention to violence on the Texas-Mexico border.  “Texas continues to deal with the federal government’s abject failure to secure our international border,” and he added later that “I have no idea why Washington has been so averse to defending, securing the Southern border.”

Some have accused Perry of using the border issue as a way to charge up his campaign. An article by the Houston Chronicle quoted Senator Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, as saying, “Rick Perry gets real revved up right around election time. From border cameras to failed DPS funding, his border security measures have been abject failures.” Some of the local officials have also voiced their opinions about Perry’s plan. Laredo’s mayor, Raul Salinas, said that he is glad that Rangers have been deployed but would “appreciate coordination and cooperation with local authorities, because we can be of assistance. … We’re the first responders in combating the drug cartels.”