Parts of Migrant Caravan arrive at US Border. Some Jump the Fence.

[Vlad_]

[Scopedog]

Letting the poor in with their babies is the least the US could do, after using proxies to topple governments in many Latin American countries.

Honestly, why is it that the US seems to think it can colonize countries (either directly or economically), and get away with leaving them to die? You can't leech off countries, and then turn around and ignore them once things go terribly. It's immoral.

So, have reason, guys. These are people. These are starving children and infants. They are not "****roaches" to be exterminated, and it's horrible the US unleashed Mexico's Federales on them with pepper spray, and who knows what else. Trump is even threatening to use the military on them. That's disgusting.

Do you not ever wonder what it would be like if the shoe were on the other foot? If you faced imminent starvation or violent death, all because an empire saw you were becoming increasingly democratic, and wanted to destroy everything, to bleed the money dry and ship it back to the states?

I have to wonder this on a daily basis, because I live in the oldest colony on the planet. You have no idea what it's like, living a life with no options. A sitting duck waiting to die.

"
U.S. Marines in Honduras in July 2016. Wikimedia Commons

Central American migrants – particularly unaccompanied minors – are again crossing the U.S.-Mexico boundary in large numbers.

In 2014, more than 68,000 unaccompanied Central American children were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico boundary. This year so far there have been close to 60,000.

The mainstream narrative often reduces the causes of migration to factors unfolding in migrants’ home countries. In reality, migration is often a manifestation of a profoundly unequal and exploitative relationship between migrant-sending countries and countries of destination. Understanding this is vital to making immigration policy more effective and ethical.

Through my research on immigration and border policing, I have learned a lot about these dynamics. One example involves relations between Honduras and the United States.
U.S. roots of Honduran emigration

I first visited Honduras in 1987 to do research. As I walked around the city of Comayagua, many thought that I, a white male with short hair in his early 20’s, was a U.S. soldier. This was because hundreds of U.S. soldiers were stationed at the nearby Palmerola Air Base at the time. Until shortly before my arrival, many of them would frequent Comayagua, particularly its “red zone” of female sex workers.

U.S. military presence in Honduras and the roots of Honduran migration to the United States are closely linked. It began in the late 1890s, when U.S.-based banana companies first became active there. As historian Walter LaFeber writes in “Inevitable Revolutions: The United States in Central America,” American companies “built railroads, established their own banking systems, and bribed government officials at a dizzying pace.” As a result, the Caribbean coast “became a foreign-controlled enclave that systematically swung the whole of Honduras into a one-crop economy whose wealth was carried off to New Orleans, New York, and later Boston.”

By 1914, U.S. banana interests owned almost 1 million acres of Honduras’ best land. These holdings grew through the 1920s to such an extent that, as LaFeber asserts, Honduran peasants “had no hope of access to their nation’s good soil.” Over a few decades, U.S. capital also came to dominate the country’s banking and mining sectors, a process facilitated by the weak state of Honduras’ domestic business sector. This was coupled with direct U.S. political and military interventions to protect U.S. interests in 1907 and 1911.

Such developments made Honduras’ ruling class dependent on Washington for support. A central component of this ruling class was and remains the Honduran military. By the mid-1960s it had become, in LaFeber’s words, the country’s “most developed political institution,” – one that Washington played a key role in shaping.
The Reagan era
A U.S. military advisor instructs Honduran troopers in Puerto Castilla, Honduras, in 1983. AP Photo

This was especially the case during the presidency of Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. At that time, U.S. political and military policy was so influential that many referred to the Central American country as the “U.S.S. Honduras” and the Pentagon Republic.

As part of its effort to overthrow the Sandinista government in neighboring Nicaragua and “roll back” the region’s leftist movements, the Reagan administration “temporarily” stationed several hundred U.S. soldiers in Honduras. Moreover, it trained and sustained Nicaragua’s “contra” rebels on Honduran soil, while greatly increasing military aid and arm sales to the country.

The Reagan years also saw the construction of numerous joint Honduran-U.S. military bases and installations. Such moves greatly strengthened the militarization of Honduran society. In turn, political repression rose. There was a dramatic increase in the number of political assassinations, “disappearances” and illegal detentions.

The Reagan administration also played a big role in restructuring the Honduran economy. It did so by strongly pushing for internal economic reforms, with a focus on exporting manufactured goods. It also helped deregulate and destabilize the global coffee trade, upon which Honduras heavily depended. These changes made Honduras more amenable to the interests of global capital. They disrupted traditional forms of agriculture and undermined an already weak social safety net.

These decades of U.S. involvement in Honduras set the stage for Honduran emigration to the United States, which began to markedly increase in the 1990s.

In the post-Reagan era, Honduras remained a country scarred by a heavy-handed military, significant human rights abuses and pervasive poverty. Still, liberalizing tendencies of successive governments and grassroots pressure provided openings for democratic forces.

They contributed, for example, to the election of Manuel Zelaya, a liberal reformist, as president in 2006. He led on progressive measures such as raising the minimum wage. He also tried to organize a plebiscite to allow for a constituent assembly to replace the country’s constitution, which had been written during a military government. However, these efforts incurred the ire of the country’s oligarchy, leading to his overthrow by the military in June 2009.
Post-coup Honduras

The 2009 coup, more than any other development, explains the increase in Honduran migration across the southern U.S. border in the last few years. The Obama administration has played an important role in these developments. Although it officially decried Zelaya’s ouster, it equivocated on whether or not it constituted a coup, which would have required the U.S. to stop sending most aid to the country.
Then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets with Honduran foreign minister in 2010. AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in particular, sent conflicting messages, and worked to ensure that Zelaya did not return to power. This was contrary to the wishes of the Organization of American States, the leading hemispheric political forum composed of the 35 member-countries of the Americas, including the Caribbean. Several months after the coup, Clinton supported a highly questionable election aimed at legitimating the post-coup government.

Strong military ties between the U.S. and Honduras persist: several hundred U.S. troops are stationed at Soto Cano Air Base (formerly Palmerola) in the name of fighting the drug war and providing humanitarian aid.

Since the coup, writes historian Dana Frank, “a series of corrupt administrations has unleashed open criminal control of Honduras, from top to bottom of the government.”

Organized crime, drug traffickers and the country’s police heavily overlap. Impunity reigns in a country with frequent politically-motivated killings. It is the world’s most dangerous country for environmental activists, according to Global Witness, an international nongovernmental organization.

Although its once sky-high murder rate has declined, the continuing exodus of many youth demonstrates that violent gangs still plague urban neighborhoods.

Meanwhile, post-coup governments have intensified an increasingly unregulated, “free market” form of capitalism that makes life unworkable for many. Government spending on health and education, for example, has declined in Honduras. Meanwhile, the country’s poverty rate has risen markedly. These contribute to the growing pressures that push many people to migrate.

While the next U.S. president will deliberate about what to do about unwanted immigration from “south of the border,” this history provides lessons as to the roots of migration. It also raises ethical questions as to the responsibility of the United States toward those now fleeing from the ravages U.S. policy has helped to produce."

http: //theconversation. com/how-us-policy-in-honduras-set-the-stage-for-todays-mass-migration-65935

[Vlad_]

Update Nov 14:

Video shows group climbing border fence


People on the Mexican side of the border could be seen climbing the fence near Friendship Park Tuesday afternoon after part of the Central American migrant caravan arrived in Tijuana.

Several people scaled the fence and sat on top of it. A few jumped or crawled to openings in the fence onto U.S. soil but quickly ran back as Border Patrol agents approached.

Several border agents were seen patrolling the area in trucks, 4-wheelers, a helicopter and on horses.

The U.S. Border Patrol sent a news release stating it believes some of the people at the fence are from the caravan that's been traveling through Mexico from Honduras.

One man who happened to be on the north side of border while visiting the area described being entertained by the gathering.

"I was very surprised how many people are here and how many different officials are here, it seems like there’s something going on it's not normal to have this many resources tied up all these vehicles saw armored car coming down the road it just seemed more than just an average day," said Greg Boldner.

Video from the San Diego Union-Tribune shows the perspective from the Mexico side of the fence:

https://fox5sandiego.com/2018/11/13/...-border-fence/

[Vlad_]

BostonGuy can you please update thread title to:

“Parts of Migrant Caravan arrive at US Border. Some Jump the Fence.”

[Vlad_]

[Illmatic94]

I understand and sympathize with their plight. Fleeing gangs and misery.. but. I side with Trump on this one..there's American citizens also fleeing gangs and misery here. let's clean that up first.

[Vlad_]

I understand and sympathize with their plight. Fleeing gangs and misery.. but. I side with Trump on this one..there's American citizens also fleeing gangs and misery here. let's clean that up first.

Many of those in the caravan are fleeing arrest warrants for crimes they committed back home. Out of seven thousand in that caravan, how many women and children are there? A few hundred at most, maybe? Mostly adult men in that caravan.

We agree on something here.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

What a bunch of idiot leeches.

[Vlad_]

99% are Men in the caravan. Where are those women?

About time even some Mexicans are fed up with that BS.

'Go home!': Residents in an upscale Tijuana neighborhood throw rocks at the migrant caravan and order them out of Mexico while US troops put MORE barbed wire up to stop hundreds arriving at the border from climbing the wall

- Migrants from Central America were told to 'go home' and had rocks thrown at them by residents in Tijuana as they reached the US-Mexican border after enduring harsh conditions on their long journey

- Police officers had to intervene to keep the peace as tensions escalated between residents and migrants

- Mexican Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete said that job fairs would be held around the country from today to offer opportunities for Central Americans and said also there was work for Mexicans seeking jobs

- Separately US border patrol agents in Arizona detained more than 650 illegal immigrants but they are not believed to be associated with the large caravan of Central American migrants


Migrants travelling in a caravan from Central America were abused and had rocks thrown at them in a neighborhood in Tijuana as they reached the Mexican border.

A small group of residents in an upscale Tijuana neighborhood near the Mexican border confronted caravan migrants late on Wednesday, throwing stones and telling them to go back to their home countries.

'Get out of here,' around 20 people shouted at a camp of Hondurans near the border. 'We want you to return to your country. You are not welcome'.

Migrants shouted back and dozens of police officers had to create a blockade between them in a city known for welcoming both American tourists and thousands of immigrants every year.

A caravan of thousands of mostly Honduran migrants who are fleeing violence and poverty at home set off for the United States in mid-October, with the bulk of them still to arrive at the border. Other large bands of mostly Salvadorans have followed.

Trump has declared the caravans an invasion, and has sent some 5,800 troops to 'harden' the border, including with barbed wire.

With some exceptions, Mexico has welcomed the Central Americans, offering food and lodging in towns during their journey. The migrants said they were stunned by the hostile attitude in Tijuana.

One migrant said: 'We are not criminals. Why do (they) treat us like this if everywhere we have traveled in Mexico they treated us well?' migrants shouted back. 'Think about the children who are here, please'.

Mexican Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete said that job fairs would be held around the country from today to lay out opportunities for Central Americans, reiterating earlier government offers of work.

This time though, he emphasized that there was also work for Mexicans seeking jobs.

At a news conference that included Juan Pablo Castanon, head of the CCE business lobby, Navarrete said the private sector had told the government there were enough jobs available for all the Central Americans who entered Mexico during October.

Since October 19, a total of 3,800 migrants had sought asylum in Mexico, Navarrete said, though some later dropped their applications and returned home.

As of now 2,600 asylum requests were being processed, the minister added.

Mexico's low-paying factories at times struggle to find workers, and the border area is suffering chronic labor shortages.

Tensions in Tijuana surfaced a few days ago when residents complained about a group of 80 or so LGBT migrants who broke away from the caravan.

They arrived in an upscale part of the Playas de Tijuana neighborhood, near where the stones were thrown.

A popular party town for US tourists, Tijuana has a history of absorbing visitors, including Chinese immigrants in the 19th century.

It has a large American population and some 3,000 Haitians settled in the city, just south of San Diego, in 2016 after failing to cross the US border.

But the arrival of hundreds of members of the caravans has stretched to the limit migrant shelters that were already overflowing with people.

While Tijuana's traditional generosity was also on display, with the government setting up a new shelter and citizens offering food and clothing, a harder attitude also emerged.

Tijuana's city government opened a shelter for 360 people of an estimated 810 that arrived this week, and officials warned there was little room to house more than 2,000 more who are expected to arrive this week.

Meanwhile, US border patrol agents in Arizona have been busy detaining more than 650 illegal immigrants in just two days this week.

Agents in the Yuma Sector said they detained 654 people – most reportedly being family units or unaccompanied minors from Guatemala - on Monday and Tuesday.

Officials said the groups of illegal immigrants are not believed to be associated with the large caravan of mostly Central American migrants that have prompted the military deployment, Fox News reported.

US Customs and Border Protection said Wednesday a group of 55 Central Americans waded across the Colorado River near Yuma and surrendered to agents after walking around vehicle barriers in the area.

Vinny Dulesky, the special operations supervisor for Yuma Sector public affairs, told Fox News on Thursday that the majority of groups came in through the east side of the port of entry and had cut through metal fences to gain entry.

Dulseky said they are predominantly seeing family units and unaccompanied minors attempting to enter the US and that the tactics of the illegal immigrants are changing.

'Instead of trying to avoid us, they are running to us, and claim asylum,” he said. “By doing that, it keeps them in the country longer'.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...t-caravan.html