Observations on the Wild Wets
October 3, 2008
First they were known as “wetbacks” or “wets” because of crossing the Rio Grande River into Texas. Then came “migrant worker” followed by “illegal alien” (with elongated green faces and black holes for eyes?), which then got changed to “illegal immigrant” and “undocumented alien.” Whatever name we use, they are all over the country with numbers in the millions and more filtering in every day. My observations on the migrant issue come from living, farming and ranching in Amado, 35 miles north of the US-Mexico border between Nogales and Tucson. In the lifetime I have lived here I have watched the situation change dramatically in the last six years from how it was for many years to what it has become today. In the 1960s and 70s we would hire the migrants to do farm work for a few months. Once they had made some money they would either return to Mexico or move on to greener pastures. In the 1980s and 90s it became unwise to do that, but we were aware of a slow trickle of workers walking north along the railroad tracks and river looking for a better life. Then came the 2000s; Latin America’s baby boom reaching maturity with no jobs in their mother countries and a rich northern neighbor in need of low wage workers. Low wage is better than no wage, so here they all are.
Border Patrol Meeting Summary
May 1, 2008
On Thursday, April 10, the Arivaca Community Center hosted the Border Patrol for the latest in a series of meetings on local border issues. Several officials from the Tucson Sector attended as well as the Director of the SBInet field offices in Washington, D.C. Tom King. Some highlights of the meeting:
Two Wrongs Don’t Make It Right
May 1, 2008
Thursday evening, April 10, the Community Center was packed with locals and media for a meeting with a long table of representatives of the Border Patrol prepped to answer questions largely chosen in advance of the event.
The Border Towers: Lessons Relearned
April 1, 2008
A year ago at this time, most media and many people became entranced by the Department of Homeland Security and Boeing’s technological solution to securing this country’s borders. The SBInet’s Project 28 long range surveillance towers were rising on lands to the south and west of Arivaca. At community meetings, Boeing and DHS told us that P28 would allow them to detect, identify and track anyone crossing the border and the towers would stretch across Arizona by the end of 2008. Technology was coming to the rescue and would effectively and efficiently relieve us of the need to deal with border issues.
December 1, 2007
It’s pretty amazing the things that go through your mind when you’re looking down the barrel of a gun. Nothing really seems rational. It’s like you know this is the end and you can’t quite accept that so you think of things that are mundane.
Checking the Checkpoint
September 1, 2007
Tuesday, August 21, in Sahuarita, two community workgroups presented reports on the impending permanent Border Patrol checkpoint on I-19. There were cheers and whistles, there were groans and boos and laughter, there were no expletives, there were more than a couple of brief lectures on respectfulness and decorum. One wonders what the lecturer, U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, would think of an Arivaca meeting with Border Patrol officials. She’d probably fall over backwards in a dead faint.
Tower Update
August 1, 2007
Three months ago on April 23, I heard that the Department of Homeland Security was planning to erect a spy tower two miles south of Arivaca overlooking our town. I found this an instant threat to my/our Constitutional Right to Privacy. Since then other issues have also become involved: freedom of information and from undue surveillance, to name a couple.
Border Issues
July 1, 2007
I recently served on a committee to study the establishment of a permanent checkpoint on I-19. I experienced this responsibility as urgent and critical as did all the others on the committee. Although we did not agree on the virtues of the checkpoint, our common ground was that we all wanted to help secure the border and keep our neighborhoods safe.