USA: Vigilante groups hunt migrants – and stop at nothing

USA: Vigilante groups hunt migrants – and stop at nothing

US border with Mexico
Vigilante groups harass migrants – these people stand up to it






Migrants die at the border with Mexico on their way to the USA. One activist remembers the dead – another tries to save whoever she can. But not everyone wants to help.

Artist and activist Alvaro Enciso stands in the desert-like border area in the US state of Arizona. “What you see here is really no different from what is happening in Europe. The big difference is that people are drowning in the Mediterranean, too much water. Here people are dying because there is no water. It is the water that that kills people in Europe in the Mediterranean, and the lack of water kills people here, but the conditions are the same. Poor people are trying to improve their lives somewhere where they feel safe and where they can give something to families a better future.” he says.

Alvaro Enciso breaks down what’s at stake at the Mexican border. The artist and activist comes from Colombia and came to the USA as an immigrant. Now he is putting up crosses for the migrants who died in the desert-like border area between the US state of Arizona and Mexico. He has already erected 1,600 crosses, but in fact there are probably many thousands more whose bodies have never been found. Enciso, together with other volunteers, would like to remember the deceased migrants and set an example for them.

Migration crisis in the USA

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Crucial issue in the US election campaign

The issue of migration is one of the crucial issues in the fight for the presidency. In national polls of swing states, Harris and Trump are neck and neck. But when it comes to migration, it is Trump who scores particularly highly. The problem is an outdated immigration system that hasn’t been modernized since the 1990s. In recent weeks, Trump’s tone against illegal migrants has increased.

Donald Trump: “I will invoke the Aliens Enemy Act of 1798 to target and dismantle every criminal migrant network operating on American soil. And if they come back to our country, we will take them out.” If they come to our country again, they will automatically get ten years in prison without parole. And if that’s not enough, they’ll get 20 years.”

Many Republican voters associate the problems of migration with Kamala Harris. Under Joe Biden, whose deputy is Harris, no agreement could be found with the Republicans on stricter immigration law in the US Congress. In June, Biden single-handedly issued a new regulation: Authorities can now deport people who entered the country irregularly without first processing their asylum applications. If more than 2,500 asylum seekers are apprehended per week, there will automatically be a two-week freeze on admissions until the numbers fall below the 1,500 mark again.

Gail Kocourek with one of the water barrels that she sets up in the desert so that migrants don't die of thirst. Donald Trump's isolation policy, which Joe Biden has partly followed, is leading to dramatic conditions on the border with Mexico

US isolation policy

Refugees are dying of thirst at the border – Gail Kocourek saves whoever she can

No continuation of Biden’s policies

Harris has made it clear again and again in recent weeks that her presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s line. If she becomes president, she wants to rely on surveillance and an additional 1,500 border guards in the fight against drug trafficking at the border. And sign the border security bill that was blocked by Republicans.

According to the US government, the number of illegal border crossings has fallen sharply since Biden’s new regulation. At the same time, more and more migrants are dying here in the remote border regions. Most of them die of thirst because they are found too late.

Samaritans save lives at the US-Mexico border

Gail Kocourek tries to save whoever she can. The 78-year-old is part of the “Tuscon Samaritans” in Arizona. It distributes water, food and medicine to migrants. At the border fence, Kocourek discovers ten men in the mountains, supplies them with water and gives them a water filter to take with them.

Jan Christoph Wiechmann: “There are two forms of migrants. These are the asylum seekers who present themselves here, who then start the whole process with the Border Patrol, as the border guards are called, come to the USA and then begin their asylum process. And the others, we have just experienced them here. These are, as they are called here, illegals. A slightly wrong expression. These are simply migrants who are looking for work but who are not necessarily recognized as asylum seekers and who then try to get by. And, as we have just seen, with uniforms so that they are not discovered. They are now setting off on their long journey, which can take four to five days. Dangerous in the heat, without water, without much food. And that’s why the Tuscon Samaritans organization is helping out here. And yes, you can only wish them the best of luck surviving in this very inhospitable area here in southern Arizona.”

However, the greatest danger to most migrants is not from border officials, but from “vigilantes”, so-called vigilante groups – Trump fans who hunt migrants. Water tanks that the Samaritans set up are also affected.

Gail Kocourek: “You (the vigilante groups; editor’s note) break it off and shoot them. This is one thing they like to do. Or they tie it or hold it so that the tank simply leaks. She (the Samaritans, editor’s note) “They started locking them up because people were pouring gasoline into them.” Sometimes water tanks are also shot at to make them leak.

Demographic change: USA needs skilled workers

The lies that Trump spreads about migrants do the rest in the already toxic climate surrounding the migration debate in the USA. There is a lot of talk about deportations and building walls at the border. Less about the fact that the USA also urgently needs young people for the job market. And this in a country that has always been a “melting pot” that has always welcomed people from all over the world.

Alvaro Enciso: “What people in this country forget is that this country was created by migrants. And that is what migrants give. The diversity of this country gives this country its special charm. Culture from all kinds of peoples and countries everywhere. That’s what makes America what it is: the land of opportunity, the land of milk and honey, the land of plenty. And it is migrants who created all of this.”

On November 5th it will be decided which president will shape the country for the next four years. But it is already certain that Alvaro Enciso and Gail Kocourek will continue – no matter who it is.

Source: Stern

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