[sethreports] From the No Borders Camp: Cross Border Kissing Booth Inspires La Migra to Violence

[Seth Porcello]

[  First I just want to write up some late breaking news about the No  
Borders Camp.  Below you will also find a radio doc about the events  
last friday at the camp.  ]

Cross Border Kissing Booth Inspires La Migra to Violence

The concluding action of the No Borders Camp was a rally on both  
sides of the border right at the Mexicali/Calexico port of entry.   
The rally included the installation of a cross-border kissing booth,  
which involved making a hole in the border fence approximately four  
inches in diameter.  With the arrival of the Dept. of Homeland  
Security Border Patrol in large numbers, the peaceful demonstration  
was interrupted by police escalation.  Border Patrol formed a line  
between protesters and the wall and then advanced on the crowd  
without warning, without a dispersal order, and seemingly without  
provocation.  Several people were knocked down, one protester was hit  
repeatedly in the knee caps by several Border Patrol before being  
detained, and paint-ball guns loaded with pepper spray pellets were  
used to disperse the crowd.  We have reason to believe one protester  
was beaten severely and detained and may or may not be receiving  
medical attention.  Fleeing protesters were then surrounded and  
detained, before being allowed to disperse in fives.  At least two  
protesters have been detained, and it is impossible at this time to  
confirm the exact number detained or the charges with which they are  
held.  The No Border Camp IMC is currently in the process of  
releasing video of the police brutality online, which has been  
extensively filmed.  A disturbing example is here:

http://noborderscamp.org/en/border-patrol-agents-brutalize-non- 
violent-protestors-during-no-borders-camp-closing-ceremony

Audio interviews with first hand experiences will also be posted and  
will be linked to here:
http://noborderscamp.org/en/no-borders-media

I think it is important to situate this recent violence within the  
larger context of border enforcement, for which the violence  
perpetrated to enforce the border is not exceptional but daily.  For  
the over four hundred migrants buried in Holtville cemetery (since  
1994) who died trying evade the very forces we confronted today, this  
violence is not exceptional but a fact of life and a fact of death.   
The brutal, uncoordinated, random violence you can watch on the event  
footage is both symptomatic and systematic.  The Border Patrol is not  
law enforcement, and can only be understood as an occupation force  
whose mission is to control a contested space.  Like all occupation  
forces, they end up trying to control the conflict they create, and  
displace the consequences of that control onto the population.  The  
result is a sustained level of violence which tears apart  
communities, families, neighborhoods, and peoples lives.  The  
occupation of the borderlands is a projection of state values in  
which peoples lives are acceptable casualties of economic  
objectives.  The cheap exploited labor of the Mexican workers in the  
Maquiladoras we visited on wednesday were behind the wall we  
protested all week.  Operation Gatekeeper began the same year NAFTA  
was signed.  As the militarization of the border increases in man  
power and sophistication, so does the extent to which this racist  
system can jeopardize peoples lives.  Our action today both confronts  
and exposes the violence of the border system, but so long as the  
holes we put in the fence today are repaired this occupation will  
continue to enforce a border state in which some lives are worth more  
than others, in which some people are given choices that others are  
denied, and in which justice is relativized and racialized.

 From the No Borders Camp: Breakfast at the Border

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To Listen or Download:
http://www.ncra.ca/exchange/dspProgramDetail.cfm?programID=63728
OR

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This radio doc takes you through our breakfast at the border, to  
conversations at the ICE detention center, highlighting peoples  
personal experience of each. Part of the - From the No Borders Camp -  
Radio Doc Series which can be found on indybay servers.

For the first time on Friday both camps on both the North and South  
side were able to meet at the border gate directly.  Unfortunately  
there was some "heat as we were trying to eat" resulting in an all  
morning stand off with the border patrol.  This ended with the border  
patrol making some key consessions, including the removal of one of  
their jeeps and the removal of the riot cops who had formed a line on  
the Mexicali side.  This was the biggest concession since the camp  
itself, making it possible to see our friends on the other side  
directly without climbing the wall, and leading to the first ever bi- 
national dance party to celebrate.

Later that day, the No Borders Camp would visit the ICE Detention  
center in El Centro where men, women, and children are being detained  
awaiting immigration decisions.  Carwil James was there to record the  
action.

Special thanks to Sakura Saunders and Carwil James for recordings and  
interviews.



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