A hot, dry desert. A tense, contentious border. Angry youths throw rocks at government security forces. Shots are fired. A 14-year-old boy lies dead.
Sound like one of those all too familiar skirmishes along the Israeli-Gaza border? Not quite...
A U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and killed a 14-year-old Mexican boy near the Juarez-El Paso border during a rock-throwing incident Monday night, authorities said.
[...] The FBI, which is investigating the incident, said two Border Patrol agents had detained two people suspected of illegally crossing the border. The agents had the suspects on the ground and ordered other suspected illegal immigrants to stop. According to the statement, the group surrounded the agents and began to pelt them with stones.One agent, who was not identified, fired his handgun, killing the victim, who was identified as Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereca.
It was not immediately known if the boy was among the rock throwers.
Such confrontations are almost inevitable along a militarized border, as is the profound grief and resentment this sort of tragedy generates. Thus all the arguments for and against aside, the American public must understand that if immigration reform relies too heavily upon a border fence backed by force of arms, then we should be prepared for the escalating violent backlash such a policy will almost surely create.
To our north, the United States proudly shares the world's longest undefended border, and one would hope that this example would also guide our aspirations to the south. But to achieve this goal our nation must rethink the entire immigration issue, focusing less on interdiction and more on the relentless economic imbalances that continue to draw undocumented immigrants across an ever more hostile border: the lack of opportunity at home and the demand for low-wage, low-skilled workers here in the U.S.
Labor is mobile; the jobs that many undocumented workers fill in agriculture, construction and the service sector are not. In this sense, the mass migration we're witnessing represents classical capitalist economic theory at work... a theory that in its purest ideological form not only suggests that we should not attempt to staunch the flow of labor capital, but that we ultimately cannot.
At least, not without the Gazafication of the U.S.-Mexican border.
Of course it would be a mistake to overstate the parallels with the exponentially more tragic conflict unfolding daily between Israelis and Palestinians. Even behind an American-built fence, Juarez is no Gaza, and the drug cartels wreaking cross border violence are no Hamas.
But it would be a mistake to ignore the parallels as well, especially when our nation is making the moral decision to send our uniformed men and women to a border where they will inevitably be put in the position of shooting unarmed children.
[David Goldstein blogs on WA state politics at HorsesAss.org]
Follow David Goldstein on Twitter: www.twitter.com/GoldyHA
At any rate, Israel should be so lucky as to have a Palestinian state no worse than Mexico along its narrow borders. I for one would be ecstatic if that were possible.
Every country has the right to defend their borders. If you wish to live in a place where the borders are OPEN, may I suggest you move to Afghanistan.
I do not advocate for open borders, sorry but nowhere did I say that. I just asked for more control over our officers and stricter standards for applying to become one. Should I point out that our country disproportionally abuses the rights of minorities CITIZENS. But in any case I a gun does nto compare with a rock. I saw the video, and he should have not fired across the border, thats bad PR, if Mexico wants to do that, then we can declare war on them, but we should have better morality than that.
An illegal immigrant was charged with stalking two 14 year old girls for two weeks. He was following them in his car to and from school. When the cops arrested him, they found that he had just sent naked pictures of himself to an 11 year old girl.
At the shore an illegal who was accussed of sexual assualting an 11 year old, was deported last year by ICE before the case could be brought to trail. Last week he was caught again living in NJ.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCh-9sMkVPU&feature=player_embedded
this video show you the proof that the agent was never under treat by rocks.
This author is evidently looking for the "shock value" of a title such as this one with absolutely no facts with which to back it. Our National Guard troops will NOT be performing the duties of the Border Patrol but will be doing administration duties. There will be no "open season" on illegals.
If articles such as this one are read and believed, then I have some ocean-front property in Arizona that you can buy, too.
Today they cannot sneak into Israel easily because of the walls and all, so that is the main reason for Gaza's high unemployment and relative poverty. But the UN Relief and Welfare Agency (UNRWA) has been feeding the Palestinians since 1948, and the US taxpayer pays about 1/3rd of that bill. When Israel was in control of Gaza, things were relatively good for the Gazans. But then Israel gave Sinai back to Egypt, but Sadat refused to take back Gaza. As a result, Israel lost control of the western border to Gaza, and hence today you have thousands of tunnels. After the Sinai was returned, things turned for the worse until the first intifada erupted in 1988.
Calderon has done very little for his country. He has let the drug cartels run loose. The US corporations exploit the workers compliments of NAFTA/GAT/WTO. This country is rich in resources and people and yet they flock to the US for a better life. If Calderon actually did his job then being like another corrupt politican then things would change.
US is not opressing the Mexicans or bombing Mexico City with F-16 fighter planes,
What a fairy tale? So does that mean Canada is Egypt?
The US hasnt sent rockets into Mexico either.
http://www.truthtube.tv/play.php?vid=2053
Only it is very easy to solve the violence issues in Mexico - legalize da ganja!!
Intelligent, grown-up people ask themselves, "Why do we have a situation where 15 year old kids are throwing rocks at border patrol agents?" This is one level up from asking what the correct response to rock-throwing children is. And that is the discussion the author is trying to provoke.
So, if you'd like to join the grown-ups' discussion, maybe you should think about that question for a while.
The army, the court system and the Mexican government have a tendency to look the other way when it comes to the poor and dispossessed of Mexico.
President Calderon was in South Africa today watching the World Cup while the so called "drug war" rages relentlessly and another 39 bodies fell lifeless on June 12.
The poor of Mexico have no choice but to leave their failed state because the elite of Mexico are off on their "vacations" or ensconced in their well protected villas.
For 65 years the orgy has been done on the Palestinans by "God Choosen people"
Shame on you !