| BARRIOZONA |
| Bilingual Community Expression Published by the Hispanic Institute of Social Issues |
“United States - Mexico: Walls, Abuses, and Deaths at the Borders.” From March 12th until March 14th, FIDH
representatives will present their fact-finding mission’s conclusions and recommendations to U.S. officials from
various offices of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), to U.S. House and Senate Representatives, and to
migrants rights groups.
FIDH’s report “Walls, Abuses, and Deaths at the Borders,” is the result of an investigation conducted through 2007
from the southern borders of Mexico to the U.S. states of Arizona and Texas, investigating the rights of
undocumented Central American and Mexican migrants traveling to the United States. The report denounces the
human rights violations perpetrated against migrants by both the Mexican and the U.S. authorities, in complete
impunity. It criticizes both States for enforcing incoherent national migration policies which openly disregard their
human rights obligations under national and international law, including the right to life.
As explained by a 28 year-old Central American migrant met by FIDH delegation in Mexico: “There are all kinds of
violations of human rights, rapes of women – but everything remains unpunished. There is discrimination against us in
the administration of justice. Migrants are considered nothing.” In Mexico, while migrants are crossing the country they
are frequently subjected, by the Mexican police and by migrant smugglers, to extortion, threat, beating, sexual
harassment, rape, and kidnapping – this in complete impunity and in a corrupted context. In the United States, the
government’s policy of “prevention through deterrence,” has resulted in the construction of miles of walls and the
heavy militarization of the border, and has been forcing thousands of migrants to travel by feet through the most
dangerous and inhospitable deserts of the country, causing hundreds of women, children, and men to die every year,
often from dehydration or hypothermia. The deterrence policy deliberately intends – in vain – to dissuade other
migrants from crossing the border. In addition, Border Patrol agents utilize verbal harassment, degradation,
humiliation, and intimidation along with disproportionate use of deadly force against border crossers, which, in
parallel, has led to significant racial profiling in border communities.
In the United States as well as in Mexico, the quasi-systematic detention of migrants is the norm, often in abusive
conditions, especially in terms of health care. In Mexico, a current reform proposal would expand the legal categories
of indefinite detention of undocumented migrants. In deportation proceedings, and in both countries, due process is
shockingly missing: the overwhelming majority of migrants have no legal representation at all, and little or no legal
protections such as judicial review. Vulnerable groups, such as children, mothers, disabled persons, and refugees at
risk if sent back to their country of origin, are the first victims of such policies.
A deep immigration legislation reform respectful of the human rights of all migrants is a must in Mexico and in the
United States. Such reforms should provide for the decriminalization of migrants in irregular administrative situations;
end the detention of migrants in prison-like facilities; establish independent mechanisms to prosecute government
agents responsible of acts of corruption, abuses, and killings; and restore due process and the right to legal
representation in all deportation proceedings.
In the year 2008, marking the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is time that
government policy-makers stop thinking of migration through the simplifying prism of fear and security, but rather
focus on the reasons for migration, on cooperation, and on human rights.
representatives will present their fact-finding mission’s conclusions and recommendations to U.S. officials from
various offices of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), to U.S. House and Senate Representatives, and to
migrants rights groups.
FIDH’s report “Walls, Abuses, and Deaths at the Borders,” is the result of an investigation conducted through 2007
from the southern borders of Mexico to the U.S. states of Arizona and Texas, investigating the rights of
undocumented Central American and Mexican migrants traveling to the United States. The report denounces the
human rights violations perpetrated against migrants by both the Mexican and the U.S. authorities, in complete
impunity. It criticizes both States for enforcing incoherent national migration policies which openly disregard their
human rights obligations under national and international law, including the right to life.
As explained by a 28 year-old Central American migrant met by FIDH delegation in Mexico: “There are all kinds of
violations of human rights, rapes of women – but everything remains unpunished. There is discrimination against us in
the administration of justice. Migrants are considered nothing.” In Mexico, while migrants are crossing the country they
are frequently subjected, by the Mexican police and by migrant smugglers, to extortion, threat, beating, sexual
harassment, rape, and kidnapping – this in complete impunity and in a corrupted context. In the United States, the
government’s policy of “prevention through deterrence,” has resulted in the construction of miles of walls and the
heavy militarization of the border, and has been forcing thousands of migrants to travel by feet through the most
dangerous and inhospitable deserts of the country, causing hundreds of women, children, and men to die every year,
often from dehydration or hypothermia. The deterrence policy deliberately intends – in vain – to dissuade other
migrants from crossing the border. In addition, Border Patrol agents utilize verbal harassment, degradation,
humiliation, and intimidation along with disproportionate use of deadly force against border crossers, which, in
parallel, has led to significant racial profiling in border communities.
In the United States as well as in Mexico, the quasi-systematic detention of migrants is the norm, often in abusive
conditions, especially in terms of health care. In Mexico, a current reform proposal would expand the legal categories
of indefinite detention of undocumented migrants. In deportation proceedings, and in both countries, due process is
shockingly missing: the overwhelming majority of migrants have no legal representation at all, and little or no legal
protections such as judicial review. Vulnerable groups, such as children, mothers, disabled persons, and refugees at
risk if sent back to their country of origin, are the first victims of such policies.
A deep immigration legislation reform respectful of the human rights of all migrants is a must in Mexico and in the
United States. Such reforms should provide for the decriminalization of migrants in irregular administrative situations;
end the detention of migrants in prison-like facilities; establish independent mechanisms to prosecute government
agents responsible of acts of corruption, abuses, and killings; and restore due process and the right to legal
representation in all deportation proceedings.
In the year 2008, marking the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is time that
government policy-makers stop thinking of migration through the simplifying prism of fear and security, but rather
focus on the reasons for migration, on cooperation, and on human rights.
| Walls, Abuses, and Deaths at the Borders |
United-States - Mexico
Undocumented Migrants
Undocumented Migrants
NOGALES, SONORA: A group of migrants take a break on the sidewalk of a
street of this border city, as they wait to attempt crossing into the United
States. (Photo by Eduardo Barraza / Barriozona)
street of this border city, as they wait to attempt crossing into the United
States. (Photo by Eduardo Barraza / Barriozona)
March 11, 2008. At a hearing before the
Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights, the International Federation for
Human rights (FIDH) will submit to the
Mexican government and the Commission’s
experts, evidence of the on-going human
rights violations perpetrated against
undocumented migrants on their way to
the United States. FIDH will base its
testimony on the alarming findings
contained in its investigative report:
Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights, the International Federation for
Human rights (FIDH) will submit to the
Mexican government and the Commission’s
experts, evidence of the on-going human
rights violations perpetrated against
undocumented migrants on their way to
the United States. FIDH will base its
testimony on the alarming findings
contained in its investigative report:
| International Federation of Human Rights Investigative Report |
| The entire report can be accessed in this link: “Walls, Abuses, and Deaths at the Borders” |
| Rights Groups in Washington, D.C. Denounce the Human Rights Violations of Undocumented Migrants Crossing the Borders in the United States and in Mexico |
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