[NYTr] Apaches Defend Homeland from Homeland Security

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Counterpunch - Jan 8, 2008
http://www.counterpunch.org/norrell01082008.html


Apaches Defend Homeland from Homeland Security

Land Seizures and Militarization in the Border Zone

By BRENDA NORRELL
RIO GRANDE, Texas.

Apache land owners on the Rio Grande told Homeland Security to halt the
seizure of their lands for the US/Mexico border wall on January 7,
2008. It was the same day that a 30-day notice from Homeland Security
expired with the threat of land seizures by eminent domain to build the
US/Mexico border wall.

"There are two kinds of people in this world, those who build walls and
those who build bridges," said Enrique Madrid, Jumano Apache community
member, land owner in Redford and archaeological steward for the Texas
Historical Commission.

"The wall in South Texas is militarization," Madrid said of the planned
escalation of militarization with Border Patrol and soldiers. "They
will be armed and shoot to kill."

It was in Redford that a U.S. Marine shot and killed 18-year-old
Esequiel Hernandez, herding his sheep near his home in 1997.

"We had hoped he would be the last United States citizen and the last
Native American to be killed by troops," Madrid said during a media
conference call on January 7 with Apaches from Texas and Arizona.

Dr. Eloisa Garcia Tamez, Lipan Apache professor living in the Lower Rio
Grande, described how US officials attempted to pressure her into
allowing them onto her private land to survey for the US/Mexico
borderwall. When Tamez refused, she was told that she would be taken to
court and her lands seized by eminent domain.

"I have told them that it is not for sale and they cannot come onto my
land." Tamez is among the land owners where the Department of Homeland
Security plans to erect 70 miles of intermittent, double-layered
fencing in the Rio Grande Valley.

Tamez said the United States government wants access to all of her
land, which is on both sides of a levee. "Then they will decide where
to build the wall. It could be over my house." Tamez said that she may
only have three acres, but it is all she has.

Tamez' daughter Margo Tamez, poet and scholar, said, "We are not a
people of walls. It is against our culture to have walls. The Earth and
the River go together. We must be with the river. We must be with this
land. We were born for this land."

Margo Tamez said the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples now guarantees the right of Indigenous Peoples to
their traditional territories.

Rosie Molano Blount, Chiricahua Apache from Del Río said the Chiricahua
Apache have proudly served in the United States military."We are proud
to be Americans," Blount said, adding that the Chiricahua have always
supported the United States government.

Now, with the increasing harassment of people in the borderzone, Blount
said the people have had enough.

"Ya Basta! Enough is enough!" Blount said, repeating the phrase that
became the battle cry of the Zapatistas in Mexico struggling for
Indigenous Peoples' rights.

Blount said there needs to be dialogue concerning the issues at the
border, but not forced militarization or a border wall. She also
directed a comment at Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
"Don't come here and divide our families Chertoff. You believe this is
the only way to do things."

Michael Paul Hill, San Carlos Apache from Arizona, described how US
border agents violated and molested his sacred items, including a
sacred stone, Eagle feather and drum used in ceremonies while crossing
the border.

"They called me a foreigner." Hill described how Border Agents told him
that he might "get away" with crossing the border in Nogales, Arizona,
with ceremonial items that were not manhandled, but not in Texas.

After participating in a an Apache ceremony in Mexico, when Hill
andother Apaches reentered the United States, a SWAT team in full riot
gear was waiting for them and interrogated them.

"It was incredibly frightening," said Margo Tamez who was also there.
She pointed out how the escalating militarization at the border is
terrorizing people as they go about their lives, working, with their
families and in their ceremonies.

Isabel Garcia, cochair of Derechos Humanos in Tucson, Arizona,
said,"Arizona has been a laboratory for the criminalizing of the
border."

Pointing out that the Arizona border is the ancestral homeland of the
Tohono O'odham, she said, "These borders are where people have lived
since time immemorial." Garcia described the climate of militarization
and abuse by Border Patrol agents.

Garcia pointed out that "cowboy" Border Agents ran over and
killed18-year-old Tohono O'odham Bennett Patricio, Jr., while he was
walking home in 2002. His mother, Angie Ramon, is still seeking justice
for the death of her son.

Garcia also described the deaths from dehydration and heat in the
Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona, where failed border policies have
pushed migrants walking to a better life into treacherous desert lands.

"Two hundred and thirty-seven bodies were recovered in one year and
most were on the tribal lands of the Tohono O'odham."

Further, Homeland Security recently waived 22 federal laws to build the
border wall in the San Pedro wilderness area in Arizona, she said.
Attorney Peter Schey, director of the Center for Human Rights and
Constitutional Law in Los Angeles, said America does not need a"Berlin
Wall."

Schey, renowned immigrant rights attorney, said Section 564 of the
Homeland Security section of the Omnibus Appropriations Bill supersedes
earlier legislation. Homeland Security is now required to have
consultation with the communities. Schey said this means real
consultation and real consideration of the community's input and data.
Schey took his first action on behalf of Texas property owner Dr. Tamez
on Monday, the same day that a 30-day notice to Texas land owners
expired with the threat of eminent domain land seizures looming. Schey
informed Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to halt the
impending seizures of private lands.

Schey said Section 564 strikes provisions of the earlier Secure Fence
Act and requires Homeland Security to consult with property owners like
Dr. Tamez in order "to minimize the impact on the environment, culture,
commerce, and quality of life" in areas considered for construction of
the border fence.

"Furthermore, we believe that the new statutory provisions invalidate
the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for fence construction
published on the Department's behalf on November 16, 2007, pending
completion of the required local consultations and other requirements
as outlined in the Omnibus Bill," Schey told Chertoff in the letter.

Meanwhile, Homeland Security declared that it will use the principle of
eminent domain to take possession of land currently held by private
ownership. DHS has also presented waivers requesting that the
landowners grant DHS personnel access to their property for a
twelve-month period in order to conduct surveys for the intended
construction project. The property owners were informed that if they do
not voluntarily allow the federal agents on their property, the U.S.
government will file a law suit so that Homeland Security authorities
can have unimpeded access to private land, despite the owners'
opposition. Homeland Security has stated that it will seize property
even without the consent of landowners if necessary to complete the
construction of the border fence. Many landowners, as well as civic
leaders and human rights activists, oppose the U.S. government's plans
to allow federal law enforcement agents access to private property. The
government's demands and aggressive tactics are in conflict with
settled rights of private property ownership and are particularly
disconcerting to the Indigenous peoples' communities impacted by this
undertaking.

The Texas communities along the international boundary zone are largely
made up of Native Americans and of land grant heirs who have resided on
inherited properties for hundreds of years. Homeland Security plans to
complete the Texas portions of the fence before the end of the 2008
calendar year.

Homeland Security has already built walls along much of the California
and Arizona international boundary zone with Mexico despite opposition
from the government of Mexico.


[Brenda Norrell is human rights editor for U.N. OBSERVER & International
Report. She also runs the Censored website. She can be reached at:
brendanorrell at gmail.com ]