Living On The Border, Driven — Literally — Underground

[JackFrost]

Living On The Border, Driven

After living underground in the United States — figuratively speaking — some undocumented immigrants deported to the Mexican border city of Tijuana are living in holes. These migrants have dug bunkers along Tijuana's sewage canal to protect themselves from police who routinely burn down their makeshift homes.

The Tijuana River is lined in concrete and cuts through the city for miles, draining sewage and runoff. Human feces litters the banks, trash swirls around in sudsy eddies and a dead dog occasionally floats by. It is estimated that between 1,000 to 3,000 people live along the river, many of them deported from the United States, like Abimael Martinez.

Martinez stands over a hole he dug; this is where he lives. The riverbed hasn't always been home. Martinez owned an auto body shop in Riverside, Calif., for eight years. He went to church, had a girlfriend and was like a dad to her kids. But two years ago, he was deported for driving without a license.

So he's homeless in the Tijuana canal and has fallen into the cross hairs of the police. The authorities think deportees are vagrants and criminals, and sweep through the river canal to flush them out.

"A policeman took my backpack and threw it in a fire when they came and burnt our stuff," he says through a translator.

After that, Martinez began to bury his belongings for safekeeping. That worked well, so he made himself a hole to live in. Martinez has reinforced the walls with wood that he collected at building demolition sites around the city. He brags that a police truck rolled over a few days ago and it didn't cave in.

Inside, there's no room to stand up. The space is about as big as two refrigerators laid side by side.

Martinez made a lid for his hole from a Styrofoam cooler. When the police come, he pulls it over the entrance. It lies flush with the riverbed and looks like just another piece of trash.

The U.S. government has returned hundreds of thousands of people from the U.S. to Tijuana since 2009. That includes a combination of people formally deported and those caught and returned the same day. In fact, more people have been removed to Tijuana than to any other Mexican border city.

Illegal-Immigration is an effect caused by bad laws and corrupt-government.

U.S./Mexico corporations & government profiting from deals like NAFTA, War on Drugs, etc. while the middle class and the poor suffer.

The middle/working class of Mexico and the United States need to stand on a united front against the elites of our countries, abusing Corporate handouts at the taxpayers expense and the monopolization of the drug war. By doing so, we will solve the problem of illegal-immigration.

 

[clownboy]

Doesn't have anything to do with NAFTA. The mass garbage city dwellings existed in Mexico before NAFTA was conceived. A church I belonged to in the 70s used to send missions down to bring clean water facilities and help build shelters. Still happening, my best friend just got back from his fifth trip down (bringing educational services to the kids living in the dump zone).

 

[APACHERAT]

I figured this was just another L.A. Times or NPR story on illegal aliens and we are suppose to shed some tears and open our borders and give 20 million illegal aliens amnesty along with a lot of free stuff paid for by the 52 % who actualy pay individual income taxes.

Does anyone know if I'm still financially supporting NPR ?

 

[specklebang]

I'm supporting NPR but I asked them to use your taxes to build drones.

Have you ever listened to NPR? Excellent programming except when they have those horribly annoying fund drives. <Many of their programs are not political and very informative.

I like that 52% thing.

I figured this was just another L.A. Times or NPR story on illegal aliens and we are suppose to shed some tears and open our borders and give 20 million illegal aliens amnesty along with a lot of free stuff paid for by the 52 % who actualy pay individual income taxes.

Does anyone know if I'm still financially supporting NPR ?

 

[APACHERAT]

I'm supporting NPR but I asked them to use your taxes to build drones.

Have you ever listened to NPR? Excellent programming except when they have those horribly annoying fund drives. <Many of their programs are not political and very informative.

I like that 52% thing.

But when NPR's programing is political, it's extremely biais, down right leftist.

Wasn't it NPR who has a track record of firing people at NPR for not being liberal/leftist enough ? I believe so. At least Juan Williams convinced me.

 

[specklebang]

I won't deny they are "leftish" but nowhere near the extent that talk radio is "rightish".

As for Juan Williams JUAN WILLIAMS: I Was Fired for Telling the Truth | Fox News even hearing his side of the story, I can see why NPR was upset although I think they were wrong to fire him. It wasn't liberal/leftist issues. It was the PERCEPTION of anti-Muslim comments which I completely understand and agree with but I'm not a public figure, just a guy with crappy upper body strength

But when NPR's programing is political, it's extremely biais, down right leftist.



Wasn't it NPR who has a track record of firing people at NPR for not being liberal/leftist enough ? I believe so. At least Juan Williams convinced me.

 

[APACHERAT]

I won't deny they are "leftish" but nowhere near the extent that talk radio is "rightish".

As for Juan Williams JUAN WILLIAMS: I Was Fired for Telling the Truth | Fox News even hearing his side of the story, I can see why NPR was upset although I think they were wrong to fire him. It wasn't liberal/leftist issues. It was the PERCEPTION of anti-Muslim comments which I completely understand and agree with but I'm not a public figure, just a guy with crappy upper body strength

Juan Williams wasn't PC enough for NPR.

I don't agree with much with Juan Williams but he was done wrong by NPR.

Juan Williams is one of those liberals who can't be classified as a loon like many libs are.

In the end game, Juan ended up with a pretty nice contract $$$ with Fox News and now Juan is officially a limousine liberal.

 

[Quik]

I figured this was just another L.A. Times or NPR story on illegal aliens and we are suppose to shed some tears and open our borders and give 20 million illegal aliens amnesty along with a lot of free stuff paid for by the 52 % who actualy pay individual income taxes.

Does anyone know if I'm still financially supporting NPR ?

The problem is socialism, not immigration.

 

[Fisher]

Illegal-Immigration is an effect caused by bad laws and corrupt-government.

U.S./Mexico corporations & government profiting from deals like NAFTA, War on Drugs, etc. while the middle class and the poor suffer.

The middle/working class of Mexico and the United States need to stand on a united front against the elites of our countries, abusing Corporate handouts at the taxpayers expense and the monopolization of the drug war. By doing so, we will solve the problem of illegal-immigration.

NAFTA would have improved the jobs prospect in Mexico if it had worked as well as envisioned. The problems corporations ran into when they relocated to Mexico were insurmountably for some. I know of at least 1 corporation that spent millions but then ended up having to close its doors in Mexico because of problems with getting a sufficient, reliable supply of water that was necessary for their manufacturing process.

Beyond that, I support very open, accessible immigration. Despite being pegged as an evil old conservative, I am probably to the left of most people here on this issue.