HOMAN AND NOEM WILL DRIVE BORDER AGENDA: TED CRUZ

Billal Rahman, Newsweek, 13 November 2024

Texas Senator Ted Cruz said former ICE Director Tom Homan, recently nominated as President-elect Donald Trump’s “border czar,” will be the key figure in “driving” immigration policy at the southern border, rather than incoming Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. With Stephen Miller, who was appointed Deputy Chief of Policy, Trump has appointed a trio of hardliners to key posts that will play a frontline role in shaping immigration policy, making them crucial to his administration’s potential success or failure.

Immigration was key to Trump’s winning campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris and was instrumental in fueling his comeback victory last week. Cruz said he is “very happy” with the appointments and praised Homan and Noem on the latest episode of his podcast, Verdict. “Tom Homan cares passionately about defending the nation and securing our borders, the senator said.

“Homan and Noem will work hand in hand. They will be very effective. [Homan] understands the border and what it takes to secure the border. I think he will be the point person driving the agenda. We are going to secure the border; it won’t take a year; it won’t take six months. It will be done by January and February next year.”

Newsweek reached out to Tom Homan for comment via a contact form on his website.

The Trump administration’s plan to position Homan, the former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director, as the primary architect of this agenda has been met with a wave of criticism from advocacy groups. In response to Noem’s and Homan’s appointments, a spokesperson for immigrant advocacy group No More Deaths told Newsweek that Homan is a “rabid anti-immigrant extremist.”
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November 13, 2024 No More Deaths
AS US ELECTION NEARS, MIGRANTS CONTEMPLATE A PERILOUS JOURNEY

Brian Osgood, Al Jazeera, 5 November 2024

TUCSON, Arizona – In the Sonoran Desert north of Tucson, Arizona, the telltale signs of migrants heading north are scattered beneath shrubby trees and in dried-out stream beds: empty jugs of water, desiccated backpacks, tattered blankets and faded pieces of clothing.

It’s difficult to say how long ago they were left behind. The harsh elements of the desert accelerate the breakdown of clothes and people.

“The conditions are extreme, during the day and the night,” said Francisco, a 30-year-old from southern Mexico who declined to share his last name. “We ran out of food and water on the third day. We drank out of green pools of water on the ground.”
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November 5, 2024 No More Deaths
A NEW REPORT SHOWS SKYROCKETING DEATHS IN EL PASO, NEW MEXICO BORDER REGION

Melissa del Bosque, The Border Chronicle, 9 April 2024

As safe corridors for migration disappear, more people risk their lives crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. And more people die. A new report by the nonprofit No More Deaths, along with a searchable map and database, documents the increasing number of migrant deaths at the border in New Mexico and far West Texas. Until now, not much research has been done on the deaths of people migrating through this section of the border. The project was led by Bryce, a No More Deaths volunteer (who asked that we not use his last name because the Far Right has recently been targeting the group). He, along with several others, have created the most comprehensive database to date of deaths in the Border Patrol’s El Paso Sector, which includes New Mexico and two counties in Texas, El Paso and Hudspeth.

The report covers 15 years, from 2008 to 2023, and it shows many disturbing trends, including the acceleration of deaths that has accompanied “prevention through deterrence,” the U.S. government’s strategy implemented in the 1990s to push migrants into more remote, dangerous crossings. That strategy is now morphing into something all the more tragic as people, increasingly women and children, are barred from accessing asylum and are dying at the doorstep of American cities and towns. In this Q&A, Bryce talks about documenting these deaths, and the discoveries that both shocked and angered him in creating this new report.
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April 9, 2024 No More Deaths
GROUPS: CBP UNDERCOUNTING MIGRANT DEATHS ON THE BORDER

Julian Resendiz, Border Report, 8 April 2024

EL PASO, Texas – A regional humanitarian nonprofit says the federal government is undercounting migrant deaths and continues to engage in practices such as chases of suspected smugglers that result in third-party fatalities.

Research published in March by the Arizona-based No More Deaths shows two to four times as many migrants died in West Texas and Southern New Mexico in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020 than reported by the government. The deaths resulted from dehydration or hypothermia (depending on the season), falls from mountains or the border wall, drownings, being struck by motor vehicles and being injured during law-enforcement chases.

The group attributes the undercount – which it documents case-by-case in a public database with more than 400 deaths – to insufficient follow-up with hospitals, local police and medical examiners after border agents or officers come upon injured parties or skeletal remains.
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April 8, 2024 No More Deaths