Category: Uncategorized

McAllen business leader Monica Weisberg-Stewart said it’s no surprise that Americans are confused as to what documents they will need to re-enter the United States from land ports come Jan. 31.

“That’s because the Department of Homeland Security has decided to ignore instructions from Congress to postpone the Western Hemisphere Initiative to June 2009,” said Weisberg-Stewart. “WHTI would have required Americans to use a passport to re-enter the U.S. at land ports. Homeland Security opposes the delay and has decided if they can’t require passports, they’ll require birth certificates instead.”

Full Story: Rio Grande Guardian

DEL RIO, TX (Januar 7, 2007) Afternoon Border Ambassadors, Freedom Ambassadors, friends and allies…

Attached are three documents.

12/7/7 Transcript of Chertoff addressing his threatening letter to property owners on the Texas-Mexico border [chertoff.pdf]

12/7/7 Chertoff threat of eminent domain to Eloisa Tamez [eloisa1.pdf]

1/7/8 Legal notice to Chertoff from Attorney Peter Schey [schey.pdf]

Everyone knows that the US Government has long formed and supported puppet governments all over the world. Unfortunately, in the process, the US has often propped up cruel dictators that wielded unrestrained tyrannical power over their own people…from China to the Middle East, from the South Pacific to all over the Americas. It seems to go with the territory of being a world power…and now a global power. It doesn’t seem to bother every day Americans very much…just as long as the local economy is comfortable and we have plenty of malls, box stores and buffets. So, what does that say about the moral values of our government, let alone “we the people”?

Since the beginning of this decade, the 21st century, this millennium…the worm has turned. We have seen our own government turn on its own people like a cannibalistic rabid dog chewing on its own leg. What is happening is incomprehensible…but we shouldn’t be shocked. We have been heading in that “what you sow you reap” direction for a long time now. What more proof do we need than to look at the Department of Homeland Security.

The current Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security is unquestionably one more puppet government…but this time with domestic dictatorial powers. Dictatorial powers over “we the people” of the United States. As an acid test, let’s just ask ourselves…”How many Americans presume that their phone is tapped and that their e-mail intercepted?”

Just thirty days ago today, on December 7, 2007, Michael Chertoff sent out a threatening letter to American citizens who reside on the Texas border with Mexico, as well as to organizations like the University of Texas-Brownsville, folks who have exercised their rights and have refused to allow federal access to their private lands that the proposed border wall would cut through. If the property owner has not allow access, in his letter, Chertoff promises swift action against them, threatening to not forced entry to their land, but to confiscate it…seize it. A letter to one such recipient, Eloisa Tamez, a Native American, is attached. Today is the the deadline for all such recipients of that threatening letter , as Eloisa, to acquiesce to Chertoff…or else!

Also attached is the transcript of Chertoff’s December 7, 2007 press conference on that same day in which he address that December 7th threat to border property owners. I have taken the liberty of highlighting many of his select rhetoric. Any Texan, any American…any person who has any sense of liberty…should be appalled at such dictatorial arrogance.

When one looks at his ridicule of the Texas border residents with his “not in my backyard” accusations, his threatening rhetoric of eminent domain, all the way to the sending in of Blackhawks, one has to agree that we don’t need a dictator to be shaping the future of our country with unilateral and undemocratic, un-American and immoral decisions. In his 12/7/7 press conference, he clearly shows how he is using gradualism to heavily militarize the entire border, doubling the forces and “going to the next level”. He already acknowledges that not only the ACLU is his adversary, but the Chambers of Commerce as well.

There is a rapidly growing coalition of Americans that is standing up to this dictatorial regime. The third attachment is the letter that is being sent today, January 7, 2008, to Sec. of DHS, Chertoff. It is being submitted by Peter Schey of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, in behalf of Eloisa Tamez, sending a volley back to Chertoff that his dictatorial powers have no legitimate standing in this country.

In a totally legal, democratic and peaceful way, this growing coalition has been saying “Hell No!. You will not build a wall of apartheid on American soil…let alone here in Texas”. In a historic stand of solidarity, this alliance has been forming that represents a vast number of facets of America…with the exception of the ruling elite, the racist supremacists and the xenophobic. Our alliance crosses all barriers. We have the environmentalists, the faith based groups, the economists, the elected officials…from mayoral to Congressional, the law enforcement, the indigenous, the academic, the youth, veterans and every day grass roots Texans and Americans. Even the media. As Americans, we are standing tall against this domestic puppet dictatorship.

If you or your organization would like join in this growing coalition to oppose the construction of a Berlin-like wall and the militarization of our borderlands, please let us know.

Please feel free to post, share and circulate this information.

In solidarity…

Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr.

jay@villadelrio.com

Excerpt from a press release issued by a coalition of “individual property owners, their legal representatives along with Native American and border community leaders” announcing a Jan. 7 telephonic media conference “to announce their intent to fight the Department of Homeland Security’s threatened seizure of their property along the United States-Mexico border.” The press release was forwarded to TCRR by Jay J. Johnson Castro, Sr.

“Our lands are not for sale. The U.S. government must stop its illegal attempts to intimidate us. The Department of Homeland Security cannot take away our homes and neighborhoods for border militarization,” declared Eloisa Tamez, a member of the Lipan Apache people and Basque-Ibero descendents living in the Lower Rio Grande region.

Mrs. Tamez is part of a coalition of Indigenous peoples and border community groups that are calling on the Department of Homeland Security to stop confiscating their private property and lands along the U.S.-Mexico border. DHS plans to use this property to build a border wall on it.

Mrs. Tamez and other owners whose properties abut the border are threatened by federal agents’ unwelcomed entry at any time into their properties and homes and the increased militarization of their neighborhoods. They are calling on DHS to stop its intimidation tactics and respect their property and human rights.

Last month, DHS Secretary Chertoff stated DHS’s intent to seize privately-held property in south Texas if property owners fail to cooperate with government efforts to erect the border wall, approved by Congress last year as part of a strategy to eliminate unauthorized migration and drug trafficking.

DHS 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 DHS authorities can have unimpeded access to private land, despite the owners’ opposition. DHS 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. DHS plans to complete the Texas portions of the fence before the end of the 2008 calendar year. DHS has already built walls along much of the California and Arizona international boundary zone with Mexico despite opposition from the government of Mexico.

In Arizona, the wall cuts through Native American ceremonial crossing areas as well as through a national wildlife park. Indigenous communities are calling on the U.S. government to stop this land grab and respect the rights of migrants, Americans and indigenous peoples at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Contacts for the press release are:

Peter Schey, Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law

Margo Tamez, Hleh Pai Dne (Lipan Apache) and Jumano Apache

Arnoldo García, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights

Scheduled speakers for the teleconference include:

Enrique Madrid, Jumano Apache community member, Texas Historical Commission, Redford, TX

Gabriel Carrasco, Chief of the Jumano Apache, Redford/El Paso, TX

José Matus, Yaqui, director of Alianza Indígena Sin Fronteras, Tucson, AZ

Rosie Molano Blount, Chiricahua Apache, Del Río, TX

Michael Paul Hill, San Carlos Apache, AZ

Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O’odham, AZ, founder of O’odham Voice Against the Wall

Eloisa Tamez, Hleh Pai Nde, TX (Lipan Apache-Basque-Ibero)

Margo Tamez, Hleh Pai Nde, TX; (Lipan Apache-Jumano Apache) Moderator