Republished from the Defenestrator

Hundreds occupy U.S./Mexico borderlands to challenge militarization, neoliberalism and racism
by Jen Lawhorne

Overcoming the racism, xenophobia, classism and fear that borders represent hundreds of people created a space on the U.S./Mexico border in November that challenged the dominant paradigm to offer a world without borders based upon solidarity, self-organization, autonomy and mutual aid, without borders.

After five days of creating the dream, the No Borders Camp in Calexico and Mexicali also demonstrated the true inhumanity of the border when Border Patrol agents attacked the camp’s final protest, brutalizing participants and arresting three individuals.

A growing global network that for the past couple of decades has demanded the freedom of movement for all humans and denounced the deportations and repression lived by migrants, No Borders mobilized people to oppose the detention and deportation of migrants, the corporations making money from migrant repression and the multinational agreements crafted that spawn migration. Although the network has formally ceased to exist since 2004, groups and movements have borrowed from their principles to carry the movement forward.

With anti-immigrant backlash on the rise in the U.S., the movement has much to accomplish. Federal plans to build a 700 mile-long border fence in the desert allow the Department of Homeland Security to circumvent any environmental and labor regulations during the wall’s construction.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers regularly conduct workplace sweeps rounding up hundreds of undocumented workers at their jobs and leaving their children orphaned at home. Some of the most vicious anti-immigrant sentiments reside in CNN host Lou Dobbs, whose views sway millions of viewers in the U.S.

Building upon recent momentum from protesting border vigilantes like the Minutemen and years of cross-border actions, the No Borders Camp 2007 was organized by activists from Mexicali, Tijuana, San Diego and Tucson. No Borders Camps have occurred in European countries, but the camp on the U.S./Mexico line was the first to occur on an international border.

“The border is a war zone, a monster that divides families and kills people. We should act against the economic tactic where corporations have freedom of movement but people no,” said Hernan, an organizer from Tijuana.

“We know that physical and ideological borders generate hate, xenophobia, racism, classism among others and their principle function is to protect the economy of a capitalist country.” said Carlos a NoBC organizer from Mexicali.

To establish the camp, people converged in Calexico and Mexicali, two cities separated by a 15 foot corrugated steel wall in the Sonoran desert and ports of entry for the U.S. and Mexico respectively. Calexico, a sleepy agricultural town full of Border Patrol employees, serves as the gateway to the U.S. from Mexicali, a Mexican city with a population of nearly a million people and home to dozens of maquiladoras (factories that produce cheap consumer goods by paying workers dirt cheap wages.) Around 200 activists met up on the Calexico and Mexicali sides of the border wall during a rally on Wednesday Nov. 7 and marched east almost four miles together along the wall to where the wall ended.

There the wall gave way to a strip of dusty desert terrain, covered with trash and sliced by the “The All-American Canal,” which robs water from the Colorado River to provide irrigation to the Imperial Valley. A low cattle gate continued the border for a bit with the canal then taking on the duty of border barrier. The Border Patrol claimed that the land beyond the cattle gate to a Mexican street 50 yards away was U.S. territory and threatened anyone with arrest on the Mexicali side who attempted to set up camp.

Even though an armed contingent of Border Patrol agents awaited marchers once they reached their destination, activists defiantly pitched tents on the Mexican side, their camp hugging a busy thoroughfare. “A multitude of illegals, we managed to occupy U.S. territory for five days, peacefully without arms but with bravery and enthusiasm,” a statement by Mexical organizers said. “It’s to say that we managed to establish an anarchist community at the margin of two governments that were watching us but didn’t get to control us.”

On the U.S. side, a bloc of bikers led the march to the cattle gate, but were stopped by Border Patrol agents from opening the gate to cross to the other side. As people prepared the camp the first night, the Border Patrol established its presence as well, rigging up stadium lighting to shine on the camp at night, bringing out dogs and lining agents along the “border.”

By the end of the first night, the camps were about two hundred feet apart. Communication between the two sides occurred between people atop ladders on the border wall. Border Patrol agents prohibited anyone from standing along the cattle gate. People on the U.S. side were told that once they crossed the cattle gate that they would not be allowed to return through the gate. Even though the land on the other side of gate was technically U.S. territory, people would have to return to the U.S. side of the camp through a legal port of entry.

The idea was to create a temporary autonomous zone of one camp on the border, but the Border Patrol presence and the threat of repression kept the Mexican side physically divided from the U.S. side. As the camp progressed, actions carried out by campers brought the two sides closer together. People self-organized workshops and meals. The lower-power FM transmission on 90.9 followed the camp’s beat with music, information and commentary. Camp assemblies heard action proposals, suggestions, and discussions. Graffiti, flags, and posters covered the border wall. The Mexican camp creeped from the highway toward the cattle gate. More people crossed the cattle gate to join the Mexican side. Curious folks from the neighboring areas of the camps checked out the scene. Undercover cops roamed about filming and photographing activists.

On Friday, campers decided to hold a bi-national breakfast by sharing food over the gate. Border Patrol in full-riot gear cops marched into the Mexican side of the camp to deny the exchange of food.

“One of our main goals was to unify the camps physically. We brought that proposal to the Mexicali side and they were in consensus as well. We had the idea to have a binational breakfast buffet at the vehicle barrier area, where we would serve food over the vehicle barrier and share it,” said Don Kilo, an organizer from San Diego.

Legal observers from the National Lawyers Guild and the Midnight Special Law Collective negotiated to free some of the space around the cattle gate from BP agents and vehicles so people could approach it. The demand was won and hot breakfast was dished out. The Mexican Camp moved forward to touch the banks of the canal. Physical contact between the two camps was established.

“We won the space. We had an area of access around the vehicle barrier freed up where people were gathering, camping and taking the space,” Don Kilo said.

Later on that day, a march led by the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army Boredom Patrol Unit arrived at the ICE detention center in El Centro.

Protesters chanted outside of the facility and shook the fence calling for attention of the people incarcerated inside. “I’m hopeful that the many, many detainees heard us or at least knew of our presence, as the response from ICE was obvious fear and standing watching our every move. If we offered the detainees some sense of hope or some sense of solidarity, it was totally worth it,” said Lotus, a camp participant.

The action continued that night with an open mic session at the cattle gate which included the ceremonial passing over of a guitar from one side of the border to the other to continue the performance of anti-police revelry as peeved Border Patrol looked on.

“We danced in the dusty dirt, to MIA singing along “All I wanna do is BANG BANG BANG” under the border patrol’s floodlights, right at the tip of the barrels of their pepper ball guns, with all of our queer love across borders we kissed over and through their fences, we painted on the barriers, we raised antennas that reached across the lines on the maps, we marched right up to their lines with our bikes as barriers and watched them back off in fear...” Lotus wrote in a blog submission.

Other actions during the camp included a visit to a nearby cemetery where hundreds of unnamed migrants rest in peace after their failed attempts to cross the border. Activists also met up on both sides of the Mexicali/Calexico ports of entry where they performed die-ins and passed out literature. Mexicali activists traveled to some maquiladoras to pass out literature as well.

As the camp’s process unfolded, problems and differences surfaced between the two sides. The Mexican attendance was half the number of the U.S. camp, where many resources, like the media tent, were also concentrated.

Late Saturday morning, campers gathered at the cattle gate for a camp meeting to address these issues and how to improve the interactions.

“Since the beginning of the camp we put into action the valued idea of solidarity. All of the time we were supporting each other with food, structure, ideas, etc. Of course the U.S. side had more resources and better technology, but we all understood that was going to happen,” Carlos said.

“I think by the end of the week we had moved pretty towards the stated objective of one unified camp. we had our last meeting aross the guards rails, we had the dance party, we were serving food as a unified community. I would have liked it more if everyone had been able to come and go from one side to the other but the oppressive presence of the Border Pigs saw to it that that wasn’t going to happen,” said Steve from LA.

The camp packed up Sunday morning for the final binational march along the borderwall. Many activists crossed over to march to the port of entry on the Mexican side. Beeping car horns sounded along with the chants of the march, “We want a world without borders!” The slimmed numbers of activists on the U.S. side waited at a small hole in the fence to stage an international kissing booth.

Once the cross border face-sucking began and chanting united, a bongo-playing protester bumped into a BP agent. The protester was taken to the ground by a number of swarming BP’s barking “Get the FUCK back!” Balls of pepper spray shot through the air as terrified demonstrators ran for cover.

Video footage showed Steve from LA shot point-blank with pepper spray balls. “I can’t discuss this at this time due to the pending civil suit against the BP, but I was really fucked up by the BP before and during my incarceration,” Steve said.

The rearing of the Border Patrol’s vicious head was caught on tape by different camera armed activists. In the slow motion reviewing of the tapes, it is shown how BP shot indiscriminately into the crowd with pepper spray ball guns, discharged tasers, slammed people into walls and shamelessly beat on non-violent protesters.

Watching the brutality unleashed on their comrades in the U.S., the protest in Mexico took a lane of traffic, held the space and performed a die-in to stop traffic. Three people were arrested on the U.S. side. The camp’s legal and media teams mobilized. Video footage was quickly edited and posted on the Internet.

By the following day, more than 250 articles gave national and international corporate and grassroots coverage. Two of the detainees were released on Tuesday. Juan Ruiz, the bongo-plaing protester whose bump into a BP agent set off the attack, was charged with felony assault on a federal officer. His charges were later reduced to a misdemeanor charge of impeding an officer. The outcome of his case has yet to be determined as of press time.

Self-critique followed the camp. Many activists on the U.S. side realized they had committed a big mistake by not doing any local organizing in Calexico and with People of Color groups.

“The whiteness of the organizing process and the lack of local organizing in the Imperial Valley were issues in particular that nearly ended the project many times. Ultimately I am glad that it continued and I hope that we can begin a process of meaningful reflections and thoughtful critiques,” said Rich from San Diego.

The Mexicali side struggled with lack of proposals and organization.
“Principally we need to have more discussions and more solid structure. I mean to solidify and reach more agreements in respect to the dynamics of the camp. Also, the camp was an autonomous space; I hope more people arrive at the next one with more proposals and affinity groups, “ Hernan said.

Problems aside, the consensus was to hold another No Borders Camp in the next year. Proposals were already launched for the camp’s next location.

While the repression at the end of the camp did not overshadow the rest of the camp’s experience, organizers stress that the violence experienced by camp participants is something migrants live every day when they cross the border in search of better lives. “This time they (the Border Patrol) got caught,” said a participant.