Maria Jiménez, interviewed by Nic Paget-Clarke

Maria Jiménez is director of the Immigration Law Enforcement Monitoring Project (ILEMP), an organization that works with local communities on the U.S.-Mexico border to challenge human rights abuses in the enforcement of immigration law. The following viewpoint is excerpted from a 1998 interview of Jiménez by Nic Paget-Clarke, publisher of In Motion Magazine, an online multicultural publication. Jiménez asserts that communities along the border are being destabilized and otherwise harmed by the actions of the Border Patrol and other federal agents sent to capture illegal immigrants. Illegal immigration laws, she argues, create a “war zone” atmosphere in border communities and contribute to the oppression of poor migrants for the benefit of the wealthy.

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