Hayde Cervantes
The “War on Terror” is causing terror for many families living in Los Angeles and in other parts of the country. These “round-ups” are being used in the name of “security,” but why are only brown-skinned people the target? Is it truly for safety reasons, or is it an excuse for racist practices?
Immigration/US Borders
Before the September 11 terrorist attacks, the INS was already the second largest federal law enforcement agency, after the FBI. Now the Border Patrol has over 16,000 agents on duty. The majority are stationed on the Mexican border, enough to put one agent every thousand yards from San Ysidro, California to Brownsville, Texas. On the Canadian border, you could put one Border Patrol agent every sixteen miles.
In 2002, President Bush authorized even more Border Patrol agents to be hired and increased the border enforcement budget to a walloping $2.95 billion, up from $2.38 billion in 2001. 9 Under Bush's Border Security Initiative, the budget for immigration enforcement and services skyrocketed to $6.3 billion, including $1.2 billion for "greater homeland security and combating terrorism. The U.S.-Mexico border enforcement strategy is now being replicated on the Canadian border, where the number of Border Patrol agents was doubled. National Guard troops were stationed on the Mexican border to assist immigration enforcement during 2001 and part of 2002.
Matt Osias
Since the start of the religious wave around 1979, terrorism again holds a negative valence through the eyes of the United States and most of Western Europe. September 11 gave many of those same individuals, although mostly American, many justifiable reasons to hate terrorism. This point of view ultimately gave Americans and other no Arab or Muslim residents of our free nation tremendous power. For several months following the tragedy of 9/11, the U.S. began to see a sort of brotherhood or alliance among its inhabitants. Many people were forming groups and clubs, becoming more active in their communities, and maybe most important, keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. The massive problem with this new-found “American allegiance” was its lack of knowledge for what was actually going on in the world.
The United States’ involvement with the Middle-East has been a common affair for many years, but now with these attacks on our home land, well now everyone who has ever messed with the mighty U.S. must now watch their back. All the excitement and hype generated
from the uproar against terrorism allowed all willing to avenge their freedoms. Although this vengeance can be taken out in a number of different ways (i.e. write letters, protest, enlist,
take law into your own hands, etc…), unfortunately a common response has been racial hate crimes. For example, many people decided that after hearing of the nationality of the hijackers, to then pay closer attention to the similar looking individuals they would encounter throughout their already busy days. The U.S. plays home to the largest pool of ethnicity in the world, so what this means is that because of the tragic plane crashes, more and more were ignorantly pointing their finger at these innocent individuals of color, namely the Arab and Muslim community. In fact over 650 hate crimes have been reported nationwide since the 9/11 tragedy
These hate crimes are taking place throughout America and it is not just limited to attacks on people. Many places of worship have been vandalized. In the case of Southern California resident, Ali Khawaja, caretaker of the United Islamic Youth Organization's mosque in north Adelanto, due to the recent attacks on her holy grounds she is quoted as saying "I'm scared now. When I come (to the mosque) I take a gun with me." What makes this so frightening is that due to this war on terror and the lack of understanding some of these more ignorant aggressive racists are, the more that these oppressed Arab and Muslim Americans will feel they need to defend themselves. This war has caused many more problems than the obvious ones in Iraq.
Females play a new and unique role in the War on Terror. For the first time, American female soldiers are common in the Combat Zone. They frequently find themselves in the line of fire, and are no longer relegated to the “rear”, since in this war the rear flank has become the new front. They contend with new and unusual circumstances, and find themselves constantly battling the perceptions and customs of a different culture.