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ACLU Partners With Mexican Human Rights Commission to Protect Migrants

By Amy Isackson / Border Reporter,  KPBS Public Broadcasting
Published April 21, 2008 at 1:50 PM PDT
This story was published more than 16 years ago.

The ACLU and Mexico’s Commission on Human Rights have pledged to work together to protect migrants' human rights along the U.S.-Mexico border. The groups say they'll challenge Operation Gatekeeper an

ACLU Partners With Mexican Human Rights Commission to Protect Migrants

The ACLU and Mexico’s Commission on Human Rights have pledged to work together to protect migrants' human rights along the U.S.-Mexico border. The groups say they'll challenge Operation Gatekeeper and other federal programs that put migrants' lives in danger. KPBS reporter Amy Isackson has details.

Operation Gatekeeper is the federal government's attempt to stem the flow of illegal immigrants in San Diego in the mid-1990s.

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The government built miles of border fencing and beefed up the Border Patrol.

Illegal traffic in San Diego dropped. But people continued to cross in more dangerous areas. Deaths soared.

Kevin Keenan is Executive Director of the ACLU in San Diego . He says the problem is not going away.

Keenan : The fence keeps getting larger. Deaths have increased. And so it is incumbent on us to try again to figure out how to stop this inhumane waste of life.

The ACLU and Mexico’s Human Rights Commission plan to meet in June to determine how they'll challenge Gatekeeper.

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Meanwhile, the U.S. federal government plans to build 470 more miles of border fencing by the end of the year.

Amy Isackson, KPBS News.

Amy Isackson
Amy Isackson was the border reporter at KPBS from 2004 to 2011. She covered breaking news and feature stories on California-Mexico border issues and immigration, for local and national broadcast. Amy got her start in public radio by pitching a series of stories about rural New Zealand - horse dentistry and sheep sheering - to Radio New Zealand's "Country Life" program. She then worked with Peabody Award-winning radio producers Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, to help create the Sonic Memorial, a series of stories on the World Trade Center before, during and after 9/11. Amy's work has been recognized with awards from the Associated Press Television-Radio Association of California and Nevada, the California Chicano News Media Association, and the San Diego Press Club. She won the Sol Price Prize for Responsible Journalism in 2009 from the Society of Professional Journalists for her story about high school students smuggling people and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. Prior to venturing into the wonderful world of public radio, Amy worked for Yahoo! Inc. for nearly five years as an editorial surfer, associate producer and broadcast communications manager. She majored in Latin American History at Williams College. She grew up in San Diego and made frequent trips south of the border.
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