By Vicki B. Gaubeca, ACLU of New Mexico

The road to Artesia from Las Cruces, New Mexico, is a scenic three-hour drive past pristine white sand dunes, through chilly, foggy mountain ranges, and across flat, open pampas spotted with yucca plants. Artesia, itself, is a dusty town of around 11,000 people, mostly farmers, ranchers, and workers at local oil wells and refineries. I traveled that road myself this week, on my way to the new Family Residential Center in Artesia run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This facility currently houses around 620 women and children from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. It’s the first step in the federal government’s ill-advised plans to dramatically expand the warehousing of vulnerable children and their parents in facilities throughout the country, at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Sixteen-year old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez was walking near the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico to meet his brother for a late-night snack when he was fatally shot by U.S. Border Patrol agents. An autopsy later showed the body of the teenager had been riddled with 10 bullets that had entered his back and head. Mexican officials also said it seemed there were two agents who shot at least 14 times. More than a year later, the U.S. government has yet to issue a public explanation of what happened, or to release stationary video footage, except to allege that he was part of a group throwing rocks at Border Patrol agents who were up on a hill, behind the 60-foot tall border fence.