We get calls all the time from the barrios that women are too scared to leave their homes. This is a real crisis. Martinez points out that it has always been difficult to organize undocumented migrants. Due to the huge law-enforcement staff increases, Martinez says, political organizing among Latinos is more difficult than ever. They also have Operation Clean Sheets, where they've been raiding about a hundred large hotels.
People are very frightened right now.
We may be seeing the beginnings of de facto apartheid in the southwest. Working-class Latinos live under a different set of laws than Anglos. The entire social landscape of the border region is being remolded by the politics of the militarized frontier. Employers get frightened and obedient workers. And the national security state gets a bulwark against the slow-motion social and economic implosion of Latin America.