Migratory Notes 24

Elizabeth Aguilera
Jul 24, 2017 · 8 min read

Made in America Week; Refugee Ban; the Wall

Teen girls put on their quinceañera dresses to stage a protest Wednesday against anti-sanctuary legislation at the Texas State Capitol.

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#MustInteract
ProPublica’s Lena Groeger created an extraordinary interactive graphic that demonstrates how Trump could get his 4 percent economic growth: let in 8 million net immigrants per year. By contrast, if he were to deport all unauthorized immigrants, growth would drop and the U.S. would lose trillions of dollars over the next decade.

Made in America?
During “Made-in-America Week”, the Trump National Golf Club and Mar-A-Lago have requested 76 foreign workers, telling the Department of Labor there is a lack of American workers, reports Buzzfeed. The two Trump properties have requested more than 230 foreign workers since he launched his presidential campaign. The Trump Administration also recently expanded the H2B temporary worker visa program by 15,000 visas.

Back to the Dream Act
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill) first introduced the Dream Act back in 2001 to help undocumented youth. On Thursday, partnering with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), he introduced one again, in an effort to ensure protections regardless of DACA’s fate. But White House officials signaled this week that the president would not support it, and sufficient Republican support in Congress does not look likely, the Washington Post reports.

Meanwhile, Trump keeps sending mixed messages regarding whether he will continue DACA, reports the Los Angeles Times. It’s creating a frustrating and anxious cycle for DACA youth and their supporters.

Among those fighting for undocumented youth are a small group of lawyers who are undocumented themselves, reports The New York Times. California and New York are the only states that officially allow them to practice. Lizbeth Mateo, one of the more radical undocumented youth activists who once self deported, recently passed the California bar and was sworn in by a Los Angeles State Senator who called her the embodiment of the American Dream.

The Wall
The Texas Observer reveals that the Trump administration has been quietly working to begin construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall in the “crown jewel of the national wildlife refuge system,” the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge in South Texas. According to an anonymous federal official, private contractors and U.S. Customs and Border Protection are planning a January 2018 groundbreaking. The Los Angeles Times reports that Trump’s wall in this area would end public access to the refuge and endanger animals by cutting off access to the river.

Some overlooked victims of the wall: binational cattle. The New York Times published a series of videos documenting lesser known elements of binational living on the border — cowboys making deals, a congregation across two nations, and an artist working to erase the division.

And just in case you were wondering if someone could actually toss a 60 pound bag of drugs over a 50 foot wall, as the president asserted some narcos will do…The answer is no, according to a physicist consulted by the Washington Post.

Immigration is an International Issue
An agreement between the United States and Canada that treats both as “safe countries” and requires asylum seekers to apply in the first one they enter is being challenged in Canadian court by a Salvadoran woman and her two daughters, reports Reuters.. Their lawyers argue the U.S. is no longer a “safe country” after Trump gave immigration officers broader powers to detain and deport people.

Italy has postponed a controversial law that would have granted citizenship to the children of immigrants born in Italy and to those who arrived before their 12th birthday, reports Reuters. More than half a million mainly sub-Saharan Africans have arrived on Italy’s soil in the last three years.

Travel Ban
The Supreme Court issued a new compromise Wednesday over Trump’s travel ban, allowing the government to deny entry of refugees with affiliations with resettlement agencies, but permitting grandparents and other relatives from six Muslim-majority countries to enter the United States.

Meanwhile, an analysis from The New York Times finds that the Trump administration is already developing a Muslim ban through “deceptively boring means: increasing administrative hurdles and cementing or even expanding the current travel restrictions that are not under review at the court.”

Refugees
Refugees are often placed in cities with infrastructure to ease their transition, but then move on their own to cheaper places that are not prepared for the influx. Fresno, California, which is facing an influx of Syrian immigrants, is an example of this phenomenon. “Behind the low rent is a city struggling with high poverty and unemployment, making it more difficult for the refugees to secure jobs,” Miriam Jordan writes. “And Fresno has no federally funded agency to help them find work, learn basics like bus routes and understand United States culture and rules, like with the practice of animal slaughter.”

Some of the new refugees in Fresno are coming from more expensive San Diego, which annually settles the largest number of refugees in California via its four resettlement agencies. Elizabeth reports for CALmatters that the trend goes back to the Vietnam War.

TPS
The loss of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians is causing concern in the El Salvadoran community that their status may not be renewed by next March when it is set to expire, reports the Dallas Morning News. TPS holders must renew their status every 18 months and many of them have been in the U.S. for decades. If the program is not renewed the 204,000 Salvadorans with such permits may be faced with going back to a country they fled.

Profiteers
Several local governments are going after funds available to law enforcement agencies willing to cooperate with federal authorities and prosecute undocumented immigrants. The Austin American Statesman reports Walker County Sheriff Clint McRae said, “One of the things we said we were going to do when we told the taxpayers we were going to build a new jail is that we would always look for ways to make additional revenue. That is what we are doing.”

Consequences
In Grand Island, Nebraska, immigration raids were intended to free up jobs for Americans but there were few takers, reports the Los Angeles Times. After Mexicans and Central Americans were taken away, Somalis and more Latino workers took their places. Poverty is up and the agriculture market is showing signs of weakness.

Enforcement
While immigration arrests are up, ICE data shows deportations are down, USA Today reports. The massive backlog in immigration courts is to blame for the slowdown.

ICE director Thomas Homan told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday that there are plans to hire 10,000 more agents and flood sanctuary cities with them. “What this president has done is taken the handcuffs off of law enforcement officers who are charged with enforcing immigration laws,” he said.

Deportations after regular annual check-ins are becoming the norm for those who used to check in and go about their lives. ABC News reports that in Ohio, a father of four bid his citizen children goodbye after 16 years in the U.S.

An MIT janitor in immigration detention writes the Boston Globe: “I was told that if I did what ICE said, I would not have to be in jail. I believed them. I came when they told me and did what they said, but they took me. I do not understand why I am here.”

Spa City, in Saratoga NY, is trying to understand why it has been hit with 30 ICE arrests recently, mostly of workers in high-end restaurants reports the Daily Gazette.

Follows — soldiers fleeing
Foreign-born recruits, promised citizenship by the Pentagon, are fleeing the country to avoid deportation, Washington Post reports. About 1,000 of those recruits have waited so long for a program that was supposed to naturalize them in exchange for service that they have fallen out of legal immigration status.

IMMIGRATION RELATED OPPORTUNITIES & JOBS

Selected Resources

Jobs

That’s all for Migratory Notes 24. We’re both based in LA, so help us out by letting us know what’s going on elsewhere. We realize this is in no way a complete list. If there’s a story you think we should consider, please send us an email.

Special thanks to intern Dalia Espinosa. Other thank you to those who helped this week, knowingly or unknowingly. Jacque Boltik for creating our template. Maria Kari, Tanvi Misra, Fernanda Santos, Sasha Khokha, Chas Walker, Sarah Garland, Jason Alcorn, Cindy Carcamo’s FB posts, Voice of San Diego Border Report, Global Nation Exchange FB group, Marshall Project newsletter, Xavier Maciel’s Sanctuary Schools newsletter, Migration Information Source, and countless tweeters.

*Daniela Gerson is an assistant professor at California State University, Northridge with a focus on community, ethnic, and participatory media. She is also a senior fellow at the Democracy Fund. Before that she was a community engagement editor at the LA Times; founding editor of a trilingual hyperlocal publication, Alhambra Source; staff immigration reporter for the New York Sun; and a contributor to outlets including WNYC: New York Public Radio, The World, Der Spiegel, Financial Times, CNN, and The New York Times. She recently wrote about Five lessons from a bilingual, bicultural newsroom in Southern Indiana for Local News Lab. You can find her on Twitter @dhgerson

*Elizabeth Aguilera is a multimedia reporter for CALmatters covering health and social services, including immigration. Previously she reported on community health, for Southern California Public Radio. She’s also reported on immigration for the San Diego Union-Tribune, where she won a Best of the West award for her work on sex trafficking between the U.S. and Mexico; and before that she covered a variety of beats and issues for the Denver Post including urban affairs and immigration. Her latest story is San Diego welcomes more refugees than any other California county. You can find her on Twitter @1eaguilera

Migratory Notes

Elizabeth Aguilera

Written by

Health/Social Services reporter @CALmatters, co-founder of #MigratoryNotes. I carry a mic & a pen. Prev: @KPCC @SDUT, @DenverPost. elizabeth@calmatters.org

Migratory Notes

At a time of rapidly shifting policies, we publish a weekly concise and insightful guide to immigration news.

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