Migratory Notes 30
DACA’s Demise? Arpaio Pardoned, Hurricane Harvey and SB 4
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#MustRead
The Trump administration is pressing for a mass criminalization of illegal border crossings, the Houston Chronicle reports. AG Sessions is prioritizing and expanding criminal convictions that are often prosecuted quickly before migrants are returned south under a program called “Criminal Consequence Initiative.” “Sessions wants more migrants who cross the border illegally to be charged criminally with misdemeanors for first offenses, and repeat offenses prosecuted as felonies punishable by up to 20 years in prison,” Lomi Kriel writes. “The criminal conviction can prevent anyone from ever returning legally again — even if they qualify for such a status.”
A Los Angeles Times investigation into Forever 21 finds a pattern of Korean-owned manufacturers and sewing contractors hiring undocumented Latino immigrants to make $13 t-shirts. “Most apparel making has migrated overseas, though Los Angeles held on to a small niche of the business because it can produce limited runs quickly,” Natalie Kitroeff and Victoria Kim write. “To keep prices low, factories rely on immigrant workers willing to sew for a few dollars an hour.”
DACA
White House officials told Fox News and McClatchy that Trump plans to end DACA “as early as Friday.” Current recipients of the program that protects undocumented immigrants who arrived as children from deportation and provides them with work permits would reportedly be allowed to maintain their status until it runs out, creating a scattered conclusion to the program. The White House promptly denied any decision had been made.
In response to the rumors, a Republican House lawmaker vowed to force a vote on a bill protecting recipients, tech executives are asking the president to reconsider, and various groups pledged to take to the streets across the country. Meanwhile Texas AG Paxton, who is leading the charge of 10 states forcing the president’s hand, vowed to maintain their pledge and sue if no action was taken by Tuesday.
Overwhelmed, confused, angry, terrified — DACA recipients are sharing their stories and tips. Here are a few:
- DACA-recipient and California lawyer provides tips on what to do (Univisión)
- Advocate Juan Escalante on how he has flourished, and how he could lose everything if forced to return to Venezuela (Vox)
- Trump is about to wake a sleeping giant (Cairo Mendes on Medium)
Border Wall
Four companies — based in Ala., Az., Tx, and Miss. — were selected to create concrete prototypes of the wall, with contracts worth $400,000-$500,000, the Washington Post reports.
While Border Patrol leaders heralded the move as the first “tangible result” of an action agenda to secure the border, Foreign Policy reports that a DEA intelligence report found that it will little to stem the flow of illicit drugs that often arrive in plane, boat, or hidden in vehicles.
Harvey
Days after Mexico offered to help the recovery efforts, Trump had yet to acknowledge the offer. But Texas accepted the assistance on Wednesday, the Dallas Morning News reports.
The offer first came Sunday hours after Trump threatened to terminate NAFTA talks and tweeted: “With Mexico being one of the highest crime Nations in the world, we must have THE WALL. Mexico will pay for it through reimbursement/other.”
A few hours later, Mexico responded with a press release, reiterating its refusal to pay for the border wall, and offering to help recovery efforts, because it’s what “good neighbors should always do in trying times.”
City leaders and the federal government tried to quell rumors that there would be ICE agents at shelters, with the mayor coming out saying he would personally defend anyone in court who immigration authorities tried to apprehend.
Esquire follows one of Houston’s estimated 575,000 undocumented immigrants (the third largest population in the United States behind Los Angeles and New York) as she overcomes her fear of a shelter. ICE reported that people were impersonating immigration agents during the hurricane in an effort to rob empty homes.
As Houston begins the long process of rebuilding, Trump’s immigration crackdown may slow the recovery, Reuters reports: “The Pew Research Center estimated last year that 28 percent of Texas’s construction workforce is undocumented, while other studies have put the number as high as 50 percent. Construction employed 23 percent of working undocumented adults in Texas at the end of 2014, higher than any other sector, according to the Migration Policy Institute.”
The New York Times notes that after Katrina, New Orleans relied heavily on undocumented labor to rebuild. On the Mexican border, reporters find as Harvey rolled in, “some sensed opportunity and crossed the border, hoping immigration agents would be redeployed or distracted… But…many stayed put, deeply fearful about the risks of working there without immigration papers, even if they made it across.”
Sanctuary
As the storm continued Wednesday, a Texas federal judge blocked the anti-sanctuary bill, SB 4, which was scheduled to go into effect Friday. “There is overwhelming evidence by local officials, including local law enforcement, that SB 4 will erode public trust and make many communities and neighborhoods less safe,” Judge Orlando Garcia wrote in his order. “There is also ample evidence that localities will suffer adverse economic consequences which, in turn, harm the State of Texas.”
State AG Paxton responded filing a stay motion and notice of appeal on Thursday. “Senate Bill 4 is lawful, constitutional and similar to provisions of the state of Arizona’s law, which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld,” his communications director said in a statement. “Sanctuary cities pose a threat to Texas communities by refusing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities and allowing criminal aliens back on our streets.”
In other states:
- California’s Gov. Jerry Brown’s amendments to a “sanctuary state” bill could actually create new routes for ICE, according to the Intercept.
- Denver passed a an ordinance restricting cooperation with ICE.(9newsDenver)
- Philadelphia sued AG Sessions on restrictions due to sanctuary status(Philadelphia Tribune)
- Illinois’ Republican governor is under fire for limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities. (AP)
Sheriff Joe’s Pardon
Trump’s timing to pardon former sheriff Joe Arpaio late last Friday as Hurricane Harvey barreled into Houston was calculated, reports The New York Times. Trump said it would bring higher ratings. He also argued that the Obama administration had “political motives” for going after Arpaio in the first place for illegally profiling Latinos, for which he was convicted of criminal contempt after he ignored a judge’s order to stop.
Francisco Chairez spent a year in Arpaio’s tent jail, which the former sheriff called his “concentration camp.”
“When I heard Friday that President Trump had decided to pardon Arpaio, I was disgusted, dispirited and disappointed in the American political system,” wrote Chairez in the Washington Post.
At the same time, some advocates are finding Arpaio’s pardon is a “nationwide call to political arms,” The New Yorker reports. “Even before Arpaio was found to be in contempt of court, advocates and community members in Arizona beat him at the ballot box, which showed that Trump, too, could be defeated democratically,” Jonathan Blitzer writes.
Enforcement & Justice
Reveal uncovers an ICE plan to get private sector help to “gather and analyze a massive amount of data on 500,000 unauthorized immigrants a month.” The request was published on a federal contracting website and describes a data pulling system specifically targeting “priority criminal aliens.”
A decorated Marine veteran in Arizona, who has evidence of citizenship, may soon be deported, the Tucson Sentinel reports.
In 2008, five days before the nation’s biggest immigration raid in Pottsville, Iowa, a federal judge’s husband bought stock in private prisons. Mother Jones investigates if there was a financial incentive for the judge to put hundreds of immigrants behind bars.
For the first time El Salvador has more pending cases in the immigration courts backlog than Mexico, according to a Trac report.
Follow: Father arrested near school; Travel Ban
The L.A. father who was arrested while dropping off his kids at school, has been released on bond from immigration detention, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The Trump administration’s travel ban will be back in court on Monday. Politico reports the ban is still partially blocked by previous legal challenges. In six weeks the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case.
JOB POSTINGS & OPPORTUNITIES
Selected Resources
- DACA studies/ guides: Guide for DACA recipients if program ends (Immigrant Legal Resource Center) | The Migration Policy Institute released a new report about the education and work profiles of the DACA set | Define American 🇺🇸 #FactsMatter sheet |Center for American Progress produced a report on DACA Recipients’ Economic and Educational Gains
- Special report released on the Politics of Immigration and Education from the journal Education Policy.
- Imm-print published an Immigration Detention Syllabus
- The Advocates for Human Rights and the Immigration History Research Center at UMN recently released a free curriculum that helps students learn about U.S. immigration through personal narratives: Teaching Immigration with the Immigrant Stories Project
- New tool from Trac maps cases pending in immigration court
- Tips on covering immigration when you do not live near the border (Daniel Connolly, from IRE 2017)
- Voices In America launched a podcast recently about the lives of immigrants affiliated with Public Counsel.
- What are schools to do with a child’s caretaker is detained? What can school districts do to protect their undocumented students’ data? Stanford Law School and the California Charter Association created a guide answering these questions for educators.
Immigration Jobs and Opportunities
- The Immigration Journalism Prize of the French-American Foundation
- Investigative Reporters (2) — Reveal/The Center for Investigative Reporting
- ¿Que Pasá Midwest? Freelance Editor/ Producer WNIN
- Associate Editor, Investigations Think Progress
- Community Engagement Editor — New Michigan Media (collaboration of ethnic/ minority media in Michigan)
- PRI’s Global Nation is accepting pitches for stories about immigration and diversity
- International Reporting Fellowship for Minority Journalists ICFJ travel fellowship (not specifically migration, but good opportunity to do so)
- Race/ Related Editor — New York Times
- Anti-detention organizer — Families for Freedom
- Director of Communications — Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC)
That’s all for Migratory Notes 30. We’re based in LA, so help us out by letting us know what’s going on elsewhere. 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. César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, Daniel Connolly, Fernanda Santos, Jason Alcorn, Cindy Carcamo’s FB posts, CriImmigation, 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 “I’m a DACA student and I’m praying ICE won’t pick up my parents” for the Los Angeles Times. 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 Drinking lead — why California may force all schools to test their water. You can find her on Twitter @1eaguilera
