Migratory Notes 47
DACA challenge, from deportation to death, 7–11 raids
Know someone who might like Migratory Notes? Please help us spread the word: Here’s the subscribe form and here’s an archive on Medium. Got a story we should know about, send it on!
#MustReads
For many immigrants, the threat of deportation brings with it the danger of murder and violence in their home countries. For the New Yorker Sarah Stillman, along with a dozen graduate students from Columbia University’s Global Migration Project, set out to find what happens when these immigrants are deported. Exploring more than sixty cases, patterns emerged.” In the past decade, a growing number of immigrants fearing for their safety have come to the U.S., only to be sent back to their home countries — with the help of border agents, immigration judges, politicians, and U.S. voters — to violent deaths.”
TPS
DHS ended more than a decade of Temporary Protective Status for nearly 200,000 Salvadoran migrants, reports The New York Times. The largest population of Salvadorans with TPS live in the Washington, DC metro area, followed by LA, New York, and Houston, reports The Washington Post. The protection was initially given after a devastating earthquake in the Central American country.
Now, Salvadorans with TPS have until Sep. 9 to leave the country. DHS officials couldn’t tell reporters how many U.S.-born children would be affected by the TPS decision or whether the administration had taken into consideration the country’s deadly gang wars, reports Quartz.
DACA
DACA was in the spotlight this week as Congress discussed a DACA extension in budget legislation, and a federal judge issued an injunction ruled Tuesday evening that requires the administration must continue accepting DACA renewals after it shut down the program on a “flawed legal premise,” while a legal case continues. Politico reports that the ruling allows DACA recipients who missed the Oct. 5 deadline to re-apply, but doesn’t allow new applications. A day after the decision the Trump administration pushed back on the ruling and said it plans to challenge it.
In their latest round of budget talks, Democrats and Republicans agreed on the need to extend DACA, but made little concrete progress towards a solution, reports CNN. After a day of meetings, they had tentatively agreed to narrow the parameters of their debate, a sticking point after Democrats charged that Trump’s border wish list was unrealistic and anti-immigrant.
Trump may have endorsed a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented people in the U.S. during the Tuesday negotiations, a move that left lawmakers from both sides of the aisle reeling, reports The New York Times.
In a reversal of their usual position, anti-immigrant groups said they support Trump extending DACA in exchange for extensive enforcement funding, reports USA Today.
Border Wall
The Trump administration requested $18 billion for the first phase of its border wall expansion, reports The Washington Post. The funding would cover 316 miles of new fencing and reinforce another 407 miles of the border wall over the next decade. Paying for the wall could mean cutting proven border security measures, reports The New York Times.
Security for the border wall prototypes has already cost San Diego upwards of $800,000. The city paid out $548,466 in the salaries of police officers assigned to patrol the area and another $227,500 in overtime over a month-long period, reports the Los Angeles Times. The sheriff’s department also spent $111,000 for miles of chain link fencing to surround the site.
Enforcement
ICE agents raided 7-Eleven stores around the country in a nationwide sweep, reports The Washington Post. Officials said the operation, which targeted 98 stores and resulted in 21 arrests, was a warning to businesses that hire undocumented immigrants.
Citizenship
A judge in New Jersey withdrew one man’s citizenship because he had been ordered to leave the country under a different name from the one he used to naturalize, reports NBC News. At the time USCIS gave him citizenship the agency didn’t check his fingerprints against all available records. Under Operation Janus, the DOJ and USCIS plan to review old fingerprint records of people ordered deported against current citizenship certificates.
Deportation
A federal judge ruled that immigrants who are released on bail for non-immigration charges can’t be re-arrested on immigration detainers, reports The New York Times. The double arrests amounted to “a second bite of the apple” that evaded the protections of the bail system. Instead, the government would have to choose between pursuing a deportation, or a criminal charge, but not both.
Sanctuary
Miami-Dade dropped protections for immigrants in its county jails, hoping for a funding windfall promised by the Trump administration to cities who gave up their sanctuary protections. Nearly a year later, Miami-Dad has won praise but no boost in funding, reports the Miami Herald.
The acting ICE Director Thomas Homan told Fox News that legal action should be taken against the mayors of sanctuary cities, reports American City & County. But legal experts told the magazine Governing that sanctuary city mayors can breathe easy — the law cited by Homan applies primarily to human trafficking.
Justice
Jeff Sessions threatened to end the practice of ‘administrative closure,’ which allows immigration judges to stop a deportation while reviewing petitions for relief, reports The Hill.
Labor
The New York Times reports on the story of two truckers, both from the same Mexican border town, but with a very different experience in the industry shaped by the decades-long struggle between NAFTA rules and the truck driver’s union. One trucker immigrated to the United States, became an American citizen and can drive anywhere in Mexico and the U.S., while the other remains a Mexican citizen and is severely restricted in where he is able to drive and how much he can earn. Now, under Trump, Mexican truck drivers are fighting against even harsher restrictions.
#MeToo
Advocates say missing voices in the conversation around sexual assault include women detained in immigration detention centers. AP reports on efforts to shine a light on sexual abuse of detained women. A data analysis by Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC) found that DHS investigated only 3 percent of abuse complaints between 2014 and 2016. Last year the Huffington Post reported that CIVIC filed a federal civil rights complaint about sexual abuse in detention in May 2017.
Refugees
As the number of refugees admitted under the Trump government’s restrictions drops, some refugee agencies are forced to curtail programs or close up altogether. But whether they do so depends on what communities they served in the past, reports the Akron Beacon Journal. In one Ohio county, the arrival of Bhutanese refugees who are not targeted by any travel bans or refugee restrictions has allowed a local relief agency to keep its doors open.
In San Diego some refugee families that were placed under false leases by an immigration resettlement agency have been moved into new homes, others are still waiting, reports KPBS. An investigation by the station last summer uncovered the practice of setting up apartment leases for refugee families that did not include all of the occupants. Once apartment managers found out more people were living in units than had been listed families found themselves facing eviction.
Surveillance Watch
Customs officers searched 60 percent more cell phones at airports and the border in 2017 than in 2016 as part of the administration’s broader agenda on immigration, reports The New York Times.
Immigration is International
Refugees in Scotland should be given the right to vote in local and national elections, suggests a policy paper under consideration by the Scottish parliament. “Linking citizenship with the right to vote is undemocratic,” one minister told the Independent.
Follows: Arpaio..again, ICE goes after California, Trump backs off H1-B
- Joe Arpaio announced he will run for the U.S. Senate in Arizona, reports The New York Times.
- The acting ICE director said he would increase the presence of ICE officers in response to California sanctuary status, reports CNN.
- The undocumented immigrant accused of killing Kate Steinle was sentenced for unlawful possession of a firearm rather than murder, reports The Washington Post.
- Trump has backed off a regulatory change for H1-B visas following pressure from the tech industry, reports McClatchy.
JOB POSTINGS & OPPORTUNITIES
Selected Resources
- Podcasts to check out
- Only in America: National Immigration Forum launched a new podcast about the people behind immigration issues.
- Immigration and Crime: The World of Humans science podcast delves into the connection.
- The New American Songbook from Groundtruth Project looks at the stories behind the songs of immigrants.
- Voices in America
- Mash-Up American
- For a more complete list Radio Public curates podcasts about immigration and migration
- Recently released immigration books and reports (got one, send it over)
- The Making of a Dream: How a group of young undocumented immigrants helped change what it means to be American by Laura Wides-Muñoz (pub date: 1/30/17) covers the growth of the Dreamer movement.
- The Book of Isaias: A child of Hispanic immigrants seeks his own America by Daniel Connolly is a nonfiction narrative about the children of Mexican immigrants coming of age in Tennessee.
- The Newcomers: Finding Refuge, Friendship, and Hope in an American Classroom by Helen Thorpe tells the story of a Denver high school.
- New Italian Migrations to the United States, including reports on role shaping 1965 immigration laws.
- Special report on the Politics of Immigration and Education from the journal Education Policy.
- Immigration-related curriculum
- Re-imagining immigration has resources and lessons to teach about migration, immigration, refugees, and civic empowerment through history, literature, and the sciences
- 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
- Imm-print published an Immigration Detention Syllabus
- Language Justice Curriculum for Interpreters from the Center for Participatory Change
DACA studies/ guides:
- Who are the DACA recipients (Urban Institute) also check out Local Insights from DACA (Brookings)
- DACA, the DREAM Act and undocumented immigrants: A primer for journalists (Journalist’s Resource/ Shorenstein Center)
- Define American DACA #FactsMatter sheet
- Immigration reporting tools and tips
- How to cover local refugee communities (American Press Institute)
- Tips on covering immigration when you do not live near the border (Daniel Connolly, from IRE 2017)
- Resources for investigating visas (Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting)
Immigration Jobs and Opportunities
- Deputy Director of Programs, Communications Trainer, Communications Coordinator — California Immigrant Policy Center
- Investigative Data Reporter — inewsource.org (San Diego)
- Managing Editor — Southern California Public Radio
- Youth Reporting Fellowships — IMM Print, a new publication
- Program Manager and Interns for Spring and Summer — Hello Neighbor
- Resource and Organizational Development Director — America’s Voice
- Associate Editor, Investigations ThinkProgress
- PRI’s Global Nation is accepting pitches for stories about immigration and diversity
That’s all for Migratory Notes 47. 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. Daniel Kowalski, Audrey Singer, Michele Henry, Jason Alcorn, Voice of San Diego Border Report, Global Nation Exchange FB group, 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 How can collaborations between ethnic and mainstream outlets serve communities in the digital age? for American Press Institute. 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 Are tens of thousands of California kids about to lose their health care? You can find her on Twitter @1eaguilera
*Yana Kunichoff is an independent journalist and documentary producer who covers immigration, policing, education and social movements. She was project manager for Migrahack 2016 in Chicago. She has also produced feature-length documentaries and a pop-culture web series for Scrappers Film Group; worked as a fellow with City Bureau, where she won a March 2016 Sidney Hillman award for an investigation into fatal police shootings; and covered race and poverty issues for the Chicago Reporter. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Atlantic, Pacific Standard and Chicago magazine among others. You can find her on Twitter @yanazure
