The Borderline: 03/23–03/30
Bringing you the latest on immigration and border issues
EDITORS’ NOTE
Hi everyone! This is the fifteenth edition of The Borderline, Stories from the Border’s weekly newsletter on immigration and border issues. This is our curated summary of what we’ve been reading and working on throughout the semester. Now, as COVID-19 has forced Harvard’s campus to close, we’re publishing from our own corners of the country: Arizona, California, Texas, and Chicagoland.
This week, we’ve been following coronavirus-related immigration news, and how nationwide quarantines have affected immigrants and asylum seekers across the country. People in ICE detention centers are living in fear of coronavirus, and many are concerned that the centers are not equipped to deal with an outbreak. Judges in New Jersey, New York, and California have ordered the release of small numbers of detainees who are at increased risk of infection due to underlying health conditions. More than 180 detainees at the York County Detention Center in Pennsylvania have started a hunger strike to demand their release, and ICE officials have used pepper spray against detained immigrants at least three times this week in response to protests. The Southern Poverty Law Center has written about the White House contemplating an asylum ban in response to the pandemic, and under emergency coronavirus measures, migrants who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico Border are being expelled to Mexico even more quickly than normal.
For immigrants already living in the U.S., coronavirus has had dire consequences as well. Undocumented workers, including those who pay taxes, are not included in the $2 trillion stimulus bill and will not receive government assistance.
On top of shortages of ventilators and personal protective equipment, the U.S. is facing a shortage of healthcare personnel; a significant percent of doctors and nurses in the U.S. are immigrants, and some states have waived licensing requirements for graduates of foreign medical schools so that they can get to work in the U.S. as soon as possible.
To stay updated, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @borderstoriesAZ.
– Anna Kate and Jeromel
DEEP DIVES
We’re learning about the lack of access to legal representation that asylum-seekers face under Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” program where only 5.3% have lawyers through the end of January. About the poor and dangerous conditions of refugee shelters and camps in Mexico by the U.S. Border where without access to healthcare, resources, or proper health protocols, asylum seekers are at high risk for a coronavirus outbreak. In the U.S., we see migrants in detention centers, such as in Texas and New Jersey, protesting against ICE officials due to the lack of health services, resources, and protection towards COVID-19 through uprisings and hunger strikes.
WEEKLY ROUNDUP
NATION
ENFORCEMENT:
- Despite national shortage, immigration lawyers required to bring their own medical gear: When ICE made this new immigration procedure rule, were the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and public health officials involved considering the urgent need of hospitals for medical gear?
- U.S. postpones court hearings for asylum-seekers in Mexico over coronavirus: Are there any health services and resources being offered by the U.S. to refugee shelters and camps in Mexico that sprung up due to the U.S. “Remain in Mexico” program with the inevitability of a coronavirus outbreak taking place there?
- Trump says undocumented immigrants can get tested for coronavirus without fear of deportation: Does Trump’s statement also allow for coronavirus treatment, and are there any measures being done to alleviate the fear of deportation and encourage immigrants to get tested and treated?
RULINGS:
- Judge declines to release detained immigrant families, for now: By keeping immigrant families detained, how can ICE be held accountable to the conditions of detention centers and whether they are complying to CDC guidelines?
ARIZONA:
- When Arizona elected a Mexican Immigrant Governor: With Arizona’s long history of nativism and xenophobia through the policies of Arizona officials like Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and state legislator Russell Pearce that targeted Latinx immigrant communities, which was dominant after and even before the election of Raúl H. Castro as the state’s first and only Latinx governor in 1974 , what is the outlook for the state in the 2020 elections?
- Arizona lawyers turned away from immigration detention centers: Would there be pushback from public health officials to have the federal government suspend all immigration court hearings?
- ICE releases some immigration detainees with HIV amid COVID-19 pandemic, LGBTQ group says: Would we see ICE follow up in releasing at-risk individuals for COVID-19 in all its detention facilities?
CHICAGOLAND:
- Little Village rocked by coronavirus, shutdowns: As state and local governments respond to the coronavirus, like through say-at-home orders, what has been their response to the health, safety, and financial concerns of immigrant communities impacted?
- ICE reverses course, accepts bond payments in Chicago for detained immigrants amid coronavirus closures: Even with this reversal to the rule for bond payments to be made locally, would ICE still continue to transfer detained migrants from detention facilities that are within Chicago to other farther places in the country?
CALIFORNIA:
- Amid coronavirus concerns, detainees ask to be released from San Diego immigration custody: With pressure for ICE detention facilities in San Diego, like the Otay Mesa Detention Center, to release detained migrants and the inadequate health services provided for detainees at the high risk for COVID-19, would ICE change its detaining procedures at a nationwide level to release those detained?
- In San Diego, more than 1,000 U.S. children separated from asylum-seeking parents since 2014: Are there any pending cases challenging this other form of family separation that ICE has been doing where asylum-seeking parents are separated and even deported away from their U.S. citizen children?
- As White House takes on ‘sanctuary’ cities, tensions between L.A. County sheriff and ICE ramp up: In light of the coronavirus, would ICE respect the sanctuary laws of cities and states, and would they suspend their raids?
TEXAS:
- Suit seeks release of immigrant families due to virus risk: With numerous reports of inadequate health services and measures taken by ICE to prevent coronavirus infections in their detention facilities, would ICE implement a general action to release detained migrants as some facilities, like in Arizona, have already released migrants at high risk for coronavirus infections?
- How is COVID-19 impacting the immigration system?: To what extent is the coronavirus pandemic changing immigration enforcement policies in Texas and beyond?
- U.S. immigration courts curb hearings to reduce coronavirus risk: Would the federal government suspend all immigration court hearings with the U.S. now having the most coronavirus cases?
