The Borderline: 04/21–04/27
Bringing you the latest on immigration and border issues.
EDITORS’ NOTE
Hi everyone! We hope you are safe and healthy, wherever you happen to be. This is the nineteenth 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. With all of us social distancing and doing our part to cure the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re publishing from our own corners of the country: Arizona, California, Texas, and Chicagoland.
In our newsletters, we have been covering the COVID-19 cases inside the Otay Mesa Detention Center in the San Diego area. In our April 13th newsletter, there were 10 immigrant detainees who contracted the virus. As of April 27, there are now 111 COVID-19 cases among those detained in Otay Mesa along with eight medical staff, eight ICE employees, and 17 staff members of CoreCivic, the private company managing the center. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Otay Mesa now has one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks at a detention center in the U.S. The local ACLU and numerous immigration advocacy groups have filed a class action lawsuit calling for the release of all detainees in Otay Mesa as a result.
With lawsuits being filed across the country calling for the release of detained immigrants in ICE and Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) detention centers, a federal judge ordered ICE and ORR to “make every effort to promptly and safely release” children under their custody to family sponsors living in the country.
To add to these cases, a class action lawsuit is being filed by non-citizen U.S. troops against the Pentagon due to their 2017 procedures that “makes it difficult, if not impossible, for service members to benefit from expedited naturalization.”
With Trump’s recent executive order barring immigration to the country and preventing families in the U.S. to petition/sponsor close relatives for immigration to the country, a lawsuit has been filed to stop this as the order “threatens serious harm to immigrant family members whose chance to reunite after many long years of waiting has been suddenly curtailed.” One of the concerning effects of Trump’s immigration proclamation that the lawsuit addresses is that it will cause children eligible for the immigration process to “age out” and be ineligible as families in the U.S. are barred from petitioning/sponsoring relatives under the presidential order. Trump’s immigration ban, however, is expected to include major exemptions where seasonal foreign farmworker visas will still be processed.
We also just saw the recent decision from the Supreme Court that rejects the requests from states to suspend Trump’s “public charge” rule through which immigrants who use government services, like Medicaid, food stamps, and housing vouchers, are barred from legal residence status in or inadmissible to the country.
For immigrants in migrant centers in Mexico due to Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” rule for asylum seekers, we are seeing Mexico deporting them to their countries of origin as part of their process in clearing out these centers. It is worth noting that such expedited deportation procedures are similar to what the U.S. is currently doing where 80 immigrants deported to Guatemala have tested positive for COVID-19.
To stay updated, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @borderstoriesAZ.
– Jeromel
DEEP DIVES
We are learning about how Trump’s immigration crackdown is creating new coronavirus hotspots through the “Remain in Mexico” program for asylum seekers, the continuation of ICE detention centers, the expedited deportation of those crossing the border, and the continual construction of Trump’s Border Wall. About asylum seekers in Mexico waiting out the pandemic in squalid and dangerous conditions due to the “Remain in Mexico” rule or the Migration Protection Protocols (MPP) . About U.S. government officials and businesses pressuring Mexico to keep U.S.-owned factories open despite workers in these factories getting sick from COVID-19. About these pressures to keep U.S. auto factories open in Mexico. About how more than 50% of agricultural laborers in the U.S. are undocumented and are crucial on sustaining the global food system and demand in the time of the pandemic.
WEEKLY ROUNDUP
NATION
ENFORCEMENT:
- ICE tells federal judge the court has no authority over its detention practices: If a court case orders for the release of all immigrants detained by ICE in one or more detention centers, how could the courts enforce this decision if ICE could claim that the courts have no authority over its practices?
- ICE detention of pregnant women soared 80% after Trump administration ended policy against it: What is the pretext for ICE to detain pregnant women?
- ICE detainees terrified of the coronavirus wanted to be deported. Guards pepper-sprayed them: Could ICE be held accountable for brutal and inhumane treatment of immigrants?
- ICE is trying to deport a girl who fled threats after she reported her dad for sexually assaulting her: With this particular girl’s story where she is going to be deported back to Honduras even though her mother is in Mexico due to Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” rule for asylum seekers, how is this procedure to deport an unaccompanied child back to the very life threatening place they escaped from legal?
RULINGS:
- Supreme Court won’t halt Trump public charge rule amid outbreak: If the Trump administration does say that immigrants getting preventive measures and treatment for COVID-19 using government assistance programs would not count towards its public charge rule, will they do anything to convey this to immigrant communities and encourage them to get tested and treated? How would their inaction contribute to the fears of immigrants who will not seek testing or treatment in risk of losing their ability to live in the country?
- Judge finds government is violating protections for migrant children during pandemic: In compelling ICE and the Office for Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to expedite the release of migrant children due to violations on the conditions of their detention centers, could the courts also bring about the shutdown of detention centers as migrants still face poor and dangerous conditions at these detention facilities?
- Judges order release of 3 ICE detainees from Wyatt as 7 more inmates test positive: What is the likelihood of success for a class action lawsuit calling for the release of all immigrants detained in ICE detention centers in the country?
- In win for Trump, U.S. Supreme Court makes deporting immigrants for crimes easier: With documented immigrants, like green card holders, now being at risk for deportation for minor offenses, could this decision be ever challenged by other immigrants who would be facing deportation for offenses that would not be deportable in the past?
ARIZONA:
- Coronavirus cases continue to rise at Arizona’s immigration detention centers: With 317 cases of COVID-19 among immigrants in ICE detention centers since the first case happened on March 24, are there any efforts being done by ICE and its private contractors to prevent new cases? Are health officials in the government doing anything on this issue?
CHICAGOLAND:
- Illinois man sues Trump for denying stimulus checks to Americans married to immigrants: Would the courts have any power to make the federal government provide COVID-19 stimulus checks to families regardless of its tax-paying members’ immigration status?
CALIFORNIA
- Advocates with mask donation turned away from San Diego immigration detention center: If ICE and their private prison facilities continue to deny the inherent problems in their detention centers where COVID-19 cases are on the rise, how can government officials and advocate groups directly help the detainees who have to endure these subpar conditions that endangers their health and lives?
- Out-of-work migrants in San Diego find there’s no money left to send to family in Mexico: With the need to remit money back to their families in their countries of origin, how can the situation of losing substantially paying jobs in the time of the pandemic also worsen the amount of immigrants and people of color who are more likely to get sick and die from COVID-19 as they are more likely to not be able to afford health care and early treatment?
TEXAS:
- Virus began spreading in Texas detention center as positive immigrants were quickly transferred in from Northeast: Are the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other leading health experts in the country monitoring ICE’s response to COVID-19 cases in their detention centers? Do they have any power to make ICE comply to their guidelines?
- Meatpacking workers in Texas Panhandle have little power to avoid the coronavirus: What can governments and advocacy groups do to ensure that companies provide and do not exploit its immigrant workforce in the time of this pandemic?
