The Borderline: 06/26–07/03
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 twenty-first 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 this summer. 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, Illinois, North Carolina, and Texas.
As the country grapples with systemic racism and racial injustice against Black people, Abdi Nor Iftin, a young Somali immigrant displaced in Kenya who came to the United States in 2014, published a second edition of his memoir “Call Me American.” His written story aims to “promote understanding of immigrants, refugees, Muslims, and Somalis.” The latest edition of his memoir is geared towards young adults.
This week, we are learning that in a recent Gallup poll, 34 percent of Americans want to see immigration to the U.S. increased. This is the first time that Gallup sees more Americans in favor of more immigration to the country in its poll, which they have conducted since 1965.
There are more than 2,700 COVID-19 cases among immigrants in ICE detention centers as of July 1. This number could be 15 times higher than ICE reports due to its continuous practice of transferring detainees in large volume, according to a recent study. And this week, ICE reports the first coronavirus cases among detained migrant families with children. 11 family members at the Karnes County Residential Center, run by the private prison corporation GEO group, have tested positive for the virus as well as four employees at a CoreCivic detention center in Texas. And, as our own Meena Venkataramanan reports for the Texas Tribune, as detained children are put in danger with the risk of COVID-19 infections, a federal court ruling was passed that ordered ICE to release all children in family detention centers by July 17. However, advocacy groups, like the International Rescue Committee (IRC), raised the alarm that this decision could leave the door open for the Administration to effectively separate families by releasing children to sponsors or transfer them to state custody while parents remain detained or are deported. This is in addition to the recent designation of ICE as a “security agency” that now puts ICE employees in the same category as high-level intelligence officials, and blocks from disclosure information that is typically public.
We are also learning about the details of ICE deportations, which are still being conducted despite the concerns of coronavirus transmissions from countries receiving those who are deported. Guatemala has limited the number of people the U.S. can deport on a weekly basis to 100. Before the pandemic, ICE has been deporting 4,000 people to Guatemala monthly, but with this new cap, the number is about 400 people in a month.
As outbreaks of COVID-19 cases are already happening inside ICE detention centers, asylum seekers who have to remain in Mexico as part of the Migrant Protection Protocols, a Trump immigration policy where asylum seekers have to wait for their asylum case to be processed in Mexico, are also at risk. In the Matamoros refugee camp, three asylum seekers tested positive this week for the virus where an outbreak could easily spread in an under-resourced camp (border closures have restricted the flow of aid and essential resources) packed with about 2,000 people living in tents.
Back in the U.S., there is a conflict between many immigration judges and the Justice Department as a union representing immigration judges is suing the Trump administration over a policy they say censors judges. In addition, the immigration services offered by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which has been criticized for” slowed-down processing and increased application denials” under the Trump administration, is facing a $1.2 billion budget shortfall that it says will force thousands of furloughs in the coming weeks. Congress has yet to receive a detailed budget from the White House to keep the agency and its services afloat.
To stay updated, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @borderstoriesAZ.
– Jeromel
DEEP DIVES
We are further learning about the lives of Black immigrant domestic workers during this pandemic. In a recent survey of over 800 Black immigrant domestic workers in Massachusetts, Miami, and New York City by the Institute for Policy Studies, we see that 70 percent of those surveyed have lost their jobs or received reduced hours and pay with 49 percent being afraid of seeking public aid assistance due to their immigration status. About the impact of USCIS’ $1.2 billion budget shortfall where 70 percent of its employees would likely be furloughed by the federal government, further slowing down immigration and citizenship processing. About the backlog for issuance of green cards (permanent residence status) for H1B visa holders as a result of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) that establishes quotas for the amount of green cards issued, especially in the employment-based category that H1B visa holders apply to. The wait time for H1B visa holders from India is the longest where one would have to wait until 2138 to get a green card. About the challenges of accessing resources and vital health information to non-native English speakers, such as in the immigrant and refugee communities of Multnomah County in Oregon.
WEEKLY ROUNDUP
NATION
ENFORCEMENT:
- Trump suspends visas allowing hundreds of thousands of foreigners to work in the U.S.: As Trump uses the pretext of the pandemic to put a suspension to the issuance of H1B and H2B visas until the end of the year, will these measures be temporary as they are claimed to be?
- Trump administration tells asylum seekers to get used to “homelessness” with new policy: With most asylum seekers being denied work authorization through this new policy to take effect in August, how would asylum seekers in the U.S. who are still waiting for their application to be processed be able to sustain themselves and their families during this pandemic?
- The US military will stay on the US-Mexico border, even with migration falling: What is the government’s purpose of maintaining a military presence at the southern border when immigration is down?
RULINGS:
- Judge overturns Trump border rule requiring immigrants to first claim asylum in another country: Would the U.S. government abide by this ruling and process asylum applications? How could the recent immigration restrictions impact it?
- Supreme Court allows Trump’s fast-track removal of rejected asylum seekers: With the Court deciding that it has no judicial oversight on asylum cases where asylum seekers can no longer petition a federal court to review their case, could this lead to more asylum seekers whose lives are in danger in their countries of origin being turned down?
- Judge orders ICE to free immigrant children in family detention because of COVID-19: Would ICE release all immigrant children in family detention by the July 17 deadline? Would ICE make sure that the detained parents would be released along with their children?
- Trump’s use of Pentagon funds for US-Mexico border wall illegal, court rules: Since this ruling was made by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, would the Supreme Court uphold it when they ruled last year that the government can proceed in using $2.5 billion of Pentagon funds for the wall?
ARIZONA:
- Feds reveal details for border wall that will span San Pedro River: To what extent is the federal government considering the environmental repercussions and damage that would result from border wall construction?
- ICE terminates cases for two DACA youth arrested without probable cause: Are there other cases of ICE detaining and threatening deportation to immigrants who are taking part in Black Lives Matter protests?
CALIFORNIA
- Kumeyaay tribe blocks border wall construction on native burial grounds: Facing condemnation, will the federal government recognize the ancestral land of indigenous communities when it currently claims ownership of Kumeyaay native burial grounds?
- Latinx community hit hardest by COVID-19 in San Diego County: With many Latinx people being frontline workers, what are local governments, like the San Diego County, doing to ensure that people who are in the frontlines have safe working conditions and access to benefits, like healthcare insurance and paid sick leave?
- Immigrants, advocates, members of Congress decry chemical use at ICE facility in Adelanto: With ICE using Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines to defend spraying detainees with the HDQ Neutral chemical disinfectant, will the CDC step in to consider the concerns for the health of immigrant detainees exposed to this chemical?
- One-third of San Diego’s essential workers are immigrants: What are the working conditions in industries deemed essential that immigrants are in?
ILLINOIS:
- America’s outdated immigration system won’t let this computer whiz launch a start-up in the U.S.: For H1B visa recipients like Chicago resident Madhu Arambakam who will have to wait for 50 to 100 years to get an employment-based green card, what has the federal government done to fix this current system where a backlog in processing employment-based green card due to quotas has left immigrants like Arambakam unable to become a permanent resident and start a business?
NORTH CAROLINA
- Revealed: Covid-19 outbreaks at meat-processing plants in US being kept quiet: North Carolina is one the largest pork and poultry producing states in the country. With meat-processing plants, local government, and public health officials in North Carolina refusing to disclose the specifics of COVID-19 cases in food processing industries, what can immigrant workers in these plants do to ensure that these institutions prioritize workers’ health and well being?
- Charlotte’s Latinx community accounts for over a third of COVID-19 cases. Why these numbers keep rising, and how to get help: What is North Carolina’s government doing to ensure that businesses do not engage in wage theft and other exploitative practices that puts immigrant workers at risk?
TEXAS:
- Trump’s ban on immigrant workers moves Texas in the wrong direction, business leaders say: Would the concerns raised by business leaders against Trump’s executive order stopping the issuance of H1B and H2B visas for the rest of the year change the federal government’s position in restricting the entry of foreign workers?
- Witnesses contradict Border Patrol’s claim that they weren’t chasing car when 7 died in crash: When “many police agencies have moved away from high-speed chases in recent decades,” would Border Patrol reevaluate and reform its standards especially in light of a nationwide discussion on police and judicial reform?
