ImmigrationProf Blog

At the Movies: Separated (2024)

 

 

The film Separated in a nutshell focuses "on the Trump administration's policy of separating children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.  As Jada Yuan for the Washington Post describes the film,

"The Trump administration’s practice of separating children from their parents at America’s southern border began as early as July 2017, shortly after the inauguration — long before the general public learned of it and became outraged, and long before Trump officials even acknowledged it was happening, according to `Separated,' a new documentary from Errol Morris  that premiered at the Venice and Telluride film festivals [last summer]."

Democracy Now! interviewed the Oscar-winning maker of Separated, Errol Morris, about the documentary, which is based on NBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff’s book of the same name.  "The film details the horrors of the Trump `zero tolerance' immigration policy, under which thousands of immigrant children were forcibly separated from their parents after they crossed the southern U.S. border, part of the administration’s broader crackdown on immigration."

 

 

 Separated plays for a week in New York, before it gets wider theatrical distribution and airs on MSNBC this December.

KJ

U.S. Settled More than 100,000 Refugees in Fiscal Year 2024

 

We did it! Thanks to the international org and resettlement agency partners, welcoming American communities, and the @StatePRM team who made it possible to bring the most refugees out of harm’s way to 🇺🇸 since 1994. pic.twitter.com/69BdBCcy6m

— Julieta Valls Noyes (@PRMAsstSec) October 2, 2024

 

For the first time in 30 years, the U.S. resettled more than 100,000 refugees in a fiscal year.

Earlier this week, Julieta Valls Noyes, Assistant Secretary of the State Department’s Population, Refugees, and Migration Bureau (whose retirement was announced today), posted that the fiscal year 2024 resettlement total is 100,034 — a number that could change slightly when the official total is released.

The number represents a 67% increase from fiscal year 2023, when the U.S. resettled 60,014 refugees. And it’s an increase of more than 300% from 2019, the last pre-pandemic fiscal year during the Trump administration.

"The continued rebuilding of our refugee resettlement infrastructure is heartening," said Jennie Murray, President and CEO of the National Immigration Forum. "Properly resourcing our system makes a difference in how we face the challenges of global migration.

"Refugee resettlement is an extremely well-vetted, legal pathway that takes pressure off our borders. The United States must continue to welcome people fleeing persecution.

"Although the total falls short of the 125,000 cap because of lingering operational and capacity challenges, it demonstrates continued progress in rebuilding the refugee resettlement system after COVID and years of underfunding."

KJ

Center for Migration Studies: The Untold Story: Migrant Deaths Along the US-Mexico Border and Beyond WEBINAR

The Untold Story: Migrant Deaths Along the US-Mexico Border and Beyond (Free Webinar) CMS: The Untold Story: Migrant Deaths Along the US-Mexico Border and Beyond October 16, 2024 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM (ET) The Journal on Migration and Human Security will soon release a special edition issue, “Forced Migration, Deterrence, and Solutions to the Non-Natural Disaster of Migrant Deaths Along the US-Mexico Border and Beyond.” Authors will discuss their articles and findings on migrant deaths along the US-Mexico border and beyond.   Click here to register!

KJ

NBC News: What economists say about JD Vance's claim that immigrants drive up housing costs

Photo from Senator Vance website

During the Vice Presidential debate earlier this week, JD Vance blamed immigrants for, among many things, the nation's high housing prices.  NBC News takes a look at Senator Vance's claim.    

“Look, in Springfield, Ohio, and in communities all across this country, you’ve got schools that are overwhelmed, you’ve got hospitals that are overwhelmed, you have got housing that is totally unaffordable because we brought in millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans for scarce homes,” Vance said. Along with zoning reform, Vance and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump have premised a mass-deportation plan that they argue would reduce competition for housing and prices.

As reported, 

"[m]any economists caution that connecting rising numbers of immigrants to housing costs is no simple thing. Some have said there is no way to examine existing data and surveys in real time to determine the extent of immigrants’ impact on individual housing markets — though a chart drawn up by Ernie Tedeschi, a former White House chief economist for President Joe Biden, showed no clear connection between foreign-born population growth and native-born home prices on a national scale."

 

Just from a cursory look at the data, there does not appear to be any relationship between metro areas that saw the greatest immigration during the pandemic and the greatest increase in housing prices among the native-born. pic.twitter.com/fA03bqkqv2

— Ernie Tedeschi (@ernietedeschi) October 2, 2024

KJ

First Binational Clinic in Mexico to Support LMU Loyola Law School’s Immigrant Justice Clinic

Marissa Montes, Director Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic

Good news at Loyola Los Angeles! 

 The Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic at LMU Law School has received a gift to establish the Binational Migrant Advocacy Project (BMAP), bringing students in the United States and students in Mexico to work collaboratively in an international setting. This important project is the first binational clinic of its kind based at a law school in the U.S. and will serve as both a model and laboratory for more effective immigration advocacy and training.

LIJC’s BMAP will extend LLS’ global impact, fostering cross-border partnerships that empower migrant communities, enhance legal education, and advance justice on an international scale. LIJC’s BMAP is a collaboration between LLS and ITESO, Universidad Jesuita de Guadalajara (Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente), in the Western Mexican state of Jalisco.

KJ

Throwback Thursday: Aftermath by Daniel Kanstroom

It's Throwback Thursday and on deck for today is Aftermath: Deportation Law and the New American Diaspora by Daniel Kanstroom (BC). Published in 2012, here's the pitch for the book:

Since 1996, when new, harsher deportation laws went into effect, the United States has deported millions of noncitizens back to their countries of origin. While the rights of immigrants-with or without legal status--as well as the appropriate pathway to legal status are the subject of much debate, hardly any attention has been paid to what actually happens to deportees once they "pass beyond our aid." In fact, we have fostered a new diaspora of deportees, many of whom are alone and isolated, with strong ties to their former communities in the United States.

Daniel Kanstroom, author of the authoritative history of deportation, Deportation Nation, turns his attention here to the current deportation system of the United States and especially deportation's aftermath: the actual effects on individuals, families, U.S. communities, and the countries that must process and repatriate ever-increasing numbers of U.S. deportees. Few know that once deportees have been expelled to places like Guatemala, Cambodia, Haiti, and El Salvador, many face severe hardship, persecution and, in extreme instances, even death.

Addressing a wide range of political, social, and legal issues, Kanstroom considers whether our deportation system "works" in any meaningful sense. He also asks a number of under-examined legal and philosophical questions: What is the relationship between the "rule of law" and the border? Where do rights begin and end? Do (or should) deportees ever have a "right to return"? After demonstrating that deportation in the U.S. remains an anachronistic, ad hoc, legally questionable affair, the book concludes with specific reform proposals for a more humane and rational deportation system.

I've been thinking about this book since this summer. When I showed up to the housing for my week with the Rhizome program in Guadalajara (I think there's still room in the January program!), this was the only book left out for students to peruse. There were other reports and handouts, but just this one paperback. And it makes sense. Rhizome's mission focuses on deportees from the US rehomed in Mexico.

It also strikes me as relevant to the present political moment when candidate Trump is pledging to undertake "Mass Deportations Now!"

-KitJ

Cardinal: Immigrants are part of the solution, not the problem

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

On the heels of the Vice Presidential debate in which JD Vance blames immigrants for taking U.S. jobs, increasing housing prices, and more, Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles in his op-ed for The Hill writes that too many of our political leaders use immigrants as scapegoats in messaging that is "contrary to the facts":

"One thing you will not hear during this political season is how immigrants to the United States—recall we are all descendants of immigrants—have helped make this nation great through the sweat of their labor and the content of their character.

Immigrants have helped build our cities, our transportation systems and our national infrastructure. They contribute greatly to the country’s economic health by working in important industries that help fuel growth and create jobs.

****

 A modern immigration system which enhances legal avenues for migration, brings undocumented workers out of the shadows, upholds the rule of law, ensures our security and prepares us for the future is achievable.

In short, immigrants are part of the solution to, not the cause of, our country’s social and economic challenges. We forsake them at our own peril."

KJ

Immigration Article of the Day: Agency Entrenchment: Sociological Legitimacy in a Politically Contested Occupation by Dylan Farrell-Bryan

The Immigration Article of the Day is Agency Entrenchment: Sociological Legitimacy in a Politically Contested Occupation by Dylan Farrell-Bryan.

The Article was just published in Law & Social Inquiry, doi:10.1017/lsi.2024.29, and is available here.

Here is the abstract:

This study investigates how agents in contested occupations justify and legitimize their work. It examines Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) attorneys who prosecute immigrant removal cases on behalf of the federal government, delving into the narrative strategies that attorneys use to attain self-legitimacy within the agency. While existing literature suggests that self-legitimacy stems from either public support or an intrinsic belief in one’s deservingness of power, this study introduces a third pathway to self-legitimacy, agency entrenchment, in which government prosecutors draw on a highly internalized sense of patriotism and a duty to their organizational role, in the face of heightened public protest and changing administrative priorities. Analyzing forty in-depth interviews with ICE attorneys, this study identifies two primary approaches to agency entrenchment. The first is a bureaucratic approach, in which attorneys derive an internalized sense of duty from the existing law. The second is an enforcement approach, in which attorneys derive moral authority from what they see as their protector status. By deploying these narratives of self-legitimacy, ICE prosecutors attempt to resolve perceived conflicts between their legally mandated responsibilities and the ethical and reputational criticisms they encounter. The findings contribute to the broader understanding of the occupational dynamics between political polarization and law enforcement prosecution.

IE

How Trump credits an immigration chart for saving his life — and what the chart is missing

 

Former President Donald Trump reportedly will be returning to Butler, Pennsylvania, where there was an  attempt on his life at a campaign rally in July.  Adriana Gomez Leon for the Associated Press reports on the immigration chart that Trump "credits for saving his life.

Trump was addressing the crowd in Butler about illegal immigration and reviewing a chart that detailed U.S.-Mexico border crossings during his administration and President Joe Biden’s term. He had his head turned to the right to review the graphic on a projection screen when the gunfire began. One bullet nicked his right ear, coming millimeters from maiming or killing him."

The report takes an in-depth look at the immigration chart, what it includes and omits (such as family separation), where Trump shows it, and more.

KJ

California Governor Vetoes Opportunity for All Bill, Lawsuit aims to open UC jobs to undocumented students

A recent study found that, in the University of California and California State University systems, the enrollment of undocumented students has decreased significantly in the last few years as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy has been slowly dismantled.   

A few weeks ago, California Governor Gavin Newsom's vetoed the Opportunity for All bill, which would have allowed California public universities to employ undocumented students.   In vetoing the bill, the Governor cited concerns that state employees could be found in violation of federal laws for employing undocumented students.

The University of California Board of Regents share Newsom’s fear that offering jobs to undocumented students may violate federal law.  Earlier this year, the Board "shelved a plan to open jobs to students who lack legal work authorization, saying UC could be subject to civil fines, criminal penalties and the potential loss of billions of dollars in federal funding.."

In a story ("In Newsom quashed bill. Now lawsuit aims to open UC jobs to undocumented students"), Clara Hunter for the Los Angeles Times reports that, in response to Governor Newsom's veto, a lawsuit has been filed alleging that the University of California (UC) is discriminating against students based on their immigration status. The suit seeks an injunction requiring the UC system to consider undocumented students for on-campus jobs. 

The lawsuit argues that, although the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 bars the employment of undocumented persons, the law does not apply to state employers such as the University of California.  The lawsuit claims that the UC refusal to employ undocumented students violates the California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination in employment based on immigration status.

The lawsuit is being coordinated by the Opportunity4All campaign, which led the advocacy for the Opportunity for All Act,..

KJ

Harris Border Visit was a Missed Opportunity

When Kamala Harris visited the Arizona-Mexico border last Friday, she did a good job contrasting what her approach to interior enforcement would be with that of Trump, e.g., support for Dreamers, not engaging in massive deportation efforts, and being more open to immigration applications. But her actual discussion of the border was more about increasing enforcement and making it more difficult for asylum seekers--very Trump-like. It was a missed opportunity for Harris to explain that migrants at the border are not coming to do harm and to talk about the violence that the vast majority are fleeing. I've written about the good work that some people on the ground are doing to combat violence in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, and how funds from USAID and the World Bank have been misused in those countries. Click here.

bh

Report on the internal displacement situation in Haiti (September 2024)

The human rights crisis in Haiti continues.  The International Organization for Migration concludes

"[o]ver 700,000 people, more than half of whom are children, are now internally displaced across Haiti . . . .

These latest figures show a 22 per cent increase in the number of internally displaced people since June, highlighting the worsening humanitarian situation. Gang violence has so far forced more than 110,000 people to flee their homes in the last 7 months, particularly in Gressier, west of the capital."

KJ

VP Candidates Vance and Walz Debate Immigration

 

 

As expected, last night's debate between the two Vice Presidential candidates, touched on immigration.   While the debate was relatively civil and policy-oriented, the discussion of immigration got a bit tense at times. 

CBS News summarized the discussion on immigration as follows:

"During Tuesday's vice presidential debate, CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent and "Face the Nation" moderator Margaret Brennan asked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance about immigration. Ohio Sen. JD Vance claimed immigration policies enacted by Vice President Kamala Harris allowed the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz rebutted Vance and criticized former President Donald Trump for opposing a legislative solution to reforming immigration." 

As expected, Walz mentioned Vance's falsehoods about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.  Vance countered that he was not worried about immigrants eating pets but was worried about the impacts of immigrants on U.S. workers.  Vance blamed undocumented immigrants for rising housing prices.  I must admit that I smiled when Vance talked about the Biden administration as "opening the floodgates" to immigrants, which is a title to one of my books.  To be fair, we have very different views about immigration.  But I worried when Vance deflected a question by blaming Kamala Harris for separating migrant families and refused to condemn the family separation policy pursued by Donald Trump as President.

 

It seems fair to say that the immigration issue got the candidates talking.  Ahead of the debate, CBS News had reserved the right to turn off microphones if necessary.  The moderators exercised that right during the tense exchange between Vance and the moderators on immigration and muted Vance's microphone.

 

KJ

University of Richmond School of Law Public Interest Law Review Symposium: Immigration and Asylum Law

Public Interest Law Review Symposium: Immigration and Asylum Law

Oct. 4, 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM

University of Richmond School of Law

Join the Public Interest Law Review for its annual fall symposium entitled "Immigration and Asylum Law: Current Trends and Challenges in Virginia and Across the Nation." This symposium will provide a unique glimpse into the changing landscape of immigration and refugee law. The program will consist of several presentations, including an overview on current immigration and asylum law, barriers to language access, special immigrant juvenile status, and immigrant detention. Additionally, the symposium will host a panel of immigration judges and a separate presentation on the impact of the end of Chevron. 

KJ

ICE Program Trains Civilians on Firearms and Surveillance, Documents Show

 

Documented reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has run a "secretive" program -- Citizens Academies -- where ICE agents have trained civilian volunteers on how to operate various firearms, conduct investigations and surveillance of immigrants, and use lethal force on human beings. 

I am not sure how secretive the program is given that it is outlined in a DHS website.

According to Documented, "[t]he Citizens Academies provide role-play scenarios for civilians to conduct raids on immigrants and is active in New York and in more than a dozen cities across the country. The program is run by Homeland Security Investigations, the branch of ICE in charge of intelligence, international affairs, and surveillance.

According to . . . documents obtained from ICE via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request litigation, published on Oct. 1 by a group of civil rights organizations, the program was piloted first in Puerto Rico in 2014 and turned national in 2019."

KJ

Immigration Events at UC Davis

 

The Global Migration Center has a variety of upcoming immigrat6ion presentations.  Some have Zoom capabilities.  Check out the link for details. 

 

The Aoki Center on Critical Race and Nation Studies (UC Davis School of Law) has a series of events that touch on immigration.

 

KJ

RIP Dikembe Mutombo, National Basketball Association Legend, Immigrant from Congo

 

Born in Congo, National Basketball Association (NBA) legend Dikembe Mutombo has died of brain cancer.  He initially came to the United States to attend Georgetown on an academic scholarship.   After playing in college under legendary coach John Thompson, Mutombo played for many years in the NBA.  He was a naturalized U.S. citizen.

President George Bush in the 2007 State of the Union acknowledged Mutombo:

"Dikembe Mutombo grew up in Africa, amid great poverty and disease. He came to Georgetown University on a scholarship to study medicine -- but Coach John Thompson got a look at Dikembe and had a different idea. . . . Dikembe became a star in the NBA, and a citizen of the United States. But he never forgot the land of his birth, or the duty to share his blessings with others. He built a brand new hospital in his old hometown. A friend has said of this good-hearted man: `Mutombo believes that God has given him this opportunity to do great things." And we are proud to call this son of the Congo a citizen of the United States of America.'"

As the Associated Press reported, "Mutombo was an incredible basketball player — one of the best shot blockers and defensive players of all time,” Barack Obama wrote on social media. “But he also inspired a generation of young people across Africa, and his work as the NBA’s first global ambassador changed the way athletes think about their impact off the court.”

Mutombo "built a hospital in the Congo and that facility — named for his mother — has now treated about 200,000 people. He worked tirelessly on behalf of the Special Olympics, on behalf of UNICEF, on behalf of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. He traveled the world, he encouraged NBA leaders to visit Africa, he fought for change. He was the first, and still is the only, person to win the NBA’s J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award twice."

KJ

TONIGHT: Labor and the Carceral State

I just learned about this event, happening tonight. Zoom in to hear historians talk about Labor and the Carceral State. While I don't think they are going to be addressing immigration specifically, I imagine that this would still be of great interest to crimmigration folks--giving fruitful hints about crossover scholarship.

Immigration Article of the Day: Legal Care Work: Emotion and Care Work in Lawyering with Unaccompanied Minors by Luis Edward Tenorio

The Immigration Article of the Day is Legal Care Work: Emotion and Care Work in Lawyering with Unaccompanied Minors by Luis Edward Tenorio. 

The article was just published in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies and available here.

We know legal representation can improve the likelihood of favorable legal outcomes for immigrants, what some scholars refer to as the ‘representation effect’. But can legal representation affect client's broader integration and resettlement outcomes along the timeline of their legal case? If so, how? Drawing from literature on emotion work, care work, and how attorneys interact with immigrant clients, I propose the concept of legal care work to capture the emotion and care work strategies attorneys undertake to respond to immigrant clients’ broader set of needs. Based on a rich qualitative study of attorneys and Central American unaccompanied minor clients, I show how the legal care work attorneys perform illustrate the need for an expanded conceptualization of the ‘representation effect’ they have on clients, impacting behaviors and outcomes across various dimensions of everyday life. Further, I show how who receives and is denied legal care work—a product of biases and stereotypes, as well as bureaucratic dysfunction—exacerbate disparities along different socio-demographic lines (e.g. race, age, gender). These findings underscore the value of interrogating the role attorneys play in facilitating the transformative effects of the law and advancing social change in complex and hostile legal contexts.

IE

CNN: One thing to watch for at the vice presidential debate -- Springfield

 

CNN lists five things to watch in the debate between Democrat Tim Walz and Republican JD Vance tonight in the one and only vice presidential debate of the 2024 election.

The matchup between Minnesota governor Walz and Vance, the Ohio senator, is being hosted by CBS News and taking place in New York, without a live audience.

One of the CNN things to watch is discussion of Donald Trump and JD Vance statements about immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio:

"For weeks now, Vance and Trump have been doubling and tripling down on false claims that Haitians in the Ohio city are abducting and eating their neighbors’ pets.

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and many others have called the claims outlandish, and no one has provided any evidence to the contrary. Still, Trump and Vance want immigration front and center and, even though the migrants are in the country legally, the Republican ticket has sought to use the debunked rumor to gin up anger over the Biden administration’s handling of the border.  . . .

Pressed on the claims by CNN’s Dana Bash in September, Vance said, `If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.'

It would not be surprising to hear Walz bring up that comment, in particular, in attacking the Republicans’ rhetoric."

It should be an entertaining evening.

KJ