ImmigrationProf Blog

Ukrainian family turned away from U.S. border – Kate Morrissey, San Diego Union-Tribune

Kate Morrissey from the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that a Ukrainian family who arrived at the US-Mexico border this week was turned back by border officers. 

Ukrainian family fleeing Russian invasion turned away from U.S. border

Morrissey summarizes the situation as follows:

"The 34-year-old mother, who asked to be identified as Sofiia, and her three children ages 14, 12 and 6, said that when she fled her country, she headed to the only family she has outside of Ukraine — U.S. citizens who live in California. But she was turned back by the same border policies that have stopped asylum seekers from around the world and stranded them in Tijuana for years."

Temporary Protected Status, which Biden granted to Ukrainian nationals, applies to Ukrainians already in the United States but does not apply to new arrivals.

The family left Ukraine, flew to Mexico, then came to the San Ysidro port of entry because they have a family member who is a US citizen that lives in California.

Morrisey again:

"She left the car in Romania, and the family flew through Frankfurt to Mexico City. They arrived in Tijuana on Monday. Her relative drove down from Los Angeles to pick up her and her children and tried to drive them north across the border at the San Ysidro Port of Entry."

Read the full article here: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/immigration/story/2022-03-09/ukrainian-family-war-border.

- Austin Kocher

Expelling Russian Students from the United States?

 

As Ming Chen blogged yesterday, the number of international students in the United States is dropping.  If the suggestions by a few members of Congress are followed, the nation could see the removal of Russian students.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has jolted the world.  The international community has largely condemned the invasion.  Some American political leaders have suggested the use of immigrant removal as a weapon of diplomacy.

As Fiona Harrigan recounts on Reason, some members of Congress have suggested the removal of Russian students:

"Frankly, I think…kicking every Russian student out of the United States," said Rep. Eric Swalwell (D–Calif.) on CNN last week, should "be on the table." Rep. Ruben Gallego (D–Ariz.) backed him up, tweeting, "These Russian students are the sons and daughters of the richest Russians. A strong message can be sent by sending them home."

Harrigan is not a fan of the idea:  "This is a misguided proposal that will drive a wedge between the U.S. and people who would be well-served by American values. Rather than expelling Russian nationals who are uninvolved in the sins of their government, we should be welcoming them with open arms and encouraging them to engage with our values."

 

We are not living in normal times. These Russian students are the sons and daughters of the richest Russians. A strong message can be sent by sending them home. The world is condemning Russia. https://t.co/Vvz4JC3yYC

— Ruben Gallego (@RubenGallego) February 25, 2022

KJ

Deportation agents use smartphone app to monitor immigrants

U.S. immigration authorities long have used ankle monitors as an alternative to the detention of a noncitizen.  Use of monitors, as blogged about yesterday, is not problem free.

Amy Taxin and Amancai Biraben for the Associated Press report on another alternative to detention.  During the pandemic, the U.S. government has expanded the use of a smartphone app to ensure the appearance of immigrants released from detention at their immigration hearings.  Immigrant advocates claim that use of the app violates the privacy of immigrants.

"More than 125,000 people — many of them stopped at the U.S.-Mexico border — are now compelled to install the app known as SmartLink on their phones, up from around 5,000 less than three years ago. It allows officials to easily check on them by requiring the immigrants to send a selfie or make or receive a phone call when asked." A selfie?  

Bill Nye takes a selfie with President Barack Obama and Neil deGrasse Tyson  Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Advocates express concern about how the U.S. government might use data culled from the app, including contacts who could be subject to arrest for immigration matters.

 

According to the report, "[t]he use of the app by Immigration and Customs Enforcement soared during the pandemic, when many government services went online. It continued to grow [under] President Joe Biden . . . . His administration has also voiced support for so-called alternatives to detention to ensure immigrants attend . . . immigration court hearings."

 

KJ

Immigration Article of the Day: Lawful Work While Undocumented: Business Entity Solutions by Kit Johnson

Lawful Work While Undocumented: Business Entity Solutions by Kit Johnson, 64 Arizona Law Review 89 (2022)

Abstract

Immigration law and business-associations law rarely enter the same conversation. This Article argues, however, that business entity formation—such as the use of limited liability companies—has the potential to not only expand opportunities for undocumented migrants but also to significantly benefit the U.S. economy. As such, this Article seeks to make a round of introductions: introducing immigration scholars and lawyers to concepts of business entity formation that can radically change the lives of undocumented persons in the United States and introducing corporate scholars and lawyers to the ways in which their work can intersect with immigration law to effect social and economic change.

An estimated eight million undocumented migrants work in the United States despite the fact that, since 1986, federal law has penalized employers for hiring workers who lack work authorization. Some migrants engage in work not covered by the law—itinerant domestic help and, in certain cases, independent contract work. Others work for employers who are undeterred by the civil and criminal penalties for hiring undocumented workers. In each of these scenarios, undocumented workers frequently encounter low wages and hazardous work conditions.

This Article considers alternative work options for undocumented migrants beyond itinerant domestic labor, independent contracting, and working for employers who are acting contrary to law. It examines how forming business entities, such as a limited liability company, can broaden opportunities for undocumented workers— from unskilled laborers to highly skilled professionals. Business entities can have traditional benefits, such as limited liability. But business entities can also offer lesser-known benefits to undocumented owners, including providing a means of working around barriers created by unauthorized-employment laws, and enabling the creation of “mixed-status businesses” where unauthorized and authorized workers can lawfully work side by side. This Article concludes that the skillful use of business entities by undocumented persons has the potential to greatly benefit those individuals as well as the U.S. economy as a whole.

KJ

International students in US drop

Using data from IIE Open Doors, Stuart Anderson from Forbes reports that international student enrollment in US colleges has dropped to 914,095. The greatest declines are Asian students in STEM disciplines. While the falling numbers are certainly impacted by COVID-19, numbers had begun falling before the pandemic (-7%). International student enrollment in Canadian universities has increased considerably over the same time period (25%), suggesting decline is not wholly explained by the pandemic. 

MHC

USCIS releases new data on DACA recipients

USCIS has released new data on DACA recipients: gender, age, marital status, metro areas and more.

MHC

Spicy Takes on U.S. Citizenship & History by UCSB Undergrads

US Imperialism in the Pacific and questions of Asian Citizenship pic.twitter.com/rEysucwZFd

— Janna Haider is on the UAW 2865 bargaining team (@janna_e_haider) March 8, 2022

-KitJ

"Constantly afraid": immigrants on life under the US government’s eye

Johana Bhuiyan  for The Guardian reports that immigrants subject to a privately-operated ankle monitor system, "billed as an alternative to detention [results in the use of] painful ankle monitors and contradictory rules."

The U.S. government in 2004 launched the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) as an alternative to detention for immigrants awaiting immigration court hearings.  The surveillance system is supposed to monitor the movements of noncitizens in the program.

Under the direction of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, immigrants in the ISAP program "are electronically surveilled through an ankle monitor, voice recognition or the company’s proprietary tracking app until their court date, and meet regularly with a case manager. Holding an exclusive, $2.2bn five-year contract to run Isap for Ice is BI, a company that got its start in monitoring cattle and is owned by one of the country’s largest private prison corporations, the Geo Group."

ISAP allows some immigrants to go home rather than remain detained.  Noncitizens subject to the program, and their lawyers, claim that the technology is substandard; ankle monitors cause bruising, overheat "and at times sending out electroshocks."  "[ISAP's] structure is as flawed as the tools it relies on, they argue, with arbitrary requirements and opaque decision-making processes inhibiting the ultimate goal of the program: transitioning out of it."

In response, an official from ICE  "said Isap was effective at increasing court appearance rates among immigrants facing removal proceedings. . . . Ice also said there was no proof the ankle monitor caused any physical harm."

KJ

Addressing the Intersection of Racial Justice and Immigrant Rights

Friends,

Here is an abstract of an article that I contributed to an immigration symposium sponsored by the Belmont Law School Law Review.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This Article is about the intersection of racial justice and immigrant rights. The images of Border Patrol officers on horseback in September using long “reins” or whips to stop Haitian migrants from entering an encampment on the banks of the Rio Grande River and “grabbing” some migrants by the shirt say it all. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez denounced the actions as part of a system “designed for cruelty towards and dehumanization of immigrants.” To Representative Ilhan Omar the incidents constituted “human rights abuses . . .  . Cruel, inhumane, and a violation of domestic and international law.”

In this Article, I have two main objectives. The first is to explore the intersection between racial justice and immigrant rights. The recent treatment of Haitian migrants is emblematic of that intersection. That intersection demonstrates how immigration laws and enforcement policies are prima facie evidence and a concrete manifestation of systemic and institutionalized racism. In short, this critical race theory critique explains why the battle for immigrant and refugee rights should be viewed as an important part of the battle for racial justice. My second goal is to begin a discussion on how immigrant rights attorneys and advocates can begin to incorporate this racial justice lens of United States immigration laws in their practice. In that spirit, I explore strategies for combating racial injustice in the criminal justice system (such as Murgia motions and the Black Rage defense) and consider how analogous approaches might be utilized in the immigration field.

You can download a draft of the full article here.

bh

GRAND SLAMMED: COVID-19, IMMIGRATION, AND AUSTRALIA’S HARD-LINE POLITICS

Guest blogger: Kaytlin Hancock, graduate student, Migration Studies, University of San Francisco

The Djokovic scandal has highlighted Australia’s hard line on immigration policies.

 

Performative politics, Australia’s favourite national sport, has once again taken the country by storm - with Novak Djokovic’s deportation centre stage. The world number one mens tennis player was embroiled in national controversy ahead of the Australian Open after entering the country unvaccinated to play in the competition - a clear breach of the national immigration regulations and national spirit. All of this after Australia faced some of the harshest lockdowns in the world to try and extinguish the Covid-19 virus.

HISTORY OF HARD-LINE IMMIGRATION POLICIES

The Hunger Games-esque publicity for the reality show of politics is not a new occurrence in Australia. Similar events have publicly called attention to the country’s immigration policies, after the deportation of Julian Blanc, a US “pick-up artist,” who taught how to pick up women using force and emotional abuse, or, Katie Hopkins, far-right British commentator who was deported over breached Covid regulations. Lastly, who could forget the threat to kill Johnny Depp’s dogs after he failed to declare them to Australian customs.

The government used these public frenzies as “marketable moments” to try and reinstate their tough stance on immigration, on the basis that it was for the greater good. However, this type of performative politics has also been a way to detract attention from the government’s more sinister choices. This method of distraction has generally worked in the past.

 

INCONSISTENT IMMIGRATION POLICIES

 

The Novak Djokovic controversy has been more about Australia’s public manoeuvring of political issues, and less about the unvaccinated sports star. The Australian government demonstrates this type of morality theatre in a bid to earn the unwavering trust of the public, and to reassure them that it can in fact make responsible decisions regarding the safety of the country. Of course, the moral argument of deporting a man that allegedly advocates for the use of domestic abuse in order to court women (of which Julian Blanc has been accused by some) is a hard narrative to contest. 

Unfortunately, this hard-line approach to immigration extends to forced migrants and asylum seekers. While it's no secret that Australia’s approach to asylum seekers and human rights has had damaging effects on forced migrants, particularly in detention centres like Manus Island, there seems to have been few consequences for the sovereign state. Anna Neistat, senior director for research at Amnesty International stated that “Australia’s policy of exiling asylum seekers who arrive by boat is cruel in the extreme” in response to Australia’s inability to address the serious abuses that result from harmful policy making.

It is in this background that the irony of Djokovic’s twice cancelled visa and subsequent detainment can be fully recognised. He was held in the same hotel as 32 refugees who have been imprisoned by Australia for over nine years.

The refugees had previously been held in detention camps, until the Papua New Guinea government deemed that this detention was unconstitutional, and Australia was forced to relocate the men remaining in the camps. The Australian government has utilised the tactic of out of sight, out of mind, when it comes to those fleeing persecution.

HISTORY OF DETENTION OF MIGRANTS AND ASYLUM SEEKERS

Australia is no stranger to the detention of migrants, with the modern states’ entire existence built on the incarceration of British convicts, and the subsequent enslavement of the Aboriginal people. Mandatory detention has also been pivotal to Australian migration management since 1992. However, more severe migration policies surfaced post 9/11.

A critical situation arose in 2001 that highlighted how the government’s response and inaction resulted in cruel and inhuman punishment towards refugees, which would become a key component of Australia’s immigration policies. On August 26, 2001, the infamous Tampa Crisis saw a stand-off between the Liberal Howard government and a Norwegian freighter carrying 433 Afghan asylum seekers that were rescued at sea. The freighter attempted to land and drop the asylum seekers on Australian shores, but entry to the country was refused by the Australian government. A struggle between Australia and Indonesia ensued, as neither country wanted to take responsibility for the asylum seekers looking for refuge - despite Australia’s international obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention. The impasse reached crisis level onboard the freighter, as the vessel lacked the resources and capacity for such a number of people to remain onboard for a prolonged period of time.

With the Australian government's refusal to allow these refugees to land on its shores, despite being highly contested by the international community, the creation of offshore processing was enacted, on 1st September 2001. The Pacific Solution saw the transfer of asylum seekers attempting to reach Australia to neighbouring island territories that were within the Australian migration zone. This practice incited deep moral and political debate about the abuses of human rights, particularly given Article 14 in the Declaration of Human Rights which provides the right of individuals to seek asylum.

An eventual and costly end to the standoff saw the transfer of the Afghan refugees to the neighbouring island Nauru, as well as a small population of 132 being resettled in New Zealand. The timing of the Tampa Crisis indicated a strengthening of hard-line policies after the events of 9/11.  The global paralysis and panic following the attacks on the Twin Towers allowed the Australian government to bolster the narrative of securitisation to subvert terrorist attacks, leading to the eventual expansion of offshore processing in Papua New Guinea.

The immigration camp in Papua New Guinea was finally terminated, which resulted in the remaining 32 refugees being relocated to the Melbourne Park Hotel, sharing the same space with Djokovic. Except the 32 refugees remain indefinitely detained in the hotel.

UNCERTAIN FUTURE FOR AUSTRALIAN HUMAN RIGHTS POLICIES

Despite the consequences of Australian policies for Djokovic, he will get to return home and his ego will heal. He will also be allowed to return to Australia (after his three year ban) despite lying on his travel documents, creating public unrest, and choosing to remain unvaccinated in one of the most perilous times in medical history. What will not heal is the indelible stain on Australia’s human rights record caused by horrid migration policies that do not seem to have an end in sight. We are left to question what the next high profile scandal will be that will once again highlight the plight of refugees to Australian shores. We also question when, and if, there will be accountability for the gross human rights abuses of refugees entering Australia.

bh

Today Is International Women's Day!

Tuesday March 8, 2022 is International Women's Day. This global holiday seeks to to celebrate the contributions of women and imagine a more diverse, equitable and inclusive world.

The United Nations has set forth the theme for the 2022 International Women's Day of  "Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow," which calls for climate action for women, by women.

IE

The Biden Administration Issues New SIJS Rules

Official White House Photo

The Young Center: for Immigrant Children's Rights, which advocates for the rights of immigrant children, applauded a recent Biden administration action on immigration.  Yesterday, 

"the Biden administration announced long-awaited regulations that will provide clarity and certainty to children who cannot safely return to their countries of origin. These children are already recipients of a form of protection known as Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS), which is the only immigration benefit that explicitly considers children’s best interests. Despite this protection, these children often spend years in limbo, waiting for the opportunity to become lawful permanent residents due to an administrative backlog over which they have no control." 

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services explained its SIJS actions as follows:

"ALERT: On March 7, USCIS announced a final rule to align the SIJ classification with existing federal statutes and clarify SIJ eligibility criteria and evidentiary requirements to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the program.

In addition to issuing the SIJ final rule, we are updating guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual regarding deferred action and related employment authorization for SIJs . . . . Starting May 6, 2022, USCIS will consider deferred action and related employment authorization for noncitizens who have an approved Form I-360, for SIJ classification but who cannot apply to adjust status to become a lawful permanent resident (LPR) because an immigrant visa number is not immediately available. Read our news release for more information."

SIJS status has taken on greater significance in recent years with the increasing migration of unaccompanied minors.  For a recent summary of the nuts-and-bolts of SIJS claims, see this Safe Passage Act manual (4th edition, November 2021).

KJ

Immigration Article of the Day: Senate Bill 54 (2017): California Versus the Law Enforcement Lobby by Christopher A. Galeano

The Immigration Article of the Day is Senate Bill 54 (2017): California Versus the Law Enforcement Lobby by Christopher A. Galeano, available now in the UCLA Law Review. Here is the abstract:

Before calls to abolish Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) became a progressive rallying cry throughout the United States, the California Values Act of 2017 (SB 54) promised to freeze ICE out of California. The goal behind SB 54 was to restrict state and local law enforcement entanglement with ICE in the state with the most immigrants in the country. In fact, most deportations occurred because of this entanglement, relying on many facets of the criminal legal system, including jails, prisons, databases, and community patrols. Immigrants’ rights advocates, including from the ICE Out of California coalition, gained the political momentum they needed to pass the California Values Act after the 2016 election of President Donald Trump, a candidate who relied heavily on campaign promises of mass deportations to win.

This Comment examines both the legislative process of the California Values Act and its immediate efficacy as a statutory reform effort that sought to change the behavior of law enforcement officers. In particular, it documents how, despite public comments to the contrary, law enforcement agencies in California fought to remain involved in federal deportation efforts even after passage of the California Values Act. This Comment concludes that implementation of the law has produced mixed results. These findings present considerations for future efforts to address law enforcement agency collaboration with ICE, including the limitations of state level attempts more generally and whether it is possible to avoid SB 54’s mixed results.

IE

The Daily Podcast: On the Road With Ukraine’s Refugees

Want to learn more about the experiences of Ukrainian refugees?  Check out The Daily podcast released today entitled  "On the Road With Ukraine’s Refugees." 

Here is the description of the episode:

"This episode contains strong language. 

In response to Russia’s increasingly brutal campaign against Ukrainian towns and cities, an estimated 1.5 million people — most of them women and children — have fled Ukraine over the past 10 days. It’s the fastest displacement of people in Europe since World War II.

While evacuating the capital city of Kyiv for Lviv in the west, a seven-hour journey that took two days and nights, the Daily host Sabrina Tavernise traveled alongside some of those fleeing the conflict."

KJ

 

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From the Bookshelves: Administrative Law in Action: Immigration Administration by Robert Thomas

Administrative Law in Action:  Immigration Administration by Robert Thomas (Bloomsbury 2022)

Here is description of the book from the publisher:

"This book investigates and analyses how administrative law works in practice through a detailed case-study and evaluation of one of the UK's largest and most important administrative agencies, the immigration department. In doing so, the book broadens the conversation of administrative law beyond the courts to include how administrative agencies themselves make, apply, and enforce the law. Blending theoretical and empirical administrative-legal analysis, the book demonstrates why we need to pay closer attention to what government agencies actually do, how they do it, how they are organised, and held to account. Taking a contextual approach, the book provides a detailed analysis of how the immigration department performs its core functions of making policy and law, taking mass casework decisions, and enforcing immigration law.

The book considers major recent episodes of immigration administration including the development of the hostile environment policy and the treatment of the Windrush generation. By examining a diverse range of material, the book presents a model of administrative law based upon the organisational competence and capacity of administration and its institutional design. Alongside diagnosing the immigration department's failings, the book advances positive proposals for its reform."

KJ

Inaugural Fourth Circuit Asylum Law Conference

Join the William & Mary Law School Immigration Clinic, William & Mary Center for Racial and Social Justice, and Immigrant Justice Corps for the Inaugural Fourth Circuit Asylum Law Conference.

Conference Schedule:

Panels and Sessions include:

• One Year In: The Biden Administration and Asylum Policy
• Developments in Fourth Circuit Case Law
• Increasing Access to Pro Bono Counsel in Underserved Areas: Virginia as a Case Study
• Working Across Disciplines: Best Practices for Attorneys and Mental Health Professionals in Asylum Seeker Evaluations
• Country Conditions: From Page to Practice

KJ

UC Hastings Prevails in Fifteenth Annual Asylum & Refugee Law National Moot Court Competition

This past weekend, the Fifteenth Annual Asylum & Refugee Law National Moot Court Competition was held virtually. More than a dozen law school teams participated.  The event was organized by the UC Davis School of Law's Moot Court Honors Board.

It was a great competition.  The problem, which raised issues of the definition of "particular social group" for asylum purposes and whether a crime was one "involving moral turpitude" subjecting a noncitizen to removal.  I was honored to serve as one of the judges in the final round.  The advocates were poised and well-prepared.

A team from UC Hastings edged a team from Columbia School of Law in the finals. 

KJ

District Court Orders Biden Administration to Resume Trump’s Policy of Expelling Unaccompanied Immigrant Children Under Title 42

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Hamed Aleaziz for Buzzfeed reports on a federal court ruling last week that the Biden administration can no longer exempt unaccompanied immigrant children from the Title 42 pandemic expulsion policy. As Aleaziz explains, under the Title 42 policy originally put into place by President Trump, the United States government "immediately expels immigrants at the border, blocking them from accessing the asylum system or an immigration judge. . . . [The Biden administration] has continued to enforce the policy and defend it in court — with the exception of unaccompanied immigrant children."  

In his order, Judge Mark Pittman of the District Court for the Northern District of Texas required the U.S. government to resume the expulsion policy. The order does not go into effect for seven days, giving the government time to appeal. 

Judge Pittman begins the order in a memorable passage:

"The Court is not blind to the current political division in this country.  Or that the division often implicates matters of federalism. Despite the division and the scorched-earth politics, the Court is baffled at this proceeding’s adversarial nature. That is, while a border state (like Texas) and the federal government may genuinely disagree whether various federal agencies are compliant with federal immigration law or what our immigration policy should be, there should be no disagreement that the current immigration policies should be focused on stopping the spread of COVID-19. Why a state and the federal government are litigating this issue—instead of working to solve it—is simply beyond the comprehension of the undersigned."

(footnote omitted).

KJ

Lessons from 1930s Russian refugee legalization

As the U.S. government extends temporary protected status to Ukranians, UVA Professor S. Deborah Kang issues a cautionary note about selective refugee admissions in the Washington Post. Professor Kang notes that, in the wake of restrictive immigration laws, the US Government in 1934  permitted approximately 2,000 undocumented Russians to adjust their immigration status and become legal immigrants in the United States in order to avoid deportation to the Soviet Union where they would face persecution. Most of these Russian immigrants had chosen to come to the U.S. rather than flee to European countries where they faced continuing discrimination. Many entered without documentation because it would have taken 10-15 years to obtain a visa.

these lawmakers chose to downplay their refugee identity and highlight their status as undocumented immigrants who deserved legalization and U.S. citizenship after living in the United States for nearly a decade.

The 1930s legalization measure benefitted from Russians being distinguished from Mexican immigrants and instead framed as white ethnic immigrants fleeing Communism. Other beneficiaries would include Ukranians, Germans, Poles, Latvians, Lithuanians, and Armenians who had been aborbed into the Russian Empire during prior centures. Professor Kang points out that the U.S. currently faces a choice on how to approach the white and non-white refugees seeking asylum from Ukraine and also Afghanistan, Haiti, Mexico, and Central America: through selective admissions or a more comprehensive policy that does not distinguish on the basis of race.

MHC

Exploiting Immigration Passions in a Tragic and Horrible Case

 

News outlets across the nation last week reported on a tragedy in Sacramento.  On a supervised visit, a father killed three children, and a chaparone,  before killing himself at a church.

Sadly, news outlets and political leaders now are trying to make immigration an issue by highlighting the fact that the father was an undocumented immigrant from Mexico.  This kind of sensationalism unfortunately is nothing new and occurs regularly in high profile cases involving immigrants.  One should ask the question what his immigration status had to do with the horrible crime? 

A local Sacramento news station reported that

"The gunman who killed his three daughters, a chaperone who was supervising his visit with the children and himself in a Sacramento County church was known to have struggled with mental health issues, officials said.

New details also reveal that David Mora Rojas, 39, also used a `ghost gun' in the shooting. Mora Rojas also overstayed his visa after entering California from his native Mexico on Dec. 17, 2018, on a non-immigrant visitor visa, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Alethea Smock told The Associated Press."

As the local report noted, the Associated Press appears to be the source about Rojas' immigration status.

Although mental health issues, not immigration status, appears to have directly resulted in the killings, Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones , who is running for Congress, says U.S. immigration policies and California’s sanctuarylaw somehow are to blame for the deadly church shootings.

"They’ll call me racist and evil," Jones wrote in a Facebook post. "But let me be perfectly clear, there is only ONE thing that allowed this horrific tragedy to occur with certainty: the deplorable state of our national immigration policies, and California’s Sanctuary State Laws."

The killings of the young people in a church by all appearances is a tragedy.  We all should think about how it happened and how such tragedies could be avoided.  For example, mental health crisis services are not as well funded and accessible as they perhaps should be.   Oddly, rather than focus on mental health, news agencies have been broadcasting the father's immigration status and tapping into passions for the purpose of exploitation.  President Trump tapped into similar passions, for example, characterizing Mexican immigrants as "criminals" and "rapists."   

The truth of the matter is that Mora's immigration status had absolutely nothing to do with his criminal acts.

Although immigrants commit crimes, studies consistently show that immigrants commit crimes at lesser rates than native born U.S. citizens.  News stories that focus on immigration status of alleged criminal perpetrators help reinforce stereotypes that immigrants are predisposed to crime, which is simply not true.  

Immigrant rights advocates do not claim that immigrants who commit crimes should not be held accountable.  No one could reasonably say that the perpetrator of a crime like that which occurred in the Sacramento church -- immigrant or not -- should not face criminal charges.  With the alleged perpetrator dead, that is not possible in this case.  Rather than chase immigration ghosts, we should think hard about how we can act to avoid tragic deaths of young people in the future.  

KJ

UPDATE March 8:

 

KJ