UPDATES FROM BC IMMIGRATION STRATEGY GROUP

Many thanks to our friends in the Bergen County Immigration Strategy Group for these comprehensive but succinct summaries of the latest news:

  1. Fewer Deportations in Cities That Adopted “Welcoming” Policies (YES). In regions where city and state governments worked hand in hand with ICE, deportations have increased more than 75 percent. In regions where sanctuary policies are more prevalent, increases have remained relatively low. http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/its-working-fewer-deportations-where-sanctuary-policies-are-in-place-20180411 (!!!! – ed)

  1. ICE agents routinely make arrests at Middlesex County Courthouse (NorthJersey.com) “Middlesex County’s efforts to limit cooperation with federal immigration officials haven’t stopped enforcement agents from arresting immigrants showing up at court in New Brunswick … ‘When your clients are worried about ICE, I think they’re less inclined to be honest with you. They’re less inclined to be trusting of you. They’re less inclined to want to cooperate in general with the criminal justice system,’ says Lauren Bayer, a public defender who has had two clients detained by ICE at the courthouse. ‘I think that goes for the defendants, and it also goes for crime victims and witnesses.’”       https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/new-jersey/2018/07/20/ice-agents-routinely-make-arrests-middlesex-county-courthouse/751629002/

  1. Rally for Licenses! Let’s Drive NJ/Manejemos NJ (MakeTheRoadNJ). Thursday, September 6 at 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. New Jersey State House. 125 W State St. Trenton, New Jersey 08608. Let’s Drive NJ brings together nearly fifty community, faith, labor, social service and advocacy organizations to push to expand access to drivers’ licenses in the Garden State. https://www.facebook.com/events/501191533653138/ & more info at: https://www.letsdrivenj.org/

   

  1. Mayors convene in support of driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants (NorthJersey.com). Quijano’s bill aims to offer a separate driver authorization card for residents who can show other forms of identification, including passports and bills. Homeless people, domestic violence survivors and people displaced by natural disasters would also benefit in addition to undocumented immigrants.           https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/new-jersey/2018/07/20/nj-mayors-convene-support-licenses-undocumented-immigrants/797414002/

  1. Want to Learn how to do a street team, i.e., setting up a table & talking to people on the street about an issue (‘tabling’), canvass, phone bank, register voters, etc.,? (Swing Left). The organization Swing Left produces succinct videos about these topics. https://academy.swingleft.org/

  1. Trump’s Road to American Martial Law (NYT). Columnist Roger Cohen lays out the sequences to a fundamental altering, or collapse, of the American system under number 45. (What might the scenario of Trump consciously sending his followers into the streets look like? Charlottesville write large? — ed) https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/opinion/trump-putin-summit-republicans.html

  1. Immigration Myths & Facts: U.S, Chamber of Commerce — via League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). Knocks every myth down at length, with substantial endnotes. Well presented.https://lulac.org/assets/pdfs/US_Chamber_of_Commerce_Immigration_Myths.pdf

  

  1. Government Told Immigrant Parents to Pay for DNA Tests to Get Kids Back, Advocate Says (Daily Beast). “The government wants the parents to foot the bill for the DNA testing when they’re the ones that caused the need for DNA testing,” Holguin said. “It’s incredible.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/government-told-immigrant-parents-to-pay-for-dna-tests-to-be-reunited-with-kids-advocate

  1. Trump’s migrant fiasco diverts millions from health programs (Politico). “The Department of Health and Human Services has burned through at least $40 million in the past two months for the care and reunification of migrant children separated from their families at the border — with housing costs recently estimated at about $1.5 million per day … We have a public health emergency like Ebola, Zika, hurricanes — except this one is man-made,” said Emily Holubowich, executive director of the Coalition for Health Funding, who says HHS should request emergency funding too. “We should not be taking discretionary funding away from programs that need it.”https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/18/trump-migrants-health-programs-692955

  1. Immigration agencies share vague plans to reunite migrant parents and children (LATimes). Immigration officials had few answers for Congress on Wednesday on what is next for the families, in the latest confusing chapter of the family separations saga. With continued confusion in Washington, immigration lawyers and civil rights groups on the southwest border say they are providing legal assistance to children and parents as best they can.http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-migrant-families-20180718-story.html

  1. Pilgrims to WWII Concentration Camp Outraged by Parallels in Migrant Family Separations (Yes). Many also have compared the confinement of Japanese during World War II to the detention of families seeking refuge from violence in other countries. Racism and debates over incarcerating migrating families have awoken the activist voice of a new generation of Japanese Americans. http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/visitors-to-wwii-concentration-camp-outraged-by-parallels-in-migrant-family-separations-20180719

  1. Border Patrol agent reacts to Biden’s immigration comments (Fox ‘News’). How the other side covers up: Joe Biden calls Trump’s immigration policies one of the ‘darkest moments’ in U.S. history; National Border Patrol Council president Brandon Judd reacts. http://video.foxnews.com/v/5812303434001/?#sp=show-clips

  1. Immigration Advocates Network (IAN). A collaborative effort of leading immigrants’ rights organizations designed to increase access to justice for immigrants and strengthen the capacity of organizations serving them. IAN promotes more effective and efficient communication, collaboration, and services among immigration advocates and organizations by providing free, easily accessible and comprehensive online resources and tools.https://www.immigrationadvocates.org/

  1. Women Ask ‘What if It Were Me?’ and Rush to Aid Separated Families (NYT). “People ask me, ‘Why this?’ ‘Why aren’t you focusing on the midterms?’ I think it comes back to empathy,” she said. “To the gut punch of a mom separated from her 5-year-old….” Like the Texas-based nonprofit Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, or RAICES, … $20 million Facebook fund-raiser, this New York group exceeded its goals. As of this week, the group, Immigrant Families Together,’ has raised more than $300,000. They call themselves “a network of Americans committed to rapid response unification of families separated by the ‘zero tolerance’ policy.” https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/20/nyregion/crowdfunding-immigrant-children-separated.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FIllegal%20Immigration&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=4&pgtype=collection

  1. Whistle-Blowers Say Detaining Migrant Families ‘Poses High Risk of Harm’ (NYT). The Trump administration, faced with a public outcry over the separation of migrant families at the Southwest border, has said it is exploring a major expansion of family detention centers. But two of the government’s own medical consultants said this week that they had identified a “high risk of harm” to migrant children housed at such facilities.https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/us/migrant-children-family-detention-doctors.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FIllegal%20Immigration&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=6&pgtype=collection

  1. AFSC joins people across the country in the call to abolish ICE (AFSC). SIGN THE PETITION. ICE has a long history of separating families, violating human rights, and terrorizing our communities. It’s time to stop its abuses once and for all. https://www.afsc.org/abolish-ice

  1. “I Just Simply Did What He Wanted”: Sexual Abuse Inside Immigrant Detention Facilities (NYT). https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000005559121/sexual-abuse-inside-ice-detention-facilities.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FIllegal%20Immigration&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=8&pgtype=collection

  1. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen gives neo-Nazis a pass (AZCentral).  The Homeland Security Secretary had a chance to condemn white supremacists and…didn’t. https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2018/07/20/dhs-kirstjen-nielsen-neo-nazis-pass-aspen-charlottesville/807540002/

  1. A Wall? Here? (AZCentral). In many places, viewing the border from above is the only expedient way to comprehend it. Much of the geography is unimaginably remote. An automobile cannot stay with the line. By helicopter, we grasp just how much of the line is far removed from roads. Also from cement plants, a supply of construction workers and other provisions of wall-building. A mission to see every inch of the U.S.-Mexico boundary.https://www.usatoday.com/border-wall/story/flight-over-entire-us-mexico-border-fence/605855001/

  1. Judge, calm in court, takes hard line on splitting families (AP). U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw issued a blistering opinion faulting the administration and its “zero tolerance” policy for a “crisis” of its own making. He went well beyond the American Civil Liberties Union’s initial request to halt family separation by imposing a deadline of this Thursday to reunify more than 2,500 children with their families.https://apnews.com/3413e44a81ed48fd8687e9952020b2fa/Judge,-calm-in-court,-takes-hard-line-on-splitting-families

  1. Report: Betraying Family Values: How Immigration Policy at the United States Border is Separating Families (Women Refugee Commission; Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Service; KIND). From the Executive summary: “ Over the past five years, the United States has seen a shift in the demographics of migrants encountered at our borders—from a majority of adult males, often from Mexico, seeking employment, to families, children, grandparents, aunts, and uncles fleeing together, seeking protection in the United States, coming mostly from Central America.1 Tragically, U.S. immigration enforcement policies, instead of shifting to adapt to this significant change, have continued to try forcing a square peg into a round hole, and in doing so have compounded the vulnerabilities of families and protection-seeking migrants. Instead of promoting family unity, we as a nation are breaking families apart.” (Extensive, 30 pages, annotated bibliography, explanations of processes). https://www.womensrefugeecommission.org/news/press-releases-and-statements/2578-icymi-undocumented-parents-could-be-separated-from-their-children-at-the-border

  1. Trump Administration Escalates Attacks on Legal Immigration With Stringent New Visa Rules (RSN). The Trump administration has made it easier for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to immediately deny visa applications if there is missing or inaccurate information. Under the previous guidance applicants were given 30 days to fix any issues. https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/51308-trump-administration-escalates-attacks-on-legal-immigration-with-stringent-new-visa-rules

  1. Trump’s Plot Against America, By Frank Rich, New York Magazine (RSN). Why is an American president openly colluding with an enemy dictator who’s out to subvert Western democracy in general, and America in particular? As James Fallows has put it, Trump is either a “useful idiot” or “conscious tool” of Russia. Trump’s Vichy defenders pick the former… https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/51267-focus-trumps-plot-against-america

  1. Contractor clears out Phoenix office where it held immigrant children (Reveal). Children were seen bathing in office sinks. The company has detained dozens of children, including some separated from their parents, in leased office spaces that have no kitchens, bedrooms, showers or yards. One teenager transported to a Phoenix office site by MVM ran away and has not been found. https://www.revealnews.org/blog/contractor-clears-out-phoenix-office-where-it-held-immigrant-children/

  1. “Deportation Agents Are Hunting Down Our People” (United We Dream). “When Trump was elected, we knew that our communities would be under attack in ways we had never seen before, but we were in disbelief at how ruthlessly Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda went into play … to hunt down our people, lock us in detention camps and erase us from this country through any means they could. They tossed aside morality and justice out the window and directed deportation agents to implement his racist agenda…” https://unitedwedream.org/2018/05/deportation-agents-are-hunting-down-our-people/  (United We Dream is the largest immigrant youth-led network in the country, and an ACLU partner)

  1.  Federal Immigration Authorities Are Running Amok Across Maine and Its Coastline (ACLU). Customs is making news again for aggressive immigration enforcement questioning Canadian fishing vessels in disputed international waters, plus American vessels (mostly Maine fishermen). Although CBP claims that these operations fall within its immigration enforcement authority, nobody should be surprised to learn that targeting these fishing boats has yielded no immigration arrests. https://www.aclu.org/blog/immigrants-rights/ice-and-border-patrol-abuses/federal-immigration-authorities-are-running-amok

  1. Immigrant Parents Face a Dilemma: Will Making an Asylum Claim Make it Harder to Reunite with Their Kids? (New Yorker). Despite having spent weeks in detention, Santos was never given a so-called credible-fear interview, which the government is supposed to administer as a first step in the asylum process. She was in a bind. She was reluctant to push for the interview because she didn’t want to remain separated from her children while the asylum process played out…. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/immigrant-parents-face-a-dilemma-will-making-an-asylum-claim-make-it-harder-to-reunite-with-their-kids

  1. House Approves Resolution Supporting Immigration And Customs Enforcement (NPR). The House of Representatives approved a resolution backing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency on Wednesday, after some progressive Democrats introduced legislation to abolish it.… https://www.npr.org/2018/07/18/630246472/house-approves-resolution-supporting-immigration-and-customs-enforcement

  1. Caravan of Grandmothers Heads to Mexico Border (YES). The group leaving from New York will onboard other “grannies” and allies along the way to support migrating families. Grannies Respond/Abuelas Responden is a movement of grandmothers and their allies who have been similarly spurred to action by the humanitarian crisis unfolding on the southern border. http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/caravan-of-grandmothers-heads-to-mexico-border-20180709

  1. Andrew Cuomo is Selling Out New York’s Immigrants (Eyes on the Ties). While Cuomo has been trying to position himself as a defender of immigrants and an opponent of Trump’s vicious policies, companies with close ties to Cuomo, and which have donated gobs of money to him, also rake in millions from renting out space to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).https://news.littlesis.org/2018/07/12/andrew-cuomo-is-selling-out-new-yorks-immigrants/  &   https://theintercept.com/2018/07/12/andrew-cuomo-donations-ice/

  1. The Hate Report: The big lie fueling the immigration crackdown (Reveal News). The mountain of studies that obliterate the link between immigrants and crime, hate attacks at Pride events, how white supremacy may dissolve a town’s government and more. https://www.revealnews.org/blog/the-hate-report-the-big-lie-fueling-the-immigration-crackdown/

  1. Chicago detention facility under investigation following allegations of abuse of migrant children (The Hill). Harassment, kids reported having to scrub toilets with their bare hands or being denied medical treatment after breaking an arm; shelter employee allegedly repeatedly gave injections to a 5-year-old from Guatemala to make him sleepy. http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/398222-detention-facilities-under-investigation-following-allegations

 

  1. Tug-of-Love: Immigrant Mom Loses Effort to Regain Son Given to US Parents (ABC News). A Guatemalan mother lost her effort today to get back the five-year old son who was taken away from her after her arrest on immigration charges and put up for adoption in Missouri despite her objections. “Illegally smuggling herself into the country is not a lifestyle that can provide any stability for the child,” said the Missouri judge who terminated her parental rights.https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/immigrant-mom-loses-effort-regain-son-us-parents/story?id=16803067

  1. Reminder: Women Migrants Are Fleeing Countries The U.S. Helped Decimate (Huff Po). Experts and advocates are working to remind Americans — and the world — that some of the violence driving people to seek shelter in the U.S. has its roots in American foreign policy. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/reminder-migrants-are-fleeing-countries-the-us-helped-decimate_us_5b3e5349e4b09e4a8b2b0654?ncid=engmodushpmg00000003

The quote…

When Trump was elected, we knew that our communities would be under attack in ways we had never seen before, but we were in disbelief at how ruthlessly Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda went into play. It quickly became clear to us that the goal of this administration was to hunt down our people, lock us in detention camps and erase us from this country through any means they could. They tossed aside morality and justice out the window and directed deportation agents to implement his racist agenda…

— United We Dream

Send news items to Peter at: trailwalker@outlook.com. Reports above are from Bergen County Immigration Strategy Group (BCISG) members