Immigration and the Southern Border

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Immigration is good, actually

I’m tired of the hateful nonsense directed at immigrants.

https://alabamareflector.com/2024/09/30/immigration-is-good-actually/?

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Immigration

Former President Donald Trump on Monday suggested undocumented immigrants who commit murder have "bad genes." Trump's dehumanizing rhetoric is another example of the former president trying to stoke fears about those in the country illegally. In a radio interview on "The Hugh Hewitt Show," Trump again distorted statistics on immigration and crime to attack Vice President Kamala Harris as he falsely claimed she was "allowing people to come through an open border, 13,000 of which were murderers." Separately, Harris discussed immigration in a wide-ranging "60 Minutes" interview that aired Monday. She maintained migration is a "long-standing problem" when asked about the Biden administration's approach to immigration policies but refused to answer whether officials should've cracked down sooner.

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ADVOCATES FOR IMMIGRANTS ASK: WHAT FEMA CASH?!?

AS PRESIDENT DONALD Trump blasted out lies about the Federal Emergency Management Agency giving money to undocumented immigrants after Hurricane Helene, advocates for immigrants shook their heads in disbelief.

https://theintercept.com/2024/10/09/hurricane-milton-immigrants-fema/?

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Federal appeals court weighs fate of DACA program

WASHINGTON — After concluding oral arguments Thursday, a panel of federal judges will determine the fate of a program that has shielded from deportation more than half a million immigrants lacking permanent legal status who came into the United States as children.

https://floridaphoenix.com/2024/10/10/federal-appeals-court-weighs-fate-of-daca-program/?

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Trump calls for adding 10,000 Border Patrol agents after derailing a bipartisan border bill

PRESCOTT VALLEY, Ariz. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Sunday proposed hiring 10,000 additional Border Patrol agents and giving them a $10,000 retention and signing bonus, after he derailed a bipartisan bill earlier this year that included funding for more border personnel.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-border-patrol-arizona-presidential-election-9b41386b300403b83f336c83709eecb5?

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One-third agree with "poisoning blood" rhetoric

Data: PRRI American Values Survey. Chart: Axios Visuals One in three Americans say immigrants entering the country illegally today are "poisoning the blood of our country" — language echoing the rhetoric of white supremacists and Adolf Hitler, a new survey finds. Why it matters: The results suggest that in a nation of immigrants, many Americans have bought into the historically racist rhetoric former President Trump has used to stoke anti-immigrant sentiment. The annual survey from the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), in partnership with Brookings, found that 34% say immigrants entering the country illegally today are "poisoning the blood of our country." Six in 10 Republicans (61%) agree with that statement, compared with 30% of independents and just 13% of Democrats. Explore the data ... Keep reading.

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Where immigrants are moving

Data: U.S. Census American Community Survey. Map: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals Coastal states, border states and states with some of America's biggest cities saw the biggest influxes of new residents from foreign countries in 2023, Axios' Erica Pandey writes from new Census migration data. Why it matters: Immigration is a pressing political issue across the U.S., but there are massive gaps between the states in terms of how many new arrivals are actually settling there. 📈 By the numbers: The data tracks all the people who moved from one state to another plus those who moved to the U.S. from abroad. Of all those movers — close to 32.5 million — nearly a quarter were immigrants or Americans who had been living in a foreign country a year ago. California saw the highest share of new residents from foreign countries at 42%. Montana had the smallest at 7%. Other states with large shares of movers from foreign countries were New Jersey (37%), New York (35%), Illinois (32%), Massachusetts (31%), Florida (31%) and Texas (30%). The Census data attempts to capture all residents of the U.S., though undocumented immigrants might be less likely to participate.

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The New Effects of Immigration

The chief of police in Whitewater, Wisconsin, didn’t ask for the moon in late 2023 when he wrote to President Joe Biden about the hundreds of new Nicaraguan migrants who’d arrived in his city over a whirlwind span of two years. All of a sudden, he wrote, his 23 sworn officers were dealing with three times the number of drivers without licenses on local roads.

https://projects.propublica.org/new-effects-of-immigration/?

He Died Building a Ship for the U.S. Government. His Family Got Nothing.

On the morning of Jan. 22, 2024, Elmer De León Pérez descended deep into the bowels of a ship that he was helping to build in Houma, Louisiana. Pérez was a welder, working to construct one of the U.S. government’s most sophisticated ships, an $89 million vessel for tracking hurricanes and conducting oceanographic research. It was funded by President Joe Biden’s signature climate legislation.

https://www.propublica.org/article/immigration-louisiana-houma-shipbuilding-jobs-safety?

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What Happened in Whitewater

Dan Meyer, the police chief in Whitewater, Wisconsin, had been worried for months about the seemingly sudden arrival of hundreds of Nicaraguan immigrants to this quiet university town. But he rarely got to hear from any of them directly; most of what he knew, he had learned from his officers.

https://www.propublica.org/article/immigration-whitewater-wisconsin-nicaragua-trump-police?

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Aurora and Springfield aren’t the first cities to become flash points in US immigration debate

Many Americans had probably never heard of Aurora, Colorado, or Springfield, Ohio, before Donald Trump broadcast his false claims about these cities nationwide late in the 2024 presidential campaign.

https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/aurora-and-springfield-arent-first-cities-become-flash-points-us-immigration-debate?

They came for better lives and schools. Immigrants now see America’s divisions hurting their kids

AURORA, Colo. (AP) — Starting seventh grade at her first American school, facing classes taught entirely in English, Alisson Ramirez steeled herself for rejection and months of feeling lost.

https://apnews.com/article/immigrant-students-school-aurora-colorado-2aee52bc80300f5507a903cda3e441da?

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A pizza shop owner is sentenced to 8.5 years in prison for threatening workers with deportation

BOSTON (AP) — The owner of two Boston-area pizza shops convicted of forced labor for using physical violence and threats of reprisal or deportation against employees living in the country illegally has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison.

https://apnews.com/article/pizza-shop-owner-sentenced-threatening-workers-cf33dad0412c3bd07433136953724d68?

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How Mexican cartels manage the flow of migrants on their way to the US border Days before the U.S. election, where immigration is a key issue, migrants continue pouring into Mexico, even as encounters at the border reach a four-year low. While U.S. authorities give much of the credit to their Mexican counterparts for stemming the flow to their shared border, organized crime maintains stricter control of who moves here than the handful of federal agents and National Guardsmen. Read more.

Why this matters: Organized crime’s strict control at Mexico’s southern border tracks with the growing violence generated by the struggle between the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels. The state of Chiapas is only one of their battlegrounds, but it is key to controlling smuggling routes for people, drugs and weapons from Central America. Migrants have become the most lucrative commodity, according to experts.   Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has said the government is dealing with the violence, but refuses to confront the cartels. She appears to maintain tactics that began under the administration of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to cycle migrants from the north back down to the south exhausting their resources and keeping them far from the U.S. border — exposing them to more kidnappings and extortion.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Catholic bishops call for authorities to step up against violence in southern Mexico   A violent start to the term of Mexico’s new president raises questions about strategy, the army   In Mexico’s bloodied Sinaloa state, police and prosecutors conspired to cover up opponent’s killing

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Texas hospitals must now ask patients whether they’re in the US legally Texas hospitals must ask patients starting Friday whether they are in the U.S. legally and track the cost of treating people without legal status following an order by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott that expands the state’s clash with the Biden administration over immigration. Read more.

What to know: Under the executive order announced by Abbott in August, hospitals must ask patients if they are citizens in the U.S. and whether they are lawfully present in the country. Patients have the right to withhold the information and hospital workers must tell them their responses will not affect their care, as required by federal law.   Critics fear the change could scare people away from hospitals in Texas, even though patients are not required to answer the questions to receive medical care. Florida enacted a similar law last year, which health care advocates contend made immigrants who need emergency medical care fearful and led to fewer people seeking help. Texas hospitals have spent months preparing for the change and have sought to reassure patients that it won’t affect their level of care.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Latino evangelical voters torn between their faith and harsh rhetoric around immigration   Desperation over gang violence fuels a surge of migration from Ecuador to the US   How immigrants who just became US citizens plan to vote in the 2024 election

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A Pro-Gun, Anti-Abortion Border Sheriff Appealed to Both Parties. Then He Was Painted as Soft on Immigration.

DEL RIO, Texas — In 2008, Joe Frank Martinez beat a Republican incumbent to become the first Latino elected sheriff along this 110-mile stretch of border. Nearly 16 years later, in mid-September, Martinez stood in front of several dozen voters at the San Felipe Lions Club, having to campaign harder than ever before, and on an issue that wasn’t a factor in his previous elections: immigration.

https://www.propublica.org/article/del-rio-texas-immigration-local-politics?

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Troubled by illegal border crossings, Arizona voters approve state-level immigration enforcement

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona voters have approved letting local police arrest migrants suspected of illegally entering the state from Mexico, an authority that would encroach on the federal government’s power over immigration enforcement but would not take effect immediately, if ever.

https://apnews.com/article/arizona-election-immigration-proposition-801db2263aa063c3622eae052eb7763d?

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Immigration

Trump's allies and some in the private sector have been quietly preparing a mass detention of immigrants in the US. Trump's day one priority is to reinstate his previous administration's border policies and reverse those of President Joe Biden, senior Trump adviser Jason Miller told CNN. Early discussions among Trump's team have also focused on removing undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes. Another key issue under consideration is how, when and if to deport immigrants who were brought to the US as children, commonly known as Dreamers. Meanwhile, a federal judge on Thursday struck down a Biden immigration policy shielding certain undocumented spouses of US citizens from deportation.

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⚖️ Immigrant advocates mobilize

Advocates and lawyers are preparing to defend immigrants against mass deportations, Axios' Astrid Galván reports.

• Why it matters: Roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants live in the U.S. In addition to mass deportations, President-elect Trump's proposals would change how the U.S. has conducted immigration enforcement for decades.

Immigrant advocates say they've been here before and have been preparing for the possibility of a second Trump administration for years.

• "We're ready to fight" mass raids and deportations "both at the legal level, at the advocacy level, and (by) going to the streets," says Maribel Hernández Rivera, the ACLU's director of policy and government affairs for border and immigration.

Reality check: Trump is coming into office with more seasoned staff to carry out his goals.

• Even though immigration enforcement is the job of the federal government, some of the states with the largest shares of undocumented immigrants, including Florida and Texas, now have GOP governors who would likely aid deportation efforts.
• The administration also can work with like-minded local police and sheriff's departments to implement 287(g), a program that allows them to turn immigrants over to federal authorities if they're arrested on suspicion of a crime.

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Immigration

President-elect Donald Trump confirmed in a post on Truth Social on Monday that he is prepared to declare a national emergency as part of his plan to deport migrants in the US on a large scale. People close to the president-elect and his aides are laying the groundwork for expanding detention facilities to fulfill his campaign promise. Trump is also preparing executive actions that are a call back to his first term and could be rolled out as soon as he takes office. In the meantime, Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs said she plans to have conversations with Trump's team about the state's border security needs, but she said she will oppose certain policies if they don't help her state.

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LA enacts sanctuary city ordinance to prepare for potential mass deportations under Trump

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday approved a so-called “sanctuary city” ordinance that bars city resources from being used for immigration enforcement and city departments from sharing information on people without legal status with federal immigration authorities, in anticipation of potential mass deportations under President-elect Donald Trump.

https://apnews.com/article/sanctuary-city-trump-deportations-immigrants-los-angeles-836cf68a756c64800bbeb0270e8a965c?

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About 1,500 migrants form a new caravan in Mexico. Here’s what it means The migrants are mainly from Central and South America, and are hoping to walk or catch rides to the U.S. border. They started out walking from the city of Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala, where thousands of migrants are stranded because they do not have permission to cross further into Mexico. Read more.

Why this matters: Since migrants usually cannot find work to support themselves in Tapachula, most of the foreigners trapped there are desperate to leave. Some migrants say they are hoping to reach the United States before Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, saying they think it might be more difficult after that.   Migrant caravans began forming in 2018, and they became a final, desperate hope for poorer migrants who do not have the money to pay smugglers. If migrants try to cross Mexico alone or in small groups, they are often either detained by authorities and sent back to southern Mexico, or worse, deported back to their home countries. In that sense, there is safety in numbers.   There is no safety in numbers, however, against threats, extortion or abduction by drug cartels in Mexico. The cartels charge migrants or their smugglers for permission to cross their territories along the border. In addition, the gangs often kidnap migrants, hold them in terrible conditions or torture them until they call relatives to send money for their release. The biggest obstacle, though, is the searing heat, dehydration and distance.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Texas offers Trump land on US-Mexico border for potential mass deportations   1 million migrants in the US rely on temporary protections that Trump could target   Biggest source of new Floridians and Texans last year was other countries

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Immigration

President-elect Donald Trump's promise to carry out "mass deportations" has not been finalized, but his proposals are already rattling many workers across the US. "People are afraid of walking the streets right now; there's a lot of fear," a Chicago restaurant founder told CNN, saying he thinks undocumented employees will start to get worried and not report to work. There are an estimated 10.5 million undocumented immigrants in the US, data shows. Of those, about 8.5 million are employed. Business owners and economists alike warn that mass deportations, along with stricter border measures and the revoking of Biden-era protections, could have a seismic impact on the labor market and the US economy. Critical industries such as agriculture, leisure and hospitality, construction and health care could take the largest hits.

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Immigrants’ Resentment Over New Arrivals Helped Boost Trump’s Popularity With Latino Voters

Across the U.S., Latino immigrants who’ve been in the country a long time felt that asylum-seekers got preferential treatment. “Those of us who have been here for years get nothing,” said one woman from Mexico who has lived in Wisconsin for decades.

https://www.propublica.org/article/immigration-latino-trump-election-resentment-asylum?

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Court backs Texas over razor wire installed on US-Mexico border

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal appeals court Wednesday ruled that Border Patrol agents cannot cut razor wire that Texas installed on the U.S.-Mexico border in the town of Eagle Pass, which has become the center of the state’s aggressive measures to curb migrant crossings.

https://apnews.com/article/texas-immigration-border-razor-wire-d6ac24f9d7eb62b9c14cc0fb4498b27e?

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Activists say Mexican authorities have broken up 2 migrant caravans heading to the US

TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — Mexican immigration authorities have broken up two small migrant caravans headed to the U.S. border, activists said Saturday.

https://apnews.com/article/mexico-migrant-caravans-trump-tariffs-c4611c47fc53e2c494545a7cef194e88?

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Study: U.S.-made weapons might be driving migrants to the southern border

As undocumented immigrants show up at the southern border, many may be fleeing gun violence perpetrated with weapons that originally came from the United States.

https://floridaphoenix.com/2024/12/03/study-u-s-made-weapons-might-be-driving-migrants-to-the-southern-border/?