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Migration

Panama’s Outrage Over Deportations: Reckoning With A Reality Long Ignored

Panama—and by extension, much of Latin America—is in an uproar. The news of deported migrants, stranded and detained in Panama, has stirred outrage and condemnation. Yet, this is not a new story. It is merely a chapter in a book that has been written, rewritten, and ignored for decades in the United States, even as families, migrants, and human rights advocates warned that such policies would not stay contained within U.S. borders forever. The real question now is: Why is migration only becoming a pressing issue for Latin American nations when they are the ones forced to deal with the aftermath?

Whether Biden Or Trump, US’ Latin American Policy Will Be Contemptible

With Donald Trump as the new US president, pundits are speculating about how US policy towards Latin America might change. In this article, we look at some of the speculation, then address three specific instances of how the US’s policy priorities may be viewed from a progressive, Latin American perspective. This leads us to a wider argument: that the way these issues are dealt with is symptomatic of Washington’s paramount objective of sustaining the US’s hegemonic position. In this overriding preoccupation, its policy towards Latin America is only one element, of course, but always of significance because the US hegemon still treats the region as its “backyard.”

Small Farming, Urbanisation And Climate Migration

Bangladesh is a small country that sits within the Northeast of South Asia with India wrapped around it, and Myanmar to the South. Despite its small size and relatively recent independence, Bangladesh plays an oversized role in the way poverty, development, climate change and urbanisation are imagined globally. Often in discussions of climate change the conversation turns to Bangladesh as a country imagined to be sinking, throwing out waves of climate migrants across the world. For many reasons this vision is wrong. I don’t have space to go into this in depth here  (see further references below). Instead, I want to tell a different but connected story about Bangladesh, urbanisation and the environment.

US Exploits Animosity Towards Migrants To Demonize Socialist Countries

The Republican party has been waging a blatantly racist campaign to criminalize migrants. Instead of pushing back on that narrative, the party that purports to be for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (Democrats) is exploiting this racist anger to discredit a country it has targeted for regime change—Nicaragua—apparently for not sufficiently suppressing the rights of migrants. As Congresswoman Maria Salazar (R-FL) told a Biden administration representative at a recent hearing, “We agree on the end goal.” This is part of a relentless campaign to punish countries that dare to resist Washington’s agenda with suffocating unilateral coercive measures (aka “sanctions”).

How Safe Is Nicaragua? A Comparative Reflection

Nicaraguan children march before a baseball tournament in Matagalpa. Having a government that promotes communitarian trust and supports meeting the needs of everyone seems to be a crucial factor in whether people feel “safe.” On the night before I was married in 1985, during the wedding rehearsal dinner, my “best man,” Gary MacEoin, knew that my wife and I were heading to Nicaragua a week later, where the country was in the middle of the Contra War. My wife’s parents were concerned for our safety. Gary proposed a toast, “To the second safest city in the hemisphere…Managua!”

Biden Shuts Down US-Mexico Border

Biden signed an executive order temporarily shutting down the US-Mexico border to asylum requests once the average number of daily encounters of migrants at official ports of entry tops 2,500. The shutdown would go into effect immediately, as the average number of people coming through the border through official ports of entry is averaging around 4,000 people per day. This action comes after a bill pushed by Biden failed in Congress earlier this year, which would have jointly enacted harsh restrictions on the border and provided millions in funding to Ukraine. Congressional conservatives rejected the bill due to claims that it was not strict enough on migrants and due to conservative opposition to additional Ukraine funding.

The Next Great Human Migration: America’s Future Climate

A 2022 report from the International Panel on Climate Change observed that more than 3.3 billion people around the world are “highly vulnerable to climate change.” And more than one billion people could be exposed to “coastal-specific climate hazards by 2050.” Here in the U.S., the Census Bureau calculated that 3.2 million adults were displaced or evacuated due to natural disasters of all kinds in 2022. And while climate migration is not easily measurable, as there are multiple factors involved, it is no doubt happening.  Investigative reporter at Politico Abrahm Lustgarten delved into the topic of U.S. climate migration in his new book, On The Move: The Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of America. 

Washington Removes Cuba From List Of Countries Not Cooperating Fully Against Terrorism

The US Department of State has announced that Cuba is no longer on their list of countries not fully cooperating against terrorism, which does not include the lifting of their illegal and unilateral sanctions against the Cuban people. The cooperation against terrorism list, which the Department of State is required by law to provide to US Congress, is not the same as the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, according to a Department of State official announcing the decision this Wednesday, May 15. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez reported via social media that “the United States has just admitted what is known to all: that Cuba fully collaborates with the efforts against terrorism.”

Protests Erupt In Germany After Exposure Of Far-Right Conspiracy

In the wake of revelations about a far-right conspiracy in Germany to expel migrants and “non-assimilated citizens”, progressive sections in Germany have launched militant anti-far-right demonstrations across the country, raising the banner “Together Against the Right,” in defense of democracy and against fascism. From January 19 to January 22, more than 1.4 million people, including leftists, trade unionists, youth-students groups, and various other anti-fascist groups hit the streets in more than a hundred cities across Germany, protesting the xenophobic maneuvers and political schemings of far-right groups, including the Alternative for Germany (AfD).

NDN Collective’s Second Week At COP28 In Dubai

For three weeks, members of NDN Collective’s Policy and Advocacy, Regional Deep Dive program, NDN Fund, Communications, Tactical Media, and Creative Resistance Teams, have been on the ground in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Our second week of being on the ground began with the official opening of the  United Nations 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) and opening of the International Indigenous Peoples’ Pavilion. It was also filled with panels and discussions with panels, side events, participating in actions to uplift the Indigenous caucus’ priorities, and tracking negotiations and meeting with government officials.

Finance Minister: How US Sanctions Impact Nicaragua’s Poor

Despite the enormous damage caused by U.S. intervention, Nicaragua’s economy has improved dramatically under the rule of Daniel Ortega, a leader of Nicaragua’s 1979 socialist Sandinista revolution who has been in power since 2007. Nicaraguan Finance Minister Iván Acosta gave an interview detailing how Nicaragua fits the broader pattern by which sanctions negatively impact working class people and the poor while doing little to affect a change in government policy. U.S. sanctions have been applied against Nicaragua based on the false claim that Ortega committed grave human rights abuses, when his government largely reacted with restraint to the violent political uprising in 2018 which caused Nicaragua’s GDP to decline by over 4%.

Latin America Meets To End US Hostile Policies That Drive Migration

Migration is not a new phenomenon. For centuries, the world’s population has moved from one place to another with a common motivation: the search for a better future. However, in recent decades, the numbers have soared dramatically and dangerously, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean, spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, lack of opportunity, poverty, violence, climate change, and, especially, the rise of unilateral sanctions by great powers against their “rival” nations, which are almost always at an economic disadvantage. Dialogue on this issue cannot be postponed. The humanitarian crisis on the US-Mexico border is growing by the day.

It’s Time For Cities To Extend And Expand Sanctuary

Ellis Island was once the border of New York City, a gated drawbridge for millions of immigrants to what would become their new homeland. But today, when New York’s border is at the Rio Grande, that checkpoint is beyond its control. From the perspective of necessity, prudence and even justice, cities must expand their policies of welcome to match their extended borders. Months have passed since Mayor Eric Adams declared that there was “no more room at the inn” for asylum seekers arriving in the city. Invoking, perhaps inadvertently, a Biblical metaphor, the mayor suggested that New York City’s shelter system was at capacity.

How Europe Outsourced Border Enforcement To Africa

When Cornelia Ernst and her delegation arrived at the Rosso border station on a scorching February day, it wasn’t the bustling artisanal marketplace, the thick smog from trucks waiting to cross, or the vibrantly painted pirogues bobbing in the Senegal River that caught their eye. It was the slender black briefcase on the table before the station chief. When the official unlatched the hard plastic carrier, proudly unveiling dozens of cables meticulously arranged beside a touchscreen tablet, soft gasps filled the room. Called the Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED), the machine is a data-extraction tool capable of retrieving call logs, photos, GPS locations and WhatsApp messages from any phone.

Nonprofit Shows How To Create An ‘Aboveground Railroad’ For Migrants

In the 1980s, when Sendy Soto and her family left Guatemala for the United States in search of a better life, they followed in a long American immigrant tradition by making Chicago’s Logan Square their home. There, among her Mexican, Central American, Polish and other immigrant neighbors, Soto was instilled with a sense of community and a desire to help and work with Chicago’s growing migrant population. A 2020 report from the Vera Institute of Justice showed that 1.7 million migrants reside in Chicago, about 18% of the population, and 842,000 are at risk of deportation.
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