Undocumented

Immigrant Students In Oklahoma Tell Their Stories

June 25, 2018 John Thompson, Livingindialogue.com Educate! Immigration, Oklahoma, Students, Undocumented

Numerous stories began in Mexico and Central America. Anonymous explained in “Gunshots” that his mom had been a “coyote,” passing immigrants from Central America to the U.S. She “never got caught by la migra, … she was caught by the sicarios in the frontera,” and that was more dangerous. It was only after she became pregnant that 5 minutes of consecutive gunfire in the plaza convinced the family to migrate and “the fear of losing our most beautiful thing that finally made us leave.” Dahila didn’t want to leave Mexico but her family “set her by force because things in Mexico were very dangerous.” She had papers but the officer said, “You are not from the United States … you are like those Indians, who are lying around.” Dahila was intimidated by the process but it caused a delay that made her Grandma happy. By the time they were approved, the scanners were turned off so they got through with the tamales in their bags that she brought from Mexico.

Protesters Play Audio Of Crying Detained Children Outside DHS Secty Nielsen’s Home

June 23, 2018 Por Philip Lewis, Huffingtonpost.com.mx Resist! Detention Centers, Immigration, Protests, Undocumented

ALEXANDRIA, Va. ― Protesters gathered outside Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s townhouse Friday morning, playing audio of detained migrant children and chanting “Free the kids!” The demonstration took place just days after she fled a Mexican restaurant in Washington while being heckled by protesters. The protest, organized by the progressive group CREDO Action, took place at 7:30 a.m. In the pouring rain, protesters shouted several chants over megaphones, held posters that read “Child Snatcher” and played the audio clip released by ProPublica over a speaker system.

The Truth About ‘Sanctuary Cities’

June 22, 2018 By Lizet Ocampo, Otherwords.org Create! Immigration, Sanctuary Cities, Trump Administration, Undocumented

In a recent White House meeting on “sanctuary cities,” President Trump called some undocumented immigrants “animals” — a disturbing new low even for someone who’s demonized immigrant communities from the beginning. The president painted a picture of “sadistic criminals” who are being given “safe harbor” through so-called sanctuary policies. While Trump and his right-wing supporters would have people believe that “sanctuary cities” are places that allow lawlessness and where immigrants aren’t prosecuted for crimes, the reality is far different. Here are the facts: the federal government can enforce immigration law anywhere. The term “sanctuary city” typically refers to a jurisdiction that wants to limit the use of local law enforcement resources to carry out federal law enforcement work, especially when they’re asked to violate constitutional protections.

Immigration Lawyer Recounts Conversation With Obama About Border Crisis That He Says ‘Shook Me To My Core’

June 22, 2018 Bryan Logan, Businessinsider.com Educate! Border, Deportations, Immigration, Undocumented

An immigration lawyer on Monday sought to add some context to the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" immigration policy drawing criticism over its practice of separating children from adults they're traveling with who are caught crossing the US-Mexico border illegally. R. Andrew Free argued on Twitter that the fallout from the sounds and images from locations along the southern US border and detention centers where migrants are being held were an extension of practices that began under President Barack Obama. The lawyer recounted a 2015 exchange with Obama, during which Free said he implored the president to close two detention centers in southern Texas out of concern for the women and children being held there.

Trump Executive Order Makes Border Crisis Worse

June 21, 2018 Staff, Nilc.org Educate! Border, Deportations, Executive Order, Immigration, Nationalism, Trump Administration, Undocumented

WASHINGTON — President Trump has signed an executive order mandating that families be jailed by the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security or Defense. This order will likely have the effect of jailing, for months or even years, immigrant families seeking safety in the U.S. The National Immigration Law Center has long decried the practice of jailing immigrant families, filing lawsuits when necessary to defend their rights. Below is a statement from Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, who visited family detention facilities in 2014: “The Trump administration has created a crisis and committed horrific human rights abuses by separating children from their parents at the border. Clearly on the defense, today it used a political sleight of hand to try to placate Americans who have been rightly outraged by their government’s repugnant policies, including separating children and babies from their parents and housing them in cages.

ICE Temporarily Shutters Portland Facility Due To ‘Occupy’ Protest

June 21, 2018 By Dirk VanderHart, Huffingtonpost.com.mx Resist! ICE, Immigration, Portland, Protests, Undocumented

Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Portland office temporarily shut its doors due to ongoing protests against the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy which leads to children being separated from their parents. “ICE operations at this location have been temporarily halted due to security concerns,” an ICE spokesman said Wednesday in a statement reported by Oregon Public Radio. “Normal operations will resume once security concerns have been addressed.” Dozens of protesters have been gathered outside the office since Sunday, holding up signs and banners (some comparing the agency to the Gestapo) and setting up tents in light of the rollout of the new policy, which has meant that every person crossing the border at an unofficial point of entry gets detained. So far, more than 2,300 children have been split up from their parents.

Protesters March On Texas Tent City To Oppose Family Separations

June 18, 2018 Por Willa Frej, Huffingtonpost.com.mx Resist! Detention Centers, Immigration, Protests, Texas, Undocumented

A Texas tent city constructed last week to shelter migrant children became a protest site Sunday as crowds marched to oppose the separation of immigrant families at the border. More than 200 children are being housed in the makeshift tent structure built in Tornillo, Tex., according to Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Tex.), who organized Sunday’s protest. Protesters braved the Texas heat, carrying signs featuring slogans like, “Don’t use children to get your wall,” “Fight ignorance, not immigrants,” and “This is how the Holocaust started,” the El Paso Times reported. “We’re wanting to make sure that everyone in this country knows what is happening here, in their name, in Tornillo, where kids have traveled 2,000 miles, some alone, some with their parents, are being held in detention camps, tent cities that have just been constructed over the course of this last week,” O’Rourke said.

Nevermind The Wall — They’re Building Warehouses

June 16, 2018 By Peter Certo, Otherwords.org Educate! Detention Centers, Immigration, Undocumented

Most mornings lately, I’ve woken up to two things. First I hear my toddler, sounding off that it’s time to get up. Then I see the news stories about other toddlers our immigration authorities ripped away from their parents. For weeks, I’ve felt the gnawing need to write something, anything, about it. But God, where even to begin? First, there are the stories. The Congolese asylum seeker who heard her six-year-old scream “Don’t take me away from my mommy!” and couldn’t reach her. The woman forced to put her 18-month-old in a car seat in an ICE van, the door slamming shut before she could even say goodbye. The man who hasn’t seen his son in six months. Then there are the photos. The rows of children sleeping on thin mats behind chain-linked fences.

Judge Slams Family Separation As ‘Brutal, Offensive’ Conduct, Lawsuit Proceeds

June 8, 2018 Staff, Aclu.org Resist! ACLU, Immigration, Lawsuit, Trump Administration, Undocumented

SAN DIEGO — A federal judge ruled that the American Civil Liberties Union’s challenge to the Trump administration’s practice of forcibly separating asylum-seeking parents and young children can proceed. The Trump administration argued that these asylum-seeking families had no constitutional right to remain together. The court squarely rejected that position stating that “Such conduct, if true, as it is assumed to be on the present motion, is brutal, offensive, and fails to comport with traditional notions of fair play and decency.” Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, had this reaction: “In the most forceful language, the court rejected the Trump administration’s claim that the Constitution permits it to engage in the inhumane practice of tearing little children away from their parents.”

Activists Calling For The Abolition Of ICE Blocking Seattle Streets Outside Of Homeland Security Building

June 6, 2018 NWDC Resistance, Thenorthstar.info Resist! Activism, Detention Centers, Homeland Security, ICE, Immigration, Seattle, Undocumented, Washington

Seattle, WA – Early yesterday morning, activists with Northwest Detention Center Resistance and Mijente locked down outside of 1000 2nd Avenue in downtown Seattle, Washington, calling attention to the building’s role as Washington State’s deportation epicenter. The building, owned by billionaire developer Martin Selig, houses regional offices for ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations and Office of Chief Counsel, regional offices for Customs and Border Protection, and the Department of Justice-controlled Seattle Immigration Court. The lockdown is part of the launch of the “Chinga La Migra” organizing tour to tell the story of what the deportation crisis under President Trump looks like in real time, and amplify the efforts and stories of resistance.

To Create True Sanctuary Cities, We Must End Racist Policing

June 6, 2018 By Reyna Wences and Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz, Truthout.org Create! Detention Centers, ICE, Immigration, Police, Racial Profiling, Racism, Undocumented

Cities across the US have enacted sanctuary measures to resist the Trump administration’s escalation of anti-immigrant policing, but most municipal sanctuary measures have a central weakness: They only seek to protect immigrants deemed as “law-abiding,” leaving those already ensnared in a racist system of criminalization and policing unprotected. Sanctuary ordinances, such as the ones adopted by Chicago in 2012 and by the state of Illinois in 2017, seek to inhibit cooperation between local policing agencies and federal immigration authorities by prohibiting local police departments from using agency resources to hold immigrants for federal agents. But as with most sanctuary legislation, these bills distinguish otherwise “law-abiding” undocumented immigrants from “criminal aliens,” who are left unprotected by sanctuary measures and rendered highly vulnerable to detention and deportation.

Mass ICE Raids Leave A Trail Of Misery And Broken Communities

May 14, 2018 Alice Speri, Theintercept.com Educate! Deportations, ICE, Immigration, Undocumented

A MONTH AFTER dozens of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents surrounded a meatpacking plant in Morristown, Tennessee, and detained 97 men and women who worked there, the tight-knit rural community is still reeling, but the initial shock has seeped into a quiet pain, as families adjust to lives without work and their loved ones. As those shipped to immigration detention facilities across the country started appearing before judges for bond hearings this month, some families were reunited, though still facing deportation proceedings, while others braced for long separations. As of Thursday, 20 of those arrested on April 5 were released — but many more remained in detention. “Tragedy continues to unfold,” said Stephanie Teatro, co-executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. “Some families are getting really terrible news.”

“We’re Gonna Take Everyone” — Border Patrol Targets Prominent Humanitarian Group As Criminal Organization

May 7, 2018 Ryan Devereaux, Theintercept.com Educate! Border, Immigration, Repression, Undocumented

FROM THE MOMENT Scott Warren was arrested by Border Patrol agents on a remote property just north of the Mexican border, in January this year, there were questions. The 35-year-old college instructor, with a doctorate in geography and a history of academic and humanitarian work along the border, was found in a building known locally as “the Barn,” in the company of two young undocumented men from Mexico. Accused of supplying the men with food, water, clothing, and a place to sleep, he was indicted by a grand jury in February, on two counts of harboring illegal aliens and one count of conspiracy to transport and harbor illegal aliens. The humanitarian aid volunteer could spend up to two decades in prison if convicted and sentenced to consecutive terms.

Fatal Encounters: 97 Deaths Point To Pattern Of Border Agent Violence Across America

May 4, 2018 Sarah Macaraeg, Theguardian.com Educate! Border, Immigration, State Violence, Undocumented

In the last 15 years, agents with Customs and Border Protection have used deadly force in states up to 160 miles from the border, from Maine to California. For six long years the family of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez have been caught in a legal saga seeking justice for the 16-year-old who was killed by a US border patrol agent who fired 16 times from Arizona into Mexico. Ending criminal proceedings that have dragged on since 2012, a jury last week cleared agent Lonnie Swartz of second-degree murder and could not agree on a verdict for two lesser charges of manslaughter. The shooting has compelled judges up to the US supreme court to deliberate whether the American government can be sued in civil court for wrongful deaths on Mexican soil – placing the incident, and eight other cross-border fatal shootings, at the center of scrutiny surrounding the use of force by agents in response to allegedly thrown rocks.

A Year Later, Fewer Deportations In Cities That Adopted “Welcoming” Policies

April 26, 2018 Michael J. Dax, Yesmagazine.org Create! Deportations, Immigration, Undocumented

A year after the Santa Fe City Council adopted in February 2017 a resolution strengthening its welcoming and non-discrimination policies toward immigrants, the federal government launched a series of audits demanding verification from local small businesses that their employees were eligible to work in the country. In response to this blitz, advocates and city officials held a press conference in early March calling out an attempt to disrupt business, wreak havoc, and create a culture of fear and panic. “Today, children will wake up at home wondering if there will be a knock on their door; parents will go to work wondering if there will be a knock at the door of their place of employment; families will wonder if they’ll have one more meal together,” said then-Mayor Javier Gonzales, who, following President Trump’s election, became an outspoken proponent of cities enacting sanctuary and non-discrimination policies.

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