Immigration in the News 4/12/2021
Border Coordinator steps down, cash payments to Central America, Tucker Carlson weighs in on immigration
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Roberta Jacobson, a well credentialed expert on Central America and a former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico stepped down this week from her role as U.S. Border Coordinator. The spin was that her interim role was expiring this month at Biden’s 100 day mark, but it’s hard to imagine anyone with this degree of experience and clout being asked to depart as planned in the midst of the growing crisis the administration is confronting on the border. Ongoing confusion about Kamala Harris’ role and responsibilities also contribute to questions about the administration’s handling of this issue. Mayorkas really needs to get his agency leaders nominated and confirmed quickly as the idea that there is no one with administration backing in charge of the Border Patrol and USCIS in particular is not reassuring.
Tucker Carlson raised a stink this week by squaring the circle on various immigration and race related conspiracy theories on his program and endorsing the view that liberal immigration policies are ultimately a sinister plot to disenfranchise “American” voters. There is a rich tradition of immigrant-bashing in conservative media and even in the last twenty years you could probably find similar clips of Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck, or Bill O’Reilly running a similar monologue so the current conversation, while depressing, is really nothing new. Carlson styles himself somewhat of a equal opportunity critic of American establishment politics so it would be nice to see him explore the issue of how conservatives could conceivably attract immigrant votes, but that’s probably not in the cards.
The Reuters story on cash payments to Central Americans in exchange for not immigrating was spun like the richest cashmere into a tapestry of conservative talking points but in reality doesn’t amount to much more than “throw money at sending countries as we have done in the past”, so it’s really a dumb policy and a major PR failure. Central American politicians are quite good at playing both sides to get the financial aid and policy outcomes they desire.
There are also some comments below regarding specific stories of interest or recommendations. Going forward if there are any stories you would like to see featured here please reach out via email at immiwonk@gmail.com or shoot us a DM on Twitter at @immiwonk. Thanks for reading!
Big Topics this Week:
Tucker Carlson’s anti-immigrant rants
Biden and the border
Undocumented Immigrants
Department of Homeland Security/Department of State
Refugee and Asylum Policy
Tucker Carlson sounds off
Carlson’s Thursday comments were not entirely new territory for him. The host claimed last week unnamed “people in charge” are using the current surge at the U.S.-Mexico border to deliberately change the country’s political makeup, and three years ago, he said Democrats see a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants as a way of building political power. Carlson often portrays immigration as costly and undesirable: He’s repeatedly suggested some immigrants are unsanitary, and he claimed Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) — a Somali-American who moved to the country as a teenager — is “living proof that the way we practice immigration has become dangerous.”
Tucker Carlson Endorses White Supremacist Theory by Name
Note that he is not merely arguing against illegal immigration. He is arguing against any immigration. Carlson proposes that any new U.S. citizen reduces the political power of the current population.
When the Constitution was ratified, the United States had fewer than 4 million people, and 13 states. By Carlson’s standard, the last 200 years have been a continuous process of disenfranchisement of that original population. Immigration is a complex issue, and it is obviously possible to support restrictions on either legal or illegal immigration without being racist. But Carlson’s point implies that any immigration, legal or illegal, politically disempowers all Americans.
Opinion: How do the immigrants who run Fox feel about Tucker Carlson’s anti-immigrant rants?
This is not a comprehensive list. No doubt there are other senior directors and managers of Fox who are immigrants — and even more who are the children or grandchildren of immigrants. How do they feel about Carlson’s odious aspersions on Americans who weren’t born here? Are they okay with profiting from what Carlson is saying? And is Carlson okay with their presence in America? Isn’t he worried that they are taking the jobs of native-born media executives? Or does his hostility to immigrants exclude those who are his bosses?
The idea that Democrats are packing the country with immigrants to secure their permanent voting majority is not a new one, it has a long tradition dating back to the Tammany Hall machine in NY in the 19th century (criticism of which had some truth to it). More recently this has become a reliable right-wing talking point, but efforts from conservative political dynasties like the Bush family to court latino voters have complicated the messaging.
Biden and the border
Biden Border Coordinator Roberta Jacobson stepping down
In a statement to The New York Times, Jacobson praised Biden's effort to repair and recast the nation's immigration system after four years under former President Trump.
"They continue to drive toward the architecture that the president has laid out: an immigration system that is humane, orderly and safe," she said in a brief interview. "I leave optimistically. The policy direction is so clearly right for our country."
She noted that her appointment was always intended to last 100 days, which will expire at the end of April.
Confusion clouds Harris immigration role
But Republicans have been quick to tie Harris directly to events on the border. Republican National Committee spokesperson Keith Schipper has described Harris as the "manager of the Biden border crisis," while RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel wrote an op-ed titled "Where's Kamala? Biden's border point person can't be bothered to show up."
Some Democrats worry the assignment could be politically perilous for Harris, especially as she considers a potential second run for president, but giving a more polarizing task to the vice president is not unusual. Biden was handed a similar role when he was vice president ahead of the 2014 midterms, which saw immigration become a key issue after a similar border surge.
From drug safety to immigration, Biden leaves key posts unfilled
As the U.S. deals with a surge of unaccompanied children at the southern border, several top immigration jobs have yet to be filled. Biden hasn't put forward nominees to run Customs and Border Protection or Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which have been on the front lines detaining, processing and temporarily housing the influx of migrants. He also hasn't nominated anyone to run Citizenship and Immigration Services, which has been handling immigration applications and processing asylum-seekers coming to the border.
The GOP is stuck in a losing battle against immigration
Whenever I debate immigration with my conservative friends, I always think about my meeting in 2019 with a largely Republican farmers group in Southside, Virginia. Their primary issues centered on streamlining immigration for H-2A workers and the costs associated with navigating the bureaucratic morass in the Department of Labor. One staunch GOP farmer relayed a story about his longest-serving employee, a naturalized citizen from Mexico. This employee had been on his payroll for 40 years and would vote Republican regardless of the candidate. His quote, and I remember it almost exactly, was, “You should bring back amnesty. Every immigrant Mexican worker I know voted Republican because of Reagan. That would sure help all of us now. He was their hero.”
Biden just needs to get his people nominated and confirmed. With a full leadership team at DHS and DOS working together a lot of these immigration problems can be fixed fairly quickly. Success will yield political dividends, and it is a low bar. For the first time in recent history people will be showering praise on this administration simply for getting appointments going again and lowering wait times.
Undocumented Immigrants
Young Migrants Crowd Shelters, Posing Test for Biden
The pressure is producing tension inside the White House. President Biden expressed frustration with Xavier Becerra, his new secretary of health and human services, in a White House meeting on March 30, for what the president views as bureaucratic holdups in increasing capacity, according to two administration officials familiar with the exchange.
But another brand of family separation has long occurred in state courts across the country, where hundreds, perhaps thousands, of undocumented parents permanently lose custody of their children. In some cases, judges strip mothers and fathers of their parental rights after criminal convictions or serious allegations of abuse or neglect. But activists say migrant families are often too easily torn apart over immigration issues, minor infractions or cultural misunderstandings.
Good article here that highlights the many ambiguities and problems that surround the UAC issue in particular. If a child is harmed during the perilous journey to the U.S., or abused by often distant family members or family friends in the U.S. after arriving, to what extent do we hold the sending parents responsible? When children are resettled with foster families in alignment with the sending family’s aspirations, what is their role going forward? Tough questions.
Abbott said complaints about sexual assault were reported early Wednesday to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services as well as the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. The governor did not know the identities of those who alleged assault, nor did he provide many details. He said he was concerned more than one child may have been assaulted. He also said that DPS will investigate the allegations.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to questions after Abbott's announcement.
Immigrants have mostly been left to their own devices to find a way to stay legally. His younger brother became an adult and sponsored their mother for legal residency. Quiroz could apply through his wife, a U.S. citizen, but he is afraid to leave the country —as that process requires — because U.S. officials might not approve his request to get back in.
“People are really struck when they find out that I’m undocumented,” he said, recalling the words he often hears from patients: “ ‘What do you mean you’re undocumented or illegal? That doesn’t make sense. How are you able to practice, and you’re here saving people’s lives, taking care of American citizens? … Why don’t you have a pathway to citizenship already?’ ”
New Immigration Policy Is Opening Doors for Mixed-Status Families
On the same day as the administration announced it would no longer follow Trump-era guidelines on housing access, New York state passed a more than $200 billion state budget. At the urging of a coalition of activists who have highlighted the plight faced by undocumented workers and immigrants excluded from social safety net and pandemic relief programs—some of whom have gone on hunger strike to push their case—it includes a $2.1 billion fund to provide benefits and safety net assistance to residents who have fallen through cracks in the federal system.
DOS/DHS
Biden now wants to RESTART construction on Trump's border wall to 'plug the gaps'
It's not a single answer to a single question. There are different projects that the chief of the Border Patrol has presented and the acting commissioner of CBP [Customs and Border Protection] presented to me,' Mayorkas said, according to notes of the ICE session reviewed by the Times.
'The president has communicated quite clearly his decision that the emergency that triggered the devotion of DOD funds to the construction of the border wall is ended,' he continued. 'But that leaves room to make decisions as the administration – as part of the administration – in particular areas of the wall that need renovation, particular projects that need to be finished.'
For those who forgot, border wall construction was not at all a partisan issue (among centrist Democrats) prior to Trump’s ascendance. This is consistent with that fact.
Trump’s border wall belongs to Biden now
In other words, border militarization efforts ironically created a permanent, deeply rooted and more widely dispersed Mexican American population. They also helped fuel anti-Mexican nativism nationally — aided by cable news and talk radio warnings of migrant “invasions.” In 1990, the “Light Up the Border” demonstrators were Southern Californians. In 2005, when civilian “Minutemen” groups — some armed — began scouting sections of the U.S.-Mexico boundary from Texas to California, volunteers came from across the country. Trump rode this nativism into the White House.
Migrant boy found wandering alone in Texas had been deported and kidnapped
Wilton and his mother, Meylin, 30, crossed the border into Texas last month to seek asylum after fleeing their native Nicaragua. But they were immediately sent back to Mexico under Title 42, a pandemic-era policy that expels migrants who cross the border without allowing them to apply for protection.
Hours after being expelled to northern Mexico, they were kidnapped, according to Misael Obregon, Meylin’s brother, who lives in Miami.
Misael received a call from the kidnappers. They wanted $10,000 to release Meylin and Wilton.
“They threaten to hurt them both, or worse,” Misael Obregon said. “These people are capable of anything.”
There were dueling accusations on Twitter about whether this video is Border Patrol propaganda or worse. As is often the case, the real tragedy of the person in the video is obscured by the narrative-seeking forces which shared it widely.
Border Patrol rescues 2 abandoned children at US-Mexico border, latest in spate of incidents
Border Patrol agents in California on Tuesday rescued a 5-year-old and 6-year-old who had been abandoned at the border, apparently by smugglers -- the latest in a spate of such incidents amid a migrant surge at the border.
Border Patrol said in a statement that agents found the children alone and crying after they were abandoned by a couple who hoisted them over boulders near the end of the border wall. The children had their mother’s name and phone number on a note and their forearms -- which agents used to contact to get additional information.
Refugee and Asylum Policy
President Biden could admit the lowest number of refugees in history
President Biden, in contrast, has taken steps to fulfill his promise to resettle 125,000 refugees his first year in office. As a starting point, while his administration prepares to rebuild the decimated resettlement program, he proposed a plan to welcome 62,500 refugees in fiscal year 2021.
The problem is that the president has yet to make these changes official by signing the presidential determination. In addition, discriminatory Trump Administration policies continue to block many Muslim and African refugees from entering the country.
As a result, President Biden is on track to accept the fewest number of refugees of any president ever since the creation of the modern resettlement program.
‘We Are Doomed’: Devastation From Storms Fuels Migration in Honduras
Immediate humanitarian aid could certainly help alleviate hunger, homelessness and other crises spurred by the storms, as it seems to have done after Hurricane Mitch.
But it is much harder to prove that funding sent in the past to improve conditions in Central America has reduced migration, experts say, in part because corrupt politicians and elites have siphoned off the money or undermined efforts to change their economies enough to give the poor a reason to stay at home.
Exclusive-U.S. considering cash payments to Central America to stem migration
Biden, who took office on Jan. 20, has called for $4 billion in development aid to Central America over four years to address underlying causes of migration. On Friday, the White House requested $861 million from Congress for that effort in Biden’s first annual budget proposal. That would be a sharp increase from the roughly $500 million in aid this year.
Kevin McCarthy, the top Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, criticized the idea of cash transfers.
“It’s insulting to the millions of Americans who are out of work or facing despair in our country,” he said in a statement Friday evening.