Immigration

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Supreme Court

In the days before the election, evangelist Franklin Graham told RNS that he wasn’t focused “on his potty mouth or her missing emails,” referring to Trump’s language and his Democratic rival’s trouble over an email server. Rather, Graham said, “It comes down to the Supreme Court, and who do you trust to appoint to the Supreme Court?”

Sandi Villarreal 1-26-2018

Youth Initiates from the United Church of Santa Fe walk the trails along the Arizona-Sonora border. Photo courtesy Rev. Talitha Arnold

People of faith and other advocates across the country are calling for a permanent fix for the 800,000 young people at risk of losing their DACA status if Congress doesn’t reach a deal soon. In one Santa Fe, N.M., congregation, those calls are coming from the youth group.

Eugenia Ji 1-25-2018

Image via benketaro / Flickr

The charges come in the wake of the publication of a report by No More Deaths and La Coalición de Derechos Humanos that indicated at least 3,586 gallon jugs of water destroyed in the desert region near Arivaca, Ariz., by U.S. Border Patrol agents between 2012-2015.

“Yes. I saw water bottles stabbed," Miguel, a migrant from Sinaloa, Mexico, said in the report. "They break the bottles so you can’t even use them to fill up at the tanks. I needed water, some of the other people in the group needed water, but we found them destroyed."

Jim Wallis 1-25-2018

DACA recipients and supporters protest for a clean Dream Act outside Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Jan. 22, 2018. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

There is enormous public support for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) from the American people. According to a poll released by CBS News in the past week, “nearly 9 in 10 Americans (87%) favor allowing young immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally as children to remain in the U.S.” This number includes 79 percent of Republicans, 92 percent of Democrats, and 87 percent of independents who favor the policy.

Today, Lopez-Marquez is at Presbyterian Medical Services, Santa Fe Family Wellness Center, where he’s the only male social worker on staff who’s also bilingual. He is also an after-school folklorico dance instructor for Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. Between counseling and dance, Lopez-Marquez works with 180 youth in New Mexico; his work permit through DACA makes all that possible.

Since the Trump administration announced in September that it was bringing DACA to an end, nearly 16,000 DACA recipients have already lost their protections. DACA is set to formally expire on March 5, but the process has already shortchanged benefits for many, with up to 122 more young adults losing their protections each day. While Democrats and Republicans go back to the drawing board on DACA, here are eight stories to catch you up on the fate of Dreamers and DACA recipients.

Image via Roger Netwon/Youth Today 

It’s not just the Dreamers who stand to lose if there are no new legislative protections put in place: It could have hefty economic consequences for states like North Carolina. Patrick McHugh, economic analyst for the progressive research and advocacy organization North Carolina Justice Center, said the Cato Institute (a libertarian think tank) predicted that ending DACA could cost North Carolina $7.8 billion in the next decade alone.

Jessica Cobian 1-18-2018

Photo by Rebekah Fulton / Sojourners

Throughout the week, faith leaders and DACA recipients — young immigrants who were guaranteed protection from deportation under an Obama-era program, since rescinded by President Trump — have urged legislators to refuse a vote on a spending bill to fund the government if it does not include a Dream Act. Trump said he would sign the current version of the bill, up for vote in the House as soon as Thursday evening. That version does not include protections for DACA recipients — a potential make-or-break piece that could force a government shutdown Friday.

the Web Editors 1-17-2018

Thomas Homan addresses the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S. July 27, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

The operation would go after people who have been identified as targets for deportation, including those who have been served with final deportation orders and those with criminal histories, the source said. The number could tick up if officers come across other undocumented immigrants in the course of their actions and make what are known as collateral arrests.

the Web Editors 1-11-2018

Image via Sojourners

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained immigrant rights activist Ravi Ragbir on Thursday after a routine check-in in New York City. Ragbir is the executive director of the New Sanctuary Coalition of New York and has been nationally recognized for his work.

DACA rally in front of the White House Sept. 5, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

A U.S. judge in San Francisco temporarily barred President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday from ending a program shielding young people brought to the United States illegally by their parents from deportation.

Tom Heneghan 1-09-2018

Image via Karen Gillerman Harel / Shutterstock

But with Holocaust Memorial Day coming up on Jan. 27, the anniversary of the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz, her Christian Democrats have decided to wait no longer. They want the Bundestag, the German parliament, to pass a resolution calling for migrants who promote hatred of Jews to be expelled.

the Web Editors 1-08-2018

Salvadoran immigrant Mirna Portillo, following the announcement to end TPS Jan. 8, 2018. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
 

The Department of Homeland Security announced on Monday that it would terminate the temporary protected status for Salvadorans living in the U.S. beginning September 2019, putting 200,000 of them at risk of being sent back to a country with one of the highest murder rates in the world.

Pope Francis arrives to lead a mass to mark the World Day of Peace in Saint Peter's Basilica at the Vatican Jan. 1, 2018. REUTERS/Max Rossi
 

Pope Francis described migrants and refugees as the world's "weakest and most needy" on Monday, using his traditional New Year's address to "give voice" to people he has urged leaders to do more to help.

the Web Editors 12-22-2017

Retired engineer John Wider, 59, is greeted by a supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump as he holds up a sign reading "Welcome Refugees" at the international arrivals terminal at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California, U.S. on June 29, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

The U.S. State Department announced that it will drastically cut down the number of refugee resettlement offices across the country since the Trump administration's plans to sharply reduce refugee admissions into the U.S., according to a Reuters report. 

Helen Salita 12-18-2017

On Dec. 12, members of the Washington, D.C., community gathered at St. Peter’s Catholic Church for a Mass celebrating the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patroness of the Americas. Bishop Mario Dorsonville-Rodriguez used the homily to remind the congregation of the legacy of Our Lady, and also that Christ calls Christians to be the voice for the voiceless and the face to the faceless. And that in this current climate, that means standing with our immigrant sisters and brothers, and fighting for their safety and rights. He urged the U.S. to protect Dreamers and pass a Clean Dream Act before the end of 2017.

the Web Editors 12-13-2017

Image via Fibonacci Blue / Flickr

The study “highlights how policies can have effects far beyond, perhaps, the individuals that are targeted by those policies,” Samantha Artiga, director of Kaiser’s Disparities Policy Project and co-author of the study, said. “We really hear how those feelings of fear and uncertainty have impacts on their health.”

Kaitlin Curtice 12-06-2017

This Christmas season, we need to remember that Jesus was not white. And in solidarity with that truth, we need to make space in our Advent season for the church to openly lament that American Christianity has often stood on the side of the oppressor and not on the side of the oppressed.

the Web Editors 12-05-2017

As Congress faces a Friday deadline to fund the government, some Senate Democrats are considering blocking the spending bill unless Republicans agree to a bipartisan Dream Act, which would grant conditional residency to immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children and meet several other requirements. The Trump administration ended the Obama-era executive program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, in September, putting the decision to protect the 800,000 immigrants under the program in the hands of Congress. To encourage their lawmakers, many Dreamers and supporters are bringing the dreams of those awaiting a clean Dream Act straight to the Capitol.

Image via Yonat Shimron / RNS

Last month, a 10-year-old undocumented girl who was traveling by ambulance to a hospital in Texas was stopped by Border Patrol agents who then trailed her to the hospital, guarded her during gallbladder surgery and then took her into custody. She was released 10 days later after a national outcry.