Tag: El Salvador

JHISN Newsletter 04/05/2025

Dear Friends,

Greetings in a time of emergency and resistance. Across the nation today and in all 50 states (including Bryant Park, Weehawken, and Staten Island) at 1:00 PM the people are demonstrating to demand: an end to the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption of the Trump administration; an end to slashing federal funds for Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs working people rely on; and an end to the attacks on immigrants, women, workers, trans people, and other communities.

The breadth and speed of the Trump regime’s assault on immigrants has been stunning, but not unexpected. Starting immediately after the election, immigrant justice advocates began to regroup. They are looking for ways to draw community allies closer, filing defensive lawsuits, pushing for protective legislation, and conducting intensive “know your rights” campaigns. In our first article, we review the anti-immigrant steamroller of federal actions. In our second article, we look at state and local legislation proposed by local progressive politicians and prioritized by grassroots immigration activists. We conclude with a partial timeline of the deportation machine that is growing ever bolder.

Newsletter highlights
  1. The stunning number of attacks and deportations
  2. Pro-immigrant legislation working its way through our state legislature
  3. A timeline of disturbing deportation actions


1. 76 Days Later: The Cruelty and The Deprivation

“The second Trump administration began with a slew of executive orders designed to terrify and devastate immigrants, their families, and communities across the United States.”National Immigration Law Center

After trying to make Americans fear immigrants as invaders, the Trump administration is now leveraging the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in the same way it was leveraged during World War II to round up US Citizens of Japanese descent, steal their homes and property, and imprison them in concentration camps. AI has been used to identify and revoke the visas of academics for their campus protests over Gaza. Long-time green card holders are suddenly losing legal status and facing deportation. The citizenship of people born in the US is being challenged, as is that of naturalized citizens.

The National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) states that “ALL people in the United States have rights, regardless of their immigration status.” The NIJC advises people to seek legal counsel. But law firms have capitulated to Trump’s unconstitutional lawfare threats to ban legal firms from access to government buildings, meetings or jobs. It is therefore no surprise that individuals and non-governmental organizations may also capitulate. Thus, the Quaker organization, American Friends Service Committee currently guides Venezuelans less about their rights to stay, and more on how people can mitigate the damage by securing a family’s legal power of attorney, managing financial protections, gathering official documents, and avoiding scams related to legal representation for when people are deported.

The White House press secretary makes the absurd argument that opposition to Homeland Security sending people with tattoos to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center equates to support for vicious gangs. But when the federal government’s deportation machine vanishes people, without orders of deportation, from the US to El Salvador, or Guantanamo, or from any US state to Louisiana’s remote and abusive ICE facilities, then the expectation of constitutional rights for anyone vanishes.

Recently Victoria Spartz, an immigrant Republican member of Congress from Indiana, actually stated in a public town hall: “You violated the law, you are not entitled to due process.” Yet the very purpose of the Fourth Amendment is to place “restraints on the government any time it detains (seizes) or searches a person” and the Fifth Amendment establishes no one shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. Due process is reiterated in the 14th Amendment and all of these apply against the US government rather than being granted to individuals. 

Homeland Security admits that only 137 of the 238 people were deported to El Salvador as “enemy aliens”; so it deported 101 people to a brutal high-security prison in another country under “regular immigration procedures.” The Trump administration even paid El Salvador over $25,000 per person, for the year, to make them disappear. Their rationale is that it is cheaper than housing them in private prisons. Homeland Security will also not facilitate communications with any lawyers because these people have already been removed. 

There have been so many anti-immigration actions recently taken it is challenging to summarize them. The arrest of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, the first of many students arrested for their protest actions, suggests that the government is punishing and silencing free speech, or removing the privilege of one’s visa status based on ever-changing political opinions on foreign policy. It is vital to see these actions together, rather than as disjointed news articles. At the end of today’s newsletter we have compiled a partial timeline for you to read, in one place, the key actions reported on by various news sources…many of these sources Trump and his administration are seeking to delegitimize, defund or punish because they report facts instead of amplifying his talking points.   

WHAT CAN WE DO?
  • Join Amnesty International’s campaigns to release Mahmoud Khalil and tell Congress to stop the funding of mass deportations and inhumane border policies
  • Act along with the ACLU and demand elected leaders be vigilant and speak out against mass deportations and the president’s unlawful invocation of the Alien Enemies Act.
  • Subscribe to a new immigration podcast Unsettled, and listen to the National Constitution Center discussion explaining how the recent use of The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 does not meet the requirements of wartime action it requires. 

2. Pro-Immigrant Reps Sponsor Protective Legislation

Fighting to stop the Trump regime’s anti-immigrant juggernaut requires resistance on many fronts. One of those is passing state and local legislation to protect immigrants from ICE abuses. New York voters have sent many progressives to the City Council and Albany. Now some of these politicians, including representatives from our neighborhood, are working with grassroots organizations on measures to prevent mass deportation and ensure due process.

One key piece of proposed legislation is the New York For All Act. This law would formalize a number of sanctuary provisions at the state level. It is strongly supported by Make the Road New York, which is using statehouse rallies and a phone call campaign to push it forward. As MTRNY describes it, the Act:

  • Would prohibit state and local officials from enforcing federal immigration laws or transferring people to ICE custody.
  • Block ICE and CBP from entering non-public areas of state and local property without a warrant.
  • Ensure that people in custody receive notice of their rights before being questioned by ICE.
  • Begin the process of restricting ICE and CBP access to state databases.

MTRNY specifically highlights the need to keep New York’s DMV database—which includes information on undocumented drivers—out of the hands of ICE.

On March 12, the New York City Council sent a message to the state legislature supporting the New York For All Act. During the same session, they also endorsed the Access to Representation Act, cosponsored by local Assemblyperson Catalina Cruz. This bill would “establish the right to legal counsel in immigration court proceedings.”

Cruz has been particularly active in generating pro-immigrant legislation. Her Protect Our Schools Act, co-sponsored by several other local lawmakers, is designed to prevent ICE from entering or making arrests in any state schools without a judicial warrant. Cruz presented this legislation as part of a trio of bills. The other two parts of her package include a law that targets rampant fraud by immigration “advisors,” and another guaranteeing proper translation of all immigration proceedings. The need for translation services and “language justice” is also reflected in a recent NY City Council decision to create a Language Access Bank, and to fund the translation work of local immigrant organizations.

Cruz and other Queens-based legislators are also among the 54 sponsors of the Dignity Not Detention Act. As we reported previously, this proposed law “prohibits governmental entities from entering into agreements to house individuals in immigration detention facilities; requires governmental entities to terminate existing contracts for the detention of individuals in immigration detention facilities.” It is supported by a wide range of immigrant justice and civil rights groups.

Legislation can be an important weapon to defend immigrants. But its success depends on the strength of progressive sentiment: first of all in electing pro-immigrant representatives, and then in backing them up to get just laws passed. It remains to be seen how New Yorkers, including Governor Hochul, respond to recently proposed progressive legislation in the face of the current wave of xenophobia.

WHAT CAN WE DO?
  • Participate in Make the Road’s phone-in for the New York for All Act.
  • Learn about the Language Justice Collaborative, which trains and provides interpreters for African, Asian and Latin American immigrants.

3. A Partial Timeline Of Deportations And Actions

Jan 20 – As promised on day one of being a dictator, Trump signed blatantly unconstitutional paperwork to eliminate the 14th Amendment right to birthright citizenship by executive order and began to eviscerate due process in the immigration system. He also began the process of weaponizing the military against immigrants.

Jan 21 – Alfredo Orellana, a green card holder married to a 6 months pregnant US citizen, was detained after returning from a trip to El Salvador. Originally born in Argentina 31 years ago, Orellana has lived in the US since he was 4 years old.

Jan 25 – German tourists entering the US on valid travel documents were held in ICE detention for 46 days and then deported.

Jan 31 – US Citizen Julio Noriega was swept up in warrantless arrests by ICE in Chicago and given no opportunity to discuss his citizenship. He was released, after being held by Homeland Security for 10 hours, with no money and no paperwork to explain the reason for being held or released.

Feb 1 – TPS was suddenly suspended for 472,000 Venezuelans. Under Biden, the end date had been extended to October 2026. It was shortened to April 7, 2025 which Homeland Security would use to justify their deportation in weeks. A federal judge later halted the suspension pending court hearings.

Feb 4 – A 10-year-old US Citizen with brain cancer was deported from Texas to Mexico with her entire family while they were driving to a medical checkup in Houston from border town Rio Grande City. Other than lacking “valid immigration status in the U.S.,” the parents have “no criminal history,” and they have been deported to a region known for kidnapping US citizens. Heritage Foundation fellow and Project 2025 contributor, Tom Homan, who is not a Cabinet member but wields control over immigration policy with the official title of Border Czar, is known to have cold disregard for the US citizenship of 4 million children who have an undocumented parent. He stated that the parents will decide when to break up a family, not the government.

Feb 7 – Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem directed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to deputize IRS criminal investigators, to “assist in immigration enforcement”. Acting IRS Commissioner Doug O’Donnell rejected the plan for the IRS to share the addresses of the people in their databases. Three weeks later the 40-year veteran of the IRS, O’Donnell, retired. His replacement, Melanie Krause, is willing to accept the plan to allow the Department of Government Efficiency known as DOGE (most accurately pronounced “dodgy”) access to the address data. Many point out this situation contradicts Trump’s typical narrative that the immigrants he attacks as illegal are a social burden and don’t pay taxes.

Feb 14 – Using a law from WWII, Kristi Noem announced the plan to create a Migrant Registry and require those who are undocumented to come forward or face criminal penalties.

Feb 15 – Camila Muñoz was detained by an immigration agent when she and her Trump-voting husband returned from their honeymoon in Puerto Rico. Her unlawful action was letting her immigration paperwork expire during COVID when she was not allowed to travel. The husband blames the system, not Trump. But within a month he was considering moving back with her to Peru.

Feb 19 – German tourist Lucas Sielaf, and his US Citizen fiancée were held by ICE for two weeks after going to a vet in Mexico.

Feb 20 – Secretary Noem suddenly amended the period of extension and redesignation of Haiti for TPS from 18 months to 12 months. The new end date is August 3, 2025 which Homeland Security would use to justify their deportation.

Feb 25 – While tearing down all rights related to immigration, Trump announces that wealthy immigrants will soon be eligible to purchase a gold card path to citizenship for $5 million. Unlike the EB-5 entrepreneurship visa that requires people to invest in a business over time in the United States, this gold card requires only one payment and will be open to Russian oligarchs who Trump said “are very nice people”.

Feb 26 – Becky Burke, a 28-year-old backpacker from Wales, UK, was held in chains after crossing into the US from Canada; possibly due to the agent’s opinion that the free housing she received was considered payment in return for her helping them with housework. 

Feb 28 – Lewelyn Dixon, a 50-year resident and green card holder, was held in ICE detention in Tacoma when returning from a trip to the Philippines. Her family did not know until March 2 and were not informed why she was being held. She is currently scheduled for a hearing in July.

Mar 6 – Ma Yang, from Milwaukee, is 37 and has lived in the US since she was 8 months old: in mid-February she was detained during a regular US Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-in meeting, separated from her US citizen partner and children, then deported to Laos. Born in Thailand, Laos is a country she has never even visited. 

Mar 7 – A German mother and son, both with permanent residence status, were held at Logan airport with no explanation as to what had flagged the son’s green card. The son had to be hospitalized after release because he had been “deprived of sleep, food and water, and had his anxiety medication withheld.” while he was held.

Mar 8 – Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident and recent graduate of Columbia University, was the first of known student protesters of the Gaza conflict to be taken by Homeland Security agents. His 8-month pregnant US citizen wife was also threatened with arrest. After being transferred to ICE custody in Louisiana, he was flown closer to home to a New Jersey detention center at the demand of a federal judge.  [Correction: Khalil was not flown to NJ; a judge transferred his case to NJ at the request of his lawyers, and some of his hearings are being held in NJ as he remains caged in Louisiana and appears remotely]. Trump demanded the compliance of all universities and said “This is the first arrest of many to come.” [Update: On April 11 a judge ruled that Khalil can be deported, but due process is required as the United States government must successfully argue their preposterous case that his presence posed potentially serious foreign policy consequences.”]

Mar 10 – A Venezuelan couple, with Temporary Protective Status (TPS) and valid work authorization, were grabbed by Border Patrol in Washington, DC and separated from their three children. A judge said their arrest was “baseless and unlawful” and the Border Patrol’s assistant commissioner of public affairs, Hilton Beckham, alleged, “without evidence, that the couple had ties to the Tren de Aragua gang”. Megan McFadden, an attorney for the federal government, admitted she had not heard the couple had valid TPS paperwork.

Mar 11 – Ranjani Srinivasan, a Columbia University student from India, was concerned about being detained illegally, with no criminal charges after her visa was revoked. Srinivasan is another student who has shown support for Palestine throughout Israel’s brutal war on Gaza. The university did not prevent ICE agents from accessing university housing without a judicial warrant and she chose to fly to Canada.

Mar 14 – Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist and professor at Brown University’s medical school, was denied entry at Boston Logan International Airport on a Thursday. The day after her airport detention, US District Judge Leo Sorokin (who was the fourth federal judge to block the attack on birthright citizenship) set a hearing for the following Monday. The hearing was canceled after she was deported to Paris under suspicion of support for Hezbollah.

Mar 14 – The visa of Momodou Taal, a graduate student at Cornell University, was revoked. The United Electrical union supports him because, if the federal government is allowed to come for Taal, they will be emboldened to come for anyone who challenges climate policies, stands for the rights of women and LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice, and workers’ rights.

Mar 14 – Ranjani Srinivasan, a Columbia University student from India, chose to self-deport using the redesigned CBP Home App after Homeland Security revoked her visa on Mar 5. [Correction: Ranjani Srinivasan, a Columbia University student from India, did not self-deport using the CBP app: that claim was official propaganda disinformation on ex-twitter from Kristi Noem. On March 14, Srinivasan’s lawyer’s informed ICE she had left the country three days earlier.]

Mar 15 – Homeland Security ignored a judicial ruling requiring planes, headed to El Salvador with over 200 deportees, to return to the US. A video was released showing their delivery to the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador, whose president mocked the order by posting on social media, “Oopsie…Too Late,” The US paid El Salvador $6 million to take them for a year and provided no proof these people were members of the Tren de Aragua gang. Trump then floated the idea of sending US Citizens to prisons outside the country.

Mar 17 – Jeanette Vizguerra, an immigrant rights advocate with the American Friends Service Committee in California, evaded deportation in 2017 by seeking sanctuary by living in the basement of a church with her children. She was taken into custody near the Target store where she worked.

Mar 17 – Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national and postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University was detained by masked federal agents outside his home. Suri’s lawyer stated Suri is being punished because of the Palestinian heritage of his US citizen wife because the government suspects they both oppose US foreign policy toward Israel.

Mar 18 – Using false narratives about immigrants increasing crime resulted in an ICE raid in Boston that rounded up 370 people, many of whom were legally in the US and going through the asylum process.

Mar 24 – Yunseo Chung, another permanent resident student at Columbia University, files a lawsuit against members of the federal government for their action against her, claiming “She is being sought for removal proceedings under the immigration laws” for engaging in what they claimed as concerning conduct in a pro-Hamas protest at Barnard College. Chung’s suit states this is a “larger pattern of attempted US government repression of constitutionally protected protest activity and other forms of speech”.

Mar 25 – Alireza Doroudi, an Iranian Graduate student at the University of Alabama, had his visa suddenly revoked and at 3 a.m. agents took him into custody and removed him to an ICE facility in Jena, Louisiana which is holding several international students targeted by Homeland Security. Fortunately, his finacée was able to share his story and people mobilized to help support his legal defense.

Mar 25. – Rumeysa Ozturk, a Massachusetts graduate student at Tufts University, had her visa suddenly terminated and she was grabbed off the street and taken into federal custody by masked agents who are not clearly law enforcement. She had co-authored an essay in the student newspaper demanding that Tufts acknowledge the Palestinian genocide.

Mar 27 – ICE executed an arrest on a farm in Sackets Harbor, New York, the hometown of Border Czar Tom Homan. Agents entered a different home on the property, without a judicial warrant, detained a mother and her three children, and moved them to a detention center in Texas. Homan claims they were moved for safety as potential witnesses to crime. NY Governor Kathy Hochul stated, “I want this family returned to New York state and believe ICE needs to immediately answer for these actions.”

Mar 31 – Seventeen more alleged gang members were flown to the El Salvador high-security prison. To avoid directly challenging the judicial ruling to prevent such deportations, the administration did not leverage the Alien Enemies Act. 

Mar 31 – Robert Cerna, the Acting Field Office Director for ICE filed a declaration admitting that an administrative error sent at least one person, Kilmar Abergo Garcia, to the supermax prison in El Salvador. Despite the wrongful deportation, Homeland Security says they will not facilitate his return because they have no jurisdiction since he is no longer in US custody. Karoline Leavitt, the White House Press Secretary, defended the action and continued to state that this person was a convicted gang member – but provided no proof to back up that claim. 

Apr 4 – A federal judge ruled that Kilmar Abergo Garcia must be returned from El Salvador by Monday because of the Trump administration’s illegal action deporting him. In response, the White House deputy chief of staff called the judge a Marxist and the White House press secretary suggested the judge contact the El Salvador president because the US no longer has jurisdiction.  

In Solidarity,
JHISN

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JHISN Newsletter 07/15/2023

Dear friends,

We write today’s newsletter at the intersection of local, national, and global politics—a dense intersection where all immigrants dwell. We update you on the current struggle of the local group Adhikaar to secure extended Temporary Protective Status (TPS) for members of the Nepali-speaking community, many of them neighbors here in central Queens. And we draw a connecting line between the imperial histories that drive current migration, and the national failure of the US to abide by international asylum laws. A source of immense human pain at the US-Mexico border, and in local immigrant communities like ours.

Please note that the JHISN newsletter also appears on our website in Spanish. Share the link!

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Asylum politics today
  2. Adhikaar fights for TPS

1. Asylum Is a Human Right

Step by step, the US and other wealthy nations are undermining the right to asylum—a vital right established by the international community in the wake of the horrors of World War II. Today, mainstream political discourse in the Global North treats seeking asylum as a crime and treats offering asylum as a burden.

>>Seeking Asylum Is not a Crime

US and international law clearly specify that any person can request asylum, and will be treated with respect and dignity, no matter how they arrive—including if they simply walk across a border. This solemn obligation has been reaffirmed by the federal courts, the UN, and the Geneva Convention.

It is the US government, not asylum seekers, that commits crimes when it:

>>Offering Asylum Is not a Burden

Imperialism creates refugees. Around the world, the US government and US corporations invade, provoke civil wars, export gang violence, generate economic devastation through “free trade” laws, destroy the environment, and sponsor dictators and death squads. These predatory policies, which profit rich North Americans and corporations, are responsible for chaos, violence, and persecution and cause millions to flee their homes. Ironically, the US admits far fewer asylum seekers for its size than many other nations. Our government also callously discriminates against those whose lives are impacted the most by imperialism, prioritizing expedited or privatized arrangements for refugees who have money, connections, or white skin.

Nevertheless, what politicians from both major parties prefer to talk about is how costly it is to host asylum seekers. These are the same “leaders” who promote subsidies for real estate interests and monopoly corporations—corrupt handouts which are bad for working-class people and staggeringly expensive. Politicians’ complaints about refugees inadvertently shine a harsh spotlight on their own lack of compassion and their comfort with radical inequality.

We are constantly lectured that we “can’t afford” asylum or any other social needs of oppressed people. We are told that “The Budget” is a zero-sum game with a fixed limit. But the wealthiest country in the world (and NYC, its wealthiest city) can certainly afford to welcome many more asylum seekers than it does today. To meet this need—this human obligation—there is really only one political decision required: making the rich pay their fair share.


2. Adhikaar Defends TPS before the Ninth Circuit Court

“The TPS extension has again given us temporary relief but we cannot continue our life on one to two-year increments. We have made the U.S. our home, and we are here to stay. We will fight tooth and nail to secure redesignations for all four countries and permanent protections for all.”  Keshav Bhattarai, Plaintiff, and Adhikaar Member Leader

As part of its anti-immigrant crusade, the Trump administration declared an end to Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for migrants who fled dangerous conditions in Nepal, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras. On Tuesday, June 20, President Biden reversed that decision, announcing instead an 18-month extension of the programs. As a result, existing TPS holders from those four countries will be protected until 2025 as long as they re-register.

Biden’s decision came just two days before a previously-scheduled hearing before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle to review a major TPS case known as Ramos v Mayorkas. The plaintiffs are three Nepalis (Keshav Bhattarai, Saijan Panday, and Sumima Tapa) and two Salvadorans (Krista Ramos and Cristina Ramos)ee. Adhikaar—the Jackson Heights based group supporting the local Nepali-speaking community—plays a leading role in the case.

The history of Ramos v Mayorkas begins in 1990 when Congress established the TPS program, permitting migrants from unsafe countries to live and work in the US for a temporary, but extendable, period of time. Countries have been deemed unsafe due to natural disasters, political unrest, or armed conflict. Currently, there are approximately 400,000 holders of TPS in the US. Many of them have lived and worked here for decades.

When the Trump administration terminated TPS for Haiti, Nicaragua, Sudan, El Salvador, Nepal, and Honduras in 2017-2018, they were challenged by multiple lawsuits. A district court judge issued an injunction to prevent any of the terminations from going into effect, arguing that they were motivated by racism and failed to consider the current unsafe conditions in the affected countries. The Trump administration appealed, and in 2020 a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with him that the injunction was improper. Lawyers from the ACLU, Adhikaar, the National Day Laborers Organization, and Unemployed Workers United asked for the entire Ninth Circuit to review the case, which they agreed to do, scheduling the hearing on June 22. 

Once the Biden administration’s June 20 extension was announced, the June 22 hearing turned into a debate about whether the court should still issue a decision and if so what it should be. Adhikaar argues that the court should return the case to the district court, allowing it to reaffirm its original decision that the Trump terminations were motivated by racism and therefore unconstitutional. 

On June 24, during an Adhikaar online town hall, Emi MacLean, an attorney on the case, reminded the audience about the intense anti-immigrant hostility coming from the Trump administration at the time of the TPS terminations.

“It’s important to remember how brave it was for people to come forward: those who were in the streets marching, those who went to Congress, and those who are willing to put their names on this lawsuit and share their stories publicly so the judges and the media and public would be aware of what was at stake and to force judges to make a decision about the legality.”

As things stand now, people from the four countries who had TPS protection at the time of the Trump terminations must re-register during a specific 60-day period to extend their TPS and work authorizations (EAD). 

DHS will extend TPS as follows:

  •  Nepal from Dec. 25, 2023 to June 24, 2025 (60-day re-registration period: Oct. 24, 2023 – Dec. 23, 2023)
  • El Salvador from Sept. 10, 2023 to March 9, 2025 (60-day re-registration period: July 12, 2023 – Sept. 10, 2023);
  • Honduras from Jan. 6, 2024 to July 5, 2025 (60-day re-registration period: Nov. 6, 2023 – Jan. 5, 2024);
  • Nicaragua from Jan. 6, 2024 to July 5, 2025 (60-day re-registration period: Nov. 6, 2023 – Jan. 5, 2024).

The National TPS Alliance and immigrant advocates are pleased that Biden reversed Trump’s plan to end TPS. But they are pushing the administration to do more than just extend the deadline for those who were already covered. They want him to “redesignate” the four countries, resetting the clock to include new immigrants in the program. They are also lobbying Congress to grant a legal pathway to citizenship for TPS holders. In the meantime, a ruling from the Ninth Circuit is awaited.

WHAT WE CAN DO?

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

 

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JHISN Newsletter 10/29/2022

Dear friends,

 As the sun drops earlier in the sky, and as communities around the world draw in their final harvest, it is time to join in the festival of lights. Diwali, and the related festival of Tihar Utsav, were celebrated this past week throughout South Asia—and here in Jackson Heights. Over 200 people gathered on October 22 in Travers Park for a day-long Diwali event, featuring food and performances, a lamp-lighting ceremony, and speakers including a young climate justice activist and the director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, Bhairavi Desai.

 And on October 27, Adhikaar held its Fall Utsav festival. As a Queens-based, women-led immigrant justice organization for the Nepali-speaking community, Adhikaar has much to celebrate: their statewide nail salon workers campaign; the fight for economic justice for domestic workers; and the urgent work to extend Temporary Protective Status for thousands of Nepali immigrants. Adhikaar is also marking a change of seasons in leadership as executive director and long-time community organizer Pabitra Khati Benjamin transitions out of her role, and the search for a new director begins.          

Our newsletter this week features an in-depth article on the status of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). The fate of tens of thousands of young DACA recipients here in New York is at stake as legislative and judicial wrangling continues, and real lives are upended by uncertainty and the threat of deportation.  

Newsletter highlights:

1. No Protection for DACA’s Young Dreamers

DACA Recipients Still in Limbo

“We were promised immigration reform in the first 100 days [of the Biden administration]…Those 100 days came and went, and we have nothing”Catalina Cruz, the first former DACA recipient elected to NY State Assembly

President Obama inaugurated the DACA program (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) in June 2012. It has been under attack by right-wing Republicans ever since. Today DACA’s future is unclear, leaving hundreds of thousands of people and their families in limbo, including tens of thousands of Dreamers here in NYC. Many are unable to work, and some face the prospect of deportation if DACA is not renewed or replaced with other pathways to legal status.

DACA has been the subject of a seesaw battle involving executive orders and litigation. In 2017, President Trump attempted to end the program by barring new and renewal applications so that DACA holders’ protections would expire over time. In July 2021, a Houston court ruled that DACA was illegal because it had not gone through the proper public notice and comment process. This month, shortly after DACA’s tenth anniversary, a Federal Appeals Court upheld the Houston decision, returning the case to the Houston court and ordering further review. As a result of the court’s recent decision, DHS policy will only allow current DACA recipients to renew their application and work authorization; no new applications will be processed. The hundreds of thousands of young people eligible for DACA can still submit a new application, but it will be set aside and not acted upon by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). 

Which States Have DACA Recipients? As of June 2022, USCIS reports there are 594,120 DACA recipients nationwide, with over 1,150,000 eligible. There are 25,580 in New York state, with 56,000 eligible.

The states with the highest number of DACA holders are:

California 169,590 Texas 97,760 Illinois 31,480 New York 24,580
Florida 23,240 North Carolina 22,670 Arizona 22,530 Georgia 19,460

 

Where Did Their Families Come From? The most common countries of birth for DACA holders are: 

Mexico 480,160 El Salvador 23,080 Guatemala 15,710 Honduras 14,390 Peru 5,610
South Korea 5,540 Brazil 4,530 Ecuador 4,230 Colombia 3,690 Philippines 2,900

According to the Migration Policy Institute, most states have more people eligible for DACA than are currently enrolled, and eight states have twice as many people eligible for DACA than are enrolled in DACA.

This is an extraordinary number of people.

What Can Dreamers Do? DACA recipients can legally live, work, and go to college in the US. They have married, had children, bought homes and cars, completed college degrees, started businesses, and worked in a variety of fields. Their taxes and labor have made substantial contributions to the US economy.

According to data from the Center for American Progress, DACA recipients boost the US economy by paying federal, state, and local taxes, buying homes, paying rent, and spending money. Nationwide, DACA recipients and their households each year pay $5.6 billion in federal taxes and $3.1 billion in state and local taxes. Based on 2018 data, their contributions in New York state include:

Federal taxes State and local taxes Homes owned Mortgage payments Annual rental payments Spending power
$374.1 million $238.8 million 800 $16.4 million $132.8 million $1.3 billion

But they do not benefit equally from the taxes they pay due to their precarious status.

What Are DACA’s Education Benefits? In many states, undocumented students have to pay the same tuition rates as international students. Such high rates can prevent people from going to college. To address this problem, in 2019 New York state passed the Senator José Peralta New York State DREAM Act which gives undocumented and other students access to New York State administered grants and scholarships that help pay the cost of higher education. DACA allows people to join licensed fields (like nursing and education), which improves their ability to get a well-paying job with health benefits.

Where Do Dreamers Work? In a 2020 survey, 89.1% of DACA recipients 25 and older who responded were employed. DACA allowed them to move to jobs with better pay and better working conditions with health benefits, and 12.9% were able to get professional licenses. Higher wages and financial independence increase their contributions to the economy.

The Center for Migration Studies, using data from 2018, reported that DACA employees were concentrated in the following industries: health care (including hospitals and nursing care facilities); retail trade (including supermarkets and pharmacies); transportation and warehousing; restaurants and other food services; support and waste management services; and manufacturing. In 2021 the Center for American Progress reported that 343,000 DACA recipients were employed in essential jobs during the pandemic, primarily in health care, education, and the food supply chain.

What’s Next? According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in June 2020, about three-quarters of US adults favor granting permanent legal status to immigrants who came illegally to the United States when they were children, with the strongest support coming from Democrats and Latino/as.

In 2012, DACA  was intended to be a temporary solution until Congress provided a pathway to citizenship. But congressional attempts to pass a solution have failed, even though there is some bipartisan support. As a result, undocumented teenagers graduating high school this year will not have protection from deportation or the ability to work. According to Neil Bradley, chief policy officer for the US Chamber of Commerce: The inability to hire tens of thousands of high school graduates comes amid a ‘massive shortage’ of labor that has developed partly because of the country’s aging population and low birthrate” (June 2022, New York Times). Ending DACA would put families in danger of job loss, deportation, and separation from their US citizen children, and have a deleterious effect on the US economy.

Many immigrant justice organizations, including the National Immigration Law Center, United We Dream, and Make the Road NY, continue to fight for legislation to provide a path to citizenship for Dreamers and other undocumented immigrants. But for now, hundreds of thousands of young DACA recipients are constrained by the program’s two-year increments, forced to live in limbo and in fear.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

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How the US Created the Refugee Crisis

Every month, tens of thousands of migrants are detained along the US-Mexico border. Right now, most of those migrants are refugees from the Northern Triangle of Central America—El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. When they get to the border, these folks have already endured a long, dangerous journey, covering thousands of miles. They've struggled through perilous desert crossings. They've clung to the top of freight trains in baking heat and freezing cold. They've faced very real odds of being kidnapped or raped. They've borrowed money or used their last resources to pay off coyotes and corrupt officials. Once they arrive, they are brutalized by border agents and a dehumanizing, racist detention system.

Harsh Life in the Northern Triangle

People don't undertake a journey this terrible for no reason. The reality is that El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala have become unbearable for these refugees, no matter how much they might wish they could stay in their homes.

Poverty is widespread in the Northern Triangle. Parents must watch their children go hungry. Family farmers are forced off their land, flooding into cities where there are no jobs. Homelessness is common.

Violence is out of control. Many of the people leaving the Northern Triangle have had family members killed, have witnessed murders, or have been themselves threatened with rape and other deadly violence in their home countries. Young people are subjected to forcible recruitment into street gangs, with their families as hostages. The military and police rule society with a heavy hand.

How We Got Here

Why is life so difficult for so many Central Americans? To a large extent, the blame lies with the policies of the US government, and with the power of US corporations.

For over a century, the US has acted like Central America was its private plantation. The US has invaded the region over and over. It has backed corrupt military dictators, overthrown democratic governments, armed and trained vicious death squads. The CIA has manipulated and assassinated its way up and down Central America. And US economic policies have destroyed the livelihoods of millions of people.

Here are just a few examples of US political-military intervention in the Northern Triangle:

Repressing El Salvador

  • In 1932, the US helped suppress a peasant rebellion in El Salvador led by Farabundo Martí. Tens of thousands of rebels and civilians—many of them Indigenous—were systematically massacred.
  • In 1944, the US supported a reactionary coup.
  • In 1960, the US supported another right wing coup.
  • From 1980 to 1992, the US enthusiastically funded, trained, and directed a military dictatorship, whose main purpose was to crush a popular leftist-led uprising. Some 70,000 people were killed by the Salvadoran military and death squads under the direct sponsorship of the US. Thousands more were raped or tortured. During that period, hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans fled to the US, which deported many of them back into the war zone.

Destabilizing Honduras

  • In 1911, the US launched a coup to overthrow its elected government. After that, the country was afflicted by a series of military dictators propped up by Washington.
  • In the 1980s, the US set up military bases in Honduras, turning it into a launch pad for waging war against Nicaragua. Thousands of US troops trained, armed and dispatched the right-wing Contra guerillas from Honduras, in violation of US and international law.
  • As recently as 2009, the US backed a coup against reform-minded President Manuel Zelaya.

The Pattern Repeats in Guatemala

  • In 1954, the US organized a coup against the reformist Arbenz government. This coup led to a long guerrilla uprising, which was brutally suppressed by a US-led counterinsurgency campaign. The tactics of this counterinsurgency included aerial bombing, use of napalm, and the eradication of whole villages.
  • In 1970, when US-backed President Carlos Arana took office, he said, "If it is necessary to turn the country into a cemetery in order to pacify it, I will not hesitate to do so." The US-sponsored regimes that followed Arana in Guatemala had the same basic philosophy. Turning a blind eye to all their brutality, the US gave political support and tens of millions of dollars to the Guatemalan military.
  • In 1978, Rios Montt became dictator, in a coup that had full US support. Montt unleashed a campaign of genocide against the Maya. Villages were bombed and looted; civilians were raped, tortured and executed. During the long Guatemalan civil war, some 200,000 civilians were killed by the regime and allied right-wing death squads. Hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans fled the country.

An Economic Thread

Running through all of the US violations of sovereignty and human rights in the Northern Triangle, there 's always been an economic thread. The almighty dollar is behind it all. US policy has been formulated to serve the US corporations that profit from Central America’s resources and labor. For instance, several brazen US interventions in Guatemala and Honduras were specifically intended to benefit the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita Brands), whose low-wage fruit plantations were fantastically profitable.

Maybe the best way to sum up the history of US colonialism in Latin America is to quote Marine General Smedley Butler, who helped lead US military campaigns in Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, and Haiti. In the 1930s, he wrote: "I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism."

CAFTA Devastates Farmers

Over the last few decades, the US pressured and bribed Central American politicians to join what is called CAFTA-DR. CAFTA, like NAFTA, is a trade pact designed to override national laws, favoring the interests of large multinational corporations. Given the economic and power imbalances in the Americas, we shouldn’t be surprised at how that worked out for Central America. US banks and commercial interests have now taken over large parts of the financial systems and retail trade in the Northern Triangle, and US manufacturers have overwhelmed local industries.

But maybe the biggest effect of CAFTA has been to drive small farmers off their land. Under CAFTA rules, small farmers can't possibly compete with well-financed, large-scale global corporate agribusiness owned by investors from the US and other wealthy countries. To give one example of the impact: Not long ago, Honduras used to be a net exporter of agricultural products. But now it imports more food and other farm goods than it exports.

CAFTA specifically forbids any national legislation by Central American countries that would allow them to protect their small farmers—even farmers trying to sell products to their own local markets. Hundreds of thousands of family farmers have fled out of the countryside, flooding into the cities, where they find little but unemployment and crime.

On top of all this is the impact of the US-fueled drug trade, and the US's "War on Drugs," each of which lines the pockets of Miami bankers while undermining one Latin American society after another. Gangs like MS-13, which was exported from Los Angeles to the Northern Triangle by the US government, thrive in this environment of chaos and corruption.

There’s a Word for This

US policies and corporate greed have left a lasting legacy of poverty, civil strife and social violence. Every time the people of Central America resist, the heavy fist of the US and its military puppets slams down on the peoples’ movements. Demands for fair trade by Central American countries are met with economic blackmail by global banks and the US, intent on enforcing the wishes of the large corporations.

There's a word for this relationship. The word is imperialism. This parasitic relationship between the US and Central America has been a constant destructive force for generation after generation, during both Republican and Democratic administrations. The whole time, it’s been justified by naked racism and victim-blaming. When we see desperate people from the Northern Triangle arriving at the Mexican border, we must recognize that it’s US imperialism that has forced them to make this painful exodus.

The Responsibility of US Citizens

Under international law, and in light of basic decency, all countries are expected to provide asylum for people seeking refuge from persecution, war, social violence and disasters. But US citizens have a special responsibility to give refuge to the people that US imperialism—in its cold-blooded search for profit—has cruelly driven from their homes. Citizens have a special obligation to defend the human rights of Central Americans, and to repudiate every racist attempt to demonize and dehumanize them. And finally, beyond the immediate human rights crisis at the border, US citizens have every moral and practical imperative to help rebuild the countries that the US has pillaged and devastated.

For Further Reading and Study:

A Century of U.S. Intervention Created the Immigration Crisis

How US ‘Free Trade’ Policies Created the Central American Migration Crisis

How US policy in Honduras set the stage for today’s migration

The devastating effects of American intervention in Guatemala

The Impact of CAFTA: Drugs, Gangs, and Immigration

Video: The War on Democracy

UNHCR: Claims from Central America

CISPES: Community in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador