Tag: Refugee Crisis

JHISN Newsletter 09/09/2023

Posted on September 9, 2023 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

JHISN has been around for just over six years—a youngster in relation to many local immigrant justice groups. But we are old enough to have learned the difficult lesson that many justice groups know too well: hard-won activist victories are also hard to sustain. In this newsletter, we report on how the Biden administration and corporate capitalism are undermining New Jersey activists’ successful attempt to shut down privately contracted immigrant detention centers in the state. La lucha continúa …The struggle goes on.

We are delighted to also offer an introduction to a new neighbor—The World’s Borough Bookshop just opened its doors on 73rd St and 34th Ave. We encourage you to visit and explore this wonderful community space.

Newsletter highlights:
  1. New bookstore comes to Jackson Heights
  2. Notorious privately-run detention jail in NJ supported by Biden’s DOJ

1. The World’s Borough Gets a New Bookstore

Seven years ago, Adrian Cepeda had a dream: open a bookstore here in Jackson Heights. Today that dream has an address: 3406 73rd Street. The World’s Borough Bookshop, located just off the neighborhood’s Open Street, launched for business on August 5. Its shelves are filled with Latinx and Black fiction and nonfiction, literature by Desi authors, Queens writers, manga comics, and a selection of used books. There’s a colorful kids’ room with children’s books in Portuguese, Bangla, Mandarin, and Urdu.

 “Por y Para La Communidad” (“for and by the community”) reads the banner at the entrance. With comfortable couches inside, and tables on the sidewalk, the world’s borough bookstore invites students-after-school, parents with excited kids, or teachers looking for an English translation of García Márquez, to linger for conversation, or to just sit and read in the late summer sun. Cepeda, who curates the store’s selection of BIPOC-only (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) books himself, is looking to the community for ideas and desires about what our local bookstore should be. “I want to make it a very Queens bookstore,” he smiles.

Growing up in Jackson Heights, Cepeda credits his mom—who also grew up in the neighborhood—with nourishing his love of reading with trips to the JH Public Library. But he is committed to making the World’s Borough Bookstore attractive to both readers and non-readers alike, a place where people can fall in love with books for the very first time.

2. Biden Continues Expanding 40-Year Policy of For-Profit Detention

In August of 2021, New Jersey implemented Sanctuary Law AB5207 banning ICE contracts with private detention facilities—a victory for the years-long activist struggle to close down private, for-profit detention. The law successfully resulted in closing three New Jersey detention centers, leaving just one operating: the Elizabeth Detention Center (EDC). However, private contractor CoreCivic challenged AB5207 as unconstitutional for violating the Supremacy Clause, which gives federal laws precedence over state laws. The federal contract with CoreCivic to house migrants in EDC was set to expire in September of this year and was an opportunity for Biden to follow through on campaign promises to end private detention. 

As a presidential candidate, Biden said, “No business should profit from the suffering of desperate people fleeing violence,” and proclaimed private detention centers, “should not exist. And we are working to close all of them.” Although he signed an executive order last January to end the use of private prisons under the Department of Justice (DOJ), that order does not apply to immigrant detention because Homeland Security is not under the DOJ. 

Last March, after President Biden’s 2024 budget proposal increased ICE and Border Patrol funding, Make The Road NY joined with New Jersey-based immigration support groups NJ Alliance for Immigrant Justice (NJAIJ), Wind of Spirit NJ, MinKwon Center NJ, and AFSC Immigrants Rights Program to condemn him. Erik Cruz, of the NJAIJ, accused the Biden administration of supporting “a rollback to his predecessor’s worst and cruelest policies.” Soon after, 223 organizations signed a letter demanding asylum seekers and other migrants not be placed behind bars in immigration detention.

After Title 42 was repealed in May, a new set of immigration restrictions was introduced, and a review launched by senior immigration officials identified about two dozen detention centers to be scaled back, reformed, or closed. Only three closed. During 2022, the Biden administration actually increased the number of detainees held in private facilities to 90%–compared to 80% at the end of Trump’s administration. Revenues for one private prison company, GEO Group, reportedly jumped by more than $1 billion (an almost 40% increase).

Then, in July, the CoreCivic case against AB5207 gained a boost from Biden’s DOJ which filed an amicus brief supporting the CoreCivic injunction. The DOJ called the Elizabeth facility “mission critical” because of its proximity to Newark and JFK airports; they described direct flights out of the United States as “crucial” for removals. Instead of acknowledging that detainees could be released to family and community, Biden’s DOJ filing highlighted the increased costs for out-of-state relocations and transportation to alternative detention facilities which limits access to families and legal counsel. It also focused on possible worst-case scenarios saying shutting down the center could lead to the release of “dangerous noncitizens.”

50 local groups, including DetentionWatch, called the Biden administration’s support of the CoreCivic suit “bitterly disappointing but unsurprising.” They called on NJ Governor Murphy to shut down EDC, reminding everyone that detainees had long complained about problematic conditions at EDC: the facility is set up to have just one bathroom for every 40 people; birds inside reportedly defecated on beds; people were abused by staff; and there has been a lack of sanitary pads. 

A “free them all” rally was held on August 20th to defend AB5207 and demand the facility’s closure. Five days later, ten New Jersey congressional leaders joined with 41 immigrant support organizations and delivered a letter to the DOJ expressing concern for the Biden Administration’s support of the private prison company. Li Adorno of Movimiento Cosecha said later of Biden, “He could actually shut down the Elizabeth Center at any moment, any given day …This is it—his time to shine, and he’s not shining.”

Instead of shining, Biden did nothing to close EDC, nor end the contract. At the end of August, Judge Kirsch declared AB5207 unconstitutional and within a day a $20 million 12-month contract between ICE and CoreCivic was signed. Judge Kirsch had ruled the NJ law was “naked interference” with federal immigration enforcement and was “a dagger aimed at the heart of the federal government’s immigration enforcement mission and operations.” Kathy O’Leary, the Director of Pax Christi and one of many activists, including Unidad Latina and Movimiento Cosecha, protesting the ruling outside the federal immigration building in Newark, responded to his grotesque dagger statement:

“We cannot stab a dagger into the heart of ICE. It has no heart, it’s not a person. The people in ICE’s cages—they can bleed, they can shed tears. That’s who we should be concerned about.” 

Yanet Candelario of The Mami Chelo Foundation, who spent time inside the walls of the Elizabeth Detention Center, said when Biden was elected president, she was happy. “I thought he would end the Trump era of terror, where children were separated from their parents and kept in cages like animals.” She continued, “I believed he would make a difference in a country where immigrants have fewer rights…I don’t think Biden knows that people are dying in immigration detention because they have been denied medical attention, but I also expect him to keep his promises and end a system that denies us our humanity.”

WHAT CAN WE DO?

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

 

Follow @JHSolidarity on Facebook and Twitter and share this newsletter with friends, families, neighbors, networks, and colleagues so they can subscribe and receive news from JHISN. 

 

 

JHISN Newsletter 07/15/2023

Posted on July 15, 2023 by - News, Newsletter

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)

 

Follow @JHSolidarity on Facebook and Twitter and share this newsletter with friends, families, neighbors, networks, and colleagues so they can subscribe and receive news from JHISN. 

JHISN Newsletter 07/01/2023

Posted on July 1, 2023 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends, 

As summer enters full bloom, we send warm thanks to you, our readers, for keeping us inspired. Immigration news is a political struggle over what gets reported and what gets ignored. Just over two weeks ago, an overcrowded ship packed with migrants from Pakistan, Syria, and Egypt, sank off the coast of Greece. Up to 750 people reportedly were onboard; only 104 survived. Hundreds of migrant women, children, and men drowned in one of the worst maritime disasters in modern history. News coverage of the devastating migrant shipwreck was brief and sparse.

Readers like you, and the attention you give to immigration news, keep us going. This week we offer you a story about the underreported political situation in Peru, written by a Peruvian-American New Yorker. And we update you about the justice work of Make the Road New York and their groundbreaking survey of recent asylum seekers in NYC.

Newsletter Highlights:
  1. Report on Peru’s current political situation
  2. 2023 survey of asylum seekers by MTRNY

1. Solidarity with our Peruvian Brothers and Sisters

 

“How many deaths do you want for your resignation? Assassin Dina, the people repudiate you!”  –Puno, Aymara song

Starting on December 7, 2022, Peru has experienced several months of savage violence unleashed by the repressive forces of the state. On that date, near noon, President Pedro Castillo carried out a failed coup attempt. He took this step after 15 months of frustration, as the majority in Congress (made up of Right and ultra-Right parties) prevented him from governing by voting down all of his bills and trying to impeach him. 

One hour after Castillo’s futile move to dissolve Congress, the police, the National Prosecutor, and a judge ordered his provisional detention while he was still a sitting president. Two hours after reading his speech, without following due process, Congress impeached him. At 3:53 pm, Castillo’s former ally and ex-minister Dina Boluarte was sworn in as president. She immediately received the support of the opposition bench, and she invited them to the government palace. Boluarte had once promised that she would resign if Castillo was impeached. Instead, she seized power by allying herself with the party that had lost the election. 

Castillo voters reacted with anger as they realized that this parliamentary coup from the Right had been planned in advance. Branding Boluarte a traitor, protesters demanded her resignation and the dissolution of Congress. Demonstrations in the central and southern provinces of the country were met with heavy repression, resulting in nearly 70 deaths, 49 of which were identified as extrajudicial executions by the New York Times. On December 10, in Andahuaylas, province of Apurimac-Chanca Nation, two people were killed and some 100 were injured. The regime declared a state of emergency for some regional governments (“departments”); on the 14th the declaration was extended nationwide. 

The state of emergency failed to prevent militant protests in the largely Indigenous departments of the South: Ayacucho, Cusco, Juliaca-Puno (Wari, Quechua, Aymara Nations, respectively), Arequipa, Moquegua, Tacna (also home to many Aymaras). Some Indigenous Nations of the tropical jungle regions also joined the demonstrations. The wave of Indigenous protesters was slandered by the regime as Shining Path followers, delinquents, and agents of drug traffickers or illegal miners. Criminalization was the pretext used by the regime to allow the police, backed by the military, to use deadly force. International human rights agencies have widely condemned this violation of international law.

During the month of January, residents of southern Peru converged on the capital, in what is known as the Taking of Lima. This time demonstrators demanded a Constituent Assembly to reform the laws so that Indigenous Nations could fully participate in decisions about their land and natural resources. Upon arrival in Lima, many protesters were arrested on suspicion of being delinquent terrorists. After the majority were freed, massive demonstrations converged from the shantytown outskirts of Lima known as the Northern, Southern, and Eastern Cones. During these long marches, lasting more than four hours in intense heat, the southerners and shantytown residents made their protests heard by the whole nation. With the help of food and shelter donations, and supported by growing national and international solidarity, the demonstrators’ ongoing protest in the capital has been powerful for months. There was a Second Takeover of Lima; a Third Takeover is scheduled for July 19, planned to include new demonstrators from the Northern region of Peru.

In the Andes mountain range, there are abundant natural resources such as copper, silver, gold, uranium, and lithium. Dozens of mining projects are in various stages of exploration, expansion, and execution by national and international mining companies. Many of these mines are located in the headwaters of river basins, where they pose serious environmental threats. Others are located on land belonging to Indigenous communities, whose claims and objections are routinely ignored. In many cases, Indigenous communities haven’t been consulted or informed at all. At the same time, mining companies have been receiving significant tax exemptions from the government, and often have outstanding tax debts forgiven by the congress.

During his term as president, Castillo visited almost all the southern provinces in conflict with mining companies. He appeared unwilling to authorize open-pit mining in the headwaters of basins without consulting the population. This alarmed the mining industry and its backers, especially since a large number of exploratory mining contracts expire in 2023-25. It seems clear that mining and other economic interest groups, represented by the political Right, wanted Castillo removed from office through a “soft coup” in order to protect their projects and profits. Using control over mass media to influence public opinion, they also mobilized their congressional majority to modify the Constitution, upsetting the balance of powers and creating a new Constitutional Court that they control. They were determined to get rid of Castillo, with or without his proclamation.

 Observing the events in our home country, Peruvians around the world immediately rose up in solidarity with the claims of our compatriots. We’ve been protesting in the streets, and presenting letters to the Peruvian embassies and consulates, as well as to the United Nations and the Organization of American States (OAS). We have also sent donations to relatives of the deceased and injured. Since Peru’s mainstream press has shown itself to be dishonest, we’ve come to rely on an alternative press based on YouTubers, local radio stations, and social networks, so our connection with the interior of the country is now in real-time. 

It was through this alternative press we found out the Peruvian regime had signed a contract with the public relations firm Patriot Strategies to improve its image internationally. We in New York were also alerted that a delegation of businessmen and a group of artists from Cusco were arriving to attend Inti Raymi (the Festival of the Sun) at the United Palace Theater in upper Manhattan. A demonstration was organized outside the theater, and another action took place inside the theater at the moment when a government official spoke. Although the number of protesters inside the theater was small, most of the Peruvian public rejected the lies that the mayor of Cusco told on behalf of the government, this disruptive challenge broadcast on a Peruvian national channel was seen all over the world. Now compatriots in other countries are on alert to actively respond to any other attempts to sanitize an illegitimate and murderous government.

Nevertheless, in May, Boluarte and the Peruvian Congress authorized the entry of 1,000 US military troops to Peru starting June 1. There are already 10 military bases in Peru. Some leftist Peruvian legislators see the US military as endangering their country’s sovereignty. Former Foreign Affairs Minister Hector Bejar questioned the true intentions of the US military presence, saying that it is “part of a dissuasive policy to intimidate the Peruvian people who have announced new protests for July.” It’s obvious for most Peruvians that the entry of more troops is part of the hybrid war for lithium, uranium, and copper. 

Although there has been little coverage of these events in NY media, 20 members of Congress, including many progressive Latino members, signed a letter to President Biden in January asking him to end security assistance to the Peruvian government and to condemn the human rights violations committed by state security forces. Four of New York’s representatives were among the signers: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Adriano Espaillat, Nydia Velázquez, and Delia Ramirez. As an act of international solidarity, the US should follow the recommendations of The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to end the brutal repression and investigate and prosecute all who are responsible for the state violence.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

2. Keeping Up with Make the Road NY

At the end of May, Make the Road New York (MTRNY) announced the publication of a 60-page Spanish language “manual” for asylum seekers arriving in New York. The manual, called Casita, is written in a warm and informal style and aims to welcome by providing information and essential resources, including:

  • The basic rights of a person living in New York;
  • How to access available services and benefits; 
  • Legal issues including interacting with ICE;
  • Information on COVID-19, enrollment in public school, and more.

MTRNY is asking for $30 donations to help support the publication and distribution of Casita. 

Then at a June 6 press conference in Queens, MTRNY publicly presented the results of an unprecedented survey of recently arrived migrants. Entitled “Displaced and Dismissed: The Experiences of Migrants and Asylum Seekers in NYC 2023,” the report was based on interviews with 766 migrants between February and May 2023. Interviews were conducted by volunteers from MTRNY and Hester Street who met the ‘migrant buses’ sent by Gov. Abbott of Texas to NY’s Port Authority. 

This survey is the first of its kind and activists hope that it will help government officials to better assist recent migrants. 65% of respondents were from Venezuela, but other Latin American countries and African countries were also represented. 81% were under 40 years old; 43% were under 30; and 84% of those under 30 were traveling with their children. All wanted to stay in NYC and were eager to participate in the city’s life.

Other survey findings were that although almost all want to apply for asylum, 93% had not found a lawyer. 97% didn’t have work authorization and therefore couldn’t find jobs to become self-supporting. 72% had trouble paying for basic living expenses. 63% had no access to English classes for either adults or children. 59% had no access to transportation to help them seek employment. 97% were living in NYC shelters. 42% suffered from anxiety or depression.

All three city officials at the press conference—Comptroller Brad Lander, Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams, and City Councilman Shekar Krishnan—pointed out failures of the city government. Lander said that despite the city’s expenditure of a lot of money and effort to secure shelter for migrants, it has been short-sighted to allocate only 1% of city money toward securing legal help for people to apply for asylum before their one-year deadline. This is crucial because the 6-month countdown for work authorization begins only after the asylum application is made. Both Public Advocate Williams and Councilman Krishnan said any public anger should be directed at the government and not at the migrants because the lack of services for city residents existed before the migrants arrived, and there is a crisis of systemic injustice and not a crisis of asylum seekers.

MTRNY had policy recommendations for the city: allocate $140 million for legal services, improve the transition from the shelter system to permanent housing, do not cut funds for adult literacy programs, and renew and expand the Low-Wage Worker Support (LWWS) as well as access to health care. Policy recommendations for the Biden administration: expedite work authorization for migrants, and send more federal resources to New York.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

In solidarity and with collective care, 

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

 

Follow @JHSolidarity on Facebook and Twitter and share this newsletter with friends, families, neighbors, networks, and colleagues so they can subscribe and receive news from JHISN. 

 

 

JHISN Newsletter 02/25/2023

Posted on February 25, 2023 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

While immigration politics at the national level feels like a familiar quagmire, we report this week on a new federal program to reorganize the sponsorship of refugees in the US. The ‘Welcome Corps’ enables community-based groups of five or more people to sponsor a refugee family or individual refugee, ending the decades-long practice of refugee resettlement being managed by a small number of agencies nationwide. The change, we hope, has promise, including for potential sponsorship groups here in Jackson Heights.

At the same time, we highlight the current migrant emergency here in NYC. The crisis appears to be hiding in plain sight as tens of thousands of new migrants arrive in the city, many of them transported here as part of a Republican plan to strain resources, undermine asylum-seekers, and embarrass municipal leaders. It’s working.    

Newsletter highlights:
  1. New sponsorship program welcomes refugees
  2. NYC’s migrant crisis a Republican dream 

1. Biden Team Introduces the “Welcome Corps”

Despite a campaign promise to create more humane immigration policies, the Biden administration has struggled to create significant movement on the way immigration policy is debated or implemented. Although efforts were made to repeal the Title 42 border restrictions, Homeland Security recently proposed the Circumvention of Legal Pathways rule to create a presumption of asylum ineligibility at the border. But there has been a potentially positive development: the creation of the Welcome Corps which was proclaimed “the boldest innovation in refugee resettlement in four decades.” It’s not really an innovation as it is modeled on the Canadian “group of five” program which has successfully relocated over 327,000 refugees since 1979, and has been copied by both the Australian and UK governments.

“Under the Welcome Corps program, you and a few of your friends can pool together funds to provide an immigration pathway that allows vulnerable people who may not otherwise be able to immigrate the ability to rebuild their lives in the US. Forming a private sponsor group involves bringing together at least five adults in your area and collectively raising $2,275 for each person you want to resettle in your community. With that money, sponsors commit to helping them through the first three months there, which can include securing and furnishing housing, stocking the pantry with food, supporting job hunts, and registering kids for school.” Vox

The US has had prior experience with programs like this. The Displaced Persons Act of 1948 brought European refugees from the war and relied on individuals and organizations to help people find jobs and homes. After the Cuban Revolution of the 1950s,14,000 children were provided with places to live throughout the country. 130,000 Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian refugees were resettled thanks to the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1975. 

Jimmy Carter signed the Refugee Act of 1980, which created the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), formally adopted the United Nations’ definition of refugees, and established the practice of setting numerical limits on how many refugees the US would accept. The ORR was located inside the US Department of Health & Human Services and “partnered primarily with non-profit resettlement agencies to provide initial resettlement assistance to newly arriving refugees.” There have been only nine federally funded nonprofits managing all US refugee settlements—until now.

Budgetary constraints during COVID under the Trump administration forced nearly a third of the country’s resettlement offices to close permanently or suspend operations. The graph below from the Migration Policy Institute shows how Biden’s recent increase to the ceiling of how many refugees can enter the US did not result in a similar increase in the number of refugees admitted. In November of 2022, experts stated the US would not reach that refugee ceiling unless it changed many shortcomings of the process. Although we should not let the government off the hook for fixing those shortcomings, Welcome Corps is one change that can help.

According to Welcome.US, over 20,000 people signed up during the week after the Welcome Corps program launched on January 19, 2023. Yougov polling found that 60% of US adults favor the new program (53% of Republicans and 76% of Democrats) and over 25% expressed interest in actually becoming sponsors. One of the hopes for the Welcome Corps is it will allow refugees to receive support in locations where the current refugee support organizations do not have a presence (or had to recently close) and thus expand the reach of resettlement throughout the country.

“Refugee newcomers who arrive through the Welcome Corps will follow an established government process that includes extensive security vetting and health checks. They will have refugee status, employment authorization, access to key public benefits like health insurance, and can eventually apply for U.S. citizenship. The Welcome Corps program provides sponsor groups with access to tools and resources, including a budget template, fundraising support, an arrival checklist, and ongoing guidance throughout the initial sponsorship period.” –CISION PR Newswire

The Welcome Corps Getting Started webpage clearly outlines the steps involved from watching an info session, through having all five sponsors complete their background checks, attending training and support sessions, developing Welcome Plans, and signing the commitment form. New York already has a number of refugee assistance organizations in place. But perhaps their knowledge can be mined and areas like Jackson Heights will become another model for the nation by gathering together many groups of five people who will sponsor refugees to come to the neighborhood.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

 

2. How to Create a Crisis: Brutal Playbook by Republican Governors Unfolds in NYC

It’s hard to fully grasp what is taking place in New York City: a migrant emergency and humanitarian crisis created purposefully and with impunity by Republican governors targeting ‘blue’ cities with unexpected busloads of immigrants who crossed the southern border. The vast majority of the recent arrivals are from South and Central America with a smaller, and less publicly visible, number from West Africa. Nearly 44,000 asylum seekers have arrived in the city since last spring, many sent with right-wing fanfare by Republican governors betting that the migrants cannot be effectively housed and socially supported here. 12,000 new migrants arrived in NYC in January 2023 alone.

 Let’s be clear, more than 3 million New Yorkers were born outside the US; NYC is built on immigrant labor and culture and power. But the city was not prepared for—was intentionally caught unprepared for—receiving tens of thousands of migrants in such a short period of time, with no capacity to anticipate or coordinate the budgetary, legal, social service, educational, health, and housing resources necessary to support them. And many new migrants, unlike earlier groups, are landing here without existing community or family ties, without extra clothing or winter coats, or without sometimes knowing that NYC was their destination. City Comptroller Brad Lander reports that the city likely will spend $4 billion this year and next funding recently-arrived asylum seekers. 

 The city has publicly flailed while trying to provide adequate housing for migrant newcomers. But that was the point. Migrants are caught in a catch-22 of not being able to get legal work permits because of roadblocks in filing their asylum case which is required before they can work lawfully. But that was the hope. City resources are strained to the breaking point; Mayor Adams has declared a state of emergency and begged for more federal and state funds. That was the fever dream of Republican governors in Texas, Arizona, and Florida—a cascade of public crises in northern cities.

 Criticism of the city government for its abject failures to safely house new migrants is warranted. Yet why is one of the few cities in the US with a progressive right-to-shelter law in the crosshairs of a migrant housing crisis? Volunteers, immigrant justice organizations, and mutual aid groups in NYC have stepped up to provide resources and material aid to new migrants. Yet how long can the city support the unexpected challenges intentionally created by Republican electeds who have, for decades, blocked immigration policies that could address the economic, geopolitical, and environmental disasters fueling increased migration?

WHAT CAN WE DO?

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

 

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JHISN Newsletter 02/11/2023

Posted on February 11, 2023 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

The immigration news headlines this past week have been grim. A 26-year-old immigrant attempted suicide on Wednesday at the city’s new ‘migrant shelter’ in Red Hook where hundreds of men are being warehoused in inhumane conditions. At ICE’s Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, WA, private guards sprayed chemical agents on detainees who had launched a hunger strike to protest bad food, unpaid labor, and harassment. 

Beneath the headlines, at a slower tempo and often out of sight, struggles for immigrant justice continue. We report on the ongoing mobilization demanding the establishment of an official NYC school holiday to mark Diwali—a major holiday celebrated by many communities here in Jackson Heights. And as we highlight the unprecedented number of immigration cases backed up in our dysfunctional US immigration system, we ally with all those calling for truly independent immigration courts. 

Newsletter highlights: 
  1. Celebrating Diwali as an official school holiday
  2. Unprecedented backlog of US immigration cases 

1. When Will Diwali Be Recognized?

“If I trusted the mayor by his words, then Diwali would have been made a school holiday on Jan. 1, because that is the promise that he made during his campaign.” –Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani

For more than 20 years, NYC’s South Asian and Indo-Caribbean communities have been trying to get Diwali—the pan-religious Festival of Light—recognized as a school holiday. Hundreds of thousands of local Hindu, Jain, Sikh, and Buddhist residents celebrate the five-day Fall holiday, which is embraced by more than a billion people around the world. But so far, neither the city nor the state has mustered the will to include Diwali on the school calendar. A new initiative in Albany is raising hopes but also provoking criticism and doubts.

In 2013, Jackson Heights City Councilperson Daniel Dromm and 16 co-sponsors were unable to get a local Diwali school holiday bill passed. Dromm tried again, without success, in 2018. At the state level, Assemblyperson Jenifer Rajkumar’s 2021 Diwali bill never made it out of committee. But many advocates were convinced that 2022 would be the breakthrough year. Before his election, Mayor Adams publicly promised that once elected, he “would take his oath of office and walk into City Hall and ‘sign it into a holiday.’”

That did not happen. Adams has adopted a new position: there is no room on the school calendar, because of the state’s requirement for 180 days of instruction. Making Diwali a holiday, he now claims, requires substituting it for another holiday, which in turn requires state approval. Mamdani strongly disputes this, noting that Adams himself had previously dismissed scheduling concerns: “There are ways to move around the calendar to get the required number of days,” Adams once told Politico. South Queens district leader Richard David points out that “whenever the city punts to Albany, it’s always a little unpredictable, and you don’t really know what’s going to happen there.” 

Many private schools in NYC already treat Diwali as a holiday. Some parents question “why Adams can’t follow his predecessor’s example when former Mayor Bill de Blasio added the Asian Lunar New Year and the Muslim holidays Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha as fixtures on the city schools calendar.” Fed-up families have resorted to simply taking their children out of school for Diwali on their own.

While the press put a harsh spotlight on Adams’ broken promise, advocates continued to apply pressure. In September, a public school student coalition circulated a petition for the Diwali holiday which gathered almost 5,000 signatures. Finally, in October, Adams joined forces with Rajkumar and Schools Chancellor David Banks in announcing a new initiative. The plan is to get the state legislature to substitute Diwali for “Brooklyn-Queens Day” or “Anniversary Day,” a holiday commemorating the founding of the first Sunday school in Brooklyn in the 1800s. The public announcement of the new Diwali initiative had a triumphal quality, as if it was already a done deal. NBC News said that Diwali “will be a school holiday in 2023.” So did NPR and TimeOut New York. Others were more cautious: “Even with over two dozen state lawmakers signed onto the legislation, community leaders in Queens remain skeptical of the efforts being made to complete a promise that they say has been made to them before,” the Queens Daily Eagle reported.

On November 2, the new City Council held a Diwali celebration in its chambers. On January 25, dozens of lawmakers and activists gathered in Albany to lobby for a bill to carry out the Rajkumar/Adams/Banks substitution plan. In the Assembly, Queens co-sponsors include Steven Raga (D-Woodside), Ed Braunstein (D-Bayside), Catalina Cruz (D-Corona), Khaleel Anderson (D-Far Rockaway) and Zohran Mamdani (D-Astoria). The sole sponsor of the matching bill in the Senate is Flushing Democrat John Liu. Rajkumar observes that “we have never seen such enthusiasm for this cause.” 

Will 2023 be the year Diwali makes it onto the public school calendar in NYC? Advocates say it is possible, if the state legislature gives approval by July. 

WHAT CAN WE DO?
  • Follow the fight for a Diwali holiday at the Diwali Coalition Twitter feed.
  • See footage of Diwali being celebrated in India in this short video.

 

2. Dramatic Backlog in US Immigration System

“When I started [as a lawyer] about 15 years ago, I could take on an asylum case, and within a three-month time frame you’d get a hearing before a judge. Now that time frame has stretched up to a five-year waiting period just to get a court date.” –Karla McKanders, Director, Vanderbilt Law School Immigration Practice Clinic

The numbers are stunning. Over 2 million pending cases in immigration courts at the end of 2022—a number that has more than doubled in the past 5 years. 9.5 million pending applications at US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) as of February 2022, with a surging backlog. At least 1,565,966 asylum seekers currently waiting for immigration hearings in the US, according to TRAC’s Immigration Project.

Behind these numbers are real people living in limbo for months and years, and spiraling stories of partners, families, beloveds, children, workplaces, and communities trying to manage profound uncertainty while sustaining hope and connection.

There are multiple reasons for the growing case backlogs. One major culprit is a history of underfunding of the immigration court system under both Democrat and Republican administrations, which has led to shortages of staff, technology, and resources. COVID shutdowns certainly played a role. Increased migration over the past decade due to economic dispossession, state violence, and environmental devastation is a factor. Also, the Trump administration intentionally jammed the immigration machinery, weakening due process protections in US immigration courts, while simultaneously increasing bureaucratic obstacles to legal immigration.

And there is no easy fix. There are no less than five different federal agencies involved with immigration processing, and four different congressional appropriations committees that fund—and underfund—their work. Right-wing electeds are actively working to slow the wheels of legal immigration while maximizing detention and deportation. Bringing down the number of backlogged immigration cases isn’t an easy target for grassroots activism. And the complexity of the US immigration bureaucracy makes popular education about the backlog difficult. All this contributes to a problem that feels increasingly intractable even as it grows more consequential.  

One step in the right direction for reforming the dysfunctional and backlogged immigration system would be for Congress to create and fully fund truly independent US immigration courts. For historically perverse reasons, US immigration courts are currently housed in the executive branch, under the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice-–a law enforcement agency. Together with the American Bar Association and the National Association of Immigration Judges, we support a separate immigration court system that, like other parts of the US judiciary, has meaningful autonomy from the whims of executive branch authority and is less subject to political pressure. An independent, accountable immigration court system might help to bring justice to the hundreds of thousands of lives currently stalled by the unprecedented backlog of pending immigration cases.

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

 

Follow @JHSolidarity on Facebook and Twitter and share this newsletter with friends, families, neighbors, networks, and colleagues so they can subscribe and receive news from JHISN. 

Feature Image – Khokarahman, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

 

 

JHISN Newsletter 01/28/2023

Posted on January 28, 2023 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

We are excited to bring you news about recent changes, and accomplishments, at Damayan—a local immigrant justice group that some of our readers already know well. With Woodside now home to ‘Little Manila’ and over half of all Filipino New Yorkers living in Queens, Damayan’s grassroots work is vital to our community. We also introduce you to public events organized by the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility housed at The New School, with a summary of their recent webinar on US border politics and Biden’s new asylum policy.  

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Damayan celebrates 20 years of Filipino organizing
  2. Public webinar on Biden’s betrayal of asylum seekers

1. DAMAYAN at 20

“Sa loob ng 20 dekada, nanatili ang Damayan na matatag sa pananaw na anti-imperialista, bumuo ng malinaw na vision at mission, at mga strategies para gumabay sa mga tulad nating domestic workers… [For 2 decades, Damayan has remained steadfast in its anti-imperialist vision, developed a clear vision and mission, and strategies to guide domestic workers like us…] —Rose Alovera, Damayan Board Member

Damayan Migrant Workers Association’s mission is to “organize low-wage Filipino workers to combat labor trafficking, promote human and worker’s rights, and develop social justice leaders.” At the end of 2022, Damayan—many of whose 1500+ members live in Queens—made several major announcements at their 20th Anniversary and Annual Holiday Party.

Perhaps the most important news was that Riya Ortiz, a long-time organizer with Damayan, has been selected as the group’s new Executive Director. Ortiz said, “My family’s experience of forced migration and years of organizing and activism convinced me to embrace the vision and mission of Damayan.” Co-founder and outgoing ED Linda Oalican will transition out of office in the first quarter of this year, after two decades of what Damayan praised as “providing critical services, educating, organizing, and mobilizing Filipino migrant workers in New York and New Jersey.”

One of Damayan’s key accomplishments in 2022 was to help more than 200 Filipino workers receive a total of over $3 million from the New York State Excluded Workers Fund. Last year, Damayan assisted a record number of workers to gain visa approval, and secured financial assistance for 26 trafficking survivors through the federal Trafficking Victims Assistance Program. In a display of the group’s broad community support, Damayan’s recent holiday fundraiser easily surpassed its goal, raising over $22,000 from more than 170 donors.

JHISN congratulates Damayan and outgoing ED Lina Oalican on 20 years of impressive achievements in the fight for social justice. We extend our solidarity to new ED Ortiz, and to all Damayan’s Directors, activists, and members. 

WHAT CAN WE DO?
  • If you are able, please donate to Damayan!
  • Attend the tribute to outgoing Executive Director Linda Oalican on February 25th.

2. Asylum Betrayed: Biden’s Border Politics and Title 42

On January 13, The New School’s Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility here in NYC hosted an important webinar, “Asylum Betrayed: Biden’s Border Politics and Title 42.” The Institute offers courses, sponsors lectures, and events, and supports critical scholarship on all aspects of migration. The webinar discussion featured Eleanor Acar, director of the Refugee Protection Program at Human Rights First, Alexandra Delano Alonzo, professor and chair of Global Studies at The New School, and Lee Gelernt, Deputy Director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. 

Participants reviewed multiple aspects of US immigration policy and highlighted problems with President Biden’s January 5 announcement of a new “parole” plan for migrants from Nicaragua, Cuba, and Haiti. This scheme will allow up to 30,000 migrants per month to enter the US for a period of two years and receive work authorization, but will require everybody to apply from their home country, have a sponsor in the US, and pass background checks. Anyone trying to enter in any other way will be expelled under the controversial “pandemic emergency” authority of Title 42 and will be disqualified from the program in the future. Mexico has agreed to accept 30,000 of those expelled each month. 

All webinar participants appreciated the value of providing migrants with a legal path for entry, but rejected the use of Title 42 to punish those unable to meet the requirements of parole. The Biden program is designed to favor people with family connections in the US and with financial resources. Some migrants with good cases for asylum will likely be expelled–-a violation of international law.

The webinar offered updated information about cross-border immigration to the US: 

  • Of the “2 million migrants” said to have recently crossed the southern border, many are actually people who were expelled and who then re-crossed, getting counted two or more times. Ms. Acer explained that the restrictive policies of former president Trump are the main cause of the ballooning numbers, not the weaknesses of Democrats’ border policy.
  • Among migrants recently expelled to Mexico under Title 42, some 13,400 are victims of kidnapping or rape. 
  • For the past three years, there has effectively been a halt to asylum—a clear violation of international law and stated US values, according to Mr. Gelernt.
  • The Mexican asylum system is already overburdened and underfunded and will have difficulty absorbing 30,000 additional migrants per month. It is not known why Mexico has agreed to accept people expelled by the US, but Dr. Delano Alonzo said the Mexican administration might be anticipating some sort of economic quid pro quo.

Biden’s new parole plan has been strongly criticized by many immigrant justice and advocacy organizations as well as by four Democratic senators who are usually White House allies—Senators Alex Padilla (California), Bob Menendez and Cory Booker (New Jersey), and Ben Ray Luján (New Mexico). One biting public statement against “parole” came from Murad Awawdeh, Executive Director of the New York Immigration Coalition:

“President Biden’s plan to expel those who attempt to cross the border … is an attack on the humanitarian values and obligations of the United States. This plan needlessly endangers the lives of those crossing the border in search of basic freedom in our country, and succumbs to the fearmongering espoused by anti-immigrant conservatives. . . . Rather than limiting humanitarian parole for just a select few with family connections and financial privilege, the Biden administration must expand additional protections for all asylum seekers, so that our country can fulfill its humanitarian obligations and provide opportunity and freedom for all.”

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

Follow @JHSolidarity on Facebook and Twitter and share this newsletter with friends, families, neighbors, networks, and colleagues so they can subscribe and receive news from JHISN.