Tag: Trump

JHISN Newsletter 09/28/2024

Dear friends,

As racist targeting of immigrants of color intensifies across the US, immigrant justice leaders are pushing back. In Ohio, the Haitian Bridge Alliance has filed criminal charges against Trump and JD Vance for their incendiary lies about Haitian immigrants living and working in Springfield. And NDLON (National Day Laborer Organizing Network) has just released an Instagram video debunking false narratives about recent migrant arrivals that promote hatred, and fracture solidarity between immigrant communities.

We join the call for pro-immigrant popular education with an article that helps us more accurately perceive the ‘statistics’ on the number of undocumented immigrants in the US. Then we look at the Republican-fueled nightmare in Springfield, with an eye for how the threat of expanding fascism—targeting immigrants and other historically marginalized people—has arrived.  

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Confronting the Fear of Big Numbers: Counting Undocumented Immigrants
  2. Fascism in Uniform Marches on Springfield

 


1. A simpler approach to undocumented population counts

Recent attention has focused on Ohio and the ridiculous social media lies amplified by Trump during the presidential debate. Republicans became hyper-obsessed about Haitians living in Ohio, who are legally present through the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program. In Ohio, almost 13,000 people have TPS approval, or just one-tenth of one percent of the state’s entire population. Yet to Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, this minuscule population represents a “terrible tragedy” for the people in his state.

This Ohio situation exemplifies the difficulty of accurately visualizing any large numbers describing immigrants. It is easy for politicians and the corporate media to utter worrisome-sounding numbers in the millions because such numbers have no practical meaning in the human mind.

Republicans have leveraged that impracticality to argue that the number of people here with, and without, ‘authorization’ is massively large and a threat. Although there are bipartisan differences around immigration issues, the Democrats have also embraced the perceived ‘threat’ of immigrants, as outlined in their recently proposed and failed border bill.

When discussing unauthorized immigrants, things get murkier due to difficult data. Since 1996 the federal government has published official estimatesthese have been challenged as a dramatic undercount. There are statistics shared by organizations that conduct research about immigrantsthese can conflict based on the organization’s bias. There are public data sets such as Syracuse University’s TRAC Data which allow anyone to delve into the datathese require an understanding of how to analyze numbers. All data sources take effort to find, read, and understand. The numbers spewed by Donald Trump, or Tucker Carlson, are easy, simplistic, and wrong. 

But, sometimes simplification can help us understand reality.

Instead of looking at large numbers, we can ask the following question: how many people are there in the US for each undocumented immigrant? State population data, Pew research on immigrants, and an infographic from a large data analyst company offers a simple answer: in the US there is just one undocumented immigrant for every 65 people. That may initially sound like lots of unauthorized people until we realize that 1 in 10 is just 10% of the population; 1 in 20 is only 5%; 1 in 30 is merely 3.3%. So 1 in 65 is a paltry 1.5% of the entire population. Republicans are telling 98.5% of the country to worry that this tiny group is a massive threat to the nation’s very being. As the regional and state populations differ, it is interesting to see how the answer to this question changes based on each location we look at.

  • We can compare Ohio, where there are 91 people for each unauthorized individual (1.2%), with New York State which has 30 people per unauthorized individual (3.3%).
  • Throughout the four states that border Mexico, we find there is one undocumented person for every 28 people. That is only 3.6% of the California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas populations combined.
  • In the 16 states that have a land or water border with Canada, the number changes to 1 in 89 people. That is slightly more than 1% of all those state populations combined.
  • Of the 14 states that border only with another US state, it averages to 1 in 77 people. Just 1.3%.
  • For the 16 remaining states, with an ocean border, the numbers change to just 1 in 44. That is only 2.4% of those populations.

The simplified number also tells a story about states traditionally voting for a Republican or Democrat presidential candidate and the 7 swing states in the coming 2024 election. In the 25 typically Republican states we see 1 unauthorized person in 81 (1.2%); that becomes 1 in 40 for the 18 typically Democrat states (2.5%); and the 7 swing states come in at 1 undocumented immigrant out of 48 (2.1%).

If people in critical swing states can see these more straightforward numbers, they may come to understand that the lies Trump, Vance, and many others obsessively make about Americans being replaced and endangered by ‘illegal’ immigrants are not substantiated by the data. With that knowledge, they can vote with understanding, not unfounded fear.


2. Then they came for the Haitians…

Our August 17 newsletter argued that Donald Trump’s demand for mass deportation was on the cutting edge of a rising fascist movement that is beginning to move into the mainstream of US politics. Now the ongoing racist political attack on documented Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, makes it clear that this poison is spreading fast. 

Most of the basic ugly facts of the Springfield situation are well reported: The baldfaced lies by Trump and Vance alleging that Haitians are eating other residents’ pets, bomb threats that paralyzed the city, requests by Catholic bishops and government officials, including the Republican governor, for Trump and Vance to stop the damaging falsehoods and threats. We have learned from mainstream media that Trump has doubled down on his plan to deport Haitians in Springfield on Day One if he gets elected (despite the fact they have federally-registered TPS protections), promising that this would kick off a mass deportation campaign that, he warns, will be “bloody.”

One thing that has been less widely reported is the story of the Weber family—a story that happened on the sidelines of the national news. What happened to the Webers is frightening and damaging. But it also exemplifies how anti-immigrant hate, and especially hate towards Black migrants, quickly mutates beyond the issue of immigration, opening the door to an increase in fascist activism that targets all marginalized groups, regardless of immigration status. 

Chelsea Shirk Weber told the Dayton Jewish Observer that she, her husband, and their 4-year-old daughter went to a Jazz and Blues Fest in downtown Springfield on August 10. As they were leaving, they saw a squad of the neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe marching in formation, complete with red uniforms, swastika flags and automatic weapons. Hearing people yelling and other loud noises, the family moved swiftly to their car. But as the Webers tried to drive away in traffic, they and other motorists were surrounded by four Blood Tribe members who pointed rifles at their cars. There were no police visible nearby. “Go back to f-ing Africa,” the fascists yelled. Chelsea’s husband accelerated, running a red light to get away.

Blood Tribe claims credit for creating and spreading the rumor about Haitian migrants eating pets, starting their online campaign months ago. They consider it a victory that the Trump campaign (and 53% of Trump supporters) have adopted their lies. 

Photo Credit: Chelsea Shirk Weber

Weber took a photograph of some of the fascists—the image above. When she posted it on the Facebook pages of Springfield and of Clark County, there was a massive pile-on by right-wing commenters who either supported Blood Tribe or alleged that the photo was fake. Soon Weber’s post was taken down. Five minutes later, the City of Springfield posted a bland statement expressing “concern” about an outside hate group that had been in town. The mayor, Rob Rue, was quoted as saying that “Nothing happened, except they expressed their First Amendment rights. Our Police Division was aware and in control the entire time.”

Weber does not agree:

“”It was just completely disappointing that the government said, ‘Oh, they’re just exercising their First Amendment right and they did no harm.’ Tell that to my 4-year-old, who is completely traumatized. I’m 37 and I was scared s—less. How do you explain it to a 4-year-old?’ The Observer provided Police Chief Elliott with a transcript of Weber’s interview. Despite repeated attempts to reach out to Elliott for a follow-up interview, she declined to comment.” Dayton Jewish Observer, 8/22/24

The Springfield events demonstrate how Blood Tribe and other other fascists like the Proud Boys and the KKK are using racist attacks on immigrants and calls for mass deportation to raise their public profile, recruit, and normalize their full program of hate against people of color, women, LGBT people, Jews and leftists. And the concentration camps the fascists hope to build for millions of undocumented people are intended for many other perceived enemies as well.

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 08/17/2024

Dear friends, 

We greet you at an unexpected moment of hope, as Donald Trump’s grip on US politics shows signs of slipping. Today’s newsletter looks at two issues concerning migration that are central to Trump’s appeal, and also to the fate of progressive activism. Our first article confronts the national demand for mass deportation and its connection to fascism. Turning to local events, our second article explores the Adams administration’s callous treatment of asylum seekers and longtime residents at two large migrant shelters in Clinton Hill. Both stories highlight the need for unapologetic pro-immigrant politics that goes beyond the half-hearted, defensive posture of mainstream Democrats.

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Mainstreaming a fascist demand for mass deportation
  2. Mayor Adams fails migrants at Clinton Hill shelters


1. Poison in the Blood

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”Voltaire

In what may well be the most repulsive moment of an already ugly campaign season, thousands of Republican National Convention delegates in Milwaukee stamped their feet, waved pre-printed signs, and rhythmically chanted their desire for “Mass Deportation.” Disturbingly, according to an Axios/Harris poll, roughly half of the US population, including many Democrats, shares this sentiment. It’s hard to get past the shocking cruelty of this wave of hate. But we need to think about its causes and confront its implications in order to prepare for what may be coming.

Making mass deportation a topic of mainstream debate represents a victory for US fascists, who have for years promoted a  “Great Replacement” theory: the belief that corporate elites, supposedly led by Jews, are intent on replacing whites with non-white immigrants in order to destroy “the white nation.” But mass deportation is also the spearhead of a broader attack on all oppressed groups and all social justice struggles. What would life be like for those already subjected to state violence, hate crimes, and social discrimination, if the military, police and ICE squads roam the streets to carry out this atrocity? 

It’s evident that many of the people who demand mass deportation today don’t think of themselves as fascists. And many aren’t yet prepared to endorse mass deportation’s expense or practical implementation: troops in the streets, document checks, concentration camps, families torn apart. These things are still broadly unpopular. So at this point the mainstream demand for mass deportation has a certain rhetorical quality. As one pollster said, angry citizens are “sending a message.” Those Republican delegates in Milwaukee enjoyed chanting a transgressive fascist slogan, treating it as a threatening bluff against immigrants and condescending elites.

But it’s no bluff for the fascists, inside and outside the Republican Party. They are intent on seizing power and they have made specific plans for tracking down, arresting, and deporting up to 20 million immigrants. Now, they have managed to persuade half the population to give at least rhetorical support for what should be unthinkable. If the fascists take control, these compromised millions will be forced to confront the violent reality of their own hateful “Mass Deportation” slogan.

In a chilling echo of Adolf Hitler, Donald Trump says that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the US. But he is projecting. It is the white supremacy that he manipulates and embodies that poisons the blood of this country, enabling wave after wave of racial and religious hatred, genocide, and imperialism. This poison has now produced yet another spasm of mean-spirited nativism and a new rising fascist movement. We must challenge them both, directly and openly, before it’s too late.


2. Lack of City Services at Clinton Hill Migrant Shelters

“My team and I have been working on this for the better part of a year, we’ve poured all the resources and energy that we have that we can pour into it. But he’s [Mayor Adams] got more resources, and more staff, and also more answers than I do, frankly.”—Council Member Crystal Hudson (Brooklyn District 35)  

When busloads of asylum seekers and other migrants began arriving in New York City in 2022, Mayor Adams, under the requirements of NYC’s right to shelter, desperately sought places for them to stay. One chosen site was 47 Hall Street in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. It opened in July 2023 without any public announcement or communication with local leaders. This multi-building complex, administered by NYC Health+Hospitals, came to house 3000 single adults and families within 8 months.

The shelter was a shock to local residents. Nevertheless, the neighborhood responded to the “massive unmet need” for basic personal items and winter coats, and donations soon arrived at PS/IS 157 to help newly arrived students and their parents. In contrast to this compassionate aid there were rising complaints about trash, noise, and loitering, especially near the playgrounds and basketball courts. Residents were not satisfied with the city’s response to their complaints.

Then, this April, the city opened another emergency migrant shelter one block away at 29 Ryerson Street with capacity for 700 people—again with no announcement. “We heard rumblings about it, but nobody was giving us information directly or at the community board meetings,” said a 20-year resident of Clinton Hill. Other neighbors complained about not being able to use the basketball courts or find space in the local laundromats. “When the city doesn’t provide the migrants with resources they need, like washing machines and open space, and it starts to affect resident resources, then I say there’s a problem,” said another local resident, Vernon Jones.

On June 17, NYC Council Member Crystal Hudson held a community meeting about the shelters. Some attendees accused her of ignoring the community’s complaints. In response, Hudson explained to the angry crowd that she had written an open letter to Mayor Adams on May 6 detailing the problems, her office’s response, and cited assistance from community groups such as BKLYN Combine, Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), and One Love Community, as well as local businesses and residents.

The mayor argues, correctly, that the migrants need work permits. But they also need information about available services, especially mental health services and language support. Many of the recent arrivals are from West Africa, and speak languages like Wolof, Fula, and Bambara. Hudson said her office had contacted One Love Community Fridge, whose many African volunteers were able to provide translation and services to migrants in Clinton Hill, Fort Greene, Prospect Heights, and Crown Heights. 

The Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) has been supporting migrants by providing clothing, personal care items, and a variety of training programs to residents of the Hall Street Shelter and the Stockton Street Respite Center in Bed-Stuy. Nekessa Opoti, communications director at BAJI, said many shelters like Hall Street are unequipped to support Black asylum seekers, especially those who have fled war, conflict, or political violence.

“Community organizations like BAJI have stepped in where both the city and state government have failed. Police, private security, and surveillance in these shelters cannot and do not provide culturally competent, trauma-informed care, such as health and mental health services, case management and community navigation for which direct-service organizations and mutual aid groups have stepped up to take on… ” 

On July 23, shortly after two shootings near the shelters, there was a large demonstration protesting the continued quality of life issues for permanent Clinton Hill residents, with signs saying “400 not 4000”. According to one 13-year resident on Hall Street, A 200- to 400-person shelter is reasonable. We’re happy to have a shelter at the end of our block, it’s just the scale of it that doesn’t work.” The mayor responded at his press conference, When they say move the shelter, my question to them is where? Which community should I move it in? Those who are already oversaturated? Or should we all share the burden of this.”

Although Adams refused to reduce the capacity of the shelters (currently at 3100 and 850), he increased the police presence at the shelters and added metal detectors at the Ryerson shelter.

New York Immigration Coalition president Murad Awawdeh commented:

“We have also been calling on the Mayor to stop warehousing vulnerable people in emergency shelters and begin moving people into permanent housing by expanding eligibility to CityFHEPS vouchers to New Yorkers regardless of immigration status, so they can truly put down roots and create self-sustaining lives here. The Mayor needs to stop investing in shortsighted costly non-solutions and start prioritizing community safety by investing in the resources people need to thrive.”

It is clear that along with physical shelter, recent migrants need city-supplied information about available resources such as free English classes, IDNYC cards, and subway information. This information is available in the Roosevelt Hotel, why not in Clinton Hill?

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 07/06/2024

Dear Friends,

It can be hard to maintain optimism as fascism and climate disaster advance across the globe, including in the US. But then we’re reminded that those who must fight back, do fight back—and claim victories. As we publish, word arrives that 309,000 “unauthorized” migrants from Haiti have gained extension and reauthorization of Temporary Protected Status, allowing them to remain in the US until at least 2026. In another cause for hope, our newsletter celebrates the naming of an impressive new leadership team at Adhikaar, a local social justice organization for Nepali-speaking immigrants. Our second article describes a cynical, two-sided approach to migration recently announced by the Biden administration. The new approach channels Trump’s racist cruelty on border policy. But it also establishes a new pathway to legal status for undocumented spouses that immigrant justice activists have demanded for years. Can we find a way to stitch our multiple justice battles and partial victories together into a powerful resistance?


1. New Leaders at Adhikaar

Last November, Adhikaar, a leading social justice advocate for Nepali-speaking immigrants and refugees, announced that it would hire two Co-Executive Directors to replace long-time Executive Director Pabitra Benjamin. The organization has now completed its search, choosing two activists with impressive backgrounds.

Narbada Chhetri was appointed the first Co-Executive Director in November 2023 and fully assumed her role on April 1 of this year. Narbada was a human rights activist in Nepal for 15 years before she came to the United States. She joined Adhikaar in 2007 as an organizer, and at the time of her appointment was Director of Organizing and Programs. She has been a fierce advocate of rights for Nepali-speaking communities, successfully organizing and campaigning for passage of the NY State Domestic Workers Bill of Rights and the NY State Nail Salon Workers Bill of Rights. She will focus on Programs.

As announced in an email to supporters, the search for a second Co-Executive Director ended on June 18 with the appointment of Cynthia Saxena to focus on Adhikaar’s infrastructure. Cynthia’s background includes work with both large organizations and grassroots NGOs. She has mobilized resources and nurtured growth for non-profits, small enterprises and UN agencies. She has extensive experience developing strategic partnerships, fundraising and international relations.

JHISN congratulates Narbada Chhetri, Cynthia Saxena and Adhikaar, and wishes them continued success!

WHAT CAN WE DO?

2. Pain for Some, Hope for Others: Biden’s New Immigration Policies 

In a transparent effort to defuse the issue of immigration during an election year, President Biden announced two major policy initiatives, backed by executive orders, in June. The first initiative drastically reduces the number of asylum seekers allowed to cross into the US. This is Biden’s response to the “out of control border crisis” being weaponized against him by the anti-immigrant Right. The second initiative, an extension of “parole in place,” could make it significantly easier for many undocumented spouses of US citizens to get green cards. This is a last-minute concession to immigrant families and progressive voters.

By simultaneously promoting tough border enforcement and family unification for long-established migrants, Biden hopes to mollify critics to his right and left, managing the volatile politics of immigration that imperils his reelection. But beyond electioneering, these initiatives will have a major impact—good and bad—on the lives of hundreds of thousands of migrants.

In the case of asylum seekers, the impact is very bad indeed. Biden has employed the same legal argument Trump used for his “Muslim ban” in order to impose a restrictive cap on the number of asylum seekers allowed to stay in the US. The administration says that anyone claiming asylum without prior permission to enter has “illegally” crossed the border, and is therefore subject to deportation at the discretion of the US government. This is a direct violation of the letter and spirit of humanitarian laws passed after the horrors of World War II. Those laws—national and international—specify that anybody on US soil has the right to request asylum, no matter how they arrived. 

Biden argues that he has no choice, since there is chaos on the border and the Republicans refuse to make a deal on border legislation. He also points out that the cap has exceptions for victims of human trafficking and unaccompanied minors. But the reality is that on his watch, thousands of asylum seekers a week are now illegally returned to Mexico and other countries, blocked from making their legitimate claims, often after arduous struggles to reach the border.

Many Democratic politicians and civil rights groups denounce the asylum cap. The ACLU is one of the groups that have promised to fight it in court. They commented that Biden’s executive order “will severely restrict people’s legal right to seek asylum, putting tens of thousands of lives at risk.”  

In stark contrast, Biden’s new “parole in place” expansion policy has been widely hailed by immigrant justice groups, some of whom claim it as a major victory achieved after years of organizing.

Current US law allows citizens to sponsor non-citizen spouses for permanent residency as long as they entered the US in an “approved” way. But in order for undocumented spouses to gain legal status, they must leave the US, go to a consulate in another country, and apply for an immigrant visa to return. This process can require the spouse to be away from their family for up to ten years. Even then, obtaining a visa is not guaranteed.

There is also a long-standing executive branch program called “humanitarian parole” which permits beneficiaries to temporarily enter or remain in the US for a specific time. When humanitarian parole is granted to people who are already inside the US, it is known as “parole in place.” That is, without leaving the country and their family, paroled people can receive a work permit and begin the process of receiving a green card.

What Biden announced on June 18 was a major extension of parole in place. The new program will allow eligible spouses and step-children of US citizens (theoretically up to 500,000 people) to receive temporary protections and work permits, enabling them to apply for lawful permanent resident status through their spouses or step-parents without risking years of separation from their families.

Applications for expanded parole in place are expected to become available later this summer. According to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) parole will be granted for up to three years, at which time people will either have a pending or final adjustment application completed.

Exactly who will be eligible, the fee, and what kind of documentation will be needed is still to be determined by DHS. However, here are the announced requirements:

An undocumented person may be eligible if they

  • Have never been admitted or paroled.
  • Have been in the US since at least June 17, 2024.
  • Were married to a US citizen on June 17, 2024, or have a parent who was married to a US citizen on June 17, 2024 (if the marriage occurred before their 18th birthday and they are currently under 21 and unmarried).
  • Do not pose a “threat to public safety or national security.”
  • Convince DHS to exercise discretion in their favor.

Make the Road New York (MTRNY) has expressed cautious optimism about the new program. They point out that DHS has yet to publish the full details of eligibility, including who DHS believes poses “a threat to public safety or national security.” 

While this is not enough, we believe this is a step in the right direction, and we will continue to fight for a path to citizenship for all the 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country.”MTRNY

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 04/06/2024

Dear friends,

We bring you news this week from the community frontlines of immigrant justice, highlighting the recent work of DRUM—a local group building power among low-wage South Asian and Indo-Caribbean New Yorkers. We then offer a frightening look at the publicized plans to dismantle and re-assemble the Department of Homeland Security into a militarized, anti-immigrant agency operating with impunity. The plans are part of the notorious Project 2025, a right-wing fever dream should the Republican party control the White House after the next election. 

 In these final days of Ramadan, as neighborhood communities look toward the crescent moon marking the end of this holy month of fasting, reflection, and prayer, we remember the Palestinians facing hunger and starvation in Gaza long after the Shawwal moon grows full.     

Newsletter highlights:
  1. DRUM initiates community meetings with electeds
  2. Project 2025’s plans for immigrant injustice

1. DRUM Challenges Lawmakers

DRUM (Desis Rising Up and Moving) is known for its promotion of grassroots democracy. In February, instead of waiting for elected representatives to hold town meetings about legislation that DRUM supports, they arranged for multiple local community gatherings and invited the electeds to attend.

“For our community meetings, we wanted to invert the dynamic of us going to our representatives. We called on them to come and sit with the people of the districts they represent and hear directly from us about the issues we are organizing around.”DRUM Facebook (March 15, 2024)

Four open meetings were held: two in Queens and one each in Brooklyn and the Bronx. These “were opportunities for [elected officials] to practice accountability and report on their actions that affect our lives,” DRUM says. 

Top issues of concern included the housing crisis, workers’ rights, education, and the genocide in Gaza. The corresponding legislation currently in the State Senate are the Good Cause, the Unemployment Bridge Program, and the Not on Our Dime bills.

The Good Cause law would protect tenants from arbitrary eviction and hold rent increases to 3%, or 150% of the Consumer Price Index, whichever is higher, as long as tenants continue to pay rent. Landlords could still evict tenants for non-payment of rent or lease violations.

The Unemployment Bridge Program would establish a fund for replacing lost wages for workers not eligible for unemployment insurance because of immigration status or the type of work they do. This proposed law is based on the principles of the historic Excluded Workers Fund. 

The Not on Our Dime! bill would end New York state support for Israeli settler activity by banning not-for-profit companies from supporting Israeli settlement activity that violates international law and the Geneva Conventions of 1949.

 DRUM’s reportback states:

“For all electeds, we call on you to take the time to be in the communities that you were elected to serve, and to show up in meaningful ways.”

WHAT CAN WE DO?

2. The Intimidating Mandate of Project 2025

“Project 2025 elucidates how the administration would halt legal immigration, centralize power in the federal government, decimate privacy protections, and risk American security and prosperity, all in pursuit of a political obsession with immigration.” —Cecilia Esterline, “Unveiling the far right’s plan to demolish immigration in a second Trump term” (Niskanen Center, Feb. 2024)

Project 2025’s 900-page Mandate for Leadership is a self-described conservative playbook to “guarantee implementation of the Day One agenda,” which Trump has, without regret, stated will be his day of dictatorship. As a guidebook to “deconstruct the Administrative State,” 35 pages of Project 2025’s Mandate focus on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its immigration procedures. If implemented, these initiatives would effectively give more militarized Enforcement and Removal Operations agents the authority to conduct warrantless searches anywhere in the country, and, when directed by the Secretary, enforce regulations internationally. Project 2025 creates a blueprint for the vast expansion of unaccountable executive power. DHS would be run by the executive office and its political appointees who will take novel approaches to circumvent the Congressional confirmation process. They will create data analysis and communication channels to control the flow of all information to justify and promulgate their anti-immigration stance without any checks and balances. 

A sample of Project 2025’s recommendations to dismantle DHS and its existing immigration system includes stopping funds for all NGOs that support immigration; budgeting more government money for the border wall and to increase security at Ports of Entry; prioritizing the immediate deportation of immigrants over citations to appear in immigration court; ending legal prohibitions on family separation and allowing the expanded use of tents for temporary ‘housing’ of migrants; repealing the unaccompanied minor rule and permitting children to be housed by DHS instead of Health and Human Services; raising the standard for credible fear claims and removing domestic violence or gang violence as grounds for asylum; expanding the use of Blackies warrants, which notoriously rely on profiling appearance and ethnicity, and allowing, with limited oversight, workplace raids and the arrest of immigrant workers; and reinstating the Denaturalization Department to remove US citizenship and deport people.

The reason given for these recommendations is that DHS has “suffered from the Left’s wokeness and weaponization against Americans whom the Left perceives as political opponents” (p. 135). The Mandate itself directly weaponizes all departments against immigrants, even the one agency people recognize as supporting people in dire need, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) (p. 138). After first asserting that the disaster response agency is not lawful, the Mandate then demands that any organization receiving FEMA funds should prove it is a lawful actor by: 

  • Forcing them to detain immigrants. 
  • Granting DHS full access to DMV and voting records of any state receiving FEMA support. 
  • Requiring them to register with E-verify. 

E-verify has been described by critics as an intrusive and expensive government surveillance of daily life that would create enormous privacy and security risks. The ACLU writes that “a mandatory E-Verify system—which forces everyone in the country to ask the government for permission to work—simply does not belong in fair immigration reform.” 

Project 2025 is not looking to create a fair or better immigration system; that is a legislative role. The Mandate’s primary goal is to reorganize DHS so that Congress has little power over the way the Department runs, or who runs it. A second goal is to further militarize the department and to convert administrative positions into enforcement roles. It will transform what is the third-largest federal department into a 100,000-person armed force that the president can wield, globally, without Congressional oversight. Another priority is to remove the options for asylum claims, including eliminating claims based on credible fear. The only time the Mandate adds an option for immigration is when recommending that people with wealth be allowed to pay for expedited immigration procedures (p. 146). 

Even if the recommendation is not adopted to deliver that department of 100,000 enforcers, the 2025 Mandate offers another option: combine Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into a single department, the Border Security and Immigration Agency, (BSIA) (p. 138).  Given “the persistent need for and utilization of U.S. military personnel and resources to assist BSIA with increasing whole-of-government efforts” (p. 139), they go even further: the Office of Air and Marine (OAM) will share with BSIA its aviation assets across the globe, and in every state in the US. DHS would then have the option of using military/aviation equipment anywhere in the US or globally wherever it sees a threat. This militarized overreach was already tested in 2020 when CBP flew a drone outside of the 100-mile border enforcement zone to monitor a George Floyd protest in Minneapolis.

The 2025 Mandate also expands the role of the Secret Service Uniform Division which protects the physical White House grounds. Its jurisdiction would be expanded to cover all of Washington, DC, to counteract what is stated to be a “trend of progressive pro-crime policies” (p. 158). The ICE memoranda identifying sensitive zones where agents cannot go would be rescinded. By removing “self-imposed limitations on its nationwide jurisdiction,” ICE agents can pursue “the civil arrest, detention, and removal of immigration violators anywhere in the USA without warrant” (p. 142). This means any institution of learning, hospitals, places of religious worship, funerals, weddings, and public demonstrations, marches, or parades would become locations where federal agents can act unimpeded. 

The majority of people whose lives are vulnerable to the dehumanizing escalation and expansion of immigration enforcement practices, militarized throughout the nation, cannot vote in the elections which can stop its implementation. If US voters are fine with electing politicians who will enact these changes, that could be used to limit their own freedoms, it is because they don’t expect these tactics will ever be used against them. They could be wrong.

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 03/02/2024

Dear friends,

For several years, JHISN reported on the anti-immigrant campaign of then-President Trump that mocked sanctuary cities and instead aimed to intensify surveillance, harassment, and deportation. Now, a Democratic mayor of New York is himself leading the charge to undermine the city’s decades-old commitment to legal sanctuary and urban refuge for recent migrants. This week’s newsletter offers an update on the cynical moves by the Adams’ administration to deny shelter and social supports to asylum seekers who are, literally, being left out in the cold by merciless new policies. 

As we wrap up this newsletter, protesters are concluding a 24-hour vigil in front of City Hall demanding that the City Council vote for a ceasefire in Gaza. Nearly 70 US cities have passed resolutions calling for an immediate end to Israel’s military assault in the besieged territory, now in its fifth month. The slaughter of civilians, including 12,000 children, has turned into an unfolding genocide. And the blockade of food and water is turning into a forced famine, as over two million Palestinians are facing slow death from starvation and disease, amidst the unending risk of sudden death from Israeli bombardment and snipers. Support a ceasefire now!

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Mayor attacks sanctuary


1. Adams is Everything Abbott Wanted

When right-wing Texas Governor Greg Abbott started busing migrants to New York City in the summer of 2022, he was hoping to “own the libs.” He planned to challenge NYC’s “sanctuary city” declaration and its immigrant-friendly reputation, exposing them as a bunch of virtue signaling—a hypocritical pose that he figured would melt away when confronted with the arrival of thousands of asylum seekers.

In fact, as we have reported, grassroots community groups, public workers, progressive activists, and ordinary residents have risen to the challenge, welcoming migrants and offering aid. And the migrants themselves have shown incredible fortitude and resilience.

But Abbott scored a bullseye when it comes to our mayor. Eric Adams has played right into the Texas governor’s hands. Instead of welcoming migrants, as he solemnly promised to do, Adams now bullies and attacks them. His administration scapegoats asylum seekers, branding them as criminals. To complete his surrender to the Right, Adams has openly asserted that he wants to gut New York’s sanctuary city laws. “We can’t even turn [asylum seekers] over to ICE,” he laments.

Adams is doing everything he can to discourage asylum seekers, and to punish those who do make it to New York. In October, he made a trip to Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador to “personally deliver a stern message to would-be migrants thinking of applying for asylum in the US and heading for New York City.” “There is no more room in New York,” he announced. Adams even had a flyer printed up for distribution at the US-Mexico border, telling asylum seekers—people fleeing violence and discrimination—that NYC, one of the richest cities in the world, doesn’t want them. 

Adams’ abuse of asylum seekers already living in NYC is similarly aimed at discouraging migrants and positioning himself strategically at their expense.  Embracing cruelty as a weapon of politics, the mayor is currently intent on forcing asylum seekers out of NYC shelters, As The City reports:

“Last fall the city began limiting adult shelter stays to 30 days, while beginning to dole out 60-day eviction notices to some migrant families with children. Families with children are now sent back to the Roosevelt Hotel for another shelter placement when their time runs out.

“For adults whose 30 days in shelter has run out, the wait for a new shelter placement can last more than a week, during which time people lining up outside the East Village site have limited access to showers, food, and even bathrooms. Once the site closes in the evening, 25% of respondents reported that they’d slept outside or on the trains, while 4% said a family member or friend took them in.

 “About 67% of those surveyed said they had spent the night in a “shelter,” with many ending up at the city’s five overnight waiting rooms where people can rest on the ground or in chairs without cots.”

Astonishingly, the mayor is now trying to close down even these five bare-bones waiting rooms—last-ditch places that at least have bathrooms and protection from the weather. 

For Adams, creating visible street homelessness or chaos among migrants isn’t a human tragedy—it’s the centerpiece of a cynical strategy. He hopes to not only force migrants to leave the city (and discourage new migrants from coming), but also to mobilize anti-immigrant sentiment and politics to his advantage. The mayor is trying to use homeless migrants—those who he literally is making homeless—to create a public spectacle of street disorder and budget cuts. He is creating conditions for the Right to manufacture xenophobic  “quality of life”  and “migrant crime” narratives.

“I’ve said this a couple of months ago, the visualization of this crisis is going to become aware for New Yorkers. We stated we were out of room. And the cost of doing this … it was a weight we could not continue to carry.” Mayor Adams (The City, 2/16/24)

Eric Adams, mayor of a sanctuary city, has apparently calculated that it’s useful to position himself as the scourge of asylum seekers and the enemy of sanctuary. Disregarding his cratering support among Latinos, he seems to think that appeasing anti-immigrant racists and reactionaries is his best chance at getting reelected. 

But New York is a city of immigrants, and most of us like it that way. And despite Eric Adams, asylum seekers are quickly becoming part of the fabric of the city. They’re cooking, driving, cleaning, vending, delivering food, providing care, building scaffolding, and hanging drywall. They’ve become integral to the city’s schools, advocacy groups, churches, workplaces. They are New Yorkers now.

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 09/09/2023

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.