In the pitched battles over immigration, rhetorical binaries dominate. Republicans refer to migrants as aliens. Democrats trumpet innocent children traumatized by extremist Trump-era practices. Migrants are either good or they’re bad, and in the imaginations of politicians and pundits, it’s possible to put some people into one category and other people into the other. Where talking points end, laws and policies begin. Under the illusion that people can easily be boxed, immigration law assigns privileges and sets law enforcement priorities based on markers of undesirability. Born in [...]
From family detention to family separation
Separating families, as a Trump administration policy now requires when migrants try to sneak into the United States, is certainly cruel. Forgotten in the ruckus dominating immigration debates since last month’s policy announcement is the Obama administration’s embrace of an equally troubling alternative: locking up migrant children alongside their mothers. Losing sight of common threads between family separation and family detention runs the risk of missing an opportunity to reimagine immigration policies. In early May, Trump’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that federal [...]
The Perversity of External Immigration Enforcement
Alexander Sager On March 25, 2018, Palm Sunday, the Viacrucis del Migrante [The Migrants’ Way of the Cross] set out from Tapachula, Chiapas toward Tijuana. The approximately 1,000 Central American migrants traveled together for safety, as well as to draw attention to Mexican and U.S. policies that undermine the right to asylum. The 2018 Caravan drew significantly more attention than had previous years’ efforts. Sadly, much of the attention was from the Trump administration and right-wing media. President Trump (predictably) voiced his ire through a tweet: “Mexico is doing very little, if [...]
Abolish the ICE Prison Complex
Locking up migrants fighting to stay in the United States is permissible, the Supreme Court reiterated in February. The Court’s ruling mocks justice, but isn’t a big surprise. The federal laws under the Court’s consideration breathe life into a mean-spirited immigration law enforcement regime that holds tightly to the misguided belief that migrants pose a threat that prisons are best suited to extinguish. In Jennings v. Rodriguez, five justices overturned the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit allowing migrants detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement [...]
Legal limits on military deployment along US border
On Tuesday, President Trump said he plans to deploy military personnel to the United States border with México. The President’s plans may run into problems with longstanding prohibitions against using the military for domestic law enforcement purposes. Sitting next to Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, President Trump said: “We have very bad laws for our border, and we are going to be doing some things — I’ve been speaking with General Mattis — we’re going to be doing things militarily…Until we can have a wall and proper security, we’re going to be guarding our border with the military. [...]
Immigration budget bill summary
Congressional leaders appear to have worked out a budget plan with President Trump that is expected to get through both chambers in the coming days. The budget bill, H.R. 1625, titled the “Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018,” helps Trump move forward with his border wall plans, but also imposes limitations on DHS’s immigration policing practices. The bill pays for federal government activities through September 30, 2018. Below is a quick summary of key provisions affecting DHS and the Justice Department’s immigration operations. DHS’s two main immigration law enforcement agencies, CBP [...]
Migration in an altered world
Turning to God in times of difficulty, Psalm 18 counsels the Christian believer, is a core feature of faith. “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer,” it reads. But just as God is a loving figure who supplies a protective pillar, God is also the vengeful spirit who can crush the foundations upon which fortresses built. “Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.” Environmental catastrophe is nothing new. But climate change is newly testing humans’ willingness to respond to its consequences. In his [...]
Border Patrol shoots, Supreme Court punts
Seven years ago, Border Patrol agent Jesús Mesa shot and killed fifteen-year-old Sergio Adrián Hernández Güereca. On Monday, the Supreme Court refused to tell us whether Hernández’s parents can successfully sue agent Mesa. The aggrieved parents sued Mesa claiming that the officer violated the Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution when he killed Hernández. They wanted Mesa to financially pay for violating their son’s constitutional rights, a claim brought under Bivens v. Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents, 403 U.S. 388 (1971), which recognizes an implied right to sue federal [...]
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