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 School to Deportation Pipeline

By Laila L. Hlass Last month, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos told Congress that local schools should have the freedom to decide whether to report undocumented students to immigration authorities. Although she has since stepped back her remarks, this sentiment is in line with President Trump’s pervasive attacks on immigrants. Trump has called immigrants rapists, gang members, and “animals.” Regarding migrant children, he said “they look so innocent. They’re not innocent.” Like DeVos, Trump’s high-ranking appointees have sounded much the same theme: Attorney General Sessions called [...]

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 [...]

Crimmigration and Race

By Allison Crennen-Dunlap “The Age of Nations has passed. Now, unless we wish to perish we must shake off our old prejudices and build the earth.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Human Energy 37 (1969). Writing in 1969, dissident Jesuit priest and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin envisioned a radical future toward which humanity was building—a future beyond nations and divisions in which all human beings could share as equals in their common dignity. Sadly, humanity has not lived up to Teilhard’s vision, beautiful as it was. In Race, Criminal Justice, and Migration Control (2017), [...]

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 [...]

Two-tiered citizenship in DHS terrorism report

This week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a report of terrorism activity that reveals little about terrorism and much about the Trump administration’s view that United States citizenship comes in multiple forms, some of which are more authentic than others. The report, a response to Trump’s travel ban executive order, purports to list terrorist activity conducted by “foreign nationals” since September 11, 2001. It claims that approximately seventy-three percent of people convicted of international terrorism-related charges since then were foreign-born. President Trump [...]

On Trump pardoning Arpaio

Today, President Trump pardoned the infamous former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona Joe Arpaio, recently convicted of criminal contempt of court for flagrantly disobeying a court order to stop racial-profiling Latinos. The presidential pardon of a man who actively sought the spotlight with his notorious, degrading exercises of law enforcement authority sends a clear message that Trump is interested in rallying his base above all else. Presidents unquestionably have broad powers to pardon people convicted of federal crimes. Many have abused that power to protect friends. Trump’s cronyism [...]

Focusing on criminals distorts immigration policies

In a welcome bipartisan moment, Democratic Senator Richard Durbin and his Republican colleague Lindsey Graham introduced a revamped version of the Dream Act, a long-stalled proposal to grant legal status to young immigrants brought here as children. Like earlier versions, the Dream Act’s latest iteration would not help youth who have committed a variety of crimes. Though a White House official said that the president is unlikely to support it, immigrants’ rights groups applauded Durbin and Graham and launched campaigns to pressure more legislators to follow suit. A day later, news broke that [...]