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March 8, 2021
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Migration News: March 8, 2021
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Mexican camp that was symbol of migrant misery empties out under Biden
Laura Gottesdiener, Reuters
A sprawling camp in the Mexican city of Matamoros, within sight of the Texan border, has since 2019 been one of the most powerful reminders of the human toll of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to keep migrants out of the United States. The camp has emptied out in recent days, after hundreds of asylum seekers living there were finally allowed to cross the border to press their claim to stay in the United States. President Joe Biden last month rolled back the program - known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) - that had forced asylum seekers to wait in Mexico.
White House Officials Visit Mexican Border Amid Migrant Surge
Keith Laing, Bloomberg
Administration officials will brief President Joe Biden after traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border for operational briefings and to tour immigration facilities, the White House said. The group, led by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and White House Domestic Policy Adviser Susan Rice, visited a Department of Homeland Security Border Patrol facility and a Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement center. The officials discussed capacity needs given a rising number of families and unaccompanied children arriving at the border, and what the White House called “the complex challenges with rebuilding our gutted border infrastructure and immigration system.”
Sandra Sanchez, KTSM.com
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas led a contingency of White House officials to South Texas to visit the U.S./Mexico border this weekend, a congressman confirmed Sunday night to Border Report. Mayorkas, along with 13 others on Saturday traveled to deep South Texas on the Southwest border and visited a tent facility in the town of Donna, Texas, about 20 miles east of McAllen, where undocumented migrants are processed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. They then flew to Laredo and drove to a detention facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, where undocumented teen migrants are held, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, told Border Report.
$2 billion settlement likely excludes migrant workers exposed to Roundup
Amanda Gokee, VTDigger
Last month, Bayer reached a $2 billion settlement that would cover future legal claims that the weed killer Roundup causes cancer. While migrant farmworkers in Vermont are routinely exposed to the herbicide, the current settlement would likely exclude them from getting any of the money, experts say. The $2 billion Bayer settlement establishes a fund that would pay between $5,000 and $200,000 per plaintiff over the next four years. Only those who have already developed cancer following exposure to Roundup are eligible to apply.
'It's been the most difficult year': Immigrant women march for state, federal benefits
Monsy Alvarado, NorthJersey.com
Domestic workers, warehouse employees and housekeepers were among the immigrant women and their allies who gathered in Passaic on Sunday to demand that the state and federal government stop excluding them from financial assistance during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused many of them to lose their jobs. The women, many without legal status, have not received federal stimulus checks and are not eligible for unemployment benefits because of their immigration status. Marchers called for Gov. Phil Murphy and New Jersey lawmakers to create a fund to provide $600 weekly unemployment benefits to workers who have lost their jobs and to provide "stimulus-like" payments.
Owning a home now easier for immigrant ‘Dreamers’ with change in FHA policy
Juan Carlos Chavez, Tampa Bay Times
Trump sought to restrict immigration overall and took steps to eliminate the deferred action program. Dreamers did not qualify for home loans because of how the FHA interpreted a 2003 passage from its Single Family Housing Handbook: “Non-US citizens without lawful residence in the United States are not eligible for FHA-insured mortgages.” Now, the agency takes a different view of “lawful residency,” saying on its latest forms that the handbook “did not anticipate a situation in which a borrower might not have entered the country legally, but nevertheless be considered lawfully present.”
Hamed Aleaziz, BuzFeed
The Biden administration has rescinded a policy signed in the waning days of former president Donald Trump’s term that made it harder for immigrant children to obtain asylum in the US, according to an internal email obtained by BuzzFeed News. “This is an important step towards restoring the protections for unaccompanied children that were slowly stripped away over the course of the Trump administration,” said Sarah Pierce, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. “It also decreases pressure on [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] officers, no longer forcing them to regularly investigate and make conclusions on a child’s custody situation and age.”
A Mexican restaurant in Texas kept its mask rule. People threatened to call ICE on the staff.
Meryl Kornfield, The Washington Post
When the coronavirus pandemic hit and restaurant owners faced difficult decisions, the Richards family that owns Picos, a Mexican restaurant in Houston, quickly adapted to continue sharing their Latin cuisine — from selling to-go margarita kits to stationing a mariachi band at the curbside pickup. This week, after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said Tuesday that he would rescind the statewide mask mandate while the vast majority of residents remain unvaccinated, the tough choice to enforce public health guidance fell to business owners, and Picos announced it would continue requiring masks. But, after such a challenging year, the reaction to their decision was disheartening, co-owner Monica Richards said: Several people sent hateful messages through social media and called the restaurant, threatening to report staffers to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Further Reading
COVID-19 pandemic worsening gender inequalities for refugee women and girls
UNHCR
Opinion: No amount of detention is safe for a child. Here are better solutions for migrant kids.
The Washington Post
We didn’t memorize the Bible verses about immigrants
The Christian Post
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