Wednesday, May 11, 2022
Trauma as Inclusion by Raquel Aldana, Patrick Marius Koga, Thomas O'Donnell, Alea Skwara, & Caroline Perris, Summer 2022 (89:4) Tennessee Law Review
Abstract
This article brings together a historian and law, public health, psychiatry, psychology, and neuroscience faculty and researchers to document how trauma is understood across disciplines and how it has developed in U.S. immigration law largely to exclude but increasingly to include migrants whose lives have been uprooted or otherwise impacted by borders. Our aim is to document and assess the progress and the gaps in immigration law’s embrace and understanding of trauma through metrics that include the science of trauma, compassion, and fairness. This analysis is made urgent by the travesty we are witnessing of children ripped apart from their parents and borders completely shut to desperate migrants seeking our protection.
KJ
May 11, 2022 in Current Affairs, Law Review Articles & Essays | Permalink | Comments (0)
Flag courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
The Economic Times offers a brief explanation of the United Kingdom's points-based immigration system, anyone looking to move to the country for work must meet a specific set of requirements for which they will score points. Visas are awarded to those who get enough points. A total of 70 points is needed to apply to work in the UK. To check if you're eligible to immigrate to the UK, click here
May 11, 2022 in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tuesday, May 10, 2022
Join the National Immigration Project of National Lawyers Guild's Annual Pre-AILA Crimes & Immigration Seminar on Tuesday and Wednesday June 14-15. I spy immprofs Maureen Sweeney & Linus Chan in the lineup! Full schedule is below. Online (registration fee $150 and up; more info here).
11:45am - 12:00pm: Welcome
12:00pm - 1:30pm: The Categorical Approach and Recent Developments
(90 minutes of instruction/1.50 CLE Credits)
This session will cover how advocates can make the most of the categorical approach methodology in their defense of immigrants with convictions. We will cover key features of the categorical and modified categorical approaches.
Speakers:
1:30pm - 2:00pm: Break
2:00pm- 3:15pm: Winning Post- Conviction Relief
(75 minutes of instruction/1.25 CLE Credits)
This session will present a conceptual and procedural framework for obtaining post-conviction (PCR) relief that is effective in immigration proceedings, including the legal standards governing whether PCR orders are effective in the immigration context.
Speakers:
3:15pm - 3:45pm: Break
3:45pm - 5:00pm: Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude
(75 minutes of instruction/1.25 CLE Credits)
Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude (CIMTs) can be difficult to understand with any precision. And yet, courts routinely find all manner of criminal offenses to be CIMTs, with significant ramifications for clients. This session will examine what CIMTs are, where they’ve come from, and where they’re going to help advocates better prepare for and defend against CIMT allegations.
Speakers:
11:45am - 12:00pm: Welcome
12:00pm - 1:15pm: Pushing Back on Discretionary Denials
(75 minutes of instruction/1.25 CLE Credits)
Immigration adjudicators regularly deny relief as a matter of discretion for applicants with involvement in the criminal legal system, particularly when such involvement is not serious enough to outright disqualify them for relief. This session will discuss creative strategies to prevent discretionary denials based on criminal legal system involvement as well as ways to address them in the appellate context.
Speakers:
1:15pm - 1:45pm: Break
1:45pm - 3:00pm: Strategies to Fight "Reason to Believe" Drug Trafficking
(75 minutes of instruction/1.25 CLE Credits)
This session will discuss the "reason to believe" drug trafficking ground of inadmissibility as well as as its ramifications and develop strategies for fighting such findings.
Speakers:
3:00pm - 3:30pm: Break
3:30pm - 5:00pm: Recent Developments at the BIA and Circuit Courts
(90 minutes of instruction/1.50 CLE Credits)
Both the Board of Immigration Appeals and the various federal Circuit Courts of Appeals have recently seen developments at the intersection of criminal law and immigration law. This session will explore some of those developments and their implications.
Speakers:
May 10, 2022 in Conferences and Call for Papers | Permalink | Comments (0)
The University of Minnesota Law School seeks a visionary leader, committed to immigration advocacy and justice, to lead the Binger Center for New Americans. The Executive Director is the primary staff administrator responsible for (1) leading the Center in the ongoing development and implementation of its vision and core mission, especially the Education & Outreach Program, (2) leading partnership collaboration and communication necessary to promote and engage in the Center’s work, and (3) fostering connections with a broad constituency of networks, community partners and immigrant advocates in the region and nationally. The Executive Director works in collaboration with the Center’s faculty director and engages clinical faculty, staff, and law students together with the Center’s partners and stakeholders, the Director of the Law Clinics, and Law School leadership in order to set and carry out the Center’s priorities.
The Center’s Education and Outreach Program connects the Center’s clinics to community needs and goals, which inform the development of the Center’s programs and litigation to protect immigrants and impact the immigration system. Through legal education, organizing, pro bono legal services, and capacity building, the Education and Outreach Program supports community efforts to break down systemic barriers and empower communities.
The Executive Director will be a skilled and experienced community-driven leader, with expertise in immigration advocacy and a thoughtful eye for partnership opportunities to advance immigrant rights work across the Law School, the Twin Cities community and beyond. They will be adept at encouraging broad community-building, engagement, and action-oriented results.
Job Duties:
Lead and Implement Strategic Planning & Initiatives – 20%
Direct the Education & Outreach Program - 50%
Lead and Oversee Operations for the Center - 20%
Lead and Oversee Communications for the Center - 10%
Qualifications
Required
Preferred
To apply, go to https://humanresources.umn.edu/jobs and reference job number 347632. This position is open until filled. Candidates, including people of color and women, are strongly encouraged to apply. Applications will only be accepted through the University of Minnesota online employment system and only complete applications will be considered. A complete application consists of a resume, cover letter, contact information for three references who will not be contacted without prior notice, and a diversity statement.
May 10, 2022 in Jobs and Fellowships | Permalink | Comments (0)
Worried about your privacy. You will worry more if you read this Georgetown Center on Privacy and Technology report American Dragnet: Data-Driven Deportation in the 21st Century. Here is a passage from the Executive Summary:
"Our two-year investigation, including hundreds of Freedom of Information Act requests and a comprehensive review of ICE’s contracting and procurement records, reveals that ICE now operates as a domestic surveillance agency. Since its founding in 2003, ICE has not only been building its own capacity to use surveillance to carry out deportations but has also played a key role in the federal government’s larger push to amass as much information as possible about all of our lives. By reaching into the digital records of state and local governments and buying databases with billions of data points from private companies, ICE has created a surveillance infrastructure that enables it to pull detailed dossiers on nearly anyone, seemingly at any time. In its efforts to arrest and deport, ICE has – without any judicial, legislative or public oversight – reached into datasets containing personal information about the vast majority of people living in the U.S., whose records can end up in the hands of immigration enforcement simply because they apply for driver’s licenses; drive on the roads; or sign up with their local utilities to get access to heat, water and electricity.
ICE has built its dragnet surveillance system by crossing legal and ethical lines, leveraging the trust that people place in state agencies and essential service providers, and exploiting the vulnerability of people who volunteer their information to reunite with their families. Despite the incredible scope and evident civil rights implications of ICE’s surveillance practices, the agency has managed to shroud those practices in near-total secrecy, evading enforcement of even the handful of laws and policies that could be invoked to impose limitations. Federal and state lawmakers, for the most part, have yet to confront this reality."
KJ
May 10, 2022 in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0)
Chalk this up to things I didn't know existed, but I'm sure my students will find fascinating--The DHS Coloring Book: A Showcase of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the...Jobs We Do. Here's a sample page that your students can color while learning about sanctuary cities.
May 10, 2022 in Books, Teaching Resources | Permalink | Comments (0)
Photo courtesy of Santa Cruz County (Arizona) Sheriff
AZ - Border sheriff: Title 42 doesn’t help us. Let’s end program now.
— 🟠#NativesVote #NAVRA 2021 🚫FBR 🧡🖖🏽💚🌱🌲🪶 (@bellesapepper37) May 9, 2022
(David Hathaway is sheriff of Santa Cruz County, which is located on the Arizona-Mexico border.)https://t.co/qFAyQP6PEj
KJ
May 10, 2022 in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0)
Monday, May 9, 2022
A group of Illinois immigration legal aid organizations has announced a new collaboration to expand access to legal representation for people in deportation proceedings who are detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The Midwest Immigrant Defenders Alliance (MIDA) is a partnership between three nonprofit organizations — the National Immigrant Justice Center, The Resurrection Project, and The Immigration Project — and the Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender. Through a one-year pilot project, the groups will lay the groundwork toward ensuring anyone who is detained by ICE and facing removal proceedings before the Chicago Immigration Court has access to legal representation. The program will reach immigrants detained in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Kentucky. While ICE no longer detains people in Illinois as the result of a state law enacted earlier this year, the groups will be representing Illinois residents who are being detained in other states
KJ
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May 9, 2022 in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0)
The AILA Law Journal has issued a Call for Papers for the Fall 2022 issue.
The submission deadline is June 1, 2022. Guidelines for submissions are available here.
IE
May 9, 2022 in Conferences and Call for Papers | Permalink | Comments (0)
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More than six million Americans identify as Afro-Latino, the Pew Research Center reveals. The data, garnered from a survey of over 68,000 adults conducted in 2019 and 2020, paints an important picture of the complexities of racial and ethnic identity within the broader Latino community. Afro-Latinos — people of African descent who hail from Latin America or the Caribbean — make up 2% of the U.S. adult population and account for 12% of Latino adults, Pew said. Nearly 30% of those who self-identified as Afro-Latino also identified as white. One in seven did not identify as Hispanic. Such factors have made it immensely difficult for major studies like the U.S. Census to accurately estimate the size of the Afro-Latino population. Skin color-based discrimination In a related study conducted in March, Pew asked respondents about discrimination within the Latino community. Results showed that around a quarter of Latino adults say they’ve experienced discrimination or unfair treatment from other Latinos — something particularly true for respondents with darker skin or who were born outside the U.S. The surveys show that Afro-Latinos are somewhat more likely to experience discrimination, particularly when it comes to being unfairly stopped by the police or being criticized for speaking Spanish. See full Pew Research Center data on Afro-Latino demographics here and on discrimination here. |
KJ
May 9, 2022 in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Biden administration is seeking to educate immigrants about the immigration court system. The video above is the Executive Office for Immigration Review's "Introduction to Immigration Court." The video is part of "Access EOIR” , which provides noncitizens, representatives, and the public with more direct access to agency and case information and the systems that contain it, further supporting transparency and due process for all those with business before the Agency.
KJ
May 9, 2022 in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0)
Headquarters of the United Kingdom's Home Office, Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Check out this story from across the pond:
"A Black British boy was on the verge of being deported after London police detained him and misidentified him as an illegal immigrant. The mother wonders how the authorities could create a name, nationality, and story surrounding the teen despite him being nonverbal and having no identification to dictate that information."
The young man's mother described the mix-up as “just horrific.”
“Because he’s Black they just assumed ‘let’s pick him and put him in a deportation center,’” she questioned. “How do they know he’s from Nigeria when he doesn’t even speak to them?”
The immigration system evidently does not effectively address the needs of persons -- including citizens not subject to removal -- with disabilities.
KJ
May 9, 2022 in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0)
Deputy Chief Appellate Immigration Judge Garry D. Malphrus, and Appellate Immigration Judges Keith E. Hunsucker and Aaron R. Petty sat on the panel for the Board of Immigration Appeals.
May 9, 2022 in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0)
Sunday, May 8, 2022
Check out this question from my fabulous National Parks Trivial Pursuit set (item two): Which South Carolinian's plan for a new federal government included provisions for naturalization?
Click through for the reveal.
May 8, 2022 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
RAICES (The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services) has called for celebrating immigrant mothers on this important day:
"This Mother’s Day, let’s celebrate the immigrant mothers and parents who will do whatever it takes to give their children a safer and brighter life.
Today, we honor Ms. N, pictured above with her children. We concealed their faces with flowers grown in Afghanistan for anonymity. Ms. N is one of our clients in the Refugee Resettlement Program. She recently arrived with her family from Afghanistan and is living in Texas."
KJ
May 8, 2022 in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0)
Official White House Photo
The Insider collects the opinions of a group of immigrant advocates harshly criticizing President Biden's immigration record. It seems that the President has failed to satisfy many on the issue of immigration, which is an ominous sign for the Democrats in the mid-term elections.
KJ
May 8, 2022 in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0)
Concerns over inflation and immigration have been in the news for weeks and will no doubt bear on the mid-term elections. The two topics are deeply interrelated.
Federal Reserve Board icon Alan Greenspan once explained that the rapid economic growth with low inflation in the United States in the 1990s in part was the result of the ready availability of immigrant labor, which dampened pressures for wage increases and inflationary pressures. Currently, businesses claim that tight labor markets have caused a spike in wages and have required price hikes.
Nicholas Riccardi for the Associated Press offers some detail about immigration's relationship with the inflation currently experienced in the United States. Immigration to the United States dropped during the Trump presidency and dramatically dropped with the global pandemic. The result:
"a labor shortage partly fueled by that slowdown. The U.S. has, by some estimates, 2 million fewer immigrants than it would have if the pace had stayed the same, helping power a desperate scramble for workers in many sectors, from meatpacking to homebuilding, that is also contributing to supply shortages and price increases."
The story quotes an economist about the relationship between immigration and inflation. “These 2 million missing immigrants are part of the reason we have a labor shortage,” said Giovanni Peri, an economist at the University of California at Davis. “In the short run, we are going to adjust to these shortages in the labor market through an increase in wages and in prices.”
Even as immigration is returning to its pre-pandemic levels, researchers say that immigration to the United States would need to accelerate rapidly to restore the labor market to its pre=-pandemic size. In addition, the labor market may continue to shrink with a declining fertility rate.
KJ
May 8, 2022 in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0)
Saturday, May 7, 2022
On Honolulu’s famous Waikiki Beach stand four large stones that represent a Hawaiian tradition of healing and gender diversity that is all but unknown to the millions of locals and tourists passing by. According to legend, the stones are a tribute to four mahu, people of dual male and female spirit, who brought the healing arts from Tahiti to Hawaii and used their spiritual power to cure disease.
Over the past few years, Asian Americans faced a double pandemic of COVID-19 and anti-Asian racism. Produced in partnership with Asian American Documentary Network and presented in partnership with the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), seven shorts showcase a mix of perspectives from emerging to established AAPI filmmakers, from a diverse range of AAPI communities and geographic regions, covering topics that move beyond the pandemic and reflect the complexities of AAPI experiences.
At Lowell High School, San Francisco’s academic pressure cooker, the kids are stressed out. With a majority Asian American student body, high-achieving seniors share their dreams and anxieties about getting into a top university. But is college worth the grind?
Narrated by Jason Momoa, discover the inspiring story and considerable impact of five-time Olympic medalist Duke Kahanamoku. He shattered swimming records and globalized surfing while overcoming racism in a lifetime of personal challenges.
A raw, inspiring window into 5.4 million children stepping forward as frontline heroes. Caring for family with tough medical conditions, they stay at home doing things often seen only in hospitals. They are cheerleaders, work part-time, go to college and live double lives quietly growing up as America’s next greatest generation.
In Deann Borshay Liem’s Geographies of Kinship, the complex personal histories of four adult adoptees born in South Korea are weaveed together with the rise of the country’s global adoption program. Raised in foreign families, each adoptee sets out on a journey to reconnect with their roots, mapping the geographies of kinship that bind them to a homeland they never knew.
Exploring the survival of urban ethnic neighborhoods in three American cities: Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Boston. Through the voices of residents, community activists, developers and government officials, the film looks at the forces altering each community and the challenges that go with them, including the pressing issue of urban development and gentrification.
Every day, millions of people are creating their own definitions of what it means to be Asian American. And to do this, they rely on history, culture, family and friends to deal with their dual identities. Tellers share stories that speak to the richness and variety of the Asian American experience.
Weaving together never-before-seen archival footage and photographs, Chinatown Rising reveals a deeply personal portrait of a San Francisco neighborhood in transition. Chinatown activists of the 1960s reflect on their years as young residents waging battles for bilingual education, tenants’ rights and ethnic studies curriculum that would shape their community and nation.
The film takes us back to turn-of-the 20th-century San Francisco, when a deadly outbreak of bubonic plague in the city’s Chinatown and the hunt to identify its source led to an all-too-familiar spate of violent anti-Asian sentiment.
Asian Americans is a five-hour film series that delivers a bold, fresh perspective on a history that matters today, more than ever. As America becomes more diverse, and more divided while facing unimaginable challenges, how do we move forward together? Told through intimate personal stories, the series will cast a new lens on U.S. history and the ongoing role that Asian Americans have played.
In New York City’s Chinatown, the theater club of PS 124 is staging an adaptation of the film “Frozen”. As the 5th graders gear up and rehearse for the musical production, nervous excitement and flubbed lines brush up against cultural stereotypes, family expectations, and post-graduation uncertainties. Curtain Up! shares a kid’s-eye view of the wonders of discovering art, culture and identity.
Charles Chiu and his family’s search for their roots takes them on an eye-opening journey through the Mississippi Delta, uncovering otherwise unknown stories and the racially complex history of Chinese immigrants in the segregated South. This Chinese American family’s unforgettable story offers a poignant and important perspective on race relations, immigration and American identity.
With unparalleled access to a diverse cross section of politically engaged Chinese Americans, First Vote offers a character-driven verité look at Chinese American electoral organizing in North Carolina and Ohio. The film weaves their stories from the presidential election of 2016 to the 2018 midterms, and explores the intersections between immigration, voting rights and racial justice.
In the race for existence, striking teenagers discover that activism, authority and awareness make for a steep learning curve. Determined to provoke real action, New Zealand teenagers join the global School Strike for Climate. But planning a movement and building momentum are the easy parts as they face political indifference, their own white privilege, and the ongoing struggle to be heard.
Nadia Shihab’s Jaddoland is an intimate portrait of the work and process of the director’s visual artist mother Lahib Jaddo. The film offers viewers a fresh look at the immigrant story in America. Through an exploration of her mother’s art and connections to her life in Texas, Shihab also drafts a unique picture of how art can help both the creator and the audience make sense of familial and cultural connections, loss, perseverance and life.
Genuine New Zealand treasures Isey and her son James invite viewers into their lives in the week leading up to Isey’s 100th birthday and its shaping up to be quite the party. The episode captures a Northland celebration of life and aroha (love) like no other.
Each September, the town of Chemult, Oregon is flooded with mushroom hunters. Many are immigrants from Laos, Cambodia and Thailand who entered the U.S. as refugees in the 1980s. Here, veterans Kouy Loch and Roger Higgins find more than just the rare matsutake in the woods; they create a familial bond and a means to slowly heal the wounds of war.
Featuring the redemptive tale of waka builder and captain Lilo Ema Siope’s final years, “Loimata, The Sweetest Tears” is a chronicle of journeys – journeys of migration, spirituality, voyaging, healing and coming home. Confronting intergenerational trauma head on, the Siope family returns to their homeland of Sâmoa.
May 7, 2022 in Film & Television | Permalink | Comments (0)
Earlier this week, IE blogged about the threats of the Texas governor to challenge Plyler v. Doe, the 1982 Supreme Court decision invalidating a Texas law that barred undocumented children from the K-12 public schools. For thorough analysis of Plyler and its legacy, check out the late Michael Olivas' wonderful book (No Undocumented Child Left Behind (2012). As summarized by the American Immigration Council,
"For more than [forty]y years, Plyler has ensured equal access to education for children regardless of status . . . . States and localities have passed measures and adopted unofficial policies that violate the spirit—if not the letter—of the Court’s decision. For example, in 2011 the state of Alabama enacted a law requiring school administrators to determine the immigration status of newly enrolling students, which in turn resulted in markedly higher rates of absenteeism for Latino school children and caused much fear and confusion in schools. Supporters of the Alabama law wanted to challenge Plyler itself, claiming the Court implied that its ruling could change if sufficient evidence established that the enrollment of undocumented children harmed the overall quality of education, but that challenge was blocked by the Courts."
The threat to Plyler must be taken seriously in light of the leaked draft opinion overruling the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade, which is having reverberations from coast to coast. If a conservative Supreme Court overrules Roe v. Wade, other important precedents might come next.
Paul J. Weber for the Associated Press ("EXPLAINER: Schools may be Texas’ next immigration fight") provides some background about Texas Governor Greg Abbot's statement that Plyler v. Doe "is another longstanding precedent worth challenging." Abbott is running for a third term in November and has advocated hardline immigration measures, including bussing migrants from Texas to Washington D.C. and sending state troopers to the U.S./Mexico border.
KJ
May 7, 2022 in Books, Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0)
Friday, May 6, 2022
This 1 minute and 38 second clip from NBC Nightly News does an excellent job highlighting the paperwork problems facing Ukrainian refugees hoping to find a new home in the United States. It spotlights the "online portal" the U.S. has set up, specifically for Ukrainians. And it highlights the sorts of items that migrants must show to establish their eligibility for the program--a deed to their war-ravaged home, paper vaccine records from hospitals overrun by war.
Lots of fruitful jumping off points for in-class discussion in less than two minutes of video.
-KitJ
May 6, 2022 in Current Affairs, Film & Television, Teaching Resources | Permalink | Comments (0)