Mediaboss Marketing

CHAMPLAIN, New York Pictures of immigrant families stretch across the back wall of a United States Border Patrol station located on the U.S.-Canada border. Its here in the northeastern tip of New York that more family arrivals showed up in fiscal 2019, which ended Oct. 1, than any of the other 49 northern Border Patrol stations between Washington state and Maine.

The Champlain Station is thousands of miles away from the southern border, which saw nearly half a million family members arrive in fiscal 2019, but agents here say they faced their own influx of families.

The main room of this station is packed with rows of desks, along with two empty detention rooms in the back left corner. But walking inside the station, it is the images of about 70 families staring back from the white wall that catches the eye.

The hundreds of people in the pictures were taken into custody over roughly the last year after being stopped while attempting to illegally cross from Canada into the U.S., including those who later claimed asylum.

Anna Giaritelli / Washington Examiner

Each familys picture was taken either inside the station or outside. Champlain Station patrol agent in charge, Norm Lague, told the Washington Examiner during a recent tour of the region that he decided to start posting the photos after his agents began seeing more families cross here. It's a poignant collection, but it has a very practical purpose. Agents want to make sure adults are not reusing the same children in order to come as a "family," which makes it easier under immigration laws to stay.

This past year, Border Patrol agents saw a total of 440 adults with children illegally cross from Canada. Exactly 295 of those took place in the Swanton Sector, one of eight regions that comprise the northern border. The Champlain Station, one of several local hubs within the region, saw the majority of illegal entries, which Lague attributed to its proximity to Montreal.

Family apprehensions on the northern border have increased from 67 in fiscal 2016 to 230 in 2018 before nearly doubling to 440 in 2019, according to unreleased data reviewed by the Washington Examiner.

During the beginning of last [fiscal year], we were seeing multiple families a day similar to the southern border give-ups," he said, using the term for surrendering to agents. "We wanted to make sure we were learning why they were coming, whether the families knew one another and also were concerned about tactics on the southern border being employed on the northern border, he said. It was a check and balance we used for intelligence purposes and to ensure children were not being exploited for smuggling purposes.

Former acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said in June that between December 2018 and May, DHS personnel documented 4,800 instances where families arriving at the southern border were not related just under 1.5% of the 332,981 total family members apprehended between ports of entry. Families were released into the interior of the U.S. weeks after being taken into custody, unlike single adults who are typically removed and prosecuted for entering the country without permission.

Lague said the photo wall gives agents an easy way to potentially spot children who had been recycled," a reference to the rare instances on the southern border this past year when a child who crossed with an unrelated adult posing as a parent was returned to Mexico and came back over with another unrelated adult.

Lague did not provide any specific examples where children had been reused by different adults. The 440 family members apprehended along the Canadian border were not broken down by nationality, making it impossible to know how many used Canadian no-visa laws to initially enter legally on a commercial flight before then going south into the U.S. between ports of entry.

The rest is here:
The illegal immigrant family photos lining the wall of a remote Border Patrol station next to Canada - Washington Examiner

Last week, as the worlds attention fixed on the United States Capitol and the presidential impeachment inquiry, across the road in the US Supreme Court, another hugely consequential hearing was taking place. On 12 November, the court heard oral arguments for three cases related to the lawfulness of the Trump Administrations decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects from deportation more than 700,000 immigrants brought to the US illegally as children. The Supreme Court announced that it would hear the DACA cases in June, just one day after it blocked an Administration effort to add a question on citizenship to the 2020 US census. This ruling also came back into the news last week as evidence emerged indicating that the citizenship question was politically motivated.

As the US continues to grapple with who gets counted in America and who counts as American, groundbreaking research on the results of a 1980s amnesty law sheds new light on the debates. It suggests that giving legal status to unauthorised immigrants leads lawmakers to better account for the populations in their jurisdictions and to direct public resources more shrewdly and that the changes can pay for themselves.

While the current partisan gridlock in Washington may prohibit any constructive legislative movement on this front for the foreseeable future, the findings offer useful lessons for Australian policymakers confronted with comparable challenges.

While the positive economic effects of new arrivals have been well documented in the US, Australia, and around the globe, this new research adds specifically to the literature on the benefits of formally incorporating into the system those living on its periphery.

In 1986, the administration of US President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA). In addition to making provisions to tighten border security, the IRCA gave legal status to 2.7 million of the countrys then 3 to 5 million undocumented residents, and opened a path to citizenship five years after legalisation (which less than half of the beneficiaries ultimately pursued).

Although the IRCA is often cast as a failure in that the number of unauthorised immigrants in the US grew considerably after its passage, its legacy is actually more complex. In a paper released earlier this year, researchers from the University of Munich in Germany have drawn new lessons from the Act in relation to the allocation of public funds, effects on tax revenue, and immigrants political and cultural integration into the US system.

At the heart of the study is the question of lawmakers political calculations and budgeting decisions as immigrants moved out of the shadows of illegality and gradually joined the electorate as voting citizens. By analysing state- and county-level demographic and budget data from 1980 to 2000, the researchers found that state governors came to direct more funding to counties affected by the IRCA that is, where more unauthorised immigrants were living. The paper argues these changes arose out of forward-looking governors, independent of party affiliation, strategically allocating resources in pursuit of new voters. In this sense, the relationship between the distribution of public resources and legal status was found to be one of discretionary political choice rather than one of economic necessity. Counties that received additional funds following the passage of the IRCA did not experience increases in welfare spending, only education spending.

On this note, the authors point to funding increases leading to meaningful advances in immigrant communities ability to thrive in and integrate into American life. In addition to showing that giving legal status to undocumented immigrants leads to improvements in wages, employment prospects, and English-language skills, the paper demonstrates that counties that received more funding after the IRCA saw improvements in high school completion rates among Hispanics who constituted the vast majority of those covered by the Act. Moreover, the transfers of funds did not come at the expense of counties unaffected by the IRCA, as they were offset by increases in tax revenue caused by legalised immigrants paying more in state, sales, and income taxes.

While the positive economic effects of new arrivals have been well documented in the US, Australia, and around the globe, this new research adds specifically to the literature on the benefits of formally incorporating into the system those living on its periphery.

In Australia, there are now more than 60,000 unauthorised immigrants estimated to be residing in the country, representing about 0.2% of the population. This is, of course, a far cry from the 11 million or 3.4% of the population said to be living in the United States illegally, but while illegal immigration may not represent a problem of the same order of magnitude as in the US, the overarching dynamics are similar. If anything, the smaller relative and absolute scale of the challenge in Australia makes it that much more feasible to tackle with sound policy.

It should be noted that this estimate of the illegal immigrant population in Australia does not include the over 2,000 individuals currently held in onshore or offshore detention facilities or in community detention. Virtually all of those counted among Australias unlawful immigrants are people that have overstayed their visas, and more than half of these are estimated to have remained illegally in the country for five years or more. No nationality accounts for more than 15% of the total, but the top five countries of origin for overstayers are reportedly Malaysia, China, the US, the UK, and Indonesia.

Further, experts have estimated that as many as a third of those in the country illegally work in the farming sector, which according to a recent University of Adelaide report had a structural reliance on undocumented workers. The report highlights that growers consider undocumented workers to be highly productive but that their presence leads to an uneven playing field, with workers also vulnerable to exploitation, as employers can threaten to report them to immigration authorities if they complain about their wages or conditions. The authors conclude by pointing to examples of amnesty arrangements from other countries for addressing these challenges including the IRCA in the United States.

As in many parts of the world, the subject of immigration in Australia has become much more politically fraught and coloured by ideology in recent years. Nevertheless, it is not politically inconceivable that amnesty measures could be enacted for the tens of thousands who have built a life in Australia but live under the shroud of illegality. While Canberra has taken an uncompromising stance against certain forms of illegal immigration, it would do well to look dispassionately to the lessons and the empirical evidence from the IRCA experience to better understand the opportunities and significant upsides of adopting new approaches to immigration policy.

See the original post:
Australia and immigration: Lessons from Reagan's 1986 US amnesty law - The Interpreter

It cannot not be said enough that those who enter our country illegally need to be caught and sent back to their country of origin, never to return to American soil again.

Of course, we would be living in a dreamworld to believe that illegal immigrants wont reenter our country once returned to their country of origin, because we read and watch all too often about these criminals reentering our country numerous times after being deported, with a small percentage of them committing crimes upon reentry.

We cant afford to continue to let these criminals back into our country. While we rarely agreed with any of former President Barack Obamas policies, he was strict on deportations and deserves credit for being tough on this issue. He understood that if you entered this country illegally, you would be deported. Obama deported nearly 3 million illegal immigrants during his eight years in office, much more than his predecessor, former President George W. Bush, did.

Like Obama, President Donald Trump has cracked down hard on these criminals since winning the election in 2016 and has been very tough on deportations and sending those back who defy our laws and reenter our country. Under Trumps watch, close to 1 million people have been deported back to their country of origin by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in his three years in office.

We respect Obama and Trump for being tough on our border and sending the message that if you enter this country illegally, even on numerous occasions, you will continue to be deported and will not be granted asylum here. The clear message behind these mass number of deportations of illegal immigrants should deter more of them from trying to enter our country.

We believe we are on the right track on deportations of those who defy our laws and we believe it would be a shame to ever alter the progress weve made.

Well, if U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic presidential candidate, has it her way, she would call for suspending deportations on our southern border if she is elected president.

On Nov. 8, Warren said that as president, she would be open to suspending deportations to pressure Congress to pass immigration reform legislation.

Warren went on to say: I believe that what were doing right now with Immigration and Customs Enforcement focusing on people who do not pose a threat, that when ICE comes into our communities, takes our neighbors, our friends, our family members, that they do not make this country safer. And that we need ICE and Customs and Border Patrol just focused on real threats from terrorism, container shipping that comes into the United States, contraband that we have to worry about, fentanyl that we need to be focused on. There are places that we should focus for our safety, but tearing families apart is not that.

This very far-left leaning candidate is simply in denial when she says these people pose no threat. Mrs. Warren, perhaps you should tell this to the parents of Mollie Tibbetts, who was allegedly murdered by an illegal immigrant, or the parents of Kate Steinle, who was killed while walking on a pier in San Francisco by an illegal immigrant who had been deported several times. Or to the families who have had their loved ones killed by MS-13, most of whom enter our country illegally.

Mrs. Warren, a lot of these people do pose serious threats not only by committing crimes, but by bringing serious diseases into our country and draining taxpayers pocketbooks by paying for their health care needs and other government benefits they receive.

Secondly, when you make derogatory comments about ICE, given the dangerous jobs it performs on a daily basis, you are undermining all the good it does for this country by arresting and deporting these criminals. If you were to become president, you would be handcuffing ICE from doing its job, part of which does indeed entail arresting and deporting illegal immigrants.

These brave agents wouldnt deserve that if Warren were to become president. Halting suspensions could also have the potential to put more American lives at risk at the hands of those seeking to enter our country to cause harm.

Lastly, by saying you are in favor of suspending deportations, you are encouraging more and more illegal immigrants to break the law and come to our country. Warrens essentially saying, Please break the law and there will be no consequences. Part of a presidents oath is to defend the laws of the Constitution. Our laws say that if you enter this country illegally, you will be deported.

Warren, if elected, would be derelict in her oath of office if she suspended deportations.

The proposal put forth by Warren is reckless and is just one reason among many why she is not qualified to be commander in chief.

Continue reading here:
Warren reckless in call to suspend deportations | Our Opinion - Bowling Green Daily News

I never fit in, croons Rose Garcia in one of the early scenes of Yellow Rose. For the young protagonista Filipina teen who sports a cowboy hat and blows off homework to pen songsthe lyrics land just a tad on the nose. From the moment she appears onscreen in Diane Paragas feature film, Rose (played by Eva Noblezada) is something of a sociocultural rarity: cruising on her bike through the streets of a small town on the outskirts of Austin, absorbed in the country tunes flowing through her headphones, heading to the rundown motel where she stays with her single mother who works as a housekeeper.

Much like its heroine, Yellow Rose defies categorization. Its equal parts musical, family drama, coming-of-age story, and timely political commentary. The film, which screens at the Houston Cinema Arts Festival on November 15, is the feature debut from Paragas, a Filipino American who grew up in Lubbock and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. Yellow Rose tackles several under-explored subjects that could each carry a feature: a Filipina striving to break into the country music scene, an undocumented Asian family struggling to carve out a life in the United States, a budding interracial teen romance. As the film interweaves these narrative threads into a cohesive storyline, viewers may feel a slight sense of thematic whiplash. A powerful sequence juxtaposes a date night at Austins iconic honky-tonk the Broken Spoke with the visceral devastation of Roses mothers abrupt arrest and detainment by ICE. Its a striking emotional 180 that leaves both the films characters and audience reeling.

But for her immigration status, Roses character would not be out of place in a lineup of plucky teen girl protagonists of American cinema. Shes a starry-eyed artist with lofty hopes of striking it big, a slightly rebellious teen chafing against the constraints imposed by her conservative mother, an endearing misfit who catches the eye of a sweetly awkward love interest.

Yet Rose is also burdened with the knowledge that her seemingly stable existence can be torn from her without a moments notice, which makes the tonal dissonance of Yellow Rose effective. On her first day at a new job, Rose befriends a fellow undocumented coworker, only to see the establishment raided by ICE and her friend detained the next daynarrowly avoiding the same fate herself. Scenes of Rose scribbling lyrics in notebooks, sneaking out for drinks, and awkwardly navigating teen romance feel like theyve been lifted from a conventional bildungsroman, while the bleak depiction of her mothers stay in an ICE detention center and the heartbreak of their too-brief, institutionally oppressed reunion are reminiscent of poignant, family-centered incarceration dramas.

Despite remaining in development for over 15 years, Yellow Rose enters the pop culture zeitgeist as illegal immigration continues to be one of the most common and polarizing subjects nationwide. The film does the crucial work of bringing undocumented Asian Americans to the forefront of a national conversation on what is seen as a predominantly Latin American issuedespite an estimated 1 in 7 Asian immigrants identifying as undocumented, as reported in a 2015 study by the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice. Yellow Rose adds a new dimension to Asian representation in American media, subverting narratives of the privileged lifestyles of the model minority in favor of a reality thats at once harsh, unfamiliar, and of vital importance.

Yellow Rose is not without flaws. The films white cast is spared the clich of being an assemblage of bigoted Southerners, but it veers too far in the other direction. A few characters and the sheer magnanimity of their actionsfrom the matronly bar owner who knows Rose only as an underage drinker yet offers her a job and a place to stay after learning shes undocumented, to the veteran country star (played by Dale Watson) who helps the budding young singer cultivate her talent and lets her live in his backyard Airstream rent-freesometimes strain credulity.

Nevertheless, the shortcomings of Yellow Rose are overshadowed by its authentic, earnest depiction of characters and narratives rarely given a voice in mainstream media. The films principal themesthe trials and triumphs of living undocumented, the interaction between the traditionally white, masculine arena of country music and the diverse generation that stands to inherit itall explore socially relevant topics that many Americans are aware of only peripherally. All too often, these issues are oversimplified and relegated to the black-and-white arena of political debate. Were in dire need of media that presents thoughtful, nuanced depictions of hot-button issues such as immigration, not as a morality tale but in the service of a great story. Unquestionably, Yellow Rose does just that.

Read more from the Observer:

Go here to see the original:
In Yellow Rose, the American Coming-of-Age Story Finally Includes Undocumented Youth - The Texas Observer

Bahamas has imprisoned 10 Haitians who illegally sneaked into the country in a move the government hopes serves as a major deterrent to others.

The Bahamian Department of Immigration said in all, 56 Haitians, including 50 men, were arrested on November 9 this year at Deadmans Cay on Long Island.

The Department added that a check of the border control management system revealed that 10 of the migrants convicted were repeated [sic] offenders. While the 46 others were set for deportation, the others were arraigned before court.

The Nassau Guardian reports that in the past few weeks, scores of Haitians have been convicted on charges related to unlawful entry into the Bahamas.

But the Haitian Charge DAffaires in Bahamas has voiced concerns over the severity of the punishment meted out to the 10.

Dorval Darlier suggested that there was very little point in holding on as prisoners, people who could easily be deported home.

I know that The Bahamas is a country of law, but sometimes you have to see it like the humanitarian way becausethere isnt a major crime, said Darlier.

If you keep someone in jail, you are to take care of them. You are to feed [them]. I think its [better] for the government to just send them back.

Bahamas is one of the Caribbeans most stable and prosperous countries. The archipelago of islands has in recent years been the destination of some desperate Caribbeans in search of economic opportunities.

Visit link:
Bahamas goes hard on 10 Haitians for illegal immigration; 1-year prison sentences and $3000 fines - Face2Face Africa