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Years ago, my family had to fight US immigration offices tirelessly for my fathers chance to be a citizen. This was under the Obama administration whom many had championed as progressive for immigrants. My mom became a single mother for nearly a year all while juggling two children, lawyer fees, her undergraduate coursework, and a full-time job. She became a hero to me. As inspiring as that is, it makes me wonder why families even have to be separated in the first place. My father used to tell me the pain and struggle of what being undocumented looks like. He told me stories of fathers who had to watch their children grow up between the thin plastic slides of ICE detention centers. Without a lawyer, which most cant afford, I likely wouldnt have seen my father for decades. I like to think that maybe things will change, but change doesnt come from inaction. To get the widespread change Americans deserve, and by Americans I mean all Americans, we need to hold this administration accountable.

Truth be told, DACA isnt as controversial as people make it out to be. In fact, its sort of the bare minimum of what the American public expects to pass. Nearly 83% of Americans support immigration reform for children who arrived here illegally and want them to have a shot at citizenship. Not just this, but the requirements for DACA recipients are just extraneous and would oftentimes be downright unfeasible for most Duke students. Its no wonder why opinion has shifted in favor of DACA, the recipients are vetted beyond belief. Valeria Silombria, a senior Political Science major at Duke and DACA recipient, echoes this sentiment. She stated I am feeling hopeful about the Biden-Harris administration. I am appreciative of their plans for Dreamers pathway to citizenship; however, I think that DACA recipients are the most privileged among the undocumented community (because we get a work permit, drivers license, and protection from deportation). There are a lot of undocumented students who unfortunately dont qualify for this program because of the date they entered the U.S. or other circumstances. Also, DACA recipients parents dont get any benefit from the DACA program. I would really like to see justice for all these individuals too and not just us Dreamers.

To clarify, there isnt anything wrong with ensuring protection from DACA. What is wrong is how delayed the responses have been to it. The expectations for this upcoming administration are milestones that shouldve come a decade ago. Not just this, but these protections likely wont extend to the families of DACA recipients with a 50-50 split US Senate. Damary Gutierrez Hernandez, a junior at Duke majoring in Statistical Science and also a DACA recipient, stated At this point, I wonder what my parents are going to do. They have been here a very long time and their situation has stayed the same despite multiple changes in administration. They have sacrificed everything for me and my family to have the American dream. Despite this, their chance will be one of the first things cut by the 'moderate' vote. People dont think about the individuals going through this experience unless they place these great expectations on them. It almost feels like by elevating DACA students and not their entire families, they are placing a barrier between those who do or dont deserve it. The public opinion on who can receive DACA is sort of toxic. Who is anyone to say that someone doesnt or does deserve DACA?

The Biden Administration has made boldness a focal point of its immigration reform. While I certainly agree these last two senate races and putting DACA on the agenda were wins for progressives, that doesnt mean the fight is over. Justice is a lot more than equality. Justice looks like long-term organizing in the name of ending separating families. Even if the last Democratic administration didnt build cages for children, the fact that cages were built at all should sound the alarms for what we may see moving forward. Not just this, but President Bidens call to end private prisons doesnt include immigrant detention facilities. I agree that former President Trumps immigration policies were abhorrent, separating families and forced hysterectomies were simply unprecedented. However, this doesnt mean a repeal of those policies will insure a better quality of life for DACA, undocumented, and permanent residents. The stress, anxiety and fear will remain for many of these Americans. Just because the bar is below the ground doesnt mean we should remain minimal in our expectations. Without permanent legal protections, the risk of repeating Trumps atrocities remains at large.

Lastly, I would like to end with things that can be done to help support those fighting the immigration system. First off, the Informed Immigrant site provides a full guide to legal rights and finds local lawyers willing to work pro-bono to fight off immigration services. If you want to do one better, try to donate money to these programs. Second, hundreds of Duke students have signed this petition demanding Duke University declare itself a sanctuary campus but as of July 31st, 2020 there seems to be no formal announcement declaring it as one. Though Trump is no longer president, a move like this would be a sigh of relief and comfort for many Duke students. Administration changes, no matter how big or small, doesnt mean we stop fighting. Third, please help organize. Organizing consists of helping community leaders gather resources and people to support the cause. Georgia was a perfect example of what can happen when people get behind grassroots organizations and fight for longterm change. You can make a difference. Even if undocumented and DACA students dont have a vote themselves, students like Duke Senior and Statistical Science major Salvador Chavero have shown mobilization at Duke is possible. Last but not least, call your congressional representatives and urge them to push resolutions introduced by the Biden administration forward. Change is possible, but only if we support each other to get there.

I thank Salvador Chavero, Damary Gutierrez Hernandez, and Valeria Silombria for their incredible insight and help with this article. Undocumented, DACA, permanent residents, and international students fighting immigration services often go unnoticed at Duke. If there is anything anyone fighting these issues could take away from reading this column, please know youre not alone in this fight.

Anthony Salgado is a Trinity first-year. His column runs on alternate Fridays.

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We need immigration revolution, not immigration reform - The Chronicle - Duke Chronicle

President Joseph R. Biden Jr. began his administration by fulfilling a number of promises made on the campaign trail. On his first day in office, the president issued an immigration reform proposal that includes a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and a strategy to address the root causes of migration.

In a few short hours, the White House completely changed the tone of our national discourse on immigration. While campaigning and during his presidency, Donald Trump played on nativist fears by using the term invasion to describe the changing demographics of the United States. A positive tone is unquestionably a significant development in itself, but Mr. Biden has already demonstrated that he will go beyond mere words.

The new president has signed eight executive orders related to immigration in his first two weeks in office. He also signed an order that restores the inclusion of noncitizens in the official U.S. Census count. Many of these actions are direct reversals of President Trumps anti-immigrant measures. These measures are important first steps, but immigration reform must move beyond executive orders.

Mr. Biden fully restored the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era policy that protected from deportation undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as minors. While ultimately blocked by the courts, Mr. Trump had attempted to end this program, popularly known as DACA. President Biden also ended the Migration Protection Protocols, commonly known as the Remain in Mexico policy, which forced vulnerable asylum seekers who arrived at the southern border to wait for their court dates amid precarious conditions in Mexico.

Mr. Biden also halted construction of the border wall, which Mr. Trump famously promised would be financed by the Mexican government. And Mr. Trumps travel bans, which barred travelers from certain nations with large Muslim populations, are also now a thing of the past. In short order, Mr. Biden used his office to reverse course on capricious immigration enforcement within the United States.

Under the Trump administration, immigration officials put into force a zero-tolerance policy on unauthorized border crossings that led to the separation of thousands of children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. While the trauma this inflicted on families cannot be reversed, Mr. Biden did order on Feb. 2 the formation of a task force to reunite hundreds of families who remain separated because of the Trump administration policy.

On the same day, Mr. Biden ordered both expanded avenues for legal migration from Central America and measures to address the conditions that cause Central Americans to flee their home countries. And he issued an executive order to review policies introduced by the Trump administration to determine whether they meet the goal of promoting the inclusion and integration of immigrants into American society.

While the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has rightly voiced its differences with Mr. Biden decisions related to abortion policy, the bishops have nevertheless applauded the administration for the many steps it has taken to improve the lives of immigrants.

The Catholic Church teaches that each person is created in the image and likeness of God and that we must uphold the inherent dignity of each person, the Most Rev. Mario E. Dorsonville, auxiliary bishop of Washington and chairman of the U.S.C.C.B.s Committee on Migration, said in a statement.

As a society, we must remain consistent in our openness and treatment of all persons, regardless of whether they were born in the United States or immigrated here, he said. We know that changes will take time but applaud President Bidens commitment to prioritize assisting our immigrant and refugee brothers and sisters. We also offer our assistance and cooperation on these urgent matters of human life and dignity.

The U.S. governments anti-immigrant actions certainly did not begin with Mr. Trump. Since President Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which legalized millions of undocumented immigrants, immigration reform has largely focused on enforcement and border security. Both Republican and Democratic leaders, for example, joined to pass the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, the 2001 Patriot Act, the 2005 Real ID Act and the 2006 Secure Fence Act. And while Mr. Obama took some executive actions to protect immigrants, his administration unwisely escalated the number of deportations and began the temporary detention of unaccompanied migrant children in chain-link enclosures, which reached its appalling zenith during the next administration.

The Trump administration brought U.S. immigration policy to rock bottom in terms of morality. Mr. Trumps approach, in words and actions, was typified by cruelty. The administration appeared to be inflicting these inhumane conditions in an effort to break the spirits of migrants and asylum seekers, believing that their suffering would cause them to abandon their efforts to enter the United States. Americans can rejoice today that this cruelty has come to an end, thanks to Mr. Biden.

But the work is far from over.

As the Kino Border Initiative recently noted, there are still thousands of asylum seekers waiting on the southern border because of the Remain in Mexico policy. Its suspension by the Biden administration does not change the reality for those who are currently enrolled and still waiting. Mr. Biden must immediately end Remain in Mexico for those who are already enrolled and must end Title 42 public health restrictions on the border, a measure to which experts object.

Mr. Biden must also reconsider enforcement strategies from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs Border Protection. As recently called for by Catholic bishops in border dioceses, the Biden administration must ensure that U.S. asylum law adheres to international standards. Mr. Biden must also take steps to address the paralyzing backlog of more than 1.3 million cases in immigration courts.

Immigration reform, however, must move beyond executive orders. President Obama and President Trump have both had their actions on immigration reversed by their successors. Unlike executive actions, Mr. Biden faces a much steeper challenge in working with Congress to pass needed permanent legislation on behalf of immigrants while safeguarding the future vitality of the United States.

This is just the beginning. Catholics and others who support immigrants may take Mr. Bidens first weeks of office as a hopeful sign of things to come. But we must also remain vigilant. Mr. Biden will need broad support from faith communities if he is to lead this country through the comprehensive immigration reform it so desperately needs.

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The Editors: Joe Biden will need support from the U.S. bishops to reform immigration policy - America Magazine

In its first weeks the Biden administration has laid out an ambitious agenda, including broad-based immigration reform. Addressing immigration, never an easy topic in Congress, out-of-the-gate is a bold move that will generate intense debate. But theres an aspect of the immigration issue that should engender more bipartisan agreement access for U.S. businesses to the skilled and educated immigrants they need to be competitive.

Numerous studies over the years have confirmed an essential fact: Immigrants tend to be more entrepreneurial than native-born Americans and have a high propensity to found companies. In 2019, one in four entrepreneurs was an immigrant. More than half of unicorns launched in the U.S. have been founded by people from other countries.

The ranks of CEOs, CTOs and VPs for engineering are filled with immigrants who came here as students or on H-1B or other visas.

In the Bay Area, close to 45% of tech companies have been founded by immigrants and more than half of all of technology workers are immigrants. A preponderance of graduate students in science and technology at Bay Area universities are immigrants holding F-1 visas.

The Trump administration actively suppressed immigration at every level not just undocumented immigrants but legal, high-skilled immigrants as well. Undoing that damage will be an important task for the new administration.

Take H-1Bs, the visa used by tech and other companies to fill high-skilled workforce gaps. In recent years denial rates have risen sharply. Spouses of H-1B holders, often skilled individuals themselves, were denied the ability to work. In June it was announced that the issuance of new H-1B and other work-related visas such as H-2B (for seasonal workers), J-1 (for work-study summer students) and L-1 (for intra-company executive transfers) would be suspended until 2021 due to the pandemic and unspecified threats to American jobs. An attempt was made, but later withdrawn, to terminate visas for students who were forced to take classes online when the pandemic forced campuses to close.

In October, a new set of rules was issued that sharply raised minimum pay thresholds for visa holders to levels unaffordable by most businesses, changed the lottery by prioritizing applications for the highest-paying jobs, and narrowed the definition of qualifying specialty occupations. This last rule also impacted current visa holders by applying the new standards to applications for renewal. The effect was to make continued use of the program impractical for most businesses.

Now, with pushback by businesses and universities, and a change of administration, the clock is being reset. A November lawsuit by the Bay Area Council, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and others successfully blocked Octobers changes to the lottery and salary thresholds on procedural grounds, but earlier this month modified rules were issued after those deficiencies were corrected. The other Trump proposal to redefine who is eligible for a visa, however, was not published so has not gone into effect.

So where happens next? The new administration has the discretion to change how immigration law is interpreted and enforced, and almost certainly will. Administrative rules that have not been formally adopted can be rescinded, but rules already in place can only be changed through new administrative procedures, which will take time.

Comprehensive immigration reform is near the top of the legislative agenda. New policies and the bill sent to Congress should include measures to ensure that Americas doors are open to legal, high-skilled immigrants. These include protecting the right of spouses of H-1B visa holders to work, exempting individuals who hold advanced STEM degrees from numerical visa caps, eliminating country quotas for green cards, and enabling the number of H-1B visas to float to meet the market.

Selectively engaging skilled immigrants gives the U.S. a competitive advantage, allowing it to offset an ageing workforce, support business formation, and expand employment. The H-1B visa program, including any reforms, should be supported by on a bipartisan basis independent of other immigration issues. For now, businesses, current visa holders, and others who are planning to apply can expect more welcoming policies in the Biden administration than under its predecessor.

Views expressed above are the author's own.

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The Biden administration will offer a more welcoming environment for skilled immigrants and H1-B visas - The Times of India Blog

President Joe Biden is throwing the kitchen sink at immigration reform. And thats good, because there is a lot to clean up.

Biden is working both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. Not only did the president keep his promise to send over, on his first day in office, a proposed immigration reform bill for Congress to chew onand fight over for the next several months. He has also, in his first two weeks on the job, issued a slew of executive orders intended to fix some of what former president Donald Trump broke, tarnished, or sullied with his heartless, harebrained, and half-baked immigration policies.

I know what youre thinking. Youve seen this movie before. Well, maybe you havebut maybe you havent. Biden is trying something that seems familiar at first glance, but is at closer look quite a novel approach.

On the one hand, his immigration reform bill looks like past bills because its built around the same big-ticket item: a path to U.S. citizenship for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants currently living in the United States. Previous legislation has suggested that the path should be as long as 12 years, but Biden wants to cut it to eight. That idea alone is enough to keep Congress preoccupied, and feuding, over the next few months. Democrats will talk about lifting people from the shadows and giving them a chance to contribute further to America, while Republicans will talk about amnesty and upholding the rule of law.

But whats missing from the Biden bill are the kinds of sticks and carrots that formed the foundation of previous stabs at immigration reform. Where are the guest workers, to get the support of pro-business Republicans? Has anyone seen the employer sanctions that are usually in these bills to win over the votes of pro-labor Democrats who often oppose reform efforts because unions fear competition from newly legalized immigrant workers? What about the low-hanging fruit that usually attracts support from both Republicans and Democrats, i.e. increased border security?

These are the kinds of things that are usually consideredalong with legalization, regularization, amnesty, whatever you want to call itthe essential components of comprehensive immigration reform. They get included in legislative proposals so they can be haggled over and negotiated away and used as lures to attract support.

The fact that theyre not part of Bidens bill tells me one of three things. One, maybe the administration doesnt think the bill is going to pass anyway, and so the White House isnt bothering to include all the trimmings. Two, maybe the White Housewith an eye toward protecting vulnerable congressional Democrats who have to stand for reelection in 2022doesnt want the bill to pass, and this is all a show to placate immigration reform activists.

Or three, there may be some really smart people on Bidens team who understand that, in years past, it was those horse-trading items that often gummed up the works and kept immigration bills from passing. Leaving the sweeteners out may increase the chance the bill will pass because the sweeteners are often divisiveboth in Congress, and the public as a wholeand they ignite the special interests who then get into the sandbox and make the whole process of passing the bill more partisan, polarized, and poisonous.

Take, for instance, guest workers. Business interests say we need to bring in temporary foreign workers to do these jobs. That upsets and inflames organized labor which argues that foreign workers take jobs and drive down wages for U.S. workers. Now, the haggling over an immigration bill, which was supposed to be about securing U.S. borders and ports while giving legal status to some of the undocumented, becomes a pissing contest between labor and management, each of which is throwing money at their respective armies in Congress. Suddenly, both parties are awash in money, and they can only think about one thing: How do they keep the faucet turned on?

The core question that confronts his bill is this: Is this the best time to pass immigration reform legislation that adds some humanity and common sense to a system that can be unfair, unkind, unworkable, and unjust? Or is it the worst time?

People ask me all the time why we havent had a meaningful and comprehensive immigration reform billone that combines enforcement, employment, and legal statuspassed by Congress since the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. Ive just explained why: Theres no money in compromise. Theres money in conflict.

Biden knows all this. For 36 years in the Senate, he had a front-row seat to this circus. So with his immigration bill, he just sidesteps all that special interests bullshit on both sides, and makes what looks like a clean ask: U.S. citizenship for the 11 million undocumented people in this country.

Instead of citizenship, Biden should have askedin his billfor the three things that the undocumented tell me they want: legal status so they cant be deported, the ability to travel across borders so they can go home and visit family members who got left behind, and the ability to get a drivers license so they can get back and forth to work. Thats it. Thats what the undocumented need and deserve.

But Biden has decided to go bigger. The core question that confronts his bill is this: Is this the best time to pass immigration reform legislation that adds some humanity and common sense to a system that can be unfair, unkind, unworkable, and unjust? Or is it the worst time? It may be that four years of Donald Trump turning immigration into The Hunger Games has made Americans crave a better and softer approach. Or it may be that, in the same way that thousands of Americans on Jan. 6 marched on Washington and hundreds of them stormed the U.S. Capitol, there is a large swath of Americans who are ready to fight against anything that looks like amnesty for undocumented immigrants.

Isnt that rich? A bunch of lawbreakers suddenly preaching the virtue of upholding the rule of law. Stay tuned. You dont want to miss that.

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Biden Goes Big on Immigration and Dares GOP to Stop Him - The Daily Beast

Over the course of former President Donald Trumps administration, the team behind Migratory Notes worked hard to keep up with the biggest immigration news in the U.S. The newsletter kept followers informed about everything from immigration reform to family separations, packaged neatly under bold, concise subheads delivered to their email inbox.

The pace of changes, the executive orders, the rhetoric, was really unprecedented in the past four years, said Daniela Gerson, an assistant professor of journalism at California State University, Northridge. She launched Migratory Notes in 2017 with Elizabeth Aguilera because of their deep mutual interest in immigration news.

Gerson said shes most proud of putting out what she described as the consistency and, at times drudgery, of a weekly report . Among the stories that do particularly well are handy guides that break down complex immigration laws and policies. When something new is shaping the lives of tens of thousands or even millions, its clear to us that journalists as well as local lawmakers, academics, and advocates are scrambling to understand, Gerson said. So when we published links to guides to topics such as immigration reform or return to Mexico or the travel ban, we always find lots of people click on them.

The pop-up newsletter, which rounds up the most pressing stories published about immigration, drew not only the interest of high-profile immigration journalists, but also of policymakers, academics, concerned citizens and lawyers.

And suddenly we had an audience, which kept us going, because what we kept hearing from people was how useful it was to them in their work, said Aguilera, who covers health and social services for CalMatters, a nonprofit newsroom based in Sacramento, California.

The project, which received financial support early on from the Emerson Collective, is now pieced together by a small team and written by Anna-Catherine Brigida, a freelance journalist based in El Salvador. It is approaching 5,000 subscribers who read from just about every state and more than a dozen countries. (Those interested in receiving the newsletter on Thursdays can subscribe here.)

Since President Joe Biden was inaugurated last month, he has signed several executive orders that take aim at his predecessors hard-line immigration policies. With the U.S. under a starkly different administration, Gerson and Aguilera spoke to Poynter in late January about the direction their rapidly growing newsletter is headed in next. The co-founders hope to build on the influence of Migratory Notes into concrete support for those covering the beat through town halls and research.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Gerson said they hosted a town hall for immigration reporters, and a few months before that conducted a survey of immigration journalists with Columbia Journalism Review.

Both of those pointed toward a real need for knowledge sharing amongst immigration journalists. Theres Education Writers Association, theres Kaiser Health News, theres the Center for Healthcare Reporting. Theres support for basically almost every other beat, Gerson said. Theres individual support for reporting on immigration issues, but theres no support organization for immigration journalists. In the four years of covering immigration journalism, we saw certain needs emerge and opportunities, and one was connection amongst immigration journalism and better knowledge-sharing.

Through a new partnership with Internews, an international nonprofit that works to form healthy media environments, the Migratory Notes team plans to build a knowledge-sharing network of immigration journalists. Their next town hall, on covering Central American migration, will be held this Thursday at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time. (Anyone interested in attending can register here to receive a meeting link.) As of Tuesday nearly 100 journalists have registered. The event will be the first in a series of virtual town halls for immigration journalists.

Another focus for Gerson and Aguilera is to research immigration news deserts, areas of the U.S. that Gerson said has particularly large numbers of immigration workers and essential workers but lack regular immigration news coverage. They want to figure out how they can support local journalists in these areas with training to cover immigration issues. They are looking for new funders to support the work of Migratory Notes.

What weve learned is that people are looking for even more support that we hope to be able to provide and thats by connecting people with one another, information sharing, and then looking at some of the needs that weve noticed as weve done Migratory Notes in terms of coverage areas and where people live, but maybe we dont see a lot of stories coming out or people dont go there very often, Aguilera said.

Well continue providing the resource that weve been providing, but figuring out what else we can do to support the people who really rely on it.

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They launched a newsletter to cover immigration under Trump. Now they're ready to expand. - Poynter