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Join Us for our upcoming webinar, Higher Ed Pathways to Immigration: Why it Matters.The Presidents Alliance is co-hosting a half-day event onApril 21, 2023, from 9 a.m. 12:00 p.m. ET and we invite you to register and join us for the virtual streaming!

This event will illuminate higher educations role in facilitating immigration pathways, developing talent and potential, and reducing barriers to integration and naturalization. As the Biden Administration seeks to build on the strength of immigrant contributions to our knowledge-based economy, colleges and universities serve as critically important pathways for immigration and for immigrant integration, mobility, and success. However, these pathways are not as straightforward as they need to be to maintain our global competitiveness, and our immigration laws and policies desperately need modernization in order to allow all immigrants to reach their limitless potential. A recording of the webinar will be posted to our website within one week of the event.

Register here to attend virtually.

Adam has twenty-five years of experience working in US politics, government, and foreign affairs. He is currently the CEO of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute. Before joining the Institute, he spent six years as a Massachusetts State Senator where he Chaired the Committee on Revenue and led the Senates effort to rebuild the Commonwealth post-COVID. In 2021-2022 he was a candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts.

From 2005 to 2014 Adam worked for the United Nations in the Middle East. He was based in Baghdad, Iraq where he was a team leader of a UN-led negotiation between the Kurdistan Region and the Government of Iraq over disputed territory. He was a regional advisor to the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process in Jerusalem. He worked for former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to establish a ceasefire in Syria in 2012 and then was part of a team to eliminate Syrias chemical weapons program.

Early in his career, Adam worked for former Congressman John Olver and was part of John Kerrys campaign for President where he worked for Susan Rice, the head of his foreign policy team who later became the US National Security Advisor.Adam attended Wesleyan University and received a Masters degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Adam is married to Dr. Alicia Mireles Christoff, Associate Professor of English at Amherst College, and they have two young children.

Miriam Feldblum is co-founder and executive director of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Presidents Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, an alliance of over 500 college and university leaders of public and private colleges and universities, enrolling over five million students in 43 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico. A national expert on the intersection of immigration and higher education, Miriam has written extensively and delivered presentations on undocumented, international, and refugee students, immigration policy and higher education, and highly skilled labor in the United States.

She is a non-resident fellow at the Migration Policy Instituteand author of Reconstructing Citizenship: The Politics of Nationality Reform and Immigration in Contemporary France.

Miriam previously served as vice president for student affairs, dean of students, and professor of politics at Pomona College, as special assistant to the president, faculty research associate, and senior director at the California Institute of Technology, and as an assistant professor at the University of San Francisco. She received a BA in political science from Barnard College, and MA, MPhil, and PhD degrees in political science from Yale.

Adam Hunter is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Immigration Policy at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and was appointed on Jan. 20, 2021. Mr. Hunter has more than fifteen years experience on migration, national security, and international affairs issues. Before assuming his role at DHS, he was the Executive Director of Refugee Council USA (RCUSA), an organization working to protect and welcome refugees, asylum seekers, and other forcibly displaced populations. Prior roles included Director of a Pew Charitable Trusts research project exploring immigration through the lens of federalism, and Consultant to several foundations and non-profit organizations. During a previous tenure in government, Mr. Hunter served as Acting Chief of Staff at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a component of DHS, and held other agency leadership and program management roles. Earlier in his career, he worked with policymakers in Europe and at Washington think tanks, including the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Mr. Hunter holds a BA from Vanderbilt University, MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School, and D&I certificate from Cornell University.

Marcelo Surez-Orozco is Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Prior to his return to the Commonwealth, he served as the inaugural UCLA Wasserman Dean and Distinguished Professor of Education. Dr. Surez-Orozcos research focuses on conceptual and empirical problems in the areas of cultural psychology and psychological anthropology with a focus on the study of mass migration, globalization and education. He is the author of numerous scholarly essays, award-winning books and edited volumes published by Harvard University Press, Stanford University Press, University of California Press, Cambridge University Press, Columbia University Press and others. His scholarly papers are published in a range of disciplines and languages in international journals. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, W. T. Grant, Spencer, Rockefeller, Hewlett, Ford and Carnegie, and multiple others. He has also served as the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Education and as Member of the Inaugural Executive Committee of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. At NYU, he served as the inaugural Courtney Sale Ross University Professor.

Dr. Surez-Orozco earned his A.B. in psychology, M.A. in anthropology, and Ph.D. in anthropology at UC Berkeley. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts with his wife, the eminent psychologist of immigration, Carola Surez-Orozco. Carola and Marcelos hobbies include taking Lilly their Papillon, for long walks in Boston Harbor and, whenever possible, biking in the woods of Western Massachusetts

Esther Benjamin is a tri-sector global leader, currently serving as CEO of World Education Services. She is a Visiting Fellow with the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Sad Business School, University of Oxford. Previously, Esther was CEO for Africa Operations with Laureate Education. In President Obamas Administration, Esther led Global Operations for the Peace Corps. Esther was an executive with the International Youth Foundation and the International Partnership for Microbicides. In 1999, President Clinton appointed Esther a White House Fellow. She began her career with the United Nations, the World Bank, and Grant Thornton. Esther serves on the Board of Directors of Echoing Green, B Lab Global, and Candid. In 2021, Dickinson College awarded Esther an honorary doctorate in International Education. New York Times best-selling author and Maryland Governor Wes Moore profiled Esther as The Globalist in his book The Work: Searching for a Life that Matters.

Pam Eddinger is president of Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC), the largest of 15 community colleges in Massachusetts. Dr. Eddinger began her tenure at BHCC in 2013 and previously served as president of Moorpark College in Southern California from 2008.

Dr. Eddingers service in the Community College movement spans more than 25 years, with senior posts in academics and student affairs, communications and policy, and executive leadership. Dr. Eddinger serves on a number of boards and commissions, including the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE), GBH Boston, the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, the Boston Foundation (TBF), the Massachusetts Workforce Development Board, the Boston Private Industry Council, Achieving the Dream (ATD), the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy, and the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU). Dr. Eddinger was honored in 2016 by the Obama White House as a Champion of Change. She earned a bachelors degree in English from Barnard College and her masters and doctorate in Japanese Literature from Columbia University.

Javier Reyes currently serves as interim chancellor at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), Chicagos largest and only public Carnegie Research 1 university. Dr. Reyes oversees the universitys $3.8B budget, 16 colleges including the first and only public law school in Chicago, and seven health science colleges with the College of Medicine among nations leading educators of Black and Latino medical professionals.

Before being appointed Interim Chancellor, Dr. Reyes became UICs Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs in August of 2021. During his time as Provost, he initiated an overhaul of UICs budget model while also restructuring the universitys teaching innovation environments to position UIC for success amidst a new era of innovative and accessible education.

Dr. Reyes came to UIC from the Milan Puskar Dean of the John Chambers College of Business and Economics at West Virginia University (WVU). Before joining WVU, he served at the University of Arkansas, where he earned tenure and the title of full professor of economics in the Sam M. Walton College of Business where he also served as Vice Provost for Distance and Online Education.

Most recently, Dr. Reyes was appointed Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he will begin July 1, 2023.

Dr. Reyes received his bachelors degree in economics from the Instituto Tecnolgico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, and his doctorate in economics from Texas A&M University.

Carola Surez-Orozco is a Professor in Residence at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Director of the Immigration Initiative at Harvard.

Using mixed-methodological strategies, her work focuses on elucidating the child, adolescent, and young adult experience of immigrationhow is their development shaped by immigration and how are they changed by the process? She has studied a wide variety of processes including academic engagement and achievement, identity formation, family separations, civic engagement, and the unauthorized experience. A focus on school settings has been an essential and enduring theme in her basic research agenda as schools are a first contact point between the immigrant children, their families, and the new society.

Her books include: Children of Immigration, Learning a New Land, Transitions: The Development of the Children of Immigrants, Education: Our Global Compact in a Time of Crisis, as well as Immigrant-Origin Students in Community College: Navigating Risk and Reward in Higher Education among others.

She has been awarded an American Psychological Association (APA) Presidential Citation for her contributions to the understanding of cultural psychology of immigration, has served as Chair of the APA Presidential Task Force on Immigration, and is a member of the National Academy of Education.

Eva A. Millona is currently serving as the chief of the inaugural Office of Citizenship, Partnership and Engagement in the External Affairs Directorate at United States Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Department of Homeland Security. Prior to this role, she had served as the DHS assistant secretary for partnership and engagement since May 2021. In that role, she served as the secretarys primary advisor on the impact of the Departments policies, regulations, processes, and actions on state, local, tribal, territorial (SLTT) governments, SLTT elected officials, nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, and the academic community, ensuring a unified approach to external engagement.

Before joining DHS, Millona was president and chief executive officer for over 13 years at the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA), the largest organization in New England promoting and enhancing integration for new Americans. In 2010, she cofounded of National Partnership for New Americans, a national organization focused on immigrant integration at the local, state, and federal levels that she cochaired for 11 years. She also chaired the 2020 U.S. Census Statewide Complete Count Committee in Massachusetts.

A native of Albania, Millona practiced civil and criminal law before becoming the youngest district judge ever appointed to Tiranas District Court, where she served from 1989 to 1992. After immigrating to the United States, she directed the refugee resettlement program in central Massachusetts. She served on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the Massachusetts Governors Advisory Council for Refugees and Immigrants under four governors, the Attorney Generals Council for New Americans, and the Advisory Board for the Boston Mayors Office for Immigrant Advancement. Millona taught global policy as an adjunct professor of practice at Boston College School of Social Work.

Millona has received numerous awards for her leadership and impact, including the prestigious USCIS Outstanding American by Choice Award in 2009 and the 2010 Wainwright Bank Social Justice Award.

Millona is a graduate of Clark University where she obtained a Master of Arts in political science. She also holds a law degree from the University of Tirana.

Nancy Palencia Ramrez is an Ed.M. candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she focuses on using product management and iterative design to provide quality civic education to early primary school children. She was a Chevening Scholar and holds an MA ininternational political economy from Kings College London.

Patricia Sobalvarro was born in Guatemala and migrated to the United States at age eleven to be reunited with her mother. She graduated from Boston University in 1996 with a dual bachelors degree in Economics and in International Relations. In 2004, she received a masters degree in Non-Profit Management from Cambridge College. She is the co-founder and Executive

Director of Agencia ALPHA, a grassroots nonprofit and social ministry of Congregation Lion of Judah. For the past 20 years, under her leadership, Agencia ALPHA has been empowering over 1,200 immigrants annually through their accredited legalization and citizenship and leadership programs. As a response to the COVID19 pandemic, Ms. Sobalvarro along other two partners, co-founded the Massachusetts Immigrant Collaborative, a statewide collaborative of 15 immigrant supporting organizations working together to serve under-resourced and at-risk immigrant communities. Under Ms. Sobalvarros leadership, Agencia ALPHA has been a strategic member of the MIRA Coalition, leading on local/national initiatives including the Safe Community Act and advocating for a just and fair immigration reform.

She has served on the advisory board for the City of Boston Mayors Office for Immigrant Advancement and on the Massachusetts Attorney Generals Advisory Council on New Americans. Currently she is a member of Governor Maura Healeys Latino Empowerment Council.

In her free time, Ms. Sobalvarro loves spending time with family and friends, skiing, going to the beach and taking long walks with Duke, her chocolate Labrador Retriever.

Mary C. Waters is the John Loeb Professor of Sociology and the PVK Professor of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. A sociologist and demographer, her work has focused on the integration of immigrants and their children, the social determinants of health, immigration policy, disasters and their aftermath, and the measurement and meaning of racial and ethnic identity. Her current projects include a study of older Latino immigrants and the American welfare state, and a longitudinal study of mobility and recovery among survivors of Hurricane Katrina, as well as work on climate change and migration. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the National Academy of Sciences and she chaired the NAS Panel on The Integration of Immigrants into American Society (2015).

Rajika Bhandari, Ph.D., serves as a Senior Advisor for the Presidents Alliance and is a scholar-practitioner in international higher education with a focus on international student trends and issues. She is the Principal of Rajika Bhandari Advisors, offering strategic guidance to nonprofits, multilateral organizations, and higher education institutions around the world. Dr. Bhandari previously led the IC3 Institute as its President and CEO, and spent over a decade at the Institute of International Education where she led IIEs research, evaluation and thought leadership portfolio, including the Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange. Quoted frequently in the global press, she is also a widely published author and keynote speaker on issues of international education, the global competition for talent, skilled immigrants, and educational and cultural diplomacy. Dr. Bhandari is a former international student and first-generation Indian American and her recent award-winning memoir, America Calling:A Foreign Student in a Country of Possibility has been described as a must-read for leaders, administrators and students on U.S. campuses. She also hosts the World Wise podcast, a take on the intersections of education, culture, and migration. Learn more about her work at: http://www.rajikabhandari.com

Dr.LydiahKemuntoBosireis the Founder and CEO of 8B Education Investments, first VC-backed education loans platform for African students attending university outside the continent. 8B provides tools to enable African students to identify best-fit global universities and level up their applications, access affordable financing and connect with career support for job placement, thereby providing colleges and employers access to theworlds fastest-growing talent pool. The mission of 8B is enabling African brilliance to have aglobalimpact.

8B was recently featured onCNN Internationalannouncing new Board member Tariq Black ThoughtTrotterfrom the Roots, andhas an agreement for $30m in lending capital from Nelnet Bank, the first time for a US bank to support African students, announcedin September at theClinton Global Initiative.

Prior to leading 8B, Lydiahs career spanned nearly two decades as a diplomat including serving at the Executive Office of the UN Secretary General at the UN Secretariat, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of WorldQuant University.

Previously, she served as an advisor to the Entrepreneurs-in-Residence program at Schmidt Futures, a mentor of the Oxford Women in Business network, on the founding Board of Directors of Keep a Child Alive, on the Council of the Global Citizen Impact Funds, as a Senior Advisor at Macro Advisory Partners, and on the UWC Atlantic College Advisory Council. Earlier in her impact career, she co-founded Oxford Transitional Justice Research, and pioneered the YouthForce HIV/AIDS advocacy platform.

She is an expert speaker on a wide range of topics, including innovative finance, higher education, the future of work, entrepreneurship, philanthropy, impact investing, sustainable development, international politics and human rights.

Lydiah holds a doctorate (D.Phil) in Politics from the University of Oxford (New College). She also holds an MSc in African Studies from Oxford (St. Cross College), where she attended as a Clarendon Scholar. She received an undergraduate degree with honors in Government and a Master of Public Administration from Cornell University.

Sasha Ramani is the Head of Corporate Strategy at MPOWER Financing, a mission-driven firm that provides scholarships and no-cosigner loans to international students. Originally from Toronto, Sasha was both an international student himself at Harvard University, and is the son of international students from India who studied in Canada. He is passionate about democratizing access to education and driving social impact through the private sector.

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Higher Ed Pathways to Immigration: Why it Matters - Presidents ... - The Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration

Despite claims from immigration hardliners, "Dreamers" immigrants who are recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Act havent been taking away jobs from Americans, a new study from the University of Delaware found.

DACA, which was put into place by President Obama in 2012, shields undocumented individuals who were brought into the country as children from deportation and allows them to obtain work authorization.

The Trump administration rescinded DACA in 2017, and at the time then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions claimed that DACA "denied jobs to hundreds of thousands of Americans by allowing those same jobs to go to illegal aliens."

Diana Calderon, a student who has benefited from the DACA immigration program, introduces President Obama at the White House, October 15, 2015. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

President Biden reinstated DACA upon taking office, though the policy is facing challenges in court and its fate remains unclear.

More than a decade after it was passed, the report from The University of Delaware states: DACA did not harm the labor market outcomes of native born workers. There is suggestive evidence that the policy had a positive impact on the fraction of natives working.

Thats because when a new worker enters the economy, they end up creating other jobs for other workers elsewhere, David Bier, immigration policy analyst at the Cato Institute, told Yahoo Finance. I think the nativist version of events is really divorced from economic reality. They treat an immigrant worker coming into the economy completely differently than they treat a U.S. worker entering the economy, when an economist looking at the situation would say the economic effect is the same and it doesnt matter whether theyre born here or born somewhere else. The end result is going to be the same, which is ultimately a benefit overall to our well-being and living standard.

According to data from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), there are currently 589,660 DACA recipients as of Sept. 30, 2022. While they are spread out across the U.S., a large number reside in California and Texas.

Story continues

Most DACA holders are under the age of 30 and are originally from Mexico, followed by El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Peru.

DACA is a very interesting policy to think about economically, Emily Battaglia, author of the report and assistant professor of economics at the University of Delaware, told Yahoo Finance. By construction of the policy, the cohort of DACA-eligible immigrants are not new immigrants. Theyve been in the country for many years and have already been participating in the U.S. economy.

Data from FWD.us, a bipartisan organization that advocates for immigration reform, found that DACA recipients contribute roughly $11.7 billion to the U.S. economy each year. This includes roughly $566.9 million in mortgage payments, $2.3 billion in rental payments, and $3.1 billion in state and local taxes on an annual basis, according to the Center for American Progress.

We rely on Dreamers and their service to our nation as doctors, teachers, or members of our military," Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said in a statement to Yahoo Finance. "They support our country in these roles while also paying billions in federal taxes annually, which supports programs like Medicare or Social Security. ... We are better off for the contributions of Dreamers, and a path forward to lawful permanent residence is long overdue.

FWD.us data also shows that 77% of DACA holders are actively working and 91% finished high school.

Bier explained that DACA's employment authorization allows these individuals to do more productive work instead of taking on lower-paying positions.

Thats a benefit to the economy and to U.S. job growth because their productivity means higher wages, and that translates to more consumer spending thats creating jobs at other businesses in other industries, Bier said. Obviously theyre filling certain positions in the economy, but the fact is that they also create demand for other jobs elsewhere. They produce things of value for a company. The company pays them money, then they buy housing and consumer goods and services elsewhere. That creates jobs for U.S. workers in other positions.

As a result, the presence of Dreamers may actually be a boon to the U.S. workforce.

DACA holders are as productive as many U.S. citizens, if not more so, according to FWD.us data. For those ages 24-31, the age range that a majority of Dreamers fall into, 85% of DACA recipients participate in the U.S. labor force versus 82% of U.S. citizens. Within that age range, the median annual income for DACA recipients is $23,000 versus $20,000 for U.S. citizens.

"There is suggestive evidence that the [DACA] policy had a positive impact on the fraction of natives working," the University of Delaware study stated. "The largest estimates suggest increasing a local area's DACA-eligible population by three individuals is associated with an increase of one native working. This increase in the fraction of natives working stems from drawing individuals out of unemployment and from individuals entering the labor force."

Bier explained that employers creating more jobs to accommodate the larger population has increased productivity, which in turn "creates demand for more workers, so theres no downside to having a larger immigration flow where more people are authorized to work.

So theres no net effect because if a worker comes and they produce something of value... thats creating jobs across the country," he said. "It might not be at the same company or might not be the same exact job, but they are still creating those positions. And thats why despite the fact that the labor force has doubled in size since World War II, we dont have mass unemployment and were not all poorer as a consequence.

This post was updated with a statement from the office of Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL).

Adriana Belmonte is a reporter and editor covering politics and health care policy for Yahoo Finance. You can follow her on Twitter @adrianambells and reach her at adriana@yahoofinance.com.

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Immigration: Dreamers didnt take jobs from Americans, study finds - Yahoo Finance

Mexican prosecutors will be looking hard at video filmed inside a migrant detention center in Ciudad Jurez this month. Security cameras captured the origins of a smoky fire on March 27 that in the end consumed the lives of 40 men.

The apparent lack of reaction to the impending catastrophe by the centers minders as the fire began has provoked global outrage. Guards can be seen milling about in indecision as flames quickly spread and smoke envelops detainees. The centers security guards and other staff quickly evacuated, leaving the doomed men behind bars.

The fire was allegedly started by a migrant furious to hear that his struggle to reach the U.S. border was about to end in deportation. According to press reports, that suspect survived the fire and has been released from hospital care, where many of his fellow detainees remain.

His culpability may eventually be established, likewise that of the staff who did not respond in a moment of crisis, but this appalling loss of life in Ciudad Jurez has many more authors than the people likely to be punished for it.

Surely the Mexican government and its immigration bureaucracy bear some responsibility. Mexican officials have been regularly intercepting migrants, primarily from Venezuela, Haiti, and politically and economically unstable states in Central America like Honduras and Nicaragua, at the border, diverting them into migrant camps or into poorly maintained and over-capacity detention centers just inside Mexico, like the facility in Ciudad Jurez.

According to The Associated Press, complaints about poor conditions and human rights violations at migrant detention facilities in Mexicoincluding inadequate ventilation, food and water, and overflowing toiletshave been accumulating for years. An A.P. investigation discovered evidence of endemic corruption throughout Mexicos immigration system. It reports that everyone from lawyers and immigration officials to guards have taken bribes to allow migrants out of detention and that little has been done to address any of these capacity and corruption problems.

But bad migration policy and practices in Mexico derive from escalating pressure from U.S. officials desperate to tamp down the numbers seeking to cross the border. The Biden administration is regularly accused by low-information critics of pursuing an open-border policy. In truth, the administration has merely carried on, even more aggressively at times, some of the same Trump administration enforcement and deterrence-first policies deplored by candidate Joe Biden during the 2020 elections.

According to local media, at least some of the men who died in Jurez had been expelled from the United States under Title 42, an emergency provision under the U.S. health code weaponized against asylum seekers by the Trump administration during the Covid-19 crisis. The administration plans to end Title 42 in May but will replace it with a sweeping new policy that largely bans asylum for anyone who travels through Mexico without first seeking protection there, ignoring the reality that essentially all migrating people consider Mexico a transit state and the United States the ultimate destination.

While those charged in Ciudad Jurez will be the only people facing jail time, we all participate in a murderous hypocrisy about immigration. Gallup surveys find that most Americans want to see less immigration at the same time that they have come to rely on the labor of millions of immigrant and often undocumented workers living precariously in the United States.

They are invisible in plain sight, working on our farms and factories, in meat processing and service industries, in our suburban yards and in food delivery service. Do we all just pretend not to see them?

The bounty on our dinner tables this Easter would not be possible without the labor of immigrant workers. Eighty-six percent of agricultural workers in the United States are foreign-born; nearly half of that vast workforce are undocumented immigrants.

In the same states where undocumented labor has been a crucial component of the local economy, politicians regularly deplore immigrants as thieves or drug runners, spread lunatic lies about the great replacement, and issue demands for the erection of a magically impenetrable wall that will stop them from coming.

Its a lie. All of it. Build a wall as tall as you want; the people will keep coming. And most immigrants to the United States have no ambition to replace anyone; they want to save their farms, save some money and return home.

The United States is engaged in an expensive and futile arms race with migrants, seeking to thwart entry with legalistic barriers where it can and physical barriers when all else fails. But nothing will stop hemispheric migration until root causes are addresseda much tricker proposition than throwing up a bigger wall for migrants to dig under or crawl over. People fleeing gang and government violence, hunger, and climate change will not be deterred by higher barriers. Too many of them literally have nothing to lose. More of them will die trying to reach the United States, of course, the harder North Americans make it.

So what will work? Well, nothing will work perfectly, and politicians should cease pretending that any one approach will neatly resolve the crisis at the U.S. border. It would help if U.S. politicians stopped treating migration as red meat for their political base and more like a policy challenge that can actually be addressed through analysis, negotiation and an attention to human dignity.

People have a legitimate right to migrate, the church teaches, when conditions in their home countries become an affront to human dignity and self- and family preservation requires it. Church teaching also acknowledges a nations responsibility to govern its borders and manage immigration. A tension inevitably exists between those two propositions that must be balanced with justice and wisdom and, above all, with mercya sense of a common good that transcends abstractions like national borders. In a nation largely peopled by descendants of immigrants who escaped political and economic oppression in the 19th and 20th centuries, is it so hard for North Americans today to imagine the plight of people fleeing the same conditions in our neighboring states?

And while North Americans grouse about migrants as a liability to deflect, many of the immigrants themselves seek only to work and support families back home. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports that the U.S. labor force is only able to produce 68 workers for every 100 job opportunities U.S. businesses and industry are hoping to fill. There seems to be an obvious fix to work out both ends of these related dilemmas.

U.S. and Mexican officials insist that migrants should cease using irregular pathways to the border like the various off-roads that brought these men from Venezuela, Guatemala, Honduras and other states to their terrible fate in Jurez. That admonishment presumes that an adequate legal path exists as an alternative. It does not. While U.S. officials bob and weave to avoid obligations established by both U.S. and international law to migrants and asylum seekers, the migrants themselves have few options but to accept these perilous and irregular entries into the United States.

The president took a tentative step toward a more rational approach to hemispheric migration when his administration stopped pretending that migrants from Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba were better off in their home countries, stablishing humanitarian parole for applicants from those designated states with a quota that allowed 30,000 monthly admissions. By the administrations own assessment, the new policy has significantly reduced the pile-up of humanity at the borderat least from those four states.

What might happen if those numbers were doubled or even tripled and the humanitarian parole extended to the other deeply troubled nations of the Americas? Broadening legal pathways into the United States with new or expanded humanitarian and work visas is the only realistic way out of life-threatening troubles at the border.

It may be that in the current nativist climate this idea appears a political non-starter. That persistent xenophobia is part of the reason comprehensive immigration reform failed in 2013 and why common-sense legislation like Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals consistently fails to get through Congress, despite its broad support among the U.S. public.

But someone in Washington has to have the courage to speak sensibly about the so-called border crisis and to propose fact-based legislation that has a realistic shot at unraveling it. Its worth recalling that the last time large-scale immigration reform passed in 1986, signed into law by a Republican Ronald Reagan no less, the U.S. public was even more skeptical about the value of more immigration.

Last year, at least 890 people died trying to reach the United States via the irregular path deplored by humanitarian and politician alike; on March 24, two men suffocated in a train car near El Paso, just a few days before these 40 men choked to death in Jurez. How many more will die this year before North Americans acknowledge our hypocrisy and complicity and do something, in solidarity with our hemispheric neighbors, about it?

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How many more migrants have to die for the U.S. to fix its ... - America: The Jesuit Review

Short of immigration reform, it matters who occupies the White House

Re In Maine undocumented workers case, what about the Mass. company that employed them? (Opinion, March 28): Marcela Garca is quite right to recognize that the government should focus its immigration enforcement resources not on non-citizen workers who often perform difficult, essential jobs that US citizens stay away from but rather on unscrupulous employers who exploit non-citizen workers vulnerable status, cheating them out of hard-earned wages, exposing them to treacherous conditions, and threatening and harassing them. These are, as Garca recognizes, daily occurrences in workplaces from northern Maine to Southern California. The only real solution is immigration reform that provides a path to citizenship for the many millions of workers and their families who arent legally authorized to be in this country.

Short of that elusive prize, it does matter who occupies the White House and, hence, controls the focus of the Department of Homeland Security. In fact, unlike that of his predecessor, President Bidens stated immigration policy is highly supportive of labor agency investigations targeting employers who exploit non-citizen workers, such as the as-yet-unnamed Massachusetts company operating in Lisbon, Maine.

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To advance that policy, DHS recently rolled out a streamlined process for victims of or witnesses to such labor abuse to access immigration relief. Its a smart, humane policy that lifts all workers by encouraging and protecting those willing to speak out against exploitation. It should be widely deployed by DHS, including, it certainly appears, in the case Garca has spotlighted.

Michael Felsen

Jamaica Plain

The writer was the US Department of Labors New England regional solicitor from 2010 to 2018 and currently serves as an adviser and consultant on a range of worker protection issues.

US employers are desperate for workers, but our laws lag

Marcela Garcas March 28 Opinion column highlights only some of the issues surrounding the relationship between US employers and undocumented workers.

The workers in the story were living in horrible conditions in Lisbon, Maine. Similar stories and labor violations occur across the country. The current law-enforcement response focuses on the detention and removal of the individual undocumented worker. On occasion, the secondary focus becomes the business that hired them.

However, both of those approaches miss the target. The reaction should not be about who Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the US attorney should be prosecuting, detaining, or penalizing. As Garca rightly notes, there are as many as two and a half open jobs for every unemployed worker in Maine. The Maine economy relies upon immigrant workers to keep its tourism and agriculture engines running. US employers are desperate for workers, especially in landscaping, hospitality, construction, and agriculture, yet our countrys immigration laws and regulations fail to adapt. What will it take for Congress and the Biden administration to address this? Do we have to wait for entire industries to fail?

We cannot continue this stale approach and expect the root issues to be resolved. We are all losing out.

Matt Maiona

Boston

The writer is an immigration attorney and an adjunct professor of business immigration law at Suffolk University Law School.

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Undocumented workers, unscrupulous employers, woeful policy gaps - The Boston Globe

When Martha Escutia was elected to the Assembly in 1992, she was one of seven Latinos in the 120-member California Legislature, part of the small but growing Latino Caucus that would eventually become a powerful force in the state Capitol.

Escutia came in during the Year of the Woman, when U.S. Senate victories by California Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer highlighted the wave of women winning seats in Congress. She was one of only three Latinas who held office in the Legislature.

We would always tease each other saying that [the Latino Caucus] could probably fit in a phone booth, she said.

By 1996, the California Latino Legislative Caucus had doubled to 14. Today, there are 38 members, 21 of whom are women.

Formed in 1973 as a group that welcomes only Democrats, the Latino Caucus has championed policies to improve healthcare access for immigrants, allow college students without documentation to pay in-state tuition and create an ethnic studies requirement to graduate high school, among other groundbreaking policies in its 50 years of existence.

Now, an established force in the Legislature, the caucus is facing pressure to refocus its priorities to appeal to a new generation of voters. Escutia, who pushed immigration policy amid anti-immigrant sentiment in the 1990s, said the caucus priorities should shift to establish stability and generational wealth, and promote education and health for the people hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Looking ahead, we really have got to start thinking about other issues, Escutia said. Immigration reform still remains an elusive goal in the federal government, but there are other problems that we have too.

Mike Madrid, a Latino Republican political consultant, agreed and said immigration and farmworker policies were a strength of the Latino Caucus decades ago, but now it seems like theres this inability to get beyond those issues.

A Public Policy Institute of California poll released in February found that far more Latino Californians were concerned about jobs and the economy, as well as homelessness, than they were about immigration.

Fernando Guerra, a political science professor at Loyola Marymount University, said its a mistake to believe that the caucus was ever a political monolith focused on just immigration policy.

Latinos have always thought that education, health, public safety, the economy and jobs were all more important than immigration, he said. The idea that immigration was the No. 1 issue that Latinos pursued just isnt true.

The caucus last week celebrated its 50th anniversary by reflecting on political accomplishments and introducing a package of 14 bills intended to strengthen Latinos access to health, housing and education.

Sept. 2019 photo of Assemblywoman Sabrina Cervantes during floor session at the state Capitol. Cervantes is the current Latino Caucus Chair.

(Robert Gourley/Los Angeles Times)

The issues that they fought for are the same issues were fighting for today, said current Latino Caucus Chair Sabrina Cervantes. At the end of the day, we want to make sure that were fighting on behalf of the nearly 15.6 million Latinos in the state of California, where were providing that beacon of hope for them in Sacramento.

The proposed legislation includes efforts to expand social services to immigrants without documentation: Assembly Bill 311 by Assemblymember Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles) would provide access to food stamps for all eligible people regardless of citizenship status; Senate Bill 227 by Sen. Mara Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles) would establish an unemployment fund for workers without documentation; and AB 4 by Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno) would expand healthcare through Covered California for immigrants without documentation.

The immense success weve had over the last several years expanding healthcare coverage to millions of our undocumented Californians and farmworkers is a product of the hard work of the Latino Caucus, Arambula said last week during a caucus celebration at the Capitol. We will continue to make sure that our communities have their needs addressed.

Other bills would expand resources for English-language learners and cultural education. AB 393 by Assemblymember Luz Rivas (DNorth Hollywood) would require the state to identify dual-language learners in early learning programs.

Assemblymember Wendy Carrillos AB 1255 would create a statewide task force to help develop an ethnic studies credential for K-12 teachers. This bill supports the 2021 law that requires all California high school students to take an ethnic studies course to graduate.

Were not asking for history teachers to become ethnic studies teachers, were asking that the state of California create the pathway to credentialing teachers to teach ethnic studies to make this a reality, Carrillo (D-Los Angeles) said.

AB 470 by Assemblymember Avelino Valencia (D-Anaheim) would expand access to language and cultural education for practicing doctors in California to fulfill their continuing medical education requirements. Ten million Californians speak Spanish, but there are only 60 Spanish-speaking physicians per 100,000 people in the state, Valencia said.

Other bills in the package not related to immigration include increasing voter registration access and passing a bond for climate-related projects such as safe drinking water, and wildfire and drought prevention.

It didnt seem like there were people of color in the conversations around the environment, Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia (D-Coachella) said. The folks working on these issues didnt look like us or come from places like us. It makes a difference when you have someone from the community.

Latino Caucus Vice Chair Sen. Lena Gonzalez filed legislation that would increase the number of paid sick leave days from three to seven for Californians who work 30 days or more per year.

The Long Beach Democrat said the three-day sick leave policy was groundbreaking in 2014, but nearly 10 years later and amid the reverberating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is outdated and insufficient to meet the needs of our diverse workforce.

Sen. Alex Padilla, right, greets Trinity Alps Unified School District Superintendent Jamie Green and other Rural California school district superintendents in his office on Capitol Hill ahead of their meeting with a staffer from his office in Washington, DC.

(Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times)

Over the last half-century, the Latino Caucus has produced some of Californias most influential political leaders, including former Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, the first Latina elected to the state Legislature; Alex Padilla, Californias first Latino U.S. senator; Antonio Villaraigosa, the first Latino elected as Los Angeles mayor in over 100 years; and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, the states first Latino attorney general.

But the group also weathered a major storm a few years back. Former Latino Caucus executive board member Sen. Ron Calderon was sent to prison in 2016 after pleading guilty to a federal corruption charge of accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes from undercover FBI agents and a hospital executive.

The California Latino Legislative Caucus also has faced criticism for excluding Republicans.

There are four Republican Latinos in the Legislature. Kate A. Sanchez (R-Trabuco Canyon), Josh Hoover (R-Folsom) and Juan Alanis (R-Modesto) are in the Assembly. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh (R-Yucaipa) was elected to the Senate in 2020.

Alanis congratulated the Latino Caucus anniversary in an email statement, but said, It is unfortunate that Latino members remain excluded because of party affiliation.

Madrid, the GOP political consultant, said the continuing partisan nature of the caucus hindered its growth over the last 20 years. Its really a relic of the past, he said. They shouldnt be afraid of having discussions and ideas; they control the legislative agenda anyway.

Diversity in the Latino Caucus has increased through the years. This is the second time in its 50 years that two women lead. Cervantes is the first openly LGBTQ female chair. Latinos of different cultural backgrounds, including Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Salvadorans, represent people all across the state.

Our diverse experiences, our perspectives and our voices at every leadership level allow us to understand better and respond to the needs of the people that we represent daily, Cervantes said.

Madrid said the caucus does not do enough to define a Latino economic agenda that is appealing enough to get voters out to the polls. According to data from the Public Policy Institute of California, Latinos represent the largest ethnic group in the state at 35%, but only 21% of that group are likely to vote.

Have they realized that theyre no longer a small niche part of one party? he said.

Cervantes said representation in government is essential to future prosperity and that caucus members are mindful about elevating Latinos to higher positions.

We have to continue utilizing our collective voice because it is powerful, Cervantes said. We will continue to ensure that we are elevating names so that we can get more representation.

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At 50, California Latino Caucus looks to evolve past historic issues - The San Diego Union-Tribune