Criticism of DHS has accompanied the department through its existence, most recently when former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen became the face of the Trump administration’s brutal policy of separating children from their parents at the southern border. Calls to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — one of DHS’s most visible and abusive agencies — have echoed from street protests to the halls of Congress and the 2020 presidential primary. Then earlier this month, as President Donald Trump deployed DHS troops, primarily from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, against protesters rallying against police violence in Portland, Oregon, he once again trained the spotlight on the troubled department. The unidentified agents abducting people in unmarked rental cars raised questions about what the Border Patrol was doing on the streets of an American city and awareness about the impunity with which it operates elsewhere. And their presence stoked calls to not only abolish ICE or CBP, but also to dismantle their parent agency altogether.
Administration Ignores DACA Ruling
On July 28th, the Trump Administration announced that it would not accept new applications for the DACA program despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last month that rejected the Administration’s last attempt to terminate the program. While we are not surprised by the Administration’s cruel decision, we are heartbroken that it dashes the hopes of hundreds of thousands of young people around the country who aspired to join the program. The announcement also creates new hardship and uncertainty for current DACA recipients by limiting any new renewals for the program to one year rather than the two-year extensions that have been in place for much of the program’s existence.
NW Immigrant Rights Project anticipates that yesterday’s announcement will bring new legal challenges but, in the meantime, we have updated our DACA community advisory (click here for our Spanish advisory) to answer some of the questions we have already been receiving in light of the Administration’s announcement. And we will continue to provide assistance to current DACA recipients who need help in completing their renewal applications. If you or someone you know would like to schedule a spot in an upcoming DACA renewal clinic, please contact us by calling our DREAM line at 1-855-313-7326.
ICE says international students must take in-person classes to remain in the US
New students matriculating at schools offering fully online programs will not receive visas, per ICE. Students who are already enrolled at such schools will be required to transfer or leave the country. Eight percent of US colleges are planning for an online-only semester, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, including Harvard and Bowdoin, though some of those schools plan to invite a reduced number of students back to campus.
COVID-19 should not justify erosion of rights for most marginalised
All leaders must frame their COVID-19 responses within existing obligations under international law. Whilst states may temporarily close their borders to limit transmission, any such measures should be non-discriminatory, necessary, proportionate and reasonable in all circumstances.
It is understandable and proper that a leader’s first priority is to take care of the people they govern. But in a global crisis, attention must also be paid to those groups of marginalised people whose situations transcend national borders: refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. Furthermore, public health measures put in place to protect citizens should not exclude those with irregular status, or be used to further isolate or punish them.
Yakima County farmworkers called ‘sacrificial lambs’ of pandemic
Yakima County has the highest per capita rate of COVID-19 infections on the entire West Coast, a distinction the community leaders blame on a slow response from the governor and state and local officials to demands for stronger health and safety protections for agricultural workers. The Central Washington county has a 26.5% positive rate among those tested; the state’s average is 6%.
Rosalinda Guillén was one of the community leaders who sounded the alarm about farmworker safety in March. She’s the executive director of Community to Community Development, an organization based in Bellingham that focuses on democracy and food justice, as well as providing support to agricultural workers.
“No healthcare, poor housing, exhaustion, crowded into packing sheds, crowded into buses. They have been vulnerable for generations. And nothing was done to change that environment during this pandemic,” Guillén said. “It’s almost like we’re someone’s sacrificial lamb in this pandemic. And again, every time something happens, our community has to suffer for it.”
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