El Magonista Newsletter | Vol. 11, No. 2 | January 19, 2023

By Michael D. Shear and Anushka Patil | The New York Times
JAN. 10, 2023 | Photo by Doug Mills

Even as President Biden and the leaders of Canada and Mexico sought to emphasize their shared commitments, the tricky issue of immigration dominated much of the discussion.

MEXICO CITY — President Biden on Tuesday defended his handling of the border and thanked his Mexican counterpart for a willingness to accept asylum seekers rejected by the United States during a period of what he called “the greatest migration in human history” across the region.

In remarks at the end of a two-day summit with the leaders of Mexico and Canada, Mr. Biden dismissed criticism from Republicans, Democrats and humanitarian groups, calling them the “extremes” and saying he was pursuing a middle ground in his approach to immigration.

“I want to thank the president of Mexico for agreeing to take up to 3,000 people back,” Mr. Biden said, apparently referring to the announcement last week that Mexico would accept 30,000 migrants each month from Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua and Cuba who attempt to cross into the United States illegally.

That increased enforcement at the border has been condemned by Democrats and human rights groups as an inhumane denial of asylum rights. But Mr. Biden said on Tuesday that the creation of new legal immigration programs for people from those countries counterbalanced that effort... READ MORE

SEATTLE — A Mexican man who was arrested by U.S. immigration agents in 2017 despite his participation in a program designed to protect those brought to the U.S. illegally as children will be allowed to remain in the country for at least the next four years under a settlement with the Justice Department.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle announced the agreement Wednesday with Daniel Ramirez Medina, 29. It did not grant him any money — he was seeking $450,000 for false arrest and false imprisonment — but it allows him a chance to obtain lawful status in the U.S.

Immigration agents arrested Ramirez on Feb. 10, 2017, at a suburban Seattle apartment complex where they had gone to arrest his father, a previously deported felon. His 46-day detention raised questions about the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in the early days of former President Donald Trump’s administration, a period highlighted by Trump’s travel ban targeted at primarily Muslim nations.

“This settlement essentially gives Mr. Ramirez Medina a clean slate as he works to obtain legal status in the United States,” Seattle U.S. Attorney Nick Brown said in a news release. “I am pleased that this settlement involves no monetary payment and yet goes to the core of what Mr. Ramirez Medina wants: a fair chance to obtain legal status in the U.S.”

Luis Cortes Romero, an attorney for Ramirez, said his client was “thrilled and relieved that he can stay in the U.S. after the government fought so hard to deport him... READ MORE

As the Biden administration prepares to end the use of a Trump-era border measure that restricts access to asylum, most Americans continue to support protections for immigrants who are fleeing persecution and torture abroad.

By 55% to 23%, Americans say the U.S. should continue to offer asylum to people who arrive at the border, if they are found to be fleeing persecution, according to a new survey conducted for The Times by the YouGov polling organization.

Support for offering asylum crosses party lines, although Democrats are significantly more in favor of it, and Republicans are more closely divided.

A much wider partisan gap divides Americans on the question of how many of the people who seek asylum are actually fleeing persecution. Among Democrats, nearly half said most or all asylum seekers had valid claims. Only 1 in 6 Republicans took a similar view, the L.A. Times/YouGov poll found. More than 6 in 10 Republicans said that few or none of the asylum seekers had valid claims.

The L.A. Times/YouGov poll surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,573 adult American citizens, who were interviewed online Dec. 9-14. The results have a margin of error of 3 percentage points in either direction.

The poll also found that most Americans continue to support Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama-era program that allows people who were brought to the U.S. as children to legally live and work in the U.S. The program is being challenged in court by Texas and several other Republican states.

Half of those surveyed said that DACA should continue, compared with 29% who said it should be ended. An additional 21% were not sure.

More than half of respondents — 55% — said that even if DACA ends, those covered by it should be allowed to continue to work and live legally in the United States.

The poll results come as Biden administration officials debate how to handle asylum cases in the future.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, border agents have used Title 42, a section of the public health code, to rapidly expel would-be immigrants at the border, often without considering their asylum claims. A federal judge has ordered the Biden administration to stop using the pandemic-era measure by Wednesday... READ MORE

“Just come here legally.” Many immigrants hear this phrase far too often. The use of the term “illegal” in the subject of immigration tends to connect immigration to legality, with a specific focus on racialization and migration. What this phrase insinuates is that immigration is a simple process that anyone can do, but when you’re trapped in war zones with little to no resources, it feels more like a Sisyphean task.

As Haitians flee from humanitarian crises and citizens of Latin American countries take on the journey north, the border and all the political baggage it carries only reminds them of the hatred the United States carries for people like them. The media often refers to migration as a wave and amplifies calls for a focus on border enforcement and a wall to build. The conception evoked is that immigration is an invasion, which is far from the truth. 

Through the immigration journey, parents carry their children with them. Many would move mountains for their children to have a better life; more exactly, they would cross mountains to move to an entirely new country. These children, sometimes mere infants, are often unaware of where they are moving; unaware that they may grow up to a life filled with the question of “where are you from?”, unaware of the lack of protection, unwarranted hostility and unjust treatment within they may face in education, work and the legal system. 

Sadly, a common response to the struggles of many undocumented immigrants is to “just come legally.” Indeed, the statement serves as proof that those who say it possess little knowledge of the U.S.’s citizenship process. It can take up to ten years to obtain a green card, years which are not guaranteed as many continue to struggle to survive in their host countries... READ MORE

LAS VEGAS — As thousands of children were taken from their parents at the southern border during a Trump administration crackdown on illegal crossings, a federal public defender in San Diego set out to find new strategies to go after the longstanding deportation law fueling the family separations.

The resulting legal defense that Kara Hartzler would help draft in the coming years — work that continued even after a judge halted the general practice at the U.S.-Mexico border in June 2018 — was unprecedented.

It exposed Section 1326 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which makes it a crime to unlawfully return to the U.S. after deportation, removal or denied admission, as racist and a violation of equal protection rights guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment.

And it became the legal framework for a never-before-seen ruling in August 2021 by Nevada U.S. District Judge Miranda Du. She struck down the law as unconstitutional and discriminatory against Latinos when she dismissed an illegal reentry charge against Mexican immigrant Gustavo Carrillo Lopez, though she didn’t block enforcement and prosecutions haven't stopped as the government appeals the case.

Du's 43-page ruling cited much of Hartzler's legal defense. “The record before the Court reflects that at no point has Congress confronted the racist, nativist roots of Section 1326,” the judge wrote.

Hartzler, who has spent the last decade as a federal public defender in California, said she was blown away when she learned of the ruling... READ MORE

U.S. judges will be making important rulings on immigration in 2023, playing a significant role in shaping the nation’s immigration policy.

Congress has not revised American immigration laws comprehensively since 1990, and Cornell Law School Professor Stephen Yale-Loehr told VOA that efforts by subsequent administrations to revise the immigration system through executive orders are tied up in court battles. 

“Courts are not a good way to manage immigration,” he told VOA. 

Here are some of the major cases before the courts.

United States v. Texas

In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in United States v. Texas, a lawsuit in which the Republican-led states of Louisiana and Texas argued that the Biden administration’s enforcement priorities are unlawful. 

The litigation stemmed from a September 2021 directive from the Department of Homeland Security that focused deportation efforts on people considered an “egregious threat to public safety” or who had committed acts of espionage or terrorism. Anyone in the U.S. without documentation, however, still risks deportation. 

Yale-Loehr said that based on the oral arguments, it is not clear how the court will rule. A decision is expected this term... READ MORE

After sneaking into Wakanda in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Marvel’s merman demigod Namor emerges from the water in the darkness. He startles Queen Ramonda and her daughter Shuri in a rural area of their Black utopia. “Who are you?” the queen asks. “And how did you get in here?”

The Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta Mejía is playing a brown antihero, an archetype that has for centuries been used to demonize men from south of the border. But this brown antihero is resplendent and relatable. How did this Namor get onto the big screen?

It took Black filmmakers to bring him to Marvel, bypassing white gatekeepers who are chronically averse to empowering brown roles. Although Latinos make up 19% of the U.S. and half of Los Angeles, they’re only 7% of film leads and co-leads, mostly criminals and poor people. And while Namor is an antihero, he’s no villain. The audience is shown that he is dangerous, yes, but not because of his race. Instead of the usual dehumanized foil, Huerta’s portrayal elevates a brown body as dazzling and divine.

“This place is amazing,” he gasps as he takes in Wakanda’s splendor. “The air is pristine, and the water!” His wet skin evokes the ghosts of real people who have died trying to reach the U.S. by river or sea. “My mother told stories about a place like this,” he continues, his face crevicing with grief as he delivers the next gut-wrenching line: “A protected land with people that never have to leave, that never have to change who they were!"  READ MORE