El Magonista Newsletter | Vol. 11, No. 21 | JULY 15, 2023

As legal challenges to the Obama-era program continue, undocumented teens coming of age in U.S. aren't even eligible.

Alondra, a 19-year-old born in Mexico who came to the U.S. about a decade ago, grew up believing she could one day apply for an Obama-era immigration program that protects those who came to the country as children.

But the Arizona resident took a closer look when she heard one of her friends would not be eligible for the program first introduced in 2012, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. She discovered it excludes anyone who has entered the country, or been born, after June 2007 — now 16 years ago.

“That is where I kind of realized what my situation was — that I was actually undocumented and in a very vulnerable position,” said Alondra, whose last name is being withheld because she is undocumented.

While court challenges and congressional inaction have made uncertain the fate of so-called Dreamers who have been covered under DACA, there’s a new generation of immigrants who have come of age in the U.S. and face a future without legal immigration status, and few options to live and work legally.

According to a recent report by immigrant advocacy group FWD.us, the majority of the nation’s approximately 120,0000 undocumented high school graduates this year are not eligible for DACA because of the cutoff date. And by the class of 2025, most graduates will not have been born in time.

“There will be an entire generation coming into the workforce and having to work in the shadows again,” said Juliana Macedo do Nascimento, deputy director of federal advocacy at United We Dream, an immigrant advocacy group, and a DACA recipient herself... READ MORE

Congresswoman Norma Torres, D-Pomona, joined Inside California Politics co-host Frank Buckley to discuss DACA, where these President Obama era policy now stands, and reacts to the latest news surrounding migrants arriving in California from other states... READ MORE

Former FBI agent Michael German, who went undercover to infiltrate white supremacist groups, explains the phenomenon.

The idea seems counterintuitive: Latinos, often targets themselves of racist hatred, supporting an extremist far-right movement with white supremacy beliefs. But recent events have exposed their involvement as both members and leaders.  

They form a small but perplexing minority that includes Proud Boys ex-leader Enrique Tarrio, a Cuban-American convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in the January 6 insurrection; Nick Fuentes, of Mexican-American descent and an outspoken white supremacist and antisemite who made news when he met former President Trump and rapper Kanye West at Mar-a-Lago last year; and Mexican-American Mauricio Garcia, who shot and killed eight people, most of them Latino and Asian, at a shopping mall in Allen, Texas, last May. 

Former FBI agent Michael German infiltrated white supremacist groups in the early 1990s. He talks below about multiracial extremist far-right groups and the government’s response to domestic terrorism. 

German, the author of Disrupt, Discredit, and Divide: How the New FBI Damages Democracy, is currently working on a book about policing white supremacy violence to be published by New Press in the Fall of 2024.  

Did you come across Latinos or other people of color in the white supremacist groups you infiltrated 30 years ago? 

Yes. People assume that a white supremacist or far-right ideology is extremely rigid and exclusionary. In many ways it is, but it also has to fit into a very multicultural society. 

One white supremacist who was a subject of an investigation in the 1990s grew up next door to and remained close friends with an Asian man. As our subject got involved in neo-Nazi activity, he sometimes brought this Asian friend to white supremacist events. And because they were friends and engaged in and appreciated similar kinds of activities, they reportedly even engaged in criminal activities together as well. 

With Latinos, white supremacists identify anyone with European heritage as white. So as long as they said their ancestry traced back to Spain, they could therefore be considered European. The fact of having a Spanish surname wasn’t something that led automatically to exclusion, so they could participate as well... READ MORE

Denver will not move forward on a contract to outsource support for immigrants coming to the city, the mayor’s office said Thursday.

Mayor Michael B. Hancock provided little explanation for the reversal, except to say there remained “much more work to do” and that he would not be submitting a proposed contract with GardaWorld Federal Services for up to $40 million for migrant sheltering.

“With more than 500 Central and South American refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants still in our care, we continue to believe that contracting out shelter services is in the best interest of our guests, city taxpayers, and city employees and operations,” Hancock said in a statement.

Hancock added: “The current financial and operational burden is not sustainable.”

The contract — which had an option for two, one-year renewals — was intended to alleviate the “staffing pressures on city operations.”

Services were to include shelter for up to 1,000 people, reception and intake services and overflow capacity at city motels.

Anticipating approval of the contract, GardaWorld had begun vetting shelter locations.

In an email to The Denver Gazette, GardaWorld officials said they respect the city’s decision and looked “forward to continuing to discuss ways we can assist the city in the future.”

GardaWorld has provided immigrant services in El Paso and San Antonio, Texas. The company was also one of three selected by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration to relocate immigrants across the country. Last year, the presidential hopeful grabbed international headlines when he transported immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard... READ MORE

Brian De Los Santos reps Mexico hard. But for the vast majority of his life, that repping has been at a distance. That's because Brian is a recipient of DACA – Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. He was born in Veracruz, but moved to the states with his mama when he was just two And while his status under DACA affords him privileges that he wouldn't otherwise have – like the ability to get a driver's license and have a work permit – he has never been able to travel to his home country of Mexico, or anywhere outside the U.S. At least, not if he wanted to come back.

That is until March 2023. At the end of 2022, Brian applied for something called advanced parole – a permit that allows DACA-holders to travel internationally for a limited set of events: work trips, family milestones, funerals. These permits come with a lot of conditions and stipulations, and are only valid for a fixed amount of time.

So when Brian found out that he'd been accepted, he swung into action to make the opportunity of going home a reality. There was a lot he was expecting to get out of it – the chance to explore his country of birth, to hug his abuelita in person and eat her home cooking. What he wasn't expecting was for it to entirely upend his sense of identity and belonging.Luckily for us, Brian recorded everything during that trip. As a journalist and the host of LAist's How To LA podcast, he wanted to make sure that others got a chance to learn from his experience, too. The result was a three-part series called Finding Home Con DACA. We wanted to talk to him about his experience, what the trip meant to him and to his family, and how it came to redefine his concept of home. The Q&A below has been edited and condensed for clarity... READ MORE

El presidente López Obrador dijo que se tiene que atender a los migrantes por ello busca que los consulados en Estados Unidos sean una especie de procuradurías en defensa de compatriotas.

Previo a las elecciones federal de 2024, el titular del Ejecutivo señaló que en su pasada reunión con los consejeros electorales del INE les hizo el planteamiento para agilizar el voto en el exterior.

“Vamos a que se facilite la participación política de los migrantes, porque votan muy pocos. Cuando me reuní con los consejeros del INE fue uno de los temas que traté; hablaba que se les diera facilidad de votar de manera eléctrica, con una plataforma, con el teléfono, en secreto, sin tantos trámites y me dijeron los del INE que estaba buscando hacer eso”.

En conferencia de prensa, el Mandatario señaló que se deben de cumplir con ciertos trámites y requisitos, pero se debe simplificar para que participen los mexicanos en el extranjero que solo en Estados Unidos se estima que 40 millones de connacionales.

El presidente López Obrador dijo que se tiene que atender a los migrantes por ello busca que los consulados en Estados Unidos sean una especie de procuradurías en defensa de nuestros compatriotas.

Explicó que la secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores Alicia Bárcena tiene un plan para fortalecer los consultados y pediría a los titulares de Hacienda y el SAT que ahí mismo puedan registrarse para para hacer los trámites que necesiten en México... LEER MAS

As state spending rises, money from the diaspora is an economic lifeline—but it comes at a steep cost.

After her election in 2021, observers had high hopes for Honduran President Xiomara Castro—and much skepticism. Now, a year and a half into her administration, Castro has increased government spending and sought investment from China. But other campaign promises remain unfulfilled, and Castro’s LIBRE party is divided.

Crime remains high, helping fuel enormous, continued flows of northward migration. All this is taking a toll on Castro’s approval, which dropped nearly 20 points over the past year to 43%, according to a recent survey. But despite these serious problems, Castro has been safe so far from a severe breakdown in support—in large part because of the remittances sent back by Hondurans abroad.

Honduras is the Latin American country that most depends on remittances, which make up almost 29% of its GDP. In ten years, from 2012 to 2022, the flow of money has almost doubled. This provides the country with an economic lifeline, supplying the government with hard currency reserves and allowing families to pay for food, shelter, medical care and education. But they also remove much of the incentive for the government to provide basic services or combat the root causes of migration, such as crime and a lack of opportunity at home. This “remittances trap” keeps Honduras, and its government, on life support—but at a steep cost... READ MORE

Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, a giant of Mexican politics who served in several of the country’s political parties and cofounded the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), has died at 89.

Relatives of the veteran politician announced his death on Sunday. The cause of death was undisclosed, but he had been in ill health for some time.

Muñoz Ledo started his political career in the 1970s with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which governed Mexico for 71 years. He defected to support the unsuccessful 1988 campaign of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, which was derailed by rampant electoral fraud and institutional corruption later acknowledged by President Miguel de la Madrid. Cárdenas and Muñoz Ledo would go on to form the PRD a year later.

Thereafter, Muñoz Ledo became a champion of Mexico’s transition to democracy, initially by pushing for electoral reforms that loosened the PRI’s grip on power.

In 2000, he ran for president with the now-defunct Authentic Revolution Party, abandoning his campaign midway through to support Vicente Fox, of the National Action Party (PAN). Victory at the ballot box meant that Fox became the first politician to unseat the PRI since 1929.

“I am dedicating all my experience and history to democratizing this country,” he said in a 2020 interview with the Associated Press. “That is the last legacy I have... READ MORE