El Magonista | Vol. 11, No. 20 | July 7, 2023

The court's conservative trajectory didn’t start with abortion — and it won’t end with affirmative action.

The Supreme Court just gutted the use of affirmative action programs in both private colleges and public universities, and it did so by once again ignoring its own decisions. 

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but these Supreme Court decisions are another manifestation of how conservative this court is, and how little regard it has for precedent. As it did in the Dobbsdecision overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court reversed itself. In 2003, the now-retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, writing for a majority of the court, concluded that the universities could consider race in its admissions decisions. That court explicitly recognized the government’s goal of creating a diverse student body. Those days are gone. 

The court’s willingness to flout its own precedent is based on a narrow view of what equality means in our society. The court has essentially concluded that trying to use race to remedy racial inequities is itself racial discrimination. 

In one case, brought against the University of North Carolina, the court concluded that considering race in the public university admissions process violates the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. That constitutional provision bars states from denying “the equal protection of the laws.” 

What “equal protection of the laws” means in reality is that under one view, achieving equality will sometimes require the government to take affirmative steps. Meaning, the government can and should take actions to achieve equal opportunities and racial equality. This could include remedying racial discrimination by implementing university admissions programs that take race into account. If we adopt this perspective, affirmative action programs are plainly constitutional. 

But from a different perspective, the Equal Protection clause instead requires that judges strike down any laws that take race into account. Under this view, race-conscious laws amount to invidious discrimination, which is always a problem. This would obviously mean that programs that take race into account to remedy past discrimination fly in the face of the Equal Protection Clause. This is the perspective adopted by the majority of the Supreme Court, and this is why they concluded that public university admissions policies that take race into account actually undermine equality, and violate the Equal Protection clause... READ MORE

Colleges have a game plan, like emphasizing the personal essay, but so do conservative groups that promise to monitor and, if necessary, go back to court.

In the Supreme Court decision striking down racial and ethnic preferences in college admissions, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. had harsh words for Harvard and the University of North Carolina, calling their admissions process “elusive," “opaque” and “imponderable.”

But the court’s ruling against the two universities on Thursday could lead to an admissions system that is even more subjective and mysterious, as colleges try to follow the law but also admit a diverse class of students.

Officials at some universities predicted that there would be less emphasis on standardized metrics like test scores and class rank, and more emphasis on personal qualities, told through recommendations and the application essay — the opposite of what many opponents of affirmative action had hoped for.

“Will it become more opaque? Yes, it will have to,” said Danielle Ren Holley, who is about to take over as president of Mount Holyoke College. “It’s a complex process, and this opinion will make it even more complex.”

In an interview, Edward Blum, the founder and president of Students for Fair Admissions, the plaintiff, defended what he called “standard measurements” of academic qualifications, citing studies that showed test scores, grades and coursework helped determine which students would thrive at competitive schools.

He promised to enforce the decision, saying that Students for Fair Admissions and its counsel “have been closely monitoring potential changes in admissions procedures.”

“We remain vigilant and intend to initiate litigation should universities defiantly flout this clear ruling,” he wrote in a statement on Thursday... READ MORE

The Supreme Court‘s decision Thursday blocking higher educational institutions from using affirmative action policies when considering student applications will have catastrophic effects at a time when the nation is still grappling with generations of racism. 

The Supreme Court ruled that using race as a factor in college admissions is unconstitutional in a decision that affects two cases, one filed against Harvard College and another against the University of North Carolina. It was an unsurprising position for the majority-conservative court, but devastating nonetheless. 

The decision overturns decades of legal precedent that boosted efforts by higher education institutions to diversify their student bodies. Private universities that receive federal funds are also affected.

Previous Supreme Court rulings had preserved the right of colleges and universities to consider race and ethnicity as part of a comprehensive, individualized assessment in deciding whom to admit. Those decisions rightly recognized that colleges and universities benefit from a diverse student body having more vibrant classroom discussions and learning skills that will help them thrive in a multiracial society. 

As well, these policies also helped corporate America have more diverse workplaces. Though quotas are illegal, federal affirmative action policies generally call for government agencies and many government contractors to make sure their workforce demographics reflect their community. The ruling will not affect private companies, though anti-discrimination policies have generally encouraged these corporations to have a diverse workforce... READ MORE

Policy restricts arrests of undocumented immigrants to those deemed a threat to public safety or national security.

The U.S. Supreme Court revived a Biden administration policy that restricts arrests of undocumented immigrants to those deemed a threat to public safety or national security.

The court determined that the states of Texas and Louisiana, which challenged the administration’s guidelines in the case of United States v. Texas, lacked the legal standing to bring the lawsuit. The final decision, with a vote of 8-1, saw Justice Samuel Alito as the sole dissenter.

Th decision is a significant win for the Biden administration, affirming the executive branch’s broad authority to shape the enforcement of federal immigration laws without interference from legal challenges. It reinforces the power of the administration to direct ICE agents to prioritize the apprehension and deportation of individuals who pose the greatest risks to public safety, national security, and border security, as outlined in a memo issued in 2021 by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

The policy, which generally protects undocumented immigrants from arrest who have not committed serious crimes faced opposition from Texas and Louisiana. They argued that the policy hindered ICE agents from fully enforcing immigration laws concerning the detention of specific migrants. The lower courts initially blocked the policy, leading the case to be heard by the Supreme Court.

In the majority opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh described the lawsuit brought by Texas and Louisiana as “extraordinarily unusual.” He argued that federal courts traditionally do not entertain requests to alter arrest policies of the executive branch in order to increase the number of arrests. Kavanaugh maintained that disputes regarding immigration arrests should not be resolved through the judiciary but rather through congressional appropriations, legislative changes, and federal elections. He cautioned that accepting the states’ arguments could enable state interference in federal law enforcement matters beyond immigration... READ MORE

A group of 80 Democratic lawmakers is calling on the Biden administration to implement a proposal to expand access to federal health care benefits for people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

In a letter led by Sens. Cory Booker (N.J.), Dick Durbin (Ill.) and Mazie Hirono (Hawaii) and Reps. Joaquín Castro (Texas) and Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), the Democrats asked Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure to speed up implementation of a proposed rule to that effect that the Biden administration rolled out in April.

“Despite living in the United States for most of their lives and meeting strict and extensive requirements to obtain deferred action, DACA recipients, who meet other program eligibility criteria, remain ineligible for federally funded health coverage,” wrote the lawmakers.

“As a result, DACA recipients are uninsured at three to five times the rate of the general population.” 

Castro and Booker have previously led similar efforts, including a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra in November asking for Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Children’s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP) access for DACA recipients.

Both Becerra and Brooks-LaSure lauded the proposal when it was introduced in April.

“Every day, nearly 580,000 DACA recipients wake up and serve their communities, often working in essential roles and making tremendous contributions to our country. They deserve access to health care, which will provide them with peace of mind and security,” Becerra said at the time.

The proposed rule would allow DACA beneficiaries to be considered as “lawfully present” in the United States to access some Medicaid and CHIP, Health Insurance Marketplaces and the Basic Health Program, both benefits created by the ACA... READ MORE

Two recent legal challenges have placed more than 600,000 undocumented in danger of losing the only home they have known.

As I read the headlines surrounding the still uncertain future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, even as we reached its eleventh anniversary on June 15, 2023, I cannot help but reflect on the privilege that many of us hold as U.S. citizens. 

This is highlighted, for example, in the story of Jaime Avalos, a young man who was stranded in Mexico for six months due to an error in his immigration paperwork. Unlike Avalos, I can choose to read these headlines (or not) with confidence that regardless of what is said, my life and home will very likely remain the same. My U.S. citizenship affords me that certainty. 

But for many DACA recipients, their status is increasingly tenuous. An October 2022 court ruling placed more than 600,000 undocumented youth who are protected by DACA in danger of losing the only home they have known. By ruling that DACA was unlawful, the court threw those enrolled in it into a deeper state of fear. 

DACA was established in 2012 during the Obama administration as a means of offering work and educational opportunities—and a reprieve from deportation—to young people who entered the United States as children. On average, most DACA recipients entered the country at age seven. Since its inception, DACA recipients have faced countless hurdles, such as in 2017 when the Trump administration decided to rescind the program. 

In January of this year, nine states appealed to a federal judge in Texas to end the DACA program with a decision pending on the legality of the program. The only things that remain certain now are the hope, tirelessness, and perseverance from youth across the country who continue to wait for their future to be decided. One source of relief came on February 10, 2023 with the reintroduction of a bipartisan Dream Act, which would offer a pathway to citizenship, but the ultimate outcome remains to be seen... READ MORE

Five years ago, the California Department of Education set a goal that half of K-12 students would be literate in at least two languages by 2030, and three-fourths by 2040, to be achieved by recruiting and training more teachers to teach bilingual classes, enrolling more students in dual immersion classes and encouraging more students to become literate in more than one language. It’s not that much of a stretch given that about 40% of the state’s students already speak another language at home. 

The Global California Initiative 2030 recognizes that preparing students for a global economy is essential, but the state has lagged in its efforts to build the ranks of bilingual teachers needed to reach the goal. The number of new teachers authorized to teach bilingual classes who are hired annually has increased each year, growing from 716 in the 2012-13 school year to 1,188 in 2020-21. However, that number decreased to 1,116 the following year. The global initiative sets a goal of hiring 2,000 teachers in 2040.

Nonprofit education research organizations, such as the Learning Institute and the California Budget & Policy Center, have warned about the worsening bilingual teacher shortage in the last few years. 

One reason that school districts statewide are scrambling to keep up with demand for bilingual teachers is that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated teacher shortages nationwide, particularly in fields such as math, science, special education and bilingual education.

Assembly Bill 1127 by Assemblymember Eloise Gómez Reyes (D-Colton) would go a long way to easing that shortage, by restarting and expanding the Bilingual Teacher Professional Development Program, a $5-million initiative that has added 400 bilingual teachers to districts statewide since 2017... READ MORE

After years of foster care and incarceration, the single mom found her calling — and a welcoming space on campus. She hopes UCLA continues to embrace others like her.

The makeup didn’t entirely cover things up. It would get cakey and crack, she says, especially during her dishwashing shift in a hot kitchen, exposing her face tattoos, inked long before she took this job, as well as two others, to make a better life for herself and her unborn baby. 

That was a half-dozen years ago. Today, Johanna Carbajal is in a place she never thought she’d be: graduating from the nation’s top-ranked public university and applying to law school in the fall. 

“It’s been more than just second chances, it’s like six chances,” said Carbajal, 26, a political science major whose journey has taken her from foster care and incarceration to motherhood, higher education and a commitment to helping others overcome the systemic hurdles that nearly robbed her of her future.

It all hits her profoundly, she says, during the afternoons she spends walking around the Westwood campus with her daughter. The two, in fact, became Bruins together during the pandemic — Carbajal enrolling as a transfer student in 2020 and her daughter starting kindergarten at the UCLA Lab School a year later. 

Raised by the system

Growing up in the San Fernando Valley, Carbajal found herself shuttling between foster homes and juvenile detention by the age of 12, sinking deeper into a life of gangs and crime. At 15, she had much of her face marked with tattoos. With no means to address her declining mental health and the trauma of her early experiences, she says, she’d given up on life before it really started... READ MORE

He is the first Latino in the United States and Mexican indigenous to receive this recognition; before him he was received by Octavio Paz and Carlos Fuentes.

At 74 years old, Hugo Morales became the first Latino in the United States and the first Mexican indigenous to receive the honorary doctorate from Harvard University in recognition of his work as founder and executive director of Radio Bilingüe, the most important public radio in Spanish in the country.

"It's incredible. I am moved by this distinction. I am the third Mexican who has received it over the years. Before me, it was received by the writers Carlos Fuentes and Octavio Paz," Hugo says in an interview with La Opinión.

And it makes it very clear that Radio Bilingüe is the result of teamwork and its main leaders such as journalist Samuel Orozco, its talented workers and collaborators, the effort of those who raise funds, radio listeners, the board of directors and many community volunteers.

He also recognized the radio stations affiliated with Radio Bilingüe in the United States and Mexico, the foundations and those who have believed in the work of providing intelligent programming to essential workers in their language.

"Without their participation and that of the indigenous Mixtec, Triqui and Zapotec volunteers who have dared to project their dreams we would not exist because at Radio Bilingüe we are a participation project."

And he recognizes that when he was young, he thought he was going to work alone, but he discovered that to make some impact, it had to be teamwork.

Hugo was born in a small town in the Oaxacan Mixteca, near Huajuapan de León in Oaxaca and Tehuacán, Puebla.

"My dad came to the North when I was less than a year old. In Mexicali he worked for Mariachi, and was secretary of the musicians with which he managed to get a passport and legally cross to the United States. After being a worker on the corners (Day laborer), he went to work with a Sonoma rancher and got a letter to be legalized..." READ MORE

Luisa María Alcalde Luján was appointed as Secretary of the Interior by AMLO, recognizing that generational replacement is needed.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Monday appointed Luisa María Alcalde Luján as the new head of the Ministry of the Interior (Segob), replacing Adán Augusto López Hernández, who seeks the nomination of Morena, the PT and PVEM, to the Presidency of the Republic.

The still Secretary of Labor and Social Security becomes the second woman to direct the country's internal policy and the first at the age of 35. The federal president considered that his government should give way to generational replacement.

The possession of the position will take place in the middle of the week and will replace Alejandro Encinas, who served as a dispatch manager.

"I think that in the middle of the week, he will begin to agree with Alejandro Encinas, who is the office manager. Luisa María Alcalde Luján. He is young, it is very important to think about the generational change, to give opportunity to young people. In addition, Luisa María is a lawyer, she was already a legislator," said the head of the federal executive.

"Very good job at the Ministry of Labor. With it, they managed to increase the minimum wages, five times only on one occasion there was no consensus. Four years was a consensus (...) it was an agreement, and this was due in a lot to the good performance of Luisa María and other things as well," he added.

Luisa María Alcalde Luján (Mexico City, 1987) has a degree in Law from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and a Master's degree in Law from the University of Berkeley California... READ MORE

MEXICO CITY, June 28 (Reuters) - Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum has a lead of more than 10 percentage points in the contest to be the candidate of Mexico's ruling party for the 2024 presidential election, a poll published on Wednesday in newspaper El Universal showed.

The survey of 1,000 adults by polling firm Buendia & Marquez showed Sheinbaum winning 34% support to be the nominee of the leftist National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), followed by former Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard at 22%.

MORENA, lifted by the strong personal approval ratings of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, is heavily favored to win the June 2024 election. That has prompted many analysts to view the MORENA contest as an almost de facto presidential race.

The poll showed that Ebrard was the best-known candidate, being recognized by 71% of respondents, while Sheinbaum was familiar to 66% of the public. Ebrard was also more popular among respondents who identified with the opposition.

Both stood down from their positions earlier this month to compete in the contest. A winner is due to be announced on Sept. 6.

MORENA's internal campaign formally kicked off on June 19.

The face-to-face voter survey was carried out June 22-26 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.53 percentage points, Buendia & Marquez said... READ MORE

Mexican universities have become an escape route for many Cuban students who choose to get a scholarship from the government of Mexico to study postgraduate studies.

Cuban university students will have a new opportunity to travel to Mexico in academic exchanges as a result of the rapprochement between the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the University of Havana (UH), according to official press media.

The rector of UNAM, Enrique Graue, traveled to the Cuban capital to inaugurate a Center for Mexican Studies (CEM) in the facilities of the UH that would allow a greater exchange between students and academics of both houses of high studies.

"The new headquarters of UNAM will have, among other tasks, to promote cooperation and academic exchange with the higher education institutions of the Island, as well as with research institutes. Likewise, it will intensify the mobility of students and academics," explains the joint statement signed by Graue and the rector of the UH, Miriam Nicado.

The implementation of the CEM will begin as early as next week with the holding of a colloquium on Caribbean studies. According to Nicado, "we are very excited about the creation of this study center and to host a university of the dimensions and academic quality of UNAM."

At the opening ceremony, Rector Graue was accompanied by the Ambassador of Mexico to Cuba, Miguel Ignacio Díaz Reynoso. Since the coming to power of the populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico has become a great ally of Cuba, hiring medical services and giving oil to the Island to alleviate the enormous energy crisis.

However, beyond institutional relations, Mexican universities have become an escape route for many Cuban students who choose to get a scholarship from the government of Mexico to study postgraduate studies... READ MORE

The story of Australian Roderick James Martson (at times referred to as Marston) – the photographer who became a Zapatista – was largely unknown until the 1990s, 60 years after his death, when his great granddaughter Erin Reid discovered a box of his journals and photos taken during the Mexican Revolution in the basement of his Vancouver home. 

Reid has not yet released the contents to the public but has confirmed that the journals and photographs document his time with the Zapatistas. He has been referenced in Zapata biographies simply as “El Gringo”.

Martson was an intrepid traveler and adventurer.  From an early age, he began traveling the world in search of adventure and his wealthy parents indulged his wanderlust. He was also a photographer, inventor, miner, and entrepreneur.  

His travels eventually took him to Vancouver, Canada where he caught gold fever.  His desire to become a prospector took him south to the United States, settling in San Antonio, Texas and acquiring two mining properties.

His scientific skill and intuitive sense of timing led him to invent a method of mining using explosive devices he invented to rip away the hard rock revealing the hidden treasure within – veins of gold to be exploited. His expertise gained him huge profits and gave him an edge over the other gambusinos (prospectors).

Eventually gold mines in the region began to dwindle, so Martson, backpack slung over one shoulder, traveled further south into Mexico to seek new adventures.  

He received permission from President Porfirio Díaz to settle in the city of Tehuacán, Puebla to carry out “scientific work” which for Martson meant mining. He immediately acquired a silver mine and once again employing his unique explosive techniques, began making large profits... READ MORE

It is almost cliché that many foreigners find in Mexico the chance to do and be quite different from what we can in our home countries. But when it comes to commitment to personal independence, art and politics, few of us can match the story of Tina Modotti, which is even more amazing given that she arrived in Mexico 100 years ago.

Born in Italy in 1896, Modotti came with her family in 1913, part of a large wave of European immigration to the United States. She began working in a factory in San Francisco, but her interest in theater and her looks brought her acting and modeling work and a bohemian life.

She married poet and painter Roubix de l’Abrie Richey, but began an affair with photographer Edward Weston in 1921. 

Richey went to Mexico City to check out the budding muralism scene. He invited Modotti to join him, but she stayed behind until he became sick with smallpox. Her first visit to Mexico was brief, primarily to bring her husband’s body back home, but she liked what she saw.

She convinced Weston to move there and open a photography studio, setting up shop in the upscale Condesa neighborhood of Mexico City in 1923.

Weston taught Modotti the basics in San Francisco. But renowned Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide, who knew Modotti, insists that she was “…a Mexican photographer because she developed her art in Mexico.” 
For seven years, Modotti’s bread and butter was taking portraits of Mexico’s elite. This not only gave her an independent source of income – rare for women at the time –  but also contacts with the city’s artists and intellectuals, including Diego Rivera,, writer Antonieta Rivas Mercado and photographer Manuel Álvarez Bravo.

Rivera praised her photography and she began to regularly document his and others’ mural work. She also worked with the magazine Mexican Folkways in 1925 and the book “Idols Behind Altars” in 1929.

But by 1926, her relationship with Weston soured. He returned to the U.S., and she shifted into politics, joining the Mexican Communist Party (PCM) in 1927, and working with El Machete, the party’s newspaper.

Politics shaped her romantic life in Mexico first her relationship with Vittorio Vidali, then with exiled Cuban revolutionary Julio Antonio Mella in 1928. When Mella was assassinated by her side a year later, Modotti was accused of his murder – in fact, while Modotti accused Cuban dictator Gerardo Machado of arranging Mella’s murder, some have speculated that Vidali himself was responsible... READ MORE