El Magonista | Vol. 11, No. 22 | July 21, 2023

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said encounters have dropped 70% at the southern border.

Latino members of President Joe Biden's Cabinet defended the administration's efforts on immigration and migration — particularly around the issue of unaccompanied minors — as they decried the impasse in Congress regarding any meaningful immigration reform. 

At a panel discussion in New York City at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, a bipartisan Latino advocacy group, officials said the administration had made progress on moving migrant minors from adult detention immigration facilities. 

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra touted that the average time a migrant minor now spends under the custody of the Department of Homeland Security before being transferred to a licensed care facility under HHS is less than 24 hours. 

Becerra was asked about the reports of unaccompanied minors in the U.S. working in factories, sometimes in dangerous situations. The administration has suffered backlash for failing to ensure children released into the country were protected from exploitation.

Echoing previous administration responses about the issue, Becerra said that once a migrant minor is placed with a sponsor, who is usually a family member, "we don't have the authority to bring that child back," because, unlike with foster care, Congress never gave HHS that kind of jurisdiction. "There is no net for this child" when it comes to that kind of exploitation, he said. 

"I don't think anyone ever expected that it would take five or six years for any child to have an immigration case," Becerra said, referring to the bottleneck over pending asylum cases... READ MORE

The Biden administration touted the drop a day before a federal judge is set to hear a challenge to its asylum ban.

Illegal border crossings plunged in June to their lowest level since President Joe Biden’s first full month in office. 

Border officials apprehended 99,545 individuals in between ports of entry at the U.S.-Mexico border last month, the first time this figure has fallen below 100,000 since February 2021. It’s a 42 percent decline from May, when the Biden administration implemented a series of new immigration policies in an effort to blunt a potential surge after lifting Title 42, a pandemic-era order that allowed border agents to immediately expel millions of migrants on Covid prevention grounds.

Total border encounters in June, including individuals who presented at ports of entry with or without an appointment, through the government’s CBP One app, totaled just under 145,000 — a 30 percent decrease from May and the second lowest figure in two years.

The Biden administration touted the decline in a press release on Tuesday, attributing the drop to its carrot-stick policy response, a combination of tough consequences for unlawful border crossers with an expansion of lawful pathways and processes for those coming to the country legally.

“Our sustained efforts to enforce consequences under our longstanding Title 8 authorities, combined with expanding access to lawful pathways and processes, have driven the number of migrant encounters along the Southwest border to their lowest levels in more than two years. We will remain vigilant,” said Troy A. Miller, a senior Customs and Border Protection official, in a statement.

The data dump comes a day before a federal judge is set to hear a challenge to the Biden administration’s asylum ban that bars some migrants from applying for the protection if they cross the border illegally or fail to first apply for safe harbor while crossing through another country on the way to the U.S.

U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar, an Obama nominee in Oakland, Calif., struck down a similar so-called transit ban under the Trump administration. If the judge blocks Biden’s asylum ban, the administration would lose its strictest deterrence measure to date... READ MORE

MEXICO CITY —  The two appear an unlikely political pair: he a shopkeeper’s son from rural southern Mexico, she a globally recognized scientist from the capital.

He is outgoing and folksy, a larger-than-life figure comfortable pressing the flesh and mingling with crowds. Her reserved manner and lack of charisma feed the notion that she is distant and arrogant.

When it comes to their politics, however, it is difficult to distinguish Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Claudia Sheinbaum, whose long history together has uniquely positioned her to succeed him as the country’s president next year.

Sheinbaum, who would be the first woman to hold the job, has cast her candidacy as a victory for feminism.

“Mexico is no longer written with the M of machismo,” she told tens of thousands of supporters gathered in the capital this month as she resigned from her job as Mexico City mayor to formally enter the race for president. “But rather M for mother, for mujer” — woman.

But her anointment by López Obrador — who is widely known as AMLO — and her wholesale adoption of his policies, leftist ideology and even some of his speech patterns have led some pundits to wonder whether she is her own person.

“Claudia is not questioned for being a woman, but rather for mimicking a man and transforming herself to please AMLO,” tweeted Denise Dresser, a professor of political science at Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico and fierce critic of the populist president. “Nothing is more contrary to the agenda of autonomy/feminine empowerment that marks a new generation of women.”

The 60-year-old Sheinbaum would also be the first president from Mexico’s small Jewish community.

Though she spent two decades in academia before starting her political career, she comes from a tradition of political engagement. 

Both her parents were active in the signature Mexican student movement of 1968, best known for the infamous Tlatelolco massacre in which Mexican security forces killed scores of protesters in the capital.

As a high schooler, Sheinbaum participated in protests against the exclusion of students, many of them poor, from higher education. As a student at the Autonomous University of Mexico, or UNAM, she was part of a movement against a plan to raise fees at the public institution.

And her first husband was a leader in Mexico’s Democratic Revolution Party, which was formed in 1989 out of frustration on the left with the authoritarian rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which held an iron grip on Mexican governance for most of the 20th century... READ MORE

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The U.S. citizenship test is being updated, and some immigrants and advocates worry the changes will hurt test-takers with lower levels of English proficiency. 

The naturalization test is one of the final steps toward citizenship — a monthslong process that requires legal permanent residency for years before applying.

Many are still shaken after former Republican President Donald Trump’s administration changed the test in 2020, making it longer and more difficult to pass. Within months, Democratic President Joe Biden took office and signed an executive order aimed at eliminating barriers to citizenship. In that spirit, the citizenship test was changed back to its previous version, which was last updated in 2008.

In December, U.S. authorities said the test was due for an update after 15 years. The new version is expected late next year. 

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services proposes that the new test adds a speaking section to assess English skills. An officer would show photos of ordinary scenarios – like daily activities, weather or food – and ask the applicant to verbally describe the photos. 

In the current test, an officer evaluates speaking ability during the naturalization interview by asking personal questions the applicant has already answered in the naturalization paperwork.

“For me, I think it would be harder to look at pictures and explain them,” said Heaven Mehreta, who immigrated from Ethiopia 10 years ago, passed the naturalization test in May and became a U.S. citizen in Minnesota in June.

Mehreta, 32, said she learned English as an adult after moving to the U.S. and found pronunciation to be very difficult. She worries that adding a new speaking section based on photos, rather than personal questions, will make the test harder for others like her.

Shai Avny, who immigrated from Israel five years ago and became a U.S. citizen last year, said the new speaking section could also increase the stress applicants already feel during the test.

“Sitting next to someone from the federal government, it can be intimidating to talk and speak with them. Some people have this fear anyway. When it’s not your first language, it can be even more difficult. Maybe you will be nervous and you won’t find the words to tell them what you need to describe,” Avny said. “It’s a test that will determine if you are going to be a citizen. So there is a lot to lose..." READ MORE

Biden administration says DACA challenge should be rejected; States say standing clear because of direct costs of program.

A district court judge is set to decide whether a US Supreme Court win for the Biden administration’s immigration enforcement priorities means that a challenge to the legality of DACA should be rejected on the same grounds. 

Attorneys for the Department of Homeland Security and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund told District Court Judge Andrew Hanen that Republican-led states suing to overturn DACA lack standing for the same reasons that the high court ruled 8-1 that the states couldn’t challenge enforcement guidelines. Texas and other states challenging DACA argued in a response Friday that their standing wasn’t undermined by the case, and doesn’t involve any attempt to compel any prosecutions or arrests. 

Last month Hanen heard oral arguments over whether regulations issued to codify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program last year solidified its legality. The program offers protections from deportation and work authorization to nearly 600,000 young people brought to the US as minors.

The case landed back in his court after the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled DACA was enacted unlawfully when the Obama administration created the program more than a decade ago. 

Since then, the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Biden administration’s ability to set immigration enforcement priorities surprised observers and offered DACA supporters hope that the program could be upheld on similar grounds. The high court there found Texas and Louisiana lacked standing to overturn 2021 guidance issued by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to focus enforcement at the agency on threats to national security. Although the court noted it was not deciding standing in the DACA case, attorneys for the government and MALDEF argued the same principles should apply. 

“In light of that ruling, this court should consider whether states have standing in this case,” attorneys for DHS urged Hanen in written briefs. “Plaintiffs’ standing arguments here mirror those the Supreme Court rejected in Texas EP..."  READ MORE

WASHINGTON —  The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a free-speech challenge to a long-standing immigration law that makes it a crime to “encourage or induce” a noncitizen to illegally enter or reside in this country.

By a 7-2 vote, the justices upheld criminal charges against a Sacramento-area manwho charged nearly 500 immigrants who lacked documentation up to $10,000 on the phony promise that he could help them become U.S. citizens. 

Helaman Hansen was convicted on 15 counts of fraud and two counts of encouraging and inducing unlawful immigration “for private financial gain.” All told, he “raked in nearly $2 million” from his scheme, the court said. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

But his case came before the high court based on the claim that some innocent and well-meaning persons could be prosecuted if the word “encouraged” were read broadly. His lawyers said this could include friends or family members who encourage an immigrant to come to this country or an advocate who writes in favor of illegal immigration.

However, in United States vs. Hansen, the justices said they would not stretch the 1st Amendment to protect criminal conduct from prosecution and punishment. 

Writing for the court, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said there was no evidence the law was being misused against innocent people. While Hansen and his attorneys cited “a string of hypotheticals,” she said they “failed to identify a single prosecution for ostensibly protected expression in the 70 years since Congress enacted [the] clause.”

Rather, she said the law has been applied narrowly to “criminal solicitation” of illegal immigration, such as by smugglers who promise to bring migrants to this country for a fee... READ MORE

‘Language isn’t the only thing that defines who we are and our relationship to our Mexican heritage.’

As El Tri fans cheered Mexico’s CONCACAF Gold Cup win on Sunday outside SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, ESPN reporter José del Valle approached a child and asked him in Spanish, “Cual es tu nombre?”

“Porque gana Mexico? Por el Chaquito Giménez? Te gusto el técnico? Cómo te sentís?” the reporter continued, asking a quick series of questions.

“My name? What?” answered the child, who appeared startled by the reporter.

On the receiving end, you could hear anchors of the “Fútbol Picante” show saying, “No entiende. Es una generación que ya no habla castellano.”

Criticism quickly ensued across social media in reaction to the video, with commenters criticizing the child’s parents for not teaching him Spanish — “our heritage,” one person said on Twitter, adding, “That’s a Latinos responsibility.” They lamented about a “missed opportunity” in not teaching the child Spanish at home. “RAISE YOUR KIDS NOT TO BE “YO NO SABO,” a man said in a viral tweet. Many others directly poked fun at the child.

But amid the backlash, many shared their own struggles in learning Spanish, especially if their parents worked a lot and if they didn’t get to visit their home country often. One Twitter user said, “it’s about opportunity and family.” Others pointed out that for many people born in Mexico, “their first language is an Indigenous one.” Another mentioned their mother risking losing their job if they spoke Spanish, saying, “You really don’t know what our parents went through unless you ask.”

The Pew Research Center found that in 2021, 72% of Latinos ages 5 and older spoke English proficiently, up from 59% in 2000. U.S.-born Latinos drove this growth.

Meanwhile, the percentage of Latinos who speak Spanish at home declined from 78% in 2000 to 68% in 2021. Among the U.S.-born population, it has decreased from 66% to 55%... READ MORE

The ancient town comes with pyramids, buildings, stone columns, and a ball field.

• Researchers recently spotted an ancient Maya city using LiDAR. It’s located in the Balamakú ecological reserve on the west side of the Yucatan Peninsula.
• Further ground investigation showed an array of complex structures in an area otherwise largely unknown to researchers.
• The array of buildings discovered lends credence to the idea that this city could have played a major role in the region.

The jungles of the Balamakú ecological reserve on the Yucatan Peninsula recently offered up a remarkable look at an ancient Maya city, one likely to be rather regionally prominent. Though it is over 1,000 years old, this city wasn’t known to the modern age. Its re-discovery comes thanks to airborne laser scanning (LiDAR) and subsequent on-the-ground archeology. 

Tucked some 37 miles deep in the jungle, a research team—led by Ivan Ṡprajc, a professor of archaeology from Slovenia who has directed work on the Yucatan Peninsula since 1996—took info from the airborne scan to discover the true location of a 1,000-year-old Maya city complete with complex buildings, plazas, and even a ball game site. 

Highlighted by several pyramidal structures over 50 feet tall, the city is perched on a peninsula of high ground surrounded by extensive wetlands. The 123-acre site includes three plazas featuring “imposing buildings and surrounded by several patio groups,” according to Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), the group working to explore the densely vegetated reserve in the state of Campeche.

“Between the two main plazas there is a complex made up of various low and elongated structures, arranged almost in concentric circles” Ṡprajc says in a statement translated from Spanish. “A ball game is also included.”

A causeway connects the southeastern complex with the northwest portion, where most of the construction rests. It is highlighted by a pyramid rising 82 feet above the natural terrain.

Researchers named the newly discovered city Ocomtún, “stone column” in Yucatec Maya. The multiple cylindrical columns discovered likely serving as entrances to upper rooms of buildings. 

As the team searched the site, they continued to locate structures leading toward the La Rigueña River that included stairways, monolithic columns, and central altars. The team also discovered an area for a ball field and the possibility of either markets or space for community rituals... READ MORE

Growing up during the Salvadoran civil war, I learned from my parents that poets and writers are often at the vanguard of justice and change. Years later, after we emigrated from El Salvador to San Rafael, Calif., they taught me to revere names like Roque Dalton, Claribel Alegria, Amada Libertad and Manlio Argueta. 

When I started writing poetry as a 17-year-old, my parents warned that my life could be at stake because many writers were considered enemies of the right-wing Salvadoran military government. At the time, I thought their warning might be parental hyperbole, but it also reminded me to take my writing seriously and to fight against injustices. 

As I was finishing my MFA in poetry, I began to submit my first poetry collection to prizes whose award was a book publication. But over and over I ran into a variation of the following sentence: must be a U.S. citizen to apply. 

This was 2014, and out of the 15 or so first-book poetry contests I was aware of, around 12 had this requirement. I was surprised to learn that the art my parents taught me was at the forefront of liberal thought in Latin America seemed to be guarded, in the United States at least, by systems and institutions intent on excluding writers like myself.

Their policies replicated the vitriol my family and I experienced almost daily as undocumented people at first, and then, as Temporary Protected Status card-holders.

A classmate, Christopher Soto, had organizing experience and together we huddled with another previously undocumented writer and friend, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo. Soto convinced us to first email the organizations including the Yale Younger Poets Prize, APR Honickman, National Poetry Series and the Andres Montoya Poetry Prize, about their eligibility requirements. 

More than half of the organizations quickly replied and immediately changed their policies. Five others explained that board members first had to vote on the matter.

The Academy of American Poets seemed focused on what “American” meant for their Walt Whitman American Poetry Prize. Once conversations over email hit an impasse, Soto, Hernandez and I, crafted a public petition 800 writers eventually signed that became known as the Undocupoets Campaign asking for a just and fair change to these citizenship requirements. 

We succeeded and by 2015 even the Academy of American Poets revised its wording and made its poetry contests open to everyone regardless of citizenship status.

This shift is important because it shows any writer that your immigration status, just like your sexuality, gender, race and disability status, should not limit or define you.