El Magonista | Vol. 11, No. 3 | January 31, 2023

Menendez, Booker, Ocasio-Cortez and 74 others signed the letter critical of policies that restrict asylum access for migrants crossing the southern U.S. border.

A group of 77 Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Wednesday criticizing his administration’s policies restricting asylum access for migrants crossing the southern border.

The letter, signed by New Jersey Sens. Bob Menendez and Cory Booker, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and 74 others, said the new policies announced Jan. 5 to open more legal options for migrants from Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba while also eliminating pathways for those nationalities to claim asylum at the border are “disappointing.” 

While 30,000 migrants from those four countries will be eligible to apply for humanitarian parole protections from their home countries, Mexico has also agreed to take back 30,000 migrants per month from those same countries as the Biden administration expands the Trump-era Covid protections known as Title 42.

At a press conference Thursday, Menendez said, “We recognize that the United States is experiencing a difficult migration challenge at the southern border. But as elected officials, we are duty-bound to propose legal solutions, one that protects asylum-seekers while also securing the safe removal of migrants who have no legal claim to stay in the United States.”     READ MORE

In response to mounting pressure to address the influx of migrants attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, President Biden introduced a slate of new harsh policies earlier this month. That includes the expansion of a Trump-era policy to turn away asylum-seekers escaping persecution, an approach that Biden had previously criticized. 

This decision comes amid historic levels of migration to the U.S. and at a time when the response to this crisis by federal and state elected officials has been cruel and chaotic. Rather than grapple with a serious and pressing problem, some have instead used migrants as political pawns by busing them across the country and initiated baseless efforts to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas.

As immigrants ourselves, we understand the devastation that inhumane and uncertain policies will bring. Like our own families, many migrants working their way through Latin America right now in the hopes of entering the U.S. may not have wanted to leave behind family, friends and the only homes they have known. They left because they had no other choice.

While immigration is an issue that can be solved only with bold federal leadership, local elected prosecutors have a critical role to play in responding to policies that can erode trust and thus endanger public safety... READ MORE

Both Republicans and Democrats work to find a compromise on the 'exceptionally difficult' topic

When Sen. Thom Tillis returned to Washington this month from a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border with a bipartisan group of eight senators, the North Carolina Republican was quickly reminded of just how difficult it would be to craft a broad immigration agreement.

The new chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Freedom Caucus member Rep. Mark E. Green of Tennessee, called Tillis’ proposed immigration framework with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., “garbage” and “dead” just days into the new congressional session.

Tillis said this week he found it “confounding” that Republicans would choose to weigh in on an immigration proposal they had not even seen. He and Green, who he described as “a reasonable guy,” just need to sit down together and share information better, he said.

“We’re going to try and get it on the calendar in the next month,” Tillis said Tuesday.

Tillis and other senators from both sides of the aisle, in interviews this week, discussed their search for a path forward to resuscitate bipartisan immigration efforts that have died time and time again over the past few decades, and somehow finally achieve what several described as a difficult, legislative long shot... READ MORE

A three-way race creates some interesting strategic questions. The newly announced candidate answers them here.

The 2024 Senate map was already daunting for Democrats.

Now, some in the party worry that a tangled three-way race in Arizona featuring newly independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Democratic challenger Ruben Gallego could make it even worse.

Gallego announced his campaign for Senate this week to much fanfare and notable success, including a major fundraising haul and top media bookings. But the launch left some questions unanswered, too: mainly, what is his path to victory in an election as complicated as the Arizona Senate contest?

The congressman thinks fears that the left’s vote will be cannibalized are greatly misplaced. As he sees it, Sinema, who was a Democrat until last month, will instead fracture the vote on the right.

“Let’s be clear about one thing. Sinema is not going to split the Democratic vote,” Gallego told POLITICO. “She’s even more unpopular with Democrats than she is with Republicans, and actually has a better chance of taking votes away from their side if they nominate another MAGA candidate — which they likely will.”

That Gallego has grappled with these voter permutations underscores how unusual and unpredictable the Arizona Senate race already is. It also reflects the complexities of the campaign he must run... READ MORE

With overall college tuition up 10% since 2010 — and up nearly 20% for private institutions — it's no surprise that many students need financial assistance. Unfortunately, for students with DACA status, paying for college is even more challenging than it is for other students. 

Unlike US-born students, DACA recipients aren't eligible for federal student loans or grants. They do have some options, though. Here's what DACA students can do to help cover the costs of college... READ MORE 

By Matthew Choi | The Texas Tribune | JAN. 18, 2023 | Photo by I.P. Aguirre

Riding the success of his historic congressional session last year where he helped pass the first gun safety bill signed into law in a generation, Cornyn is hopeful that his ability to strike deals across the aisle will help Congress achieve another elusive legislative goal: an immigration deal.

EL PASO — A long trail of SUVs snaked out of El Paso carrying a group of U.S. senators into southern New Mexico on a recent, chilly night. Like a funeral procession, the oversized cars glided through traffic with hazard lights on, turning onto a paved road to survey portions of the Mexican border.

In one of the cars was Sen. John Cornyn, who helped organize the delegation’s trip to his home state. The Texas Republican, who has railed about the border crisis from Washington, D.C., for months, wanted his peers to see the situation with their own eyes and better understand Border Patrol’s work and its challenges. They drove into the pitch black night until coming across a pair of Border Patrol agents who had apprehended two weary Chinese nationals.

Cornyn and the other senators peppered the agents with questions, including whether the migrants had drugs; they did not. The senators were invited to look at the migrants’ travel documents and watch the agents confiscate their possessions. The senators heard explanations of the agents’ process in real time, including what lay in store for the migrants as they were processed in town... READ MORE

The Supreme Court will decide whether a 1986 law that makes it a crime to urge people to stay in the United States unlawfully can be squared with the First Amendment.

WASHINGTON — When the Supreme Court hears arguments this spring on the constitutionality of a curious law that makes it a crime to “encourage” unauthorized immigrants to come to or stay in the United States, the justices may have a sense of déjà vu.

They heard arguments on the same question three years ago, with several of them suggesting that the law, enacted in 1986, violated the First Amendment by turning commonplace statements into felonies.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. asked about “a grandmother whose granddaughter is in the United States illegally.” Would it be a crime, he wanted to know, if she told her granddaughter that she missed her and encouraged her to stay?

Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh imagined a charity that gave food to “people who can’t get it elsewhere and they know that the people taking advantage of that are here unlawfully.” Was the charity committing a felony?

Justice Stephen G. Breyer wondered about “the landlady who says to the person, ‘You always have a place here,’ knowing that that person is illegally in the United States.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor worried that even sound legal advice could be covered by the law... READ MORE 

HOUSTON — In recent years the United States has seen far-right and often extremist views make their way into various Latino communities. Many were shocked to see an Afro-Cuban become the frontman for the Proud Boys, a white supremacist group founded by Gavin McInnes, an avowed racist. But to Latinos far and wide, Enrique Tarrio isn’t an oddity.

While the Latino community is just as accepting of the LGBTQ community as any other racial or ethnic group —if not more so— the stereotype that Latinos are more biased toward the queer community persists. The same implicit bias is often cast upon Black people too.

That’s why Trump-aligned political action committees, known as “PACs,” spent $6.5 million on ads targeting Latinos and Black people ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas were especially targeted with Spanish-language flyers riddled with anti-trans rhetoric that reached Latino households through the mail

It’s all part of an overall strategy to recruit as many Latinos and other non-white people into the fold, with the purpose of growing a base of support to achieve certain goals while inevitably turning on those non-white people when the moment calls for it. This phenomenon is a lot more common than many people think... READ MORE

Green card holders, DACA recipients would be eligible to become police officers if Assembly Bill 30 passes.

Nevada is considering a bill that would allow noncitizens who live in the state and pass a background check to serve as police officers amid staffing shortages.

Assembly Bill 30, which is sponsored by the Assembly Committee on Government Affairs, will be considered during the next session of the Nevada Assembly.

If passed and signed by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, a former sheriff, the bill would make approximately 140,000 green card holders and up to 15,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients in the state eligible to attend police academy and join police forces in the state.

AB 30 was filed in November on behalf of the City of North Las Vegas, which became the first city in the state to permit noncitizens to enroll in their youth explorers program for young people interested in pursuing a career in law enforcement, according to local affiliate FOX5.

FOX5 noted that the ranks of participants in the youth explorers program have swelled since it was opened to noncitizens.

"There’s a crisis right now going on nationally," Jared Luke, who serves as the city's director of government affairs and economic development, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "It’s not just a Nevada thing, it’s not just a North Las Vegas thing, where recruiting numbers for police officers and police departments nationally have fallen."

Luke explained to the outlet that the bill emerged from a desire to expand the recruiting pool for law enforcement, noting that potential officers would still be subject to physical standards and rigorous background checks... READ MORE

Among the films playing at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival is “Going Varsity in Mariachi,” a feature documentary about the highly competitive world of high school mariachi.

In 2019, the University Interscholastic League, the governing body that oversees all high school competitions in Texas, held its first sanctioned mariachi contest. Since then, these have been largely dominated by high schools from the Rio Grande Valley (Puro 956 cuh!), which really isn’t that surprising given that many districts in the region have funded these types of programs many years before UIL recognition.

“Going Varsity in Mariachi” follows one such program, the Mariachi Oro de Edinburg North High School. Mariachi Oro has fared well in past competitions but its director, Abel Acuña, worries that the current ensemble might not have what it takes to win state.

The film was directed by Alejandra Vasquez and Sam Osborn, Mexican American filmmakers from rural west Texas and Colorado, respectively. I spoke to the duo on Wednesday, a few days after the film’s Sunday premiere... READ MORE