(Im)migration and Refugee History, Rights & Countering Xenophobia

Immigrant Defense Project has been monitoring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests in the community.

Ballotpedia: The Encyclopedia of American Politics

The Undocumented Migration Project and Colibrí Center for Human Rights are joining forces and we need your support to make it possible. Hundreds of migrants die every year because of inhumane border policies that funnel people towards remote and deadly regions of the U.S.-Mexico border. Many of these individuals go unidentified, leaving families in a desperate search for answers regarding their loved one’s whereabouts. By identifying remains, Colibrí provides families with answers and closure that others cannot. The Undocumented Migration Project (UMP) raises global awareness about this humanitarian crisis through research, education, and art initiatives while working to inspire positive social change and immigration reform.

An empowerment campaign to prepare for and safely defend our rights during encounters with Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The best thing you can do to make sure your family stays together is to have information and be prepared! This guide is designed to help you do this. It was prepared by a small group of volunteer lawyers, advocates, and family law experts who work with immigrant clients in Arizona.

Since "Illegals" and "Aliens" are flooding our country, it is expected that our government will construct a border wall for security. However, these undocumented migrants are joining our economy and schools across the country. Why do we continue to hear about the potential instability and danger in accepting undocumented immigrants into our country? Brandon Moran, a first generation college student at St. Lawrence University, explains the process of dehumanizing undocumented immigrants through analyzing 4 American policies. Brandon Moran is a senior at St. Lawrence University with a Government major, and a Chinese minor. He is a McNair and Presidential Diversity Scholar, and a member of the Pi Sigma Alpha National Political Science Honor's society. He has studied a semester abroad in Shanghai, China at East China Normal University ('17) and has performed several human rights and social justice poetry recitations. He enjoys running for the Cross Country and Track Teams, playing chess for the Chess Club and writing for the Hill News. After graduation, he plans to pursue a career in foreign service. In light of recent immigration developments, he has vocalized the urgency in supporting undocumented immigrants in a variety of platforms. In his talk, Dehumanization of Undocumented Immigrants, he highlights policies which have perpetuated an anti-immigrant rhetoric from 1986-2010. His goal is to motivate citizens to challenge the current discourse and policies which dehumanize undocumented immigrants.

Miriam came to the U.S at a very young age and believes that people need to change the way they think about immigrants. Her personal story is moving and inspiring at the same time. Miriam Martinez is a 16-year-old who was born in Mexico. She came to the United States with her family at age six and was raised in Chicago, IL. As years passed, life became more and more complicated for her. She was getting bullied at school for not speaking the same language, for not being born in the United States, and for not being able to go out because she feared she might be deported. This was just the beginning of what she had to go through. By sharing her story, she hopes to convince people that everyone is a human no matter where they come from and that the time for immigration reform is now. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

About 800,000 young unauthorized immigrants are protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. We spoke with a few of them in September, when President Trump announced his intention to end the Obama-era program. Read the story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/us/daca-dreamers-shutdown.html More from The New York Times Video: Subscribe: http://bit.ly/U8Ys7n Watch all of our videos here: http://nytimes.com/video Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nytvideo Twitter: https://twitter.com/nytvideo ---------- Whether it's reporting on conflicts abroad and political divisions at home, or covering the latest style trends and scientific developments, New York Times video journalists provide a revealing and unforgettable view of the world. It's all the news that's fit to watch.

Learn about participation in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program nationally and by state, as well as by top countries of origin. These data tools provide the numbers of DACA recipients at U.S. and state levels as of September 30, 2022 (the most recent data available from the federal government) and offer MPI's 2022 estimates of the population that would have been eligible to apply based on the program's original rules.

Francisco Erwin Galicia, the Dallas-born teen who was held for nearly a month by U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is one major step...

The Department of Homeland Security today announced it will publish a notice of proposed rulemaking that would increase the integrity of the nation’s lawful immigration system, make it easier to hold immigrant sponsors accountable for failing to meet the obligations of contracts they sign with the federal government, and align agency policy in accordance with the May 2019 Presidential Memorandum on Enforcing the Legal Responsibilities of Sponsors of Aliens.

Transforming Lives Through Education

Creating a world where immigrants, refugees, and other people on the move are treated with dignity, respect, and welcome. Creating a world where immigrants, refugees, migrants, and people on the move are treated with dignity, respect, welcome and belonging. About Justice for Immigrants The JFI campaign’s primary

"A searing indictment of the white racial politics behind American immigration restrictions from Chinese Exclusion through the Trump presidency"--;Donald Trump's mainstreaming of anti-immigrant politics in 2016 was a mere reflection of the ugly norm of the past. Jones traces the dual foundation of open immigration for whites from Northern Europe and the racial rejection of slaves from Africa, Native Americans, and eventually, immigrants from other parts of the world. He unearths the link between white supremacy and the US environmental movement, and also uncovers startling links between anti-immigrant hate groups and the Republican Party, which have left lasting marks on present-day policy. -- adapted from jacket.

Real immigrant perspectives of America’s immigration system, perfect for fans of The Book of Awesome Women, Dear America, or American Like Me. Positive and heroic stories. Far too often, immigrants are demonized and scapegoated, when they should be celebrated as heroes and revolutionaries. This audiobook strings together both triumphant and painful tales of immigrants who blazed trails and broke barriers in the fight for fundamental human rights. Unsung Heroes. These are ordinary people who have used their own stories on the fight for citizenship to illustrate their triumphs and trials as immigrants in a new land. Each uses a different strategy and tactics; what works for one does not work for another. They all have one thing in common, however - a desire for racial and social justice.

"Undocumented politics is a poignant ethnography of gender and political agency in North America's most excluded migrant communities. Author Abigail Andrews takes us from the indigenous villages of Oaxaca, Mexico into the lives of undocumented families in the barrios of Southern California and back. Drawing on two years of transnational fieldwork, archives, surveys, and the voices of migrants themselves, she compares the histories of two very distinct transnational communities. The book reveals how migrants' cross-border struggles are shaped by local practices of control, in both the places they live and the places they leave behind"--Provided by publisher.

"Moore has photographed the entire length of the U.S. southern border, and traveled extensively throughout Central America and Mexico, as well as to many immigrant communities in the United States ... [This book is a] record on the prevailing U.S. domestic topic of immigration and border security"--Amazon.com.

Presents the oral histories of undocumented immigrants struggling to carve a life for themselves in the US. --From publisher description.

"Structured around the forty questions Luiselli translates and asks undocumented Latin-American children facing deportation, Tell Me How It Ends (an expansion of her 2016 Freeman's essay of the same name) humanizes these young migrants and highlights the contradiction of the idea of America as a fiction for immigrants with the reality of racism and fear--both here and back home"--

"The book examines networks of state/political power, business interests, and organized crime that threaten and attack journalists in Mexico, where more than 150 journalists have been killed since 2000, and reveals how Mexican journalists have turned to one another and to their communities to resist pressures and create their own networks of resilience"--

Jorge Bonilla is hospitalized with pneumonia from sleeping at the restaurant where he works, unable to afford rent on wages of thirty cents an hour. Domestic worker Yanira Juarez discovers she has labored for six months with no wages at all; her employer lied about establishing a savings account for her. We live in an era of the sweatshop reborn. In 1992 Jennifer Gordon founded the Workplace Project to help immigrant workers in the underground suburban economy of Long Island, New York. In a story of gritty determination and surprising hope, she weaves together Latino immigrant life and legal activism to tell the unexpected tale of how the most vulnerable workers in society came together to demand fair wages, safe working conditions, and respect from employers. Immigrant workers--many undocumented--won a series of remarkable victories, including a raise of thirty percent for day laborers and a domestic workers' bill of rights. In the process, they transformed themselves into effective political participants. Gordon neither ignores the obstacles faced by such grassroots organizations nor underestimates their very real potential for fundamental change. This revelatory work challenges widely held beliefs about the powerlessness of immigrant workers, what a union should be, and what constitutes effective lawyering. It opens up exciting new possibilities for labor organizing, community building, participatory democracy, legal strategies, and social justice.

RECIPIENT OF THE 2018 IZZY AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM "Every so often a book comes along that can dramatically change, or elevate, one's thinking about a global problem. Much like Naomi Klein's books, Todd Miller'sStorming the Wall is such a book and deserves far more attention and discussion."--Izzy Award Judges, Ithaca College *** "A galvanizing forecast of global warming's endgame and a powerful indictment of America's current stance."--Kirkus Reviews As global warming accelerates, droughts last longer, floods rise higher, and super-storms become more frequent. With increasing numbers of people on the move as a result, the business of containing them--border fortification--is booming. InStorming the Wall, Todd Miller travels around the world to connect the dots between climate-ravaged communities, the corporations cashing in on border militarization, and emerging movements for environmental justice and sustainability. Reporting from the flashpoints of climate clashes, and from likely sites of futures battles, Miller chronicles a growing system of militarized divisions between the rich and the poor, the environmentally secure and the environmentally exposed. Stories of crisis, greed and violence are juxtaposed with powerful examples of solidarity and hope in this urgent and timely message from the frontlines of the post-Paris Agreement era. Todd Miller's writings about the border have appeared in theNew York Times,Tom Dispatch, and many other places. Praise forStorming the Wall "Nothing will test human institutions like climate change in this century--as this book makes crystal clear, people on the move from rising waters, spreading deserts, and endless storms could profoundly destabilize our civilizations unless we seize the chance to re-imagine our relationships to each other. This is no drill, but it is a test, and it will be graded pass-fail"--Bill McKibben, authorEaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet "As Todd Miller shows in this important and harrowing book, climate-driven migration is set to become one of the defining issues of our time.... This is a must-read book."--Christian Parenti, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, author ofTropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence "Todd Miller reports from the cracks in the walls of the global climate security state--militarized zones designed to keep powerful elites safe from poor and uprooted peoples.... Miller finds hope--hope that may not survive in Trumpworld."--Molly Molloy, Research librarian for Latin America and the border at New Mexico State University and creator of "Frontera List" "Miller delivers a prescient and sober view of our increasingly dystopian planet as the impacts of human-caused climate disruption continue to intensify."--Dahr Jamail, award-winning independent journalist, author ofThe End of Ice "Todd Miller's important book chronicles how existing disparities in wealth and power, combined with the dramatic changes we are causing in this planet's ecosystems, mean either we come together around our common humanity or forfeit the right to call ourselves fully human."--Robert Jensen, author ofThe End of Patriarchy,Plain Radical, andArguing for Our Lives

"As the United States hardens its border with Mexico, how do migrants make transnational claims of citizenship in both nation-states? By enacting citizenship in both countries, Mexican migrants are challenging the meaning of membership and belonging from the margins of both citizenship regimes. Drawing on his experiences leading citizenship classes for Mexican migrants and working with cross-border activists, Adrian Felix examines the political lives (and deaths) of Mexican migrants in Specters of belonging. Tracing transnationalism across the different stages of the migrant political life cycle, Felix reveals the varied ways in which Mexican transnational subjects practice citizenship in the United States and in Mexico. As such, Felix unearths how Mexican migrants' specters of belonging perennially haunt the political projects of nationalism, citizenship, and democracy on both sides of the border."--

Provides a collection of oral histories that tells--in their own words--the stories of young refugees fleeing countries in Central America and traveling for hundreds of miles to seek safety and protection in the United States. Fifteen narrators describe why they fled their homes, what happened on their dangerous journeys through Mexico, how they crossed the borders, and for some, their ongoing struggles to survive in the United States. In an era of fear, xenophobia, and outright lies, these stories amplify the compelling voices of migrant youth. --From publisher description.

America's "broken" immigration system has become a cliche of national politics - made only worse by decades of political gridlock. Safe Haven in America: Battles to Open the Golden Door draws on nearly a quarter of a century of the author's practice in the immigration field. The cases presented, however, don't merely involve legal principles, but the human aspects of coming to America - the happiness of a family and children, the results of fighting criminality and corruption, the hopes of safely expressing political, religious, or social beliefs . . . and sometimes, the very stark difference between life and death.

Expatriation, or the stripping away citizenship and all the rights that come with it, is usually associated with despotic and totalitarian regimes. The imagery of mass expulsion of once integral members of the community is associated with civil wars, ethnic cleansing, the Holocaust, or other oppressive historical events. Yet these practices are not just a product of undemocratic events or extreme situations, but are standard clauses within the legal systems of most democratic states, including the United States. Witness, for example, Yaser Esam Hamdi, captured in Afghanistan in November 2001, sent to Guantanamo, transferred to a naval brig in South Carolina when it was revealed that he was a U.S. citizen, and held there without trial until 2004, when the Justice Department released Hamdi to Saudi Arabia without charge on the condition that he renounce his U.S. citizenship. Hamdi's story may be the best known expatriation story in recent memory, but inRevoking Citizenship, Ben Herzog reveals America's long history of making both naturalized immigrants and native-born citizens un-American after their citizenship was stripped away. Tracing this history from the early republic through the Cold War, Herzog locates the sociological, political, legal, and historic meanings of revoking citizenship. Why, when, and with what justification do states take away citizenship from their subjects? Should loyalty be judged according to birthplace or actions? Using the history and policies of revoking citizenship as a lens,Revoking Citizenshipexamines, describes, and analyzes the complex relationships between citizenship, immigration, and national identity.

Arizona's controversial new immigration bill is just the latest of many steps in the new criminalization of immigrants. While many cite the presumed criminality of illegal aliens as an excuse for ever-harsher immigration policies, it has in fact been well-established that immigrants commit less crime, and in particular less violent crime, than the native-born and that their presence in communities is not associated with higher crime rates. Punishing Immigrants moves beyond debunking the presumed crime and immigration linkage, broadening the focus to encompass issues relevant to law and society, immigration and refugee policy, and victimization, as well as crime. The original essays in this volume uncover and identify the unanticipated and hidden consequences of immigration policies and practices here and abroad at a time when immigration to the U.S. is near an all-time high. Ultimately, Punishing Immigrants illuminates the nuanced and layered realities of immigrants' lives, describing the varying complexities surrounding immigration, crime, law, and victimization.Podcast: Susan Bibler Coutin, on the process and effects of deportation '

"PAPER TRAILS is an edited volume that offers a critical analysis of various types of identity documentation, such as U.S. state-issued driver's licenses, to examine the power dynamics between migrants and traditional immigrant-receiving countries. In the United States, Canada, and the European Union, states are providing temporary and provisional legal statuses for migrants while making it increasingly harder for them to earn permanent legal status, a phenomenon known as "Global Apartheid." The effects of those temporary legal statuses on migrants are profound. This collection unites anthropologists, sociologists, geographers, and political scientists to examine the processes through which migrants are inscribed into official bureaucratic systems at various scales of government to show how states exert their power and how migrants navigate new systems of control. The project is divided into three parts, each consisting of three chapters. Part I outlines the basic features of identity documents in traditional immigrant-receiving countries. Nandita Sharma examines the historical construction of the category of "migrant" as opposed to "citizen," and Bridget Anderson considers immigration policies in the United Kingdom specifically. Doris Marie Provine and Monica W. Varsanyi analyze the political struggles around driver's licenses in Arizona and New Mexico. The second part of the book looks at how documents shape migrants' experiences of space and time, focusing on the multiple and unpredictable spaces in which migrants encounter the power of the state. Finally, part III examines how state control is mutable and seemingly never-ending, and it describes the numerous ways in which migrants and their advocates engage creatively with the state. This book will be of interest to scholars and students in migration studies, anthropology, sociology, geography, political science, and security studies"--

"Emmy Award-winning NPR journalist Maria Hinojosa shares her personal story interwoven with American immigration policy's coming-of-age journey at a time when our country's branding went from "The Land of the Free" to "the land of invasion.""--;Hinojosa relates the history of US immigration policy that has brought us to where we are today, as she shares her experience growing up Mexican American on the south side of Chicago. For thirty years she has reported on stories and communities in America that often go ignored by the mainstream media, documenting the existential wasteland of immigration detention camps for news outlets that often challenged her work. As a survivor, a feminist, a citizen, and a journalist who owns her voice while striving for the truth, Hinojosa makes an urgent call to fellow Americans to open their eyes to the immigration crisis-- and understand that it affects us all. -- adapted from jacket

This provocative account of our immigration system's long, racist history reveals how it has become the brutal machine that upends the lives of millions of immigrants today. Each year in the United States, hundreds of thousands of people are arrested, imprisoned, and deported, trapped in what leading immigrant rights activist and lawyer Alina Das calls the "deportation machine." The bulk of the arrests target people who have a criminal record -- so-called "criminal aliens"--The majority of whose offenses are immigration-, drug-, or traffic-related. These individuals are uprooted and banished from their homes, their families, and their communities. Through the stories of those caught in the system, Das traces the ugly history of immigration policy to explain how the U.S. constructed the idea of the "criminal alien," effectively dividing immigrants into the categories "good" and "bad," "deserving" and "undeserving." As Das argues, we need to confront the cruelty of the machine so that we can build an inclusive immigration policy premised on human dignity and break the cycle once and for all.