June 2014 Immigration News At a Glance

Written by Rebecca Kaebnick and Arielle Kandel

The surge of unaccompanied minors across the Mexico-US border is the main focus of the Immigration News At a Glance this month. The digest also presents the key findings of several new studies published on the topic of immigration, and looks at interesting legislative and political developments in Washington, D.C. and New York.

Unaccompanied Children

The surge of unaccompanied minors crossing the southwestern US border along the Rio Grande Valley has made the headlines in local, national, and even international media this past month (see, for example, The Economist, USA Today, and this report by the Pew Research Center). Since fall last year, tens of thousands of children and teenagers have embarked on their own on the dangerous journey to the United States to flee escalating gang violence and activity in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and other Central American countries. Teenage boys fear violent retribution against themselves and their family if they refuse to join gangs, while girls feel at increasing risk of abuse and rape. Many of these youth also hope to reunite with family members living as undocumented immigrants in the United States. National Immigration Correspondent for The New York Times Julia Preston describes how a smuggling business is quickly gaining a foothold on the border as some families are ready to pay a steep fee to have their child taken across the Rio Grande by coyotes.

NPR (National Public Radio) reports that over 50,000 unaccompanied minors have been taken into custody by Border Patrol agents since October, almost twice as many as in 2012. Civil society groups and the media have expressed growing concerns and dismay at the treatment of unaccompanied minors by border agents and other authorities, with some children and teenagers describing having been subject to beatings, harassment, threats, and sexual abuse in detention. Many are held in overcrowded facilities, with little food or access to medical care and legal representation (read this editorial in The New York Times).

As there were reports that the number of unaccompanied children crossing into the US could double to 127,000 in the coming year, President Obama promised that its administration would step up efforts to address what he called a serious “humanitarian crisis.” An initial plan unveiled by the administration on June 20 included a nearly $100 million grant to the governments of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador for help in reintegrating minors sent back from the US, and an additional $161.5 million funding for the Central American Regional Security Initiative, a series of programs providing assistance to Central American countries in security matters and crime and gang prevention. In late June, President Obama announced that he would request Congress to grant over $2 billion in new funds to control and cope with the surge of unaccompanied children on the southwestern border, and to speed up deportations.

Non-profit organizations and community groups are bulking up to improve the lots of the minors. The New York Times notably relates how churches and shelters are being asked by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to provide food and shelter to recently released minors awaiting legal proceedings. The non-profit sector strives to provide more affordable legal counsel, but reports drowning in the flood of those who need representation. On June 23, a group of House Democrats introduced the Vulnerable Immigrant Voice Act, a proposal to provide free legal counsel to unaccompanied minors in deportation and related proceedings (to learn more about the bill, read this article in The New York Times).

New Studies

The demographics of the country’s immigrants continue to evolve, as illustrated by a new study of the Pew Research Center looking at Hispanic workers. Researchers found the prevailing economic strain and decline in the housing industry to be deterrents to the flow of Latin American immigrants, which has decreased significantly in the past decade, a trend expected to continue. For the first time in two decades, the majority of the Latino workforce is made up of citizens, and citizens of Latino descent reportedly gained more jobs between 2007 and 2009 than immigrant Latinos.

This month, to celebrate the two-year anniversary of the launching by President Obama of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, the American Immigration Council published the results of a large-scale national survey documenting the impact and success of DACA (the full survey report is available here). DACA was initiated in 2012 for the benefit of undocumented immigrants who arrived in the US as children before June 2007; the program defers deportation and grants eligible applicants a Social Security number and a two-year work permit, opening doors to opportunities requiring these documents, such as opening a bank account, enrolling in state- or college-based health care programs, or applying for a driver’s license (for a more detailed description of the DACA program, read this). One of the program’s key objectives is to ensure better access to internships and jobs for its undocumented participants. The results of the survey demonstrate DACA’s success, with 45 percent of respondents reporting having obtained a job after enrolling in the program, and additional recommendations to boost DACA’s effectiveness are provided.

In an important study published by the Migration Policy Institute, two researchers examine the unique needs of immigrant parents in engaging and supporting their children’s early education. Such parent engagement, the report stresses, is critical to set “a foundation for [the child’s] healthy development and academic success.” The report underscores that low literacy and language barriers impede parents’ access to information about childhood parental engagement programs, and hinder their ability to participate in these programs. It calls on every level of government – federal, state, and school-district – to support the creation and expansion of innovative education, literacy, and English-language programs for immigrant parents, so that they can be “full partners” in their children’s early development and learning process.

In Washington, D.C.

“In one of the most stunning primary election upsets in congressional history,” The New York Times reports, Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was defeated by a relatively unknown professor supported by the Tea Party, David Brat, to succeed John Boehner as Speaker of the House. In an op-ed published in The Washington Post, columnist George Will writes that this defeat “will send ripples radiating through the House and into the Republicans’ 2016 presidential nomination contest.” Will argues that Cantor’s support of “amnesty” for undocumented immigrants in the US and its “multiple and contradictory positions on immigration” have diminished his stature and popularity among Republicans. An article of The New York Times similarly reports that both Republicans and Democrats see Cantor’s defeat as the result of his “flip-flop” on the immigration issue.

And yet, a poll funded by a pro-immigration group and reported in Time magazine found that only 22 percent of those who voted for David Brat presented immigration as the key reason for their vote. In fact, the majority (69%) of those who voted for Brat affirmed their support of a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers. Still, immigration reform advocates and supporters all seem to agree that Cantor’s loss is bad news and fear that it may hold Republicans back from taking the moderate route (read these articles in the Huffington Post and The Hill).

Zooming In on New York City Immigration News

The unaccompanied minor migrant crisis is not just affecting the southwest of the US. As reported in The New York Times and Huffington Post, areas with large concentrations of immigrants, such as New York, are feeling strained as children immigrants are reunited with relatives living in the US and seek legal, health care, education, and other social services from government and community organizations. “It’s almost like a refugee crisis,” says Steven Choi, Executive Director of the New York Immigrant Coalition.

On a more positive note, on June 26 the New York City Council has approved two programs aiding immigrants, particularly those without legal status. Supported by Mayor de Blasio, the New York Municipal ID Program follows in the footsteps of similar programs launched by other cities, notably Los Angeles and San Francisco, to expand access to public and other services to the city’s undocumented population. Come January 2015, city residents will be able to use the NY Municipal ID card to enroll in public schools and obtain services from city agencies (read more about the program here and there). An article by the editorial board of The New York Times, however, warns of the risks that the ID card entails: while officials from the Police Department worry that the card may give rise to document fraud or other misuse, there are also justifiable concerns among undocumented immigrants that registering for an ID may make them vulnerable to targeting and crackdown by the federal administration.

In another groundbreaking step, the City Council has set aside a $4.9 million budget for the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project, a program providing free legal counsel and representation to low-income immigrants facing deportation. This will make New York the first city in the United States to have a public defender system for detained immigrants, in both civil and criminal courts (for more details on the New York Immigrant Family Project, read this piece by Lynn Kelly, Executive Director of the City Bar Justice Center).

A bill introduced on June 16 in the New York State Assembly, the New York Is Home Act, aims to give a civil voice and broader rights to non-citizen immigrants. If approved, the New York is Home Act will confer documented and undocumented residents a form of New York State citizenship. If they can prove they have lived and paid taxes in the state for three years, undocumented immigrants will qualify for state benefits, including state tuition and health insurance programs, have the right to vote in local and state elections, and even be able to run for office (read more about the New York Is Home Act here and there).