Why Immigrant Children Excel More than US-Born Kids
More than 12 million immigrants moved through Ellis Island, a primary U.S. federal immigration station in New York, between 1892 and 1954. The assimilation of these newcomers into the great U.S. “melting pot” in their pursuit of the American dream is a key part of the nation’s story. Many Americans have come to idealize those early immigrants, mostly Europeans, as somehow more desirable than today’s immigrants, who primarily hail from Latin America and Asia and are more likely to be viewed by some as slow to assimilate, potential criminals, a financial drain on the system, and as stealing jobs from the American-born. Economic historians Leah Boustan and Ran Abramitzky are using cutting-edge data collection and analytics to separate immigrant fact from fiction while comparing modern-day migrants to those who came to America a century ago. Successful children “One big surprise was how well the children of immigrants are doing, and how (children of) immigrants from nearly every sending country are more upwardly mobile than the children of the U.S.-born. And how that stays constant over 100 years, regardless of the sending country,” says Abramitzky, a professor of economics at Stanford University. The reason many children of immigrants do better than …
From Apprehensions to Deportations: US Border Enforcement Explained
U.S. immigration officials reported nearly 2 million migrant encounters along U.S. borders nationwide in fiscal 2021, often cited by officials as the highest annual total on record. It’s a trend that immigration experts say is the result of repeated entry attempts because of an emergency health order known as Title 42, which denies most migrants a chance to request asylum under U.S. law on public health grounds. While much of the attention in 2021 was focused on border crossings by families and unaccompanied minors — some barely older than toddlers — the largest cohort of migrant arrivals and expulsions were single adults. Every month, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) releases enforcement data to explain what is happening at the U.S. borders, which includes apprehensions, encounters and removals, among other actions. But what do those terms mean? Apprehensions CBP defines an apprehension as “the physical control or temporary detainment of a person who is not lawfully in the United States, which may or may not result in an arrest.” Migrants — often in large family groups — who cross U.S. borders outside official ports of entry requesting asylum are temporarily apprehended and eventually expelled from the U.S. back to …
Greek Leader Urges Students to Sustain, Strengthen Democracy
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told graduates of Boston College in his commencement address Monday that it is their sacred duty to protect democracy in an age when it is coming under increasing stress. The future of democracy looked unassailable when his generation graduated from college in the late 1980s, Mitsotakis said, roughly the time when the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. But the world since then has seen a rise in populist and autocratic leaders who disdain the pillars of democracy such as free expression, a free press and free elections, he said during his keynote address in front of about 4,450 graduates. “My generation thought that democracy was easy, neglecting the fact that it requires constant effort and systematic engagement,” said Mitsotakis, whose wife and son are both Boston College alumni. Graduates are also heading into a world at time of war in Europe that is causing untold misery and threatening a global recession, as well as during a time of climate change, human kind’s most complex problem, he said. But he expressed optimism. “I have such great faith in your generation not to repeat the mistakes of the past,” he said. Everyone can embrace …
For Desperate Migrants, Hope is in Breach at US Border Wall
Gladys Martinez’s voice is almost lost in the crackling midday heat of Arizona as she steps onto U.S. soil. “We come seeking asylum,” she whispers as she thrusts forward pictures she says show her murdered daughter. Martinez, a Honduran, is one of dozens of people who arrive daily in Yuma, a small city on the Mexican border where there are gaps in the wall that separate the two countries. She has travelled more than 4,000 kilometers, some of it on foot, from her native Colon, fleeing violence and poverty, desperately hoping she will be given sanctuary in the world’s wealthiest country. She has nothing but the clothes she stands up in and some documents in a small backpack. “Here are the papers, look! Look!” she says, pointing to some grisly photographs that show the lifeless face of a young woman. “They killed my daughter, they choked her to death with a pillow and a bag,” she sobs. Wall The wall that separates the United States from Mexico crosses dunes and hills as it snakes its way from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. Despite the promises of politicians, it is not solid or insurmountable. In some places it is …
Federal Judge Blocks Biden from Ending Title 42 Border Restrictions
A federal judge on Friday ruled that a pandemic-related public health order must continue, allowing the federal government to turn away migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, including those seeking asylum. U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays of Louisiana sided with the 24 Republican-led states that sued the federal government to keep the guidelines in place. He said the states had established a “significant threat of injury” that lifting the order would have on them. “The record also includes evidence supporting the Plaintiff States’ position that such an increase in border crossings will increase their costs for healthcare reimbursements and education services,” Summerhays wrote. “These costs are not recoverable.” The judge’s ruling likely means that the Title 42 restrictions won’t end Monday. The Biden administration can appeal, but the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears cases from Louisiana, has ruled against the administration on several policies. Title 42 is a health policy, part of the Public Health Service Act of 1944, that gives authorization to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to put in place measures to stop the spread of communicable diseases from foreign countries into the United States. The policy was imposed in March 2020 under …
Supreme Court Limits Review of Some Deportation Cases
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that federal courts cannot revise immigration judges’ decisions in some deportation cases, even when the government made what Justice Neil Gorsuch called “egregious factual mistakes.” The court ruled against a Georgia man, Pankajkumar Patel, who has lived in the United States for 30 years and faces deportation because he checked the wrong box on a driver’s license application stating he was a U.S. citizen. In a 5-4 vote, the majority interpreted the law at issue as limiting courts from considering relief and leaving it up to the discretion of immigration officials to apply in factual dispute cases as to whether someone is eligible for that discretionary relief in removal cases. “Today’s decision lets immigration officials make discretionary decisions based on totally mistaken assumptions about the immigrant. The official might know they’re false, or it might be based on an honest mistake. But either way, our courts exist to correct such mistakes and allow all people to be treated fairly,” Paul Gordon, legislative counsel at the People for the American Way, told VOA. Per court documents, in 2007, Patel and his wife, Jyotsnaben, sent an application to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) …
IBM: 6 Black Colleges Getting Cybersecurity Centers
Six historically Black universities in five Southern states will be getting the first IBM cybersecurity centers aimed at training underrepresented communities, the company said. The schools are Xavier University of Louisiana, that state’s Southern University System, North Carolina A&T, South Carolina State, Clark Atlanta and Morgan State universities, according to a news release Tuesday. “Technology-related services are in constant demand, and cybersecurity is paramount,” said Dr. Ray L. Belton, president of the Southern University System based in Baton Rouge. The centers will give students, staff, and faculty access to modern technology, resources, and skills development, said Dr. Nikunja Swain, chair and professor of the Computer Science and Mathematics Department at South Carolina State, in Orangeburg. “It will further enhance our ongoing activities on several key areas, including cybersecurity, data science analytics, cloud computing, IOT, blockchain, design thinking, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence,” he said. IBM said it plans more than 20 such centers at historically Black colleges and universities nationwide. The company said each school will get customized courses and access to company academic programs. They also will be able to experience simulated but realistic cyberattacks through IBM Security’s Command Center. The company said it also will provide faculty and …
Buddhist Chaplains on Rise in US, Offering Broad Appeal
Wedged into a recliner in the corner of her assisted living apartment in Portland, Skylar Freimann, who has a terminal heart condition and pulmonary illness, anxiously eyed her newly arrived hospital bed on a recent day and worried over how she would maintain independence as she further loses mobility. There to guide her along the journey was the Rev. Jo Laurence, a hospice and palliative care chaplain. But rather than invoking God or a Christian prayer, she talked of meditation, chanting and other Eastern spiritual traditions: “The body can weigh us down sometimes,” she counseled. “Where is the divine or the sacred in your decline?” An ordained Sufi minister and practicing Zen Buddhist who brings years of meditation practice and scriptural training to support end-of-life patients, Laurence is part of a burgeoning generation of Buddhist chaplains who are increasingly common in hospitals, hospices and prisons, where the need for their services rose dramatically during the pandemic. In a profession long dominated in the U.S. by Christian clergy, Buddhists are leading an ever more diverse field that includes Muslim, Hindu, Wiccan and even secular humanist chaplains. Buddhist chaplains say they’re uniquely positioned for the times due to their ability to appeal …
Title 42 Asylum Limits in Hands of Federal Judge
An attorney arguing for 24 states urged a federal judge Friday to block Biden administration plans to lift pandemic-related restrictions on migrants requesting asylum, saying the decision was made without sufficient consideration of the effects the move could have on public health and law enforcement. Drew Ensign, an attorney for the state of Arizona, told U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays the lawsuit Arizona, Louisiana and 22 other states filed to block the plan was “not about the policy wisdom” behind the announcement to end the plan May 23. But, Ensign said, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did not follow proper administrative procedures requiring public notice and gathering of comments on the decision to end the restrictions imposed under what is known as Title 42 authority. The result, he said, was that proper consideration was not given to likely resulting increases in border crossings and their possible effects, including pressure on state health care systems and the diversion of border law enforcement resources from drug interdiction to controlling illegal crossings. Jean Lin of the Justice Department argued that the CDC was within its authority to lift an emergency health restriction it felt was no longer needed. She said …
Federal Judge Hears Arguments on Pandemic-era Asylum Limits
A federal judge heard arguments Friday on whether the Biden administration can lift pandemic-related restrictions soon on migrants requesting asylum. U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays did not say when he will rule but indicated it will be soon. The administration plans to lift the restrictions on May 23. Summerhays’ earlier rulings in the case have been favorable to the states challenging the plan. Drew Ensign, an attorney for Arizona, said the administration did not follow proper administrative procedures requiring public notice and gathering of public comments on the decision to end the restrictions imposed under what is known as Title 42 authority. And, he said, proper consideration wasn’t given to likely resulting increases in border crossings and their possible effects, including pressure on state health care systems and the diversion of border law enforcement resources from drug interdiction to controlling illegal crossings. Jean Lin, with the Justice Department, argued that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was within its authority to lift an emergency health restriction it felt was no longer needed. She said the CDC order was a matter of health policy, not immigration policy. “There is no basis to use Title 42 as a safety valve,” …
Illinois Predominantly Black College Closing After 157 Years
A predominantly Black college in central Illinois named after Abraham Lincoln and founded the year the former president was assassinated will close this week, months after a cyberattack that compounded enrollment struggles due to the coronavirus pandemic. Lincoln College, which saw record enrollment numbers in 2019, said in a news release that it scrambled to stay afloat with fundraising campaigns, a consolidation of employee positions, and exploring leasing alternatives. “Unfortunately, these efforts did not create long-term viability for Lincoln College in the face of the pandemic,” the school, which opened in 1865 in Lincoln, about 170 miles southwest of Chicago, said in the release. Then, as COVID cases fell and students returned to schools across the country, the college was victimized by a December cyberattack. It left all the systems needed to recruit students, retain them and raise money inoperable for three months. Lincoln’s president, David Gerlach, told the Chicago Tribune that the school paid a ransom of less than $100,000 after an attack that he said originated in Iran. But when the systems were fully restored, the school that had just over 1,000 students during the 2018-19 academic year discovered “significant enrollment shortfalls” that would require a massive donation …
11 Dead, 31 Rescued After Boat Capsizes Near Puerto Rico
A boat loaded with suspected migrants capsized north of an uninhabited island near Puerto Rico and 11 people had been confirmed dead while 31 others were rescued Thursday, authorities said. It wasn’t immediately clear how many people were aboard the boat when it turned over, said U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Ricardo Castrodad. He said a “mass rescue effort” was still underway. At least eight Haitians were taken to a hospital, although the nationalities of all those aboard the boat were not immediately known. The incident was the latest in a string of capsizings across the region as migrants from Haiti and the Dominican Republic flee violence and poverty in their countries. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter spotted the overturned boat late Thursday morning. “If not for that, we would not have known about this until someone would have found any sign or received reports from people that their loved ones are missing,” Castrodad said. “They found them early enough that we were able to coordinate a response.” The boat was spotted more than 18 kilometers north of the uninhabited island of Desecheo, which is off Puerto Rico’s west coast. The U.S. Coast Guard said those rescued were 20 …
Women Settle Lawsuit Against Liberty University, Documents Say
A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit twelve women brought last summer against Liberty University, accusing the Christian institution of fostering an unsafe environment on its Virginia campus and mishandling cases of sexual assault and harassment, according to court documents filed Wednesday. A notice of dismissal filed by the plaintiffs’ attorney, Jack Larkin, said the case had been settled but provided no details about the terms. Larkin did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. But in an email to TV station WDBJ, he said: “The terms of the settlement are confidential in nature and there’s really nothing I can say about it beyond that the parties to the suit have resolved their differences, and the matter is settled.” Liberty also did not immediately respond to questions from the AP, though spokesperson Ryan Helfenbein acknowledged receiving them. The development comes as the prominent evangelical school in Lynchburg faces continued scrutiny over its handling of sex assault cases. It is facing other lawsuits that raise similar allegations and recently acknowledged to news outlets that the U.S. Department of Education is reviewing its compliance with the federal Clery Act, which requires colleges and universities to maintain …
Cornell University Event Calls for School’s Disentanglement With Chinese Partners
The tweeted invitation for a teach-in at Cornell University featured a photograph of “Pillar of Shame,” a sculpture that commemorates the deadly 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, which authorities removed from Hong Kong University last year. The topic: “Academic Freedom, Global Hubs and Cornell Involvement in the People’s Republic of China.” The speakers: Three Cornell University academics with China-related specialties and Yaqiu Wang, a senior researcher on China at Human Rights Watch. The event was organized as a rebuke to the university’s growing involvement in China and reflected a broader trend of calls for colleges and universities to cut ties with and divest from Chinese groups linked to human rights abuses. The call echoes past demands for universities to sell off investments in fossil fuels and apartheid-era South Africa. Since last year, Cornell administrators have pushed the development of collaborative programs with Chinese universities. Despite students’ and professors’ concerns about China’s record of clamping down on academic freedom, Cornell, famous for its hospitality courses, moved ahead with a dual-degree program in hospitality and business, the Cornell-Peking MMH/MBA program. Graduates would earn a Master of Business Administration from the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University in Beijing and a Master of Management …
US Quietly Expands Asylum Limits While Preparing to End Them
The Biden administration has begun expelling Cubans and Nicaraguans to Mexico under pandemic-related powers to deny migrants a chance to seek asylum, expanding use of the rule even as it publicly says it has been trying to unwind it, officials said Wednesday. The U.S. struck agreement with Mexico to expel up to 100 Cubans and 20 Nicaraguans a day from three locations: San Diego; El Paso, Texas; and Rio Grande Valley, Texas, according to a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the effort. The expulsions began April 27 and will end May 22, the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the agreement has not been made public. They are carried out under Title 42 authority, a public health law that has been used to expel migrants on grounds of preventing spread of COVID-19. Title 42 is due to expire May 23, unless a judge intervenes. The U.S. and Mexico agreed April 26 to a very limited number of expulsions of Cubans and Nicaraguans, according to a high-level Mexican official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. It was prompted by higher numbers of migrants from those two countries coming …
Mexico Relocates Migrant Camp; Haitians Appear at Border
Mexican authorities said Tuesday they have relocated a migrant camp that sprung up in a park in the border city of Reynosa, moving about 2,000 people from Central America and Haiti to a shelter in the city, across the border from McAllen, Texas. The camp of migrants mainly from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Haiti sprung up after U.S. officials, citing the pandemic, invoked a health rule that denies migrants a chance to seek asylum. Mexico’s National Immigration Institute said the migrants were taken around midnight Monday to the shelter, which it said will have better hygiene and food services. But on Monday, people in another border city, Nuevo Laredo, said hundreds of migrants, mainly Haitians, have streamed into that city, which is across the border from Laredo, Texas The rush apparently started after the U.S. began processing some asylum-seekers there. The Catholic bishop of Nuevo Laredo said Monday that migrant shelters there are overcrowded, with some migrants sleeping outside in tents. Bishop Enrique Sánchez Martínez said migrants started streaming into Nuevo Laredo in late April, though the city isn’t usually popular among migrants, in part because it is dominated by the violent Northeast drug cartel. “It is new for …
What Is Title 42?
The Biden administration recently announced it plans to end a Trump-era policy known as Title 42, which allowed the US to quickly expel migrants to their country of origin or Mexican border towns and denied them a chance at asylum. …
US Official: Possible New Migrant Influx Would Strain Border Patrols
A possible influx of thousands of migrants at the southwestern U.S. border later this month will place “an extraordinary strain on our system,” the Homeland Security chief acknowledged Sunday, while reminding migrants that “our border is not open” and that they should not attempt to get into the United States. Federal immigration authorities daily apprehend some 7,000 migrants trying to cross the northern Mexican border. U.S. officials say the figure could reach 18,000 daily if they are allowed to end a medical protocol that currently forces those infected with the coronavirus to remain in Mexico. The protocol, known as Title 42, is set to expire May 23. The administration wants to end enforcement of the rule but says it will honor a federal judge’s decision last week to keep it in place pending further court hearings. Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas told CNN’s “State of the Union” show that his agency has been preparing for months to handle the expected influx of migrants, while acknowledging the difficulty of doing so. Numerous Republican and Democratic lawmakers have expressed fears in recent days that the thousands more migrants expected at the border in the next few weeks will overwhelm border officials. …
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