News Round Up In-Brief

U.S. News

• As conversation about immigration reform continues in Washington, Republicans and Democrats, including President Obama, generally agree that undocumented immigrants granted provisional legal status should not be granted access to Medicaid or insurance subsidies.  This viewpoint, however, may contrast with the majority of lawmakers’ constituents.
• Neither the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program nor the Affordable Care Act offer any possibility for undocumented immigrants or DACA approved youth to access subsidized health services.

News Round Up In-Brief

U.S. News

• Contrary to Obama administration policy, newly released records show that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last year instructed its regional chiefs to arrest more, not fewer, minor criminals as opposed to felons, in order to meet its desired number of deportations. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently obtained emails proving that ICE officials set deportation quotas.

News Round Up In-Brief

U.S. News

• On Tuesday, January 29^th, President Obama addressed a Las Vegas audience and declared a need for immigration reform. The full transcript of his address can be found at the New York Times website.

• Although the President’s proposed immigration plan may grant “provisional legal status” to many undocumented immigrants living in the United States, his plan bars undocumented immigrants who gain “provisional legal status” from Medicare, Medicaid, and from purchasing health insurance on the exchanges created through the affordable care act.

• Some hospitals have expressed opposition to prohibiting certain forms of health insurance to undocumented immigrants who later gain legal status.

Reading Between the Lines: Need to Know’s “Crossing the Line” Suggests a Reexamination of the Border Patrol’s Culture – Rachel Stonecipher

Rachel Stonecipher

SMU

In 2012, a series of PBS investigations into Border Patrol abuses corroborated years of humanitarian volunteers’ reports, finding that the agency’s institutional culture cultivates a climate of medical neglect – and sometimes outright harm – toward migrant detainees. In July 2012, the PBS show Need to Know aired the second installment of its U.S.-Mexico border series “Crossing the Line,” an investigation into abuses of migrants in Border Patrol custody. The program reported that agents in the Tucson Sector, the busiest of nine regional divisions of the Border Patrol on the U.S.-Mexico border, have been accused of thousands of physical, verbal, and sexual abuses against migrants who are usually deported before they can report the crimes. “Crossing the Line, part 2” focused on the problem of poor treatment during detention, while Part I addressed agents’ excessive use of force. In light of my own research with humanitarian volunteers,[1] the two programs prove the frequency and injuriousness of abuse. Although PBS stops short of claiming that the Border Patrol’s “war on illegal immigration” actually promotes harm against migrants, to some volunteers’ dismay (including my own), “Crossing the Line” effectively conveys that abuse is an institutional problem that takes direct and indirect forms – including impunity.

News Round Up In-Brief

U.S. News

• In the early months of his second term, President Obama plans to swiftly seek a path to citizenship for most of the country’s undocumented population as part of a comprehensive bill overhauling the immigration system.

• The Obama administration will soon introduce a waiver that can lift the 10-year bar on reentry into the country for undocumented spouses and children of legal residents, who are required to return to their countries of origin to be issued green cards. Previously an unavoidable Catch-22, the ban kicked in whenever family members left the country to retrieve their cards. This change suggests that administration is moving ahead on immigration reform through executive action in anticipation of a larger legislative battle in the months ahead.

• Following a public outcry driven largely by social media, the mother and brother of prominent Dream Act activist Erika Andiola, who had been arrested by ICE in Phoenix on January 10th, were released from detention.

News Round Up In-Brief

U.S. News

• Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced on December 21 that in fiscal year 2012, it deported 409,849 individuals, an all-time record high. In the same period, ICE audited a record number of companies for undocumented immigrants on their payrolls.

• Also in its year-end press release, ICE announced new “immigration hold” guidelines that aim to focus mainly on targeting serious criminals for detention. However, the memo states that mere “illegal entry” to the U.S. can justify a detainer.

• Colorlines.com reported that between July 1, 2010 and September 30, 2012, ICE deported nearly 205,000 parents of U.S. citizen children, comprising 23 percent of all deportations.

News Round Up In-Brief

U.S. News

• When the Affordable Care Act of 2010 goes into full effect, undocumented immigrants will comprise roughly 25 percent of the nation’s uninsured, and may face even fewer options for care if reforms spur cutbacks in community health clinics.

• In defiance of the Secure Communities program, the New York City Council proposed two bills that would expand the city’s powers to block federal immigration detainers.

• A Washington Post Letter to the Editor extends concerns that temporary residency through a U.S. “guest worker” program would not extend adequate rights to visiting workers.