TPS Extension for Honduras and Nicaragua

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano announced that the Obama administration was extending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Honduras and Nicaragua for another 18 months each. 


TPS status will now expire on July 5, 2013. Chances are TPS will just be extended again before they expire in 2013, that is, unless the Republicans win in 2012. Then all bets are off.

How about a little TPS for our Guatemalan neighbors?

A May 2010 eruption of the Pacaya Volcano outside Guatemala City sent ash flying into the departments of Guatemala, Sacatepéquez, and Escuintla. The eruption killed two people, closed the national airport for several days, and left thousand people homeless. President Alvaro Colom declared a state of public calamity. Days later, Tropical Storm Agatha left over two hundred fifty people dead or missing.

Following these natural disasters, President Colom asked the asked the US Government to suspend the detention and deportation of Guatemalans living in the US for eighteen months. In June of that year, he officially requested Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for those Guatemalans living in the United States.

TPS would provide a temporary reprieve for the nearly 1.7 million Guatemalans living in the United States, perhaps as many as sixty percent without the proper documentation, until the country was able to recover from these back-to-back disasters. In recent years, TPS has been granted to El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Haiti following natural disasters. 

In September 2010, Guatemala was struck by another natural disaster when over fifty Guatemalans died from flooding and landslides caused by a tropical depression. Several people were killed when the buses on which they were traveling were overturned by landslides. First responders and civilians who raced to the scene to rescue the victims were themselves killed when the mountainside gave way once again. 

Guatemala was struck by a series of earthquakes that left over fifteen dead in September 2011. And now, in October, two weeks of uninterrupted rain has left at least 38 dead, 5 missing, 18 injured, and over 500,000 others adversely affected. Forty percent of the country's roads are damaged. Preliminary estimates put damage to the country's infrastructure and agricultural production at $250 million. 

So far, President Obama has far failed to respond to Guatemala's request for TPS. Instead, he has touted how many illegal immigrants have been deported under his watch. 

33,324 Guatemalans were deported in the last fiscal year. 

Here's an idea. The President should extend Temporary Protected Status to our Guatemalan neighbors so that the country can better recover from these natural disasters without the additional challenge of dealing with the deportation of thousands of their countrymen.

TPS isn't a magical solution to the migratory challenge that confronts the US and Latin American and its southern neighbors. However, it is one tool that the executive branch has at its disposal right now and can make a real difference in the lives of millions of people in Guatemala and the United States.

(Some of this was originally written for a letter to the editor of the Scranton Times in 2010. I hope that I won't have to use it next year as well.)

Most illegal immigrants deported last year were criminals?

The Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are touting that the Obama administration deported nearly 400,000 people from the United States in 2010. Headlines report that about 55% of the 396,906 individuals deported had felony or misdemeanor convictions. (Remember, these are the numbers that the administration already manipulated 11 months ago.)

Okay, so 55% of 396,906 had criminal records. That gives us approximately, 218,298 deported with criminal records (and 178,608 without a record). We "know" that 1,119 were convicted of homicide, 5,848 of sexual offenses, 44,653 of drug-related offenses and 35,927 of driving under the influence. That adds up to 87,547. 

Let's assume these convictions were legitimate. That leaves another 130,751 deportees with “other” criminal records. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director couldn't give a number as to how many of these deportees' only offense was a previous immigration violation, but he really needs to know.  Had they committed assault, robbery, trespassing?

Are we talking about 87,000 (22%) or 218,000 (55%) “hardened” criminals deported in 2010? I'm guessing that since he didn't have the answer to such a basic and predictable questions, most of the remaining deportees were simply people desperate enough to get to the US a second or third time.

The other thing to try to keep in perspective is the denominator. In this week's news stories, the denominator is ~400,000. That's the number of people deported in 2010, slightly more than half of which had criminal records. That's what the administration is using as evidence that they are focused on deporting those people who have committed crimes or who are a threat to the US.

However, that might not be the best way to answer the question of whether the administration is focused on the worst of the worst. We would really want to know how many of the 10-11 million illegal immigrants have committed felonies and misdemeanors (probably an unknown number) and how many of those individuals the government has successfully apprehended and deported. Don't compare criminal deportations to non-criminal deportations. 

Guatemala Links

Insight Crime has English-language excerpts from Plaza Publica's interview with Guatemala’s next president Otto Perez Molina. Maybe Perez Molina and the Patriotic Party will stop spending campaign money now (they’re already over the limit) that they have no real challenger. On the other hand, now is the time to concentrate on congressional elections. As of right now, support its congressional candidates is lagging support for its presidential candidate.

AFP has the latest on Guatemala top court rejects Torres presidential run that I noted yesterday. So what does Sandra Torres do one day after being disqualified from the presidential race once again? First, she complains that the thirteen judges came to their conclusion too quickly. Then she and UNE said that they plan to appeal to the Constitutional Court which is the last, seriously last, judicial body that can save her.

Finally, Perla Trevizo has several interesting stories that document the complex relationship between the people of Tennessee and Guatemala after decades of migration between the two countries. Her reporting is part of the Times Free Press' Between Two Worlds project. Browse the website for stories, photos and videos.

The DREAM is still alive

According to Fox News,

Sen. Dick Durbin plans to make a full-court press Tuesday to revive the debate over a controversial proposal to give illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children a path to legal status, as the Obama administration moves on a separate track to grant what some describe as "amnesty" to the same group. 

Durbin, D-Ill., in announcing the first-ever Senate hearing on the so-called DREAM Act, said his proposal would "make our country stronger." Under the plan, which passed the House last year but died in the Senate, illegal immigrants who came here as children and complete two years of college or military service could earn legal status. 

It's a good start from the Georgetown alum, but it's unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled House. While that doesn't mean that it's not worth doing, it just means that we shouldn't get our hopes up.

The End to a Comprehensive Approach to Immigration Reform

I'd say this is a step in the right direction by the Obama administration. However, I imagine it's going to create some bureaucratic nightmares different from but maybe not worse than those that already exist.

In a June 17 memo, Immigration and Customs Enforcement director John Morton outlined 19 separate factors that could warrant the use of "prosecutorial discretion" and prevent certain immigrants from being deported, on a case by case basis.

According to the memo, there is a range of factors that federal agents, attorneys, and other officials should consider in deciding whether or not to pursue an individual undocumented immigrant for deportation. The list of "factors to consider" includes whether they are military veterans and their families, have family ties and "contributions to the community," act as caretakers of the infirm and disabled, are very young or very old, or are pregnant or nursing.

In addition, the Obama administration instructs federal officials to weigh the circumstances of immigrants' arrival to the US—especially if they came as young children—and whether they've graduated from high school, college, or are currently pursuing higher education. The memo explicitly states that no groups of immigrants are categorically excluded from deportation if they fit these criteria. But it emphasizes the need to "warrant particular care" when it comes to particular individuals, while advising officials to target serious felons, repeat offenders, known gang members and immigration fraudsters, and those "who pose a clear risk to national security."

Not that a comprehensive immigration reform push by the administration was likely to pass both the House and Senate anyway, but this signals to me that it is off the table for the foreseeable future. 

Perhaps if Obama intends to go piecemeal on immigration reform, he might reconsider his administration's position on granting temporary protected status to Guatemalans living in the United States. At the very least, the administration should make a decision one way or the other.

Oh no, not phonebooks!

From Buffalo News

Police here turned five illegal aliens—four from El Salvador and one from Honduras— over to the U. S. Border Patrol after discovering them delivering phone books Wednesday morning.

Officers, responding to a call at about 7:50 a. m. regarding a suspicious person wearing a mask jumping in and out of a van on Buffalo Street, stopped the van on Pratt Avenue and determined that the two men inside were Salvadorans working for a delivery company from Georgia. The three other men were detained after a second van was stopped on Rowland Road, police said.

After confirming that the men were delivering phone books, why wouldn't you just let them go? Seriously. And if in the first van you found two men working, why pull over a second van?

The Other Wall

Prensa Libre

New Immigration Books

Two new immigration books are out.  The first one comes from Greg (Two Weeks Notice) and John (Weeks Population) Weeks.  Here's the excerpt for Irresistible Forces: Latin American Migration to the United States and its Effects on the South.

The politics, social issues, and cultural impacts of Latin American migration to the United States are often studied by historians and political scientists, but the regional focus is typically on the Southwest and California. This study examines the phenomenon of the impact of Latin American migration on the southeastern United States, a region that now has the nation's fastest growing immigrant population.

Incorporating a political demography approach, this study seeks to provide a clear understanding of the complex dynamics of migration with particular emphasis on the unique demographic fit between the United States and Latin America. This fit arises from one region needing young workers while the other has more than its economy can absorb. Although a relatively simple concept, it is one that has largely been ignored in the political discussions of migration policy. This study argues that the social and political ramifications of and policy responses to Latin American immigration can best be understood when viewed in light of these circumstances.

The second book, Shattering Myths on Immigration and Emigration in Costa Rica, is a volume edited by Carlos Sandoval-García and translated into English by Kari Meyers.  The book

...provides the first comprehensive examination of transnational migration patterns into and out of Costa Rica. This impressive edited volume brings together the work of 18 top scholars from diverse social science backgrounds to analyze Costa Rican migration patterns in the era of globalization.

The first section focuses on immigration in Costa Rican history, including chapters on Nicaraguan, North American and European immigration to the country as well a chapter on transnational migration within Central America.

The second part centers on the social and political status of Nicaraguans in Costa Rica that make up a sizable portion of the working-class similar to Mexican immigrants in the southwestern United States.

The third section of the book analyzes outmigration of Costa Ricans with chapters on the role of international remittances sent back to Costa Rica (a major source of income in contemporary Latin America) and particular migration patterns of Costa Ricans living in the northeastern United States.

The fourth part of the collection examines the timely topic of gender and cross-border migration with emphases on women in the actual migration transit process and the vulnerability of immigrant women in different industries including agriculture and sex tourism.

The concluding chapters emphasize the social and symbolic images of immigrants to Costa Rica including the construction of in-group and out-group identities, the use of symbolic violence and racism against immigrants.

While travelling and teaching in Costa Rica in 1998 and 2001, some Costa Ricans liked to say that they understood the US' "Mexican problem" better than anyone since the Ticos had "their own Nica problem."  They look like two promising books on interesting and important topics within the larger study of transnational migration.

No News on TPS for Guatemala

California State Assemblywoman Norma Torres of  recently sent a letter to President Obama asking him to extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Guatemalans living in the United States.  According to Torres's Wikipedia entry, she was born in Guatemala and relocated to Los Angeles at the age of five along with her father and two brothers when her mother died.  Torres has also been credited with rallying the other hispanic members of the California Assembly to support Guatemala's request for TPS protection. 

In September, US Ambassador Stephen McFarland said that TPS for Guatemala was under "active consideration."  In that sense, the recent Torres story in Prensa Libre has nothing new to report.

Perhaps it posisble that the president thought that by taking a tough stance against illegal immigration during his first two years in office, congress would come around and be more inclined to support some version of comprehensive immigration reform.  However, the president has not received "credit" for putting more guards on the border, spending more on border enforcement, and deporting a record number of illegal immigrants.

Now that Congress has killed the Dream (Act) because anything that doesn't round up and deport eleven million illegal immigrations is regarded as amnesty, let's hope that the executive branch will be more inclined to use its powers to push immigration reform at the margins.  Granting TPS to Guatemalans living in the US would be one small step in the right direction.

Guatemala News Roundup

Here are some Guatemala stories from the last few days that I found interesting.

Fugitive Guatemalan minister arrested: Former Interior Minister Carlos Vielmann turned himself in to Spanish authorities on Thursday.  He faces charges in both Spain and Guatemala related to the 2006 murder of seven inmates at El Pavon prison.  CNN also has a story about photos allegedly placing Vielmann at the Pavon prison when the inmates were executed.  Vielmann was released on bail later on Thursday with instructions not to leave the country.

Peligra importante asistencia de EEUU a Guatemala: Guatemala is at risk of losing $126 million from the United States for failing to meet the minimum standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA).  Clare Ribando Seelke has the Congressional Research Service report on Trafficking in Persons in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Migrants risk a river of woes: The Houston Chronicle has a new story on the risk that Central American migrants take in crossing into and through Mexico on their way to the United States.  Among some of the interesting tidbits from the story is a statement by El Salvador's ambassador to Mexico, Hugo Carrillo - "I thought that with the massacre there was going to be at least a temporary drop in the migration. But it hasn't dropped at all... Their situation, their need to improve their lives, makes them run the risks. They are terrified, but they are still coming." 

WOLA and the Miguel Augustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center (Center Prodh) have a new report on "A Dangerous Journey through Mexico: Human Rights Violations against Migrants in Transit."  Here's the press release and the report.

Danilo Valladares also had a new report entitled Allegations Taint Anti-Corruption Commission's Efforts.  In it, Valladares reports that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon plans to travel to Guatemala in March or April and is expected to extend CICIG's mandate for two more years.

People Who Mattered in 2010 - Jan Brewer

The Onion has named Arizona Governor Jan Brewer one of the People Who Mattered in 2010.  Congrats Governor.

Like the growing tide of up and coming conservative politicians, Brewer understands that real change—the disturbing, almost surreal kind of change that drives a wedge between Americans, increases fear and xenophobia, and makes Arizona, and by extension the nation as a whole, seem impossibly backward—has to start at home.

The loon.

Why manipulate immigration numbers in the first place?

Mike Munger at Kids Prefer Cheese and Greg Weeks at Two Weeks Notice have commented on a recent WaPo story on the Obama administration's manipulation of immigration numbers.  It looks like the administration implemented a host of accounting gimmicks to ensure that last fiscal year's deportation numbers exceeded the previous one.

But in reaching 392,862 deportations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement included more than 19,000 immigrants who had exited the previous fiscal year, according to agency statistics. ICE also ran a Mexican repatriation program five weeks longer than ever before, allowing the agency to count at least 6,500 exits that, without the program, would normally have been tallied by the U.S. Border Patrol.

I don't really understand why the administration is trying so hard to make it look like it deported more illegal immigrants in fiscal year 2010 than it did in fiscal year 2009 (each ends September 30).  Well, I do understand, but if the administration wanted to be honest present a perfectly reasonable explanation for why 2010's deportation numbers were down from 2009, it could just have said that as a result of increased deportations during Obama's first year in office (as well as increased deportations during the Bush administration), a slower U.S. economy, and stricter border enforcement, there are fewer illegal immigrants living in the United States.

The estimated number of illegal immigrants living in the United States fell from 11.6 million in 2008 to 11.1 million in 2009 (Pew Hispanic Center estimates).    As the total number of illegal immigrants living in the US declines, we are also likely to see fewer people deported.

Just take a page from the drug war playbook and say that fewer deportations is a sign of success.  The when the number of illegal immigrants in the country increases (again) and a greater number of people are deported (again), you can call that success.

The Invisibles - Amnesty International

Marc Silver & Gael Garcìa Bernal have a film "The Invisible" posted at Amnesty International that highlights the suffering of Central Americans traveling through Mexico on their way to the United States.  This is the trailer above.  There are four clips on Amnesty's website.

Every year, tens of thousands of women, men and children travel through Mexico without legal permission. As "invisible" migrants they head for the US border in the hope of finding a new life far from the poverty they've left behind. Their journey is one of the most dangerous in the world.

Amnesty is asking for your help to encourage the Mexican government to do more to protect these vulnerable migrants.  See Emilio Godoy's piece on IPS for more information about the dangerous journey through Mexico. 

I can't help but think that in fifty or one hundred years, our children and grandchildren are going to wonder why facilitating the free movement of people between the US, Canada, Mexico, and Central America wasn't a higher priority.  Instead, we set up roadblocks to make travel as dangerous as possible.

Death and the US-Mexican Border

According to the Arizona Coalition of Human Rights, 2,104 undocumented immigrants have died in the last decade along the US- Mexican border.  Over ten percent (253) of the deaths occurred during the 2010 fiscal year, including 170 males, 32 women, and 51 unknown.  The dead come from Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, and, surprisingly I guess, the Dominican Republic.  Okay, we don't know how many were from the DR, but I still wasn't expecting it to show up.

 

The coalition's death totals come from coroners offices in the border counties.  The totals wouldn't include, obviously, undocumented immigrants who perished in the desert and whose bodies have not yet been recovered.  It's also quite likely that the organization does not have information from all the offices. 

Given these limitations, we can think of these figures as the lower limit.  If anything, the numbers are higher.

The Latin Americanist

The Latin Americanist is soliciting submissions for a special edition on immigration scheduled to be published in December 2011.