Tag: immigration

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Opinion The Last Word

Immigrant Stories: María Bracho

Simón Bolívar (Photo: Michael LaRosa)

Editor’s note: This is part three in a five-part series focusing on immigrant contributions to our nation and city.

In 1825, the town of Bolivar, Tennessee, was founded 70 miles east of here, named after the Venezuelan “liberator” of much of South America, Simón Bolívar. Presently, a bust of the Venezuelan leader sits in front of the town’s courthouse as a gift, “from the government and the people of the Republic of Venezuela … to the city of Bolivar on the celebration of the bicentennial of the birth of The Liberator, 1783-1983.”

The exuberance and goodwill between the Republic of Venezuela and our state of Tennessee in 1983 has, by 2024, completely collapsed. Venezuela, a traditional exporter of cacao, coffee, and petroleum, now exports its citizens: About one-quarter of the population of 28 million has left the nation over the past 10 or 20 years, and there seems to be no end in sight to this ongoing humanitarian catastrophe.

Many factors — economic, political, and global — help explain this mass exodus from a once wealthy and influential South American nation. María Bracho’s arrival here in Memphis is directly related to the economic and political chaos of her native Venezuela.

María Bracho (Photo: Bryce Ashby)

Bracho grew up on a farm outside the city of Maracaibo, which is the petroleum capital of the nation. Venezuela, it should be noted, sits on the largest known oil deposits in the world, and about 90 percent of the national GDP is tied to oil. Nine years ago, Bracho decided to come to the USA to join her eldest daughter who had relocated here. Her siblings now call Jacksonville, Florida, home.

“We decided to move here for good about nine years ago,” she says. “We had the property of our business — a mini food market in Maracaibo — expropriated so the government could build a metro that has yet to be built.” The expropriation was followed by threats and extortion. María was forced to flee. Eventually, the family chose Memphis as their permanent home.

The daughters, Arianna Iskeif (age 27) and Orianna Bracho (age 23), are thriving here. Arianna is married with three children and is a homemaker. Orianna works at Independent Bank in the city. María settled in Germantown, and the family has lived there since.

“I love it here in Memphis — the city reminds me of my hometown, Maracaibo; it’s small and friendly,” she says. “I’d love to return to my country, but it’s impossible right now. … There is no electricity and no gasoline in a country whose leading export is petroleum!”

María lives in an apartment on Farmington Road and works full-time in Midtown at Global Café. There she sells and serves arepas — the traditional Venezuelan corn cake that defines and anchors Venezuelan cuisine. She’s worked as a cashier at a Mexican grocery store here and at TruckPro, but enjoys working with the public in the food service industry.

“I work long hours, and the commute is long, but everything I’ve done here has been for the well-being of my family, and I’ve been very lucky here.” María is negotiating to buy a house and plans to sign papers in the next few months.

Food — especially traditional cuisine from home — has always animated María, and she prepares for customers a traditional Venezuelan tamal called a hallaca. She also prepares desserts and other Venezuelan fare on her own. María has obtained residency status in the USA and in about two years’ time will be able to apply for citizenship.

María is grateful for the opportunity to work at Global Café, but her long-term dream is to build a business related to her work there. “I’d like to make and distribute traditional foods and desserts for local Hispanic markets/stores, and I think I’d be good at that type of work,” she says. Chef María is the kitchen manager at the café, a position that puts her at the heart of everything cooked and sold there. “I was so lucky to find Global Café here in Memphis and owe so much to that restaurant … that organization.”

The bust of the great Venezuelan Liberator sits far away from Memphis in a town that history seems to have forgotten — his dream of a unified America unrealized. But the determination and dignity of people like María Bracho connect us culturally and bring hope for peace and opportunity for all Americans.

Bryce W. Ashby is an attorney at Donati Law, PLLC. Michael J. LaRosa is an associate professor of history at Rhodes College.

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At Large Opinion

Same Old Tune

Congressman David Kustoff (Photo: Congressman David Kustoff Via X)

“Okay, so tell me, who makes laws in the United States? … That’s right, Congress. … Who was Thomas Jefferson? … The third president, and he wrote the Declaration of Independence, correct. … Who is one of your U.S. senators? … Marsha Blackburn, yes, that’s right. … I can tell you’re ready. You’re not going to have any problems with this test.”

I was listening to my wife in the other room. She’s an immigration attorney and was talking on the phone to a client who was going to take his citizenship test the following Monday. He’d jumped through lots of bureaucratic hoops, filled out lots of forms, and waited several years for his chance to become an American and he wasn’t going to blow it. It was inspiring, especially given the level of disinformation about immigration being spread by members of the Republican Party.

Here’s some legitimate information: In 1850, immigrants made up 11 percent of the U.S. population. In 2021, they made up 13 percent of the population. Ooh, facts! Scary! Here are some more scary facts from a March 2023 report by the Migration Policy Institute: The population of Tennessee is roughly 6.6 million people, of which 370,000 are foreign-born, or 5.3 percent. Of that number, 175,000 were born in Latin America, meaning the “threat from the Southern border” currently comprises 2.5 percent of Tennessee’s population. I don’t know about you, but I’m terrified.

Those 175,000 people are a threat to open restaurants, do construction work, start lawn care companies and auto repair shops, work in our offices, and send their children to our schools — where they may even become lawyers! They are a threat to contribute to our economy! They must be stopped!

When Donald Trump began his campaign for the presidency in 2015 at Trump Tower, the first comments out of his mouth were racist: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” Trump said. “They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us [sic]. They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists.”

Now it’s almost nine years later, and he hasn’t changed his tune, and most Republicans are still singing along. Blackburn and Eighth District Congressman David Kustoff constantly use their bully pulpits (and X accounts) to spread fear and misinformation about the “threat at our southern border” — a threat that has not adversely impacted their constituents’ lives to any noticeable degree. It’s not surprising to anyone who’s followed the political careers of these two cosplayers. Like most Republicans, they live to get airtime with Laura Ingraham or the other Fox hosts. It’s all they’ve got. They lack the courage of Mitt Romney and other Republicans who understand that Trump and his ignorant, dying MAGA herd are dragging the party into irrelevance.

The people trying to enter this country at our southern border are fleeing poor economic and/or socioeconomic conditions in their homeland. They are mostly impoverished and desperate. They are here hoping to make a life for themselves and their families. They aren’t taking over. They aren’t “poisoning the blood of our country.” They are human beings who don’t deserve to be shoved back into a river to die in order to get some asshole an appearance on Fox News.

There was an astonishing report that came out last week from the Inspector General of the Department of Defense. I urge you to read it. It will blow your mind. The report’s purpose was “to determine the extent to which the DoD implemented appropriate controls for executive medicine services in the DoD’s National Capital Region.”

In English, that means they were looking at pharmacy policies at the White House under Trump. The report showed that drugs were being given to White House staffers without prescriptions or any records as to who was getting them — including such Schedule II controlled substances as fentanyl, ketamine, Provigil, Oxycodone, and morphine.

Quote: “We found that the White House Medical Unit provided a wide range of healthcare and pharmaceutical services to ineligible White House staff in violation of Federal law and DoD policy. Additionally, the White House Medical Unit dispensed prescription medications, including controlled substances, to ineligible White House staff.” An example: From 2017 to 2019, the White House went through 4,100 doses of Provigil (an amphetamine) at a cost of $98,000. That’s a lot of speed, amigo.

It’s ironic that this report came out in the same week Trump was found guilty of defaming E. Jean Carroll, the woman he’d previously been found guilty of raping. It’s almost like at Trump’s White House they were bringing drugs, they were bringing crime, and they were rapists.

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Opinion The Last Word

Immigrant Stories: Dorian Canales

Dorian Canales (Photo: Bryce Ashby)

Editor’s note: This is the first in a five-part series highlighting local immigrants and their contributions to Memphis.

With so much focus in Memphis on high crime and even higher rates of poverty, you could be forgiven for not realizing that our schools — both public and private — and our neighbors serve most of our residents remarkably well.

One such example, Dorian Canales, arrived in Memphis in 2005 when he was just 7 years old, and largely because of Memphis, he’s flourished. Indeed, as a kid fleeing the gangs of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Memphis seemed like paradise.

His mother Oneyda arrived five years before Dorian, who traveled here with his aunt and cousins. Oneyda left Honduras shortly after Hurricane Mitch destroyed much of the north coast of the nation in 1998. Mitch wiped out 75 percent of the infrastructure of the country, decimating nearly all the agriculture in a country where the economy is agricultural dependent. Seven thousand Hondurans died.

Dorian remembers the long walk and innumerable jalones — hitch-hiked rides — from Honduras to Piedras Negras in Coahuila, Mexico (which borders Eagle Pass, Texas). “We crossed the Rio Grande there and I was afraid I’d drown. I was 7 years old and couldn’t swim.”

The migrants turned themselves over to U.S. authorities — seeking asylum from the gang violence and general mayhem in Honduras. They spent three days in detention and were released contingent upon a future court date. Dorian remembers very little, but recalls eating a bologna sandwich for the first time in the detention center. The boy was reunited with his mother in the Nutbush neighborhood of Memphis. She worked at McDonald’s and later as a painter with a commercial/home painting company. Dorian spent a lot of time with his aunt and cousins, who helped raise him during this time.

He was enrolled at Jackson Elementary School. At first, he felt isolated, so he formed a third-grade gang called the “Vatos Locos,” or The Crazy Dudes, ironically seeking comfort in the very structure that pushed him out of Honduras. This earned him a week’s suspension from school and a stern talking-to from the principal. “She told me I’d be deported if I continued my bad behavior.” His principal’s warning set him straight and he left the idea of life in a gang behind.

He spoke no English, but through his ELL classes (English-Language Learner) learned the language quickly. His changed behavior allowed him to win, in the fourth grade, an “accelerated reader award” based on the number of books read. He came to see that education, rather than the Vatos Locos, would help him excel. Next, at Kingsbury Middle School, Dorian joined the art and theater club, learned to play a musical instrument, and played on the soccer team. “I wanted to be at school; there was more to do there than at home and so I jumped into all aspects of Kingsbury and made friends because I’m essentially an extrovert.”

It was at Kingsbury Middle where he met Erin Myers, his algebra teacher, who changed his life. In 2012, thanks to her support, he applied to CBHS (Christian Brothers High School) and was admitted. CBHS represented a new world for Dorian: Nutbush was essentially Latino, African-American, and under-resourced; CBHS was white, affluent, and Catholic. “I struggled socially in this new world, but realized I had an opportunity to grow there.”

He seized the opportunities at CBHS, joined the marching band, played soccer, and focused on academic subjects. But when he returned to his neighborhood, he bolted toward Streets Ministries, which was his home and refuge during these years. As graduation from CBHS approached, Ms. Myers stepped in again, helping Dorian apply to college. He was accepted to Rhodes College, but lacked funds for tuition and, as a DACA recipient, was ineligible for all federal financial aid. Myers set up a GoFundMe that raised $10,000, and Dorian began to think that Rhodes might be an option.

Fortunately, the GoFundMe campaign caught the attention of Rhodes, and Dorian was admitted as a Bonner Scholar — a program that offers full tuition discount in exchange for community service in our city. Dorian graduated from Rhodes in May 2020 and distinguished himself as a student of economics. He was fully immersed in the campus culture, working at outreach to underserved students in Memphis public schools, helping convince them of the benefits of college and furthering their education.

Dorian has forged ahead with optimism, grace, and determination without focusing too much on the tenuousness of his DACA status. A future president’s strike of a pen could lead to his deportation. Presently, he works in commercial banking at JPMorgan Chase. He has a passion for teaching and giving back to kids like himself, yet continues working in finance: “You know, I have to earn money because I’m essentially the retirement plan for my parents.”

The gangs of Honduras never grabbed Dorian Canales. Our schools, plus mentors, family members, and funders — and JPMorgan — have held onto Dorian. It’s worth remembering, despite shortcomings and struggles, our institutions, this community, and people like Dorian Canales continue to make Memphis great.

Bryce W. Ashby is an attorney at Donati Law, PLLC. Michael J. LaRosa is an associate professor of history at Rhodes College.

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Opinion The Last Word

National Policy Wrapped in Razor Wire

Photo: Dennis Kelly | Dreamstime

“A 4-year-old girl passed out in 100-degree heat after she was pushed back toward Mexico by Texas National Guard personnel. A pregnant woman became trapped in razor wire and had a miscarriage. A state trooper said he was under orders not to give migrants any water.”

Yes, these are scenes from something called “Operation Lone Star,” but the director isn’t John Ford; it’s Texas Governor Greg Abbott — and this is real life, as reported by USA Today. And in real life, at least 853 migrants died trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border in the past 12 months. And God knows how many merely endured — and continue to endure — various forms of hell.

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall …

The wall Robert Frost wrote about in his classic poem “Mending Wall,” published in 1914, was a hand-built stone wall separating an apple orchard from a pine forest. The narrator of the poem expressed ambivalence about walls in general — what’s their point? — and smirked when his neighbor said: “Good fences make good neighbors.” But here he was, working with his neighbor to repair it. This was an annual ritual; hunters were always knocking part of the wall down, and the winter weather — the frost — also inflicted regular damage. The wall was simply part of their lives, so every spring they put it back together.

Interestingly, the poem started claiming a spot in the national political consciousness in the early ’60s, after the Soviets constructed a wall dividing East and West Berlin. Yeah, something there is that doesn’t love a wall. The line had Cold War resonance, at least when it was directed at the communists, who were arrogantly creating a barrier that must not be crossed. Quite obviously, this was not a wall constructed by equals. It was a one-sided declaration to an enemy: Stay out. America, the good guys, told the Soviets with moral certainty: Tear down that wall. This puts the present moment, and the obsession of certain powerful Americans with “border security” (and, for God’s sake, razor wire) in an interesting context.

Consider the words of Martin Luther King, when he visited Berlin in 1964:  “It is indeed an honor to be in this city, which stands as a symbol of the divisions of men on the face of the Earth. For here on either side of the wall are God’s children and no man-made barrier can obliterate that fact. Whether it be East or West, men and women search for meaning, hope for fulfillment, yearn for faith in something beyond themselves, and cry desperately for love and community to support them in this pilgrim journey.”

I guess those are easy words to embrace when they’re directed at a declared enemy. But King’s context was a little larger than that. He told his audience of Berliners that, while he was hardly an expert in German politics, he knew about walls. I think he could very well have said the same words in El Paso or Laredo or Eagle Pass — any Texas border city. 

“For here on either side of the wall are God’s children and no man-made barrier can obliterate that fact.”

Are you aware of that, Governor Abbott? 

Simple-minded and cruel governmental policies — policies wrapped in razor wire — keep no one safe. 

So am I saying that border protection is 100 percent wrong and our borders should be wide open? In my heart, yes, but I’m also aware that the matter is way more complicated than that, and the flow of refugees into a country can create complex difficulties for the current social structure, financial and otherwise. What I am saying is that the flow of refugees is a global matter — kind of on the order of climate change, not to mention war — and we … all of us … have to devote far more energy and awareness to addressing it than we have so far. Dehumanizing the refugees, then simply focusing on keeping them out, as though they were vermin, betrays an excruciating lack of moral intelligence.

And the damage is widespread, cultural and environmental. As the Center for Biological Diversity points out: “Border walls built over the past several decades along the U.S.-Mexico border are a dark stain on American history. Hundreds of miles of wall have been built through protected public lands, communities, and sovereign tribal nations. These barriers cut through sensitive ecosystems, disrupt animal migration patterns, cause catastrophic flooding, and separate families.”

And a diverse array of endangered and rare species is threatened by our militarized protection of an imaginary line, including, as the center notes: “Sonoran pronghorns, lesser long-nosed bats, Quino checkerspot butterflies, cactus ferruginous pygmy owls, and larger predators like jaguars, Mexican gray wolves, and ocelots …”

The “border problem” cannot be resolved by minimizing our connection to all of humanity and all of the natural world. What we call government is our collective identity. It’s more than just bureaucracy. It’s more than just rules and guns and razor wire. And now is the time for it to wake up, but this will only happen if we demand that it expand its awareness … expand its sense of empathy. This is the only way it can “protect” us from our self-created problems. 

Robert Koehler (koehlercw@gmail.com), syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a Chicago award-winning journalist and editor. He is the author of Courage Grows Strong at the Wound.

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Opinion The Last Word

Creating a Cooperative World?

Why is this happening? What can we do about it? (Photo: Robert Hickerson | Unsplash)

“Go back to where you came from.”

This is basic American politics — what I might call spiritual ignorance: a dismissal of refugees fleeing war, famine, and poverty as global sludge, clogging up our way of life. So many media stories about the border — our border — begin with an unquestioned presumption. These aren’t individual humans fleeing hell and trying to reclaim their lives. They exist only en masse — basically, in the millions. And they’re going to be nothing but trouble for us. Either they want to work for a living and, thus, claim American jobs, or they’re simply leeches, utterly without skills, simply in possession of their needs, which of course will drain our resources. Go back to where you came from!

Look what happened last month, when New York City’s mayor bused a bunch of migrants out of town — oh, boohoo, too many for you, Mayor Adams? — to several hotels in Orange County, about 60 miles to the north. It just so happened, according to a bogus claim that made big news for a while, that in order for the migrants to get their living space, a bunch of homeless veterans, aka American heroes, had to be evicted. Yes, this was a lie, fabricated by a small veterans’ assistance organization called the Yerik Israel Toney Foundation, but until actual investigative reporting by the Mid-Hudson News exposed it as such, it was a kick-ass news story for the anti-immigrant right, hitting all the right buttons.

On May 12, the New York Post, for instance, reported: “Nearly two dozen struggling homeless veterans have been booted from upstate hotels to make room for migrants, says a nonprofit group that works with the vets. The ex-military — including a 24-year-old man in desperate need of help after serving in Afghanistan — were told by the hotels at the beginning of the week that their temporary housing was getting pulled out from under them at the establishments and that they’d have to move on to another spot, according to the group and a sickened local pol.”

Outlets such as Fox News (can you believe it?) and Newsmax ran with the story, then it came out that it was bogus and then some. The foundation had apparently gone to a homeless shelter and recruited a bunch of the men staying there to attend an event pretending they were veterans. Oops. Story retracted, media outlets move on. Nothing, of course, will change.

But what if …?

The essence of U.S. coverage of global immigration is that it’s simply an unexamined nuisance, which is, of course, growing worse under Joe Biden. And it quickly turns into a political “issue.” They’re coming in by the millions — kind of like rising sea water — totally messing up our wonderful society. We need dams and barriers, not to mention laws and tough guys, to maintain control over this flow, the reasons for which we are clueless.

So not only is there a blatant lack of humanity in such coverage; there’s also a missing question: Why? Why is this happening? What can we do about it? Asking such a question, here in the USA, is, alas, awkward, considering the role this country plays in the surge of global refugees. As Brown University’s Costs of War project points out, for instance, the United States has spent some $8 trillion on its wars in the Middle East over the last 20+ years. Ponder this number as you shudder about migrants’ draining of U.S. resources. These wars have killed almost a million people and have shattered countries’ social structures, displacing millions more. U.S. policies going back many decades, both military and economic, have also played a major role in the chaos and indebtedness of nations in Central and South America, creating turbulent living conditions for enormous numbers of people. As Azadeh Shahshahani has pointed out: “Nearly 24 people are displaced per minute. About 66 million people around the world have been forced from their homes.”

Note to Ron DeSantis: I’m not writing this to make you feel uncomfortable, simply to start opening the causal question regarding global migration. As well as war, there are plenty of other causes, from climate change to God knows what, and no doubt most people fleeing them would prefer not to leave their homes and loved ones.

Throwing the question of “why?” into the media’s immigration coverage will help veer the national focus beyond armed paranoia toward finding and participating in global solutions. It might even start making Americans aware that migration, problematic as it may be for the countries of arrival, is a million times more difficult for the migrants themselves.

Norma E. Cantú, writing at Tikkun, asks: “… why not dream on an even greater scale and advocate for a Global Marshall Plan … and for the eradication of all borders? The reimagined ‘world order’ would be one of cooperation and mutual respect.”

This is what you would call healing, and it’s naïve beyond belief, right? That’s certainly what those would say who cannot let go of their armed paranoia and hatred of outsiders. A borderless world? All people are citizens of the world?

That’s the future. Perhaps it is not yet the present, but the future has to start now, however minutely. The United States of America, armed and pathologically racist as it may be, is also a nation of immigrants. A good place for us to start creating the future is by recognizing that today’s immigrants are arriving not just with poverty and need, but with skills, with wisdom, with value — with much to offer this bleeding country.

Robert Koehler (koehlercw@gmail.com), syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a Chicago award-winning journalist and editor. He is the author of Courage Grows Strong at the Wound.

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Opinion The Last Word

Panic in … El Paso?

We need solutions, not scapegoats for political points. (Photo: Barth Bailey | Unsplash)

Those of a certain age remember 1973 and “Panic in Detroit,” a David Bowie song describing the 1967 riots in the Motor City. The current Panic in El Paso seems different: made by and for the media, fueled by pandering politicians, and wholly related not to a “crisis at the border” but a major humanitarian/refugee crisis metastasizing in the Americas.

America has always been a land of immigrants, and the words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty (Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free) are not in the Constitution but they represent a sort of bedrock set of American values. Our nation is wealthy, powerful, and prosperous thanks to healthy and copious immigrant flows. Nations that shut out immigration (think of Japan, Italy, Russia) don’t do well, economically, over the long arc of history.

Right now, the United States economy is in a labor deficit — we desperately need workers. And if you don’t believe us, ask anyone who owns a business. Or needs something repaired at home. There are approximately five million jobs that need to be filled, right now, in America. Why not create a reasonable, bipartisan bill to allow people who want to work, and who have passed a background check, the ability to do so? Presidents Biden, Trump, and Obama have been faced with the unregulated arrival of desperate people at our southern border and all three reacted via “executive action” — not exactly law, and subject to the whims and caprices of “the next” administration.

The American population is aging, our birthrate is low, and has been declining dramatically since 2007, and our populace is not so healthy. This means that, in order to sustain robust economic growth into the future, we need young people to come here and … work. We need nurses and doctors, but instead we get deceptive Canadian Ted Cruz at the southern border telling us we’re being invaded by immigrants. We need serious technological support and innovative solutions. Instead, we get vague mumblings from Chuck Schumer, a nice old man, leader of the U.S. Senate, who still uses a flip phone.

Looking at two neighboring nations — Mexico and Haiti— it becomes clear why we have people heading to the U.S. border. Technically, Mexican nationals are not seeking asylum at the U.S. border, but a drug war there, which began in 2006 and is largely financed by the U.S., has left an estimated 350,000 dead. The Mexican minimum wage is about 11 dollars per day, and there is literally no legal path for Mexican citizens with neither money nor skills to obtain a legal visa to travel and work in the USA. These people, then, are forced to migrate here in a clandestine and dangerous way, and the only ones who profit are the smugglers and other unscrupulous individuals who take advantage of this situation.

Haiti is a wholly different story. It has no functioning government since mercenaries murdered the sitting president about two years ago. Criminal gangs rule the streets of Port-au-Prince and the once proud nation — the first nation in the world to gain independence through a sustained slave revolt in the early 19th century — has descended into chaos. President Biden traveled recently to Canada to try and persuade Prime Minister Trudeau to tackle the Haitian morass: Both leaders walked away without an agreement or plan.

An alternative plan to the disinterest and handwringing of powerful nations is a local organization that has been supporting Haiti for the past 20 years. The “IC Haiti Outreach Ministry” is a not-for-profit that has focused on education, economic opportunity, and healthcare in a rural area of the Central Plateau — a 34-square-mile area consisting mostly of subsistence farmers. The organization, developed by University of Memphis professor and public health expert Debra Bartelli and Bob Lorsbach, MD, has hired a nurse and medical doctor for the region, and has provided dental, eye, and deworming clinics. They’ve also funded and trained a Haitian MD by supporting education opportunities in the U.S. and in Haiti. If the American government engaged in similar collaborative, innovative approaches designed to generate solutions rather than seeking to scapegoat suffering people for political points, the plight of the Haitian people would certainly improve.

This humanitarian crisis playing out at our southern border is neither new nor intractable. We need political action, we need people to tell the truth — including our friends in the media — and we need “real” information about the drivers of this situation. Sadly, many of us are manipulated by the media and our politicians. Tragically, a few take action while the rest of us sit around listening to Bowie songs from half a century ago.

Bryce W. Ashby is an attorney at Donati Law, PLLC. Michael J. LaRosa is an associate professor of history at Rhodes College.

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News News Blog News Feature

Refugee, Faith Groups Respond to Tennessee GOP Uproar Over Asylum Seekers

The exterior of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights building. TIRRC is one of several local organizations helping asylum seekers and refugees to their homes with relatives ion the U.S.(Photo: John Partipilo)

by Anita Wadhwani, Tennessee Lookout

After state Republican leaders condemned a plan to bring asylum seekers to Tennessee, faith leaders and immigrant advocates pushed back on “misleading” and “fear mongering” rhetoric they said runs contrary to the values of the Volunteer State.

In a flurry of statements released last week, Gov. Bill Lee, GOP Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, along with GOP leaders in the state legislature demanded that the Biden administration reverse a plan – still in its preliminary stages – to coordinate transportation of asylum seekers with advocacy groups and churches in Nashville. 

“This is irresponsible and a threat to the safety of Tennesseans,” Lee said in his statement. Blackburn suggested the federal government was “trafficking illegal migrants into our state.” And Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti cited the “terrible harms” of an unsecured border that include fentanyl deaths and “child sex traffickers.”

The fact is none of this is new. What is new, and an important first step, is a good faith effort to organize a coordinated response between governments and local process, to ensure that it is orderly.

– Lisa Sherman Luna, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition

On Wednesday, immigrant advocates noted that the plan was an effort by the federal government to coordinate what has been a loose and ongoing process of migrants making their way to Nashville after being vetted and released by ICE officials, often for short stints before reuniting with family in other states. 

“For decades, Tennesseans have done this work formally and informally,” said Lisa Sherman Luna, executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, citing a history of welcoming immigrants and refugees that stretch back to the 1960s when Cubans arrived and continues today with Afghan and Ukrainian refugees.  “We’ve welcomed people and supported them as they rebuild their lives in this country.”

“The fact is none of this is new,” she said. “Welcoming and hospitality is woven into the fabric of who Tennesseans are…What is new, and an important first step, is a good faith effort to organize a coordinated response between governments and local process, to ensure that it is orderly.”

“While we’ve seen other governors and mayors who have responded to newcomers arriving in buses from border states, using their power and resources to make the process as smooth as possible, Gov. Lee’s response is really extreme and out of step with his constituents. Everyday Tennesseans don’t need or want a governor who creates a crisis by going on Fox News. We need leadership who is going to live up to our values, who will join the work of our communities and not miss an opportunity to help people get home to their families in time for Christmas.”

Several weeks ago, Sherman Luna and other groups got word that federal immigration officials were seeking an orderly way to transport asylum seekers from federal immigration processing centers – a process that currently requires immigrants to make their own way to their final destination.

The plan called for federal officials to pay for buses to transport those who wished to travel to Tennessee. Local nonprofits and churches quickly stepped up to plan for temporary beds, transportation vouchers for flights out of Tennessee, food, diapers and other necessities, Sherman Luna said.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said he is “exploring all options” to halt plans to coordinate coordinate transportation of asylum seekers with advocacy groups and churches in Nashville.

“When we put the call to action out, calling on people to help us get loved ones home just in time for Christmas we were overwhelmed with the support from volunteers, from churches and other partners who quickly stepped up to organize a robust and welcoming infrastructure,” she said. 

The status of those plans remains unclear. Skrmetti said he was “exploring all options” in efforts to halt the plans. 

The vast majority of the immigrants are asylum seekers who have followed the legal process of presenting themselves at the U.S. border, assessed and found to have a credible fear of persecution in their home countries, said Lisa Graybill, vice president of Law and Policy for the National Immigration Law Center, who joined a press call with reporters to respond to Republican’s claims. 

A small minority of the immigrants would fall into a subset of asylum seekers who are making a second or subsequent attempt to come to the United States, she said. All of the potential immigrants have immigration court dates, are required to check in regularly with federal immigration officials and cleared the first hurdle in their asylum claims. 

The Border Patrol also screens all immigrants against multiple public safety databases, and assess whether the individual poses a general threat to public safety before releasing any individuals, an ICE spokesperson said.

 

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.

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TN GOP Blast Federal Move to Locate Immigrants Here

(Credit: Alejandro Cartagena on Unsplash)

The federal government is apparently looking to relocate some immigrants out of its custody, and the thought of releasing them in Tennessee brought a storm of criticism and complaint from Tennessee conservatives. 

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, and U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn) and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn) made noise about the plan Tuesday. In a news statement, they claimed the White House and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were planning “to release an unspecified number of single adult migrants into Tennessee” and blamed the move on “continued inaction to secure the Southern border.” 

Tennessee Lookout questioned ICE about it, only to be told they have “not transported non-citizens for release to Tennessee.” ICE has not announced the move on its website nor on social media. 

However, a Tuesday news alert from the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRCC) seemed to confirm that some detained immigrants may be released here.   

“The federal government recently reached out to city and state government officials, as well as non-profits and faith communities, to coordinate an orderly process to assist asylum seekers and others who have been processed and cleared to leave immigration custody in traveling to reunite with family members,” TIRCC said in a statement. 

Gov. Lee said his office was notified of the move Monday afternoon by the Biden Administration. The plan would “transport multiple busloads of single adult detainees from ICE facilities in New Orleans into Tennessee, beginning as soon as this week. Federal officials have not shared any further details. The governor’s office continues to push back on the plan.”

Lee called the move “irresponsible” and a “threat to the safety of Tennesseans.” He also battled an ICE move in 2021 that brought migrant children to the state on airplanes in “the dead of night.” 

But in a statement on ICE’s recent plan, Lee’s focus once again shifted from Tennessee to the “Southern border.” Earlier this year, Lee sent about 50 Tennessee National Guard members to Texas to “curb a surging drug crisis.”

“[Seven thousand] people unlawfully enter our country every day,” Lee said. “This crisis is too big to ignore, and the only way to stop it is to secure the border. 

“Placing the burden on states is not a solution, and we should not bear the brunt of the federal government’s failures. We are demanding the Biden administration reverse their plan for detainee relocation. In the meantime, we’re also discussing options with the Tennessee Attorney General and our federal delegation.”

Two of the top leaders of that delegation made it clear they won’t want the immigrants in Tennessee either. Blackburn said she, Lee, and Hagerty “will be utilizing all possible options to stop President Biden from trafficking illegal migrants into our state.”

“Biden created this crisis by terminating successful Trump-era immigration policies, including Remain in Mexico and safe third-country agreements,” Blackburn said in a statement. “Tennesseans will not stand for this flagrant abuse of law and order.” 

Hagerty said the flow of immigrants into the U.S. has “brought heartbreaking consequences to communities throughout America in the form of increased drug overdoses.” These have strained resources for hospitals, schools, and local communities, he said. It has also put national security at risk as a number of those crossing “are on terrorist watch lists.”

“This is unacceptable,” Hagerty said. “A nation without a border is not a sovereign nation. President Biden cannot ignore this crisis any longer.”

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Opinion The Last Word

Lawsuits of the Asylum Seekers

A real fix would be an overhual of immigration laws. (Photo: Cole Patrick | Unsplash)

Migration crises — real or imagined — tend to animate voters. So it’s no surprise that a new emergency situation has emerged, manufactured by three Republican governors, two of whom are seeking reelection. The difference this time: The migrants are suing the governors.

First, the migrants in this case are not illegal aliens, or illegal anything. They are asylum seekers, and a class action lawsuit has been engaged by some of these people and their representatives here in the U.S. against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis who planned, paid for, and executed the unceremonious dumping of 48 Venezuelans on a tiny Massachusetts island.

The Venezuelans sent from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard are asylum petitioners: They have a right to be here and our nation offers people fleeing from a “well-founded fear of persecution” in their home country physical and legal protection. These types of laws distinguish the United States from places like … Venezuela and Cuba which offer no such protections.

Venezuela’s fortunes changed in 2013 when Hugo Chávez, the charismatic, leftist, a-little-less-loco-than-Trump leader died of cancer. Then the price of oil (which represents about 90 percent of all exports) collapsed on the world market and direct subsidy payments to the poor ended. Chaos has ensued, the current leader there is a grim-faced, not-bright, undemocratic leader named Nicolás Maduro, and relations between our two nations have calcified.

These intrepid Venezuelans trekked from their home through Colombia, through the Darién (the meanest, most forbidden jungle in the world), through Panama, Costa Rica, and the rest of Central America, they crossed Mexico and onto America — arriving in Texas. Why could they be treated like disposable cargo by a far-away Florida governor? Because, simply and sadly stated, they’re not Swedes. Or Ukrainians. They’re dark-skinned, poor people who are not nicely dressed — not out of “Central Casting.” What would any of us look like if we walked to Texas — from Venezuela?

The three Republican leaders who have been shipping out migrants govern Arizona, Florida, and Texas. Their theory: We here on the border (Florida is surrounded by water, Georgia, and Alabama) shoulder a disproportionate burden regarding arriving migrants from the south. It’s true that Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California are the first points of entry for migrants — documented or not — arriving over land from the global South but these states receive billions of dollars in federal grants to help offset educational and health costs. It’s also true that states with high influxes of immigrants are much more economically (and culturally) robust. California versus West Virginia, Texas versus South Dakota, for example.

The stunt of the three governors seems to have worked in the short term: They’ve forced a refocusing on our immigration system at a moment before a decisive election. But to paint this as “Biden’s” immigration crisis is absurd, ahistorical, and unhelpful. The three amigo governors don’t want to help solve problems; they only want to score political points. But the newly announced lawsuit and the fact that DeSantis’ state is home to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who are a little skeptical of this performance — upset at the unkind treatment in America of brothers and sisters from the pátria — might indicate the stunt has stalled.

The irony behind all of this, of course, is that we desperately need laborers in the United States economy right now. The Biden administration could probably offer some sort of temporary, emergency provision to harmonize the present needs of the U.S. economy with the current migratory patterns affecting our southern border. A real fix — a comprehensive overhaul of our outdated immigration laws and provisions — is what’s really needed, but the Democrats’ majority is too thin in Congress and the Republicans are uninterested in any solutions that would inhibit their ability to weaponize the immigration debate.

Mr. Trump began his 2016 presidential campaign with a giant gamble — a mean-spirited, untrue attack on immigrants from Mexico. It worked. Governor DeSantis of Florida has turned to this Trump playbook, but the Florida governor has the charm, grace, and charisma of a different sort of dictator: Nicolás Maduro, president of Venezuela.

Bryce Ashby is a Memphis-based attorney and past board chair of Latino Memphis. Michael LaRosa teaches history at Rhodes College.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Ending Title 42

Photo: Vladek | Dreamstime.com

“Title 42,” an obscure section of a 1944 law authorizing extraordinary [anti-]immigration powers during public health emergencies, was “discovered” by the Trump administration in 2020 as Covid-19 spread globally. They interpreted the title “loosely,” using it to deport people and deny asylum seekers access to the USA. With the election of Joe Biden, most hoped for relief and a return to policies that reflect the generosity and spirit of the United States — a “nation of immigrants.” Yet, the past 16 months have proven difficult in walking back Trump’s inhumane immigration policies, revealing the timidity of Biden and the Democrats’ approach to the ongoing immigration conundrum.

Trump, together with his brash, anti-immigrant senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, genuinely believed that closing off the nation to immigrants (well … certain immigrants) and asylum seekers would win them re-election in 2020. The “Muslim Ban” was one of their first noxious acts upon arrival in office. Trump — sensitive diplomat always — referred to certain African nations and (in our own hemisphere) El Salvador and Haiti as “shithole countries.” He made it clear that the U.S. should do more to promote immigration from places like … Norway.

Trump rejected our obligations under the Geneva Conventions and our own legal and moral obligations by refusing to process asylum seekers, preferring instead to leave them living in squalor on the Mexico side of the U.S./Mexico border. He also cut the number of refugees we accept down to a fraction of our usual acceptance rate, thus undermining our moral standing in the world.

He seized on the pandemic, took authority under Title 42, and expelled asylum seekers, including unaccompanied minors, under the contention that they posed a health risk to the American public.

Most immigrant advocates believed Biden would end the use of Title 42 on the first day of his presidency since it appeared to be an illegal and factually unsupportable use of the law. Many thought Biden would quickly end Trump’s “Wait in Mexico” policy, which has served only to strand thousands of Central Americans, Haitians, and Venezuelans (among others); the policy has benefited smugglers of narcotics and of human beings, and the criminal networks that prey on the vulnerabilities of people who can’t or won’t return to their nation of origin.

What to do? First, let’s change the narrative on immigration. This means being truthful about “why” people are fleeing to the United States. In the case of Haiti and El Salvador, our nation has supported (in recent history) repressive, corrupt “anti-communist” regimes that have not been kind to their people.

Second, let’s stop the racist nonsense about immigrants. Norwegians don’t want to come here! They live in a nicely socialist state of prosperity with full healthcare, long life-spans, and plenty of oil to sell.

Third, our economy prospers thanks to the work, contributions, creativity, and energy of immigrants. The arguments “against” this statement are simply fake news. If we continue to cut off legitimate paths to immigration and immigrants (for short-term political gains), we run the risk of becoming Japan or Italy, with an aging population, political and social hostility to immigrants from the global “south,” all leading to long-term economic stagnation.

The palpable anger and hostility on the far right in this nation does not translate to long-term economic growth and/or social stability. Take a look at January 6, 2021, as a prime example. The “Recent Right” is simply interested in winning; they want short-term political gains, so they can control budgets, power, and money. Period.

The open hostility, last month, of some senators toward an eminently qualified Supreme Court nominee hardly helped bring the nation together, and when our own Marsha Blackburn asked a Harvard-trained judge to define the word “woman,” most Americans rolled their eyes in wonder. The real wonder? How did this unqualified person win statewide office here in Tennessee?

The media has distorted the facts on immigration with sensationalistic reporting and frightening stories of “waves” of migrants heading to our (southern) border. The fact is people are allowed to come here, apply for refugee status, and receive a hearing before a judge — assuming their case is deemed credible. Our nation’s immigration laws are unique in this regard, and rather than bemoan the fact that people want to come here, we should celebrate the story of America as an open, immigrant-friendly nation. An immigrant-friendly nation whose prosperity — culturally, socially, and economically — has centered on the welcoming of immigrants.

If comprehensive immigration reform is legislatively impossible, Biden needs to implement a comprehensive executive policy. He failed to immediately rid us of Title 42, and he can’t win the political argument by attempting to placate the unreasonable right with half-measures and reliance on Trump-era policies.

Biden must reframe the narrative with policies that demonstrate who we are as a people. Immigrants are instrumental to the prosperity of our nation — it’s always been this way. Biden should make this argument; he needs to spend some of his waning political capital to demonstrate a clear commitment to the bedrock ideals that have made America great.

Bryce Ashby is a Memphis-based attorney and the board chair of Latino Memphis. Michael LaRosa teaches history at Rhodes College.