Some resources for thinking about immigration

 The present “crisis” on the border

https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/news/facts-about-current-situation-border

Putting the U.S.-Mexico ‘Border Crisis’ Narrative into Context (wola.org)

 Immigration:

 A good source for tracking most things that have to do with immigration:

https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/

 These are dated but important references for understanding:

1.       the immigration of Central Americans to the southern US border,

2.       the origins of the US policy of “deterring” immigration (by creating life-threatening conditions along the border)

3.       the origins of policies enacted advocated for by Stephen Miller and promoted by the Trump administration.

4.       And the deadly mix of local and state policing with federal immigration enforcement.

 (A lovely set of video vignettes that give a good view of why Central Americans make the terrifying trip across Mexico):

 The Invisibles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8WT_ZCUmaY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOi9hoSfCLc (subtitled)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2cEw6k9ZFM&t=305s (subtitled)

 

A scholar sets out how the Trump anti-immigrant machine got set in place:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/trump-ice/565772/

The Fresh Air interview with the author is excellent:

https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=636961877

 

A sketch of how asylum process works:

https://www.wola.org/analysis/fact-sheet-united-states-immigration-central-american-asylum-seekers/

 

When Deportation is a Death Sentence:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/15/when-deportation-is-a-death-sentence

 

Immigration and the Rio Grande Valley

 

The Border Patrol: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/border-patrol-the-green-monster-112220/

 

Zero tolerance: https://www.aclutx.org/en/news/prosecuting-migrants-our-southern-border

 

How we got to believing that it is ok that people die trying to save their lives:

https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/border-trilogy-part-1

https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/border-trilogy-part-2-hold-line

https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/border-trilogy-part-3-what-remains

 

Local attorney Jodi Goodwin helps reunite a mother and her child.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/652/ice-capades/act-one-6

 

State troopers use a sniper who kills two immigrants:

https://www.texasobserver.org/human-cost-border-security-build-up/

 

State troopers roam our neighborhoods, hunting human beings:

https://theintercept.com/2017/12/10/theyre-taking-everybody-videos-show-texas-troopers-ripping-apart-immigrant-families-during-traffic-stops/

 

An eighth grader confronts someone who preys on immigrants:

https://splinternews.com/the-old-man-who-calls-border-patrol-on-immigrants-and-1819456647

 

A sketch artist goes to immigration court:

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/immigration-border-crisis-molly-crabapple-713991/

 

An essay on what it means to be an immigrant: https://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n05/frances-stonorsaunders/where-on-earth-are-you

 

A novel about a first encounter with refugees:

https://www.amazon.com/Go-Went-Gone-Jenny-Erpenbeck/dp/0811225941

 

 

The Border Wall

https://resourcesfortheborder.blogspot.com/2018/12/border-wall-information.html

 

Bottom line: Residents of the Rio Grande Valley are overwhelmingly against the construction of a border wall. We already have an existing border wall which has been unnecessary (the amount of immigration is at an all-time low; terrorists, drugs and other threats to our nation's well-being come through the border across bridges (smuggled in) or through our northern border.