Biden wants to remove this controversial word

 from US laws

By Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN

Thu January 21, 2021

(CNN)It's just one small part of the sweeping immigration overhaul President Biden is pushing.

But the symbolic significance is huge.

Biden's proposed bill, if passed, would remove the word "alien" from US immigration laws, replacing it with the term "noncitizen."

It's a deliberate step intended to recognize America as "a nation of immigrants," according to a summary of the bill released by the new administration.


Biden starts fast on immigration by halting border wall and travel ban while embracing DACA

The term "illegal alien," long decried as a dehumanizing slur by immigrant rights advocates, became even more of a lightning rod during the Trump era -- with some top federal officials encouraging its use and several states and local governments taking up measures to ban it.

"The language change on the first day of this administration, with Kamala Harris the daughter of immigrants, to me it's not just symbolic...it's foundational," says Jose Antonio Vargas, an undocumented immigrant whose organization, Define American, pushes for more accurate portrayals of immigrants.

"How we describe people really sticks. It affects how we treat them," he says. "How we talk about immigrants shapes the policies. It frames what are the issues really at stake here. It acknowledges that we're talking about human beings and families."

What the laws say now

US code currently defines "alien" as "any person not a citizen or national of the United States."

Officials in the past have pointed to the term's prevalence in US laws to defend their word choices.

In 2018, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions instructed prosecutors to refer to someone who's illegally in the United States as "an illegal alien," citing the US code in an agency-wide email.

Justice Department: Use 'illegal aliens,' not 'undocumented'

The term "alien" was often invoked by President Trump in speeches as he warned of what he saw as the dangers of unchecked illegal immigration.
Speaking at the Mexico border last week in one of his final addresses as president, Trump used the term at least five times.
"We were in the Trump administration the perennial boogeyman," Vargas said. "Whenever Trump was in trouble, he started talking about the 'illegals' and talking about the border."
But not everyone in the Trump administration was a fan of the language.
In an interview with the Washington Post published shortly before he resigned as acting secretary of Homeland Security in 2019, Kevin McAleenan told the newspaper he avoided using the term "illegal aliens" and instead described people as "migrants."
"I think the words matter a lot," McAleenan said, according to the Post. "If you alienate half of your audience by your use of terminology, it's going to hamper your ability to ever win an argument."

This isn't the first effort to change such wording
California struck "alien" from the state's labor code in 2015.
New York City removed the term from its charter and administrative code last year.



Protesters rally against a Supreme Court decision upholding the travel ban in 2018. 

Throughout President Trump's time in office, immigrant advocates criticized dehumanizing rhetoric.
In guidelines issued in 2019, New York City banned the term "illegal alien" when used "with intent to demean, humiliate or harass a person." Violations, the city warned, could result in fines up to $250,000.
And last year two Colorado lawmakers introduced a bill to replace the term "illegal alien" with "undocumented immigrant." The bill never made it to the state Senate floor for a vote.

Prank callers targeted the term early in the Trump administration
One of the first times the use of the term "alien" drew widespread attention during the Trump administration was in 2017 after officials publicized a hotline for victims of "crimes committed by removable aliens."
Prank callers swiftly flooded the line with reports about space aliens, sharing examples on social media of their comments about Martians and UFOs.

Top-level trolling overloads ICE's undocumented immigrant hotline with calls about space aliens

But Vargas says the term and others used to demonize immigrants are no laughing matter.
"Language has power. And I think we saw that in the Trump administration, how it used dehumanizing terms and how it debased language and in turn debased people," Vargas says. "If you call them 'alien,' of course you're going to put them in jail, of course you're going to lock them up, of course you're not going to care that you're separating little kids from their parents."
Vargas says the new administration's effort to use more respectful language gives him hope that some Americans' views on undocumented immigrants could also shift. Changing just one word, he says, could have a far-reaching impact for millions of people.

Biden might succeed in legalizing millions of undocumented immigrants. Here’s why | Opinion




Andres Oppenheimer
Wed, January 20, 2021

Under the immigration bill that President Joe Biden is expected to send to Congress, known as the U.S. Citizenship Act, undocumented immigrants would be given an eight-year path to citizenship if they pass background checks and prove they have paid taxes.

That would be anathema for Republican anti-immigration zealots. But here are the reasons why Biden may succeed:

First, Biden will enjoy a big advantage over former President Obama on immigration issues, because public opinion has changed in recent years. Polls show that most Americans may be ready for more pro-immigrant policies.

Perhaps it’s because Americans have grown tired of former President Trump’s and Fox News’ constant demonization of undocumented immigrants. Or maybe enough Americans have been shocked by the Trump administration’s cruelty when they saw pictures of immigrant children kept in cages or learned about the separation of babies from their migrant parents.

A Gallup Poll shows that Americans’ support for pro-immigration policies is at its highest level in half a century.

At least 34 percent of Americans believe immigration should be increased, and another 36 percent think it should be kept at current levels. That combined pro-immigration stand of 70 percent is larger than at any time since Gallup began asking this question in 1966, the poll shows.

Likewise, a Pew Research Center study shows that 60 percent of Americans believe that the growing number of newcomers is good for the country, while only 37 percent believe it’s a threat to U.S. customs and values.

Just in the past four years — during Trump’s term — pro-immigration sentiment in the country rose by 14 percentage points, the Pew study says.

“Trump’s nativism backfired with the majority of the public,” Frank Sharry, head of the America’s Voice pro-immigration advocacy group, told me. “There’s more political space and more political will to legislate and reform immigration policy now.”

Second, the Biden administration plans to use a new strategy to legalize undocumented residents, people familiar with the president’s plan tell me.

Instead of asking Congress to approve Biden’s immigration package as a stand-alone bill, the administration is likely to attach it to a larger COVID-19 or economic-stimulus legislative package.

The administration will argue that millions of undocumented workers — including first responders, hospital workers and waiters — are essential workers who are needed to fight the pandemic and to help revamp the economy.

An estimated 7 million of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country qualify as essential workers or are “DREAMers” — people who were brought to the country as infants by their undocumented parents — or have temporary protected status. Those 7 million would be the first group to be legalized.

Third, Biden will have a greater urgency to pass an immigration bill than Obama did, because he wants to mark a sharp contrast with the Trump administration’s brutality against immigrants.

Biden knows that immigration reform is a pending assignment for the Democrats, and that he may only have two years to get his plan passed by Congress.

Historically, the party that is in the White House tends to lose the midterm elections, so Biden could lose his congressional majority in 2022. For Biden, it will be now or, possibly, never.

It won’t be easy, but Biden may succeed in his plan to legalize many of the estimated 11 million undocumented residents. I’ll be rooting for it.

Don’t miss the “Oppenheimer Presenta” TV show at 8 p.m. E.T. Sunday on CNN en Español. Twitter: @oppenheimera

Biden Launches Effort To Undo Trump's Damage 

On Immigration


Rowaida Abdelaziz
·Reporter, HuffPost
Wed, January 20, 2021, 

After years of Donald Trump attacking immigrants, President Joe Biden is beginning his tenure by undoing many of the former president’s policies and overhauling the U.S. immigration system.

The Biden administration has what it calls a comprehensive approach to immigration. In his first few hours as president, Biden plans to propose a new bill that would include a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented people in the country.

In addition, he issued immigration-related executive actions:

He ordered government to halt the construction of the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and review whether contracts already issued for it could be diverted to other projects, as well as to end the national emergency declaration for the border. Trump used the declaration to justify taking money slated for other means to fund the wall.

He rescinded Trump’s travel ban, which primarily targeted Muslim-majority countries.

Biden launched an effort to preserve the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA, which allows undocumented young people to remain in the U.S. and work legally. The program remains in effect in spite of Trump’s efforts to end it, but is still facing legal challenges.

Biden is also expected to take more actions on immigration:

Biden will reinstate deportation priorities undone by Trump, who encouraged immigration agents to pursue removal for all undocumented people rather than focusing first on criminals and repeat border-crossers.

Biden will reverse Trump’s effort to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census.

The onslaught of immigration reforms signals a new and welcomed era for immigrants, who were among Trump’s favorite scapegoats and targets. Immigration reform advocates and experts applauded Biden’s first-day plans for prioritizing immigration and quickly undoing the damage done by the previous president.

Biden’s ambitious legislative bill, which will be sent to Congress on Wednesday for review, details an eight-year roadmap to citizenship for current immigrants, including approximately 700,000 Dreamers and 400,000 immigrants living with Temporary Protected Status.

Members of those programs, as well as certain farm workers, would qualify for green cards immediately and be eligible for citizenship after three years. Other undocumented immigrants would be eligible for green cards after five years. In all cases, the immigrants would be subjected to background checks and required to pay taxes.

The plan would also reunite families, boost technology at the border, and increase the diversity visa program from 55,000 visas to 80,000 visas per year. Trump attempted to terminate the diversity visa program, as well as DACA and certain TPS programs.

The proposal would set up multiple processing centers abroad to identify and screen refugees, in addition to allotting $4 billion in aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras over four years to address the root cause of migration.

If passed, Biden’s reforms would be the largest legislative overhaul of the U.S. immigration system since Republican President Ronald Reagan’s administration in the 1980s.

However, it may be difficult to get them through Congress. The last immigration overhaul bill passed the Senate in a 68-32 vote in 2013, but the Democratic majority was larger at the time than the 50-50 split Biden will be dealing with. (Vice President Kamala Harris, as president of the Senate, can cast a tie-breaking vote.)

However, it will be an easier lift in the House, where that 2013 bill never got a vote. Democrats control the lower chamber now and are likely to support a comprehensive immigration reform bill.

Biden unveils immigration proposal that offers green cards and overtime pay to farm workers and a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers
Wed, January 20, 2021

Over 200,000 temporary agricultural workers come to the United States each year. 

Davis/Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images


President Joe Biden is offering foreign-born farm workers the chance to immediately apply for permanent residency.


Biden's immigration proposal would also give agriculture industry workers the right to overtime pay.


Each year, over 200,000 temporary agricultural workers come to the United States.

President Joe Biden is presenting a sweeping immigration reform bill to Congress on his first day in office, prioritizing a sharp rebuke to the Trump years. It would award permanent residency to farm workers who have kept the country fed throughout the pandemic, offer a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers - giving hope to one son of farm workers and brother of a Dreamer.

Those who receive green cards would also be fast-tracked for citizenship, part of an effort to provide a path to legal status for more than 11 million undocumented people currently in the US.

The bill, which Biden is introducing within hours of his inauguration, will also incorporate the central feature of legislation that Vice President-elect Kamala Harris introduced as a senator, extending overtime pay to all who toil in the agriculture industry.

To receive permanent residency, temporary agricultural workers - who have spent at least 100 days in four of the last five years working in the US as part of the H-2A visa program - would be eligible for residency if they pass a criminal background check. Residency, among other things, would give potentially hundreds of thousands of farm workers the freedom to leave an abusive employer, something effectively denied them under the H-2A program, where visas are tied to a company sponsor (over 200,000 such visas are issued each year, the vast majority to Mexican nationals).

"This bill is fundamentally different than what any other president has ever done in emancipating farm workers so they can escape pervasive fear and behave like free men and women," United Farm Workers President Teresa Romero, a member of Biden's transition team, said in a statement.

A reprieve for Dreamers

As The Washington Post reported on Tuesday, the "centerpiece" of the Biden administration plan is an eight-year path to citizenship for millions of undocumented Americans, providing them temporary status for five years and then a green card for three; those who pass a background check and pay their taxes would ultimately receive citizenship.

In addition to farm workers, those brought to the United States as children, as well as adults who fled natural and human disasters in Central America and elsewhere, would also be eligible to immediately receive permanent residency.

Biden is also poised to issue a slew of executive orders reversing his predecessor's more controversial policies, such as the de facto "Muslim ban" prohibiting travelers from countries such as Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Somalia. The Post reported that he is also likely to reinstate a program providing temporary legal status to minors from Central America.
The real-world impact of Biden's proposal, should it become law

Ruben, an 18-year-old college student in Washington, is one of five children born to farm workers who came to the US from Mexico (Insider is withholding his last name due to parents' undocumented status). He spent summers picking apples and blueberries - backbreaking work that has led him to pursue a career in medicine.

He's relieved that the Trump era is over. Former President Barack Obama may have deported millions, but Ruben said he did not demonize and instill fear in millions quite like his successor did, "stereotyping Latino immigrants and just yelling out whatever he thought."

"My grandma was here and she would watch the news every day, "Ruben said, "and she would just panic. We just told her to stop watching."

Ruben campaigned for Biden, spending over a month in Arizona knocking doors in a state where the Latino vote delivered a knockout to Trump's hopes for a second term. He's hopeful that the stress of the last four years can give way to some optimism, purchased with his contribution to getting out the vote. For him, there's the chance that his family, including an older brother who is a DACA recipient, could stop living in fear.

His parents, however, in the US since 2001, have lived through two rounds of presidents pledging to make the immigration system a little more humane. Still, Biden's proposal, the most liberal in decades - with two houses of Congress to clear before becoming law - is to them no less than a potential godsend.

"They're kind of shocked," Ruben said. "They're pretty religious, so they just have faith in God that this one's going to pass."

Read the original article on Business Insider

Joe Biden's Immigration Bill Aims to Address the Root Causes of Migration. Will it Work?

Jasmine Aguilera, TIME
Wed, January 20, 2021

Migrants, who arrived in caravan from Honduras to try to make their way to the United States, wait at the border in Vado Hondo, Guatemala, on January 18, 2021. Credit - Photo by Luis Vargas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

On his first day in office, President Joe Biden sent an immigration bill to Congress filled with goals that are a far cry from the Trump Administration’s hardline policies. Along with proposals for a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who meet certain qualifications, Biden’s bill plans to address the deeper goal of addressing the root causes of migration, particularly from Central America. However, while it is a loftier in its aims in how to tackle immigration, experts say that it will take a lot more than is being proposed to address the issues that cause immigration from the region.

Biden’s bill comes after a caravan of thousands of Honduran migrants heading north to the U.S. was dissipated by Guatemalan security forces. Biden Administration officials warned migrants not to make the journey to the U.S., but experts believe people from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala will keep attempting to migrate to safer locations such as the U.S. as they have in recent years because of the dire situations they continue to face in their home countries.

Through the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, Biden has put forth a $4 billion four-year plan that aims to decrease violence, corruption and poverty in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, the home countries of many of the migrants who have arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border to seek asylum in recent years. The bill would also establish centers throughout Central America for people to pursue refugee resettlement in either the U.S. or other countries.

Though the $4 billion is an increase in investment compared to the Trump and Obama Administrations, Ariel Ruiz Soto, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, says that $4 billion over the course of four years alone will not be enough to tackle the underlying issues. Investment from the U.S. needs to coincide with partnerships with the governments of Central American countries and Mexico, he says, and include special attention to education and jobs for youth, not just emphasis on security and enforcement measures, as was done under Trump and Obama. Improving economies could allow for people to have a stable future in their home countries, causing migration to decrease in the long run, possibly decades from now.

“[$4 billion] is an upgrade, and it will have significant consequences,” Ruiz tells TIME. “But it is only going to be effective if it’s sustainable over decades…it can’t be just four years, it can’t be eight years, it has to be sustained.”

It’s also an effort the U.S. should not undertake alone, Ruiz adds. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador also supports investing in Central America. López Obrador has worked with the U.S. and Canada on similar efforts made to address the root causes of migration in Central America, and in 2018 the U.S. backed Mexico by investing $5.8 billion. However, much of that money was already previously committed, according to The New York Times. “The United States by no means needs to be the only one doing this work,” Ruiz says. “What will make it more successful is if Mexico and the U.S. are speaking with the same voice about investment in the region.”

Any plan for investment should also cater to the specific needs of each country, Ruiz says. For example, 47% of Guatemalan children under the age of five suffer from chronic malnutrition according to the World Bank, and Guatemala ranks ninth in the world for level of risk to the effects of climate change, meanwhile in Honduras, 48% of people live in poverty and there is a high level of violence.

Investment by the U.S. and Mexico also means engaging with the private sector to create job opportunities in the Northern Triangle, Ruiz adds.

“Now that the new president (Biden) is here we are waiting for the answer, all of us immigrants who are here from Honduras,” one Honduran man, 18-year-old Eber Sosa who was in the caravan this week, told the Associated Press. “We are looking to see what the new president says to move forward.”

Violence continues to be high in Honduras and El Salvador, though homicide rates have been decreasing steadily, and Guatemalans face high unemployment, poverty and malnutrition. Hondurans were particularly devastated by hurricanes Eta and Iota in November. The three countries have also suffered economically as a result of COVID-19.

Ian Kysel, visiting assistant clinical professor of law at Cornell Law School and co-director of the Asylum and Convention Against Torture Appellate Clinic, says he sees this effort by Biden as a first step in creating a regional immigration policy grounded in human rights. “Going back decades, the U.S. Government has failed to adequately invest in making rights and human dignity the cornerstone of U.S. policy in the region—on migration or otherwise,” he tells TIME in a statement. “Human rights are key to addressing the major challenges facing migration. Past administrations have heavily invested in deterrence and securitization, forcefully externalizing the U.S. border to the detriment even to those seeking protection from persecution.”

But whether $4 billion does end up being allocated to Central America depends on Congress. On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, announced he would be the one to introduce Biden’s bill. Menendez was one of the so-called “Gang of Eight” Senators who led the push for comprehensive immigration reform in 2013, an effort by former President Barack Obama to provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants that ultimately failed in the House.

What to know about Joe Biden's pathway

to citizenship immigration plan

MOLLY NAGLE

Wed, January 20, 2021, 3:16 AM

President-elect Joe Biden will send to Congress an extensive immigration reform bill that includes an eight-year pathway to citizenship on Wednesday, following through on a long-standing campaign pledge to move on immigration on day one of a Biden presidency.

The new details of Biden’s legislation were first reported by The Washington Post, and confirmed by Biden transition officials.

Biden will send to Congress on Wednesday a policy that will include an eight-year pathway to citizenship for immigrants without legal status, and expand admissions for refugees to the country.

He would also take a different approach from the Trump administration’s border wall for enforcement, investing in technology at the border instead.

PHOTO: President-elect Joe Biden speaks during an event at The Queen theater, Jan. 15, 2021, in Wilmington, Del. (Matt Slocum/AP)

Biden, who worked as vice president on addressing the root causes of migration from Central American countries, will seek to do the same with his new legislation, the officials confirmed.

The plan tracks closely with the approach to immigration Biden discussed on the campaign trail, but expands on how Biden will structure the comprehensive overhaul.

MORE: Trump's immigration legacy: A border wall Biden vows to freeze

For those living in the U.S. without legal status as of Jan. 1, Biden’s planned pathway would allow for five years of temporary status, and the opportunity to earn a green card upon meeting requirements like paying taxes, and passing a background check. Eligibility to apply for citizenship would follow three years later.

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris also spoke about the policy in a recent interview, previewing the eight-year pathway to citizenship, along with expanding protections for DREAMers and DACA recipients.

“These are some of the things that we're going to do on our immigration bill, and we believe it is a smarter and a more humane way of approaching immigration,” said Harris in an interview with Univision last week.

MORE: Trump-Biden transition live updates: Trump unlikely to issue pardons for self, family

Biden had long previewed his plan to send a bill overhauling the immigration system to Congress on the first day of his administration -- a significant move that places a priority on addressing the issue that the Obama administration was criticized for during their time in office.

“[W]e made a mistake. It took too long to get it right,” Biden said of the Obama Administration's record on immigration, during the Oct. 23 presidential debate.

While Democrats will hold a slim majority in both chambers in Congress during the start of Biden’s presidency, the proposal would still need to earn support from some Republicans in the Senate to pass into law -- testing Biden’s campaign trail pitch that he could garner bipartisan support for his legislative efforts as president.

Biden’s immigration push will be introduced as the country continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, and added to the ambitious legislative efforts Biden’s administration is already undertaking to get a handle on the virus.

MORE:Biden seeks early momentum on COVID and more: The Note

Biden unveiled a nearly $2 trillion COVID rescue plan last week to offer immediate relief to families struggling amid the continued economic downturn due to COVID.

Introducing the legislation is just one part of the aggressive start Biden is planning for the beginning of his administration. Over his first 10 days in office, Biden also plans to take executive action on a number of additional policy issues, including climate change, racial inequality and criminal justice reform.

On Inauguration Day alone, Biden will sign executive orders on extending the existing pause on student loan payments and interest, re-join the Paris Climate Agreement, and reverse the Trump administration’s travel “ban” on predominantly Muslim countries, in addition to putting in place a mask mandate on federal property amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

What to know about Joe Biden's pathway to citizenship immigration plan originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

Judge blocks sweeping Trump administration asylum rule

The federal judge said Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, lacked the authority to impose the new asylum restriction. File Photo by Justin Hamel/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 9 (UPI) -- A federal judge has blocked a new Trump administration rule that tightens standards by which immigration judges are allowed to grant asylum.

The Thursday order came three days before the amended rule was set to go into effect.

District Judge James Donato of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California took issue with the proposed rule's "truncated" public comment period of 30 days. He also sided with plaintiffs -- immigration advocacy groups -- who said Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, lacked the authority to implement the rule.

Wolf has been serving as acting head of homeland security department since November 2019, replacing former acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan.

The Government Accountability Office in August said Wolf wasn't legally entitled to hold his position because he assumed the job under a succession plan crafted by McAleenan, who himself had no authority to hold his job under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.

Trump never formally nominated McAleenan to be secretary. Trump formally nominated Wolf for the job later in August.

Donato said his is the fifth court that's ruled against Wolf's authority as head of the Cabinet department.

RELATED Federal judge in Texas to hear lawsuit seeking to dismantle DACA

"The government has recycled exactly the same legal and factual claims made in the prior cases, as if they had not been soundly rejected in well-reasoned opinions by several courts," the judge wrote.

"This is a troubling litigation strategy. In effect, the government keeps crashing the same car into a gate, hoping that someday it might break through.

Trump withdrew his nomination of Wolf on Thursday.

RELATED Michael Chiklis: 'Coyote' puts human face on migrant struggle

Immigration Equality, one of the plaintiffs in the case, welcomed Donato's ruling.

"Today's ruling halts the most sweeping illegal, anti-refugee volley of the Trump administration," said Bridget Crawford, legal director for the organization. "Asylum is an international human right. LGBTQ and HIV-positive refugees fleeing persecution will always be welcomed in the U.S."



upi.com/7066505

These Freshman Lawmakers Will Join AOC

 and the Squad in the Progressive Caucus

© Drew Angerer/Getty Congresswoman U.S. Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) speaks outside of the Democratic National Committee headquarters on November 19, 2020 in Washington, DC. Bush joined the progressive caucus of the Democratic party on Sunday after being…

The November election saw a number of victories for fresh Republican faces like Representative Madison Cawthorn, who replaced Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the youngest member of Congress, and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory. But Sunday's swearing in of new congressional members also includes a number of progressives.

The so-called Squad, a group of progressive House Democrats including Ocasio-Cortez as well as Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley, inducted a second class of new representatives, thus bolstering the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which includes Senator Bernie Sanders.

As the divide between the Democratic Party's progressive wing and centrist Democrats continues to deepen, the impact these incoming officials will have on the party's future is still to be determined.

Progressives like Tlaib have argued that while Democrats lost House seats in the general election, it was candidates who ran on progressive platforms who were able to hold on to their seats or win their House races.

Here are the four new congressional members joining Sanders, the Squad and other members of the Democratic Party's progressive wing.

Representative Cori Bush

The veteran racial justice activist and former nurse elected to represent Missouri's 1st Congressional District ran on progressive platform, championing policies like the Green New Deal and Medicare for All. Bush first entered politics after becoming involved in the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, after Michael Brown's fatal shooting by a police officer.

Bush's landslide victory came after she defeated 10-term incumbent William Lacy Clay in an upset during the Democratic primaries, which came on the same night Missouri voters decided to expand the state's Medicaid eligibility.

In her third run for Congress, she was backed by Sanders, the youth-led Sunrise Movement and the left-wing group Justice Democrats, which is well known for recruiting Ocasio-Cortez.

Bush is the first Black woman to serve the House of Representatives from Missouri.

"To all the counted outs, the forgotten abouts, the marginalized and the pushed asides. This is our moment," Bush tweeted on the night of her victory. "We came together to end a 52-year family dynasty. That's how we build the political revolution."

Representative Jamaal Bowman

Bowman, a former schoolteacher and principal, defeated 16-term Democratic incumbent Eliot Engel after being recruited by the Justice Democrats and went on to win in a landslide in New York's 16th Congressional District.

He was endorsed by Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Sunrise Movement, New York state's Working Families Party and the editorial board of The New York Times.

Bowman has said he'd like to elevate the issue of slavery reparations in the same way Ocasio-Cortez did with the Green New Deal.

"I was watching it from afar, watching Bernie Sanders run, and then watching AOC and the Squad not just win but truly come in as voices for the underserved. So to be joining them in Congress in 2021 is surreal and exciting, and I think it illustrates a shift happening in the Democratic Party," Bowman told NBC News earlier this month.

In a Tuesday tweet, Bowman advocated defunding the police after the Justice Department announced that the police officers involved in the 2014 fatal shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland would not face federal charges.

"A system this cruel and inhumane can't be reformed. Defund the police, and defund the system that's terrorizing our communities," the representative wrote.

Bowman and Bush have both declined to comment on whether they will vote for Nancy Pelosi as House speaker, a position Ocasio-Cortez has said should go to someone else.

© Stephanie Keith/Stringer Congressman Jamaal Bowman greets supporters on June 23, 2020 in Yonkers, New York. Bowman is another progressive joining the Squad in the U.S. House of Representatives. Stephanie Keith/Stringer

Representative Marie Newman

Newman, a former marketing consultant and anti-bullying advocate, won her seat in November after defeating an anti-abortion Democrat in Illinois' 3rd Congressional District.

Another Justice Democrat-backed candidate, she was endorsed by Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders, Warren, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Senators Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand in the primaries, where she beat eight-term Representative Dan Lipinski.

Lipinski frustrated the party's left by opposing abortion access, voting against the Affordable Care Act and refusing to endorse former President Barack Obama in his 2012 re-election bid.

Ocasio-Cortez told the Times that Newman "is a textbook example of one of the ways that we could be better as a party—to come from a deep blue seat and to be championing all the issues we need to be championing."

Newman ran on a platform of progressive policies that included Medicare for All, universal basic income, green jobs, the legalization of marijuana, immigrant protections in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and "unambiguous" immigration policies.

© Sarah Silbiger/Stringer Representative Marie Newman (D-IL) arrives to the Hyatt Regency hotel on Capitol Hill on November 12, 2020 in Washington, DC. Newman ran on a platform of progressive policies including Medicare for All and protections for DACA recipients. Sarah Silbiger/Stringer
Representative Mondaire Jones

Jones, a former Obama Justice Department lawyer from New York, won a competitive race in the Democratic primaries after longtime incumbent Democrat Nita Lowey decided not to seek reelection.

Running on a platform of Medicare for All and the Green New Deal in one of the wealthiest of New York City's suburbs, Jones won the nomination and subsequently the general election in the state's 17th Congressional District.

"I'm part of a generation that stands to inherit a planet that's devastated by climate catastrophe," Jones told NBC News. "For me, there's no alternative to a Green New Deal. We have to be fighting for a thing that will make our planet inhabitable for ourselves and our children and their children."

He was endorsed by Obama, Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and Warren.

"We are uniquely positioned to lead the Democratic Party into the 21st century, and I don't think that has happened yet," Jones said. "I don't think that we have fully addressed as a party the unprecedented challenges that Americans now face, such as the student loan crisis."

Jones and fellow Democratic Representative Ritchie Torres, who represents New York's 15th Congressional District, are the first openly LGBTQ Black members of Congress.

© Timothy A. Clary/AFP Mondaire Jones, Representative for New York's 17th Congressional District, poses outside his home in Nyack, New York, July 23, 2020. Jones, who ran on a platform of Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, joined a new class of progressive lawmakers after being sworn into Congress on Sunday. Timothy A. Clary/AFP

Biden told this immigrant rights activist 'vote for Trump' in a blunt exchange. 

He voted for Biden but is ready to push him hard on immigration reform.

© Joe Raedle/Getty Images 

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden speaks to the media after receiving a briefing from the transition COVID-19 advisory board on November 09, 2020 at the Queen Theater in Wilmington, Delaware. Mr. Biden spoke about how his administration would respond to the coronavirus pandemic. 

In November 2019, on the campaign trail in South Carolina, then-candidate Joe Biden was asked a question by immigrant rights activist Carlos Rojas Rodriguez and an immigrant community member.

A tense back-and-forth ensued, with Rodriguez and Silvia criticizing the Obama administration's record on deportations and calling for a moratorium on deportations if Biden was elected.

Biden disagreed and told Rodriguez, "You should go vote for Trump."

With the Biden administration set to take office on January 20, 2021, Business Insider spoke with Rodriguez about the work ahead for immigrant rights activists.

Carlos Rojas Rodriguez made headlines in 2019 when a question about the Obama administration's immigration record received a blunt response from then-candidate Joe Biden.

Standing next to an immigrant mother and local activist named Silvia in Greenwood, South Carolina, Rodriguez translated her question to Biden. Silvia remarked that she worried about Immigration and Customs Enforcement targeting her family next, and she was concerned about Biden's defense of the Obama administration's deportation campaigns. When Silvia asked Biden if he would implement a moratorium on deportations on day one, he responded "No," and defended deportations for individuals with criminal records.

Rodriguez, however, chimed back in, this time with his own thoughts and concerns as a formerly undocumented person, reminding Biden that millions of families were separated under his administration.

In video of the encounter, audience members could be heard yelling "Give him a mic!" asking for Biden's team to give Rodriguez a mic to ask his follow-up. Biden, roaming down the school gymnasium to address Rodriguez, squarely told him: "You should vote for Trump," and proceeds to turn his back and walk away as Rodriguez says, "No, I am not going to do that. But I want to make sure that immigrant families and people like Silvia are not afraid."

"I wanted to make it clear to the public, to Biden, who was a presidential candidate then that if he were to become president at the time, that he has both legislative and also administrative actions that he can do, going through the executive branch, and also obviously through the legislative branch," Rodriguez told Business Insider of his exchange with now President-elect Biden. (And to some extent, with the recently-announced 100-day freeze on deportations, it seems that Rodriguez's message resonated.)

© Meg Kinnard/AP 

President-elect Joe Biden talks with Carlos Rojas Rodriguez objecting to his stance on deportations during a town hall at Lander University in Greenwood, S.C., on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019. 

Biden eventually called the 3 million deportations, 1.7 million of which were of people with no criminal record "a big mistake," during a February 2020 interview with Telemundo.

"To be clear I did not vote for Trump," Rodriguez said, stating that at the time he worked for Movimento Cosecha, an immigrants rights organization, and then went on to work for Sen. Bernie Sanders' campaign. In 2008, he volunteered for the Obama campaign. Carlos became a citizen in 2017 and voted in his first presidential election in 2020, voting for Biden.

Video: Biden says he will take executive action on immigration (FOX News)

Trump's immigration policies were widely derided by activists as increasingly punitive. Throughout his time in office, he consistently increased the Department of Homeland Security budgets for immigration enforcement efforts, spent over $18 billion on the incomplete border wall, and enacted a series of policies focused on detention and separation, alongside a systematic gutting of the asylum system through the Migrant Protection Protocols.

"The pain that the Latino community is going under, it is so big that we actually need all the approaches. We need executive action. We need administrative action. We need legislative action," Rodriguez added. "Unfortunately, we are dealing and I think we're going to continue to deal with the least effective Congress in modern United States history, where gridlock is what you get every day, and where compromise is seen as a sign of weakness."

At DHS, the undoing Trump policies and implementation Biden policies will be the purview of Alejandro Mayorkas if he's confirmed. Mayorkas came to the US as a refugee from Cuba and was tapped to lead Biden's Department of Homeland Security, and if confirmed he would be the first immigrant and Latino to head the agency.

And Rodriguez, while glad to see the Trump administration go, said his work will continue under a Biden administration. He singled out the addition of Cecilia Munoz, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under Obama, to Biden's transition team as a major cause for concern.

"Munoz was a former immigrant rights advocate who defended mass deportations and family separation under the Obama Administration and de-escalated the immigrant rights movement for eight years," Rodriguez said. "Her presence in the Biden transition team only signals that we could be very well going back to the Obama era of pro-immigrant rhetoric with anti-immigrant practices and policies which led to a record of 3 million deportations."

This tension, of being relieved to have defeated Trump but being worried about returning to Obama-era immigration policies, is playing out in his community, Rodriguez said. He added that the uplifting of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy is welcome but that there must be a pathway to citizenship for all undocumented people in the US.

"[T]he Obama and the Biden administration funded DHS budgets and ICE budgets for them to have the infrastructure to do all the things that Trump did with separating and incarcerating immigrant families," Rodriguez said. "So my biggest fear is that people feel that these cages all of a sudden disappeared, that deportations are not happening, just because you have someone who is speaking on the issue better in rhetoric, but not so much in the practice."

Rodriguez does acknowledge that there were immigration policy wins under the Obama administration, including DACA. (Mayorkas who worked for the agency during the Obama administration has been praised by immigrants rights groups for his work on DACA.)

During that time he said activists "were really catalyzed by mass mobilization, direct action, public confrontation, civil disobedience, led by directly affected folks. The common denominator there has always been public action, pressuring the Democratic Party, challenging them publicly."

Rodriguez added that what he would want to see from Biden is strong administrative relief and executive actions that include DACA and PPS and "also provide a real tangible relief for every undocumented person in the country." Rodriguez mentioned that executive actions reversing the travel ban, abolishing ICE, and enforcing a lasting moratorium on deportations are stances he will push the new administration towards.

"I am going to focus my time on making sure that we're empowering directly-affected people to take action, to be visible," Rodriguez said. "We're not going to let the Biden administration or the Democratic Party frame our fight."

Read the original article on Business Insider

US Federal judge reinstates DACA, orders Homeland Security to quickly accept new applicants

A New York federal judge on Friday restored the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — which President Donald Trump has tried to end — in a court ruling that would swiftly grant thousands of immigrants whose parents brought them to the U.S. as young children the ability to continue to work and study in the country.

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U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis said in his six-page ruling that he was fully reinstating the DACA program based on the terms established under former President Barack Obama's administration. Trump tried to end the program in September 2017, and this past July Chad Wolf, the acting secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, suspended DACA pending a “comprehensive” review.

However, Garaufis also ruled in November that Wolf has not been acting lawfully as the chief of Homeland Security and that, as such, his suspension of protections for a class of migrants brought to the United States illegally as children is invalid

The judge reaffirmed that position in his Friday ruling. Although Trump formally nominated Wolf for the job in summer, Wolf has yet to get a full vote in the Senate, keeping his role as "acting."

He also ordered DHS to post a public notice by Monday prominently on its website to accept first-time applications, renewal requests and advance parole requests based on Obama-era rules and to ensure that work permits are valid for two years.

This is the latest blow to the Trump’s administration’s efforts to halt the program. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that the Trump administration wrongly tried to shut down the program. The president’s administration then began rejecting new applicants to the program this summer about a month after the High Court blocked the White House from ending the program completely.

In its ruling, the high court found that his administration was “arbitrary and capricious” in its attempt to end the Obama-era program. Existing applicants also must reapply every year, but remain in the program.

The National Immigration Law Center called the ruling a "major victory" in a tweet on Friday.

"This is a major victory for immigrant youth, led by immigrant youth. We would not be celebrating this day were it not for our courageous plaintiffs that fought to affirm that their #HomeIsHere," the organization said. "This is a day to celebrate, and we look forward to working with the incoming Biden administration to create a permanent solution for immigrant youth and communities."

SCOTUS skeptical of plan to block undocumented immigrants from census count

Several Supreme Court justices on Monday questioned the legality of a last-ditch attempt by the outgoing Trump administration to exclude undocumented immigrants from the federal count used to award states seats in Congress and the Electoral College.

© Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images 

The conservative-leaning high court heard more than 80 minutes of oral arguments on the legal challenges against President Trump's effort to remove immigrants living in the U.S. without authorization from the decennial census count that dictates redistricting for the House of Representatives.

"A lot of the historical evidence and longstanding practice really cuts against your position," Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the newest addition to the bench, told the government attorney arguing the administration's case.

The U.S. government has always counted most of the country's residents, including non-citizens without legal status, for the purposes of allocating congressional seats. The 14th Amendment requires House seats to be awarded after the government counts "the whole number of persons in each State." The constitutionally mandated process occurs every 10 years following the census.

In July, arguing that "persons" was not strictly defined in the 14th Amendment, Mr. Trump said that it would be U.S. policy to exclude immigrants who lack "lawful immigration status" from calculations that determine how many House districts each state should have. His presidential directive instructed Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who administers the Census Bureau, to provide him information following the 2020 Census that would allow him to do this.

Justice Stephen Breyer, a liberal who was appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton, on Monday called the legal argument that undocumented immigrants should be counted for congressional apportionment "fairly strong."

"They are persons, aren't they?" Breyer asked acting solicitor general Jeff Wall, the lawyer representing the Trump administration in the suit, known as Trump v. New York.

Barrett, who is Mr. Trump's third appointment to the high court, reminded Wall of the unprecedented nature of the change sought by the administration, and posed the example of an undocumented immigrant who has lived in the U.S. for 20 years. "Why would … such a person not have a settled residency here?" she asked Wall.

Wall responded by saying that the U.S. has previously excluded foreign diplomats living in the country on a long-term basis from the apportionment count. "I'm not disputing at all that illegal aliens form ties to the community in the sense you are talking about, but they're not the sort of ties that are sufficient to qualify you within the apportionment base," he said.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, appointed by President Barack Obama in 2009, said that immigrants detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — whom the Trump administration has said would likely be excluded from the apportionment count under its proposal — could be eligible to stay in the country through asylum or other forms of immigration relief.

"I'm not sure how you can identify any class of immigrant that isn't living here in its traditional sense," Sotomayor told Wall. "This is where they are."

Members of the high court's conservative majority and liberal wing pressed Wall on the practical feasibility of the Trump administration excluding the nation's estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants from the redistricting count. The Commerce Department has a December 31 deadline to provide the president a tabulation of each state's population. The president is then required by federal law to submit a statement to Congress that would be used to redraw House districts.

Census count puts Montana in a unique spot

Justice Samuel Alito, nominated to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush, called it a "monumental task."

Under questioning by Alito, Wall conceded that it was "very unlikely" that the Census Bureau would be able to identify and remove all unauthorized immigrants from the apportionment calculations.

Three federal courts have already ruled against Mr. Trump's planned changes to the census. In September, a three-member panel of federal judges in New York said the proposal violates federal laws that govern the redrawing of congressional seats and the census count, though they did not weigh in on its constitutionality.

Last week, however, another panel of federal judges in Washington, D.C. dismissed a fourth challenge against Mr. Trump's effort, saying the case was not yet "ripe for review" given the uncertainty surrounding which undocumented immigrants would be removed from the redistricting count.

Several conservative justices, including Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Mr. Trump's second appointment to the Supreme Court, on Monday weighed the possibility of the high court taking a similar approach and ruling after the administration decided which immigrants to exclude.

"The key point, I think, is that [Mr. Trump's] memorandum imposes no obligations on the plaintiffs to do anything at this point, unlike for example, a typical agency regulation," Kavanaugh said. "We call that a lack of ripeness."

If Mr. Trump's plan is enacted, California, Texas and Florida, states with large immigrant communities, could end up with one fewer House district than they would have been given under the current calculations, according to an analysis by the non-partisan Pew Research Center. Conversely, some states like Alabama and Ohio with less undocumented residents would gain a congressional seat that they would've otherwise not secured.

The Justice Department has argued that the impact of Mr. Trump's proposal on certain states potentially losing or gaining House seats is unclear, since he has yet to determine which classes of immigrants to exclude from the apportionment figures. The number of ICE detainees, the population Mr. Trump is most likely to exclude, stands at 16,075, according to government figures.

However, Justice Elena Kagan, an appointee of Mr. Obama, noted that the government also has records on hundreds of thousands of immigrants with final deportation orders or in removal proceedings, and of more than 640,000 recipients of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. While DACA offers works permits and protection from deportation, it does not legalize the status of its recipients, who remain undocumented.

Chief Justice John Roberts, a Republican appointee, said in his opening questioning that if the court did not intervene now before the commerce department transmits state population information to the president, "I don't know when the court would be able to intervene."

Wall said that lawsuits could be brought after Mr. Trump determines who will be excluded from the redistricting numbers and sends his report to the House of Representatives.

"Isn't that going to be like having to unscramble the eggs?" Roberts asked.

Deported Mexican migrants dream of change under Biden



Issued on: 28/11/2020 - 

Many Mexicans who were deported from the US hope that President-elect Joe Biden will push for changes that protect undocumented migrants Guillermo Arias AFP/File

Mexico City (AFP)

Mauricio Lopez was deported to Mexico after spending most of his life in the United States. Now he hopes against the odds that Joe Biden's administration will let him return.

The 26-year-old English teacher is one of thousands of migrants known as "dreamers" who as children were taken to the US by their parents.

Like many Mexicans who were expelled, in particular under outgoing President Donald Trump, Lopez is hoping that President-elect Biden will push for changes that protect undocumented migrants.

"It would be good for us if he relaxes immigration laws ... if there are asylum processes, if he makes it easier for us to obtain work permits or tourist visas, since many of us have families there," he said.

Lopez was deported to Mexico from North Carolina in 2016 after he was unable to renew his residency permit under the DACA program for unauthorized immigrants brought to the United States as children.

He was deported with his mother, leaving behind a sister but joining a brother who had already been sent back to Mexico years earlier.

- Biden's hands tied? -

Lopez is part of a growing number of deportees trying to integrate into a country that often feels foreign to them.

Around 89,000 Mexicans were expelled from the United States in the first half of this year, according to the interior ministry.

Widespread expulsions have also occurred under Democratic administrations.

About three million unauthorized immigrants were deported by former president Barack Obama between 2009 and 2016, when Biden was vice president.

Biden has signaled a break with the policies of Trump, who vowed to halt almost all immigration and expel the more than 10 million undocumented migrants estimated to live in the United States.

The Republican sparked anger during his 2016 election campaign when he branded Mexican migrants "rapists" and drug dealers, and vowed to build a wall along the southern US border.

But experts say Biden may be hamstrung by a Republican-controlled Senate, depending on the result of runoffs in the state of Georgia on January 5.

"Even with the best will of the new government, it (change) won't happen imminently," said Leticia Calderon, an expert on migration at Mexico's Mora Institute.

The Democrat's win should not be seen as an "invitation to migrate" because "the bad guy is leaving and now the good guys" are in the White House, she said.

"The immigration system in the United States has no political party."

- 'Feel more positive' -

One area where she does expect action from Biden is to try to address rights for "Dreamers" to stay and work in the United States.

Biden fiercely criticized Trump's moves against "Dreamers."

"It's likely that they will deal with it in the first 100 days of government, but it has to go through the Senate," where it is likely to meet resistance, Calderon said.

Even if it is too late for him personally, Lopez hopes that other young migrants can benefit under the new administration.

"The Dreamers feel more positive with Biden. There's hope that they have a route to citizenship or residency," he said.

Around 12 million people born in Mexico live in the US, as well as another 26 million who have at least one parent or grandparent born on Mexican soil.

Father-of-two Ben Moreno, who has been deported from the US twice, most recently in 2014 during the Obama presidency, is also cautiously optimistic that things will improve.

"I honestly don't think Biden will stop the deportations," said the 54-year-old, who ran a construction company in Indiana.

"But what I do hope is that this administration will be fair about who it deports and how it does it," he said.

© 2020 AFP