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A chance for NM to light the way out of suffering, abuse
In 2019, a young nurse came to the United States from El Salvador. Her name was Joana Medina León but she was known as Joa. She came seeking asylum at the U.S. border. Joa was trans and because her gender assigned at birth was male, she was detained by ICE in an all male unit […]
Trump is no longer the villain at the border. It’s Biden.
I listened to President Joe Biden announce his new plan for the U.S. border on Jan. 5 with fury. A theme in his speech — to crack down on people who cross the U.S. border illegally and circumvent U.S. law — makes my blood boil. Crossing the U.S. border to ask for asylum is emphatically […]
End of Title 42 a hard-won victory, but the work of creating a humane approach to migration remains
A Federal District Court judge in D.C. ordered the Department of Homeland Security to end the use of Title 42 at the U.S. border on Tuesday night. Frustratingly, in spite of the fact that it has been in place for close to three years, Title 42 never got the attention it deserved as a devastating […]
NM governor’s call to delay refugee entry into the U.S. echoes the inhumane policies of the right
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s letter to the secretary of Homeland Security asking the department to delay the release of migrants into the U.S. is a disappointing endorsement of violent policies that kill migrants. Though her letter would never spell this out, her statement essentially says that the U.S. should close its borders completely to refugees, […]
A decade with DACA shows sensible immigration policy, we still deserve better
The immigration policy that is providing hundreds of thousands of people the opportunity to live and work in the United States without fear that their future would be disrupted by deportation is now ten years old. When Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA was issued by executive order under the Obama Administration on June […]
ICE is watching you
In 2018, in my capacity as a lawyer, I took a few trips to Mexico to provide legal advice and legal accompaniment to refugees in Mexico who intended to seek political asylum in the United States. The border is a very tricky place to navigate. Our goal was to identify people who had clear claims […]
Conservatives needn’t panic about the end of Title 42
Trump’s former immigration adviser is having a premonition of doom. Stephen Miller has the dubious distinction of authoring ex-President Trump’s (anti-)immigration policies. He retweeted news of a Centers for Disease Control announcement last month, saying: “This will mean armageddon on the border. This is how nations end.” So what on Earth could a public health […]
Relocating ICE detainees isn’t enough, release people from ‘inhumane’ federal custody
During the first week of February, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General showed up at Torrance County Detention Facility in Estancia, N.M. to conduct a surprise inspection. The staff at the facility shouldn’t have been surprised. Over the last two years Torrance County has been under about as much scrutiny that a […]
U.S. opens arms for Ukrainian refugees while turning back others fleeing violence
The Department of Justice had a tough day in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit earlier this month. There, in a court case called Huisha-Huisha v. Mayorkas, the judge ruled that the Biden administration cannot use a public health order to expel migrant families into countries where they would face […]
Dear Rep. Herrell
I am not a person who normally peruses the headlines of Fox News. Yet last week, I clicked on a link: GOP lawmaker says U.S. should offer asylum to Canadian truckers after Trudeau’s ‘heavy-handed crackdown.’ I was lured in by the novelty of any GOP lawmaker suggesting the U.S. offer asylum to people and the […]
A tech wall at the border is just as dangerous as a physical one
Six years ago, when Donald Trump was campaigning for the presidency, the border wall emerged as a major theme. As he constructed a platform based on deep anti-immigrant sentiment, the “big, beautiful wall” was a ridiculous campaign promise. Considering the actual logistical, financial and infrastructural demands of walling 2,000 miles while also getting the country […]
The COVID tinderbox that is ICE detention is exploding
Everyone has a story of how the fast-moving COVID pandemic and all the attending fear and anxiety affected their lives during March of 2020. It’s hard to think about now. In all the disorientation, a few things were made clear to our community: cover your face, wash your hands and maintain distance. Things seemed out […]