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Daily Dispatch
February 26, 2019
Another death in custody
A 24 year old woman from Honduras gave birth to a dead infant while being held at the Port Isabel Detention Center. She was picked up by the Border Patrol in Hidalgo, Texas on February 18.
CBP and ICE said the woman was taken to a hospital and released on Feb. 21 after undergoing two screenings. The woman was then transferred to ICE custody and was in the process of being released from the Port Isabel Detention Center when she complained of stomach discomfort. An ambulance was called, but the woman delivered the baby before she could be sent to the hospital.
Three other people have died in custody in recent months.
A 45-year-old Mexican man died while in Border Patrol custody last week, and two children died late last year while in custody. They include 8-year-old Felipe Alonzo Gomez, who died in custody at a New Mexico hospital on Christmas Eve, and the Dec. 8 death of 7-year-old Jakelin Caal in El Paso.
Let’s be honest: For Trump, no one is welcome here.
Trump talks alot about illegal immigration, the U.S./Mexico border, and drug dealers. Little of what he has to say about all of this is true, but this emphasis on “bad guys” gives one the impression that other folks are welcome here provided they “get in line” and “do it right.”
Nope.
Trump’s administration has sought every way imaginable to limit legal immigration, including highly skilled professionals, whom he otherwise claims are welcome. As summarized by Suart Anderson in Forbes (with links from the original):
The first two years of the Trump administration has seen a series of actions to reduce immigration. These efforts have included the travel ban against citizens of several predominately Muslim countries, low levels of refugee admissions, supporting legislation to reduce legal immigration by 50% and numerous administrative measures to make it more difficult for employers to hire or retain high-skilled foreign nationals in the United States.
Mike Sedensky with AP reports on difficulties associated with H-1B visa program.
Immigrants with specialized skills are being denied work visas or seeing applications get caught up in lengthy bureaucratic tangles under federal changes that some consider a contradiction to President Donald Trump's promise of a continued pathway to the U.S. for the most talented foreigners.
Getting what's known as an H-1B visa has never been a sure thing — the number issued annually is capped at 85,000 and applicants need to enter a lottery to even be considered. But some immigration attorneys, as well as those who hire such workers, say they've seen unprecedented disruptions in the approval process since Trump took office in 2017.
"You see all these arguments that we want the best and the brightest coming here," said John Goslow, an immigration attorney in Ann Arbor, Michigan. "Yet we're seeing a full-frontal assault on just all aspects of immigration."
Trump’s war on immigration is costing him support in the business community - though many business leaders are still enjoying their tax breaks and increasingly regulation-free work environments. Nevertheless, #f378f9c3295f">Forbes offers Trump advice about ways to increase high skill immigration.
Working to overturn Texas Law
Campaigns are underway this legislative session in Texas to overturn the controversial Senate Bill 4 that passed in the last session.
SB4 allows local law enforcement officers to ask people their citizenship status once they’ve been arrested or detained. It also punishes local governments and elected officials who don’t cooperate with federal law enforcement to turnover [sic] immigrants subject to possible deportation, also known as ‘detainers’, in the form of jail time and monetary fines.
Some cities have fought back - for example Austin’s City Council; though bound by the provisions of the law to ask about citizenship status, they have instructed police officers to inform people they have the right not to answer questions related to their immigration status.
State Senator Jose Menendez, of San Antonio has introduced a bill in the Senate, SB 672 to repeal SB 4. Representative Rafael Anchia, of Dallas, filed a similar bill last Friday, HB2266.