Some history was made last night at the Oscars when “Parasite” won best picture, becoming the first film not in the English language to win the award. One year after “Roma” missed out on top film honors, the South Korean comedy-thriller bested Tarantino and Scorsese films, among others. “In a post- ‘Parasite’ world, the best-picture winner can come from anywhere,” Kyle Buchanan and Brooke Barnes write for The New York Times.
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DRIVER’S LICENSE POLITICS – Several hundred thousand undocumented immigrants could soon be legally eligible to drive in Virginia, “a life-altering reform that is part of a host of immigrant-related bills making their way through the General Assembly,” Antonio Olivo writes in The Washington Post. “Chief among them is legislation that would allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, a years-long goal that the [Gov. Ralph] Northam administration estimates would affect 308,000 people.” Similar legislation exists in 15 other states, as well as the District of Columbia. Other proposals in Virginia — including permitting undocumented immigrant students to pay in-state tuition, preventing local police from asking crime victims about immigration status, and launching a new immigrant services office — are also heading towards approval.
WALL POLITICS – The Trump administration is expected to request $2 billion in new funding for border-wall construction — significantly less than it requested last year, Michelle Hackman reports for The Wall Street Journal. The smaller request “reflects the fact that the administration needs fewer resources to build a wall along the U.S. southern border, as it has essentially met its funding goals by shifting money from the military toward construction. The additional requested money, they said, would go toward new sections of wall that haven’t yet been planned.” Last year the White House requested $5 billion, “with another $3.6 billion going to military construction projects to replenish the money the administration shifted to help pay for wall construction.” However, this year’s budget request won’t include funds to reimburse the military.
NOWHERE TO GO – In Syria, 600,000 people are pressed against the Turkish border “to escape unexpectedly swift Syrian government advances into the country's last opposition-held enclave, amid warnings that the exodus could mushroom into the worst humanitarian crisis of the nearly nine-year war,” Liz Sly reports for The Washington Post. Meanwhile, pressure from an influx of refugees and migrants to the Greek island of Lesbos is becoming a greater challenge for Greek authorities, reports Helena Smith in The Guardian. “Friction is growing between local people and asylum seekers landing in boats from Turkey. Last week the region’s most senior official likened the situation in Lesbos to a ‘powder keg ready to explode.’” More than 42,000 asylum seekers are estimated to be on Greek islands living in “squalid” conditions, and they’re unable to leave due to a containment policy determined by the EU. As the globe turns against refugees, massive numbers of people have nowhere to go.
E-VERIFY POLITICS – Florida Republicans are set to debate a proposal to force private employers to use E-Verify, the federal database that checks the immigration status of workers, Bobby Caina Calvan reports for the Associated Press. “Gov. Ron DeSantis has made the issue among his priorities, arguing that all employers need to be sure the people they hire are in fact legally eligible to work in the United States.” FYI, E-Verify is already being used in Florida in a limited way.
AMERICANS BANNED – Never mind “America First.” In the aftermath of President Trump’s January 31st travel ban expansion — which restricts immigration from Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania— the victims are U.S. citizens, writes Doug Rand in Just Security. “The new immigration ban expansion will prevent nearly all husbands, wives, children, parents, and siblings of U.S. citizens from moving to the United States and obtaining permanent residency … and thrusts families into years of undeserved separation and misery.” Meanwhile in Axios, Stef W. Kight explores the evolution of the travel ban, including the most recent January 31st order, and how it equates to a Muslim ban. While the President has not blocked all Muslims from entering America, his policies are having an impact — and “you can draw a straight line from his campaign promise [to bar Muslims from entering the U.S.] to the immigration policies his administration is now implementing.”
Thanks for reading,
Ali