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ALL THINGS RECONCILIATION — 84 mayors from across the country have signed a letter calling on the Biden administration and Congress to include immigration provisions in the budget package to be passed through reconciliation, The Hill’s Rafael Bernal reports. Meanwhile, UnidosUS President and Chief Executive Janet Murguía and Defending Democracy Together Director Bill Kristol make the case for reform-via-reconciliation in a Washington Post op-ed, laying out how a path to legalization meets the criteria needed for a measure to be considered under reconciliation — and why legalization is critical. As talks of budget reconciliation as a path to immigration reform gain momentum, our policy team has put together a helpful explainer. DEMOGRAPHICS — The pandemic has further slowed America’s already weak population growth, report Janet Adamy and Anthony DeBarros of The Wall Street Journal — and without a demographic boost, experts warn this could be a serious blow to economic growth. "The economy of the developed world for the last two centuries now has been built on demographic expansion," said Richard Jackson, president of the Global Aging Institute. "We no longer have this long-term economic and geopolitical advantage." So where do we go from here? "The big wild card is going to be what happens with immigration," said American Enterprise Institute researcher Nicholas Eberstadt. As my colleague Danilo Zak and I laid out, America has Room to Grow. BORDER FORENSICS — Amid an increase in migration and deaths along the U.S.-Mexico border, the U.S. Border Patrol has evolved its approach to rescuing missing migrants or identifying remains, reports Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Los Angeles Times. The agency has installed more than 1,400 rescue signs and 30 solar-powered rescue beacons in remote areas to help locate stranded migrants quicker. Some agents have also been trained to help identify remains. "Never thought I’d be doing this, the forensic side of it, the compassion," said Agent Jerry Passement while searching for the body of 25-year-old Honduran Yoel Nieto Valladares. "It’s a puzzle we’ve got to try to put together."
SEARCHING FOR FAMILIES — A motorcycle-riding Guatemalan lawyer named Pop is among the handful of searchers trying to locate parents separated from their children and "deported alone to some of the farthest-flung corners of Central America" under the Trump administration, Kevin Sieff of The Washington Post reports. Under the Biden administration, reunification efforts are often left up to small civil society organizations and individuals like Pop. "Every search is a little different," Pop said. "Did the family move? Are they hiding? Did the parent try again for the United States? Sometimes you knock on the door and there’s no one there. … We know some migrants have their rights violated, some are separated from their children. Our organization focuses on ensuring the rights of migrants." ‘THE DAY I CAN GO BACK’ — Earlier this month the Biden administration announced that it would begin assisting deported veterans and their immediate family members in returning to the U.S. — but "deciding who qualifies for readmission could prove thorny," Miriam Jordan writes in The New York Times. Some deported veterans have committed serious crimes, Jordan points out, and it's unclear if everyone will be allowed to return. "I have always just been waiting for the day I can go back," said Alex Murillo, a U.S. Navy veteran who grew up in Arizona but was deported to Mexico following drug violations. He currently works at a call center in Tijuana by day and coaches youth football by night. "Everything I do here is positive, but I want to be home with my family." Robert Vivar, co-director of the Unified U.S. Deported Veterans Resource Center, estimates there are currently at least 1,000 military deportees living in some 40 countries. LUIS — Long-distance runner Luis Grijalva is a recent graduate of Northern Arizona State University who qualified to represent his birth country of Guatemala in this year’s Olympics. He’s also a DACA recipient — and because of his immigration status, it was unclear whether he’d be able to travel to Tokyo to compete, Dan Casarez reported in the Visalia Times-Delta last week. But after several hours on Monday, Grijalva got special permission from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to leave the country, The New York Times’ Kellen Browning reports. "It’s just a lot of emotions — excitement, just really happy," said Grijalva. "Excited to run at the games and represent Guatemala, but also to leave the country and know I can return to the country safely." Thanks for reading, |
