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BORDER CAMPS — When a squalid refugee camp in Matamoros, Mexico closed, another one opened just 55 miles away in Reynosa within weeks, reports Miriam Jordan of The New York Times. "Overcrowded already, with more than 2,000 people, it is filthy and foul-smelling, lacking the health and sanitation infrastructure that nonprofit groups had spent months installing at Matamoros," aid workers told Jordan. The possibility of reinstating Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) — aka Trump’s "Remain in Mexico" policy — also "increase[s] the likelihood that other, similar camps will spring up along the border once again," writes Jordan. "Reynosa is ten times as dangerous as Matamoros ever was, people do get dragged off that plaza and get kidnapped while people watch," adds Felicia Rangel-Samponaro, a director of the non-profit the Sidewalk School for Children Asylum Seekers, per The Brownsville Herald’s Iris Karami. INJUNCTION — U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone "granted the Biden administration’s request for a preliminary injunction halting an executive order issued by Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott that targeted the transport of migrants" on Thursday, reports Tierney Sneed of CNN. "The order seems to do little to protect public health despite its purported motivations," Cardone wrote Thursday. "Texas presents no evidence that noncitizens entering the United States at the border pose a particular health risk such that restricting their transportation would improve health and safety."
‘I DIDN’T WANT TO REMEMBER’ — The Biden administration proposed a new rule last week that would allow U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) asylum officers to adjudicate asylum applications of some recent border-crossers. The change "could also make the experience more humane for migrants fleeing persecution, like ‘Herrera’," a man who says he became a target of political violence in his hometown in central Mexico, reports Tyche Hendricks of KQED. The proposed asylum plan aims to alleviate the growing backlog of nearly 1.4 million cases and lessen the wait time for families to have their cases heard. "I didn’t want to remember the kidnapping or anything else because it’s really ugly," said "Herrera", now 50, and a construction worker in San José. "But I have to keep opening up the trunk and pulling out those memories." FRANKLIN COUNTY – There are interesting changes afoot in Central Ohio, writes Yilun Cheng for The Columbus Dispatch: "At least seven first-time candidates who are immigrants or children of immigrants are eyeing a seat at city councils and school boards in [Franklin County]." About 11 percent of all residents in the county are foreign-born, but "[i]t is not easy for immigrants to rise to a position of power when the system has traditionally excluded them," explained Mohamed Ali, who is running for the Columbus City Schools Board of Education. FARM LABOR NEEDS — According to the latest Census data, "many rural areas in the United States are continuing to lose population, while many urban and suburban areas are gaining," Sarah Donaldson writes for Farm and Dairy. The decline in rural populations is posing concerns for agricultural labor in some states, with farm groups renewing calls for immigration reform, particularly in Ohio and Pennsylvania. "There’s a significant need now, and then a growing need in the future," said Brandon Kern, senior director of state and national policy for Ohio Farm Bureau. "In a state like Ohio, losing population in some of these rural areas … is going to be a challenge." Said Liam Migdail, communications director for Pennsylvania Farm Bureau: "These are jobs that are hard to attract people to. That’s why visa programs have been … part of filling the labor gap." Thanks for
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