Even though the virus is blind to people’s citizenship or visa status, immigrants can be especially vulnerable to infection, serious illness, financial hardship, and hateful discrimination. To mitigate the dangers that immigrants face — and the repercussions for everyone in the United States — we need more public-private partnerships.
immigration
In Jeff Sessions’ lawsuit against California, only one challenge has any merit at all
The United States suit against California is not the first time the federal government has sued a state, but it is the only time I can think of where such a suit was brought against a state government that was trying to do more to protect the rights of its residents. Typically, the U.S. government … Continue reading »
Global forced migration and the entanglements of race, state power, capitalism and environmental change
When people think of forced migration today, what might they think of? Most might think of the “European refugee crisis.” And why would they not? In 2015, over 1.3 million people arrived at Europe’s borders by way of the Mediterranean Sea, the largest wave of forced migration in nearly a century. Most might also think … Continue reading »
Becoming an American citizen in the age of Trump
“I feel proud to be a U.S. citizen at a time like this. And I feel ashamed to be a U.S. citizen at a time like this. This ambivalence, I have come to realize, is the most American thing about me.”
Canada should welcome America’s ‘dreamers’
By Irene Bloemraad and Ratna Omidvar This commentary is reposted from The Globe and Mail in Canada, where it originally appeared in February 2017. We are now witnessing the casualties of new United States policies arriving at Canadian borders. More might soon follow as those who lack residence documents face a grim future and the … Continue reading »
Conservatives should oppose a wall, too
Regardless of whether you want fewer immigrants in the United States, more newcomers, or prefer immigrant numbers to remain the same, there is no good argument for a wall on the border with Mexico. It will be a gravy train for Trump’s construction cronies, but a huge expense for taxpayers. Worse, it addresses a supposed … Continue reading »
Radical for each other right now
If certain things about President-elect Trump remain unclear — policy positions, his taxes, his ultimate vision — one thing is certain: he has peeled back the worn-out bandage on America’s most infected wounds and summoned some of humanity’s darkest impulses. How we respond to his presence may, indeed, determine not just who we include when … Continue reading »
The European Union is NOT good for security
British Prime Minister David Cameron’s announcement on Feb. 20 of a “special status” for the United Kingdom in the European Union (EU) briefly boosted support for staying in — if only because he dominated the news. However, support will decline before the referendum on June 23, particularly on the issue of “national security,” which he falsely offered … Continue reading »
Behind the Republican implosion
The profound dysfunction on display in the Republican party’s contest for its 2016 presidential nomination reflects an intra-party civil war that has been simmering for the past 25 years and has now burst out of control. In the year 2000, George W. Bush’s signal political achievement was uniting an already fractious Republican Party behind him … Continue reading »
Why don’t refugees fly?
On Feb. 11, 2016, efforts to stop refugees from entering the safety of the European Union were militarized. The NATO alliance will immediately move three warships to the Aegean Sea to stop the flow of refugees to Europe. “This is not about stopping or pushing back refugee boats,” NATO’s commander assured us, but rather “to help … Continue reading »
What Trump gets right
How does one make sense of a US presidential candidate calling for the banning of Muslims entering the country and the tracking and profiling of those who live here? How does one make sense of a US Supreme Court justice suggesting that Blacks should not go to top-tier universities? We live in strange times and … Continue reading »
An eight-point plan to repair the U.S.-Mexico border
Ten years ago, in 2005, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security introduced its Secure Border Initiative (SBI). Today, the Mexico-U.S. wall is a fact of everyday life for millions of people who live in its shadow. Disagreements persist about how effective the border fortifications have been, but two outcomes are certain: the SBI intervention has … Continue reading »
DREAMers and the future of our nation
By Allison Davenport, clinical instructor, UC Berkeley School of Law; and Robert J. Birgeneau, chancellor emeritus, UC Berkeley As the autumn semester begins, thousands of college students are back on campus preoccupied with class schedules, roommates, and pursuing their majors. But undocumented students at our nation’s universities are focused on more pressing concerns. Because they … Continue reading »
Dousing the flames of immigration rhetoric with facts
The European Union confronts a massive crisis as migrants and refugees flood across its borders. Anti-immigrant sentiment has led Hungary to begin building a fence along its border with Serbia in order to keep migrants out. In response, Mr. Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, reminded us that walls won’t work: “We can build … Continue reading »
The immigrant-crime connection
Killing at the hands of an illegal alien spurs furious debate about closing borders and deporting the undocumented. It is the year before a presidential election and candidates denounce undocumented immigrants as the conveyors of Mexican violence into our country. When Robert J. Sampson, Harvard sociologist and criminologist, wrote about this news, he was not … Continue reading »
A summer classic: Moral panic over a pier shooting
It is a reminder of how hard the past is to leave behind (especially when your leading politicians belong to it). By now the whole nation knows the basic facts: Francisco Sanchez, a 45- or 52-year-old Mexican national, shot and killed Kathryn Steinle, 32-year-old resident of a nearby suburb, in a chance encounter along San Francisco’s … Continue reading »
Obama: Do the Right Thing
Providing administrative relief for at least six million of the unauthorized immigrants currently in the United States is the right thing for President Obama to do for the country and, most importantly, for the hard-working human beings who have been used as pawns in the immigration debate for far too long. U.S. history is replete … Continue reading »
If voters of color don’t vote on Tuesday, don’t be surprised
The New York Times recently published a story on the dramatic advances in campaign data analytics since the 2008 election. According to the Times, “modern political campaigns home in on their key voters with drone-like precision, down to the smallest niche — like Prius-driving single women in Northern Virginia who care about energy issues.” The … Continue reading »
1964 to the present — a personal perspective
During the historic Free Speech Movement period at Berkeley, beginning in the autumn of 1964, I was a graduate student in physics at Yale University. There was no doubt that Berkeley students were playing a leadership role for us all across the country. At Yale, the focus was primarily on civil rights. Racism and its destructive … Continue reading »
Is the U.S. Falling Behind Mexico? News from Ambos Nogales
In the Mexican border town of Nogales, I sat finishing my lunch when Alma, a Sonoran friend who had been watching the diners, spoke quietly: “That’s something you would never have seen a year ago – Mexican men eating salads.” It was, she explained, because of the rising awareness of diet-related health problems in Mexico, … Continue reading »