Immigration News — A movie, a guide, and more

All of Me / Llévate mis amores, a documentary about Las Patronas, is showing at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival on Sunday, April 12 and Wednesday, April 15. Every day since 1995, a group of women stand at the tracks near the Mexican town of La Patrona waiting for La Bestia — the train used by thousands of migrants from Central America and Mexico to get to the U.S. border. The women toss water and homemade food to the weary travelers. You can see a trailer and get details here.

This is the April 8 issue of my more-or-less-monthly Immigration News. Click here to subscribe. 

Living in the United States: A guide for immigrant youth is a great resource, published by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Francisco. The 42-page guide is published as a downloadable pdf file.

And my most recent article in Al Jazeera:

U.S. Border Patrol is out of control: From 2010 to 2014 CBP agents  shot and killed 28 people. Other charges against CBP agents included drug trafficking, theft, assaults, kidnapping and rape. Investigative reports from multiple sources paint a picture of a law enforcement agency that is out of control. Even worse, most of its victims are people who cannot fight back — undocumented immigrants and refugees with limited or no access to U.S. courts. … more

NEWS ARTICLES:

Immigrant children and mothers:

• This new but little-known immigration program seeks to reunite Central American families in U.S. (Washington Post, 4/3/2015)
• About 78 mothers imprisoned at Karnes immigration detention center in Texas went on a five-day hunger strike to protest conditions there (Colorlines, 3/31/15). They ended their strike on April 4, after mothers and children were allegedly locked in a dark room for protesting detention conditions (Think Progress, 4/5/15). For more about Karnes City detention center, check out this first-person report published in the Texas Observer (2/2/2015.)
• What happens when deportation separates parents from their kids? (Vox, 3/26/15) Surprise: they come back, regardless of the risks.
• Paradoxes of family immigration policy: Separation, reorganization, and reunification of families under current immigration laws (Law & Policy journal, January-April 2015)

• Debunking the myth of the job-stealing immigrant (New York Times, 3/26/15) “But most economists now believe that Card’s findings were correct: Immigrants bring long-term benefits at no measurable short-term cost.”
• Refugees pick their way to a new life in Arizona, one tree at a time (Vox, 4/3/15)
• Critics: Border Patrol response to 911 inadequate (Al Jazeera, 3/25/15)

Minnesota stories:

Licenses for all:

• St. Paul City Council supports ‘driver’s license for all’ bill (Pioneer Press, 4/1/15)
• Bill to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses hits roadblock in the House (MinnPost Community Voices, 3/26/15)

And some good news:

• Project launched in heart of Minneapolis Latino community to help immigrants (Advocates for Human Rights, 4/2/15))
• From the Hmong, other immigrant groups get important lessons and help (Star Tribune, 4/6/2015)
• DNR changes ID policy in response to suit by immigrant hunters (Star Tribune, 3/21/15)