Migrants and memes

May 1, 2006 – Minneapolis

While the Syrian refugee crisis holds world attention, immigration changes within the United States continue to come slowly, if at all. In this month’s news:

• With Liberty and Justice for All: The State of Civil Rights at Immigration Detention Facilities is a report required by statute and presented to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The Immigration Law Prof blog explains:

“The report calls on the Obama administration to reverse course and stop detentions of women and children who entered the United States unlawfully but might qualify for asylum. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights said it found evidence that the federal government ‘was interfering with the constitutional rights afforded to detained immigrants,’ including their access to legal representation.”

• While the numbers don’t approach last year’s records, August saw an increase in the number of children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The Border Patrol reported apprehending 4,506 children in August, according to NPR. The number of families apprehended – 5,158 – also represented an increase over July.
• Al Jazeera reports that U.S. immigration is back to pre-recession levels, with two big differences: more Asian than Mexican immigrants and substantially more college-educated immigrants. India (171,000) and China (136,000) are the biggest sending countries, both outpacing Mexico (129,000).

And finally, here’s an important note:

Calling bullshit on the anti-refugee memes flooding the internet (Vice News)

Philip Kleinfeld debunks several recent memes, including this one:

“I found the above image posted on the Facebook page of Pegida UK, the British offshoot of an Islamophobic street-based protest movement, which first formed in Germany last year. It accompanies an invitation to protest outside Downing Street on the 19th of this month to oppose Britain being given to ‘complete strangers’. You might have thought someone who really hates refugees would have a good idea of where they’re actually coming from but apparently not. The ship photographed – with comments calling for it to be ‘torpedoed’ – is actually from 1991 and shows several thousand Albanians leaving for Italy.”