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Today we make a historical account of issues on the US border with Mexico and some recent problems regarding immigration policies in the face of the US presidential elections this November.
1. The
topic to highlight: Resistance to mass deportations
Former President Donald Trump, now a candidate for the United States presidential elections in November, has promised that if he is re-elected he would establish a mass deportation program.
Why it matters:
Experts predict that with such a policy there would be blows to the economy (due to the investment in border agents and the role that immigrants play in filling gaps in the labor market), and that it would disrupt several communities.
Additionally, unlike the two major similar efforts in the past, there is likely to be much greater resistance from civil rights groups and even other elected officials.
In short:
At his rallies, Trump has said that he would launch "the largest deportation operation in the history" of the country, with a plan to also end birthright citizenship, which is inscribed in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution US.
According to a source familiar with Trump's plans, if elected he would try to mobilize agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE), in addition to FBI personnel, prosecutors, the Guard National and even local police officers to carry out the deportations.
Trump would also try to reduce due process procedures to be able to deport people using a little-known section of the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, with which he would seek to immediately arrest and deport some immigrants if they have a criminal record.
Recount:
There were already massive deportations in the Great Depression in the 1930s, when there were high rates of general unemployment, and there were policies of discrimination against people of Mexican origin.
At that time, the policy was promoted by calling it a "repatriation" measure, with which state and local governments put pressure on Mexicans or Americans of Mexican descent to "return" to Mexico.
An estimated one million people left the US, many of them under duress.
According to some analyses, many of the "repatriated" people had American citizenship.
Minors in 1935 in a makeshift camp that during that time housed migrant workers and their familiesUniversal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Years later, in the 1950s under President Dwight Eisenhower, Operation Wetbacks was in effect.
With it, the Government used military-style tactics (people were detained unexpectedly, their hair was shaved, and they were put in train cars or buses) to arrest nearly 1.3 million people of Latino descent.
Most of them were Mexican, many even though they had arrived legally with the bracero program;
With the move, the use of the word wetback
as a racist insult was established
.
Specialists have found that some Americans were deported with the operation, in part for having Latino features.
Between the lines:
These mass deportations occurred when Latino communities had little political power (there were almost no Latino officials) and little organization to defend their civil rights.
That's not the case today, when there are Latinos in various branches of government and there are large organizations and advocacy groups, according to David J. Bier, associate director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute.
"In 1954 there were no Latino members of Congress, there were no Latino lawyers, there were no judges. And, above all, we did not have the voting population that we have today," said Vicente Gonzalez, Democratic federal congressman from Texas.
2. Being a war hero after being caught in a deportation network
About a million Mexicans and Americans of Mexican descent were forced to leave the United States in the 1930s due to a policy of mass deportations.
Among them Anthony Acevedo, who later was a military doctor in World War II and survived a Nazi camp.
Anthony Acevedo portrayed in 1943 in his United States Army uniformCourtesy of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Details
: Acevedo was born in San Bernardino, California, the son of Mexican immigrants.
As a child, he grew up when policies of racial and ethnic segregation prevailed, which forced many Latino children to go to schools considered only "for Mexicans" and with which Latinos did not have access to places such as public swimming pools.
When the Great Depression hit in the 1930s, leading to high unemployment, several state and local governments adopted a policy of "encouraging" people of Mexican origin or descent to "repatriate."
Under that pressure from authorities, Acevedo's family left.
Other families were put on trains and sent to central Mexico, with the intention of making it more difficult for them to return to the border and to US territory.
Some analyzes have found that up to half of those who left were, like Acevedo, American citizens.
Between the lines:
The authorities defended the coerced departure of both migrants and citizens, alleging that children with US citizenship should leave with their parents so as not to separate families, according to the book on the situation
Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s
.
Francisco Balderrama, co-author of the work, has said that some families chose instead to hide their citizenship children with relatives in other parts of the US, so that the minors would not end up in another country they had never met.
Up close:
After Acevedo finished high school in Mexico, his citizenship was a draw for the U.S. military.
He joined the Army and was deployed to combat during World War II at age 19.
He was part of the 275th Infantry Regiment. In a battle, German soldiers took him prisoner, according to what Acevedo told the Voces Oral History Center memory site in 2009.
He was sent to a Nazi forced labor camp, Berga an der Elster, part of the Buchenwald concentration camp facilities.
Acevedo said that he suffered torture and sexual violence because the Nazis considered him one of the "racially undesirable" groups along with Jewish, black or disabled people.
Acevedo managed
to secretly write in a diary, where he recorded his experiences, as well as the dates and causes of death of companions.
In 1945, when the Nazi camps were liberated, Acevedo was rescued.
He weighed only 87 pounds, about 39 kilograms.
Acevedo received several medals, including the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.
He died in 2018 at a US veterans hospital in Loma Linda, California.
3. Biden's border dilemma
No president in recent history, not even Donald Trump, has faced an immigration crisis on the scale faced by Joe Biden's Administration.
That has put him in a very delicate situation ahead of the elections, according to Stef W. Kight and Alex Thompson of Axios.
Overview:
During his presidential campaign in 2020, Biden said that on immigration issues he would redress some of the harsh limits that Trump imposed during his term, such as family separation measures.
Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.
Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios
However, since the beginning of the Biden Administration there has been a humanitarian and political crisis in the border area due to the massive arrival of people (in fiscal year 2023, for example, 2.5 million crossing attempts were recorded, a record).
[Biden has few options against the immigration crisis]
Details:
Now that Biden is seeking re-election, he is in trouble on the immigration issue on all fronts.
On the political left there are progressive and migrant defense groups that are outraged with the treatment of immigrants by the Trump Government and wanted Biden to improve the situation.
So they have become very critical of Biden now that he has once again adopted some restrictive measures, such as a new policy for requesting asylum or deportation flights for Venezuelans.
On the other hand, even with some of these restrictive measures, Biden is under enormous pressure from criticism from the right.
Many Republicans have campaigned tirelessly talking about "chaos" and a supposed "open border" with Mexico, while voting against a bipartisan immigration agreement in Congress.
Bottom line
: "We have a broken immigration system," says Norma Pimentel, who runs immigrant shelters in South Texas.
"And they have turned the issue into something for a political platform instead of addressing the realities on the border," she adds.
4. The risks for those seeking asylum
Julio Cesar is 55 years old.
The Venezuelan says that he had to flee due to political persecution and the economic situation in his country, and that on the way to try to reach the United States in 2022 he almost drowned crossing a river in the Darien jungle.
Why it matters:
Julio Cesar's story is typical among so many people who risk their lives to request asylum in the United States, since the vast majority are fleeing situations of violence, poverty, lack of access to medical care and more.
Up close:
Julio Cesar, who asked that his last name not be used because he feared jeopardizing his asylum claim, is one of millions of Venezuelans who have fled that country since 2017.
People in a migrant camp in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, in September 2023Brandon Bell/Getty Images
He says the Venezuelan regime was harassing him politically because he helped campaign a few years ago for a parliamentary candidate who is not Chavista.
He says he felt he had no choice but to leave his home.
It left in September 2022 on its way to the United States.
During that journey, he says that he was robbed at gunpoint, extorted in practically every country he passed through, and that he required medical attention in the Darién area (between Panama and Colombia) for the wounds on his feet and the trip on the road. river.
In October 2022, he arrived in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, with a view to requesting asylum at the immigration offices in El Paso, Texas.
In January 2023,
the Biden Government
launched an immigration
parole
or parole program with which asylum seekers from certain countries, including Venezuela, can request an appointment for their case before crossing the border and then process a work permit. while they wait for their application to be reviewed.
Julio Cesar is still waiting for his case to be resolved, but he says that even being able to make an appointment with immigration authorities gave him enormous relief.
"It's incredible to receive that email, it's the moment you've been waiting for since you leave your house," he told Axios Latino, on the verge of tears.
5. Summary of key news in Latin America and the Caribbean
1.
Venezuelan human rights activist
RocĂo San Miguel has been missing since she was arrested on Friday, according to her family and civil organization groups.
Nicolás Maduro's regime said Sunday that San Miguel is being accused of allegedly helping plan an alleged assassination plot against the Venezuelan leader.
UN agencies have documented that Venezuela uses torture and trumped-up criminal charges against detained dissidents.
Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios
2.
The Brazilian armed forces
have increased their presence in the Amazon region in part to respond to the dire humanitarian situation facing the Yanomami peoples, Reuters reports.
The Yanomami community is being hit hard by mercury poisoning, disease and violent attacks that authorities attribute to illegal gold miners.
6. Reforestation footprint
A Colombian converted some grazing land on the outskirts of Bogotá into a private nature reserve that has helped preserve the area's biodiversity.
Details:
Rogitama Forest extends over 70 acres, or 29 hectares.
It was slowly reforested over three decades by a team led by anesthesiologist Roberto Chavarro, turned environmentalist.
"The channels were dry, but what has contributed to the water being there again is the amount of vegetation that has been planted over the years," Chavarro tells Noticias Telemundo.
Rogitama is an example of how civil society can help reforest, in a country that for years has fought against deforestation, especially in its Amazon region.
The reserve is open to visitors and is home to hundreds of species, including 25 types of hummingbirds.
There are also mammals such as the local borugo rodent or a spotted cat, of the oncilla species that is on an international list of endangered species.
In his own words:
"This suddenly inspires others to recover an environment that is deteriorated by planting vegetation to support life," adds Chavarro.
Thanks for reading us!
We return on Thursday.
And thanks to Carlos Cunha, Bruno GarcĂa Gallo and Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath for helping review and edit.
If you want to share your experiences with us or send us suggestions and comments, send an email to
axioslatino@axios.com
.
Do you want to read any of the previous editions?
Record number of Latinos eligible to vote: “Their power to influence the results is real”
Latino voices in the fight for abortion rights in Texas: “It hurts me that these stories are not told as much”
Why Bukele's re-election in El Salvador was almost assured