Opposing Views: "U.S. Immigration Cannot Use Healthcare.gov To Arrest Or Deport Undocumented Immigrants"

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has issued a memo (in PDF here) stating that information about the applicant or household members obtained on healthcare.gov cannot be used by ICE to arrest or deport undocumented immigrants, OpposingViews.com reports. The memo states:

...ICE does not use information about such individuals or members of their household that is obtained for purposes of determining eligibility for such coverage as the basis for pursuing a civil immigration enforcement action against such individuals or members of their household, whether that information is provided by a federal agency to the Department of Homeland Security for purposes of verifying immigration status information or whether the information is provided to ICE by another source.

While undocumented workers are not eligible to gain access to lower rates under the Affordable Care Act, the article notes: "This should make those legal immigrants living with undocumented immigrants more comfortable signing up for health care coverage."

USCIS REDESIGNS WEBSITE

USCIS revealed its new redesigned website on October 30, 2013. The English version is at uscis.gov and Spanish version at uscis.gov/es. The agency press release explains the motivation for the redesign: “[t]he new and improved USCIS website is part of the Department of Homeland Security’s Web strategy to use a common content management system and consolidate the Department’s public websites. The agency plans further enhancements in the coming months.” The site now includes many more images and icons and features a large “rotating banner” with the latest news on the homepage. Once I recovered from my initial concern at not being able to find the case status check in the usual upper left hand corner of the site, I found I rather liked the redesign. The content remains very similar but the site seems easier to navigate and the addition of images and colors certainly enhances the experience.

Ellis Island Reopens

Ellis Island Entrance by Michael Gray via creative commons

Nearly one year after Hurricane Sandy hit New York City, Ellis Island has partially reopened. Reuters reports:

Repairs are ongoing, but from Monday morning visitors will be able to see its famous views of the downtown Manhattan skyline and tour parts of the immigration museum in the island's Beaux-Arts main building, including the Great Hall that was once crowded with newly arrived immigrants.

And in other Sandy news, The NY Times reports on how many businesses and homes are remembering Sandy--by preserving the waterline.  

 

"Why I Will Never, Ever, Go Back to the United States"

Dutchman Niels Gerson Lohman has sworn off travel to the United States after being turned away at the US/Canada border. He raised suspicion, he recounts, because his passport showed frequent travel to what the CBP officer described as "Islamic" countries (Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Yemen), along with a suspicious raincoat ("'Who takes a coat to the U.S. in the summer?'" the officer asked). 

He describes the ordeal:  

Six customs officers went through my two phones, iPad, laptop and camera. In my wallet they found an SD card I had totally forgotten about. They did not like that. By now I was the only one left in the dining car and the center of attention.

"It was a very surreal experience," he says in the HuffPost Live interview "because there was so much sarcasm in the voice of the officers." Responses to his article on his twitter range from "Wish I could apologize on behalf of US Govt, but they're closed just now. US fear of everything global is embarrassing" by @KimberlyArtist to "Pleased to hear that your sniveling overprivileged self won't grace our shores anytime soon" by @sally_siegel. 

 

DREAMERS

In the long-running and contentious political debate surrounding immigration reform, one of the most widely discussed issues has been how to resolve the immigration status of those brought to the United States as children. While pundits often argue that passing comprehensive immigration reform will reward law breakers, few seriously contend children should be punished because their parents or guardians may have violated immigration law in bringing them to the United States illegally or overstaying their visas. It is hard to insist that young people who have grown up almost exclusively in the United States should abandon their homes, families, jobs--and the only lives they’ve known--in order to come into compliance with immigration law.

Read more

NY Daily News: "Immigration reform activists vow to ramp up pressure on Congress to pass reform legislation"

Immigration reform activists say there will be an increase in civil disobediance actions in the coming weeks, reports the NY Daily News:

“We have been lied to by Republicans time and time again and I’ve come to believe that we need extreme measures for something to happen,” said Linda Sarsour, executive director of the Arab-American Association on New York, located in in Brooklyn, one of 211 people arrested during Washington’s actions last week. “This was my first time in jail but it may not be the last. Peaceful civil disobedience is what will make things move and there will be more such actions in the coming weeks here in New York and other cities.

Meanwhile, Obama heads toward deportation milestone--two million people deported since he took office. NBC Latino presents two conflicting views of this milestone.

LA Times: "Immigration legislation's prospects bleak after bitter budget fight"

Now that the government shutdown is over, the LA Times reports on the "bleak" prospects of Immigration reform:

Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), who earlier this year had been working with lawmakers from both parties to write an immigration bill, said that President Obama’s refusal to negotiate with House Speaker John Boehner over funding the government and increasing the country’s borrowing limit made him unwilling to enter into talks over immigration.

The NY Times also reports on the difficulties Immigration reform now faces, since "many conservative Republicans are fuming with frustration over their meager gains from the two-week shutdown and turning their ire against Mr. Obama, saying he failed to negotiate with them."

New York Democratic Senator Charles E. Schumer, however, thinks Republicans might come around. He says: "'When the Republican polling numbers are at 20 percent, there’s a pretty strong argument to do something to get those poll numbers up, and immigration is a good way to do that...'”

 

FILM REVIEW: The Visitor

The Visitor, a 2007 film written and directed by Thomas McCarthy, begins with Walter, a college professor in Connecticut, working through the mundane tasks of his everyday life. He is again teaching the economics course he has taught for many years, never updating the material or injecting any enthusiasm. He wakes up, lectures, goes home, and then does it again the next day. Without any real skill or passion, he spends his free time attempting to learn piano. When a faculty member tells Walter that he must attend a conference in New York City, he doesn’t want to go, but he does not have a choice. A few days later, he finds himself back in the city at an apartment he owns but rarely visits.

Read more