Flag Project at Rockefeller Center

The Flag Project at Rockefeller Center features 193 flags flying from the Rock Center parade of poles, all “celebrating in some way the energy, diversity, culture, strength, and resilience of our city.” Artists including Jeff Koons, KAWS, Jenny Holzer, and Marina Abramovic contributed site-specific works for the show but most of the designs were created by the public after an open call for submissions. More than a thousand entries from all over the world were submitted. The flags will be displayed until August 16, so you may need to hurry. This is one time where you can actually walk through Rockefeller Center without having to fight your way through tourists and TV executives. Wait, we actually miss that. Sigh.

Immigration Nation

The six-part Netflix docuseries Immigration Nation, which the Trump administration tried to block the release of until after the election, offers an in-depth look into the inner workings of US immigration agencies under the Trump administration. The series focuses on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal agency that increased arrests of immigrants by forty-two percent in the first eight months of the Trump presidency. Filmmakers Shaul Schwarz and Christina Clusiau were granted rare access to ICE agents working in New York City, Charlotte, North Carolina, and on the border outside Tucson, Arizona as well as inside detention facilities. The show follows immigration officers, supervisors, administrators, and judges as well as immigrants, including one elderly asylum-seeker detained for fleeing gang violence, a former cop from El Salvador who fled to America, and war veterans who have been deported, as well as parents separated from their underage children. After viewing the series, Sonia Saraiya writes in Vanity Fair: “There still exists the idea of America as a nation that welcomes all—and then there is the country we actually live in, where we send refugees back to near-certain death at the hands of vicious gangs. It seems we’ve gotten so busy punishing people for wanting to be here that we’ve forgotten to be a country worth immigrating to.”

President Trump Signs Executive Order on Use of Foreign Workers by Federal Agencies

President Trump today signed an executive order meant to protect American workers and prevent US federal agencies from outsourcing jobs to foreign workers. The executive order directs federal agencies to conduct an internal audit to review contracts and hiring practices to assess any negative impact and effect of contractors’ use of temporary foreign labor or offshore work on US workers and to take corrective action as necessary. The executive order additionally directs the Secretaries of Labor and Homeland Security to take action, within forty-five days, to “protect United States workers from any adverse effects on wages and working conditions caused by the employment of H-1B visa holders at job sites (including third-party job sites), including measures to ensure that all employers of H-1B visa holders, including secondary employers, adhere to the requirements of section 212(n)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(n)(1)).” The executive action was reportedly prompted by the announcement from the federally-owned Tennessee Valley Authority that it will lay off sixty-two information technology workers and outsource data and programming work. We will continue to provide updates and developments regarding this executive order as appropriate especially as it relates to the H-1B visa program.

The Immigrants

The Immigrants, a sculpture by artist Luis Sanguino, celebrates the “diversity of New York City and the immigrant experience.” Located downtown in Battery Park next to Castle Clinton, which served as a depot to welcome the growing number of immigrants to the US before processing was transferred to Ellis Island, the sculpture depicts an Eastern European Jew, a freed formerly enslaved African man, a priest, and a worker. Sanguino’s sculpture depicts the struggles that various peoples have faced as they came to America either through voluntary or forced migration.

Condé Nast Traveler: "New Yorkers Can Enroll in Global Entry Again"

Officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) lifted the ban on New York state residents applying for membership in trusted traveler programs including Global Entry after barring applications from state residents for nearly six months. DHS lifted the ban after stating in a federal court filing that its reasoning for the policy was based on false statements. In February, DHS had suspended New Yorkers from the trusted traveler programs after the New York State “Green Light” law was passed that allowed undocumented immigrants the ability to obtain driver’s licenses. DHS officials claimed after the law was passed that if they could not freely access the state’s DMV database, they would not be able to verify an individual’s eligibility for Global Entry, but other states with similar policies were not excluded. Officials also amended the “Green Light” law to allow federal agencies access to the DMV records for applicants to the trusted traveler programs.

New Yorkers’ applications for Global Entry and other trusted traveler memberships including NEXUS, SENTRI, and FAST will now be processed. When the ban was enacted, approximately 175,000 New Yorkers were reportedly removed from the programs and approximately 80,000 conditionally approved or pending applications were rejected. Although New York State residents can now submit applications and renewals to Global Entry, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which runs the trusted traveler programs, has shut down all enrollment centers until at least August 10. “The Trump Administration backing down and restoring Global Entry and other Trusted Traveler Programs to New Yorkers is a victory for travelers, workers, commerce, and our state’s economy,” Letitia James, NYS Attorney General, who sued the Trump administration over the ban, said in a statement. “We will continue to defend New York’s right to pass its own laws and will fight to protect our state’s residents anytime they are bullied by the president because safety and fairness are not mutually exclusive under the law.”

After Migration: Calabria

“After Migration: Calabria” documents the experiences of a young man who left his home in The Gambia at the age of fifteen as well as a Nigerian single-mother who gave birth to her child in a refugee camp as they integrate into Calabria in southern Italy. “Too often, stories about irregular migration are centered on trauma, and depict seekers of asylum as hapless victims in need of rescuing,” the film’s description states. “This film subverts this commonly accepted narrative by illuminating the regality of those whom we commonly disregard as outsiders.” Directed by Walé Oyéjidé and Jake Saner, the film celebrates “the lives of refugees in ways that dispel tropes” and show them as “nuanced contributors to their new societies, while journeying in search of safe places to call home.”