By Miriam Raftery

Photo via Twitter

June 4, 2018 (San Diego) – Outrage is growing over revelations that the Trump administration has dramatically expanded the number of children being forcibly separated from their parents at the international border. On Friday, dozens o f protests were held in cities across the nation, NPR reports. The hashtag #familiesbelongtogether is trending on Twitter, showing thousands gathered at protests from Trump Towers to the nation’s capital.

By Miriam Raftery

May 9, 2018 (San Diego) – U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, visiting border communities in San Diego and Arizona in the past week, affirmed a zero-tolerance policy of prosecuting anyone who crosses the border illegally. He also made clear that no compassion will be shown to parents seeking a safe haven in America for their children, stating, “If you’re smuggling a child, then we’re going to prosecute you, and that child will be separated from you, probably, as required by law. If you don’t want your child separated, then don’t bring them across the border illegally.”

By Miriam Raftery

April 25, 2018 (Washington D.C.) – A federal judge in Washington D.C. has ruled that the Trump administration’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, or DACA, is “unlawful.”

U.S. District Judge John Bates ordered the administration to begin renewing work permits for DACA recipients, but he also stayed his ruling for 90 days to allow the Department of Homeland Security to provide justification for ending the program, which protects law-abiding young immigrants from being deported.

East County News Service

Photo: California National Guard

April 11, 2018 (San Diego)— Governor Jerry Brown has approved a request from President Donald Trump to send National Guard troops to the international border, funded by the federal government to combat “lawlessness,” according to the President’s request.

But in his response to the Trump administration, Brown indicated that the 400 troops sent by California will be utilized not for immigration enforcement, but rather for “new staffing will allow the Guard to do what it does best: support operations targeting transnational criminal gangs, human traffickers and illegal firearm and drug smugglers along the border, the coast and throughout the state,” threats that are priorities for both Democrats and Republicans, including two prior administrations, Brown noted.

By Miriam Raftery

San Diego Supervisors are considering joining the Trump administration’s lawsuit against California’s sanctuary state law, or Senate Bill 54, which protects certain undocumented immigrations by setting limits on cooperation between local law enforcement departments and federal immigration authorities.

San Diego Supervisors are expected to discuss the matter on April 17^th in a closed-door meeting with County Counsel.  But while Supervisor Jacob agues that the Trump administration's push to force local law enforcement officers to stringently enforce federal immigration mandates would increase public safety, Sheriff Bill Gore suggests it would have the opposite effect, making communities less safe by making immigrants afraid to report crimes.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo by Frank Gormlie, San Diego Free Press

March 14, 2018 (San Diego) – In a visit to San Diego on Monday, President Donald Trump toured prototypes of a border wall in Otay Mesa.  Hundreds of protesters turned out, San Diego Free Press reports, at the border as well as downtown. 

Trump supporters also came to greet the president including rallies by the anti-immigrant organization San Diegans for Secure Borders, a group led by former San Diego Minutemen organizer Jeff Schwilk.

By Jonathan Goetz

    March 12, 2018 (San Diego) -- President Donald Trump is coming to San Diego this Tuesday to view eight border wall prototypes. Multiple groups are planning protests over the President’’s hard-line stance on immigration, the border wall, and other issues.

By Chris Jennewein

Photo: U.S. Supreme Court, by D.B. King via Wikimedia Commons

Reprinted from Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

February 26, 2018 (San Diego) -- San Diego’s estimated 45,000 Dreamers got a reprieve from possible deportation Monday when the Supreme Court refused to hear a Trump administration challenge.

The court declined to overrule a lower court’s action that temporarily blocked ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program on March 5.

The program, which allows immigrants brought to America illegally as children to live and work in the country, was terminated by President Trump last year, leaving it up to Congress to pass permanent protections.

East County News Service

February 3, 2018 (San Diego) -- University of California professor Teddy Cruz, an immigrant from Guatemala, has been awarded a $100,000 Vilcek Foundation prize for designs that make cross-border communities more inclusive and equitable. 

By Miriam Raftery

January 29, 2018 (San Diego) – Two immigrants protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program have been arrested for involvement in human smuggling in two separate incidents, The U.S. Border Patrol reports.

By Miriam Raftery

January 19, 2018 (San Diego’s East County) – A new report by humanitarian organizations  reveals that Border Patrol agents  have been systemically destroying water bottles left in desert areas for undocumented immigrants in the Arizona desert, condemning people to die of thirst.  While its unknown if this is occurring in California, this article in Britain’s The Guardian hit home for me in a visceral way, reminding me of an experience that brought me to tears.

On the 4^th of July In 2008, I rode alongwith Border Angels founder Enrique Morones. We discovered sabotage of water bottles his group had left in rugged locations--all slashed open, empty. My article, Dying to Come to America, was published in our very first edition of East County Magazine. Morones vividly described what it is like for people to die of dehydration – hallucinating, throwing off clothes and shoes. We saw the signs of this torment – a woman’s high-heeled shoe cast aside, a man’s crumpled shirt.  The heat was triple digits.

I went along to learn about experiences faced by people so desperate to come to America that they rely on water left by benevolent strangers to survive. I learned that coyotes, or human traffickers, often lie to the migrants, telling them it's just a short walk to freedom; some women dressed up to meet their husbands are unaware of the dangers. I choked up, imagining their pain. My story included photos of those slashed water bottles and graves of people--some so very young--who died crossing East County's rugged border mountains in their failed quest to find freedom.

Attorney General Becerra helps secure victory for Dreamers as court blocks implementation of Trump Administration’s rescission of DACA until a final decision is reached in the litigation

By Miriam Raftery

January 10, 2018 (Sacramento) – A California court has issued a nationwide injunction to temporarily protect Dreamers, or young people brought here as children of undocumented immigrants, or young people brought here as children of undocumented immigrants, before a Trump administration order forces them to be deported. Trump rolled back DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals executive order issued by Barack Obama.

Congress is grappling with legislation that could permanently protect the Dreamers. But  the clock is ticking. President Trump has indicated he is open to a bill to protect the Dreamers, but only if it also includes funding for a border wall.  While Democrats and some Republicans support protection for dreamers, hard liners in the Republican Party oppose it and its unclear whether Democrats would back billions to build a border wall.

Social service agencies are required by law to provide disaster-related assistance without asking for information or documents

East County News Service

December 8, 2017 (San Diego) -- As wildfires rage in Southern California this week, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of San Diego and Imperial Counties is on alert to protect the rights of fire victims in this region.

Voters overwhelming support a Dream Act and reject more walls, agents and detention beds

East County News Service

By Vinny Lavalsiti and Matthew Ochoa, reprinted with permission from The Summit at Grossmont College

Images: property of The Summit and Grossmont College's Graphic design program

October 10, 2017 (El Cajon) -- Martha Amezcua was nine when she came to the United States, and she didn't know a lick of English, creating a hefty language barrier between her and her classmates once she enrolled in school. Her silence, because of the language barrier, led to a lot bullying.