Shortly after his inauguration, President Joe Biden reversed former President’s Donald Trump’s Muslim Travel Ban, stating those actions are a stain on our national conscience.” This stance aligns with that of the tens of thousands of protesters who, at the time the first Muslim Travel Ban was enacted in January 2017, took to the streets and to airports across the country with slogans such as, “We are all Immigrants,” “Standing with Muslims against Islamophobia,” and “Stop Hatred against Muslims.” To be sure, the Muslim Travel Ban is a racist policy. It seeks to keep out or deport people perceived to be Muslim based upon the racist assumption that “they” are violent potential terrorist enemies of the U.S. nation. The ban was an executive order that prevented individuals from primarily Muslim countries, and later, from many African countries, from entering the United States. Yet ending the Muslim Ban only scratches the surface of a much larger problem. If progressives really want to end anti-Muslim racism, we are going to need a more radical approach, that requires, as Angela Davis reminds us, “grasping things at the root.” The root cause of the Muslim Ban is anti-Muslim racism, which has many roots.
immigration
Rocket Dockets: How an effort to speed immigration cases is causing havoc for countless families
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It is almost as if there were two clocks in a system badly strained by a record backlog of cases, a fact faced daily by immigrants, most of whom are Latino. One clock ticks exceptionally fast and the other drags on painfully slow.
Perspectives
The long, bipartisan history of dealing with immigrants harshly
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Trump has expanded and escalated the most punitive policies he inherited from his predecessors.
Perspectives
Half a million American minors now live in Mexico
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Between 2000 and 2015, the population of U.S. citizen minors living in Mexico more than doubled. Who are the kids living on the other side of the border?
Perspectives
Detaining refugee children at military bases may sound un-American, but it’s been done before
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Fort Sill, a military base in Oklahoma, will soon house 1,400 Central American children, the Trump administration says. It’s not the first time the US has used army bases to house refugees.
Perspectives: The Powers That Be
To protect undocumented tenants from ICE, local changes needed
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Mandatory apartment inspections, as proposed in a new ordinance, could help address gaps in Illinois’ Immigrant Tenant Protection Act.
Perspectives
Charging asylum application fees is the latest way the US could make immigrants pay for its red tape
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Only two countries charge people who seek asylum fees. The rationale for not doing that is clear.
Employment and Labor
Chicago is the fastest shrinking major metro area
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Black and low-income residents continue to move out, but unlike other groups, a majority of African-Americans exiting the Chicago area didn’t have a job when they left.
Education
In wake of Chicago charter strikes, a movement to advance ‘sanctuary schools’
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New contracts at Acero and the Chicago International Charter School network enshrine protections for undocumented students and take steps toward stronger bilingual services and increasing teacher diversity.
Perspectives
Rasmea Odeh, deported but not defeated
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Pushed out of both Palestine and her adopted home in Chicago, the longtime activist starts over in Jordan after a lifetime of experiencing displacement.
Perspectives
Supreme Court validates Trump’s ‘fake news’ justification for travel ban
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The Muslim ban was never about national security. It’s another way immigration policy is being used as a weapon against people of color.