Judge gives Thursday deadline for plan to reunify children with hundreds of parents government lost track of

A federal judge has given the government and American Civil Liberties Union until Thursday to develop a plan for reuniting hundreds of children who still haven’t been reunited with their parents weeks or months after being separated at the border. “The judge is making clear to the government that this must be a collaborative effort and that the government cannot place all the responsibility on the families, especially when it was the government that deported these parents in the first place,” ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said in a statement. According to court filings, the government has custody of 431 children whose parents were deported earlier this year without the children they brought with them to the United States. Another 79 children are listed as “adult released to the interior,” and another 94 are listed as “adult location under case file review.”

These 604 children between the ages of 5 and 17 are among the 711 declared “ineligible” for reunification last week as the government declared that it had complied with an order by U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw of San Diego to reunite families separated at the border by U.S. Border Patrol agents. The ACLU filed a lawsuit in February that resulted in Sabraw’s reunification order.

Young people adapt to changing life in a U.S., Mexico borderplex

By Billy Cruz, Youth Radio

Along the dry, rocky desert of El Paso, Texas–past all the food chains and shopping malls–a brown fence stretches for miles. The fence marks the southern U.S. border that separates El Paso from its Mexican sister city, Juarez. Antonio Villaseñor-Baca is 22-years-old and was born and raised in El Paso. His hometown is a huge “borderplex” that spans the Rio Grande River. Antonio has an uncle in Juarez, and while growing up, his dad would take him back and forth a lot.

Video: Faith-based shelter gives migrants ‘hospitality, some semblance of humanity’

Volunteers at Casa Vides, a shelter for migrants in El Paso, explain how the non-profit provides comfort for people trying to navigate the U.S. immigration system. Casa Vides is one shelter in a sanctuary network for refugees and homeless poor managed by the faith-based Annunciation House. This video story was produced as part of a collaborative reporting project with Borderzine staff and Youth Radio. http://borderzine.com/2018/06/summer-job-at-el-paso-migrant-shelter-proves-vastly-different-experience-for-notre-dame-students/

What is life really like in a Texas border city?

Life in a border city can be like a relationship status on social media. It’s complicated. More than 1 million people live in the El Paso-southern New Mexico region. Another 1.3 million live across the border in Juarez, Mexico. We are separated by an international boundary set along the path of a formerly meandering river.

Summer job at El Paso migrant shelter proves ‘vastly different’ experience for Notre Dame students

By Billy Cruz, Youth Radio
EL PASO – When I arrived at Casa Vides, a migrant shelter in El Paso Texas, I found a two-story brick building close enough to the border that I could walk to it. The building was almost a perfect cube shape, and as I knocked on the heavy wooden door, I wondered to myself, “Is this really where undocumented migrants are being housed?”

But I wasn’t there to interview migrants this time — Casa Vides wouldn’t permit me to talk to any of them in order to protect their privacy. I was there to talk to two college students who live and work with the migrants for the summer. https://s3.amazonaws.com/media.youthradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/27123940/YOUTH-RADIO-MIGRANT-SHELTER-VISIT-FINAL.mp3

Casa Vides is a place that provides refuge for two types of people: those who evaded border patrol, and those who were caught — handed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement — and then released while their cases are still pending. Casa Vides provides food, shelter, and legal support to around 40 residents at a time and is run by the faith-based non-profit organization, Annunciation House.

El Paso shelter helps migrant parents regain children taken by U.S. border agents

Confusion has reigned in the days since the Trump administration ended its controversial practice of taking children away from parents arrested at the Border. One El Paso nonprofit group has taken the lead on efforts to reunify parents and children, and to make sure the world knows their stories. At 2:45 p.m. on Sunday, a Department of Homeland Security bus pulled up outside Casa Vides, a shelter run by Annunciation House, and disgorged 32 people who had been held on misdemeanor immigration charges until the charges were dropped Thursday and Friday.  Annunciation House, which provides shelter and legal services for migrants and refugees, would help them begin what promises to be an arduous process of reunifying them with their children. Annunciation House Executive Director Ruben Garcia said he believed this was the first large-group release of parents who had been jailed under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration enforcement policy. The group of migrants were connected with legal help, focused on getting their children back.

‘Dreamers’ fear deportation, family separation as local advocates take up their cause

El Paso County has approximately 2000 immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents when they were children who are temporarily protected from deportation by a federal program, known as DACA, approved by former President Obama.  

Following the election of President Donald Trump two years ago and his pledge to end the program, the future of these young immigrants, known as Dreamers who now total 11 million, remains in legal limbo as Congress refuses to act on legislation that would provide them with permanent status. They remain in a state of constant fear that the protection from deportation they now enjoy will end in permanent separation from the U.S. family members. Members of the El Paso-area immigration advocacy organization, Border Network for Human Rights (BNHR), say they are committed to continue to help local Dreamers win the right to remain permanently in the country. Based in El Paso, Texas, BNHR has a membership of more than 700 families, in parts of West Texas and southern New Mexico.

Push to speed up immigration courts undercuts justice, lawyers say

EL PASO – The pressure to curb the growing backlog in immigration courts threatens the rights of detained immigrants, especially those seeking asylum, lawyers and immigration judges say. The Executive Office of Immigration Review recently established completed case quotas for immigration judges to decrease the backlog, but immigration judges say the move will increase the backlog due to potential appeals. Immigration attorneys said this is an effort to speed up the deportation of hundreds of thousands of people. “Make no mistake, the outcome this administration truly desires from mandating quotas on an understaffed adjudicatory agency with a needlessly overstuffed docket is to transform it into a deportation machine,” said Jeremy McKinney, a North Carolina immigration attorney who is secretary of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. The move calls for immigration judges to complete at least 700 cases per year, a number that was called unreasonable by immigration judges.

Trump official inaccurately claims 1,200 percent increase in border apprehensions

A Trump administration official on Friday wildly misstated border apprehension figures in justifying the decision to deploy National Guard forces to the border. “Our apprehensions in Fiscal Year 2017 were at the lowest level in 45 years. That said, we have experienced a significant increase over the past 12 months. A 1,200 percent in apprehensions, including the number of family units and unaccompanied children,” Ronald Vitiello, the deputy commissioner for Customs and Border Protection, said at a news conference in El Paso. When asked for data on the 1,200 percent increase claim, a CBP spokesman said Vitiello had misspoken.

If these walls could talk – El Paso County farm that served as processing center for Bracero Program evokes memories of a different era

Francisco Uviña was 19 when he crossed the U.S. border in search for work in the 1950’s. Like many other Mexican laborers of that time, Uviña was signed up for the Bracero Program which offered a solid wage and an opportunity of a lifetime to live and work in the agriculture sector of the United States. Uviña first heard of the Bracero Program from friends and neighbors in his hometown of San Luis de Cordero, Durango. In the spring of 1953, he then joined a caravan of over 1,000 laborers who traveled by bus to to Chihuahua City, Mexico, to register for the program. This year marks the 76th anniversary of the Bracero Program, a labor program that allowed more than four million Mexican men to cross into the United States to work the fields after U.S. men went off to fight in World War II.

After finding out he is a U.S. citizen, immigrant student doubles up on workload to reunite with his family from Mexico

As a child growing up in Ciudad Juarez, Alexis Mesta loved racing his bike with his neighborhood friends and watching Saturday morning cartoons on TV, especially Courage the Cowardly Dog. He loved eating his grandma’s homemade food and spending time with her. He says he was a carefree, well-adjusted boy, blessed with loving parents who wanted the best for him.  

That life ended when, as a teenager, he moved alone to El Paso to create a new life for himself and help his family. Today, Mesta, 22, works two jobs, studies for his master’s in business administration at UTEP and has sponsored his mom, dad, sister and brother to live in the U.S.

“I wanted to sponsor my family because I wanted my brother and sister to have the same advantages that I did,” said Mesta, who was born in El Paso and is a U.S. citizen.

Estudios viajan al extranjero con programa Study Abroad

La oficina de estudios extranjeros de UTEP provee a los estudiantes la oportunidad de mejorar su experiencia educativa participando en cualquiera de los muchos programas internacionales que ofrecen. UTEP tiene acuerdos con más de 200 universidades en más de 50 países, dijo Carolina Terán, asistente de la oficina de estudios extranjeros. La Universidad cuenta con personal capacitado para orientar a los estudiantes y educarlos con los diferentes programas que ofrecen, Terán comento. UTEP no solo da la oportunidad a sus estudiantes de conocer diferentes partes del mundo, si no también abre sus puertas a estudiantes que quieren vivir la experiencia de ser parte de los Mineros de Texas y estudiar un año o un semestre aquí, dijo Terán. Estudiar en algún otro país, estudiantes corren el riesgo de vivir la experiencia de algún atentado o un ataque terrorista.

UTEP students experience Cuban culture first-hand in study-abroad course

During eight days in June 2017, UTEP students learned about Cuban media, art and culture during one-on-one exchanges with visual artists, writers, journalists, economists, communication students and ordinary Cubans during a study tour of Havana. UTEP Professors Zita Arocha and Dr. Irasema Coronado led the group of students from various majors such as political science, communication, multimedia journalism and theater arts. Highlights of the study trip included a day of learning about environmental and digital journalism at the Centro Internacional de Peridoismo Jose Marti and the above intimate conversation with editors and journalists at Cuba’s Educational Television station. Communication majors Guillermo Villaseñor-Baca and Tania Moran produced these multimedia stories about the trip, which most called a “life altering” and “transformational” experience.

Cuban college students use “cachivache,” junk, to create online treasure

The word cachivache translates to junk, or rubbish, but in Cuba repurposing junk, in this case technology, is an aspect of daily life. That’s what a group of entrepreneurial University of Havana Communication students did a little over a year ago when they reengineered existing and accessible media technology to create a hip web magazine catering to Cuban citizens. Cachivachemedia.com was the product of their creativity and persistence and is indicative of the Communist country’s spirit of endurance, resistance and innovation after 50 years of a U.S. economic blockade and political standoff. The magazine is currently on hold as its staff considers its future direction. Daniella Fernandez, 21, an under graduate student at the University of Havana and community manager for the web magazine, explained why the magazine she helped launch 18 months ago was named after the Cuban word for junk.

El Consulado de México en El Paso se pinta de colores en contra de los muros

Con diversos colores y un sinfín de detalles artísticos, el Consulado de México en El Paso tiene programado estrenar en el próximo mes un nuevo mural el cual promueve la unión de México y los Estados Unidos al igual que la bi-nacionalidad. Paloma Vianey Martínez, artista creadora del mural, es una estudiante de historia del arte y pintura en la Universidad de Texas en El Paso. Martínez, que nació en Ciudad Juárez y tiene 21 años de edad, fue recomendada por la Presidenta de la Universidad Diana Natalicio para que fuera ella quien llevara a cabo esta ardua tarea. “Paloma es un talento de UTEP y la propia doctora Diana Natalicio me la presentó y me comentó que ha sido una persona que ha destacado. Tuve el interés de conversar con ella y pedirle que pudiera aportar al consulado su talento y su arte,” dijo Marcos Bucio, Cónsul General de México en El Paso.

El Paso family lives binational life thanks to SENTRI program

Luis is among the thousands of people who cross the Juarez-El Paso border each day. His wife, Gabriela, often greets him at the door of their West Side El Paso home when he returns in the evening to ask “How was your day?” The Rio Grande river and border checkpoints separating Mexico and the United States are not considered obstacles for many locals who have business on both sides, and Luis and Gabriela’s family is no exception. Luis – who asked that only first names be used in this story – lives in El Paso, but works in sales in Juarez. His family is among the nearly 50,000 people enrolled in the Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection (SENTRI) program that allows them to bypass long lines and cross the international checkpoint more quickly.

Books and backpacks less easy to carry across the border now than before:  Mexican students who attend U.S. schools face a new reality in the anti-immigrant age of Trump

EL PASO – Hundreds of students cross the border from Ciudad Juarez to El Paso daily,  carrying heavy backpacks and books and dreams of a better life.  Heightened  anti immigrant  rhetoric across the country and various immigration enforcement executive orders from President Donald Trump have added more stress and uncertainty to their daily lives. Over 1,000 Mexican students attend the the University of Texas at El Paso and about  half commute to campus from their homes in Juarez, across the Rio Grande from El Paso, according to a previously published story. The commute is a hardship for many because of the long and complicated commute from their home in Juarez,  a walk  or a car ride across an international border bridge to have their documents checked, followed by a bus ride  to the UTEP campus some five to 10 minutes from downtown El Paso,

Related: In 2016, commuting daily from Mexico to attend school in the U.S. was no big deal for students who budgeted their time well

Most must wake up before dawn to make it to an early morning class, and often don’t return home to Juarez until well past the dinner hour.  Depending on the amount of foot or car traffic on the international bridge, the crossing time can vary from 20 minutes to two hours.

International students see benefits to studying at UT El Paso

The number of international students in the United States rises as more students choose the U.S. as the place they want to broaden their experience and continue their education. Nearly 900,000 international students come every year, the United States is now the most popular country for international students, according to The Wall Street Journal. While there are a variety of reasons for why students come to the United States, students cited five primary reasons for coming to the United States to study:

Academic Excellence
Variety of Educational Opportunities
Flexibility
Support Services for International Students
Campus Life Experience

The United States has one of the world’s finest university systems, with outstanding programs in all fields, according to the Migration Policy Institute. At the undergraduate level, there are excellent programs that exist in traditional disciplines, students also have the opportunity to work directly with some of the finest minds in their field of study, with the chance to become involved with exclusive research and educational opportunities. U.S. degrees are recognized throughout the world for their excellence.

Violence, beauty of Mexico influencing emerging border artists

EL PASO – As a child at the beginning of the new millennium, Ana Carolina’s city was notorious as a place where hundreds of women went missing. Now a student at UT El Paso, the theme of empowering women is at the core of many of Carolina’s works. For Carolina and other young artists from Ciudad Juarez, art has become a way to process and escape from the ugly reality of the drug wars and other violence that surrounded them growing up. “The disappearance of so many young women is something that really characterized Ciudad Juarez, so I think that really influenced my art a lot,” Carolina said. “I draw women and something that represents them is that they are all facing forward and looking straight at you. My women are strong; we are not just a symbol of sexuality or sensuality in the arts.” 

 Carolina also uses her art to express the cultural beauty that characterizes this region where Mexico and Texas connect.

Periodista de la televisión Cubana comparte consejos y experiencias en su primera visita a la frontera

Después de un viaje de más de 1500 millas, la periodista de la television cubana Rafaela del Carmen Balanza Recasén, llegó por primera vez a suelo Americano a compartir con los estudiantes de la Universidad de Texas en El Paso su trayectoria personal y profesional. Balanza Recasén tiene 35 años ejerciendo como licenciada en periodismo y dirigió por 20 años en la televisión cubana, trabajado como reportera, guionista, productora y directora a través de su carrera. El propósito de su visita a los Estados Unidos de América fue no solo compartir experiencias con futuros periodistas y estudiantes de ciencia de la comunicación de UTEP, sino también para presentar en la Conferencia del Mes de la Mujer su ponencia, “Mujer y Medios de Comunicación en Cuba.” Fue invitada por el Programa de Estudios por la Mujer de UTEP, y tras pasarse una semana en la frontera, fue a visitar amistades en Houston y Miami. “El periodismo ha sido mi vida, le he dedicado muchos años de mi vida. Me considero una mujer realizada ya que profesionalmente he logrado todo lo que me propuse”, expresó Balanza Recasén.

Rumores acerca de la forma de inmigración I-407 asustan a los inmigrantes legales

Un rumor en las redes sociales que algunos agentes de inmigración están exigiendo que residentes con estatus legal estadounidense firmen una forma abandonando sus derechos de vivir en Estados Unidos ha causado miedo en la comunidad inmigrante, según abogados y oficiales de organizaciones de trabajan con inmigrantes. “Están saliendo comentarios de que los oficiales de inmigración estan forzando a los residentes que firmen este formulario y que abandonen su residencia”, explicó la abogada de inmigración Iliana Holguin. Holguin dijo que los rumores no tienen veracidad. Melanie Luna, quien nació en Mexico y reside legalmente en Estados Unidos por muchos años, también está consiente de los rumores. “Sí he escuchado sobre esa forma, este es un rumor que se ha escuchado solamente por medio del internet”.

Commuting daily from Mexico to attend school in the U.S. no big deal for students who budget their time well

Mariana Sierra taps the steering wheel and stares at the line of cars ahead of her Dodge Nitro on the Paso Del Norte International Bridge as she waits for her turn to cross into El Paso from Juárez, Mexico. She’s been in the express lane for 30 minutes. Sierra’s favorite musicians, the Mexican Girl group Ha-Ash plays on the radio. With one hand on her mascara and the other on the steering wheel, Sierra slowly inches her car forward as the line moves. She estimates it will take at least another ten minutes before she reaches the point of entry, hand her U.S. Passport to the border patrol officer, and recite the same daily response.

Brief reunion of families at border fence makes a point: walls divide, hugs unite

Maria De Jesus leans against the metal fence that blocks the Rio Grande, a river that for centuries has marked the division between El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. A native of Durango, Mexico, Maria, 82, has traveled more than 600 miles by bus for the chance to see her only son and 15-year-old granddaughter. She saw them last 12 years ago when they emigrated from Durango to El Paso. “I didn’t know my granddaughter; I hadn’t seen her since she was 3 years old, and it’s not the same watching them grow in pictures,” De Jesus said in Spanish. On a recent sunny October day, De Jesus was among the 300 families, or more than 1000 people, waiting in line on the Juarez side of the river for a chance to spend three minutes with their loved ones on the U.S. side.

Ciudad Juárez: ¿una caída del crimen o un simple espejismo?

Por Damià S. Bonmatí, Univision Noticias

CIUDAD JUÁREZ, México. Hay tantas cosas que a Olga Esparza le recuerdan a su hija Mónica. Las jovencitas que viajan en el autobús, las que andan deprisa por la calle, las que llevan hijos pequeños de la mano. Mónica Janeth Alanís desapareció en marzo de 2009, cuando salía de sus clases de Administración de Empresa en la universidad, y sus restos fueron hallados en 2012, en las afueras de Ciudad Juárez. Tenía 18 años.

A newly arrived Cuban migrant fills out paperwork in El Paso.

El Paso social services respond to Cuban refugee surge

Cuban refugees continue to seek asylum in the U.S., traveling from Juarez, Mexico to El Paso for a third straight week, with many staying in El Paso longer than expected, which could strain local organizations that traditionally provide services such as food, shelter and legal advice to immigrants. Elizabeth O’Hara, communications director of Catholic Diocese of El Paso, said about 300 Cuban migrants have been arriving each day since May 9 for a total of about 3,000 in the last three weeks. “Some of them will stay 24-36 hours, but now we’re seeing some of them staying longer,” O’Hara said, adding that the first wave of refugees seemed to be better off financially. “Most of the first ones to arrive had money left so they could bounce out of El Paso faster.”

That seems to be the case as well at the Ysleta Lutheran Mission, which is housing up to 80 refugees at a time. Karla Gonzalez, Ysleta’s chief operating officer, said most immigrants will just pass through El Paso on the way to family or friends in other parts of the country.

La poesía también es indocumentada

Mudarse a un país desconocido con un idioma extranjero constituye en sí un gran reto. Hacerlo huyendo de un pasado frustrante complica aún más la situación. Ser testigo de actos de violencia al cruzar a pie la frontera lo puede dejar a uno sin habla. Eso es justamente lo que la escritora y poetisa Ilka Oliva Corado continúa procesando en los últimos 12 años. Oliva Corado, una inmigrante que nació en Guatemala, hizo su travesía a los Estados Unidos para reunirse con su hermana que vivía en Chicago.

A social media guide for following pope events in El Paso and Juarez

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Pope Francis’ visit to the border Feb. 17 will be a day full of self-reflection and selfies as the faithful gather to hear his message from the streets of Juarez, Mexico, to the edges of the Rio Grande overlooking El Paso, Texas,

The Vatican and local Catholic missions have expanded their outreach on social media channels like Twitter, Facebook and Instragram In an effort to appeal to young followers, Others have joined in with accounts and hashtags to create a platform for their own views ranging from a celebration of faith to drawing attention to their cause. Here is a quick guide to some of the most popular ways to engage in the digital conversations of the

New Twitter emojis

Twitter created five pope-related emojis for the big visit,. There’s a unique image for each stop on the pontiff’s trip to Mexico – Mexico City, Michoacan Mx, Cd Juarez, and Chiapas Mx. The Ciuidad Juarez emoji, activated with the hashtag #PapaenCDJ, shows the Cathedral de la Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe
The Angel of Independence is used for Mexico City #PapaEnCDmx
There’s a temple for Chiapas #PapaenCHPS
There’s another cathedral for Michoacan #PapaenMich.

Juarez bishop’s high hopes for the pope’s visit include healing for a still-traumatized border city

Juarez Bishop José Guadalupe Torres Campos last week from his office in the central part of the city spoke candidly with a group of student journalists and media professionals about his expectations for the historic visit of Pope Francis to the borderlands tomorrow. Foremost in his mind is his hope that pontiff’s one-day visit and message brings healing to the violence-ravaged border city. “The country continues to bleed in a fight that is so cruel and absurd,” said Torres Campos, who expects that Pope Francis, during visits to a prison and school before celebrating Mass at the former Estadio Olímpico Benito Juárez tomorrow, will address many of the troubling social, economic and political ills plaguing Ciudad Juárez and the border region. Workers have spent the last two months building an altar and podium constructed of local granite mined from an area called Cerro Bola above the Juárez gray-and-brown jagged mountains that surround the city. The pope will celebrate Mass from this location.

Pope Francis’ compassion encourages gay Catholics to celebrate his presence on the border

One El Pasoan who is super excited by Pope Francis’ visit this week to Juarez, is 19-year-old UTEP student Gilbert Lopez, a practicing Catholic who is gay. He credits this pope and his compassionate words and attitude toward homosexuals for motivating him to come out as a gay teenager. “When I was not accepting of my sexuality, when I would come in contact with homosexuals, it was either you’re religious or you’re not,” said Lopez, who considers himself a devout Catholic and is a member of his church choir. “A lot of times people who are homosexual aren’t religious because of the way people talk about it. They get discouraged,” he said.

Juarez booked up for pope, but El Paso hotels still have rooms

EL PASO — The “Two Nations, One Faith” visit from Pope Francis to Cd. Juarez has brought national attention to the border region, but not a lot of travelers looking for a place to stay in El Paso. The Catholic Diocese of Juarez is expecting 220,000 people to attend the Mass celebrated by the pope on Wednesday. Thousands more are expected to line the streets of Juarez hoping to catch a glimpse of the pontiff. And, one the other side of the border in El Paso, thousands are planning to receive a blessing from the pope while attending a simulcast of the papal Mass in the Sun Bowl on the UT El Paso campus.