CUNY Academic Commons

I love seeing that your family was personally impacted by this!
What do you think of the critique that it favors people who already have family? Some say that’s unfair to people who want to migrate for the first time and don’t have family already. Others say that a merit-based system is better for the economy than a family reunification system because it opens the doors to those who have professional qualifications that serve the economy as opposed to family members who may or may not “contribute” economically. What do you say to this?

I wasn’t aware of when deportation began. Thank you for that historical detail.

You say:

This program does not exclude anyone as everyone plays their role or is involved for instance people who are citizens of the United States may feel safer when criminals are being deported. Unfortunately, on the other hand it does harm families and children as they are often broken up and separated.

Who is deported? How do we, or the government know, it is deporting criminals? You don’t include specific data about how deportations increased to record levels under Obama. Trump continued deporting at a high rate, but now Biden has, officially, called for a moratorium on deportations, even though in reality deportations have continued.

You seem convinced that only “bad guys” are deported. Do you have evidence for that? How are people designated as “deportable”? Who is safe from deportation? How does due process work? What about the idea that deporting someone after they serve time for a crime is double jeopardy? I’d like to see more detail here.

Great.
How about the current “asylum crisis”? What caused it? Who is currently most likely to ask for asylum? Who is most likely to receive it?

You say:

Many of those who apply for asylum with legitimate claims are still rejected because of how dysfunctional and xenophobic the system can be. I’ve never known someone who had their claim for asylum rejected, but to be fair the relative of mine from Denmark who have immigrated aren’t fleeing violence.

What are the rates of rejection/granting of asylum? How have policies surrounding asylum changed only in the last few years? Sessions, as Trump’s AG, made it impossible, for example, to claim asylum on the basis of domestic violence or gang violence, and those claims are at the root of a lot of the reasons Central Americans currently flee their countries. Biden has already tried to undo some of these restrictions… what does this mean for asylum? I’d like to see more up to date info in your case study.