The Trump administration has implemented dramatic restrictions on people seeking legal status in the U.S. since the start of the pandemic. However, it has not slowed or changed the deportation process to protect the well-being of individuals or communities to which they arrive.. As a result, thousands of people have been forced into dangerous situations in Mexico or their countries of origin, and the virus has spread in the Americas. This is in large part because U.S. agents frequently fail to … [Read more...]
Archives for June 2020
Lucas’ Story: Choosing Deportation Instead of Remaining in Detention
Lucas arrived to the comedor in late May after over three months detained in La Palma, Arizona. His wife and children are on the East Coast pursuing their asylum claims there, but Lucas was sent to detention instead. He was so afraid of contracting the virus that he elected to stop fighting a deportation order, even though he is very afraid of the threat of violence in Mexico. However, he estimated that he was more likely to survive in Mexico instead of detention. He hopes above all to see his … [Read more...]
May-June Media Report
Our media report this month focuses on the Trump administration’s proposed changes to asylum, which would effectively gut what remains of the asylum process and system; the troubling realities surrounding how heavily the coronavirus impacts Latino communities in the U.S., and a call to anti-racism from a Jesuit priest in the wake of the recent and tragic murders of Black people in the United States. 1) Proposed and sweeping changes to asylum: On June 10, the Trump administration … [Read more...]
May 2020 Announcements
This month, we began to host the first of our virtual immersions, which engage students and communities in border immersions remotely. We also include news on our online, Facebook programming that is open to the public in an effort to continue to engage with our extended KBI family. Please join us tomorrow, Wednesday, June 17, for a Facebook Live sharing and prayer on racism by tuning in to KBI’s Facebook page. Finally, we share with you some updates about what KBI services currently look like … [Read more...]
Speak Out Against Deportations
.Our partners at the Latin American Working Group have launched an advocacy campaign to promote human rights in Latin America during the pandemic. It addresses many of the issues discussed in the feature article—deportations, the withholding of resources and aid to countries that do not comply with deportation flights from the U.S. and increasing insecurity and inequality in many Latin American countries. As a way to begin, we … [Read more...]