More Action Needed to Help Essential Migrant Farmworkers in the U.S.

The immigration crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border has drawn much attention to Title 42. While the law had been around for decades, the Trump administration used it to block migrants from entering the U.S. in an effort to slow down the spread of COVID-19. 

Renewing an Old Approach to Welcoming Newcomers to the U.S.

The Biden administration is currently using its authority to grant humanitarian parole to newcomers through processes devised for five countries: Ukraine, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. The common elements among these countries are political instability, violent conflict, and widespread persecution of certain individuals. The aim of these parole programs is to increase access to humanitarian relief while seeking to minimize irregular migration. These processes rely on an old and tested system of welcoming newcomers: private sponsorship. 

Getting to Know the Migrants With Whom We Are Walking

In our national immigration debate, misinformation about immigrants is abundant, as they are often characterized in a negative light. But they are human beings with aspirations just like the rest of us. It is important to know who immigrants are and how they contribute to our society — to know with whom we are walking. 

Mother and Father of Migrants: Lessons Learned from Saints

Two saints who walked with migrants at the beginning of the last century can teach us today how we can accompany today’s new migrants on their journey to a new life. Both St. Frances Xavier Cabrini and St. Giovanni Battista Scalabrini have been called the Mother or Father of migrants — St. Cabrini when she was canonized and St. Scalabrini when he was beatified. Titles can be deceptive, however; when someone is called mother or father it goes well beyond a simple appellation. Rather, it is a term of endearment and respect. 

Globalization Requires Us to Change Our Views on Immigration

In the age of globalization, when goods and services circulate freely between countries, the concept of labor migration needs to be examined. While we encourage the movement of goods and services, our country has difficulty with the movement of human beings who seek to fill important jobs in our economy. 

The Truth About DACA and Why It’s Time to Pass the DREAM Act

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was created by an executive order issued by President Barack Obama in 2012 to provide temporary protection from deportation and work permits to more than one million childhood arrivals, of which 60% have applied for the program. 

Busing Migrants to States Another Reminder Reform Is ‘Long Overdue’

Over the past five months, the governors of Texas and Arizona have spearheaded an effort to transport asylum seekers and other migrants, processed by federal immigration officials at the U.S.-Mexico border, to Washington, D.C., and the New York metropolitan area. In effect, the governors are using migrants and refugees as tools to try to punish political leaders and jurisdictions for their more supportive positions on migrants and asylum-seekers.