Activist Reflects on Immigration Issues and DACA
KBCS’s Yuko Kodama recently spoke with Maru Mora Villalpando, community organizer of Northwest Detention Center Resistance and activist and organizer for #Not1More Deportation, about immigration issues and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
A Family Torn Apart by Immigration Policy
According to Frontline, immigration detention facilities have held an average of 30,000 detainees per day since 2008. KBCS’s Jim Cantu spoke with Ashley Brown, a mother whose husband of ten years is being held in the Northwest Detention facility. She describes how her husband was detained by ICE agents as he stopped to buy breakfast on the way to work, and how his detention impacts her family.
Potential Impact of the DACA Repeal
The Trump administration recently announced a repeal of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program which shelters young undocumented people who were brought to the U.S. as children, in good standing with the law and who are educated. There are 800,000 of these Dreamers throughout the country and 18,000 of them reside in Washington state.
KBCS’s Yuko Kodama spoke with Community to Community and Detention Watch Network Community organizer and DACA recipient, Jose Manuel Carillo yesterday about how the repeal of the DACA program impacts the national conversation on immigration policy.
Sanctuary Services for Undocumented Immigrants
Legal representation for undocumented immigrants is a large need to fill. In April, the King County Council approved funding to assist this need. Even with the county’s funding, a gap remains. At a recent YES! Magazine panel, immigrant experts gathered to discuss support for sanctuary services and legal support. This four-part series features excerpts from various speakers from the event.
Jasmine Zhu: A Personal Story of Innovation and Civic Vision
Earlier this month, the Seattle Public Library and Pecha Kucha Seattle presented American Visionaries – Immigration. Innovation & Freedom. Jasmine Zhu shares her story. Find out how immigrants are the heartbeat of our American story and are a vital part of our state’s entrepreneurial and cultural community, propelling innovation and helping to define our region’s civic vision.
DACA Student Voice on the Election of President Trump
The Obama administration signed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in 2012 to allow undocumented immigrant minors the ability to remain in the US to work or attend school. Recently, the White House announced that they will be issuing a new Executive Order to ban entry by citizens from the same seven Muslim-majority countries again. While restrictions for people entering the US get tighter, people who have lived in the US for most or nearly all of their lives face uncertainties. Here are reflections of a local DACA student on the election of President Trump. KBCS’s Yuko gathered this audio the day after the elections in November.
Immigration And Sea-Tac Airport Protesters
President Trump’s recent executive order, which restricts immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries, was met with widespread protest and confusion over the weekend. People who had just arrived in the U.S. were held at airports, and some were sent back out of the country, as Customs and Border Protection, activists, lawyers, and elected officials struggled to interpret the order’s implications. 7th District Representative Pramila Jayapal was working to get people released from Sea-Tac airport. Also at Sea Tac airport Saturday, Seattle city council member and activist Kshama Sawant led close to one thousand people in a protest. They voiced support for arriving immigrants and opposition to the ban. Listen to criticisms of the executive order, and find out what it was like for those who were protesting at Sea-Tac airport.
Tacoma Immigration Detention Center Protest Update
Last March, hundreds of detainees at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma performed a hunger strike. It was the first of two more at the Tacoma Northwest detention center and at immigration detention centers in Texas and Alabama. Today we get the update on conditions of the immigration detention center in Tacoma today and on how the latest immigration politics are affecting our immigrant communities in Washington.
KBCS News Director, Sonya Green speaks with Maru Mora Villalpando, Founder of Latino Advocacy and community organizer with Not1More Deportation.
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New Perspectives on Immigration in the US
Last year, the United States deported nearly 370,000 people. That’s nine times the number 20 years ago. Meanwhile, a recent study on trends in Mexico released by the Pew Research Center finds that 34% of its pool said they would like to migrate to the US. Over 70% said top concerns were with crime, corruption and drug cartel related violence. This week we look at the real life conditions that draw people from Mexico and other countries to the United States.
- Episode 1 & 2 – Former Federal Public Defender, Jay Stansell speaks about current policies toward immigration and the conditions that undocumented immigrants face in the US with KBCS Producer, Yuko Kodama
- Episode 3 – Masahiro Sugano is the Director of the documentary, “Cambodian Son”. He speaks with KBCS Producer, Yuko Kodama about the some Camdodian Americans who were deported to Cambodia from the US
- Episode 4 – Writer and activist, Dori Cahn speaks with KBCS’s Yuko Kodama about the conditions Cambodian American deportees to Cambodia are faced with when they are forced to build their lives in a home country they hardly know.
Free Nestora Salgado
The Mexican government formed a special police force to protect businesses from kidnapping and extortion by criminal gangs. Organized crime has become a rampant concern in the indigenous villages of Mexico as has been the case in El Salvador, Nicaragua and other parts of Central America. U.S. naturalized citizen, Nestora Salgado was seized without an arrest warrant by Mexican federal soldiers last August and has been incarcerated in Mexico ever since. She was a leader in community policing activities against organized crime in her home village in the State of Guerrero, Mexico. National and International organizations from Australia to the Dominican republic have campaigned to Free Nestora Salgado. We discuss Nestora Salgado’s case and organized crime in Mexico with Nestora Salgado’s daughter, Grisel Rodriguez and Executive Director of Tierra Nueva, a Christian ministry in Burlington, WA Bob Ekblad. The ministry works closely with marginalized communities such as inmates, ex-offenders, immigrant communities and the homeless.
