Two Centuries of US Immigration

“From 1820 to 2013, 79 million people obtained lawful permanent resident status in the United States. This map visualizes all of them based on their prior country of residence. The brightness of a country corresponds to its total migration to the U.S. at the given time.”

1 dot = 10,000 people

As a percentage of total US population, today’s immigration rates are far below those of the 1920s and before.

Written, narrated, and produced by Bryce Plank. Video editing and animation by Robin West. See more at Metrocosm.

Related:

“The Accidents of History That Shaped Global Migration,” James Watkins, Ozy

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Trump Attacks Foreign Workers at a Company That Hires Them

“Standing before an American flag made out of wrenches at a Wisconsin tools company, President Trump on Tuesday promised ‘bold, new steps’ to protect American workers and their wages and vowed to overhaul a decades-old guest worker visa program created to import “high-skilled” foreign labor.

But it turns out that Snap-on Tools, where Trump signed his ‘Buy American, Hire American’ executive order to much fanfare, pays below-average wages to the handful of foreign workers for whom the company has sought H-1B visas.”

— ‘Trump blasts foreign worker program at company that pays below-average wages to foreign workers,” Tracy Jan, Washington Post

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Deportation Force!

President Trump seems bent on fulfilling his campaign promise to round up millions of your neighbors and deport them. But how? The administration can appoint more administrative judges to rubber-stamp deportation orders, and private contractors can make a buck from imprisoning millions in new concentration camps, but who will round up all those people? Where’s the promised Deportation Force? How can you quickly recruit and hire 5,000 new Border Patrol agents and 10,000 more Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents?

Easy. Just lower the standards. A Department of Homeland Security memo suggests ending polygraph and physical fitness tests and eliminating Spanish language skills from the entrance exams.

More:

“Trump administration moving quickly to build up nationwide deportation force,” David Nakamura, Washington Post

“To Detain More Immigrants, Trump Administration to Speed Border Hiring,” Vivian Yee and Ron Nixon, New York Times

Related:

“ICE immigration arrests of noncriminals double under Trump,” Maria Sacchetti, Washington Post

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An Irish message for Donald Trump

While visiting the White House this St. Patrick’s Day, Ireland’s Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Edna Kenny schooled President Donald Trump on immigration.

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A 13-Year-Old Watched ICE Arrest Her Father

As Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez dropped his daughters off at school in L.A. on February 28th, he was pulled over by ICE agents. His 13-year-old daughter Fatima was still in the backseat and recorded the arrest with her cell phone.

Mr. Avelica-Gonzalez, a citizen of Mexico, has lived and worked in the U.S. for 25 years. His four daughters were all born in the U.S.

More:

“Immigrant arrested by ICE after dropping daughter off at school, sending shockwaves through neighborhood,” Andrea Castillo, Los Angeles Times

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Trump On Immigration

On Wednesday, Chinese clothing importer and GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump talked about immigration in Mexico and Arizona (aka Joe Arpaio‘s playpen). Mr. Trump’s immigration policy has not not changed; he is just saying different words. He may have tried out some of those new words on Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, but they dispute what was said during their closed-door meeting.

But there’s no mistaking what Donald Trump said in Phoenix. His Deportation Force would deport millions of people who have lived in the U.S. for years, breaking up families, destroying small businesses and agriculture, and hobbling the manufacturing and construction industries.

Most of the GOP’s hastily assembled “Hispanic Advisory Council for Trump” have since self-deported from the campaign, and RNC Hispanic media relations chief Ruth Guerra has resigned.

At the Phoenix rally, Rudy Giuliani and Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions sported “Make Mexico Great Again Also” baseball caps.

More:

“‘He Used Us as Props’: Conservative Hispanics Deplore Donald Trump’s Speech,” Alan Rappeport, New York Times

“‘No amnesty’: Trump vows to deport millions during ‘first hour in office,'” Rory Carroll, The Guardian

“Trump’s immigration speech decoded: What he said, what it means and how it would work,” Lisa Mascaro, Los Angeles Times

“Fact-checking Donald Trump’s immigration speech,” By Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Glenn Kessler,” Washington Post

Land of Hope and Exclusion

Banning a whole ethnic group from entering the US is a new thing, right?

Nope. Vox’s Alvin Chang explains:

Pope Trumps Donald

Winging back to Rome after his visit to Ciudad Juárez on the Mexico-US border, reporters asked Pope Francis what he thought of the idea of building a wall between the United States and Mexico. “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,” His Holiness replied. “This is not the gospel.”

That “person,” of course, would be reality TV star, fear monger and Bible scholar Donald J. Trump. Naturally The Donald picked a fight with the Pope, claiming Mexican officials got Pope Francis to say that (so they won’t have to pay for Donald’s wall, no doubt). Then he claimed the Pope had no right to impugn his Christian faith, as if his own words hadn’t done so already.

Pope Francis has decried the suffering of migrants in Europe and the Mid East as well as on Mexico’s northern border. Maybe those walls can be Trump-branded, too.

More:

“The Pope Is Way More Popular Than Donald Trump,” Leah Libresco and Nate Silver, FiveThirtyEight

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Refugees

Thousands of desperate Syrians are fleeing their war-torn homeland for Europe, and Europeans react with grief or fear or shame or sympathy. But while their governments may be slow to help the new arrivals, families and churches are not:

“Germans Open Their Homes To Refugee Roommates,” Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR News

“Why Austrians are opening their homes to refugees,” Maddy French, Aljazeera

“Activist convoy picks up migrants,” BBC News

“Amid unabated refugees crisis, pope calls on parishes to take in families,” Anthony Faiola and Michael Birnbaum, Washington Post

“Migrant crisis: the volunteers stepping in to help,” Joel Gunter, BBC News

“Finnish PM offers his home to asylum seekers,” Umut Uras, Aljazeera

“Bayern Munich donate $1.1 million to help refugees,” Tom McGowan, CNN

“Pope: Vatican will shelter 2 families fleeing war, hunger,” Frances D’Emilio, Associated Press

“Chile mulls plan to take in Syrian refugees,” Reuters via Jerusalem Post

“IOC sets up $2m fund for refugee crisis,” Aljazeera

“City of Sanctuary: Bristol rallies to help refugees as aid network swells,” Alexandra Topping, The Guardian

“Icelandic generosity could potentially help thousands of Syrian refugees,” Justin Wm. Moyer, Washington Post

“Munich mayor: I don’t think about numbers, only refugees’ safety,” Emma Graham-Harrison, The Guardian

“Google donates €1 million to help refugees in need,” Mark Wilson, BetaNews

“No ‘upper limit’ on number of refugees Ireland will take,” Sarah Bardon, Irish Times

“Australia ready to take more refugees from Syria, Tony Abbott says,” Sydney Morning Herald

“Some Israelis want to take in Syrian refugees. Netanyahu says no.” Ruth Eglash, Washingtton Post

“Syrian refugees challenge us to be better,” Tim Rogers, Fusion

The Donald’s Diagnosis

In a three-page, 881 word statement Monday afternoon, Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump clarified statements he made on June 16th. Mexican immigrants, he claimed, are not just drug dealers, killers, and rapists; they’re responsible for “tremendous infectious disease … pouring across the border.”

There would be good reason to fear immigrant-borne epidemics if vaccination rates in Mexico and Central America were not among the highest in the world. The measles vaccination rate in those countries, in fact, is higher than that of the US. “If anything,” points out Peter Weber, “those countries should be concerned about Americans coming down to visit.”

Of course, it’s not like Mr. Trump believes in vaccination … or climate change or Barack Obama’s Hawaiian birth, come to think of it.

So Donald Trump is no physician. Neither is Maria Konnikova, but she offers a very convincing diagnosis of  Donald Trump: Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Related:

“Donald Trump’s most delusional statement yet: ‘I’ll win the Latino vote,’” Sophia Tesfaye, Salon

“Donald Trump: The Democrats’ Best Campaign Asset,” Bill Humphrey and Stephan Richter, The Globalist

“Donald Trump is the ultimate opportunist: Why his racist theatrics—and surging popularity—explain everything about the modern GOP,” Heather Digby Parton, Salon

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