Immigration

Question 4: Results, Reactions, and the Future

On June 9, 2022, the Massachusetts legislature passed the Work and Family Mobility Act, which provides any Massachusetts resident, regardless of citizenship status, the ability to obtain a standard driver’s license. Governor Charlie Baker initially vetoed the bill, but the Massachusetts senate overrode it by a vote of 32–8. Only a few days after the […]

Should Massachusetts Let Undocumented Immigrants Drive Legally?

With Massachusetts’ November elections quickly approaching, tension surrounds the ballot questions. Question 4, in particular, asks voters to approve the Work and Family Mobility Act in a referendum. This act enables all qualified Massachusetts residents, regardless of citizenship status, to apply for a standard driver’s license while keeping the state in full compliance with REAL […]

Japan’s Failing Immigration System

This article discusses violence, suicide, and self-harm. On March 6, 2021, Wishma Sandamali, a Sri Lankan national who entered Japan on a student visa, died in custody at an Aichi Prefecture immigration detention facility. In August 2020, authorities arrested and detained her for overstaying her visa after seeking help from police officials regarding a domestic […]

Millions of people could go unvaccinated. Here’s why.

A pandemic-free world is a pipe dream unless every person is vaccinated. And that can only be reached if every single person has access to the vaccine. Each day, hundreds of thousands of Americans receive the vaccine for the novel coronavirus. Yet, as millions of people have their fear of the virus erased, millions more […]

France is getting progressive with its immigration. Others should too.

According to a recent survey, most French citizens are anti-immigration. This tone is backed by President Emmanuel Macron, who, in 2018, began pushing controversial immigration legislation. Since then, his administration has tightened asylum rules, made it harder for immigrants to access health care, and cracked down on Islamic practices. Macron has since reversed his stance […]

Go Global, Think Local: How US Immigration Policies Affect Massachusetts

After hurling his way into power using “build a wall” rhetoric, President Trump reduced the cap on national refugee admissions from 110,000 to 50,000 for the 2017 fiscal year. Despite this, 53,716 refugees were admitted. The following year, Trump decreased the cap to 45,000, seemingly to rectify this over-acceptance. Only 22,491 refugees gained entry. For […]

The Case for America: Hardline Republicans Want to Have Their Cake and Eat It Too

To the surprise of many long-time political watchers, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell kept his word in negotiations with his Democratic counterpart and allowed a week of free-flowing debate on the Senate floor to discuss immigration policy.[1] Rather unsurprisingly, however, the GOP-controlled chamber failed to perform its duties and pass any substantive legislation. Instead of […]

“Crimmigration”: Immigration Enforcement & Detainment

On October 3rd, U.S. Representatives Adam Smith and Pramila Jayapal, both from the state of Washington, introduced the “Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act of 2017.” The act would increase transparency and accountability for immigration enforcement in this country, while improving the conditions of immigrants detained by the Department of Homeland Security.[1] Rep. Smith has a […]

Immigration Policy: How Protectionism Becomes Racism

The human predisposition is to fear what we do not know, which helps us to identify potential threats and protect ourselves from them. It is precisely this psychological impulse that both leads a child not to eat a strange new food and has led to President Donald Trump’s protectionist immigration policies, particularly the travel ban […]

Never Again and Other Lies

I don’t remember when I became aware of the reality of the Holocaust. At some point, between heavily censored history books with veiled allusions to the fact, an unprecedented access to the Internet, and Zlata’s Diary, my presumably too-young mind was forced to grapple with the systematic murder of millions of people. Millions. Numbers are […]