Central Americans Seeking Asylum

I decided to do my last article on Central Americans trying to seek asylum. This peer reviewed article talks about people seeking asylum from El Salvador back in the late 1980’s when El Salvador was at war. They talk about the political policies in place that were in place between central american and the United States. Ultimately, 11,050 people were deported from the United States back to El Salvador back in 2006. This was during a time where El Salvador was ridden with gang violence and poverty, after the war. This article seems to be biased against the U.S. and their foreign policies. The article focuses on people that fall outside of the political requirements of being an Asylum seeker. The bias is that the article is made to exploit and criticize the political laws on asylum seeking in the United States. They mention the limitations that is present for people from El Salvador living in the United States.

Article: Coutin, Susan Bibler. “Falling Outside: Excavating the History of Central American Asylum Seekers.” Law & Social Inquiry, vol. 36, no. 3, 2011, pp. 569–596. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23011883.

Trump Administration to Push for Tougher Asylum Rules

The last article i looked at from NBC, explained the current position of law and gave insight on the amount of refugees and asylum seekers coming into the country. However, i found a New York Times article that states the Trump Administration is trying to make this process harder for asylum seekers. Ultimately, the Trump Administration wants to limit and decrease the amount of refugees / asylum seekers coming into the country. This article seems to be biased in the sense that they are kind of agreeing or giving information to make people agree with the Trump Administration. They give numbers on how many refugees / asylum seekers are coming into the country and why this is a concern for Trump. However, they don’t mention why these people are seeking asylum or are trying to leave their country. They mention how the Obama Administration made it easier for Refugees / Asylum Seekers to get into the country, now the Trump Administration wants to limit what the Obama Administration has done.

Here’s a link to the article: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/09/us/politics/asylum-seekers-trump-administration.html

U.S. System for Refugees / Asylum Seekers explained

The article i found on NBCs website explains the process of being an asylum seeker and the difference between asylum seekers and refugees. First off, the difference between refugees and asylum seekers is small but it does make a difference. Refugees are people that get approved by the United States to be refugees, they usually are facing or trying to escape persecution weather it be for skin color, race, political background, etc. Asylum Seekers are people that are moving locations in order to escape war, poverty, famine, etc. In order to be eligible, Asylum Seekers must apply for asylum in the U.S. a year before they plan on moving. This news article doesn’t seem to be biased. The content given in the article seems to be mostly informative. They give facts on what a refugee is, what an asylum seeker is, how many refugees are reported to come into the U.S., the most popular areas where they come from, and information on how an asylum seeker can become a citizen.

Here is a link to the article: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/43442030/ns/us_news-life/t/us-system-refugee-asylum-seekers-explained/#.XLD0COhKjIU

Trump declares ‘country is full’ in Fox News interview, says US can no longer accept illegal immigrants

The article Trump declares ‘country is full’ in Fox News interview, says US can no longer accept illegal immigrants by Lukas Mikelionis was posted on Fox News. The article discusses the U.S immigration system and its ability to allow asylum seekers. The article recounts Trumps visit to the border area of California. When asked by Fox New’s Griff Jenkins about the second generation of DACA forming, President Trump stated, “No, we’re witnessing people that are going to be brought out of the country, the country is full.”

The presidents of Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador offered to have a summit with President Trump, but he declined. The article discusses how Customs and Boarder Protection is “on track to apprehend almost 1 million illegal immigrants at the boarder this year.”

One issue that I noticed with the article is the use of the term “immigrants” opposed to asylum seekers. The article also reinforces that the asylum seekers are “illegal immigrants” five times throughout the text. In addition, the article mostly quotes Presidents Trumps speech and does not provide outside facts to support his ideas. This article does seem to be biased, as Fox new usually is. However, it involves a different bias than CNN, as Fox News is known to have a conservative bias.

Mikelionis, Lukas. “Trump Declares ‘Country Is Full’ in Fox News Interview, Says US Can No Longer Accept Illegal Immigrants.” Fox News, FOX News Network, 6 Apr. 2019, www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-declares-the-country-full-in-fox-news-interview-says-american-can-no-longer-accept-illegal-immigrants.

“Trump declares ‘country is still’ in Fox News interview, says US can no longer accept illegal immigrants”

On April 6, 2019 Fox News.com posted an article titled “Trump declares ‘country is still’ in Fox News interview, says US can no longer accept illegal immigrants.” The article was written by Lukas Mikelionis.

The article informs readers about the content revealed in a recent interview with President Donald Trump. President Trump believes that our country is full and that the U.S. is saving money by not letting so many immigrants in. President Trump did say that he praised Mexico for stopping border crossings after he threatened to shut down the U.S.- Mexico border.

The news source, Fox News, is known to bias their stories to Republic readers. Fox is known as a very Republican news agency, so they showed support for his declaration.

Compared to many other articles Fox News posts, this article does not have many examples of bias. Most of the article contained direct quotes from President Trump’s interview, which makes it difficult to show any bias. The only possible mentions that would show bias is the use of the world “illegal” or the subtitle “Border Slowdown Leaves Ports of Entry Vulnerable To Drug Trafficking, Critics Say.”

The only major way the story could be misconstrued is the readers view on President Trump and their beliefs about the current border crisis. Someone who agrees with President Trump will agree and believe everything he is saying is spot on. But those who disagree could probably say the way President Trump came off was demeaning, rude, etc.

While this article is from a Republican news site, I do feel that the writer did not write too much of his own opinions or thoughts, which I would prefer to read over opinionated articles.

Mikelionis, Lukas. “Trump Declares ‘Country Is Full’ in Fox News Interview, Says US Can No Longer Accept Illegal Immigrants.” Fox News, FOX News Network, 6 Apr. 2019, www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-declares-the-country-full-in-fox-news-interview-says-american-can-no-longer-accept-illegal-immigrants.

Return-to-Mexico policy

The Trump Administration developed the Migrant Protection Protocols program, also known as the “Remain in Mexico” program. This program requires asylum seekers to stay in Mexico for the duration of their immigration hearing. This program is causing confusion and problems for both asylum seekers and the lawyers who are trying to represent them.

The article Immigration lawyers struggle to navigate return-to-Mexico policy by Priscilla Alvarez for CNN covers the topic in detail. The article utilized interviews and quotes from outside sources whom have had issues with the policy. This includes Andrew Nietor, an immigration attorney bases in San Diego, CA. In addition, the article includes facts from The Department of Homeland Security and the American Immigration Council. These statistics provide concrete information to support the claim that legal representation is important. According to The Department of Homeland Security, as of March 12, the US has returned 240 migrants to Mexico. The article then goes to state how legal representation has a huge impact on this issue.

The article is biased, as CNN typically is. The article discusses President Trumps opinion on immigration and his recent actions when mocking and questioning the immigration system. Another issue is that the only hyperlinks within the piece are to other CNN articles. This means that the reader does not get linked outside of CNN to any beneficial information.

Overall, the article is biased but is not overt. The use of statistics and quotes distracts from the bias of the article. The author tells the story of asylum seekers in a way that interests but clearly does not favor the policy or current administration.

Alvarez, Priscilla. “Immigration Lawyers Struggle to Navigate Return-to-Mexico Policy.” CNN, Cable News Network, 1 Apr. 2019, www.cnn.com/2019/03/30/politics/immigration-lawyers-remain-in-mexico/index.html.

Cons of Immigration Travel Loans

Westcott’s article, “A Brief History of Refugees Paying Back the U.S Government for their Travel”, focuses more on the negative effects these travel loans have on immigrants. She starts out the article by explaining that not all immigrants who have resettled in United States, are able to afford the cost of travel to their new home country. Not only that, but most immigrants don’t even know English well enough when they first get here, for them to get an American job right away.

The article continues to explain that before refugees even arrive in this country, they already have to face one of the most stringent background checks. This idea makes you already believe that the immigration process to come to America is already overwhelming enough for these immigrants.

We than get to look at the perspective of Syrian refugee, father of four, who lives currently in south Florida. He is struggling with his debt of $2,174, and states to Newsweek, that “he had no choice to agree to it, (travel loan agreement), because that’s the only way to get a flight over here.”. This shows that immigrants, especially ones with big families, constantly feeling overwhelmed with payments, as they were forced to agree with the loan, even when its unaffordable to the new coming immigrants.

The article then goes on to announce that Canada had recently made it so that the government will not only cover the cost of Syrian immigrants traveling to their country, yet cover their medical exams as well. This statement is basically implying that America should do more to welcome immigrants into their country.

Sources:

Westcott, Lucy. (12 December 2015). A Brief History of Refugees Paying Back the U.S Government for their travel. Retrieved from https://www.newsweek.com/brief-history-refugees-paying-back-us-government-their-travel-403241

Pros of Immigrants Paying back travel loans

Robinet’s article, “Welcome, Refugees. Now Pay Back Your Travel Loans.”,  focuses on the statistics on how much money immigrants owe the government to pay back their travel loans, and tells stories in which these people who work for United States immigrant departments understand immigrants struggles; yet still feel that travel loans should be paid back.

The article claims that the average loan per immigrant is roughly around $1,100 dollars. This fee that the immigrants aren’t able to pay, gets sort out with the Intentional Organization for Migration and winds up going to resettlement agencies, such as World Relief, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the International Rescue committee; which none of the have nothing to do with granting them the loan to begin with. These resettlement agencies are claimed to have retain up to 25 percent of the total payments for these loans.

According to a spokeswoman for the State Department, her belief is that having refugees pay for their travel expenses, helps defray resettlement costs and can help with the newcomer’s resolve for a successful migration.

This article feels that its more than necessary for immigrants to pay back their travel loans. Even though some immigrants feel overwhelmed by the amount of payments due, state departments claim that the department’s loans are designed to encourage repayments without placing hardship on refugees. They claim that they make the payments more than reasonable, by having interest free deferments and reduced monthly payments, depending on the situation. In the long run, these payments allows newcomers to be given an opportunity to build up their credit history and be financially literate in America.

Sources:

Robinet, Fabrice. (15 March, 2019). Welcome, Refugees. Now Pay Back Your Travel Loans. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/nyregion/refugees-travel-loans.html

“Asylum-seekers forced to wait in Tijuana fear for their lives”

NBC News posted a news article on March 27, 2019. The article was written by Daniella Silva and focused on the topic of asylum-seekers who were sent back to Mexico while waiting to appear in court, are finally in front of a judge in San Diego.

The article’s title does not make sense or is missing a word, which greatly affects the article’s credibility. The title also uses words like “forced,” and “fear.” The title is trying to make readers have an emotional connection to the article. Right under the title, there is a picture of a girl and a daughter and the caption states that the girl in the picture has struggled to find a lawyer to represent her and she remains trapped in Tijuana.

Throughout the article, the story of a man named R.T.’s opportunity to speak to a judge who could grant him asylum in the United States is presented. RT says he had fled from Guatemala due to violence and death threats. The writer mentions that hundreds of migrants are stuck living in a dangerous border towns in Mexico between their court dates, and states that the migrants feel the towns they are currently placed in are just as dangerous as the place they fled from. This information can be easily manipulated or altered to appeal more emotion to the reader.

The article also speaks about the President’s recent decision to return some migrants to Mexico after they present their asylum claim at the border. The refugee program director of Al Otro Lado gave a comment saying “If the goal of the policy is to strike terror in the minds and hearts of asylum seekers and create a completely chaotic environment and obliterate due process rights, then the policy is wildly successful (Silva 2019).”

The writer clearly does not agree with the Trump Administration’s new policy that has asylum- seekers waiting for court in Mexico. The fact that they made notice to the policy negatively shows that the writer displays bias in the article. It seems that she uses emotions to make people feel bad hoping that they will change their opinion if it differs from hers.

While I generally am concerned about asylum seekers safety, the author has no proof other than the comments by R.T. that the border towns are just as dangerous as the places, which causes for speculation.

If the author wanted to present the information with very little bias, she could have said “While asylum seekers are waiting for their court date, they are living in border towns.” It makes it difficult to believe what is real or what it altered since so many news stores include bias to try to push their beliefs on you.The only acceptable time for the author to include their beliefs and bias is through blog posts, opinion pieces, etc.

 

Silva, Daniella. “Asylum-Seekers Forced to Wait in Tijuana Fear for Their Lives.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 27 Mar. 2019, www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/asylum-seekers-forced-wait-tijuana-fear-their-lives-n988081.