BIDEN HASN’T DELIVERED ON IMMIGRATION POLICY

Vice President Kamala Harris’ words in Guatemala are often repeated as jokes by my teenage friends in the same way we lampooned another politician in 2015. While “Do not come” is a much less provocative expression than Donald Trump’s aggressive remarks, they communicate the same message, and are no less concerning coming from an administration that promised us more. Unfortunately, my friends and I have grown accustomed to tone-deaf press statements and a lack of executive action. It’s nothing new to our nation’s immigrant youth. Today, watching the news might give you a sense of the anger of Haitian communities in Texas as migrants across the border continue to be shut out or deported. As organizations like Houston Haitians United attempt to alleviate the crisis and help migrants who have successfully avoided our nation’s attempt to close the border, it makes us wonder when we’ll see a solution to our broken immigration system.

For those growing up and living in the Tijuana-san Diego border region, it is common to be the first in your family to have a childhood in the United States. That is to say, most people I grew up with and are friends with now immigrated to this country when they were young, are children of

Cu is an intern at BKJ Visa Law, and lives in Chula Vista. immigrants, or live across the border in Mexico. I was only in sixth grade when Donald Trump delivered his infamous speech about how Mexican and other Latin American immigrants are bringing “problems,” “drugs” and “crime.” Each executive order on immigration was an attack on our well-being, and while some policies were not directly aimed at us, it was easy to wonder if our family was next; with the swift travel ban against predominantly Muslim countries, my family wondered if we were next to be branded as terrorists. My Latinx friends suffered much pain as well — with policies preventing them from being reunited with their family and stricter guidelines preventing their military parents from naturalizing, they had to endure both legal and social oppression.

Xenophobic sentiment manifested in myriad of ways for immigrant children in San Diego. In response to Trump’s anti-immigrant policies, Mexican students have reported an increase in bullying resulting in the suppression of their mother tongue and the reluctance to practice their culture. Latinx students also report having less ambition for higher education due to socioeconomic disadvantages and systemic discrimination. These experiences have defined a generation of immigrant youth in this country; to these children, the United States would be better identified as a land of restriction, rather than a land of opportunity. As I grew

up with the Trump administration, headlines about provocative, bigoted comments were less common, yet their effects were still profound on the immigrant families around me.

Trump’s final year in the White House created numerous challenges for immigrants amid the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers published in the American Journal of Public Health documented a rise in racist sentiment towards Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) following Trump’s reckless usage of the racially-charged term “the Chinese Virus.” As a part of the AAPI community, my family has had to fight two battles — avoiding the virus and avoiding racism. Watching the Atlanta spa shooting coverage in March with my parents and brother was frightening, a feeling shared by many Asian teenagers like me. By the summer of 2020, a survey of 990 AAPI youth nationwide found almost four in 10 had bee being personally impacted tremendously by anti-asian racism and nearly three in

four felt angry and frustrated about anti-asian racism. It is clear that the patterns of xenophobic rhetoric are a staple of the late 2010s and early 2020s.

With the safeguarding of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and the lifting of the Muslim travel ban, the Biden administration is steadily showing its support to communities like the ones I grew up in. However, after nearly nine months in office, President Joe Biden has kept several Trump-era immigration policies in full effect. Mexican migrants now wait across the U.s.-mexico border and Haitian refugees in Texas have been removed in masses; the Biden-harris administration’s approach has left much to be desired. Along with this, the promise of a new 62,500 annual refugee limit, the end of Title 42 expulsions and the abolishment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s long-term family detention have yet to come to fruition. While it may seem that President Biden’s election has created a healing, welcoming America, the children and teenagers in the San Diegotijuana border region still await the day they can call this place their home.