The Immigrant’s Journal - Vol. 160

The Immigrant’s Journal Vol. 160

A Journey for a Better Life & Justice

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Protecting God’s Children From Distant Lands 26 Court Street, Suite 701, Brooklyn, NY 11242

www.theimmigrantsjournal.com Tel: 718-243-9431

March 24, 2022

Email: immjournal @aol.com

BY MARIBEL HASTINGS AND DAVID TORRES, AMERICA’S VOICE

A

s European countries and other nations around the world receive, with open arms, Ukrainian refugees fleeing from the bloody Russian invasion, in this part of the planet, heartbreaking stories of thousands of other migrants continue to arise.

Those trying to come to the United States or its territories—many with the hope of obtaining asylum—find themselves in a permanent duel against death, which often wins.

On that, the tally of deaths has not been low in recent months. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), at least 650 people lost their lives

Editorial credit: Juan Camilo Bernal / Shutterstock.com

Solidarity With Immigrants Shouldn’t Make Distinctions

in 2021 attempting to cross the U.S.Mexico border—a strip of land that, on top of being the most transited, guarded, and with the largest commercial exchange in the world, has also turned

Title 42 Border Expulsions: Two Years Too Many ....3

into a graveyard of hopes.

But that is not the only geographic area on this hemisphere where migrants are risking everything, even their lives. continued on page 7

Being a Paralegal Is a Great Career Choice! ....10

Take Action: New York Needs #Coverage4All Now! ....18

Documented Dreamers: Stuck in a Backlog University School of Law; and Mr. Lynden D. Melmed, Partner at Berry Appleman & Leiden, LLP.

BY MANUEL HOLGIN

S

enator Alex Padilla (D-CA) held a hearing titled, “Removing Barriers to Legal Migration to Strengthen our Communities and Economy.” The hearing was held to discuss how our current immigration system is failing due to its outdated processes and what can be done to update it. Three feature witnesses testified, Ms. Athulya Rajakumar, Graduate of the University of Texas at Austin; Professor Stephen Legomsky, the John S. Lehman Professor at the Washington

Editorial credit: Ryan Rodrick Beiler / Shutterstock.com

America’s CHILDREN Act America’s CHILDREN Act was introduced to protect the 200,000 documented dreamers living in the United States from “aging out” and being forced to self-deport from the only place most know as home.

Documented dreamers are young immigrants brought to the country when their parents receive any of the different provisional nonimmigrant continued on page 13

Immigration Justice Is Black Justice ....5

Brian Figeroux, Esq.

Strong Family Ties During Teen Years Can Help Ward Off Depression In Later Life ....8

Break-Up and Make-Up: How Relationship Cycling Affects Your Mental Health.....17

IN THE NEWS

2

Why Are Afghans Facing Significant Delays in Humanitarian Parole and Refugee Processing?

BY RAUL PINTO

T

he withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in August 2021—as the country’s government was overtaken by the Taliban—led to the chaotic evacuation of thousands of Afghan nationals. The tragic images from Kabul airport last summer of desperate Afghans trying to escape their embattled nation evidenced the dire need to assist those who were not able to leave the country. Many of those attempting to reach safe havens served the United States’ mission in the country or are family members of Afghans who supported the U.S. military operations in Afghanistan.

Despite rhetoric from the Biden administration about its commitment to assisting Afghans in need of protection, the administration thus far has failed to meet the needs of the evacuees through one of its primary methods of providing rapid protection—humanitarian parole.

The humanitarian parole process for Afghans has been plagued with delays, denials and other issues, and very little information about the humanitarian parole process has been made publicly available by the government. A recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)

request filed by advocacy groups seeks to uncover data about decisions on parole applications and learn more about these significant delays in humanitarian parole and refugee processing.

Humanitarian parole is temporary permission for someone to enter the United States and remain here for a limited period for urgent humanitarian reasons or to serve a significant public benefit. Parole does not confer immigration status, but beneficiaries of humanitarian parole may be considered applicants for admission and may be able to apply for lawful status in the United States, if eligible. In addition, beneficiaries of humanitarian parole may be eligible for employment authorization for the duration of their parole period. This benefit is crucial to those who, because of the dire circumstances, cannot apply for a visa or refugee status through the regular channels.

Those Afghan nationals who are potential beneficiaries of the humanitarian parole process have faced significant delays by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) charged with deciding applications for humanitarian parole.

In a report to Congress, DHS noted

Editorial credit: PradeepGaurs / Shutterstock.com

that the vast majority of Afghan evacuees who entered the United States were granted humanitarian parole by Customs and Border Protection officers at ports of entry. The government’s figures, however, fail to address the thousands of Afghans seeking humanitarian parole who did not enter the United States. A recent New York Times report states that of the 43,000 humanitarian parole applications received by USCIS since July 2021, the agency has processed less than 2,000. Of those processed applications, 1,500 were denied and 170 were approved as of February 11, 2022.

These processing issues have garnered

widespread concern from the public and elected officials. Senator Ed Markey led a group of Senators and House members to issue a letter to DHS expressing concern about the delays.

The public needs to know whether the humanitarian parole program is meeting the goal of assisting not only the Afghans who reach our borders, but also their family members who cannot return to their devastated homes. We must better understand how the humanitarian parole system currently works to know if we are fulfilling our promise to Afghans seeking to resettle safely in the United States.l

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3

TIME FOR ACTION

Title 42 Border Expulsions: Two Years Too Many

BY LIRS

W

ashington, DC: Today, [March 20] marks the two-year anniversary of Title 42, an obscure public health order that has been illegally and immorally used to block access to the U.S. asylum system and expel people seeking protection without due process. Since March 20, 2020, U.S. officials have expelled migrants under this authority more than 1.7 million times.

While the policy was first implemented by the Trump administration citing COVID-19 concerns, President Biden has continued the use of Title 42 border expulsions, which expose vulnerable children, families, and individuals to violence and exploitation. At least 9,886 instances of kidnapping, torture, rape, and other violent attacks on people blocked in or expelled to Mexico due to the Title 42 policy have been documented during the Biden administration.

As it lifts other pandemic-related travel restrictions, and with mask mandates lifted in all 50 U.S. states, the administration has yet to heed the call of epidemiologists and medical experts to revoke the policy they claim has no basis in public health.

Editorial credit: Ron Adar / Shutterstock.com

While exemptions for unaccompanied migrant children are well-intentioned, they incentivize families to send children across the border alone.

The following is a statement by Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service: “Asylum seekers have found America’s golden doors shamefully slammed shut on them for two years too many. As recently as this week, Ukrainians have also been barred from entry, joining Mexicans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, El Salvadorians, Brazilians, and Haitians as the victims of this enduring refusal to recognize their dignity and right to seek protection.

Despite the President’s promises of a humane immigration system, this policy subjects children and families to a litany of horrors in Mexico, including kidnapping, rape, trafficking, torture, and other violent attacks. The Biden administration may have inherited Title 42, but its legacy on immigration is now being defined by the continuation of this disgraceful policy.

People seeking safety are not a public health threat; if any threat exists, it is the one Title 42 poses to our nation’s moral standing and credibility as the world’s humanitarian leader. There is no room for double standards – as the administration eases pandemic restrictions, it must also end the mass expulsion of asylum seekers in violation of their rights under both international and U.S. law. It is long past time we live up to our values and legal obligations by welcoming these children, families, and individuals with dignity and due process.” l Founded in 1939, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) is the largest faith-based national nonprofit dedicated exclusively to serving refugees, asylum seekers, and other vulnerable immigrant communities in the United States.

Applauds for CPC on Prioritizing Immigration in Executive Order Recommendations

W

ashington, D.C.: We Are Home campaign commends the Congressional Progressive Caucus for including immigration among their top eight priority areas presented yesterday,[March 17] urging President Joe Biden to immediately act through executive orders to move forward fundamental issues in his domestic policy agenda.

Since the Biden-Harris administration took office a little over a year ago, the We Are Home campaign has been demanding a solid and final resolution both from Congress and the Executive to protect millions of undocumented immigrants who are at risk of deportation, family separation, and enduring brutal conditions by the enforcement system.

Bridgette Gomez, Campaign Director of the We Are Home Campaign, said:

“It is a promising step forward into our demands as a coalition, and we recognize the leadership of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) in prioritizing immigration as a critical unresolved issue for this administration. As allies, we know that this administration has the power to provide the relief that millions of immigrants who call the U.S. home have been waiting for. We call on the President to do the right thing and act immediately, delivering and making good on his promises.

He must exercise his authority to end deportation, shut down detention centers once and for all, and release people who are in detention. These policies, along with the abuse from the enforcement system, harm families, especially Black and Brown immigrant communities. It must be ended now. President Biden must also

act to expand TPS relief to nations eligible, and protect people from danger and fear of being deported to countries where they risk persecution and their lives are in grave danger as conditions in those countries are too unsafe for return, such as Cameroon. And let us not forget restoring asylum access by ending Title 42.

Immigrant communities need actions, not words. We expect that the President takes very seriously the progressive recommendations and provides a definite resolution before the midterm elections.

It is this administration’s moral obligation to address the racial disparities that are rampant in our immigration system.

Our country cannot move forward if we are leaving behind millions of undocumented immigrants who are integral to our nation.”l

TEAM Publisher I.Q. INC. Legal Advisor Brian Figeroux, Esq. Managing Editor & Editor-in-Chief Pearl Phillip Senior Writer Linda Nwoke Graphic & Website Designers Praim Samsoondar Kendrick Williams Anvar Sabirov Email immjournal@aol.com Visit www.ijlef.org www.falaw.us www.cawnyc.com Volunteering at THE IMMIGRANT'S JOURNAL LEGAL & EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. Internship positions available throughout the year.

The Immigrant's Journal Legal & Educational Fund, Inc. is an organization dedicated to the educational and economic empowerment of all immigrants and immigrant organizations here in the United States. We at the Journal recognize the enormous contribution of immigrants to this country economically, socially and politically. Since September 11, 2001, however, immigrants have increasingly been discriminated against and Congress has passed legislation curtailing the rights of immigrants here in the U.S., broadly claiming that immigrants are a threat to ''National Security.'' We at the Journal believe that these charges are unfounded, unsubstantiated and exaggerated.

The Immigrant's Journal Volunteer Intern Program was introduced to give our volunteers the opportunity to work in an immigrant friendly environment while developing the necessary skills for college or law school. They assist our staff in resolving immigration and other legal concerns through personal interviews, radio, email and telephone contact. They also assist the public with citizenship applications and in researching whether or not children of naturalized U.S. citizens have derived citizenship from their parents. Some of our volunteers assist our legal staff by engaging in legal research and writing letters on other legal issues. Volunteer interns are also assigned various other jobs in our Youth Programs.

Hours are flexible. Email your cover letter and resume or any questions to immjournal@aol.com Tel: 718-243-9431

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Know Your Rights with ICE If approached by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents, you have rights!

What can I do if ICE is at my door?

•

You do not have to immediately open the door for ICE and you do not have to speak to ICE.

•

From behind the closed door, you may ask them who they are and to show their badge, ID or business card through the window or peephole or to pass it under the closed door.

•

You can ask if they have a judicial warrant:

If they say No, you do not have to let them in.

You may say, “I do not want to speak with you.”

If they say Yes, you can ask them to slide it under the door. To know if it is a judicial warrant, look to see who signed the warrant.

A judicial warrant is a warrant from a court, signed by a judge. For example, judge signatures may have “Honorable/Hon.” “Judge” “Justice” or “Magistrate” in front of them.

•

In an emergency, such as a threat to public safety or a threat to someone’s life, ICE can come in without asking your permission. If this happens, you still do not have to speak to ICE.

•

If ICE is looking for someone, you do not need to speak. If you choose to speak, you can ask ICE to leave contact information. While you do not need to tell ICE where the person is located, providing false information puts you at risk.

What can I do if ICE is inside my home?

•

If ICE enters your home without your permission, you can tell them clearly: “I do not consent to you being in my home. Please leave.” Saying this may not always stop them, but it may help any future legal case.

•

If ICE starts to search rooms or items in your home, you can tell them, “I do not consent to your search.” You can continue to repeat this if they continue to search without consent.

•

You can tell them if there are children or other vulnerable residents in your home.

What can I do if ICE stops me on the street or in public?

•

Before you say anything, you can ask, “Am I free to go?”

If they say Yes: you can say,

“I don’t want to answer your questions”

If they say No: you can say,

“I want to remain silent.”

If ICE agents try to search your pockets or belongings, you can say, “I do not consent to a search.”

If they search you anyway, you cannot physically stop them, but clearly saying it may be important in any future legal case.

This fact sheet gives only general information.

It is not legal advice. Consult an attorney for legal advice.

Call 855-768-8845 for anEnglish Immigration Consultation

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CIVIL RIGHTS

5

Immigration Justice Is Black Justice

BY ADITI MITTAL

L

ast month, a crowd rallied outside the White House. Their chants and signs directed a powerful message toward the Biden administration: #TPS4Cameroon.

This rally occurred on the Black Immigrant Advocacy Day of Action during Black History Month 2022. Although the culture of white supremacy in which we reside consistently and willfully ignores the lived realities of Black immigrants, these stories are central to the history and legacy of Black Americans in our country. That’s why — on this day of action — civil and human rights groups across the nation called for the recognition and support of the Black immigrants who face disproportionate harm at the hands of our criminal-legal and immigration systems.

The U.S. immigration system is not immune to the systemic racism that pervades all our country’s institutions. AntiBlackness actively works to suppress Black voices and make Black bodies invisible, especially the Black immigrants who find themselves navigating the courtrooms and detention centers of an inherently broken system. This erasure of the grave experiences of Black immigrants can be seen in the Biden administration’s treatment of Haitian, Mauritanian, and Cameroonian immi-

Editorial credit: Bob Korn / Shutterstock.com

grants.

Last year, the Biden administration deported thousands of Haitian migrants, including families, back to the dire conditions in their home country. Many of these migrants suffered abuse from border patrol officers before they were ultimately expelled to Haiti, which has been experiencing severe civil and political unrest, economic turmoil, and widespread violence that occurs with impunity. These deportations continue even today, along with the deportations of Cameroonian and Mauritanian migrants to dire in-country conditions like violent armed conflict and modern-day slavery, respectively.

Although the Biden administration redesignated Haiti and South Sudan for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and designated TPS for Sudan, it has yet to designate Mauritania and Cameroon for

TPS despite the dangerous conditions in these predominantly Black countries — conditions that are comparable to those in other TPS-designated countries (e.g., Venezuela, Syria, and Myanmar). The practice of slavery remains ubiquitous in Mauritania, especially among racial and ethnic lines, and the country’s government continuously denies its existence.

The government also engages in human rights abuses, such as arbitrary arrests and torture against political opponents, and it has suppressed freedom of expression and freedom of press. The frequent flooding in the country has also displaced tens of thousands of Mauritanians as well as exacerbated food insecurity and poverty among the population.

The extraordinary conditions in Cameroon similarly elicit significant concern. The violent armed conflicts between the government, Boko Haram,

and Anglophone separatists affect several regions of the country, and they have caused the deaths, kidnappings, and internal displacement of hundreds of thousands of Cameroonians. The Cameroonian security forces perpetuate sexual violence, extrajudicial killings, torture, forced disappearances, and the recruitment of child soldiers; they arrest individuals and organizations that criticize the government, thus suppressing freedom of expression and association.

These political circumstances combine with the recurrent flooding, droughts, and epidemics of infectious disease to create life-threatening conditions in the country.

Despite these dangers, the United States deported many Cameroonian asylum seekers between 2019 and 2021. A recent Human Rights Watch report details the human rights violations suffered by these Cameroonian migrants upon their return to harm. A Cameroonian woman, for example, describes the treatment she received in detention: “I was well [seriously] beaten… Every two days… they were using ropes, [rubber] tubes, their boots, military belts… They hit me all over my body… After I’d been there like a week and some days… [some officers] came and… covered my face with a cloth. I heard voices, I don’t know if they were continued on page 7

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WELCOME TO AMERICA

6

The Countries Most Immigrants in the US Are Originally From

Are you looking to get into the health & wellness business?

BY JOSIE GREEN, 247WALLST.COM

M

ore immigrants are living in the United States than in any other country. Nearly 45 million people who live in the U.S. were born in other countries, according to the Census Bureau. This accounts for onefifth of the world’s immigrants, based on U.N. data.

Immigrants constitute 13.7% of the U.S. population. This number has been increasing since 1965, when amendments made to the Immigration and Nationality Act ended admissions policies that were based on race and ethnicity. National origins quotas were largely replaced with a more neutral system that gives preference to family reunification and the nation’s labor needs.

Since then, the immigrant population in the country has more than quadrupled.

Along with increasing the flow of immigration, the amendments also led to a shift away from Eurocentric immigration toward Asian, Caribbean, and Latin American countries.

To determine the countries of birth of U.S. immigrants from 1960 to 2019, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed immigration figures compiled by the Migration Policy

Contact: Institute, which used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 and 2019 American Community Surveys, and 2000 Decennial Census. Gross national income is in current U.S. dollars (purchasing power parity method) with figures from the World Bank for the most recent year of available data.

Immigrants are defined as people living in the U.S. who were not citizens at birth.

The term includes naturalized citizens, green card holders, certain people with work or student visas, those granted asylum or refugee status, and those in the country illegally.

The data shows that although a large number of U.S. immigrants hail from European countries, including the U.K., Germany, Poland, and Russia, immigration from these countries has declined in the last 60 years. Meanwhile, immigra-

tion from certain Latin America, Asian, and Caribbean countries has increased significantly.

Over 10 million people who were born in Mexico were living in the U.S. in 2019, accounting for 24.3% of all immigrants. People born in China and India each accounted for over 5% of the immigrant population. U.S. residents born in Russia (or the former Soviet Union) made up less than 1% of immigrants in the U.S. but still accounted for far more of the foreign-born American population than immigrants from other countries, including Switzerland or Sweden, which accounted for 0.1% of the immigrant population.l Reprinted with the kind permission of 247wallst.com

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IMMIGRANTS’ CONCERNS Solidarity with Immigrants/ continued from page 1 Some days ago, news circulated about a group of Haitian migrants, rescued in their attempts to come to Puerto Rico from their home country. According to press reports, the group was made up of 51 adults and nine infants. The nine babies died on the journey, and the captain ordered their bodies to be thrown into the sea where, according to survivors, they were devoured by sharks.

The Customs Office in Puerto Rico confirmed the rescue, but clarified that they could not corroborate information about the babies dying, having been thrown into the sea and eaten by sharks, despite the fact that a Haitian religious activist helping them confirmed that the mothers themselves narrated this horrible scene.

No mother could lie about this seminal loss, much less forget the time or circumstances. This will always be the “before” and “after” of their fractured migration experience.

Unfortunately, this is neither the first nor the last time this horror story will be told. Here there were survivors who confirmed what happened. That journey to Puerto Rico, through the gloomy “Canal de la Mona,” (Mona Passage), which connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea, is undertaken especially

by Dominicans and Haitians and, more recently by other nationalities, with the

hope of reaching U.S. soil and from there, moving on to the continental U.S. somehow.

They are the “carne de la mar” (meat of the sea), as the Dominican musician Juan Luis Guerra put it in his song “Visa para un sueño” (Visa for a dream). And when the visa transforms into death, instead, every moment in that journey becomes a memorial to the eternities, the voices, and the longings of those who wanted, anxiously, to reach the other side of hope.

In Puerto Rico, undocumented immigrants arrive by sea on a daily basis.

Some arrive and are detained and deported; others, if they request asylum, can be sent to Miami to continue the process; another group doesn’t live to tell the tale and ends up forming part of this human mass that risks their lives at various points around the world, every day, looking for opportunity and refuge.

That is, the vast and moral desert that marks the route toward the U.S. border is also a migrant cemetery, as is the Caribbean Sea and many other places around the world.

But as we are focused on the United States, this most recent tragedy involving Haitians is a sad and outrageous reminder of the urgency of action on immigration reform so that it legalizes undocumented people and also reform asylum laws to make them more humane and efficient.

And this is not a demand that should be

7 Immigration Justice/ continued from page 5

Editorial credit: Ryan Rodrick Beiler / Shutterstock.com

made in a vacuum, since like it or not, human displacement constantly tests the world and its infrastructure, including this division between nations who have everything—not through an act of magic but because throughout history they became pillagers—and poor nations, who were historically the pillaged.

In the short run and without congressional intervention, it’s time for the Biden administration to stop applying the nasty Title 42 first implemented by Donald Trump which, invoking the Covid-19 pandemic, keeps asylum seekers from Haiti and other countries from applying in the United States.

The solidarity with Ukrainians refugees confronted by Russian barbarism is to be applauded. But at the same time, this same solidarity should be shown toward refugees from other nations and of other colors, whose lives are also worthy.l

two or three… [They took me] in another room… I was raped.”

The Biden administration’s delayed response to these worsening country conditions highlights the historical disregard for the lives of Black immigrants in the United States and reflects the shameful legacy of our country’s entrenched institutions of racism and xenophobia. Failure to designate Mauritania and Cameroon for TPS means that Cameroonians and Mauritanians living in the United States may, at any time, be deported back to extreme danger in their countries of origin. The swift and rightful designation of TPS for Ukraine, less than a week after the country’s invasion by Russia and Belarus, demonstrates how urgent TPS designations can make a world of difference during a burgeoning crisis.

These realities demonstrate that we must expose and eradicate discriminatory U.S. policies and laws. We must fight for justice for Black immigrants. We must protect the fundamental human dignity of Black immigrants. And we must continue to push the Biden administration to immediately designate Mauritania and Cameroon for TPS. l Aditi Mittal is a Spring 2022 undergraduate intern at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

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FAMILY MATTERS

8

Strong Family Ties During Teen Years Can Help Ward Off Depression In Later Life

BY PING CHEN AND KATHLEEN MULLAN HARRIS THE CONVERSATION

D

epression is a leading cause of disability and disease for people around the world. It often begins during adolescence, especially for females, may continue or recur in adulthood and tends to become a lifetime chronic health condition.

More than 300 million people suffer from this mental health disorder worldwide. Depression is not only about feeling blue. It can also harm one’s social relationships, school or work and physical health. Poor mental health and depressive symptoms may also be associated with the recent increase in midlife premature deaths of despairdue to suicide, alcohol and drugs.

Although treatment methods and intervention efforts continue to advance, many depressive conditions remain irreversible. The push for prevention and early, affordable and feasible intervention is stronger than ever, especially for young people.

We are both social demographers who study family processes and health. We

use a life course perspective in our research, meaning that we use longitudinal data to follow individuals as they move through various stages of life and examine how the social contexts they experience influence their health.

Recently we were interested in understanding how mental health changes from adolescence through mid adulthood. We wanted to see if we could identify family processes that might protect teens from depression in adolescence and later. We found that close and cohesive family relationships, understanding, and shared good times protected them then

and later.

Prevention a worthy goal It is well known from the scientific evidence that close family relationships reduce the risks of depression during adolescence, a life stage when depression often begins, especially for girls. We were interested to know whether the mental health benefits of close and cohesive family relations in adolescence last into young adulthood, and so we used longitudinal data from a nationally-representative sample to address this question.

The family context is a key area that draws wide scholarly and public attention for early intervention efforts. Most research on the role of the family context for depression focuses on risk factors, such as neglect, abuse and financial insecurity. We wondered, however, whether preventive efforts may be more effective if focused on protective factors. We could not find major studies that could shed enough light on the topic.

Some small cross-sectional studies with clinical and community samples suggest that being part of a close and cohesive family in adolescence helps alleviate depression symptoms for teenagers.

But does this protective effect last long into adulthood when adolescents move out of their parent’s house and embark on their independent lives? This intriguing and pressing question remains unknown due to a dearth of longitudinal studies that follow the same people over time.

A study, which we published on Oct. 7 in JAMA Pediatrics is, so far as we know, the first to examine this topic in a nationally representative sample by tracking individuals over a 30-year life course continued on page 7

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FAMILY MATTERS

9

Strong Family Ties/ continued from page 8 from early adolescence to midlife. Our findings suggested that, yes, the protective effect not only helps in the tough teen years but also protects later.

Some good news, and good insights The data we used come from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a nationallyrepresentative study that has followed over 20,000 adolescents starting in 1995 into adulthood. The group of adolescents who started in the cohort have been reinterviewed five times, adding valuable knowledge about development over the course of life. The new data from the 2017 round of interviews have enabled us to examine how what happens in adolescence matters for later life mental health.

Our findings provide a new contribution to the research on early family experiences and lifetime depression and insights into how depression can be prevented from developing into a lifetime illness.

First, we found gender differences in depression over time. Females experienced significantly higher levels of depressive symptoms than males between early adolescence and their early 40s.

The overall trajectory of depressive symptoms was high in adolescence, fell

in the early 20s, and then slowly rose again in the late 30s. The growth curve of depression is flatter for men than women.

Teenage girls are vulnerable to high levels of depression during middle to late adolescence. Teen boys, in comparison, experienced a shorter period of depression in late adolescence. Women then experienced the highest levels of depression in their late 30s. Men’s highest levels of depression occurred in their mid30s to early 40s in the face of increasing challenges from work, family and social life.

Our primary interest, however, was to examine whether cohesive family relationships in adolescence protect young people from depression in adulthood and how long those protections last.

Our findings indicate the mental health benefits of cohesive family relationships during adolescence last through midlife.

Individuals who experienced positive adolescent family relationships had significantly lower levels of depressive symptoms from early adolescence to

midlife (late 30s to early 40s) than did those who experienced less-positive family relationships.

We also see this benefit working differently for men and women. Women benefit more from positive adolescent family relationships than men, especially in adolescence and the early 20s. But men with low parent-child conflict benefit for a longer time throughout young adulthood than women.

Living in a cohesive home, having someone around who understands and pays attention, and having fun together as a family can build up warmth, trust and attachment between the family members and adolescents and positive feelings for teens. The absence of parentchild conflict reinforces parental support and approval for them. Close relations may provide sources of social and emotional support that encourages the development of skills for coping with changing and cumulative stressors.

Our research findings emphasize the urgent need for early preventive interventions of depression in adolescent family life. Adolescence is a critical life stage where profound transformations in neurological, biological, cognitive and social development take place. These profound changes during adolescence make teens especially vulnerable to the development of lifetime depression.

Public health initiatives can teach and encourage parents and family members

to nurture positive family relationships with their adolescents. Programs can be developed to promote family cohesiveness for adolescents by providing tips on how families can show affection and understanding, spend time together and work through conflict. This preventive approach will be most effective in fostering long-term healthy mental development into adulthood.

Our study, however, does not imply that adolescents in less cohesive families are doomed to lifetime depression.

Depression is an extremely complex mental disorder. No one knows exactly what causes it. Factors such as genetics, abuse or serious illnesses can increase risks of depression too. Teens may be able to find similar sources of social support and gain coping skills through other social connections with friends, in religious and other institutions, and in the local community.

The skills and strategies that youth learn to cope with emotional problems may last throughout life, continue to promote mental health well into adulthood, and help to prevent negative outcomes and premature deaths due to suicide, alcohol or drugs in middle age.l Ping Chen is a Senior Research Scientist, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Kathleen Mullan Harris is a Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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JOBS & RECESSION

10

Being a Paralegal Is a Great Career Choice! attorneys, opposing counsel, vendors, staff members, clients, and others. The work is varied, and each day brings new challenges.

BY THE CHAMBER COALITION

A

career as a paralegal (also known as a legal assistant) can be a wonderfully fulfilling profession. Paralegals perform legal, regulatory, and business-related research for lawyers working at their organization.

Most of the time, paralegals work for law offices, non-profits, corporations' legal departments, or courts. These professionals also provide legal support services to attorneys. They assist lawyers in filing motions, memoranda, pleadings, and briefs in various court systems and accompany lawyers to see clients and go to court. Here are five great things about being a paralegal: 1. Rise in Pay Paralegal compensation has risen steadily in the past decade. As paralegals perform a broader and more complex range of tasks (paralegals even represent clients in court in certain countries and administrative tribunals), their earnings continue to rise. The average paralegal salary hovers at around $50,000 per year, but paralegals often make more through bonuses. Overtime hours can also add significant cash to a paralegal's paycheck.

2. Explosive Employment Outlook The paralegal field is one of the fastestgrowing professions on the globe. The U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, predicts the employment of paralegals and legal assistants by over 25 percent, much faster than the average for all occupations. Among the factors driving this growth is client demand for cheaper, more efficient delivery of legal services. Since hourly rates charged by attorneys are typically double or triple the rates of paralegals for the same task, law firm economics mandates the increased use of paralegals to minimize costs. As a result, a paralegal career is one of the hottest non-lawyer jobs in the legal industry.

3. Easy Career Entry Unlike lawyers who must complete seven years of formal education and pass the bar exam to practice law, you can become a paralegal in as little as a few months of study.

4. Intellectual Challenge Paralegal work is intellectually challenging and involves a range of high-level skills. The most successful paralegals are problem-solvers and innovative thinkers.

Paralegals must become subject matter experts in their specialty areas and master legal procedure, research, drafting, and other skills. They must stay on top of ever-changing laws and new legal trends and developments while interfacing with

5. Rising Prestige As paralegals perform more complex and challenging work, paralegal prestige is rising. Paralegals are no longer simply lawyer's assistants; they assume corporate management roles, leadership roles in law firms, and entrepreneurial roles in independent paralegal businesses. Over the years, paralegals have transcended the image of glorified legal secretaries to become respected legal team members.

Ready to Take the Leap?

A career as a paralegal can be rewarding professionally and personally and offers a unique opportunity to help others; options vary, depending on the paralegal's practice area. Paralegals in the public interest sector help poor and disadvantaged segments of the population with legal issues ranging from protection from domestic abuse to assistance preparing wills. Ready to take the leap, the next step? Call us at 718-722-9217 or visit www.freeparalegal.org to complete your registration which includes payment.l

Orientation is Tuesday, April 5

Join us via Zoom at 6pm

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BE EQUITY SMART

11

Considering a Spring Home Sale?

Learn How to Appraise Your Selling Chances Like a Pro

T

he springtime is known to be one of the best times to put your home up for sale. However, if you're not necessarily planning on engaging a real estate agent, it's important to be prepared for all of the hard work involved in putting your home up for sale. Whether you're new to the market or you've never sold a home on your own before, here are some questions to ask yourself so you're prepared for selling in the coming season.

Do You Know the Market?

The neighborhood you live in and the buying market you're dealing with are important factors in how your home is going to sell, so you'll need to know a little about both when determining your ideal price. By looking through the listings in the area and seeing what homes like yours have sold for, you may be able to give yourself a range for the offers you can expect.

How Will You Sell It? One of the added benefits of social media

According to the National Association of Realtors, those who sell their home generally get 10-20% less than those who utilize an agent... is that you can use sites like Facebook and Twitter to announce your home sale and even highlight its best features. While this may make selling seem much easier, you'll still need to make sure you have good photography that captures your home and a website where homebuyers can learn more details. Be aware that while these items may seem easy enough, it can take a lot of time to manage these details on your own.

Are You Prepared to Negotiate?

It's a good feeling to get an offer on your

home, but in all likelihood it will be less than what you're expecting and this means engaging in the art of negotiation.

According to the National Association of Realtors, those who sell their home generally get 10-20% less than those who utilize an agent, so it's important to be comfortable negotiating before you dive in. If you're confident in your acumen, you may want to go it alone, but if you have doubts, it can be a better financial

decision to engage the help of an agent.

Before you decide to sell your home on your own, it's worth appraising your skills to determine if it will be worth the time and effort you'll have to put in. If you've come to the conclusion that you'd like to utilize an agent after all, you may want to contact one of our real estate professionals for more information. Schedule an appointment today. Call 888-670-6791. l

Call 888-670-6791 26 Court Street, Suite 701, Downtown Brooklyn VISIT OUR WEBSITE WWW.THEIMMIGRANTSJOURNAL.COM FOR MORE IMMIGRATION NEWS & UPDATES

GENERATIONS

12

What Happens If You Die Without a Will? executor/executrix to a position of authority to administer your final wishes, which may include instructions for your desired funeral arrangements and interment, the distribution of personal items of great sentimental but minimal monetary value, or your choice of a guardian for your young children.

Without a doubt, dying without a will robs you of your right to have a say in the settling of your affairs and creates unnecessary hardship for those closest to you, as they are left to deal with the legal technicalities on their own.

BY MARY CAMPBELL

Y

ou know you should make a will, but you never seem to be able to drum up much enthusiasm for the idea. It seems like a big, complicated pain-in-the-butt undertaking and you’re not planning on dying anytime soon anyway. You know that lawyers cost a fortune, and who knows if you really can legally use one of those online will kits?

Differing opinions abound. So, you wonder, what does happen if you don’t make a will? Can the government really take all your possessions that the bank doesn’t already own most of?

The short answer is probably not.

Unless you are truly completely alone in the world with no blood ties whatsoever, there is likely a relative somewhere that is eligible to inherit, if they can be found. In fact, British television has aired a program called Heir Hunters, which is described as “a series following the work of heir hunters, probate detectives looking for distant relatives of people who have died without making a will”. In the U.S., private investigation firms will attempt to find a potential heir, but someone presumably must hire them before they will begin to look. Of course, if the estate is large, anyone may undertake to

find lost relatives in hopes of receiving a commission for the information from a grateful heir. In the end though, it is possible that if an heir cannot be found after a reasonable length of time has passed, then yes, eventually your estate will escheat (pass) to the appropriate governing body.

However, for an average individual with no shortage of relatives in line to legally inherit your worldly goods, the application of the relevant inheritance laws certainly doesn’t mean that your estate will be distributed in a manner that you would approve of. Intestacy (the legal term for dying without a will) laws vary widely, depending on where you live. Your

spouse, for instance, may find that the laws of your state are not altogether favourable to him or her when you have children involved, perhaps from a previous marriage. Common law and same sex partners may or may not be recognized as eligible to inherit. A close relative you cannot stand the sight of may be first in line if you have no spouse or children. Read our informative website at www.willsandestates.nyc Finally, it is important to note that in addition to the disposition of your estate, regardless of the value, your will also functions as the vehicle through which you will make your final wishes known.

You will appoint a trusted

Changes in Tax Laws It can be hard to stay up-to-date on constantly changing tax laws, but it’s necessary to keep your final document in good legal standing. Especially if your will takes actions to address estate tax issues, it’s a good idea to receive periodic reviews by an attorney.

Ask for Advice A will is your ironclad way to disperse your assets to loved ones as you wish.

Don’t be afraid to ask your legal expert for advice on other moments that may benefit your last will and testament.

Remember, this document is incredibly important to keep accurate as it articulates your vision and solidifies your legacy.l

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IMMIGRATION REFORM

13 took from them their need to mourn their loss. Rajakumar said, “To be considered an alien, an outsider, in the only place you know to call home. That is a different kind of pain that only me and the 200,000 other children in my position share.”

Documented Dreamers/ continued from page 1 visa classifications. Though document dreamers derive from any part of the world, most are from China and India.

Unlike DACA recipients who are allowed to work in the US and have temporary deportation protections, documented dreamers cannot work and are faced with self-deportation if they do not attain a different temporary or permanent status. Many parents who came here will apply for a Green Card but will wait in the backlog for years, so their children will age out waiting for their place in a Green Card queue.

Athulya Rajakumar Such is the case of Athulya Rajakumar, one of the feature witnesses in the hearing. Rajakumar came to the United States at age four, accompanied by her brother, age six, when their mother received an H-1B work visa sponsored by Microsoft.

In 2012 Rajkumar’s mother was able to apply for a Green Card, but after waiting a decade in the backlog, Rajakumar aged out at the age of 21 in January 2020. She spoke of experiences any other child in the country lives through, waiting in line for the midnight premiere of a movie, popsicles on the Fourth of July, and baseball games. “These experiences, uniquely American, are not only unforgettable but a part of who I am today,” said Rajakumar. She began to feel the control

Editorial credit: Sheila Fitzgerald / Shutterstock.com

her visa status had over her life. She could not participate in foreign exchange programs because she could not be promised the ability to return to the US. She was considered an international student when applying to colleges even though she had attended elementary, middle, and high school in the US. And she did not qualify for any financial aid.

She recalls being required to take additional tests and essays to apply for college and was asked, “What can you contribute to our institution as a resident from your country?” “I grew up in Seattle, Washington; Starbucks was founded here. I don’t know how much more American I can get,” she retorted.

Regardless, she did all she was asked of and more to get direct admission to her dream college and a significant journalism program.

Eventually, the anxiety of living in constant precarity began to take a toll on her and her brother’s mental health. "As H-4 dependents, my brother and I legally needed to be enrolled as full-time students in order to comply with our visa status and remain in the country lawfully,” said Rajakumar. “Taking a leave of absence from school to address serious mental health concerns was not an option.” Her brother intended to study immigration law to support those experiencing the same difficulties as him and his sister. Sadly, Rajkumar’s brother took his own life before he could start at the University of Washington. Though they had just lost someone in their family, Rajakumar and her mother both had to be back in school and work weeks after the funeral. Inevitably, their visa status governed their lives once again. This time It

Documented Dreamers & the Backlog The Americas CHILDREN Act would help documented dreamers like Rajakumar and 200,000 others. It would provide a pathway to permanent residency for child dependents of long-term visa holders who have maintained status in the United States for ten years and have graduated from an institution of higher education. It would establish age-out protections that lock in a child’s age on the date they file for a green card rather than the final action date. It would provide work authorization if they are at least 16 years old and permit children aged out to preserve the original priority date for subsequent petitions.

While the Act would help the documented dreamers, an additional barrier in the immigration system is the backlog itself. Prepared testimonies by Lynden Melmed and Stephen Legomsky point out the faults in our immigration system and the long-term effects on the country.

Both Melmed and Legomsky cite that the public thinks the system allows anyone to immigrate into the country and that it’s easy to immigrate through employment continued on page 14

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LEGISLATIVE UPDATES

14

Florida’s Anti-Immigrant Bills Follow a Decade-Long Trend

BY LEANI GARCIA TORRES

T

he path toward commonsense federal immigration solutions seems to be continuing the cyclical and frustrating pattern of two steps forward, one step back. As soon as a measure is introduced—be it visa recapture, reducing the H-1B backlog, or a long overdue solution for Dreamers and TPS holders—it gets clawed back. In the absence of meaningful action in Congress, there is plenty of movement at the state level.

Sometimes this movement is for the better; but often for the worse.

In one of the most egregious cases of the latter, the Florida legislature passed Senate Bill 1808 on March 9. The bill expands upon Senate Bill 168, a controversial anti-sanctuary cities bill passed three years ago. The new bill would force law enforcement agencies that operate county detention centers to sign “287(g)” agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It would also punish transportation companies that transport migrant children to shelters in the state, among other provisions.

SB 1808 faced strong opposition from a wide variety of groups. Law enforcement, the business community, civil liberties groups, as well as Catholic leadership and others in the faith community have all spoken out against it.

The Florida bill was a top priority for Governor Ron DeSantis. It is blatantly unconstitutional and bound to be challenged in court. SB 1808—which shares many of the legal and constitutional concerns from the 2019 bill that was challenged in federal court—would defy the court’s ruling that parts of the law were unconstitutional and would result in illegal detentions, unlawful traffic stops, and racial and ethnic profiling. If signed by Governor DeSantis, it will: •Expand SB 168’s restriction on “sanctuary policies” to include state, city, and county-level policies that prohibit or limit local law enforcement from sharing the immigration status of someone in custody with state agencies.

•Compel all law enforcement agencies operating county detention centers to enter into a 287(g) agreement with ICE. Law enforcement must enter the agreement regardless of local policies or the

cost associated with deputizing local law enforcement to carry out federal enforcement priorities.

•Prohibit all state and local government agencies from contracting with transportation companies (including airlines, bus, and train companies, etc.) that knowingly transport “unauthorized aliens” into Florida. This provision is designed to block the Office of Refugee Resettlement from transferring unaccompanied children to shelters in Florida, some of which have been operating for nearly two decades.

State action on immigration goes beyond trying to tackle federal enforcement on their own. During an international refugee crisis, legislators in Tennessee have introduced bills that would make it even more difficult to welcome those escaping war and persecution. One bill would place an unnecessary burden on the state, requiring reporting on refugees accessing services for which they are eligible. Another would withhold state funding from public schools based on students’ immigration status.

But other states are taking the opposite approach. They are responding to inaction at the federal level by working to ensure every resident is welcome and can thrive. So far this year: •States like Colorado have moved to make it easier for internationally-trained healthcare professionals to practice in the state.

•Legislators in Virginia have worked to address dire teacher shortages by recognizing the credentials of teachers who received their license to teach outside of the United States.

•Oregon passed a bill that will guarantee universal legal representation for immigrants facing deportation who can’t afford a lawyer.

•Washington passed a bill to ensure that all working residents with a valid tax identification number have access to the state’s Working Families Tax Credit, regardless of immigration status.

•Utah passed legislation that makes it easier for our Afghan neighbors to get a driver’s license, alleviating one major hurdle for new arrivals.

Many states have also recognized the value of being responsive and accessible to all people who call them home. The number of states with an office dedicated to immigrant and refugee social and economic inclusion has increased dramatically, more than doubling since 2019.

Until Congress takes meaningful action to modernize our outdated immigration system and recognize the myriad contributions of our vibrant immigrant and refugee communities, states will continue to do what they’ve done for more than a decade: move forward where they can, with or without Washington. l

Documented Dreamers/ continued from page 13

Editorial credit: Christopher Penler / Shutterstock.com

channels. But that is far from the truth.

There are categories and subcategories that applicants must meet to immigrate.

They must fill out thousands of documents by hand because electronic filing is not an option and will have to wait years before the government processes it.

“Not since the Immigration Act of 1990, however, has Congress taken any major action to update our nation’s policies on legal immigration,” Points out Legomsky. Melmed states that delays of green cards are just symptoms and that “the cause is an outdated Green Card system that undervalues skilled immigration, which in turn leads to untenable backlogs.” Melmed’s testimony highlights that the United States has not updated the annual caps despite the growing demand for green cards. Highskill laborers and international students, in turn, will look for jobs in other countries, such as Canada. A decrease would hinder the US economic growth.

Healthcare is another industry that could be affected by the long wait times. “In 2018, more than 2.6 million immigrants, including 314,000 refugees, were employed as healthcare workers. 1.5 million of them were working as doctors, registered nurses, and pharmacists.”

Legomsky’s written testimony provides five measures that could help clear up a significant portion of the backlog.

His first measure recommended “raising the worldwide ceilings.” He offers three ways to do this. His second measure is “reclassifying family-sponsored “2-As” as immediate relatives.” His third measure is “raising the per-country caps.”

Fourth, “allowing early filling off applications.” And finally, “repealing the 3/10 and permanent bars for prior unlawful presence.”

Hope for Documented Dreamers After answering questions from subcommittee members, the three witnesses provided sufficient evidence to show how fractured the immigration system is and that it must be addressed immediately.

“I'm glad to see that we might have taken some steps forward and made progress today,” said Senator Padilla. The hearing concluded in a promising direction after successfully securing a verbal commitment from Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Durbin to work on legislation to help documented dreamers like Rajakumar.

Addressing Durbin, Cornyn said, “I think this is something we ought to be able to find a solution to.” Durbin acknowledged Cornyn and saluted the panel of witnesses, “You may have seen history in the making,” said Durbin. “A public declaration by a senator that they are actually going to try to legislate is almost historic around here, so who knows, this may end well.”l

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BIDEN ADMINISTRATION

15

Immigration and Customs Enforcement Issues Annual Report—What Does It Really Mean?

BY REBEKAH WOLF

L

ast week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released its fiscal year 2021 annual report. In it, the agency reported a significant decrease in both overall deportations and internal apprehensions from fiscal year 2020 and prior years. While related media coverage has largely attributed these changing trends to policy decisions made by the Biden administration, much of the decrease can be attributed to several different factors.

The report indicates that ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) arrested 74,082 individuals during the fiscal year. This represents a significant decrease from fiscal year 2020, the final full fiscal year of the Trump administration, which saw 104,000 people arrested by ERO. Additionally, ICE reports that it removed 59,011 individuals from the United States—a number which includes anyone deported out of ICE custody, but not any of the over a

New York, NY - February 28, 2020: Activists, advocates and council members rally ahead of City Council hearing on ICE escalating immigration enforcement at City Hall Editorial credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com

million people “expelled” under Title 42 at the border. This is down from 184,884 removals in fiscal year 2020. But viewing these numbers in isolation is misleading, as the COVID-19 pandemic affected all aspects of ERO’s work beginning in the second half of fiscal year 2020.

Why did ICE arrests and removals really dip in FY 2021?

Changes to Interior ICE Enforcement For the last two years, ICE’s interior

enforcement activities were reduced in response to the social distancing and mitigation measures implemented throughout the United States in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These measures led to a reduction in apprehensions and deportations that first began in March of 2020 – before the last presidential election and before the Biden administration took office.

COVID-19 affected both operations and deportations at or near the border and

interior enforcement, as some enforcement officers were sent to work from home. COVID-19-related guidance that required a reduced number of individuals to be held in immigration detention also affected overall arrest numbers.

Critically, ICE’s enforcement data is reported by fiscal year, which runs from the beginning of October through the end of September every year. This means that the data for fiscal year 2020 includes nearly six months of pre-COVID enforcement activities, while the data for fiscal year 2021 covers an entire year of ICE operations after they had been fully impacted by COVID mitigation measures. Therefore, any year-over-year comparison is highly misleading.

ICE Removals at the Border Along with changes to interior ICE enforcement, the pandemic has affected ICE’s removals of individuals apprehended at the border. A significant percontinued on page 16

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MONEY MATTERS

16

College Students: We Want to Hear From You

BY AMY HEBERT, FTC

I

f you’re a college student, or a student in a vocational or certificate program, there are scams that specifically target you. This National Consumer Protection Week, we’ve been focused on how scams affect every community. We want to let you know about some scams that might affect you, but more importantly, hear from you about what you’re seeing.

Scammers often target students with scams related to jobs and making money.

For example: Fake check scams: These scams all involve someone sending you a check, asking you to deposit it, sending some of the money to someone else, and keeping the rest as payment. The scams that target students often involve jobs you could do on the side — so being a mystery shopper, advertising with a car wrap, working as a part-time assistant or dog walker for someone pretending to be your professor. Except, those “jobs” are

all fake, and that check they gave you?

It’s going to bounce and when it does, and the bank realizes the check was fake, it will want that money back.

Cryptocurrency investment scams: As we wrote about last May, people in their 20s and 30s have lost a lot of money to investment scams, and many of those losses have been in cryptocurrency.

These scams can involve fake investment sites, using celebrities and false promises that you can multiply your money, or using online dating sites to sweet-talk you into fake crypto investments.

Students: What else are you seeing? Tell the FTC your story at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, or in Spanish at ReporteFraude.ftc.gov.l

ICE Annual Report/ continued from page 15 centage of overall removals for the past several years have been deportations on expedited removal orders. These orders are issued when a person is encountered at the border and are not put in full immigration proceedings but are rather turned back with a summary order of removal.

But with the use of both Title 42—a public health law used to turn individuals away at the border in “expulsions” that are not counted as deportations–and the use of the Remain in Mexico program, which prolonged individual cases, fewer people overall were funneled into expedited removal. This combination of enforcement policies at the border contributed to the decrease in removal orders stemming from border encounters, though exact numbers are not available.

Biden Administration’s Enforcement Practices While the pandemic has led to the most significant drop in ICE arrests and removals, the Biden administration’s enforcement practices are likely responsible for at least some of the drop.

Similar to the Obama administration’s “felons, not families” policy, the Biden administration has stated that it is focused on “quality over quantity” when it comes to interior enforcement—priori-

tizing arrests of people who it deems poses a risk to national security, public safety, or border security. And while the pandemic’s impact led to an overall drop in arrests of people with criminal records, the Biden administration says that it is now arresting the highest number of people with serious criminal history in the last five years.

Republicans point to President Biden’s Executive Order declaring a 100-day “pause” on deportations as evidence that the Biden administration has been “soft” on immigration enforcement. But this pause lasted less than a week before a Texas judge first temporarily enjoined it, and then refused it altogether.

Despite claims to the contrary, there is no evidence that the Biden administration has fundamentally reshaped ICE. There are multiple reasons for a decrease in enforcement and removal operations from fiscal year 2020 to fiscal year 2021 under the Biden administration. A global pandemic that was only fully felt in fiscal year 2021 is a significant one. Others, such as a reduction in mass arrests like those saw under the Trump administration, are welcomed by advocates but their effect remains to be seen in the data.l

Read more stories at www.ijlef.org

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Lawsuits! Foreclosures!

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GET YOUR BANKRUPTCY CONSULTATION Documents Required: Save Your: *Home *Business *Car

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Filing a Chapter 7, 11 or 13 bankruptcy may be your only choice!!!

Call 718-222-3155 for a consultation today!

The Law Offices of Figeroux & Associates, 26 Court Street, Suite 701, Brooklyn, NY. Visit www.311bankruptcy.com VISIT OUR WEBSITE WWW.THEIMMIGRANTSJOURNAL.COM FOR MORE IMMIGRATION NEWS & UPDATES

LOVE & RELATIONSHIPS

17

Break-Up and Make-Up: How Relationship Cycling Affects Your Mental Health Occasionally, though, couples who separate and get back together benefit from their behavior.

They recognize how much they value each other when apart, and the insight strengthens their relationship when they reunite.

BY MARY CAMPBELL

A

re you in an on-again, off-again relationship? While some couplings involve sole stints, where people stay together and later, if they split up, stay apart, others are chaotic affairs. Like boomerangs, the partners return to each other. Later, they part ways and repeat the scenario again and again.

Doubtless, you can imagine, or perhaps you know, splitting up and making up is exhausting. You may believe it's invigorating and signals passion, too, though. If so, it might be time to rethink your perspective. One study shows relationship cycling can have long-term detrimental effects on your mental health.

The long-term repercussions of making up and breaking up 33.6% of study participants reported relationship cycling, whereby they separated and reunited with their partner.

Those who often broke up and made-up experienced distress coinciding with the trials of their relationship.

Unsurprisingly, the chaos and instability involved in on-again, off-again cou-

plings reduce mental health. The less obvious fallout is that making up and breaking up also affects future relationships. Experts report relationship cycling influences satisfaction in marriage and boosts the likelihood of separation trials.

It looks like the cycling, once begun, continues, even if you tie the knot.

Occasionally, though, couples who separate and get back together benefit from their behavior. They recognize how much they value each other when apart, and the insight strengthens their relationship when they reunite.

How to stabilize your relationship If you often split from your partner and reconcile, it's valuable to note whether your actions harm your mental health. If they build more suffering than satisfaction, breaking the pattern might resolve the issue.

It's vital to have your partner on board to improve your relationship's potential.

If you wish to stay together, discuss how to make doing so possible. Lay ground rules, like the need to talk through problems and not walk out when you disagree.

Swap negative behavior patterns with healthier alternatives. For example, if you and your partner shout when you argue, agree to talk calmly instead. If insult-hurling occurs before break-ups, commit to not provoking each other with verbal assaults. Change your relationship behavior, and when a break seems imminent, the odds you stay together will grow.

Relationship cycling can damage your mental health, and it's beneficial to change the pattern of constant separation and reconciliation. If you want to stabilize your relationship, identify negative behaviors. Swap them with actions that help you meet your aim.l

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HEALTH

18

Take Action: New York Needs #Coverage4All Now!

C

urrently, 154,000 immigrant New Yorkers, many of whom are low income, have few, if any health insurance options. They cannot qualify for Medicaid, the current Essential Plan, or subsidized Qualified Health Plan coverage on the New York State of Health online marketplace. The only options they currently have are Medicaid during pregnancy, or Emergency Medicaid, a program that will only cover emergency hospital care that stabilizes an acute medical condition with no follow-up care.

This situation is not only harmful to their personal health, it puts a tremendous strain on their families and our hospitals, and it exacerbates the public health crises in our communities, such as the COVID-19 pandemic that is still ongoing. Other states have taken steps to provide coverage to low-income immigrants, including California Governor Gavin Newsome, who recently proposed expanding the state’s Medicaid program to all immigrants. #Coverage4All (A880A/S1572A) would create a state-funded Essential Plan for ALL New Yorkers up to 200% of the federal poverty level who are cur-

REAL ESTATE AGENTS WANTED:

Photo courtesy NYIC

rently excluded because of their immigration status.

We want to thank the NYS Assembly and the NYS Senate for including #Coverage4All in their one house budgets!

Now we are calling on Assembly Speaker Heastie, Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Governor Kathy Hochul to finish the job.

It is now up to them to ensure that the final state budget fully funds this program to expand immigrants’ access to affordable, quality health coverage. New York can lead the nation by investing and improving our health care system to ensure all people, regardless of their immigration status, are able to obtain preventative care, receive the medications they need, and live healthier lives.l

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HEALTH

19

Why Pregnant People Should Get Vaccinated for COVID-19 – A Maternal Care Expert Explains

BY STACY POTTS THE CONVERSATION

I

don a gown, gloves and a mask to enter the hospital room of a new mother who is sick with COVID-19.

She lies in bed, exhausted between coughing spells; her day-old infant rests comfortably across the room. She contracted COVID-19 the week before her due date and was hospitalized when her labor began.

Given the mother’s illness and her inability to care for the newborn, we make plans for the infant to go home with his father on his second day of life.

But his mother will need to remain hospitalized to recover from COVID-19 and from her delivery.

The couple’s other two children at home need care as well. The road to recovery will be long for this family, but fortunately the mother’s illness does not end up requiring intensive care or mechanical ventilation. This outcome is not what the family had imagined when they made the decision for her not to get

The CDC, along with many other health organizations, recommends the COVID-19 vaccine for pregnant people.

vaccinated against COVID-19 during her pregnancy.

Unfortunately, scenarios like this have become far too common for me and other care providers during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the latest omicron surge, it was not unusual to have four or five patients with active COVID-19 infections on the labor and delivery unit at a time.

Decision-making during pregnancy Pregnancy is often a time of sweet anticipation. But the ongoing pressure to

make the right decisions for the health and well-being of both the pregnant person and the unborn child tempers this excitement. And undoubtedly, the decision-making around COVID-19 vaccination adds another layer of stress. The relative novelty of COVID-19 in our lives, fear of the unknown and abundant misinformation often complicate these decisions. Advice comes during pregnancy from many directions, including wellmeaning friends and family, and sometimes even from strangers.

It’s worth noting that the decisions a

person makes during pregnancy stem from the desire to avoid doing anything that could cause complications in the pregnancy or be harmful to the fetus. At the same time, it is also important that a parent do everything possible to protect the well-being of the pair.

As a family physician specializing in maternity care, I often hear of the challenges and confusion pregnant people feel in making these important decisions.

My role is to respect pregnant people in their autonomy and to provide evidencebased information that may help inform their decision.

In making the decision about getting vaccinated against COVID-19, pregnant people must consider the potential risks of the vaccine, as well as any potential harm from becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. These two sides of the same coin are important in the discussion and the ultimate decision the patient makes.

Simply avoiding action is not the answer. Each pregnant person should continued on page 20

You may be eligible for COVID-19 Treatment People who have tested positive for COVID-19 may be able to receive outpatient treatment to help symptoms and avoid hospitalization. Treatment works best if you begin it soon after you start feeling symptoms, so get tested right away.

Monoclonal antibody treatment is a one-time IV or injection to help fight COVID-19 while your immune system produces its own antibodies.

Oral antiviral pills are taken for five days and helps stop the virus and keeps it from replicating, which reduces the amount of virus in your body.

There are currently two authorized pills - paxlovid and molunpiravir.

Both monoclonal antibody and oral antiviral treatments can reduce your risk of becoming sick from COVID-19 and avoid hospitalization.

COVID-19 treatments are not a substitute for vaccination. COVID-19 vaccination and booster shots remain the best protection against getting severely sick due to COVID-19.

If you have COVID-19 symptoms, or if you have tested positive, talk to your doctor, or call 212-COVID19 (212-268-4319).

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HEALTH Pregnant People/ continued from page 19

20 Pregnant people are at significantly greater risk from COVID-19 than from the vaccine.

carefully consider the decision and not passively accept doing nothing as the safer option, since the choice to do nothing is likely a choice to accept the risk of preventable harm.

COVID-19 illness in pregnancy COVID-19 has caused serious illness requiring hospitalization in over 30,000 pregnant people in the United States, with 292 deaths as of mid-March 2022.

The risk for severe disease is higher in pregnancies that are complicated by advanced age, high body mass index, hypertension and diabetes.

Pregnant people infected by COVID19 are three times more likely to need critical care than people who aren’t pregnant. Death is rare in pregnant people, but COVID-19 causes a significant increase in that risk.

Health disparities have become more evident during the pandemic. Black and Latino populations have disproportionately experienced COVID-19 infection, serious illness and death. This disparity remains in pregnant people, with the infection rate in pregnant Latino people nearly twice that of white counterparts.

Vaccine protection in pregnancy Vaccinations to protect against serious illness from COVID-19 are recommended for all pregnant people or those considering pregnancy by leading health

organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Family Physicians and others.

The mRNA vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna are recommended for people who are pregnant in an initial two-dose series followed by a booster immunization five months later. The immunity produced has been shown to reduce severity of illness, pregnancy complications, stillbirth and maternal death.

In mid-February, 68% of pregnant people over age 18 were fully vaccinated, compared with 75% in the general adult population. Complications from the vaccine are rare and mild, similar to complications patients who aren’t pregnant.

There is no increased risk of miscarriage, infertility or pregnancy complications related to the vaccine.

Additionally, vaccination during pregnancy provides important protection for newborns. Pregnant people who are vaccinated pass antibodies in blood through the umbilical cord to the fetus, and this has been shown to provide protection from serious illness from COVID-19 for the newborn for up to six months.

Research studying newborns in 20 pediatric hospitals across 17 states showed that 84% of hospitalized infants less than 6 months old were born to unvaccinated people. And infants born to people vaccinated with two doses of mRNA vaccines were 61% less likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19. Since vaccination is unlikely to be available for newborns in the foreseeable future, protecting this vulnerable population through vaccination during pregnancy is the best option.

Vaccination decision It is natural for pregnant people to have some uncertainty about the decision to get the COVID-19 vaccine. They are likely to be unsure and to have their own conflicted feelings about it, and they may be receiving conflicting advice from family and friends. I believe it’s important to provide empathy and respect for this ambivalence while sharing information about the safety of the vaccine and the risks of COVID-19 illness.

People who are pregnant should receive the most up-to-date information based on evidence to help guide their decisions on getting vaccinated. If they decide to get vaccinated, it can be helpful for family members or others to remove any access barriers that might stand in the way. On the other hand, a pregnant person who decides against getting vaccinated needs to be provided with other additional supports such as guidance on masks and on avoiding high-risk exposures to reduce the risk of illness.

The ripple effects of COVID-19 go well beyond the person with the infection, particularly in pregnancy. It’s clear that the vaccine can help prevent serious illness in pregnant people and that it is one way to prevent newborns from going home without their mothers, either temporarily or permanently.l Stacy Potts is a Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health, UMass Chan Medical School.

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WORKERS’ RIGHTS

21

NYS IG Releases Workers’ Compensation Fraud Annual Report & Recognizes Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Anniversary

T

oday, [March 21], New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang released her Office’s 2021 Workers’ Compensation Fraud Annual Report and also recognized 111 years since the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire—a pivotal event in the history of American labor that changed worker protections forever.

The fire, which remains one of the deadliest workplace tragedies in the history of New York State, resulted in the death of 146 people. The victims, primarily young immigrant women who had been working under deplorable conditions, were unable to be rescued by first responders because the owners of the factory had locked the stairwells and exit doors to discourage breaks and prevent theft. Resulting public outrage spurred the passage of more than thirty health and safety laws in New York State, including factory fire codes, child labor restrictions, and, after a previous iteration had been struck down by the Courts only a day before the fire, a new workers’ compensation system.

“Over a hundred years ago, New

Editorial credit: a katz / Shutterstock.com

Yorkers came together after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire to demand better and safer working conditions and a system to compensate all injured workers,” said New York State Inspector General Lang. “The fire became a crucible for change in our state, leading to the passage of a new workers’ compensation law to protect New York’s most precious resource, its people. My office remains committed to ensuring that system is free from fraud and abuse so that it will always be there for those who need it.”

This week is an opportunity to remember to those whose deaths catalyzed a movement that helped restore a measure of humanity and dignity to exploited factory workers. As part of the observance and commemoration of the tragedy, Inspector General Lang released the Workers’ Compensation Fraud Inspector General 2021 Annual Report. This report describes progress the Inspector General’s Office made toward its vision of a safe, secure, and fair workers’ compensation system for all New Yorkers,

Editorial credit: a katz / Shutterstock.com

and demonstrates how the agency is preventing and deterring fraud to keep the system efficient and effective.

The report also details how Inspector General Lang has implemented additional actions in furtherance of this mission, including appointing a skilled senior attorney in her office to serve in the newly created role of Attorney-in-Charge for Workers’ Compensation Fraud to strengthen the office’s handling of these critically important cases.l

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CONVERSATIONS

22

Refugees Stream Out of Ukraine – Can the World Cope?

BY LINDA NWOKE, SPECIAL TO JOURNAL

I

t’s been over twelve days since the commencement of Russia’s offensive attack and onslaught against Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The UN reports more than 1400 civilian casualties, including adults and children injured or killed. There is an exodus of more than 2.3 million Ukrainian refugees and an estimate of over 4 million over time.

Ukrainians will contribute to the increasing statistics of over 80 million people displaced worldwide. Observers and experts are now questioning the potential impact of this crisis, on the short term and the future, with concerns like impact on the immigrants and refugees, host countries, and ways to prepare.

A discussion organized by the Ethnic Media Services and moderated by Pilar Marrero- journalist and author, addressed these concerns. Among experts covering front-line events at the border and research institutions working on migrants’ country-based policies. Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan, Associate Director at Migration Policy Institute, shared some of the findings her organization has observed over the years on the crisis in Ukraine.

Before the recent attack from Russia, Ukraine managed one of the largest IDP populations in the world caused by Russia’s invasion of Crimea. Therefore, Ukrainians were facing challenges of social cohesion, national identity, and political participation, leading to scattering people all over the continent, especially as students and a vast Ukrainian existence in the diaspora. The attack on Ukraine has activated specific responses which were in the pipeline.

Seeking Legal Status The crisis around the region resulted in neighboring countries developing and implementing a robust Temporary Protection Status that favors Ukrainians but does not cover other refugees or asylum seekers. Commencing from March 4, there is an agreement that allows Ukrainians 3 years temporary protection status, which will enable them to access the labor market. Non-Ukraine Migrants or refugees will be admitted into the EU states for passage to their countries of origin. Other Non-EU countries like Canada have also declared new policies and pathways, including options like the expanded family unification program for the refugees or immigrants.

Hence leads to the situation at the border where non-Ukrainians, Stateless people, and ROMA are disqualified for temporary protection in the EU, leading to increased discrimination cases.

The Case of Discrimination Natalia said factors such as people not having a biometric passport, racial profiling, and undocumented non-Ukrainians also contributed to the discrimination

Editorial credit: Bumble Dee / Shutterstock.com

incidence. “The emergency mechanisms were only set up for mainly Ukrainian nationals,” says Natalia. So nonUkrainian nationals like Russians fleeing their country will have to apply separately for Asylum since there is no provision made for them or other refugees from other countries.”

Implication for Initial Solidarity At the moment, the generosity expressed by people worldwide might seem eternal.

However, this might wane over time, as people feel ‘generosity fatigue,’ especially at the increasing number of refugees.

“There should also be the anticipation of a knock-on effect on refugee crises from other parts of the world.”

Manuel Ortiz, a reporter, and journalist for Ethnic Media Services and Peninsula 360 Press, reported firsthand experiences from the Ukrainian borders. Regarding the challenges people were facing, the restricted movement was the most pronounced. Manuel explains, “It’s difficult to enter Ukraine to deliver medical supplies or render support, especially as the recent attack comes closer to the West, relatively safe.”

Regrettably, people are becoming worried about their safety. Many leave the relatively safe western Ukraine to Poland and Romania as attacks step up and draw closer. “Various people are going to Poland and Romania. However, many elderly and disabled are staying back because they cannot make the 30 hour journey to these locations,” he said. Most of the trips are undertaken by women, some with kids and pets. They rarely are their unaccompanied kids fleeing the location alone.

Once they reach the border, there is enormous solidarity -food, medical supply, comfort, and various sources.

“Before the attack, the Polish appeared very divided, but with the attack, they have joined forces to help Ukrainians,” he reported.

Although Poland has few shelters, there are adequate provisions for the refugees with people staying in houses, taking up offers on Airbnb, or occupying available spaces donated by the people. Manuel affirmed the potential problem of ‘generosity fatigue’ setting in with time as the attack rages and more people seek safety.

“People didn’t want to leave because they didn’t expect any attack,” he says,

“but now people want to leave, tension is increasing, and more and more people are starting to leave.”

Psychological Disposition of Ukrainians There is a mix of distinct reactions among the Ukrainians. At the same time, those at the border want to go back and fight to save their country. Those facing the onslaught remain resilient despite the ominous military presence.

“Many have told me that they want to fight. Some women want to go back to fight for their country,” Manuel reports.

“In Ukraine, it is very silent even in a massive-line, people work silently, people don’t talk.”

He painted a picture of a city with a lot of tension and military checkpoints. “It is not everyday life,” Manuel concludes.

The abnormality of the situation extends to the lack of precaution against contracting COVID-19. “Everyone says we are not worried about COVID right now. No one is using a mask, and even those using it like the journalists seem strange wearing their masks around.”

Other issues like Moscow’s misinformation and propaganda seem inconsequential to the people because “People are more concerned on how to leave, stay safe or save their pets.”

National Responses Towards Protecting Refugees Since the onset of the Russian invasion, several countries have rallied around to support Ukrainians, including smaller ones. Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, pointed out that migration into some smaller countries like Moldova might eventually lead to another crisis. For instance, as the crisis progresses and the pressure on resources and infrastructure increases, people from the host nations might start seeking alternatives. Now, countries like Poland are beginning to struggle. As the US House approves over $13.3 billion as support for the Ukrainians, the scenario will continue to change.

Potential Scenarios and Consequences for Nations There are two possible situations as the attack progresses. In a best-case scenario,

the Russian invasion will fail, and Ukrainians will be able to return to their country to rebuild their nation.

In such a scenario, refugees might not want to travel far into other countries like the US. Other factors like cultural issues apply.

Natalia explains that the more protracted and prolonged the displacement, the more difficult it becomes to return to new relationships and build a new life.

“Support for one refugee population does not apply to a refugee’s situation because people have personal reasons for seeking asylum such as cultural proximity, cultural differences,” she says. So, they will prefer to stay in countries like Poland or Germany.

“Therefore, even though the US initiated the Temporary Protection Status (TPS) and accompanying Visa for a time like this,” Krish explains, “which is not as robust as the TPS status offered by other countries to Ukrainians, it still might suffice.” However, in a worst-case scenario, she further explained, “where there is a significant uptick in the attack, there will be more refugees than the estimated 4 million to 7 million.”

As earlier stated, the initial solidarity and humanitarian response to the Ukrainians began to wane in Europe. A backlash will set in. The US must step up with a more robust ‘Refugee program” that will accommodate higher numbers of refugees despite the annual cap that the president sets.

Krish notes that there are concerns about the possibility of political calculations in managing TPS awards to Ukrainians compared to other immigration cases. The concerns range from the perception of different treatment options for refugees seeking Temporary Protection Status, dealing with application backlogs, and working with unreviewed policies like Title 42.

According to Krish, ” I don’t see policy changing anytime soon, and it is worrisome. ” Therefore, as millions flee Ukraine seeking protection and assistance in various countries, the ongoing voluntary aid must be supported. The government should continue to mobilize resources to sustain immediate needs.

Policymakers across the European Union (EU) and the United States need to continue reviewing appropriate responses for the short and long term. A good example is the unanimously approved Temporary Protection Directive that provides immediate protection and rights, enhances responsibility-sharing, and reduces pressures on national asylum systems among member countries.

Additionally, preparing for the longerterm effect of the inevitable displacements through reviewed internal policies and faster administrative procedures within countries.l

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