Valeria Torres-Olivares – Immigration Politics, Policymaking in the U.S.

Author: Valeria Torres-Olivares

Actions Speak Volumes: Why Rep. Bonnie Watson-Coleman Should Take an Active Stance on Immigration

May 16, 2019 / Valeria Torres-Olivares / 2 Comments

Abstract:

Congresswoman Bonnie Watson-Coleman of New Jersey District 12 tells her constituents through her voting history, website, and social media, that immigration is an issue she finds of importance. While the Congresswoman has done great work with the Healthy MOM Act, the End For-Profit Prisons Act, and more;she has room for improvement when it comes to advocating for documented and undocumented immigrants alike. I argue using interviews of immigrants from NJ 12 and peer-reviewed research that it not only is beneficial on a moral ground but on a strategic one as well that she advocates more actively for pro-immigrant policy and work to help those not just nationally but in her own district through partnerships with organizations. Action is what counts.

Op-Ed:

To my knowledge, just last week there were three more undocumented immigrants detained by ICE in Princeton, NJ. Under the Trump administration, undocumented immigrants across the country have had more and more reasons to live in fear due to the increased aggressiveness of ICE and anti-immigrant rhetoric. While there has been a push for politicians to be more vocal about their stance on immigration, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they act in a substantial manner when it comes to creating policy that will benefit their districts’ constituents. This lack of action when claiming a stance on immigration can be seen in elected officials across the US, even in the historically Democratic District 12 of New Jersey.

Bonnie Watson-Coleman, the Congresswoman for NJ 12, hasn’t created or presented any sort of immigration policy, she has voted to date on nine billsthat have to do with immigration or ICE. The majority of those bills were presented by Republican Representatives. Many of these bills had to do with gaining funding for the construction of a wall on the southern border, to prohibit funding to state or local governments that are sanctuary cities, and more. The one bill Bonnie Watson-Coleman voted “Yea” on was a bill called the “Anti-Border Corruption Reauthorization Act of 2017.”

When looking at Watson-Coleman’s campaign website, one will see that immigration is not listed as one. On her official government website, one will find a section for immigration this time; however, once clicking into her page on immigration, one will find a small paragraph about her support for DACA and her belief that Trumps proposed wall is a symbol of hate. In addition to this, on April 5^th, Watson-Coleman’s trip as a part of a delegationfrom the Border Security, Facilitation and Operations Subcommittee that examined U.S. operations at the United States-Mexico border.Her trip to the borderand a migrant shelterin El Paso, Texas, was documented on her social media account. The purpose of the trip being to learn more about the way undocumented immigrants are treated at the border as well as what can be done to insure their treatment is humane. While it’s great that Watson-Coleman is getting to learn more about the issues immigrants are facing entering this country and that she has a more progressive stance on immigration, it is unclear on what she has done to help the undocumented constituents that live in her district.

Although NJ 12 is lucky enough to have such a progressive Congresswoman, it takes more than just picking sides to create and generate positive change, especially when it comes to the undocumented and documented immigrant experience within her district. In NJ 12, the Latino population went up +10.7pp in ten years, scholars like Abrajano & Hajnal (2015) have foundthat as a result one should expect to see negative rhetoric towards immigrants increase in the area where the Latino population has increased substantially and quickly. However, Patricia Fernandez-Kelly’s research foundthat integration of immigrants in a community is easier if there is already a pre-existing large presence of immigrants within said community. In order to find out more about the immigrant experience in NJ 12, I ended up interviewing five immigrants, shown here. Data such as: age, gender, country of origin, length of time in the community, employment, etc. was taken to contextualize the responses. I focused mostly around the “integration” of the Latino immigrant. I defined “integration” into categories: feeling of belonging; participation in broader community; accessibility to education; accessibility to resources; job security; and the ability speak English.

When asking the immigrants if they had a sense of belonging in NJ 12, all of them answered no. This sentiment is specially seen in the undocumented immigrants of whom I interviewed; the reason for this being mainly attributed to the fear of deportation they face on a daily basis since ICE has become more aggressive. Another reason would be the negative rhetoric them and other immigrants receive, including their kids at school. As a result of the lack of belonging and the fact that many of those interviewed work multiple jobs and are students, they do not participate in the broader community. One great thing about the public schools in NJ 12, is that students do not need to demonstrate citizenship or legal status in order to get an education. In addition to this, although there are many organizations which help undocumented immigrants when in need of helping pay rent, medical bills, acquiring an ID, legal help, and more; some organizations cannot help because of an immigrants legal status, furthermore undocumented immigrants are not able to qualify for fordable housing either. Unfortunately, it isn’t uncommon for undocumented workers to be exploited by their employers, but because of their legal status, it is nearly impossible to speak out without losing their job having the authorities called on you. Another obstacle undocumented immigrants face is the inability to get a drivers license, which impedes their ability to access transportation. The language takes time to overcome especially because of the fact that most immigrants stay within their small communities and do not get immersed in English. While none of the interviewees noticed demographic shifts, they have noticed the increased hateful rhetoric since the Trump administration took place. Some reflected on the atmosphere changing but not due to increase in Latinos.

Although undocumented immigrants cannot vote, naturalized citizens and Latinos can. So, even if the moral reason to actively support both documented and undocumented immigrants isn’t enough, there is also another more concrete incentive. Accordingto political scientists, Adrian Pantoja, Gary Segura, and Ricardo Ramirez, Latino voters are strongly mobilized by attacks on immigrants, which was shown in the 2018 elections. In addition to this, accordingto Matt Barreto, a political scientist at U.C.L.A, the research center he helped established foundthat in eight states with large Latino populations, the Latino vote went up 96% from 2014-2018. The same study, Barreto cites, foundthat higher Latino turnout was influential in flipping 20 out of the 40 House seats that the Democrats gained.

Although Watson-Coleman does a great job as it is with the Healthy MOM Act, the End For-Profit Prisons Act, and more; it is particularly important at this point in time with the extreme negative rhetoric around immigration and the inhumane ways undocumented immigrants are being treated at the border and in their everyday lives, to advocate for them as well. Aside from being more active in advocating for immigrants not only nationwide but in her own district and finding out ways in which to work with local organizations to help immigrants would be a great step in the right direction not just for Watson-Coleman’s constituents, but for herself as well. And it seems that after her trip to the detention centers, Watson-Coleman is more motivated to achieve this next step, she even wrote her own op-ed about it! Even if being more vocal about immigrant rights unease’s some of her constituents, more Latinos will endorse her, and due to her historical success in the district, she should be able this change.

The Immigrant Experience in NJ 12(D)

May 14, 2019 / Valeria Torres-Olivares / 0 Comments

Slide 1: In Enos’ “Causal effect of intergroup contact on exclusionary attitudes,” the author talks about the immigrant community at large and the correlation between the increase of immigrants in homogenous areas and how that leads to hostility and negative sentiments towards immigrants. The fact that the rapid growth of the Latinx population in an area correlates with an increase in negative sentiments towards immigrants and immigration is also talked about by Abrajano & Hajnal (2015); Hopkins (2010); Newman (2018); Adida (2018). Patricia Fernandez-Kelly’s paper called “The Integration Paradox: Coping Strategies among Immigrant Children in the Age of Mass Deportations,” talks about how integration of immigrants in a community is easier if there is already a pre-existing large presence of immigrants within said community. However, this is not true when it comes to Asian immigrants and their political representation, which was examined by Aptekar’s paper which is titled “Highly Skilled but Unwelcome in Politics: Asian Indians and Chinese in a New Jersey Suburb.” When looking at NJ 12, data from the United States Census Bureau shows that the Latinx population of NJ 12 more than doubles from 2007 to 2017 (going from 7.4% to 18.1%). In addition to this, another large demographic shift was seen in the number of foreign-born residents in the district. In 2007 the foreign-born pop. was 13.4%, which then increased to 44.3% in 2017, indicating a +30.9pp. Based on the existing literature on demographic shifts of immigrants (specifically Latinos), the increase of the Latinx community in NJ 12 means that it is likely for there to be an increase of hostile sentiments to the immigrant and Latinx community. As a result of NJ12’s Latinx population increase, it is now on par with the national average of 18% Hispanic. This means that Latinx immigrants should in theorynot have too much of a hard time “integrating” into communities within NJ 12; however, in reality I predict that this is not the case and that integration is not easy, especially for those immigrants that are undocumented.

Slide 2: In order to test my prediction about the immigrant experience I needed to break down what “integration” means. I defined “integration” into categories: feeling of belonging; participation in broader community; accessibility to education; accessibility to resources; job security; and the ability to communicate with the broader community. In order to find out if the prediction for NJ12 was true or not, the interviewing of immigrants was conducted, this included undocumented immigrants. The interviews would be focused on members of the Latinx immigrant community. The questions being asked of them would revolve around what I previously defined as being integrated into the community, and whether they felt like they could or have integrated. Questions about population groups were asked as well, and for those who have lived in NJ12 for a year or more were also asked whether or not they have noticed a demographic shift within those groups. Since all of those interviewed were immigrants, data in order to contextualize their responses was also collected (ex: age, country of origin, length of time in the community, employment, how they ended up in that community, etc.,). A total of five immigrants were interviewed. They ranged in gender, age, occupation, country of origin, documentation status, and length of time within NJ12. In terms of getting in touch with the immigrants interviewed, I reached out to a local leader from the immigrant community to help me get the interviews of these immigrants.

Slide 3: In order to put the responses of the interviewee’s I will go over some of their information to add context: Countries of origin: Mexico(2), Guatemala(2), Venezuela; Age Group: Minor(2), Adult(3); Gender-Identity: F(2), M(3); Socioeconomic status: Low income(4), Middle Class; Education Level: High School(3), College(1), Ph.D.; Documentation Status: Undocumented(4), Documented; Reason for Immigrating: Escaping violence(4), Higher Education then Job. In order to get a sense of the immigrant experience in NJ 12, I focused mostly around the “integration” of the immigrant. In the previous slide I defined “integration” into categories: feeling of belonging; participation in broader community; accessibility to education; accessibility to resources; job security; and the ability to communicate with the broader community. When asking the immigrants if they had a sense of belonging in NJ 12, all of them answered no. This sentiment is specially seen in the undocumented immigrants of whom I interviewed; the reason for this being mainly attributed to the fear of deportation they face on a daily basis. While ICE raids are not necessarily frequent in the area, according to all of them, ICE has become more aggressive and has even targeted parents when dropping their kids off at school. For example, just last week there were three undocumented immigrants detained and taken from their homes, all parents, leaving their families without a much-needed provider. Another reason why a sense of belonging is absent for all of the interviewees is that they all have experienced negative rhetoric towards them and those they know as immigrants, including their kids while at school. As a result of the lack of belonging and the fact that many of those interviewed work multiple jobs and are students, they do not participate in the broader community. The only one of those I interviewed who participates in the broader community is the immigrant with a Ph.D., through volunteering and attending events in the schools and town. Others do not have the time and feel unwelcome or uncomfortable in those spaces. One great thing about the public schools in NJ 12, is that students do not need to demonstrate citizenship or residency in order to get an education. In addition to this, there are many organizations (as well as some underground) which help undocumented immigrants when in need of helping pay rent, medical bills, acquiring an ID, legal help, and more. One major concern for these undocumented immigrants is being exploited by their employers because of their status. Many of them work unsteady and underpaid jobs, with the exception of the immigrant with the Ph.D. Another barrier to integration is the language barrier, which takes time to overcome especially because of the fact that most immigrants stay within their small communities and do not get immersed in English. It is also hard to make relationships with people who don’t speak Spanish for them. While none of the interviewees noticed the demographic shifts, they have noticed the increased hateful rhetoric since the Trump administration took place. Some reflected on the atmosphere changing but not due to increase in Latinos.

Slide 4: After listening to the five immigrants I interviewed, from what they said, theincrease of Latinx population correlated with an increase in negative rhetoric towards Latinos, but it was the rise of the Trump administration that lead to this, not the demographic shift seen from 2007 to 2017. Findingcommunities of undocumented immigrants, and Latino communities are not hard; however, as we can see from the interviews, it does not indicate an easier time of “integrating” for new comers, especially for those who are undocumented. It seems that integration is not possible with the constant fear undocumented immigrants face, the exploitation of undocumented immigrants by their employers, the language barrier, and hateful rhetoric which causes immigrants and their families to feel unwelcome and unsafe. In addition to this, it is hard for immigrants to be involved in their greater communities since they work long hours, are underpaid, and again, are exploited if undocumented. Some positives that I found in the immigrant experience in NJ 12, reflected by the interviews was the fact that there are many organizations which help undocumented immigrants, access to public schools, and that within the pre-existing large Latinx communities, immigrants can help each other out. Some limitations that I ran into was that while I could only interview 5 immigrants, interviewing more would allow for a broader picture to be painted of the immigrant experience in NJ 12. In addition to this, interviewing immigrants of other ethnicities could also possibly be helpful in terms of grasping a better picture of what the immigrant experience is in NJ 12; however this could make the research less focused.

The Power Of The Latino Vote

May 1, 2019 / Valeria Torres-Olivares / 0 Comments

For this post I decided to pick two articles. The second article focuses more on the statistics revolving Latino voter turn out for the 2018 elections, whereas the first article looks more at how immigration being at the forefront of many politicians rhetoric has impacted the Latino vote. Since this week’s readings/content was focused on Latino backlash, I thought that since the first article didn’t have much on stats surrounding this, I supplemented it with the second article. When referring to “latino backlash,” this weeks readings/content talk about this in terms of the long-term effects of having immigration at the forefront of political rhetoric and how that affects Latino political involvement.

In the first article, 1A Across America: The Power of The Latino Vote, the author talks about the turnout of latino voters to the polls, especially considering that in 2020, Latinos are predicted to make up the largest non-white voting population in the US. However, Latino voter turn-out has historically wavered, due to various reasons, which is another aspect which the article touches upon. In the piece we hear from various political figures and their opinions on why Latino voter turn out will keep increasing, as well as what it will/has meant for the US.

The second article, Key takeaways about Latino voters in the 2018 midterm elections, from the Pew Research Center, breaks down trends seen within the Latino voter-turn out. More specifically the article looks at: first-time voters, party affiliation, gender gap, increasing eligible & registered voters, and the flipping of seats as a result of the percentage of Latino voters.

Discussion Questions:

What influences, aside from the increase in xenophobic rhetoric, could have caused more Latinos to participate in the 2018 midterm elections? Do you foresee this as a trend that will continue as a result?
What if this xenophobic rhetoric decreases? Will the Latino vote still keep increasing or will it plateau?
While the increase in xenophobic rhetoric surrounding immigration has increased in the US, to what extent do you believe this has actually increased Latino voter turn out?

NJ 12(D) Population Demographics

April 15, 2019 / Valeria Torres-Olivares / 0 Comments

Slide 1: Demographics

According to the United States Census Bureau, the Latinx population of NJ 12 more than doubles from 2007 to 2017 (going from 7.4% to 18.1%). In addition to this, another large demographic shift was seen in the number of foreign-born residents in the district. In 2007 the foreign-born pop. was 13.4%, which then increased to 44.3% in 2017, indicating a +30.9pp. When looking closer at the demographics, one notices an +24.pp increase in naturalized foreign-born residents in the district, indicating that those residents have and will be likely living within the district long-term. While these shifts where the largest increases, the largest decrease of a population in NJ 12 was that of the Asian population which went from 12.6% in 2007, to 5.6% in 2017. In addition to this, while there were many shifts in the demographics, the one group that did not face a similar shift was that of the Black population, experiencing only a +1.8pp increase in population.

Slide 2: Existing Research

When looking for existing research on this topic, one does not need to look far. There is an incredible archive of resources surrounding different demographic shifts and its effects within communities. The three topics the existing research fell into was that of the immigrant experience, the media coverage on immigration, and public opinion on immigration. In terms of immigrant experience, in Enos’ “Causal effect of intergroup contact on exclusionary attitudes,”he talks about the immigrant community at large and the correlation between the increase of immigrants in homogenous areas and how that leads to hostility and negative sentiments towards immigrants. In order to talk more about the immigrant experience, I used PFK’s paper called “The Integration Paradox: Coping Strategies among Immigrant Children in the Age of Mass Deportations,” which talks about how integration of immigrants in a community is easier if there is already a pre-existing large presence of immigrants within said community. However, this is not true when it comes to political representation of Asian immigrants, which was examined by Aptekar’s paper which is titled “Highly Skilled but Unwelcome in Politics: Asian Indians and Chinese in a New Jersey Suburb.” When looking into the research on media coverage on immigration and its effects, I used Abrajano and Sighn 2009 paper which discusses how national immigration coverage tends to typically be negative, especially surrounding Latinx immigration. Whereas, news coverage in Spanish tends to display pro-immigrant sentiments. The fact that the rapid growth of the Latinx population in an area correlates with an increase in negative sentiments towards immigrants and immigration is talked about in Abrajano & Hajnal (2015); Hopkins (2010); Newman (2018); Adida (2018).

Slide 3: Predictions

According to all of the research presented on the previous slide, one can assume that the increase of the Latinx community means that it is likely for there to be an increase of hostile sentiments to the immigrant and Latinx community. As a result of NJ12’s Latinx population increase, it is now on par with the national average of 18% Hispanic. This means that Latinx immigrants should in theory not have too much of a hard time integrating into communities within NJ 12; however, the same cannot be said for Asian immigrants. Regardless if Asian populations are prominent in an area, they most likely will not be represented in local elected office. In regard to media coverage on immigration, since there would likely be news coverage in both English and Spanish due to the demographics of the district, this would likely result in pro-immigrant sentiments in NJ 12. Public opinion on immigration would likely be leaning towards restrictionist sentiments and hostile attitudes would have a possibility of being found in NJ 12 do the rapid large increase of Hispanics in the area. This public opinion, however, is challenged by the levels of education found in the district, as well as the media coverage in the area which would suggest a more welcoming view point on immigrants and immigration.

Slide 4: Research Proposal

While there is a larger Latinx population in NJ 12 than Asian population, integration will be harder for the Latinx population. According to Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, the large population of immigrants in the area should allow for an easier transition into the community; however, this is also conflicted by the fact that there has been a rapic increase of the Latinx population in the area in conjunction with the negative rhetoric surrounding Latinos, which leads to negative sentiments and hostile treatment of them. So, while there is a pre-existing community for new Latinx immigrants, it doesn’t necessarily mean the transition and community they arrive to is a welcoming one. In order to determine whether this is true for NJ 12 or not, I would want to first conduct interviews. The interviews would be focused on members of the Latinx community, including those belonging to the immigrant community, those with family members whom are immigrants, as well as both natural born and naturalized citizens. The theme of their questioning would revolve around support from both non-Latinx/Latinx communities, educational and job aspirations, and perceived perception of how others see them. Another line of questioning would be directed towards the rest of the general population, specifically on their opinion of immigrants (nationally and locally) as well as the nuances between the different types of immigrants. Aside from interviewing, looking into a possible achievement gap in public schools, as well as socioeconomic disparities between demographics (specifically immigrant groups).

Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ 12)

March 10, 2019 / Valeria Torres-Olivares / 0 Comments

Slide 1

Slide 1 shows how there has been a strong Democratic presence in NJ 12 for a number of years. For the history of the district, there has always been a Democratic Representative in office, starting out with Rush D. Holt Jr, serving from 2000 to 2014. He was then succeeded by the current Rep, Bonnie Watson Coleman, who has served from 2014 until now. As you can see, on the right-hand side there is data from the US Census Bureau (2010) that details population, gender, race, ethnicity, unemployment, median household income, high school graduation rate, and college graduation rate.

Slide 2

On this slide you can find existing research on what impacts immigration policy. This is used on this slide to make predictions on what the current Rep, Bonnie Watson Coleman (BWC), will decide upon, whether that be a restrictive or accepting immigration policy. According to the research and readings that were given to us in the class, the higher the population of Latinx residents, the more likely that there will be a immigrant friendly policy; however, if the Latinx population rises quickly in a short amount of time, then Republican Reps will be more likely to vote for restrictive immigration policies (Wong 2014). According to Ramakrishnan and Wong (2010), cities with protests are eight times more likely to have pro-immigrant legislation. When looking at who is likely to fund the DHS, Democratic Representatives in a polarized district likely to vote towards funding the DHS (Valenzuela 2019). It also happens to be a well-known fact that Republican Reps are more likely to vote on restrictive immigration policies, while the opposite is true for Democrats (Wong 2014, Wong 2017, Casellas and Leal 2013).

Slide 3

According to all of the research presented on the previous slide, if BWC had to choose between a restrictive or accepting immigration policy, she would probably go with an accepting policy. When looking at protests, there are many protests within cities of District 12, particularly in Trenton and Princeton, indicating that the district would have an accepting policy on immigration. Another reason to believe that BWC would be for accepting immigrant policies is the fact that BWC is not a Representative in a polarized district, in addition to this, she is also serving in a district that happens to be historically Democratic. Since BWC is serving her third term as a Representative of District 12, she would likely not be pushed towards a restrictive policy since she has no history of doing so in the past.

Slide 4

When looking at BWC’s tweets containing the keywords: “Immigration,” “Immigrant,” “Border,” “Wall,” and “Undocumented,” you find that roughly around 13% of her tweets are on immigration from January 1^st, to March 1^stof this year. While she does have several tweets on the topic of immigration, this doesn’t translate to her voting record. From what I found, the hasn’t ever sponsored a bill on immigration; however, this does not necessarily mean she has voted against one, it is just likely that due to NJ’s distance from the border, there has been no need to pass a bill on immigration. Aside from this, her tweets do indicate that she hastaken a public stance on being against the wall since she considers the border situation to be a humanitarian crisis, anti-trump, condemns the govt. shutdown, and is for DACA. When looking at her history of bill sponsorship, she has mostly sponsored bills revolving taxation (25%), Crime and Law Enforcement (22%), and Government Operations and Politics (19%). If one looks on her website, one can find that out of twelve issues listed, immigration is listed as the 5^thissue; however, when looking at her campaign website, one wont find Immigration listed as an important issue for her. On her official website, one can find quotes from her about how she believes in how DACA or an equivalent should be made permanent, and how the proposed wall is nothing more than a symbol of hate that she is against for many reasons.

Campaign Website: https://www.bonnieforcongress.com

Govt. Website (BWC): https://watsoncoleman.house.gov