Immigration
Let Families and Communities Seek Asylum Together
Article by CLLAS Executive Board Member and Founding Director, Lynn Stephen
As of June 1, 2021, there were 1,306,772 backlogged cases in US Immigration Courts, with an average wait time of 938 days, or 2.56 years, according to the Syracuse University Trac immigration project. The nation with the largest number of cases is Guatemala, with 287,097, followed by Honduras, with 251,795. Among these pending immigration cases are a large number of asylum cases. What is asylum? Why would it take so long? Why would Guatemala and Honduras top the list? And can we rethink what asylum is?
To read more, please find this piece on Public Books.
Latinx & Undocumented Student Support Group
Mondays, 2:00pm –3:00pm, starting Week 4
Location: Counseling Center
This support group is offered to create a safe, affirming, and confidential space for Latinx-identified students who would like to explore their multiple identities, discuss ways of balancing multiple roles on and off campus, address subtle and overt forms of discrimination, and connect with one another for mutual support and sense of community. Drop-ins are welcome, no sign-up required.
For more details, contact Dr. Eric Garcia: egarcia3@uoregon.edu
Grupo de Apoyo para Estudiantes Latinx e Indocumentados
Día y hora: Los lunes 2:00 – 3:00pm, empezando la semana 4
Ubicación: Counseling Center
Este grupo de apoyo esta ofrecido para crear un espacio seguro, de afirmación, y confidencial para estudiantes que se identifican como Latinx o indocumentado quienes quieren explorar sus multiples identidades, discutir maneras de equilibrar sus roles multiples dentro y fuera del campus, abordar diferentes formas de discriminación, y conectar uno con el otro para apoyo mutual y un sentido de comunidad. No hay que registrar.
Por más detalles, contactar al Dr. Eric Garcia: egarcia3@uoregon.edu
See also: https://cllas.uoregon.edu/lets-talk-from-the-uo-counseling-center/
The Migrant Caravan: From Honduras to Tijuana
Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies School of Global Policy and Strategy
University of California San Diego 9500 Gilman Drive # 0519
La Jolla, CA 92093-0519
This PDF is a recent report about the migrant caravan published by the Center for U.S.-Mexicana Studies, which granted permission for CLLAS to disseminate via our website.
The report talks about the conditions that produced the caravan in Central America, responses from civil society in Mexico and the U.S., explains what asylum is and how and why people seek it and some stories about asylees, and then political responses in Mexico to the caravan.
This report includes pieces by CLLAS founding director Lynn Stephen, Philip H. Knight Chair, Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences, Professor of Anthropology, and James Daria, a PhD student at University of Oregon in cultural anthropology and a previous CLLAS Graduate Student grantee and Faculty/Student Collaborative grantee.
See their articles on these pages:
- “The Northern Triangle of Central America: Violence, Displacement, and Refuge,” by James Daria / p. 4
- “The Response of Civil Society on Both Sides of the U.S.-Mexican Border,” by James Daria, Carolina Valdivia, and Abigail Thornton / p. 22
- “The Path to Legal Safety: A Mismatch between the Law and the Practice.” by Lynn Stephen and Teresita Rocha Jiménez / p. 32
Following on the 2018-19 AY visits by Judge Yassmin Barrios and Dana Frank (professor of history emerita, University of California, Santa Cruz), this report should be of particular interest to the CLLAS community of faculty, staff, students, and community members.
Spring 2019 CLLAS Notes
The 2019 spring edition of CLLAS Notes, our twice-yearly newsletter, is now available online and in print.
History professor Carlos Aguirre reviews his tenure as CLLAS interim director and takes us on a look ahead at the new two-year plan for CLLAS, a series of initiatives and events under the theme “The Politics of Language in the Americas.”
Learn about Judge Yassmin Barrios’s visit to the UO campus in March and her lecture on “Justice and Reparation in Guatemala,” where she talked about her experience with the High Risk Crime Tribunal over which she presides. Check out the accounts of graduate student research in Peru and Guatemala and faculty research in Bolivia. Read about CLLAS founding director Lynn Stephen’s experience as the president of the Latin American Studies Association.
CLLAS event planner & project manager Feather Crawford fills us in on the January CLLAS Town Hall with Mae Ngai, the 2018-19 Wayne Morse Center Chair. And thanks to Crawford’s excellent reporting, you can find out more about why migrants are fleeing Honduras when you read her account of historian Dana Frank’s detailed talk held in April.
The 2019 Spring edition of CLLAS Notes, Volume 10, Issue 2 includes:
- Letter from Interim Director Carlos Aguirre
- “Justice and Reparation in Guatemala”—Judge Yassmin Barrios’s lecture about justice & human rights in Guatemala
- “Lynn Stephen Completes Her Tenure as LASA President”
- Faculty Research—“Strugging with Sustainability: Guarayo Cultural and Environmental Management Challenges”
- Graduate Research—“Responses to Gendered Violence in Costa Rica and Guatemala”
- Graduate Research—“Sounds of Power: Peruvian colonial pipe organs in the interplay of cultures”
- Graduate Research—“Environmental Justice and the Local Effects of Glacier Melt in the Peruvian Cordillera Huayhuash”
- News & Book Notes
- Event Reports
- 2019-20 Grant Recipients
2019-19 Dreamers Working Group Update
May 8, 2019—The Dreamers Working Group (DWG) includes staff, faculty, graduate students, and community members committed to creating a community of welcome and support for undocumented and Dreamer students, students with DACA, and students in mixed-status families.
One way the DWG builds this support and community is through education and training outreach on the UO campus. Working in collaboration with CLLAS, UO professor Ellen McWhirter (counseling psychology) developed an hour-long info-session to build understanding of the realities faced by students with precarious status. DWG volunteers have led approximately 40 info-sessions since winter 2017, offering these educational opportunity units all over campus and beyond. Julie Weise, associate professor of history, created the Dreamers Ally Training initiative in fall 2017. Since then the DWG has held six robust, four-hour training sessions, training almost 400 staff, faculty, and graduate employees as allies.
As director of Multicultural and Identity-based Support Services and chair of the DWG, Justine Carpenter focuses on direct student support and access and prioritizes student-facing work. The successful Duck Funder campaign—and other fundraising activities that created a scholarship for undocumented & Dreamer students—has been at the center of this work. Nine students received scholarships for spring 2019 and six to nine scholarships will be awarded for AY 2019-2020. The UO Dreamers webpage has also been reoriented toward student access and includes useful information on financial aid, scholarships, wellness, and student support and resources.
The DWG is ready to build upon the foundation of volunteerism, ally membership, and administrative support to institutionalize strides taken in education, training and outreach for campus partners and access and advocacy for student success. New initiatives include: 1) community outreach to bridge the divide between campus and the Eugene-Springfield community; and 2) development of more effective legal support for undocumented and Dreamer students, students with DACA, and students from mixed-status families. The DWG has made progress toward the first goal of community outreach with a committee dedicated to connecting more effectively with community leaders and Eugene/Springfield school districts and libraries, and welcoming community members to campus more effectively with projects like creating a Spanish-language map of the UO, planning a community reception, and sharing the Latino Roots exhibit.
The DWG needs the help of allies and experts in pursuit of the second goal of developing more effective legal support for our students, however. Please email feather@uoregon.edu to volunteer.
— Feather Crawford, the CLLAS event & program coordinator, also works as a part-time coordinator for the Dreamers Working Group.
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