Just by LASA Ezine

Racial Injustice The injustice still prevalant in American homes

Immigration The plight suffered by peoples entering into the US

Reproductive Rights Protecting women in America

Labor Unions Where American jobs are headed

INSIDE 2

6 LETTER FROM EDITORS 8 FUTURE OF AMERICA 12 HISTORY OF NAZISM 14 LATEST CONFEDERACY 18 CONFEDERATE POLLS 20 GOING NOWHERE 24 THE MONEY ARGUMENT 26 BEHIND BORDERS 30 IMMIGRATION POLICIES 32 REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS 36 FUNDING CUTS 38 CHASING DOLLARS 42 LIFE BEYOND BARS 3

MEET THE James Miller James is currently attending LASA High School. Outside of school he enjoys playing soccer and is an avid videogame player. He is interested in math and economics, and also enjoys his World Geography class.

Sally Thoden Sally was born in Washington, D.C., but moved to Austin shortly after. In her free time, she enjoys rowing at the Texas Rowing Center, and playing with her cat, Mannie. She hopes to row in college, and is interested in studying psychology or medicine.

Will DiCarlo Will enjoys puzzles and games and is interested in math and science. He occupies his free time with reading, hiking, baseball, and playing ultimate. He likes to figure out how things work and why. He like to get things done quickly.

CONTRIBUTORS Helena Lara Helena was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and moved to the United States when she was two years old. Her passion for social justice began from an early age and has always been inspired by her mom. In her free time she enjoys running, and would like to study human rights and law in college.

Neeka Motamedrasa Neeka was born and raised in Austin, Texas. In her free time, she enjoys traveling and spending time with friends and family, and her favorite subjects include math and science. Her interest in immigration policies sparked at a young age and is rooted in her family, who are all immigrants and were her main motivation for her work in the magazine.

Jordan Mackie Jordan enjoys playing soccer, reading, and traveling to new places. Her interest in social turmoil developed at an early age and she has been invested ever since. Her works in the magazine highlights the injustice of economic tendencies dependent on race and flaws within Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s corrections facilities.

Editorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Note

Austin is one of the most segregated cities in the U.S. Photo by Fredlyfish4.

any people throughout the U.S. believe that their society no longer has problems of racism, poverty, or oppression. They feel that the U.S. is above such problems. However, this is not the case. 7.4 million people are unemployed, and many more have to survive on $7.25 an hour, the federal minimum wage. Our cities still have large divides from the legacy of segregation. Many neighborhoods are all-white or all-black, and there is little communication between these two groups. In no other city is this portrayed more than Austin, Texas. The average income difference from neighborhoods on the West Side (predominantly white) to neighborhoods on the East Side (predominantly black) can be over $100,000 a year. This large difference has been caused by decades of racism and neglect. Now, people are turning a blind eye to this large racial split and instead prefer to think that problems of inequality have been solved. Roughly 17,000 immigrants are sent out of the country each month. Most immigrants that come to the U.S. just want to have a better life but are refused because they have come into America illegally. They are a large part of our economy but lack proper respect. Yet people are trying to change this. More and more people are realizing the problems that still exist. They go to labor strikes, they support womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rights protests, they want to see a better America. In this magazine, we follow the plight of those trying to make a difference. We look into the wounds that still inflict America that others choose to ignore. Because change can happen, as long as people recognise that change should happen.

The Just team is fun loving and passionate about social justice. Photos by Abigail Jackson

Picture of the Statue of Liberty in front of the morning sky. Photo provided by Pexels

The Fight For The Future of America Neo-Nazism and White Supremacy in The United States of America By: James Miller “Any white person can never know what it’s like to be a minority in the United States today,” said William Shoaf, who teaches World Cultures, Conspiracy Theories, and World War II Through Film at Kealing Middle School, in Austin Texas. In the United States of America, people of other races, religions, and ethnicities have been discriminated against since the creation of this country. Activist in the US have tried to reach a form of equality, but have still been unable to completely achieve an equilibrium. Nazism and White Supremacy are ideas and beliefs that have caused controversy and have been the topic of discussion. Neo-Nazism is the modern version of Nazism, that shares beliefs with White Supremacy, and uses the same set of beliefs as the German Nazis in the early to middle 20th century. There have been conflicts recently about the role of such discrimination, and with the push for equality in the 21st and 20th centuries, Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists have been pushed against. As a result, such groups have pushed back, causing tension in the

United States. “I think of [hate crime] as a crime intended to intimidate or harm members of a social group, as defined by race, religion, sex, etc., stemming from animosity of the group” said Ted Brader, Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan. Hate crimes are a major fear for citizens in the US, with the likes of the 9/11 attacks and the bombings in Europe being devastating attacks in recent times. Hate crimes stretch back to slavery, and in recent times where segregation plagued the US.

with or know is wrong, but is valuable for their students understanding of the curriculum. There is a fine line that needs to be held when educating young children who are starting to develop their beliefs about the ideas held by Hitler and the Nazis. “I hope to provide access to multiple viewpoints, while helping students try to figure out what they personally believe,” said Shoaf. When it come to schools, teachers are a major influence on the students future values and beliefs. “I’m not here to tell students what to believe, but

“I’m not here to tell students what to believe, but how to get around to what they will eventually believe” “Defining [terrorism] is tricky and sometimes contested. I take terrorism to describe acts of violence carried out by non-state (non-government) actors to create fear, confusion, or uncertainty among a broader audience,” said Brader. There are some parallels that could be drawn from terrorism to hate crimes, and it can sometimes be very hard to differentiate the two, as has become more apparent since the start of the 21st century. With the push for equlity, Neo-Nazist and White Supremacist ideas have been highlighted by the media. Their beliefs are commonly associated with a “group being denied equal rights to something,” said Shoaf These beliefs are also associated with “injustice, and inequity,” said Cara Crouch, World Cultures teacher at Kealing Middle School. There have been thoughts on how do deal with inequality, with some saying that people can just sit back because they are already heading in that direction. Others have said that the public needs to keep fighting. “I believe that the base desire of humans for power, greed, or resources will always win out over the desire by some for equality,” said Crouch. There is not a lot of optimism when it comes to discrimination. The general public should “speak up when this occurs”, says Shoaf.. It can be hard for some teachers to provide a side of each story that they disagree

how to get around to what they will eventually believe. If students can: evaluate a source for bias, seek out and consider a topic from multiple perspectives (especially outside of their own), engage in respectful discussion about different beliefs and opinions, and be open minded enough to consider changing their perspective if enough solid evidence is given, they will be ok,” said Crouch. There has been some criticism of the general public by Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists that the general public is being hypocritical by discriminating against them for discriminating against other races, religions, genders, etc. Some say that these groups shouldn’t be banned outright, but instead regulated. “If we began prohibiting discriminationbased groups, no matter how detestable their discriminatory beliefs may be to our own personal moral compasses, we begin to go down a very dimly lit road,” said Taylor Fox. There is some hypocrisy when you start to discriminate against discrimination groups, but that can sometimes be appropriate. “Not allowing someone to do something isn’t always discrimination, sometimes it’s just regulatory,” said Crouch. Most are not quite in agreement on if discriminatory groups should be regulated or not, and if so how. “I don’t believe we have much choice in “allowing” discriminatory beliefs to exist. It is impractical

Picture of the Texas capital building in Austin, Texas late in the evening.

and likely unwise to get into the business of policing beliefs themselves.Individuals or groups who engage in discriminatory behavior can be sanctioned,” said Brader. In order to regulate certain groups, lots of government resources would be required in order to accomplish said goal. “People have the right to their own belief system, until that belief system causes discrimination based on something a person can’t control,” said Shoaf. There can be uneasiness when discussing or thinking about how White Supremacist and NeoNazis could affect the United States in the future. “I do not fear that white supremacism will become the norm in our society. The majority of people are not white supremacists. And I don’t think that will ever happen,” said Shoaf. It is not fair to assume that some are discriminatory based on one or two decisions, instead you should look across everything that they have done in order to make a proper judgement. “It is the responsibility of other citizens and leader to combat these ideas with argument and evidence, as well as to levy appropriate social sanctions such as distancing or ostracism” said Brader. The general public cannot rely exclusively on the government to do everything, but instead have a responsibility to fight for what they believe. “While the racial tension in the U.S. is a daily

Photo by James Miller

feature of our Newsfeed app, it is unaccompanied by high unemployment or collapse in currency value that one often sees with the rise of these groups,” said Fox, criminal defense attorney in Phoenix Arizona. The future that is being described is optimistic, but it won’t just be given to us. In order to do so, US citizens cannot sit back and watch, they need to continue to take action all the way until the end. “Educational programs and community meetings based on giving a voice or a forum to these frustrations, and engaging them in a meaningful dialogue with their perceived oppressors,” said Fox. It might be best to minimize attention to voices of hate or at least not allow them to occupy center stage too long, as this is often what they are seeking or what they feed on” said Brader. “For every “white nationalist” rally, there needs to be a larger counter-protest” said Shoaf. In The United States there is inequality, and it still to exist today. The groups that are backing and spreading such beliefs need to be met head on by the general public, instead of ignored or tolerated as people do today. It is a fight that will be hard to bring to a close, but there has been a lot of headway made in the fight for equality, and there is still a lot of hope and potential for it.

A History of Nazism and White Supremacy Created By: James Miller

Slavery is abolished in the United States of America. The 13th Ammendment was added to the consitution, saying that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude… shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” This was in direct response to the North Side’s victory during the Civil War

1865

The Klu Klux Klan and White Supremacist groups had mostly gone underground, their members afraid to be prosectuted by scoiety for their beleifs. A movie called “The Birth of a Nation” was made. This movie rienforces their racist beleifs, and depicts the Klansmen saving the day many times in a way that shows them as the people of God and the townspeople’s saviors

1865

1915

A White Supremacist group is formed, calling themselves the Klu Klux Klan, or more commonly knon as, The KKK. They were formed as a direct response to the abolition of slavery, within the same month that the 13th ammendment was ratified. Many former slave owners in the south were very unhappy with such a ruling, and tensions between the north and south were still in full effect. This mistrust scared the southerners enough to create a group theat they felt was necesary for their protection.

1921

The Nazi has mostly taken over Germany. They have grown thanks to the Great Depresion, making it easy for the Nazis to convince the German people to hate communists and Jews. Hitler has become the Chancelor of Germany and is now oficcailly the Fuhrer of Germany. The party controls over 1/3 of the government and Germany’s foreign policy has been anounced as secure lebensraum (living space) for the German master race.

1933

Hitler becomes the Leader of the NSPD or the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, better known as The Nazi Party. They were formerly known as the German Workers’ Party (DAP). Once he became the leader he anounced himself as The Fuhrer. They laid out their plan for the country. Hitler radicalized them into beleiving that the communists and the Jews were to blame for Germany losing the First World War, which had been the cause of a lot of pain in the German popultion.

World War II has finally come to an end, with the Axis Powers falling to the immense force and strategic superiority of the Allied Powers. The allies managed to keep one of the biggest military operations in the World’s history a secret from the Nazis by turning all of the German agents into British double agents. They then landed in Normandy, kickstarting D-Day. They Allied Powers ripped through the French countryside into Germany, while a large part of the German army is occupied fighting Russia on their Eastern Front.

1939

1945

World War II has officially started. The major powers are quickly froming, every most countries in Europe and some around the World find themselves caught up in a War again. The axis powers form around Germany, and Germany has no mercy or patience when invading their neighbors.

1954

Marin Luther King Jr. gave his famous speech,”I have a dream”. All throughout all Black Rights movements since he first joined the movement against racism and segregation, MLK has been influenceial. He ended up giving his life for his beliefs and people. In his speech he said, “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

1963

Brown vs The Board of Education was a pivital case in the Black Rights movement, setting a precedent that would desegregate schoold. It was declared that separating the education of somebody by their race is unconstitutional. The case was decided in 1954, but it didn’t come into effect until a year later in 1955. This case has been significant to all equal rights mpvement for any race in the US since.

2017

The town of Charlottesville was attacked when the quiet college town saw a nighttime brawl lit up by torches and smartphones after white nationalists protested the removal of a confederate statue. They claimed that they wanted to keep our history intact, and that removing the statue was the same as removing part of our history. The fighting saw one dead of more than doznes of people injured

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The UT tower on campus, lit up with the lognhorn. Photo from Pexels

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Protesters trickle in from surrounding cities, on the evening of August 20, 2017, watching in bewilderment while city workers remove the statues of Robert E. Lee, and Albert Sidney Johnston. The sound of drills pummeling the ground can be heard all around town. Almost 10 miles away, an elementary school, Robert E. Lee Elementary, whose name is being changed to Russell Lee Elementary, honoring a successful photographer from Austin. Why are there many subtle, small details being changed about the modern-day confederacy? What are experts opinions on all of these changes?

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This story is about the controversy surrounding the confederate monuments in today’s age. These interviews gave insight on two very different people’s opinions on the controversy between the statues. On August 20, 2017, three confederate monuments located on the University of Texas at Austin campus were discreetly removed at night. The University did not put out a statement beforehand, nor were classes in progress. J.B. Bird, the Director of Media Relations at UT, was asked what the scene would have been like if classes were going on, or if it happened in broad daylight. “Well I wouldn’t want to speculate on what the scene would have been like we don’t know for sure, but I think the most important thing is that we are a college campus, you know, we’re not a city park, we’re not a public space like you might find at a federal park or state or a college campus, so our primary orientation is toward education

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and research and we have a duty to make sure that that comes first and as part of that the safety of our students is absolutely a top priority so while we can speculate on what it might look like if we had taken the statue down during the day or if it taken a long time and you know people had to come and organize a protest the main thing is we saw no need to take any chances you know this is student safety we’re talking about and we did we were transparent about it we announced it right as it was happening and before they were removed and people did come out and watch and the media covered it so it was all well documented and out in the open but we did want to act quickly because of public safety.” “You think of the safety of your campus you’re going to act with the safety in mind first,” Bird stated. Who made the executive decision to remove the monuments? “The decision was made by the president of the University,

“You think of the safety of your campus, you’re going to act with safety in mind first.” Gregory L Fenvez,” Bird said. To followed up on this question, he asked if there was a specific

Photo from Creative Commons

turning point, where the idea of taking the monuments down was pressured even more, “You know what might be tempting to say we did it as a response to Charleston [church shooting] , when really we did as a response to the specific people in our community who were upset and who wanted us to remove them and we felt that it was the right thing because of the kind of institution we are the kind of community we are,” Bird stated. To wrap up this interview, Bird was asked why he thinks these monuments have just recently been causing a large controversy, “[ when the statues were originally being put up in the 1930’s ] there was a lot of back and forth about the purpose of the monument, and the monuments were designed they got modified there were discussions about whether it should commemorate the Confederacy and how, and then it didn’t appear that the monument served a lot of controversy for the next several decades but starting in the 1960’s they did and since the 1960’s they have periodically been a source of controversy and debate on our campus,” he stated. A news reporter in Houston, Texas was asked similar questions. One of the questions he asked was why he thought the controversy between the monuments has recently shown up, and his answer varied from Bird’s: “A young man who walked into the South Carolina church, his name was Dylann Roof. And he killed all those people and whenever he walked out he said my intent was to start a war with anyone waving a Confederate battle flag,” he stated. It took bloodshed for this problem to be addressed, as he proves with the Charleston church shooting:

“So whenever you have Dylann Roof walking into the church start killing people then all of a sudden everything [the confederate apparatus] had to come down. Well it wasn’t a problem until Dylann Roof did that,” he said. He was also asked about his opinion on changing school names, so that they do not represent influential confederate people during the civil war. “I think it’s a little overboard to go back a couple billion dollars. It’s not just the right thing. You’re changing everything about the school you’re changing uniforms. We had a school here just an area where the rebels there were the rebels for 50 years. They had to change their past,” he stated. The Controversial Confederacy has just begun, and with the election of Trump, some think that it will only get worse. The graphs on the following page show actually what percentage of people, considering their ages, political status and other factors. Take a look:

Photo by Sally Thoden The Texas State Cemetary is the resting place for over 2,000 Confederate soliders, who either died in battle, or were veterans. Many of their wives and children were also buried here.

Photo by Sally Thoden A photo of Albert Sidney Johnstonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tomb, located at the Texas State Cemetary, in Austin, Texas. Johnston was a former general for the confederacy.

A Confederate Monument, just at the crackof dawn, photo from Creative Commons.

FACTUAL OR FRIGHTENING? A DEEPER LOOK By Sally Thoden

Now that youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve seen a few peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s opinions and views on the great debate between the confederate monuments, do you want to see more? Are you wondering how many people this effects on a larger spectrum? The broad scheme of things? Well fortunately, I decided to take three different polls and create graphs to represent how many people the new uproar of the confederacy effect, how old these people are, and what kind of characteristics these people have.

60 and up

AGE GRAPH

For this pie graph, I decided to dive deeper, 40look to 60at the age range of people who DO and support the monuments staying and standing where they currently are.

20 to 40 12 to 20

60 and up 40 to 60

12 and under 20 to 40 12 to 20 12 and under

Man

WHO?

I looked at the variety of people who DO support the monuments. The sections were distinguished based upon what people mentioned in the poll.

Woman TX Resident

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Working Class TX Reside Student Republican Democrat

Retired

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Republica 0

DOES THIS ACTUALLY EFFECT PEOPLE?

This monument graph shows the percentage of people that the standing monuments actually effect. The red section shows that 87.5% of people are NOT effected by the statues, and the blue section shows that 13.5% of people are effected.

Photo by Will DiCarlo of construction at LBJ High School

Going Nowhere A look into labor unions and poverty By Will DiCarlo

Photo By Matt Popovich: Hedquarters of AFL-CIO, one of the biggest labor unions in the U.S.

early 700,000 buildings are built every year in the U.S. Behind the scenes, a construction worker is killed on the job every nine hours. Labor Unions in Texas protect the rights of workers. With recent policies in immigration and employers having the ability to get cheap labor from other countries, labor unions are weakening. Labor Unions help save and create better lives for workers. “Almost every big professional group

The Workers Defense Project mainly focuses on making work environments safer and making sure workers get paid. AFL-CIO is much broader. It lobbies the legislature in Texas to get better wages, have larger pensions, paid leave and other things. “I’ve come to believe that Labor unions are the best hope for working people to improve their livelihoods. That when workers speak up together, they have their best chance of obtaining raises... better benefits and having a better workplace

“We need to make sure we are providing jobs with dignity and respect for all people,” -Sam Robles has some type of organization, like engineers, the architects, they all have someone looking after their members, and we represent workers. We think that workers should have the same representation for their interests,” said Rene Lara, the legislative director for the Texas branch of AFLCIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations). Sam Robles is part of another labor union, the Workers Defense Project. According to Robles, they have been able to win back over $1.5 million in back reaches for workers, this is all money that wasn’t paid to workers.

environment overall,” Ed Sills, the communications director for AFL-CIO, said. Around 11.3 million people live in the U.S. who have entered the U.S. illegally. “It is my job to help find ways to fight against bad immigration policies that could hurt families, that could tear them apart,” said Robles. Over 400,000 people are deported every year, destroying families as some members remain and others are forced out. According to Robles, many immigrant families avoid the police for fear of being deported. This leads many immigrant families to not report to the police when they are robbed or subjected to

crime. Also employers will pay undocumented immigrants less because they will not be able to get better wages for fear of drawing attention to themselves. “[Undocumented immigrants] are working people too, right, even though they are not US citizens, we need to make sure we are providing jobs with dignity and respect for all people,” said Robles, “The majority of the time immigrant

“My dad was working on a construction site where there was a gas leak, and he collapsed and had to be taken to the hospital,” Robles said. According to Robles, many employers have been known to just leave an injured worker at an emergency room and tell the worker not to say they were hurt on the job. As Texas cities continue to grow at an alarming rate, employers have to get construction

“The company no longer shares in the risk with you for your retirement,” -Ed Sills families are people who are working really hard to make sure that their kids can go to school, that they can pay the bills, and that they can send a little bit of money back to their families in their home countries. They are some of the hardest workers and doing some of the most dangerous jobs in this country,” Labor intensive jobs are usually done by people who have entered the U.S. illegally. This is because these jobs are undesirable and immigrants can be desperate for a job. Unfortunately, these jobs can be dangerous leading to many workplace injuries.

jobs done quickly. “When you’re faced with those deadlines, it is really easily for employers to just ask those workers to keep on working and that is dangerous when a worker hasn’t gotten a break.” “In Texas we have one of the most dangerous construction industries,” Robles said. “In Texas, we lose a construction worker every three days. And this is often because employers do not provide any safety training, they don’t provide safety equipment, and if a worker is injured on the job, they don’t provide workers compensation. We’re the only state in the country that does not provide workers compensation.”

Photo of a labor strike in Madison, Whisconsin. Taken by Marc Tasman. Strikes are usually orginized by unions for the purpose of increasing worker benifits.

Union membership has fallen due to the availiblility of cheap labor in third world countires and the rise of automatization in the workplace. Graph by BoogaLouie.

Minimum wage, if you adjust for inflation, used to be over $10 an hour. “Minimum wage; you used to be able to eke out a living on it. You could get an apartment and put food on the table off a minimum wage back in the ‘50s and ‘60s and it’s now it’s $7.25 an hour. You can’t do a thing on that. You cannot live on that,” Sills said. Pensions are also much less in Texas than other states. “The company no longer shares in the risk with you for your retirement,” he said. Many workers have to worry about keeping their jobs if they do not have a contract. A worker without a contract has to be very careful. “They can fire you because you came in and you were celebrating the Cowboys victory and the boss hates the Cowboys or they can fire you because you’re left handed and they just want to have right handed people in the office.” Labor unions are at the front lines of the fight against poverty and injustice, but in Texas, they are limited by anti-union laws. These “right to work” laws (which are not about the right to work) limit the resources of unions and make many workers not be a part of them. Labor unions have been weakened, but they still are the best hope of a worker trying to improve their livelihood.

Photo of and taken by Ed Sills the communications director for Texas AFL-CIO.

The Money Argument 12

A Guide to How Money is Distributed

Minimum Wage Over Time (Adjusted for Inflation)

Value in 2012 dollars

1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

This graph shows the average minimum wage in the United States over the years based off of 2012 dollars. As you can see, minimum wage was lowest during World War Two but rose quickly afterwards. It peaked in the late 1960s under the Johnson adminsitration but fell due to inflation and new presidencies. The current national minimum wage is $7.25. If it did not have that large drop, it would currently be at least $21.16. This is troublesome

because it allows big businesses to pay their workers very low wages, causing workers to not be able to sustain themselves. Unions help this by strengthing the voice of the labor force so they can get their voices heard for better wages. Unfortunently, if the minimum wage is low, the businesses have the right to pay those low wages. Therefore, the main thing that helps these workers is raising the minimum wage.

Percent of Population Per Wealth Level (Each Wealth Class Holds the Same Total Amount of Money)

<$55,000 Per Year

8% 15%

53%

$55,000-$90,000 Per Year $90,000-$150,000 Per Year $150,000-$400,000 Per Year

23%

This pie graph shows the percent of people in each wealth level of the U.S. As of 2011, each slice of the pie contains two trillion dollars. This shows how skewed the distrubution of money in the U.S. is. There is a huge difference between how much money the lower classes have per person than the upper classes. If you took fiftythree people from the lower class and summed Source is XKCD (Above) and BeBusinessED.com (Left)

>$400,000 Per Year

all of their money together, it would sum to the amount that just one of the people in the highest class has. This huge difference leads to people in the lowest level having trouble making ends meet and cannot even fathom how much money the people in the higher classes have. This can also lead to distrust between the classes because they live differently.

BEHIND

BORDERS How immigration policies affect peoples lives globally by Neeka Motamedrasa

orldwide, millions of people are living in countries where they face torture, rape, war, murder and many other horrific situations as part of their daily lives. Roughly 57 million children are not being educated, 250 million are raised in war zones, 795 million are suffering from starvation, and over 1.3 billion people live in extreme poverty. These people seek an escape and search for a better life-one that can be provided through a solution that may not seem as simple as it sounds: immigration. Since 1790, policies have been changing continuously that determine whether people will find a way to create a better life for themselves and their families or be held captive by

“I believe that immigration issues are the civilized calling of our time” 26

photo from twenty20

international borders. The concept of immigration has been an ongoing global issue for centuries that will continue to affect people’s lives for many more years to come. “I believe that immigration issues are the civilized calling of our time,” Kate Chapman said, a staff attorney who works in immigration law at Catholic Charities in Houston, Texas. However, these issues have grown rapidly since the 2016 pres-

In January on 2012, a protest known as the Refugee Action Collective of Victoria took place to fight for refugee rights. Photo by John Englart

idential election and continue to create hardship for immigrants. Since 2016, the number of visas issued to citizens of majority-Muslim countries has decreased by 44 percent. Discrimination has increased as well, although it has always been prevalent to a certain extent towards immigrants and foreigners. “I see immigrants getting treated like they are uneducated because they don’t understand the concept of immigration law,” Kate said. “They are treated like they don’t know what is in their own best interest, or that they’re not capable of making their own decisions.” Reza Karimi, an Iranian immigrant, experienced this first hand when arriving to the US in 1978. “I experienced discrimination almost from the get-go when I came to the US,” Reza said. “Some of this may have been due to the events that happened in Iran shortly after I left, the revolution, hostage crisis, war of words with the US and the west, etc., and most people would just not understand that just because we were Iranians, did not mean that we approved of

the situation in Iran.” The main issue with discrimination is how it holds back immigrants after they have arrived. This varies from things such as racial profiling to employment discrimination. Workplace discrimination starts from the hiring department and continues through the office. Some employers have been downloading resumes based on name that appear more american as opposed to foreign and look at 20% more white people’s resumes as opposed to foreigners, nonimmigrants make roughly 23% more than immigrants in salary, and approximately 17% more immigrants than non immigrants claim they have experienced discrimination throughout their career. Mina Shirazi, an Iranian woman who migrated to the USA in the 1980s, was among that 17%. “With being an immigrant, you will always face challenges,” Mina said. “My biggest issue was that at work, I felt like I had to work a lot harder than others to prove my competence. And I did.” With the US being a country with a relatively low unemployment rate, job opportunities are one of the main factors that cause people to migrate. However, many

“If we had not left the city, we wouldn’t know if we would have been safe or not, or even if we would have made it out live.” opportunities are one of the main factors that cause people to migrate. However, many other factors such as the conditions of one’s origin country play a key role in the decision. “It really can’t be reduced to a single set of conditions,” Chapman said. “I would say each country has had a history to have created the

current conditions that are affecting the citizens there, like Guatemala is distinct of Honduras, which is distinct from El Salvador.” Common conditions for immigration begin with an inability of the central government apparatus to contain non-governmental factors who are powerful enough to create ordinary realities for citizens to make their lives bearable,and lead to more extreme conditions such as war, extreme poverty, discrimination, violence, etc. Mina Shirazi was forced to emigrate when her and her families lives were put at risk daily due to the Iranian revolution. “The war was going on mostly in our city, so we all, after a few weeks, realized it was actually getting worse and the enemy was getting very close to the perimeter of the city,” Mina said. “If we had not left the city, we wouldn’t know if we would have been safe or not, or even if we would have made it out alive. We had to flee the city.” On top of hazardous conditions

The USCiS Application Support Center is an immigration and naturalization office in Austin, TX. Photo by Neeka Motamedrasa

that leave citizens struggling daily to simply survive, opportunities such as education aren’t offered in all countries, specifically Iran throughout the 1970s. “Starting early to mid 1978, the political situation in Iran became more and more unstable. Street demonstrations, in defiance against the Shah’s regime, became more widespread and serious in nature as the time went by,” Reza Karimi said. “It was soon apparent that something a lot more serious was boiling and about to happen. By late 1978, I decided to leave Iran before something would happen that would prevent me from continuing my education. I eventually left Iran by December 1978, when the Shah was still in power, and only 2-3 months before the Islamic revolution in Iran finally happened.” Although there are over a million people who manage to come to the US annually, there are many obstacles that make it harder for some families, one of the more major ones being obtaining a visa or green card. “The biggest difficulty I faced was getting visa to united states, and due to the relation between the 2 countries, I could not get financial help from my parents,” Shirazi. As well as this, some people face issues even after obtaining visas or green cards. People are facing time in prolonged detention in shelters, because life is getting more difficult for their families members living in the US outside of shelters. These family members are now getting pressed, even if they have been abiding by the law or don’t have criminal records or immigration history, by immigration policies that are specifically targeting the children that they sponsor at the shelters, which is prolonging the time that children have to spend away from their families.

As the US has been more selective about issuing visas, more and more people simply resort to crossing the border illegally. “My clients cross the border three ways, bridge, river, desert. People don’t cross undetected anymore, they’re usually found within a couple of miles inside the US border,” Chapman said. “And even after making it into the country, the obstacles don’t stop. Immigrants have to deal with issues like discrimination, bias, and racism daily when trying to build a better life for themselves.”

“My biggest issue was that at work, I felt like I had to work a lot harder to prove my competence. And I did.” Recently applied restrictions extend beyond just visas. Travel bans, walls, and employment discrimination are only a few of the many obstacles that have recently been holding immigrant back. As long as borders exist, immigration has been and will continue to be a controversial and adapting concept for many more years to come.

Amendments Across America A Brief Timeline of U.S. Policy on Immigration and Naturalization By Neeka Motamedrasa

The Naturalization act of 1790 restricted citizenship to any free white person who had been residing in the US for at least two years. In 1795, this act was repealed and the residency requirement was changed to five years.

Starting in 1875, a series of further restrictions were placed on immigration, including bans on criminals, people carrying contagious diseases, anarchists, polygamists, beggers, and importers amd prostitues.

The Emergency Quota Act of of 1921 limited the number of immigrants to the US by imposing quotas based on country of birth.

The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 abolished the Emergency Quota Act and established a new immigration policy based on attracting skilled labor and reuniting immigrant families.

The Refugee Act of 1980 revised the admission procedure for refugees by placing them in a separate category as immigrant and allowed Congress and the president to place a limit on the number of refugees allowed into the US annualy.

The Tear In The Social Safety Net

Written by: Helena Marteleto Lara

Women’s Access to Reproductive healthcare has been greatly supressed since the 2011 funding cuts and the planned parenthood defunding and effects have begun appearing.

he legislation enacted in 2011 by the Texas Legislature where family planning funding was cut by two thirds is only one of the many examples where the government has restricted women’s access to reproductive healthcare by reducing funding. Reproductive health care is vital to women, and without the social safety net provided by publicly funded clinics, many women, especially low income women, are left without the means to pay for their reproductive healthcare. Other examples where the legislation restricted

“These clinics are federally funded health centers and planned parenthood clinics, and these clinics are under particular attack right now. There’s been an exacerbation of inequality because of attacks on those clinics.” access to reproductive healthcare include defunding planned parenthood and the Title X redirection of funding. Kristine Hopkins, is a professor at The University Of Texas, Austin who has a Ph.D from UT, and works with the Texas Policy Evaluation Project, which conducts research to evaluate the effects of the 2011 budget cuts.

“These clinics are federally funded health centers and planned parenthood clinics, and these clinics are under particular attack right now. There’s been an exacerbation of inequality because of attacks on those clinics,” Hopkins said. These legislations have negative impacts on women, especially minorities like black, hispanic and low income women like a decrease in the access to reproductive healthcare. Reproductive healthcare is an essential part of the healthcare system, it is important for a woman to have access to these clinics so she can have information about the full range of contraceptive methods, and have access to them, so she can have access to services like STD testing and mammograms, and so that she can plan a healthy pregnancy. “It can help her to prevent a pregnancy, to have a healthy pregnancy. Say she wants to plan a pregnancy, so she goes to the doctor, and gets information about, stop drinking stop smoking, take prenatal vitamins, essentially to prepare your body,” said Amanda Stevenson who has a

“Among the 20 million women in need of publicly funded contraceptive care, 77 percent, or 15.5 million were poor or low-income adults”

Protesters advocate for womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reproductive rights in New York City, photo by Charlotte Cooper

P.h.D and is a professor at the University Of Colorado, Boulder, who studies women’s reproductive rights and is also part for the TxPEP project. Reproductive health care is especially important to low income woman because in some cases it is the only doctor they have access to. “For many low income women this is the only medical care they can access, whereas for high income women well you just go to your own doctor,” said Barbara Hines a practicing lawyer in Austin Texas. These cuts have created a significant inequality between access to care for low income and high income women. According to the Guttmacher Institute among the 20 million women in need of publicly funded contraceptive care, 77 percent, or 15.5 million, were poor or low-income adults. According to Stevens low income and minority women generally have less access to healthcare because they do not have the resources

“Its a huge slash, they basically disseminated the reproductive health safety net.” necessary to attain it. “I think generally lack of resources in the sense that you need to have access to a medical clinic you have to be able to take time off work to get there and for low income families that means having a car, having transportation, there’s just many obstacles,” said Hines. “$20 can be the difference between diapers for their child and their pills, and they’re gonna go for the diapers for the child,’’ said Stevenson. According to Hines most low income women cannot pay for healthcare, which means that publicly funded health care is their social safety net. According to NCHS, National Center For Health Statistics, 23 percent of blacks and to 40 percent of Hispanics cannot pay for healthcare. When the social safety net is cut, these women

Texas State Capitol, photo taken by Tim Wilson

don’t have the resources to pay for the same services that were once free. Black and hispanics are disproportionately disadvantaged in relation to healthcare because of a history of racism. 27.4 percent of low income families in the United States are black followed by Hispanics at 26.6 percent. “So for those reasons any disruption of the social safety net is going to disproportionately impact people of color,” said Hopkins. Since the 2011 cuts and the Planned Parenthood defunding, negative effects have already started surfacing. According to the TxPEP project, 25 percent of publicly-funded family clinics closed in Texas from 2011-2013, 31 percent of clinics have reduced service hours, clinic’s ability to provide the full range of contraceptive methods have decreased, and the clinics that remained open served 54 percent of the patients in the previous period probably due to the fact that many services that were previously free are not anymore. “They stopped getting services, a lot of them, because they couldn’t afford it anymore, they had been used to getting free services,” said Hopkins. Predictions about the future of women’s healthcare are also important when analyzing reproductive rights. “[The cuts] increases lots of things: sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies, it has a whole bunch of different problems,” said Hines. In the past months conservative republicans in congress have been thinking about cutting Title X, one of the only public funding streams left, which could have devastating effects to women’s reproductive health care rights. “Texas is a cautionary tale. They did it. They cut family planning by a lot, they excluded planned parenthood one of the big providers and it has a really negative impact on low income women’s access to family planning services. If the US, if Congress does that, it’s the one funding stream that Congress has access to, and so it’s scary, what might happen if Title X is cut,” said Stevenson.

Because these clinics are state and federal funded, they are frequented mostly by women that don’t have the resources to use private clinics (ie. time, income, transportation etc.). When the government cuts this funding it negatively impacts mostly minorities like hispanic, black and low income women. Dr. Amanda Stevenson calls the funding “the social safety net”, she said, “so for those reasons any disruption of the social safety net is going to disproportionately impact people of color.”

The clinics that remained open served only 54% of the clients that they had in the previous period

clincs’ abiity to provide the full range of contraceptive methods was restrained

Shining A Light On The Impacts of Major Funding Cuts For Reproductive and Family Planning Clinics in Texas The 2011 cuts in funding towards family planning and reproductive health care clinics in Texas have exponentially effected Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s access to reproductive healthcare services. For example many clinics have closed or reduced business hours and many services are not being offered

25% of publicly funded clinics in Texas closed in 2011-2013

anymore. Fees for these services have increased as well and this negatively affects the access that women have to these clinics.

Differences observed in Texas clinics between September 2011 and Septmeber 2015 closed 18.5%

reduced hours 8.0% no change 73.5% These clinics include public agencies providing family planning and nonpublic agencies providing family planning services as well as primary care.

CHASING DOLLARS AMERICA’S RACIAL STRUGGLE CONTINUES

By Jordan Mackie

he difference between black and white is green. America’s perpetual struggle with racial equality has taken a new form. Though the law technically protects individuals from unequal treatment, unjust treatment occurs everyday through the tendencies of the dollar. Ethnicity not only holds influence over employment in today’s world, but housing and education as well. The promotion of racially biased policies are creating an economic divide that is becoming increasingly harder to bridge, causing turmoil on a nationwide scale and a cultural polarization that threatens to divide the country. “Economic inequality has been growing steadily since the Reagan era tax cuts.” said Doctor Susan Popkin, a Senior Fellow at the Urban Institute Program for Neighborhoods and Youth development. The beginning of the economic segregation can be sourced to the division of housing during times of legal segregation. After the Civil Rights movement, practices like redlining, in which suburbs were reserved for upper class, mostly white families, further divided the country. However, strides for equality were made. The introduction of programs like Head Start helped disadvantaged individuals reach for the educational

standard of their superiors. With election of Ronald Reagan, major regression was made as he adamantly opposed most laws for equality, cut taxes for richer families, and dissolved several agencies that were designed to help end poverty in the name of reduced government spending. This led to the further restriction of minorities and rapid decline of the communities that housed them. “Many of these neighborhoods became chronically disadvantaged--racially and economically segregated, few resources, poor schools, high crime, etc., which meant residents with more resources moved out, leaving the poorest households behind in deteriorating conditions.” Doctor Popkin said. For cities, expansion has made these disadvantaged neighborhoods prime real estate for development. To reclaims these hotbeds for profit, taxes and mortgage rates can be raised in exponential numbers, in some cases driving out residents who have lived there for generations. As new people, able to pay these prices, move in, the process continues compounding upon itself until entire communities have been expelled. “The new, higher-income residents can coexist, the low-income residents get the benefit of

Photo Credit: Free Images

A twenty dollar bill dangles from a fishing line, thus illustrating frustration felt by individuals about the economy.

safety and better amenities, but they generally don’t interact/become the kind of community the planners envisioned--which may have been an unrealistic goal.” said Popkin, an expert in Human Development and Social Policy. She has been studying the effects of gentrification and other social policies for over 30 years. “Gentrification is not inherently a bad thing--it brings new resources and investment to neighborhoods.” Popkin said. “The problem is that we have not figured out how bring this kind of new investment without displacing the people who suffered through the worst days.” One community has found a balance: Seattle, Washington. The Yesler Terrace district, the first integrated public housing in the city, was established in 1941. In the past five years, this dilapidated area has seen a complete revamp. The city prides itself for its ability to provide housing for people of all income levels as 10% of the 6,500 newly developed housing units will be devoted to low-income individuals. The renovation will consist of community spaces and a park and is expected to reach completion within the next decade. However,Yesler is the exception in modern cities. In most cities, families are pried from their homes. “They question where do they move to?”

Stephen Trejo, a Professor of Economics at the University of Texas, Austin with over 30 years of experience, said. “Are they able to find another school district that’s gonna be good for their kids?” The answer is undefined. In the case of gentrification in Austin, many displaced residences found new homes in surrounding areas including Pflugerville, Bastrop, and Manor. These new cities see surges in population and minority numbers, but

PPicture by Jordan Mackie

Picture by Pexels

A sign for a redevelopment angency rests in the front yard of a house in the center of Austin’s quickly disappearing East neighborhoods.

“It is very possible for all to live in harmony, but it takes a change of attitudes that this is a goal we need, and a belief that we are more similar than different.” dealing with the new influx can strain the community. “A lot of it depends on the way the government’s set up and how supportive state and federal government is for those programs.” said Trejo. “So how much of that falls on the new city versus how much is supported by state and federal governments.” For many families, government aid is imperative to survival. In 2012, 41.6% of the Black Population and 36.4% of the Hispanic Population in

A man extends his hand, sealing the deal on a job offer.

Pictute by Pexels

The printed eye of Benjamin Frank;in gazes up from a hundred dollar bill.

the United States was supported by a form of welfare. In comparison, only 13.2% of America’s White Population required government financial support. This is due to many factors among which is unequal economic opportunity for minorities. “A large part of that wage gap comes from things we might think may be reasonable correlations of productivity.” Trejo said. “Blacks and Hispanics in particular tend to live in disadvantaged neighborhoods and go to worse schools, so that makes it harder for them to move up.” These causes form an intricate web leading to potential economic ruin. It begins in the classroom. “High income parents want to get all the advantages they can for their kids they’ll be willing to pay a lot and drive up housing prices in good school districts” Trejo said. “There’s a much bigger payoff to having high education levels. It’s cumulative. If kids get on the right track before they enter school, then they can keep up. Whereas, if they get off track then they fall farther and farther behind throughout the school system. It turns out the payoffs to investing in kids are much higher if you invest when they are infants or preschool than if you invest later on.”

“Start with education,” Professor Nestor Rodriguez, a seasoned expert in economic and urban sociology at the University of Texas, Austin said. “Give every kid a good education starting from pre-K. Good education is correlated with economic mobility.” With a proper education, the influence of racial discrimination in the job market is marginal. Bridging this economic gap leads to further financial gain for families, allowing the diversification of different income levels. “Places where people of different income levels and different races tend to live together. Disadvantaged kids who grow up in those places end up doing better and have a better chance of being in the middle class.” Trejo said. The mixing of these class groups could help blend the societies and cultures between races. The improvement of schools and neighborhoods benefit communities and offer opportunity to future generations. “It is very possible for all to live in harmony but it takes a change of attitudes that this is a goal we need, and a belief that we are more similar than different.” said Rodriguez.

life beyond

the bars Where The System Falls Short By Jordan Mackie

Over 2.1 Million Americans are currently serving a sentence in a United States Prison 42

In 2014, over eleven million United States residents were arrested for an illegal offense. Of that score, thousands joined the population of imprisoned people in our nation. In America, 737 out of every 100,000 people live within a prison--the highest rate in the world. Compare that to the mere 148/100,000 in the United Kingdoms. Upon release, rehabilitated individuals struggle to find jobs and support themselves due to lacking education and criminal records. Of the released population, 75% return to the confines of jail within half a decade, which begs the question:

What are Corrections Facilities really correcting? Information From: Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), 2015 â&#x20AC;&#x153;In Depth.â&#x20AC;? BBC News, BBC, 20 June 2005

THREE OUT OF FOUR released individuals are convicted on another charge within five years

$8,400

Median annual income of rehabilitated detainees after one year, nearly $7,000 below the United States poverty line

TRUTH

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