The Immigrant’s Journal - Vol. 184

Experts: Biden Administration’s Latest Asylum Ban is a Death Sentence

Washington: In a court filing on Tuesday, February 7, the Biden administration reiterated its plan to issue a proposed rule that will block most people from seeking asylum at a U.S. border, as well as its intention to rush through the required “notice and comment” period. #WelcomeWithDignity campaign partners are outraged.

“An asylum ban on most people who transited through a third country to reach the United States is a death sentence for the poor, Indigenous, LGBTQ+, African,

and other communities who don’t have the luxury of buying a direct ticket to the United States,” said Bilal Askaryar, Interim Campaign Manager of the #WelcomeWithDignity campaign for asylum rights. “Asylum-seeking refugees deserve the same access to protection regardless of how they arrive or where they transited through. President Biden must reverse course immediately.”

“The Biden administration's transit ban is not only unlawful but depraved, preventing those in need of asylum from obtaining protection in the United States.

Family Reunification Task Force Reports Nearly 1,000 Children Remain Separated

BY AMERICAN IMMIGRATION COUNCIL STAFF

Nearly 1,000 children separated from their families at the southern border by the Trump administration remain separated to this day, according to a Biden administration fact sheet released on February 2. The fact sheet marks two years since President Biden’s creation of the Interagency Task Force on Reunification of Families and shows that the devastating effects of the Trump administration’s family separation policy are far from over.

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NYC Declares End to MPox Outbreak after Nation-Leading Response ....19

The Immigrant’s

America’s Voice Reacts to VP Harris Immigration Speech and Larger Immigration Moment on Eve of SOTU Address

BY AMERICA’S VOICE

Washington, DC: The following is a statement from Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:

“Vice President Harris’s focus on investments to promote regional stability and address the root causes of forced migration is a timely reminder that the Biden Administration is leaning into immigration issues in a new way, no longer content to cede the debate and framing to a Republican Party hellbent on politicizing immigration and blocking the broader reforms we need and the country supports.

In sharp contrast to Republicans, the Biden-Harris administration is putting forward short and longer-term solutions to address immigration, manage the border and address the hemispheric refugee crisis and factors that are forcing people to leave their home countries and make a dangerous trek to the U.S. border. We do

not love all of what they have proposed, but the fact that they are engaging is significant. The President should present more than temporary solutions and a band aid approach. He should offer up a more comprehensive set of sensible approaches that are popular with most

Americans. This should include using the powers he has under current law, including executive action to expand and redesignate TPS for Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala. And he should refrain from adopting the punitive, failed and unpopular policies of his predecessor. The administration also should constantly remind the American people how important immigrants and immigration are to our shared national identity, prosperity and strength.

Meanwhile, rather than a serious policy discussion on how to modernize our immigration system and meet the challenge posed by rising numbers of asylum seekers and changing patterns of global migration, Republicans are content to inflame these issues, embrace lies and dangerous white nationalist conspiracies and use the courts and congressional obstruction to block needed policy solutions for the border and our broader immigration system.”

Mayor Adams’ Statement on President Biden’s 2023 State of the Union Address

NEW YORK: New York City

Mayor Eric Adams released the following statement on President Joseph Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address:

“I was honored to be at the State of the Union as a guest of U.S. Representative Espaillat tonight to hear directly from President Biden about the progress we have made as a country and the work we still must do on behalf of New Yorkers and all other Americans.

“This president’s focus on working people is exactly what the nation needs, and his focus on helping Americans care for their children, provide for their families, and put money in their wallets will resonate from coast to coast. The agenda he laid out goes hand-in-hand with what we are doing in New York City — this is

a blue-collar president, I’m a blue-collar mayor, and we’re both pursuing a bluecollar agenda for working people in New York and across the rest of the nation.

“The president is right that we must do something on the gun violence epidemic that affects this entire nation. While shootings in New York City are down, guns are still far too accessible across the country. We all can and should agree that simple bipartisan efforts, like enhanced background checks and red flag laws, must be passed immediately.

“The use of opioids, particularly fentanyl, is a public health crisis that requires a federal response, and I’m glad President Biden will launch a major surge to stop the production, sale, and trafficking of fentanyl. This overdose crisis is a national emergency and must be

treated as such.

“Finally, I agree with the president that we need Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, something that democrats like U.S. Senate Majority Leader Schumer, U.S. House Democratic Leader Jeffries, and the New York City congressional delegation have been trying to do for decades. As I’ve repeatedly said, the asylum seeker crisis is a national problem that needs a national solution, in the short-, medium-, and long-term. New York and other cities across the country are struggling with this crisis. We need help and we need it now.

“I look forward to a continued partnership with the Biden-Harris administration to deliver greater public safety for all New Yorkers, continued growth for our economy, and a comprehensive immigration policy for our country.”l

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Managing Editor & Editor-in-Chief

Pearl Phillip

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Contributing Writers

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Email immjournal@aol.com

Visit www.ijlef.org

Volunteering at THE IMMIGRANT'S JOURNAL LEGAL & EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. Internship positions available throughout the year.

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

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

VP Harris

Editorial credit: Maverick Pictures / Shutterstock.com

USCIS Clarifies Physical Presence Guidance for Asylees and Refugees Applying for Adjustment of Status

Effective immediately, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has updated guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to clarify that both asylees and refugees must have been physically present in the United States for one year when we adjudicate their Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, rather than at the time they file their adjustment of status application. This applies to all Form I-485 and Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, applications pending on Feb. 2, 2023, and those filed on or after that date.

This update will promote consistency across asylee and refugee adjustment of status applications. If we cannot determine whether an applicant satisfies the one-year physical presence requirement by reviewing their file or our records when we adjudicate their Form I-485, we may request additional evidence. This policy manual update also: •Clarifies that asylee and refugee adjust-

USCIS Announces Green Card and Employment Authorization Document Redesign

ment of status applicants previously admitted in J-1 or J-2 nonimmigrant status and otherwise subject to the two-year foreign residence requirement under Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) 212(e) do not need to meet that two-year requirement (or obtain a waiver) to adjust their status under INA 209; and

•Makes minor technical updates, including clarifying processing steps for refugees seeking waivers of inadmissibility, removing references to the obsolete Form I-291, Decision on Application for Status as Permanent Resident, and adding regulatory citations related to asylum termination procedures.

The new guidance can be found in the USCIS Policy Manual. Visit the Policy Manual Feedback page to comment on this update. USCIS welcomes feedback on this guidance and will consider any comments received in future updates.l

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on January 30, announced new designs to improve security of Permanent Resident Cards (also known as Green Cards) and Employment Authorization Documents (EADs). We will begin issuing the redesigned cards on Jan. 30, 2023.

The new Green Card and EAD designs include:

•State-of-the-art technology that continues to safeguard national security and improve service for our customers;

•Improved detailed artwork;

•New tactile printing that is better integrated with the artwork;

•Enhanced optically variable ink;

•Highly secure holographic images on the front and back of the cards;

•A layer-reveal feature with a partial window on the back photo box; and

•Data fields displayed in different places than on previous versions.

Background

To mitigate the risk of fraud and counter-

feiting, we redesign the cards every three to five years. We launched the current cards in May 2017.

The introduction of the new designs does not mean that currently issued cards are invalid. Current cards generally remain valid until their expiration date (unless otherwise noted, such as through an automatic extension of a Green Card or EAD as indicated on a Form I-797, Notice of Action, or in a Federal Register notice). Some older Green Cards also do not have an expiration date. These older Green Cards without an expiration date generally remain valid. l

Nearly 1000 Children Remain

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Thousands of Separated Children

According to the fact sheet, 3,924 children were separated from their parents between January 20, 2017, and January 20, 2021. After two years of work by the task force, over 600 children have been reunited with their families and 998 remain separated. 331 separated children are either in the process of reunification or their families have been informed of the opportunity to reunify, while over 600 children remain separated without a clear possibility for reunification.

The government noted that the number of separated families continues to grow, since families must self-identify and register through a website to begin the reunification process. The number of children who remain separated is likely greater than 1,000 because not all separated families have been identified.

A History of Family Separation

Shortly after President Trump was elected, there were reports that the new administration intended to begin separating families arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border to deter parents from coming to the United States. In the summer of 2017, U.S. Border Patrol agents began separating children—including infants and very young children—from their parents in increasing numbers.

In April 2018, the Trump administra-

tion formally announced a “zero tolerance” policy to criminally prosecute all adults who crossed the border without proper documents, even if they were parents with young children. Under the policy, the government took children from their parents and placed them in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). Many, but not all, parents were prosecuted for misdemeanor illegal entry. Only in June 2018 did the government acknowledge that it had separated thousands of children under its new policy.

The government implemented the family separation policy despite being repeatedly warned that it would cause long-lasting traumatic injury to children. ORR was unprepared to handle the spike in traumatized, separated children sud-

denly in its care.

The government separated thousands of families without adequate systems to track the children and parents or reunite them. Children were unable to even speak to their parents for weeks or months after separation and many parents did not know where their children had been taken.

Reports of these separations—including an audio recording of recently separated children screaming for their parents—provoked public outcry.

In respond to mounting public pressure, President Trump signed an executive order purportedly ending family separation on June 20, 2018.

The government began tracking and reuniting families after a federal judge ordered it to do so on June 26, 2018.

However, the government deported hundreds of parents without their children before the court’s ruling. President Biden created the Family Reunification task force in February 2021 to continue the work of reunifying families who remained separated.

Some separated families have filed lawsuits against the government seeking recompense for the psychological trauma caused by the family separation policy. The Department of Justice continues to litigate the cases after the government withdrew from settlement talks in December 2021. Despite publicly denouncing the policy, the Biden administration has continued to resist providing financial compensation to the victims of family separation. l

Editorial credit: Alexandros Michailidis / Shutterstock.com

The government noted that the number of separated families continues to grow, since families must self-identify and register through a website to begin the reunification process. The number of children who remain separated is likely greater than 1,000 because not all separated families have been identified.

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The Biden administration is orchestrating an inequitable system favoring wealthy refugees who can travel to the United States by air over those who are forced to risk their lives on treacherous land journeys to our southern border. A humane asylum system must adhere to the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits the return of refugees to any country where their lives or freedom would be threatened,” said Lindsay Toczylowski, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Immigrant Defenders Law Center. “In last night's State of the Union address, President Biden once again invoked the principle that the United States must always be a beacon of humanity for the rest of the world. Yet here we are, the very next day, with his administration moving to deny asylees the right to lawfully seek protection. This is cruel and heartless and stains our nation’s reputation.”

“The inhumanity demonstrated by the Biden administration and Congress in violation of U.S. asylum law is despicable.” said Geronimo Ramirez, (Maya Ixil), Community Organizer with the International Mayan League. “An asylum transit ban will leave thousands of vulnerable lives at heightened risk of kidnappings, torture, extortion, and murder. For Indigenous Peoples, girls, women, and LGBTQ2S+, these policies are par-

ticularly detrimental. The Biden administration must uphold our human right to seek asylum, right to life and security. We are fleeing state sponsored persecution often in connection with private sector theft of our lands, territories, and natural goods.”

“Congress specifically wrote our laws to ensure that everyone–regardless of nationality, race or manner of entry–has a fair chance to seek safety in the U.S. The Biden administration must put the rights and dignity of asylum seekers first by finally getting rid of Trump-era bans, not resurrecting them,” said Kimiko Hirota, policy advisor of the Migrant Rights and Justice program at the Women’s Refugee Commission . “The courts already found that the previous transit ban violated U.S. asylum laws, including because supposed ‘safe’ transit countries like Mexico are in fact not safe for many migrants and people seeking asylum. Tragically, we know that thousands of

asylum seekers have experienced violent assault, rape, and other attacks in Mexico. It is imperative that the Biden administration upholds the law and ensures that no one is returned back to places where they face persecution or torture.”

“We are outraged that the Biden administration is poised to resurrect a version of Trump’s transit ban, an illegal policy that places people seeking asylum directly in harm’s way,” said Kate Jastram, Director of Policy & Advocacy at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS). “In a brief filed to the Supreme Court yesterday, the government declared its intent to rush the policy into effect before May 11, which would almost certainly preclude the administration from seriously considering public input during the statutorily required notice and comment period. The White House will no doubt attempt to repackage their policy as distinguishable from

Trump’s, which was repeatedly struck down by the courts. But a ban is a ban. Once again, President Biden is reverting to the Trump playbook in an attempt to gain political points and leaving people seeking asylum in the lurch. We urge the administration to reverse course and shelve the planned transit rule.”

“The Biden administration’s updated version of Trump’s asylum transit ban is completely unacceptable. Measures of this kind constitute and promote serious violations of U.S. and international law,” said Camilo Perez-Bustillo, on behalf of Witness at the Border and the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the National Lawyers’ Guild. “Mexico is not safe for Mexican citizens thanks to the drug war imposed by U.S. policies, which is one of the root causes of ongoing processes of forced displacement and migration there and regionally. Mexico is even more dangerous for migrants in transit. The vulnerability of migrants in Mexico has been further reinforced by the increasing complicity between U.S. and Mexican authorities in the negation and erosion of the right to seek asylum on both sides of the border. These are international crimes that we must denounce and resist.”

“We are deeply disturbed by news that a version of the Trump administration’s asylum transit ban is to be reinstated. Alongside our faith partners, we have

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Death Sentence/

continued from page 6 repeatedly urged the Biden administration to put an end to punitive, deterrencebased policies that have caused irreparable damage, trauma, and loss of life over the past several years, under both the former and current administrations. We have seen the harm that policies like this have done to the lives, safety, and stability of asylum seekers. We have watched as they wreak havoc on the lives of fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and children,” said Meredith Owen, Director of Policy and Advocacy at CWS. “It is long past time for the Biden administration to keep its promise and protect the lives and rights of those seeking safety. The administration should expand its reliance on permanent protections, including both the U.S. resettlement and asylum programs, and invest in the communities who welcome our new neighbors. The continued refusal to respect the humanity of the most vulnerable undermines American values, and must come to an end.”

“Our clients have been kidnapped, raped, and violently assaulted in countries like Mexico that have been designated as ‘safe’ for purposes of the transit ban,” said Priscilla Orta, Supervising Attorney of Project Corazon at Lawyers for Good Government. “We strongly condemn the actions of the

Biden Administration in taking steps to resurrect this cruel asylum rule, a policy that illegally and dangerously bans refugees from seeking asylum in the U.S. if they did not seek asylum while traveling through supposedly 'safe' transit countries on their journeys to the border. Subjecting refugees, particularly ones who are at heightened risk of harm due to their gender, sexuality, race, or language, to this policy will cause trauma and death. We urge the administration to instead uphold the law and our international obligations to allow people fleeing danger to seek shelter within our borders.”

Said Dr. Kate Sugarman, MD, with Doctors for Camp Closure: “We support the humane treatment of immigrants and people seeking asylum. Keeping people stranded in dangerous conditions on the other side of the border is in nobody’s best interests. We should be treating people the way we would want to be treated if we were in their shoes.”

From Rainbow Beginnings: "Forcing LGBTQ asylum seekers to remain in unsafe communities outside of the U.S. further harms people seeking safety. Rainbow Beginnings is opposed to continuing this policy."

“It is shameful that this administration would revive a cruel policy that courts previously found to be illegal under the past administration,” said Quixote Center Executive Director Dr. Kim Lamberty. “We commend the Biden administration for expanding legal pathways, but both the humanitarian parole program and CBP One exclude the most vulnerable migrants, people who are most in need of protection. President Biden has stated repeatedly that he supports a fair and orderly asylum system; if that truly is the case, we urge his administration to reverse its decision, and work toward creating a just asylum system that welcomes all people fleeing from danger.”

“We are disappointed to hear that the

Biden administration is still committed to putting in place an inhumane asylum transit ban," said Dylan Corbett, Executive Director, Hope Border Institute. "As a border community, we urge the administration to make good on its commitment to restoring asylum protection to all those seeking safety and to no longer rely upon cruel policies that will continue to place vulnerable individuals at risk of harm. Policy proposals such as this transit ban continue to move us farther away from a humane, compassionate, and safe immigration system, but we know such a world is possible."

"It is outrageous that the Biden administration has proposed reviving a Trumpera asylum ban that would block most asylum seekers from being able to apply for protection in the United States. President Biden ran on getting rid of Trump's cruel policies, not embracing them," said Laurie Ball Cooper, U.S. Legal Services Director at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP). "This policy was illegal when the Trump administration proposed it and it is illegal now. President Biden should restore full access to the asylum system immediately.”

“U.S. law clearly states that all who arrive on United States soil and petition for protection here deserve to have their plea considered, with due process,” said continued on page 8

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Adam Isacson, Director for Defense Oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). “The Trump administration sought to water down this fundamental humanitarian standard, only to lose in the courts. It is devastating to see the Biden administration—which began its term in office determined to restore asylum—now determined to go down the same path. This rule must not stand.”

“The Biden administration has chosen fear over hope at our southern border by criminalizing and preventing the most vulnerable and persecuted communities from seeking asylum. As people of faith, we condemn this action and hope that God will open the hearts of policy makers to see asylum seekers as human beings and not threats,” said Ronnate Asirwatham, Director, Government Relations, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice. “In court filings yesterday, the administration said, ‘The proposed rule would adopt a presumption against asylum eligibility,’ which means even before one could present one's case, an asylum seeker would be deemed ineligible for asylum, simply because of the manner of arrival. This is against the law and is contrary to our values to love and treat others as ourselves.”

“Once more, the writing is on the wall: the Biden administration is rapidly repur-

posing Trump policies and exploiting the rulemaking process with a clear end in mind—the summary removal of asylum seekers after Title 42 ends,” said Azadeh Erfani, senior policy analyst for the National Immigrant Justice Center “In blatant violation of domestic and international law, they actively pursue policies that will inevitably yield death and suffering for Black, Brown, and Indigenous asylum seekers.”

“The Biden administration’s decision to pursue a policy that advances the agenda of the Trump administration and antiimmigrant hate groups is a horrible humanitarian, legal, and political mistake,” said Eleanor Acer, senior director for refugee protection at Human Rights First. “Americans support the right to seek asylum, but this policy will deny refugees asylum, turn many away to danger, and separate others from their families. The anti-immigrant Federation for American Immigration Reform

(FAIR) praised the Biden administration’s announcement of an asylum ban. On the heels of two congressional hearings riddled with extremist rhetoric, the last thing the Biden administration should be doing is playing into the hands of the perpetrators of anti-immigrant fear-mongering.”

“Parents and children who seek asylum in our country are fleeing horrific violence and persecution,” said Claudia Tristán, Immigration Campaign Director of MomsRising. “Resurrecting Trump-era asylum policies subjects already vulnerable families to even more danger. The use of a transit ban will undoubtedly put countless lives at risk and create cruel, racist and economic barriers to the asylum process. We need President Biden to defend the right to seek asylum, lead with strength, and help our nation once again be a beacon of hope and safety. The Biden administration must commit to a just and humane

asylum system. America’s moms want every asylum-seeker to be treated with dignity, compassion, and respect.”

“We are deeply disappointed that the Biden administration appears poised to ignore numerous advocates and members of Congress in exchange for resurrecting a version of Trump’s transit ban, an illegal and harmful policy that placed people seeking asylum directly in harm’s way,” said Michele Garnett McKenzie, Deputy Director of The Advocates for Human Rights. “For 40 years, The Advocates has seen that we are not only capable of, but are made stronger by, protecting people from persecution. Both U.S. and international law have been clear—it is illegal for the U.S. to place barriers on the right to seek asylum from persecution. Rather than enact this illegal transit ban, we urge President Biden to instead reverse course and adopt proven, effective policies informed by international best practices and human rights standards that provide safe, orderly, and fair pathways to move with dignity.”

“We are disappointed to see the Administration moving forward in this direction,” said Rachel Sheridan, Senior Litigation Counsel of the Tahirih Justice Center. “It has repeatedly promised to promote a fair and humane asylum system, yet it continues to opt for policies that slam doors shut to survivors of violence and persecution instead of providing a bridge to safety.”l

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Buyer's Remorse: 3 Things You Should Never Say When You're Negotiating to Buy a Home

BY EQUITY SMART REALTY INC

The prospect of finding the home you've always dreamed of can be such an exciting prospect that it's easy to forget all about the process of negotiating. However, it's important to keep a few things to yourself when it comes to the art of making the deal. If you're currently searching for the right place and are preparing to sign on the dotted line, here are a few phrases it's best to avoid.

Declaring It Your Dream Home

There's nothing wrong with finding the ideal home and getting enthusiastic about the prospect of owning it, but it's very important not to say too much to the homeowner or the homeowner's agent. While it's certainly welcome to be a polite home viewer and mention some of the features you like, giving away too much will inform the homeowner of just how much leverage they have with you. This can mean they may request a higher price since they know how interested you are.

What You're Willing to Pay

It might seem up front and honest to declare the price range that you're willing to spend on a home, but if a homeowner knows what your limitations are, they'll likely push you past them. While you may be willing to pay more for a home you truly love, it's important that you're investing a reasonable amount into the home and not paying much over market value for your property. Instead of being too forward, keep your offer to yourself until it's on the table.

Critiquing Their Price Point

If you're truly interested in a home, it can be pretty difficult to realize that it's not within your price range. However, it's unnecessary to mention this to the buyer as it's entirely possible that the price is comparable to other homes of a similar style in the neighborhood. After all, there's always a chance that the home will stay on the market and drop down in value, and this may be the point at which you can get your foot in the door.

When it comes to buying a home, the process of negotiating can be fraught with stress for many people. However, it's important to keep your price range and your impressions to yourself so that you can get the best deal possible.

Guidance

If you're currently on the market for your dream home, you may want to contact one of our real estate professionals for more information.

Our professional team is happy to share how we can assist you in selling your home. We are happy to help. Call Equity Smart Realty Inc at 888-670-6791 l

Amid a Severe Shortage of Home Health Aides, Immigrants Help Care for Our Seniors

BY KAREN AHO

The United States will need to fill nearly three-quarters of a million open jobs for home health and personal care aides every year through 2031. Currently, immigrant workers fill these jobs in outsized numbers. Without more workers joining the workforce, the drastic shortage of aides could leave millions of Americans without the ability to remain in their homes when they’re in need of long-term care.

Soaring Need for Aides

An analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data by the American Immigration Council shows that the home health and personal care aides occupation is one of the fastest growing jobs. It’s estimated that an average of 711,700 jobs will open up every year from 2021 to 2031.

This is largely driven by the unprecedented growth of the senior population in this country. About 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 every day, and 7 in 10 will need long-term care in their lifetime. The number of Americans over the age of 85

is expected to more than double from 2019 to 2040, from 6.6 million to 14.4 million.

As a result, the number of home health and personal care aide jobs is expected to jump 25.4% in a decade, from 3.6 million in 2021 to 4.6 million in 2031. This occupation will experience the largest increase in new jobs of any occupation in that period and will become the largest occupation in the country by 2031.

Critical Shortage of Caregivers

Despite the growing demand for the workforce, the country’s pool of available workers will barely grow. It is estimated that the number of prime workingage Americans, those between the ages of 25 and 64, will increase by a meager 0.3% a year through 2035— and only because of arriving immigrants and their children.

From 2021 to 2031, a projected 332,300 home health and personal care aides will drop out of the workforce each year for retirement or other reasons. In addition, 287,000 home health and personal care aides a year can be expected to abandon the occupation in search of other work. This demanding job has turnover

rates that exceed nearly every other occupation.

A Council analysis of jobs postings aggregated by Lightcast finds that although the position does not require an academic degree or licensure, it demands a broad range of physical, psychological, and emotional skills, including being able to safely transfer people and dealing with Alzheimer’s patients.

Aides suffer from higher-than-average injury rates and cite high stress and low pay. Home health and personal care aides earn less than just about every other healthcare support occupation, BLS data

shows. In 2021, the median annual wage for home health and personal care aides was $29,430, or $14.7 per hour for fulltime work.

Helping Immigrants Help Us

Most seniors and disabled people would prefer to stay at home—an option that also costs the nation less than housing people in nursing homes. But as more Americans age, many will not be able to stay in their home unless we can attract more workers to serve as home health aides.

During the pandemic, home health aides were in particularly short supply, painting a grim picture of what could lie ahead for Americans.

Bayada Home Health Care, which provides services in 350 locations in 22 states, told Home Health Care News that they had to decline nearly two-thirds of new home-care requests due to the shortage of available aides.

Efforts are already underway in some states to mandate higher wages, such as the Fair Pay for Home Care campaign in New York and the Caregiver Stabilization Act in Minnesota. And the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced in 2022 that states would have until 2025 to access $12.7 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act to strengthen home and community healthcare services for Medicaid recipients to, in part, “reduce unnecessary reliance on institutional care.”

Such policies are particularly important for immigrant workers, who are already playing an outsized role in providing care for our senior and disabled population.

In 2019, 36.5% of all home health aides in the United States were immigrants, a rate that was twice their share of the U.S. workforce overall (17.1%). This includes undocumented workers, who made up an estimated 6.9% of home health aides and 4.4% of personal care aides.

We need immigration policies that can attract and provide support for more foreign-born health aides. This will prove to be critical in securing the much-needed care of our aging population in the years to come.l

Who Is in ICE Detention Right Now? New Data Provides a Snapshot of Sprawling Detention System

BY EMMA WINGER

Recently published data from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) provides insight into who ICE is detaining and for how long.

The results show that the majority of noncitizens are being held in the rural South, and many are subject to fast-track removal proceedings. But still, many people remain locked up for months, if not years.

Right Now, ICE Is Detaining Tens of Thousands of People, Mostly in the Rural South

ICE is detaining 20,892 people in 122 immigration detention centers, private prisons, county jails, and other carceral settings across the country. By far, ICE holds the most people (10,175) in Texas.

The five detention centers with the largest detained populations are located in rural areas of Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, and Mississippi—far from

immigration attorneys.

More Than Half of the People in Detention Now Are New Arrivals Facing Fast-Track Deportation

Of the 20,892 people in detention, more than half are new arrivals arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Most of these newly arrived noncitizens in detention have no criminal history.

Over 50% of people in detention (12,718) are facing fact-track removal proceedings—either expedited removal or reinstatement of removal—in which an immigration officer can order them deported without a hearing before an immigration judge.

ICE Continues to Detain Noncitizens—Including Bona Fide Asylum Seekers—For Many Months, If Not Years

As of mid-January, ICE had detained 1,101 noncitizens for more than 6 months, including people who have already been found by an asylum officer to have a credible asylum claim. And many people have been detained much longer. ICE has detained 228 people for one to two years and 72 people even longer. The average length of stay at Adelanto ICE Processing Center is 714 days.

Even where ICE grants bond, the average bond amount in January 2023 was $5,793. This number is striking, especially when a noncitizen must pay the full bond amount (rather than a portion of the amount) to be released from custody. In 2018, the Federal Reserve found that four in 10 adults would struggle to pay a $400 emergency expense.

In FY 2023, ICE Held Hundreds of People with Medical or Mental Health Conditions in Solitary Confinement

In the first quarter of FY 2023, ICE placed 200 individuals with medical or mental health concerns in segregation, otherwise known as solitary confinement. The practice is widely criticized as cruel and unnecessary.

These numbers illustrate a sprawling detention system that holds tens of thousands of noncitizens for months or years in remote facilities far from family, community, and legal representation. Numbers do not tell the whole story, but they reflect the scope and cruelty of immigration detention.l

Editorial credit: Christopher Penler / Shutterstock.com

Still Awaiting Court Dates, Migrants Suffer the Effects of ‘Band-Aid’ Fixes to Our Broken Immigration System

BY AMERICAN IMMIGRATION COUNCIL STAFF

When asylum seekers arrive in the United States, so long as they are not rapidly deported or expelled, the government is generally supposed to issue them a “Notice to Appear” (NTA). This charging document formally begins the immigration court process.

But a new report from NBC News indicates that, based on records they have received, nearly 600,000 migrants who crossed into the United States and were released at the border since March 2021 were not given an NTA when they entered. This has left them without court dates, which could make it harder for them to navigate the complicated asylum process. However, the report leaves out important context as to why releases occurred in the first place.

The NBC report analyzed data on “family units” (parents arriving with their children) released at the border through two U.S. Customs and Border

Protection (CBP) policies started in 2021. These policies were implemented in an attempt to protect children from some of the horrors they faced while detained in CBP facilities under the Trump administration.

The first program was the use of a new form called a Notice to Report (NTR), beginning in late March 2021. Families were given a document that instructed them to report to any U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office, usually within 60 days, where they would ostensibly be given an NTA

Approximately 94,000 family members were released under the NTR program. Ultimately, the program was fraught with problems. While still in the midst of a global pandemic, migrants were asked to stand in enormous lines outside ICE field offices without any appointment. This process was chaotic, as ICE was still operating under COVID restrictions and unable to handle the volume. Many migrants given NTRs were not able to check-in as required.

In an effort to address problems with the NTR process, in late 2021 the gov-

ernment attempted to mail tens of thousands of NTAs to migrants who were given NTRs. The effort, referred to as “Operation Horizon,” was also riddled with problems, as migrants’ addresses had changed or were not adequately collected at the border. The NTR program was ended in November 2021 after only six months of use.

The second program is commonly referred to as “parole plus ATD.” This program was first initiated in July 2021. It allowed for migrant families to enter the United States under parole—a common practice used at various times to respond to crises that lead to increased numbers of people at our borders. The head of the family was then also enrolled in an Alternative To Detention (ATD) program, which allowed ICE to track the family through a form of electronic monitoring.

Both programs led to problems for individuals seeking asylum. Without a charging document filed with a court, an asylum seeker cannot file an application

Editorial credit: Vic Hinterlang / Shutterstock.com

Physical Presence Guidance for Asylees and Refugees Applying for Adjustment of Status

Effective immediately, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has updated guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to clarify that both asylees and refugees must have been physically present in the United States for one year when we adjudicate their Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, rather than at the time they file their adjustment of status application. This applies to all Form I-485 and Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, applications pending on Feb. 2, 2023, and those filed on or after that date. This update will promote consistency across asylee and refugee adjustment of status applications. If we cannot determine whether an applicant satisfies the one-year physical presence requirement by reviewing their file or our records when we adjudicate their Form I-485, we may request additional evidence. This policy manual update also:

•Clarifies that asylee and refugee adjustment of status applicants previously admitted in J-1 or J-2 nonimmigrant status and otherwise subject to the two-year foreign residence requirement under Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) 212(e) do not need to meet that two-year requirement (or obtain a waiver) to adjust their status under INA 209; and •Makes minor technical updates, including clarifying processing steps for refugees seeking waivers of inadmissibility, removing references to the obsolete Form I-291, Decision on Application for Status as Permanent Resident, and adding regulatory citations related to asylum termination procedures.

The new guidance can be found in the USCIS Policy Manual. Visit the Policy Manual Feedback page to comment on this update. USCIS welcomes feedback on this guidance and will consider any comments received in future updates.l

for asylum with the court. Instead, they technically can file the application with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. But often, people did not know this and missed the critical one-year deadline to file the application, leaving them ineligible for asylum.

What reporting on the programs largely left out, however, was what initiated them in the first place. The programs were created to address the serious dangers of overcrowding in temporary CBP detention sites. The first program began just over a year after the deadliest year

for children in CBP custody. Six children died in CBP custody between September 2018 and May 2019. Children and monitors reported inhumane, unsanitary, and crowded conditions in CBP holding facilities where children were kept for weeks at a time.

In the first two months of the Biden administration, rising numbers of unaccompanied children in Border Patrol custody led to the increased risk of yet another tragedy occurring to a child at the border. By late March 2021, when the NTR program began, there were nearly 5,800 children locked in Border Patrol custody on a daily basis. It was against this backdrop that the Biden administration attempted to address increased numbers of families with children arriving at the border. Had they been successful, the programs would have allowed for the quick processing of families and reduced their time in CBP custody.

However, the programs revealed much larger cracks in our immigration system—particularly for asylum seekers. Rapid processing at the border can only offer a short-term band-aid for our broken immigration system. Only sustained long-term investment in our humanitarian protection system can avoid the need for rushed programs with harmful side effects.l

Migrants Suffer continued from page 12

The Loneliness of Immigrant Elders

BY PETER WHITE , EMS

Both shooters in the two mass killings in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay, California were Chinese and neither fit the profile of a mass killer. Both were over 65.

“Is it any surprise that within our communities there are people, elders who have been made invisible, treated not even as human beings, who feel isolated and yes, experience mental health issues like any other community?” asked Helen Zia, an author and activist.

Zia was one of five speakers at a Feb. 3 EMS virtual briefing who shared perspectives about the isolation and invisibility of immigrant elders spotlighted by the tragedies, and a call to action for the rest of society.

For her latest book, “Last Boat Out of Shanghai,” Zia interviewed a few hundred Asian seniors about their lives –first as refugees, and later as exiled immigrants. “So many have gone through war, starvation, civil war, great trauma, witnessed terrible, terrible things,” Zia said. Many had never told their stories before, even to their grown children. When asked why, they said because they didn’t think anybody wanted to hear.

many hidden traumas carried by immigrants in the US.

The recent killings triggered memories that many immigrants have tried to forget, and the news brought panic and fear. Perfectly understandable, Zia says.

Working into their ‘golden years’

“Why are people still working in their seventies?” asked Rita Medina, Deputy Director of State Policy and Advocacy at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles (CHIRLA), referring to the Latino and Asian farm workers spotlighted in Half Moon Bay.

Medina says many older farmworkers continue to work “into what should be their golden years” because they have to.

“It’s a large number of folks we’re talking about.” The 2019 American Community Survey estimated there are about 17,000 undocumented seniors in California who can’t collect social security. Estimates put the number of undocumented farmworkers at around half of the roughly 162,000 who work in the state.

CHIRLA knows domestic workers, farm workers, street vendors, and construction workers who have waited more than a decade to adjust their immigration

status. Since many have worked “under the table” or had low-wage social security jobs, Medina says SSI benefits for many wouldn’t be enough to sustain them even if they got green cards.

“They continue to be undocumented. Some of them are alone here in this country, and their bodies are physically breaking down because of the work that they’re doing. Knee problems from bending in construction, back problems from working as a domestic worker,” Medina said.

California recently passed a health care law that will provide medical insurance to everybody in California regardless of their status. That is good news but it doesn’t start until 2025.

Linda Yoon, Co-founder of the Yellow Chair Collective, which provides culturally responsive Asian American therapy, says seniors are overlooked by the mental healthcare profession.

Hidden traumas

Laura Som is a Cambodian Chinese refugee who came to Los Angeles when she was 10-years-old along with thousands of other Cambodians escaping the Pol Pot regime.

“Long Beach has the largest

continued on page 15

Loneliness of Immigrant Elders

continued from page 14

Cambodian population in the nation. Many of these refugees experienced extreme violence and trauma during the genocide. Many had and have PTSD, including myself,” Som said.

As she grew up, Som watched the mental health of the elders in her community deteriorate “from the aftermath of wars, extreme violence and neglect by the mainstream community. Some of the symptoms of these traumas are hatred, violence, rage, and depression. Little has been done to shield young children from it,” she said.

Degreed in biochemistry, Som founded the Maye Center in Cambodia Town in Long Beach to provide culturally appropriate therapies for mental health wellness for refugees and immigrants. Noting her community ended gerrymandering in Long Beach, Som says Cambodian seniors don’t speak English but overcame their fear and organized for the good of everyone. Transforming trauma into activism overcomes fear, especially when community initiatives are successful, Som says.

“And so for us, we break the stigma by saying seniors are relevant.”

Laura Som of the MAYE Center for healing of survivors of trauma, systemic racism, oppression and inequity in Long Beach, says a lack of culturally competent services is a major barrier for Asian

immigrants.

The stigma of mental health

Dr. Brett Sevilla is a clinical psychiatrist and medical director of the Asian Pacific Counseling and Treatment Centers (APCTC) which serves predominantly monolingual Asian immigrant families in Southern California.

Sevilla said families who have members with mental illness often consider it shameful and will first try to contain the problem and keep the person at home.

“If they eventually do see a psychiatrist, the person is often severely impaired, angry about being accused of being crazy, and the family is exhausted. Medications may be rejected or not taken consistently, as Western medication is believed to be too strong or even a cause of mental illness.”

Sevilla’s agency overcame these barriers by locating their offices in Asian enclaves, placing staff in local schools, providing culturally affirming services in the client’s native language, and linking families to community resources for practical support.

A decade ago, Linda Yoon, co-founder of the Yellow Chair Collective providing culturally appropriate therapy to Asian Americans in Los Angeles, fell into working with seniors at a Korean housing complex.

“One of the tasks that I was given was doing assessments, wellness checks, for every single resident.” Yoon said.

She said a lot of the residents were older women who lived alone and they would talk to her about their traumas, all the challenges they were going through, and things they just never shared with their children.

“And a lot of them end up kind of crying, really sharing something and then also feeling embarrassed because I was such a young worker that they were sharing something so intimate. There was just so much hidden trauma, isolation and loneliness that I was able to witness,” Yoon said.

She often complains with colleagues that children and families get the lion’s share of resources, and they could use more—it’s part of the stigma of being invisible seniors. l

Editorial credit: Tada Images / Shutterstock.com

Shuffle to Brooklyn Cruise Terminal Makes Jobs Harder to Find and Keep, Say Asylum Seekers

BY GABRIEL POBLETE, THE CITY

Around three dozen migrants stood inside a barricaded area in the north wing of the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan, aided by a host of volunteers and National Guard members on Wednesday afternoon.

Isaac, a 21-year-old from Venezuela, had been staying at the Watson Hotel in Hell’s Kitchen in an emergency shelter for asylum-seekers for about a month and a half — until Sunday. That’s when the hotel management handed him a slip of paper saying he would have to leave that night.

At around 11 p.m. Sunday, Isaac said, he and other hotel residents were escorted to an MTA bus, and informed it would take them to a new place to stay. That place turned out to be the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook, Brooklyn — where Mayor Eric Adams had announced his administration would be providing shelter to migrants, with men from the Watson Hotel the first to arrive. But then he saw the hangar-like cruise facility — and turned right around, taking the subway all the way back to the Watson Hotel.

It wasn’t the first transfer that Isaac experienced. Last year, he had been placed in the city’s controversial Randall’s Island shelter, which the Adams administration shut down in November, when migrants in numbers lower than expected actually stayed at the site. Many of the migrants initially housed there were moved to the Watson.

Isaac, who asked THE CITY not to use his last name, spent Sunday night outside the hotel, and Monday morning he was among the dozens of migrants, all single men, standing on the sidewalk or sitting in makeshift tents, as he contemplated what to do next.

Isaac is part of a WhatsApp group with other migrants, some who decided to spend a night at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal shelter. In that chat group, he saw that other asylum seekers said they had to sleep on cots that lacked sheets and that they did not have safe spaces to store their luggage. Some said they had already had possessions stolen.

But Isaac had another motive to head back to Manhattan before dawn Monday morning: he has a job, unlike many migrants who have struggled to find work — especially with winter slowing work at construction sites. Isaac is a cleaner at an Upper West Side school from 4 to 10 p.m. during the week. If he was still staying at the Watson on West 57th Street, his work commute would remain a 10-minute subway ride.

But from Red Hook, he said, it will be inaccessible. Even the walk to the F train takes nearly half an hour.

“I don’t want to move just to start all over again,” he said in Spanish. “But I can’t spend another night here.”

Fleeing Turmoil

As the men gathered at the Watson to figure out their next move, mutual aid volunteers set up tables with food, clothing donations and other resources. The men spoke about their precarious situation — not just in New York but also the turmoil they’d fled in Venezuela, which drove them to look for better opportunities and safety in the United States.

Mayoral press secretary Fabien Levy said in a statement that the city continues to need federal and state resources to handle the migrant crisis, with more than 43,000 migrants arriving in the city since last spring.

“The facilities at Brooklyn Cruise Terminal will provide the same services as every other humanitarian relief center in the city, and the scheduled relocations to Brooklyn Cruise Terminal this weekend took place as planned,” the statement reads. “We remain in serious need of support from both our state and federal governments.”

The Watson Hotel is now slated to house other migrants: families with children.

The Brooklyn Terminal shelter follows two other similar sites for single men that the city set up in response to the influx of migrants, then abandoned.

One of those was in the Orchard Beach parking lot in the Bronx, but the site never opened due to concern that it was located in a flood-prone area. The city then opened another barracks-style shelter on Randall’s Island with a capacity for 1,000 people, which opened in midOctober but closed about a month later.

City Councilmember Alexa Avilés released a joint statement with Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes and State Senator Andrew Gounardes — all Democrats whose districts include Red Hook — questioning why the mayor’s office pushed back a tour of the terminal site for elected officials if it was already hospitable for people. They called on the city to consider other available solutions, including permanent locations.

Avilés told THE CITY that she’s not surprised migrants were dismayed by the terminal, given that they would be going

from a living situation with significantly more privacy to the hangar-like facility where the cots are wall to wall. She said the Adams administration should exhaust all brick-and-mortar options before turning to makeshift locations.

“I think this site has many of the issues that we’ve contended with at the Orchard Beach site, the Randall’s Island site,” she said. “The location is really challenging. Red Hook is a transportation desert.”

Caitlin Baucom, a volunteer from the mutual aid group Gym Collective, said she went to the Watson Hotel on Sunday night, where migrants were refusing to board the buses headed to the Brooklyn Terminal. Those who had gone and then returned to the hotel urged others not to go.

“Let’s keep in mind that these are people who have faced and traveled through unimaginable conditions,” Baucom said. “They get here to this country, and then go to the Red Hook terminal and said that it was so terrible that they walked back and were encouraging other people not to go.”

Armando Carima stood outside the hotel, leaning against the scaffolding rails. He learned on Sunday that he would have to leave the hotel on Tuesday. Carima found a notification under his door when he returned to his room after searching for work.

He said he had been at the Watson Hotel for about a month and a half. He was informed by a city representative that he would get to stay at the Watson for up to a year, having gone through two city shelters before.

In Spanish, Carima said the city has the migrants at “el timbo al tambo,” which roughly translates to getting sent to and fro.

He said that if he has to go to the Brooklyn site, he’ll go, adding that he came to the country to work and not to take advantage of the system. But he said getting moved around from site to site is destabilizing. So far he’s had little success finding work during the two months he’s been in the city.

“They have us over here, they have us over there. They never leave us on one site,” he said in Spanish. “How do you move around to find work if you don’t have a place to live?” l

This story was published on January 30, 2023 by THE CITY.

‘El Timbo al Tambo’

Dozens of migrants traveled back to the Watson Hotel on West 57th Street after the city tried to move them to Red Hook, Brooklyn, Jan. 30, 2023.Gabriel Poblete/THE CITY

Waiting at the Watson Hotel in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan, Jan. 30, 2023.Gabriel Poblete/THE CITY

LaGuardia Airport Workers Claim AntiUnion Retaliation

BY AMIR KHAFAGY DOCUMENTED NY

LaGuardia Airport’s $8 billion facelift may be nearing completion, but workers there say their labor issues have only worsened.

On Thursday afternoon, dozens of LaGuardia Airport workers employed by the major airline contractor Swissport USA, many of whom are immigrants, rallied outside the airport’s Marine Air Terminal to announce filing unfair practice labor charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

In addition to the NLRB charges for retaliation against union activists, 32BJ SEIU, the union representing the workers, also filed five complaints on Dec. 7 with the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection against Swissport for violation of the City’s Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law.

Speaking to the crowd of workers during the rally, State Senator Jessica Ramos, Chair of the Committee on Labor and whose district includes LaGuardia Airport, publicly admonished Swissport’s treatment of its workers.

“I want to make sure that every airline knows that they should not be working with a company that is an actual sweatshop for our neighbors,” she said to a roar of applause. “The Port Authority should know that Swissport should either shape up or ship out. They are not welcome in the neighborhood if they are going to mistreat people of color.”

It was the second action to take place in the last several months. Last December, nearly 100 airport workers rallied outside LaGuardia to demand better working conditions. Since then, 32BJ SEIU says Swissport has suspended nearly a dozen ramp workers and cabin cleaners after they spoke out against the company.

Omar Ramirez, a 19-year-old Dominican Swissport cabin cleaner, said he was suspended three weeks ago after he spoke out in the Daily News about the poor working conditions. When he returned to work following the article’s publication, Ramirez claims that management called him into the office and began insulting him before indefinitely suspending him for a minor infraction.

“They called me a knucklehead, they called me names they’re not supposed to,” he said. “If you are a supervisor you’re supposed to be a professional. To call you names, it needs to stop now.”

As the sole breadwinner for his family, Ramirez said the last few weeks have been hard. The company has not informed him of his current employment status, and he fears he won’t be reinstated, he said. Meanwhile, his bills continue to pile up.

Former baggage handler Chad Infiesta, 36, has also struggled to pay his rent since being fired in December. In addition to handling baggage, like most Swissport workers, Infiesta says Swissport required him to pull double duty as an airplane cleaner. Infiesta

claims he was fired the day after he protested his unsanitary working conditions.

In one instance, he said he was sprayed with human feces when he tried emptying out the plane bathrooms with Swissport’s faulty equipment.

“The whole hose came out and spewed all over me,” he said. “Piss, shit, towelettes — everything. Anything that went down the toilet, came out on me.”

Disgusted, he stormed off the plane and threw out his uniform. He claims that when he complained to management, their cavalier attitude was the final straw, and he decided to speak out against the company. “We are getting overworked and underpaid on a daily basis,” he said. When requesting comment, a Swissport spokesperson denied any unfair labor practices or any violations of labor law, telling Documented that “In all the cities we operate in the United States, Swissport fully complies with operating permit requirements.”l

Reprinted with kind permission. Article first published by DocumentedNY.

People Blame and Judge Parents for Children’s Heavier Weights

BY SHEENA CRUICKSHANK THE CONVERSATION

Americans stigmatize parents of heavier children, specifically blaming them for their children’s weights, according to experiments conducted by our team of psychologists.

The more a person views parents as responsible for a child’s excess weight, the more likely they are to view such parents as bad parents who are lazy, overindulgent and incompetent.

Our findings corroborate what parents of children with higher weights have reported for years: that other people –friends, other parents, strangers or even their pediatricians – might blame them, dislike them and think they are poor parents.

Why it matters

In the U.S., about 1 in 3 children have body mass indexes that would be categorized as overweight or obese. The number has grown during the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning an increasing number of parents face stigma on account of their child’s weight.

This parental weight stigma is just

beginning to receive serious scientific attention but could have major effects on parents, children and families.

For example, family courts across the U.S. and internationally have removed children with obesity from parental custody in large part due to their children’s weights. Family separation can have massive negative effects on children. Our work suggests that if judges react as our study participants did, they may view parents of heavier children as being bad parents simply because their children are heavier.

In reality, weight is not solely under personal control. In fact, dieting can cause weight gain. Excess weight arises

from a complex interplay of genes, environment, diet and activity.

Psychologists also know that weight stigma is associated with pervasive negative consequences, including bullying, ignorant comments and feelings of painful invisibility – as well as diminished educational and economic opportunities and worse medical outcomes importantly not simply due to one’s weight. Experiencing weight stigma, insidiously, might itself facilitate weight gain and cause other negative effects.

What still isn’t known

If people blame and stigmatize parents of children with higher weights, what

PartyRentals for All

effects does it have on parents, on their children and on the parent-child interactions that are so important for healthy development?

We do not yet know, for example, if heavier children are aware people stigmatize their parents. If so, these children might not only be ashamed of their size, but also might erroneously feel responsible for how people treat their parents.

How we do our work

For this research, published in the journal Psychological Science, we ran three experiments with over 1,000 U.S. participants – about 75% white and 25% other races/ethnicities – over the course of 2022.

We randomly assigned participants to view one of four line drawings depicting a mother or father next to an 8-year-old daughter or son. We also included a short description of the parent and child.

In two of the line drawings and descriptions, the child was described and depicted as “healthy”-weight. In the other two, the child was depicted and described as having “obesity.” The parents were always depicted and described as being healthy-weight. This allowed us to conclude that study participants’ reactions to parents were due to their children’s weights, not the parents’.

We asked participants a few short questions about how good or bad a parent they thought the adult was. Participants also answered questions about what they believed influenced the child’s weight (as well as their academic performance and athleticism, to help obscure the focus of the study). Participants were given 100 “responsibility points” to allot to four factors that could be behind the child’s weight: parent behavior, child behavior, genetic factors and societal factors.

As expected, people who viewed the child with obesity assigned more responsibility points to parent behavior and saw that parent as a worse parent. We found parent and child gender made little difference, consistent with other work. This is consistent with previous research showing people blame parents for children’s obesity more than people blame society or the kids themselves.

We also tested whether providing alternative explanations for the child’s weight would decrease the amount of blame parents received for it. When we told participants the child had a thyroid condition that caused her excess weight, they stigmatized the mother less, holding her less responsible.

Next, our team is exploring how parents’ own weight, income and race/ethnicity influences the stigma directed toward them on account of their child’s excess weight.l

Sheena Cruickshank is a Professor in Biomedical Sciences, University of Manchester

Would you hold the mother responsible for her son’s weight?

New York City Declares End to MPox Outbreak after Nation-Leading Response

New York City on February 1 declared an end to the mpox outbreak as transmission has remained very low in the city for two consecutive months. The declaration follows the successful vaccination of more than 100,000 New Yorkers, and community partnerships in education and behavior change. The city had been the epicenter of the outbreak but launched a number of successful response strategies. The declaration comes as the U.S. public health emergency expired on Jan. 31.

“The end of the mpox outbreak is a moment of pride for us in public health, and represents the best of science and society coming together for quick action,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan. “Our City vaccinated more than 100,000 people and was the first in the nation to pilot effective strategies, driving both public awareness and official response strategies. Combined with widespread and deep community partnerships, leadership from affected communities and advocates, and the steadfast engagement of providers and many others, we have dramatically reduced transmission, and are better prepared for future outbreaks. New York

City took bold action early and throughout this outbreak, and together helped turn the tide and mobilize the nation.”

“When mpox began spreading in New York City, the City and its public hospital system mobilized its facilities and launched a mobile vaccination fleet to bring the vaccine to all New Yorkers without exception,” said Andrew B. Wallach, MD, FACP, Ambulatory Care Chief Medical Officer at NYC Health + Hospitals. “Our community vaccine hubs and mobile vaccine clinics have met people where they are, as they are, removing barriers to ensure those who identify as

members of the LGBTQ+ communities receive the full protection of the vaccine and the culturally-responsive, genderaffirming care they deserve. We are proud to have played a critical role in the City’s successful mpox response and thankful to all the frontline healthcare workers, engagement teams and community partners who worked so tirelessly to keep their fellow New Yorkers safe.”

Over the course of the 2022 outbreak, more than 155,000 doses of the mpox vaccine were administered in New York City alone. The number of vaccines administered in New York City exceeded

the amount administered in 49 U.S. states. Only California administered more (more than 289,000 doses) followed by New York City and then the state of Florida (around 92,000 doses). In partnership with community, New York City consistently rolled out first-inthe-nation interventions. For example, New York City introduced a vaccination strategy that was followed nationally. In June 2022, using limited vaccine doses allocated to the City from the federal government, New York became the first jurisdiction to launch “extended PEP” vaccination clinics around Pride week –which opened vaccination to New Yorkers at risk of having had a recent exposure, rather than limiting to people who were a known contact of someone diagnosed with mpox. This innovative vaccine strategy opened a path for expanded vaccination access across the city and country. In addition, in response to concerns from partners, New York City was the first jurisdiction to call for an official change to the name monkeypox – and then eventually moving to unilaterally adopt a name-change for the city even before the WHO’s decision to update the name to mpox.l

Partnering Up Can Help You Grow as an Individual – Here’s the Psychology of a Romantic Relationship that Expands the Self

BY GARY W. LEWANDOWSKI JR. THE CONVERSATION

It’s common to want to become a better version of yourself. Much like the desires to eat, drink and avoid harm, human beings also experience a fundamental need to learn, grow and improve – what psychologists call self-expansion. Consider your favorite activities. Things like reading a book, spending time in nature, volunteering with a new organization, taking a class, traveling, trying a new restaurant, exercising or watching a documentary all broaden the self. Those experiences add new knowledge, skills, perspectives and identities. When who you are as a person expands, you enhance your competence and capabilities and increase your ability to meet new challenges and accomplish new goals.

Of course, you can achieve self-expansion on your own by trying new and interesting activities (like playing Wordle), learning new things (like advancing through a language app) or

working on a skill (like practicing meditation). Research confirms that these kinds of activities help individuals expand themselves, which encourages them to put forth more effort on subsequent challenging tasks.

Interestingly, romantic relationships can also be a key source of growth for people. As a relationship scientist for over 20 years, I’ve studied the effects all kinds of romantic relationships can have on the self. Today’s modern couples hold high expectations for a partner’s role in one’s own self-development.

Growing in your relationship

Falling in love feels good, and spending time with a romantic partner is enjoyable, but love’s benefits run even deeper. People tend to value partners who help them become a better version of themselves.

One way to optimize self-growth in your relationship is by sharing in your partner’s unique interests and skills. When “me” becomes “we,” partners blend their self-concepts and include the other in the self. That merging encour-

ages partners to take on each other’s characteristics, quirks, interests and abilities to some extent. Romantic partners inevitably have different life experiences, knowledge bases, perspectives and skills. Each area is an opportunity for growth.

For example, if your partner has a better sense of humor than you do, over time, yours will likely improve. If they have an eye for interior design, your ability to put together a room will evolve. A

partner’s differing views on climate change, politics or religion will grant you new perspectives and a deeper understanding of those topics. Your relationship helps you become a better person. This isn’t to say that individuals should try to completely merge, running the risk of losing themselves. Rather, each person can maintain their own identity while augmenting it with desirable elements from their partner.

The self-expansion provided by a strong relationship has benefits for the relationship itself.

Partnering Up Can Help You Grow

continued from page 20

Relationship consequences of more or less

The science makes it abundantly clear that couples with more self-expansion are better relationships. Specifically, people who report more self-expansion in their relationship also report more passionate love, relationship satisfaction and commitment. It’s also associated with more physical affection, greater sexual desire, less conflict and couples being happier with their sex life.

Because self-expansion is so critical, when expanding relationships end, participants describe feeling like they have lost a part of themselves. Importantly, when less-expanding relationships break up, individuals experience positive emotions and growth.

When a relationship provides insufficient expansion, it can feel like it’s stuck in a rut. That stagnant malaise has consequences. Research finds that married couples who at one point indicated more boredom in their current relationship also reported less marital satisfaction nine years later. Insufficient relationship selfexpansion also encourages people to have more of a wandering eye and pay more attention to alternative partners, increases susceptibility to cheating on one’s partner, lowers sexual desire and comes with a greater likelihood of

breakup.

How does your relationship measure up?

Maybe you’re now wondering how your own relationship is doing on this front. To provide some insight, I created the Sustainable Marriage Quiz. On a scale from 1 to 7, with 1 being “very little” and 7 being “very much,” answer these questions:

How much does being with your partner result in you having new experiences?

When you are with your partner, do you feel a greater awareness of things because of them?

1. How much does your partner increase your ability to accomplish new things? How much does your partner help to

expand your sense of the kind of person you are?

2. How much do you see your partner as a way to expand your own capabilities?

3.How much do your partner’s strengths as a person (skills, abilities, etc.) compensate for some of your own weaknesses as a person?

4. How much do you feel that you have a larger perspective on things because of your partner?

5. How much has being with your partner resulted in your learning new things?

6. How much has knowing your partner made you a better person?

7.How much does your partner increase your knowledge?

Before adding up your score, know that these categories are generalizations. They suggest where your relationship

may need attention, but also where it’s already strong. Relationships are complicated, so you should see your score for what it is: one small piece of the puzzle about what makes your relationship work.

•60 and above – Highly Expansive. Your relationship provides lots of new experiences and helps you reach new goals. As a result, you likely have a more fulfilling and sustainable relationship.

•45 to 60 – Moderately Expanding. Your relationship has produced some new experiences and additions to your selfconcept, but you have some room for improvement.

•Below 45 — Low Expansion. Currently your relationship isn’t creating many opportunities to increase your knowledge or enhance you. Consequently you likely aren’t improving yourself as much as you could. Consider making an effort to seek out more new and interesting experiences with your partner. You may even rethink if this is the right partner for you. What makes a relationship great? While there are many factors to consider, one area deserves more attention: how much it helps you grow. A relationship that fosters self-expansion will make you want to be a better person, help you increase your knowledge, build your skills, enhance your capabilities and broaden your perspectives.l

855-768-8845

Gary W. Lewandowski Jr. is a Professor of Psychology, Monmouth University

NYC DOT Begins Major Expansion of OnStreet Carshare after Successful Pilot

New York: New York City Department of Transportation

Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez on Tuesday, February 7 announced the expansion of its citywide curbside carshare program to increase access to convenient carshare, after a successful 5-year pilot has proven to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and personal car ownership. Over the next two weeks, DOT will install new signage to demarcate the first 80 new, dedicated curbside parking spaces for carshare service across Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens, with an explicit focus on equitable access.

DOT’s ambitious program goal for 2023 is to supplement the current 230 on-street parking spaces with several hundred more, working with the three carshare companies – Zipcar, Getaround, and Truqit – to deploy their shared vehicles at new locations.

“We now have the proof that convenient access to carshare frees New Yorkers from the burden of car ownership – while helping to fight climate change. Soon more New Yorkers will have access to a vehicle when required – no need to sign

Commissioner Rodriguez. “With thanks to the Mayor for his support, we are excited to build on the successes of our pilot, cutting down greenhouse gas emissions and vehicle miles traveled, while supporting efficient use of space at the curb. We encourage New Yorkers to give this great program a try!”

“Getaround and the New York City DOT have a mutual goal of reducing traffic congestion, improving air quality, and providing equitable transportation options for community members. Our participation in the carshare program will provide instant access to on-demand and affordable cars that will serve as a complement to other transportation modes in the city,” said Sy Fahimi, COO of Getaround. “We look forward to expanding access to shared mobility, as Getaround continues its mission to empower people to carshare everywhere.”

"Truqit is proud to join forces with New York City in building a better future for all its residents. Our goal is to give New Yorkers access to convenient and sustainable transportation options, without the hassles of car ownership,” said Sohail

with the city, Truqit, now headquartered and operating in NYC, is poised to bring about a brighter, greener future for all.”

“We are grateful to work with the New York City Department of Transportation and the communities it serves to provide more New Yorkers with access to Zipcar’s professionally maintained fleet of shared vehicles,” said Angelo Adams, Head of Zipcar. “From our pilot data and more than two decades of serving New York City, we know there is a genuine need to provide more on-demand access to vehicles, given the high cost and hassle of owning one in the city. Together with the NYC DOT, Zipcar is dedicated to decreasing congestion and carbon

Yorkers, including with more hybrid and electric vehicles

Carsharing is a service that gives members access to an automobile for shortterm use – usually by the hour, or day –at a cost that includes maintenance. With cars parked in publicly accessible neighborhood locations across the city, members can reserve vehicles entirely via smartphone, and then just walk up to a car and drive away, returning later to the same reserved spot.

DOT is conducting extensive outreach, taking feedback from community boards and making adjustments where applicable. Once all sites are installed, an up-todate map of locations will be available

Commissioner Rodriguez Editorial credit: a katz / Shutterstock.com

The lawyer you hire, does make a difference!

Brian Figeroux, Esq.