Providers of community IDs for North Carolina's immigrant communities say proposed legislation banning police officers and local governments from recognizing the alternative IDs as valid could have crippling effects on families.

House Bill 167 would restrict the use of cards issued to immigrants through the FaithAction ID Network. More than 15,000 residents in North Carolina and other states currently rely on FaithAction IDs.

María González, deputy director of the nonprofit group El Pueblo, said community IDs were created as a stopgap solution for individuals banned from receiving state licenses because they lack the required documentation.

"Medical care, participating in the cultural and business life of our community, getting a library card, picking up a kid from school," González outlined.

Supporters of the bill argued community-issued IDs pose security risks for communities. FaithAction explained in order to receive an ID, program participants are required to attend an orientation on the benefits and limitations of the card and sign a simple Memorandum of Understanding.

González added FaithAction IDs are designed to help people navigate daily life, and pointed out they cannot be used to vote or access federal benefits.

"We hope that there's a compassionate way that we can be reassured that our communities feel safe, are safe, that people are who they say they are," González emphasized. "But not at the expense of more vulnerable communities."

Research shows community IDs help reduce fear of interacting with law enforcement and witnesses and victims of crime are more likely to talk to police officers if they have an ID card.

More than 60 Connecticut immigrant advocate groups sent a letter to Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., to safeguard asylum rights.

Murphy is the lead negotiator for the supplemental funding request for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Congressional Republicans asked for border protection funding to accompany the foreign aid package, which Democrats have agreed to. However, the final version of the bill would have severe consequences for asylum seekers.

Constanza Segovia, organizer for the group Hartford Deportation Defense, said the right to declare asylum should not be negotiable.

"They would be backtracking on decades of work and protections that really are non-controversial in terms of anyone concerned with human rights and the human right to seek refuge," Segovia asserted.

Segovia and other Connecticut groups are offering other suggestions for border security, such as increasing funding for asylum processing, reducing work permit waiting times and providing better resources for municipal and state governments to provide better services. Senate Republicans blocked the funding package in an initial procedural vote, to express their intent on passing the border bill as it is.

Connecticut and other states have found the number of migrants arriving is too much to handle. Although they have called on the federal government for funding assistance, their cries have fallen on deaf ears.

Segovia noted there is a disconnect between the number of people seeking asylum in the U.S., and those to whom it is granted.

"I've talked to people who are experiencing serious violence and still are not able to have a successful asylum case," Segovia pointed out. "To me what that means is the law could be less restrictive to include some other forms of violence."

Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse reported in the past 20 years, asylum grants are only around 46% of all grants of relief the court awarded.

From construction and hospitality to business creation and consumer spending, a new report shows the oversized contributions immigrants are making to the labor force in New Mexico. The report shows that immigrants to Santa Fe County made up more than one in seven workers in 2019.

Asma Esa, manager of state and local initiatives with the American Immigration Council, explained their contributions cannot be overvalued in creating the area's vibrancy.

"Even though immigrants made up 11.1% of the county's total population, they actually made up 15% of its employed labor force, as well as 15.2% of the working-age population," Esa said.

The report, released by the American Immigration Council, also shows immigrants in Santa Fe County paid more than $122 million in taxes and held over $365 million in spending power in 2019.

Marcela Diaz, executive director of Somos Un Pueblo Unido - a statewide group founded in 1995 to promote worker and racial justice, said Santa Fe, like other cities, has an aging workforce and needs to employ and recruit younger workers - while also figuring out how to maximize the contributions of immigrants.

"And to be fully integrated into the city's economic development plans - we want to have more access to workforce development opportunities, and really be a part of the city's long-term vision, Diaz said.

According to the report, the 16,000 immigrants living in Santa Fe County in 2019 mostly arrived from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Roughly 93% reported they had lived in the United States for more than five years.


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A new survey found immigrant students need better help in school.

The YouthTruth, Re-Imagining Migration survey was designed to examine the perspective of immigrant students as to how they are doing in school. The survey showed immigrant students do not feel they can be themselves there. There were also middling scores when asked if they feel like part of their school's community.

Adam Strom, executive director of the nonprofit Re-Imagining Migration, described the importance of an immigrant student's native language to their education.

"If you're in a school where folks are encouraging you to speak your own home language when appropriate, your school experience is much better," Strom asserted. "You have a much stronger sense of belonging. You have a much stronger sense that your peers like you. You see yourself in textbooks more, you see yourself in the classroom more and what's being taught."

He noted if schools take the opposite approach, it can increase a students' sense of isolation. While there has been more attention paid to immigrant student's mental health, cultural and attitudinal barriers like stigma were a factor. Strom argued schools being more inclusive of immigrant students and their families can improve their education.

Though there are ways to ensure immigrant students feel included, there are some challenges to making the strategies work. Along with anti-immigrant sentiments flooding the country, teacher shortages mean educators cannot be one-on-one with their students.

Jimmy Simpson Jr., director of partnerships for YouthTruth, said another factor is immigrant students are more than immigrants.

"Thinking that there are migrant students also part of the LGBTQ community, Black immigrant students or brown, BIPOC immigrant students," Simpson outlined. "They have very different types of experiences than a migrant student who may be white."

Simpson added seeing people beyond just being immigrants goes a long way to creating a welcoming environment for immigrant students in schools.