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The latest episode of our podcast, “A is for America”, features an interview Tania Chavez, a Dreamer and fund development strategist who works with La Unión Del Pueblo Entero (LUPE). Listen below or tune in via iTunes, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app.
This week, travelers with the migrant caravan arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border, but despite Trump and Republicans’ constant demonizing, they are just mothers, children, and teenagers desperately trying to flee violence. Acting ICE Director Thomas Homan announced that he is retiring, and while ICE is unlikely to change after he’s gone, it’s hard not to cheer the departure of the “Bull Connor” of federal immigration enforcement. And in major news, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced that he (along with the AGs of six other states) is suing the Trump Administration to end DACA — the Republicans’ latest outrageous attempt to attack Dreamers who have lived in the U.S. nearly their whole lives.
In Texas, we’ve seen story after story after story of immigrant parents and children living along the border region who have been detained after medical emergencies forced them to travel through checkpoints. These stories have highlighted something most Americans probably don’t know about the border area: that there are interior checkpoints which effectively wall in immigrants who live in places like the Rio Grande Valley. Tania Chavez, an organizer with LUPE, joins us to talk about what happens when immigrants can’t leave their immediate town or region, for fear of being detained and deported. (Her interview starts at 11:45.)
“A is for America” is a podcast which tells stories from the front lines of a changing America. Each week, we’ll be talking to advocates and experts working in immigration reform, immigrants’ rights, immigration politics, and the forefront of what it means to be a new American. Tune in next week for more.
