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Immigrants forced to wait in an outdoor camp on the Mexican side of the border celebrated the news of Biden’s presidential win in hopes that he will keep his promise of ending Trump’s anti-immigration policies. The Trump administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols has forced over 67,000 immigrants and asylum seekers to remain in Mexico as their cases wind through the courts, perhaps for years. In 2019, the U.S. changed how it dealt with asylum seekers by forcing them to wait in dangerous border cities for their court dates. Biden plans on ending MPP within his first 100 days in office. Buzzfeed News
In other national immigration news…
Immigrants Anxious For Muslim Ban to Go
Yassin Terou, a falafel restaurant owner, headed over to Bearden Middle School in Knoxville, Tennessee, and passed out 150 sandwiches while polls closed Tuesday night. This election was meaningful to Terou because it was the first time he could vote as a citizen and provided him the chance to vote out Trump over his Muslim Ban. The ban, which started major protests in 2017, was blocked by numerous courts but eventually supported by the Supreme Court in 2018. Millions of Muslims in the U.S. experienced a rise of hate crimes over the last four years of the Trump administration. Biden said he would repeal the ban on his first day in office. The Washington Post
Democrats Short on Votes in Latino Counties Along Texas Border
After Democrats spent years focusing on flipping Texas, the election revealed the heavily Latino Zapata County still sided with the Republicans. Zapata County, which borders the Rio Grande between Laredo and McAllen, has the highest poverty rates in Texas and is home to oil-field workers. Biden won the Latino vote in urban areas, but underperformed in Latino counties along the border, as Trump won Zapata county by five percentage points. Mexican American families in Brownsville, McAllen, Edinburg and other Rio Grande Valley cities value their Mexican roots as much as their American citizenship. Some even want to work for Border Patrol despite how negatively the agency is viewed by many immigrants. The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News
Border Patrol Vehicle Collision Kills Individual
A Border Patrol agent from the Calexico Border Patrol Station was responding to a report of “illegal entry of individuals” from Mexico to California on Friday evening when he allegedly hit and killed a person, according to a news release from Customs and Border Protection. Officials said the agent was unable to avoid slamming into a person laying on the road. The agent assisted the individual until medical service arrived at the scene. Border Patrol is working with authorities to identify the person killed, while the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General is teaming up with the California Highway Patrol to investigate the incident. San Diego Union Tribune
Colorado, Florida and Alabama Pass Amendments Allowing ‘Only Citizens’ to Vote
Voters in Colorado, Florida and Alabama passed amendments last week that affirm non-citizens can’t vote — something that’s already law throughout the U.S. North Dakota and Arizona already had similar measures in place. Former GOP state legislator John Loudon from Missouri, who led the attempt, said the ballot measures were necessary because many jurisdictions were pushing to allow non-citizens to vote in some local elections. Citizen Voters, Inc., a Florida-based organization founded by Loudon, donated heavily to the state campaigns for the amendments and gave $1.4 million to Colorado’s efforts. Associated Press
