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Maggie Elmore

@mjelmore.bsky.social

Historian of migration, borders, and immigration policy. Also religion. Reluctant runner. Food person. Cat person. Dog person. Special needs advocate.

53 Posts2175 Follower1428 Folgt
United Farm Workers@ufw.bsky.social · 2d ago

"Luis" is hard at work in Gonzalez CA preparing the pipes to irrigate the new crop. "This work is hard, especially in the afternoons, as it's very windy in this area. Plus the loose soil makes the work even harder." #WeFeedYou

A farm worker is hard at work in Gonzalez CA preparing the pipes to irrigate the new crop.
Gillian Brockell@gillianbrockell.com · 3w ago

This is whole story is horrifying, and as a journalist covering ICE flights, I was struck by this sentence: “We were shipped to Texas overnight from Los Angeles in horrible conditions that I won’t elaborate on in this letter.”

Jack Mirkinson@jackmirkinson.bsky.social · 3w ago

Today in @thenation.com: a harrowing piece written from inside the Dilley ICE detention center by Maryam Tahmasebi, a green card holder who's been locked up along with her husband and son for months despite none of them committing any crime. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Steve Vladeck@stevevladeck.bsky.social · 3w ago

Brett Kavanaugh, June 30: Don't worry Mr. President; if you want to muck up birthright citizenship, you can just have Congress do it through a statute (never mind that five of my colleagues disagree). President Trump, August 6: Here's another executive order mucking up birthright citizenship.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3w ago

Stephen Miller: "The president is using his authority as commander as chief to sign an executive order using the new ruling the Supreme Court issued to expand the definition of people who are ineligible for birthright citizenship. That includes, for example, alien enemies ... "

RNS@rns.org · 4w ago

(RNS) — Arizona justices unanimously ruled on Thursday (July 30) that trial courts couldn’t interfere in church leaders’ decision to report sexual abuse cases disclosed in confession, according to their own interpretation of religious doctrine.

Church leaders not bound to report sexual abuse confessions, Arizona Supreme Court rules

(RNS) — Arizona justices unanimously ruled on Thursday (July 30) that trial courts couldn’t interfere in church leaders’ decision to report sexual abuse cases disclosed in confession, according to their own interpretation of religious doctrine.

religionnews.com

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · last mo.

Last year, TSA began sharing passenger manifests with ICE, and ICE began arresting people at airports. After some initial arrests led to backlash, ICE pulled back a bit. But with the pressure on from the White House right now, we're seeing a lot more arrests at airports recently.

Jenn Budd@jennbudd.bsky.social · last mo.

Just received this from immigration attorney Mo Goldman. This is why ICE is in the airports. Please share! @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social

TRAVEL WARNING: ICE has been arresting and detaining people at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. We are hearing of several reports of this happening over the past week. This includes people in the legal process (we have one client who had a pending asylum application who got arrested by ICE last night despite awaiting the result of his asylum interview that happened recently). They are tracking everyone they can get their hands on.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · last mo.

NEW: Earlier today the Trump admin issued its regulation rescinding the Biden administration's 2022 "public charge" rule, which mostly codified decades-old rules which had been tossed aside in Trump 1.0. The new rule will go into effect and apply only to applications filed after September 15.

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY 8 CFR Parts 103 and 212 [CIS No. 2857-26; DHS Docket No. USCIS-2025-0304] RIN 1615-AD06 Public Charge Ground of Inadmissibility AGENCY: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”), Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”). ACTION: Final rule. SUMMARY: DHS is rescinding the 2022 public charge ground of inadmissibility regulations (“2022 Final Rule”). The 2022 Final Rule was not the best implementation of the statute. It was inconsistent with congressional intent, unduly restrictive, and hampered DHS’s ability to make accurate, precise, and reliable determinations of whether certain aliens are likely at any time to become a public charge. Rescission restores broader discretion for DHS officers to evaluate all pertinent facts and aligns with long-standing policy that aliens in the United States should be self-reliant and government benefits should not incentivize immigration. This rule also revises the breach and cancellation of public charge bonds regulations. DATES: The final rule is effective on [INSERT DATE 60 DAYS AFTER DATE OF PUBLICATION IN THE FEDERAL REGISTER]. This rule applies to applications for admission made on or after [INSERT DATE 60 DAYS AFTER DATE OF PUBLICATION IN THE FEDERAL REGISTER] or applications for adjustment of status postmarked or electronically submitted on or after [INSERT DATE 60 DAYS AFTER DATE OF PUBLICATION IN THE FEDERAL REGISTER].
Maggie Elmore@mjelmore.bsky.social · last mo.

One year ago today, we brought this girl home, covered in fleas, rashes, and dirt from a kill shelter in central Texas. She’d been dumped on July 4 during the historic storms that devastated our community. She’s filled our home with shenanigans and laughter since day 1. Happy Gotcha Day!

Dalmatian on round grey dog bed, biting stuffed toy, eyes closed in bliss. Dalmatian sitting in the shade, smiling, wearing a pink collar and leash and black harness and leash.
Maggie Elmore@mjelmore.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Trying to hold the US accountable for state and vigilante violence against Mexican nationals is a long-standing hallmark of Mexican-US diplomacy. Sheinbaum is absolutely correct - this is a broad and long pattern of mistreatment spanning more than a century.

Texas Public Radio@texaspublicradio.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Mexico is preparing legal action after a Mexican national was fatally shot Tues. during what ICE described as a targeted enforcement operation in Houston. President Claudia Sheinbaum called the shooting part of a broader pattern of mistreatment. Read More👉 ebx.sh/Bvlavl

derek guy@dieworkwear.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Justice Brown Jackson's argument for birthright citizenship is very moving. I recommend reading it in full. An excerpt with alt-text below. “The Reconstruction Amendments were an anticaste, antisubordination reset for the Nation, not a mere spot treatment for the dark stain of slavery.” — KBJ

Still, most freed Blacks resisted the pressure to self-deport. Instead, many started organizing toward the creation of the kind of Nation the colonizationists opposed—one that guaranteed liberty and justice for all. In the decades leading up to the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, Black Americans organized and gathered at more than 600 local and national conventions across the country. There, delegates erected the political and intellectual scaffolding for the Fourteenth Amendment and, later, for the Black Civil Rights Movement more generally. Critically for present purposes, these visionaries already understood themselves to be American citizens. “The refrains ‘we are Americans’ and ‘we are citizens’ echoed in conferences throughout the North.” Moreover, “[b]irthright figured importantly” as “delegates frequently characterized their status as that of native-born citizens.” The delegates argued that, as such, they had the requisite allegiance, so, at a minimum, the Federal Government owed them the duty of protection. The famed orator Frederick Douglass was one of these delegates. Capturing the spirit of the moment, Douglass proclaimed that Chief Justice Taney—the author of the majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford, 19 How. 393 (1857)—“[could] do many things, but he [could not] … change the essential nature of things.” In the absence of the artificial evils of slavery and racial subordination, Douglass explained, “the glorious birthright of our common humanity, will become the inheritance of all the inhabitants of this highly favored country.” Do note this: The citizenship thesis of the Colored Conventions was thus not that some new status should be created and conferred on freed Blacks.It was instead that freed Blacks already had a rightful claim to citizenship because they had been born on American soil. After all, the Nation, from its founding, had “boldly proclaim[ed] that all men are born free and equal, and that consequently life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are inherent in every individual, vested inalienably by natural birthright.” No ideal was more inherently American. Now, “rest[ing their] cause on the republican standard of the revolutionary Fathers,” freed Blacks were “knock[ing] at the doors of the constitution and demand[ing] an entrance.” And “[i]f … asked what evidence [they] bring to sustain [their] qualifications for citizenship, [they would] offer them certificates of … BIRTH and NATIVITY.” Would the Nation live up to its promise? Such universalist appeals were a conscious choice. Yes, Black Americans had suffered a singular wrong. And yes, they had “fought and bled” for the Union, paying a steep price for their freedom. But the delegates did not rest on these laurels. Rather, they drew upon the moral and political force of the universal principles that were already core to the Nation’s identity. That bears repeating: Freed Blacks did not advocate for a unique set of rules that catered only to their situation. Nor did they seek to advance their own position relative to, or at the expense and exclusion of, other marginalized groups.Instead, those whose gatherings helped galvanize the push for full equality understood that “[a] diverse origin does not disprove a common nature, nor does it disprove a united destiny.” The firmest foundation for freedom would require an anticaste reset—“both for his sake and for ours”—and would benefit all. During his U. S. Senate candidacy, Abraham Lincoln developed a similar vision. In the lead-up to the now-famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, Lincoln explained that the promise of liberty and equality in the Declaration of Independence “was held sacred by all, and thought to include all.” Lincoln expressly and intentionally linked the fate of Black Americans and immigrant groups (“among us perhaps half our people who are not descendants at all” of the Founders), and noted that the Nation’s future hinged on a universal definition of citizenship that excluded neither. He explained that the Declaration’s promise that “all men are created equal” was the “electric cord … that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together,” regardless of race or descent. The case was made. First, there was war. And then, the delegates’ (and Lincoln’s) universalist view of citizenship made its mark on the Constitution.
Anna O. Law@unlawfulentries.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I'm on Alito's dissent. All the dissents are ahistorical, argumentative, & laborious, not bothering to read or cite the actual scholarship by a boatload of legal historians including my recent book. Tomorrow if I have the energy, I'll summarize their historical errors + what the majority missed.

Roxane Gay@roxanegay.bsky.social · 2mo ago

This birthright ruling is why I just refuse to tolerate all the Democrat garment rending over NY voters choosing progressive candidates. They are incapable of governing in this moment. The politics of appeasement and centrism gets us to a 5-4 decision on the constitutional question.

Maggie Elmore@mjelmore.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Houston is one of the nation’s most diverse cities. The usurpation of the democratic process is on full display. HISD’s democratically elected school board was replaced with political appointees. The result is a curriculum that will marginalize many of HISD’a families.

Houston Chronicle@houstonchronicle.com · 2mo ago

Houston ISD’s state-appointed board of managers voted unanimously Thursday to adopt the state-developed Bluebonnet curriculum, which has drawn controversy for its inclusion of Bible teachings. bit.ly/4xKPUY5

Christopher Hale@christopherjhale.bsky.social · 2mo ago

“Dear migrants, before I say any other word to you, I want to bow before your dignity. “You are not numbers or case files. “You are people — with a family and a home left behind, with dreams that no one has the right to scorn.” — Pope Leo XIV