Newsweek: Harvard graduate self-deports to Mexico

A Harvard graduate has self-deported to Mexico alongside his husband amid fears about President Donald Trump‘s immigration crackdown.

Francisco Hernandez-Corona, 34, and his United States citizen husband, Irving Hernandez-Corona, decided to leave the country because the federal government ramped up immigration enforcement, NBC10 Boston reported.

The couple traveled to Mexico’s west coast, arriving in Puerto Vallarta three weeks ago.

“We started seeing ICE everywhere and people sent to El Salvador,” said Francisco.

“There would be knocks at the door and [Francisco] would be scared and be terrified,” said Irving. “It was never our intention to leave under these circumstances. We left, basically fleeing.”

Francisco came to the U.S. when he was 10, sent by his father to cross the border with the help of a coyote. He described the journey through the desert as “the worst three days of my life,” adding, “Nobody asked me if this is what I want to do. I didn’t have a choice.”

https://www.newsweek.com/harvard-graduate-self-deport-mexico-2075881

The Atlantic: Airport Detentions Have Travelers ‘Freaked Out’

Fears of being detained are in overdrive, even if the Trump administration insists that they’re overblown.

Jeff Joseph, a 53-year-old immigration attorney in Colorado, has recently started taking precautions while traveling abroad that, at another time, he would have considered a little paranoid. He leaves his phone at home. Instead, he carries a “burner’’—a device scrubbed of his contact list and communications—in case U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers send him to secondary inspection or seize his electronics when he returns home. Joseph told me his knowledge of immigration law has left him with less confidence, not more, about the risks of crossing U.S. borders during the second Trump administration.

“Among immigration lawyers who are well versed in this, and who know what happens in secondary, there’s a level of anxiety and panic that we’ve never seen before,” said Joseph, the president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “Myself included.”

Immigration attorneys also note Trump has curbed CBP officers’ ability to allow the entry of migrants or visitors using an authority known as “parole.” So travelers who do not qualify for admission to the United States are more likely to be handed over to ICE for detention and deportation. Although U.S. citizens cannot be denied entry to the United States, all other categories of noncitizens—even, in some cases, legal permanent residents with green cards—are at risk of being denied entry or deemed inadmissible by a CBP officer.

https://archive.is/47W6S#selection-745.0-748.0

Associated Press: Trump signs order seeking to overhaul US elections, including requiring proof of citizenship

Are we now ruled by dictatorial edict? Only Congress can pass laws; the President gets to sign them only after both houses of Congress have passed them. Der Führer seems to think he can skip a few steps.

Trump signs order seeking to overhaul US elections, including requiring proof of citizenship | AP News