I had a meeting with Maria Kenney today. She’d apparently been having issues with her Heartland Alliance phone which is now resolved so she missed some messages I had texted to her and the week prior she was on a vacation but we are back in contact. That being said we are facing more delays getting me access to move forward with the two avenues of engagement I’ve been advocating for. Some of this is due in part to Covid […]
This isn’t directly related to Heartland Alliance programs but it’s connected to the subject matter I’ve been engaging with for my Fellowship and one of my past projects so I thought I’d write about it as it’s been on my mind and a rare bright spot for me weekly this year. When I was living in China and then later when I was visiting for my Abelson Fellowship work I would spend lots of time at Chungking Mansions in Hong […]
Many people are celebrating the win of Joe Biden over Trump and rightfully so. In immigration the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies are quite transparent. While Biden will certainly be better than Trump many people rightfully see him as an extension of the Obama era, which should actually give many people pause. Obama earned the nickname “Deporter in Chief” for his record number of deportations, many of which were the result of encounters with law enforcement for little or […]
Last week I spent another day making images at the ICC in Roger’s Park. I spent most of the day in the basement area photographing in the common area, kitchen, storage, pantry freezer and walk in refrigerator. I made a few images that felt like they would say something or add to the idea that the space in which I’m making images is a place where people are taken care of on a large scale. Much more important than any […]
Throughout my fellowship it’s become increasingly clear to me that the influence that the executive branch wields over the lives of immigrants is only limited by the imagination and resourcefulness of the president and his cabinet. Most if not all of the disastrous policies for immigrants have been the result of either executive orders, priorities set within Homeland Security or the twisting of seemingly unrelated laws and statutes to further anti-immigrant goals within the current administration. As the election looms […]
Below is a draft proposal that I will be sending to Maria Kenney to move forward with a new phase of involvement at the UC Shelters. During a recent discussion I had suggested the possibility of working with the staff and incorporating them directly into my research and project. After having visited all the UC shelters and having spent time there making images as well as meeting staff through my wife’s work at the ICC in Roger’s Park, it stood […]
I’ve posted some image galleries in the menu dropdown “proofing” section of my website that were for Maria Kenney, Thomas Perry and James LoBianco to review. I’m going to leave the images there so that they can view the images but I can keep the blog more private at the moment. If you would like to view those images the password is HeartlandColumbia2020. I think I’m going to move them into the blog as well shortly but in the meantime ya’ll […]
Last week I met with two former refugees who had gone through Nancy Callahan’s hospitality training program and still work in the hospitality industry. One gentleman was from Afghanistan/Pakistan and the other from Myanmar (Rohingya). I met with them both together which turned out to be a bit of a mistake. I initially wanted to hear about their experiences navigating US and international immigration bureaucracies, paperwork, challenges they faced navigating this system and if they did it themselves or relied […]
Bureaucracy as a weapon: how the Trump administration is slowing asylum cases The main part of this article gets to some of the things that have been largely on my mind with this fellowship. Paperwork and bureaucracy are naturally an impediment to all kinds of immigration journeys but as the article is pointing that this administration is intentionally making things harder in the hopes it can slow down the process for people or make them give up because they can’t […]