New York City Trying to Improve Latinos’ Low COVID-19 Vaccination Rates
Plus: Tax documents are keeping undocumented workers from relief funds, bill would end ICE contracts with local governments, and more.
When Myrna Lazcano, a community activist from Mexico who lives in East Harlem, got COVID-19, her symptoms dragged on for months. This long-haul illness drove Lazcano to get the COVID-19 vaccine and to share her experience to encourage other Latinos to get it as well. Latinos have been twice as likely to die from COVID-19 as whites and had the highest infection rates in New York City. But vaccination rates among New York City Latinos remain low. Some residents say they distrust the vaccine, but most say they haven’t been able to access it. For example, many undocumented immigrants have struggled to get proper documentation to prove their eligibility. The New Yorker
Migrant Parents Feel Forced to Send Children Across the Border Alone
Many migrants are sending their children to the U.S. alone because those with older children are being rapidly expelled.
Marely traveled for 13 days with her mother from El Salvador toward the U.S.-Mexico border. But once they made it to a raft to cross the Rio Grande, the 12-year-old found out her mother wasn’t coming with her. Marely had to then turn herself in to Border Patrol agents in La Joya, Texas. Her mother is among many migrants sending their children to the U.S. alone because migrant families with older children are being rapidly expelled under a pandemic health rule. Meanwhile if unaccompanied children arrive alone, the Biden administration is allowing them to remain in the U.S. while they wait for their court cases. The Associated Press
Newsroom Navigation Central American migrants crossing the Suchiate River between the Guatemalan and Mexican border. Photo: Oliver de Ros
Human Smuggling Targeted in New White House Operation
Human smugglers have tried to convince Central Americans that crossing the border is safe as the White House discourages crossings.
The Biden administration announced an operation Tuesday that will concentrate on disrupting criminal organizations, which includes human smugglers who falsified information to migrants about crossing the border. Earlier this year, the U.S. sent a campaign through social media and radios advertisements to discourage migrants from traveling across the border, but smugglers’ social media posts tried to convince them it was safe. One instance of smuggling was released in a video from Border Patrol last week, showing two young Ecuadorian sisters being dropped over a 14-foot-tall border fence in the desert. CNN