immigration

Bringing the Mexico border closer to home

Many if not most Americans have never crossed the U.S. border with Mexico by land or spent any time in that region. This unfamiliarity can make it easy for politicians to distort what’s going on there and hard for immigration advocates and social movements to muster support for their primary goal: making U.S. policies toward undocumented people and asylum-seekers more humane. What can advocates for…


Meet the new San Diego border barrier, just behind the old San Diego border barrier

It’s kind of like a bait-and-switch along 14 miles of San Diego border barrier, or maybe similar to the new and improved status sometimes awarded to reconstituted cereal brands. Or call it peaches, as President Trump said for all he cared in early January. You know how some people double wrap leftover food. Using previously allocated border funds, the Trump Administration was double-wrapping the border…


Wall, stinking ridiculous wall: Fun Facts Sheet

Wall, stinking ridiculous wall. Thanks to Donald Trump’s government shutdown and faux emergency order centered around his infantile obsession with “The Wall,” we’ve been media- and Republican-bombarded with wall talk. As the case with any hot journalism story, it’s the pleasure of The Grapevine to join the fray. This is possible due to the great reporting from inewsource, the non-profit public investigations news site based…


Abed: Wrong on immigration, wrong period

Escondido mayor Sam Abed is running for re-election as a Donald Trump Republican with his main issue, apparently, the desire to keep immigrants in a constant state of fear. This election presents a clear contrast between myself and Abed who has been running his mouth all over the county against so-called “sanctuary cities.” This supposed outrage is a ploy, a distraction from the real work…


California plays defense under Trump

On March 13, President Donald Trump inspected towering border wall prototypes at the U.S.-Mexico border during the two-day trip to California – his first to the Golden State since the November 2016 election. Surely he did not expect a warm welcome. Not only did Trump lose the state by more than 4 million votes, but his trip comes hard on the heelsof a lawsuit filed…


Deported Army vet Barajas gets citizenship

Deported U.S. Army veteran Hector Barajas, who has been living in Mexico the last eight years, today received word from the Department of Homeland Security on March 29 that he was being granted U.S. citizenship. He is scheduled to be sworn in as a citizen in a few weeks in San Diego. Barajas, a decorated vet who received an honorable discharge after serving nearly six…


Rapid response network needed due to ICE

While much of the local media’s attention was focused on President Trump’s March 13 visit to the border wall prototypes in Otay Mesa, a team of ICE agents deployed throughout Escondido early the same morning and arrested 22 people. The agents were allegedly targeting people who had deportation orders, but they also picked up undocumented immigrants who just happened to be at the wrong place…


DREAM Act opponent Issa gets served (UPDATED)

DREAM Act opponent, and the nation’s shakiest incumbent, embattled Rep. Darrell Issa (R-49th Congressional District got served in his own neighborhood by an organized protest Saturday, Dec. 2. Protestors showed up at 1 p.m. at Luz Duran Park, 340 Townsite Drive in Vista, then deployed to post lawn signs, talk with community members, and distribute voter education materials. The rally began at 3 p.m. attracting…


Issa bogus IRS ‘scandal’ ends in whimper; predatory ‘payday’ lenders give Issa a bang

Congressman Darryl Issa (R-49th District) suffered humiliation as his so-called IRS ‘scandal’ investigation costing US taxpayers money and congressional time “came to a pathetic, whimpering conclusion earlier this month,” according to Francis Wilkinson of Bloomberg View. And in a double whammy, as shown here, following the IRS ‘scandal’ update, examination of campaign finance filings showed Issa took tens of thousands of dollars from predatory “payday”…


Through Pulitzer photog Don Bartletti’s lens

California State University Bakersfield’s Walter Stiern Library Presents Program is exploring issues in immigration with a series of events through December. The series includes a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer, a documentary screening, and a poetry reading. The prize-winning photographer, Don Bartlett of the Los Angeles Times, spent a lot of time visiting migrant camps around North County San Diego, including Oceanside, Carlsbad, Fallbrook, Valley Center and Escondido….