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How growing up in the U.S. immigration system shapes how these young Americans vote
Left to right: Lucero Lopez, Jasmine Perez Moreno, Josue Rodriguez, Raneem Le Roux, and Jossue Ureno pose for a portrait at The Leroy and Lucile Melcher Center for Public Broadcasting on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, in Houston.
Joseph Bui for NPR
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Joseph Bui for NPR
As Vice President Harris charts the course for a campaign that tries to avoid the missteps of her predecessor, President Biden, she may inherit some of his baggage with the groups she most needs to win over.
Voters under 30, for example, backed Biden in big numbers in 2020. But, as polling reflected, he has struggled with the group throughout his presidency.
Support from another major part of Biden’s winning coalition — voters of color — had also frayed in differing amounts for different reasons. One such group that has struggled with Biden’s policies are those who have experienced the U.S. immigration system.
Former President Donald Trump has made immigration the cornerstone of his platform, publicly disparaging and attacking immigrants since he first announced in 2015. He’s vowed to carry out historically large deportations, but how those pledges would be implemented is unclear.
Republicans have repeatedly criticized Biden for upticks in border crossings during his presidency. But Biden’s immigration policy has been complicated. In June, the president restricted border crossings, including for people seeking asylum, via executive order. Weeks later, he took steps to increase relief for undocumented people and recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Lucero Lopez, 29, is a college student studying political science. As a main support for her parents in the U.S., she’s concerned about rising prices. “I’m the one who basically helps my parents,” she said. “I see how everything is racing.”
Joseph Bui for NPR/NPR
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In February, the White House and congressional leaders also came close to agreeing on a bipartisan bill that would have increased restrictions on the border, but it failed after Trump urged Republicans to reverse course and oppose it.
Biden’s willingness to work with Republicans on the legislation alarmed immigrant advocates and organizers, including Nicole Melaku of the National Association of New Americans.
“It’s going to be a really hard recovery to build back the trust of the immigrant constituency,” she told NPR in an interview before Biden announced he would be dropping out of the presidential race.
As part of its focus on new voters, NPR spoke to five young people under the age of 30 who have all existed within the immigration system and discussed how their upbringings affect their politics today.
Lucero Lopez, 29, is a natural-born citizen whose parents came to the U.S. undocumented. Her father has since become a citizen, and her mom has legal status, but Lopez also has two older sisters who haven’t been able to leave Mexico. This has placed a financial and emotional burden on her.
“I never understood, why always me?” she explained. “I didn’t understand that I was the one who had to take care of [my parents] and still is taking care of them.”
Josue Rodriguez, 28, immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico when he was a child. He is a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Rodriguez now dedicates his work to helping people who are homeless, something he experienced with his family.
“That really has been what’s driven me,” he said. “How can we look at public policy and understand their impacts? Make sure that we have lived experiences within that space.”
Raneem Le Roux, 27, and her family immigrated to the U.S. from Syria. She was able to get naturalized as a child but also went on to help her father, who struggled to pass the citizenship test.
“I would burn CDs for him, telling him the questions in English and the answers in English, and then translating them in Arabic,” she recalled. “He used to do trucking, so he used to drive at night and just listen to them.”
Raneem Le Roux, 27, works at a youth-led immigrant advocacy organization. She divided her family into “two immigrant stories,” describing it as the “family I come from — their story — and the family that I hope to create.”
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Jasmine Parish Moreno, 23, is the child of Iranian and Mexican immigrants who both spent more than a decade navigating the U.S. immigration system before eventually becoming citizens. Her father was able to vote for the first time in 2020, which was also the first year Parish Moreno was eligible to cast a ballot.
“I think for years afterwards [he] carried his ‘I voted sticker’ like on his phone case because he was so proud of it,” she said.
Jossue Ureno, 22, is a natural-born citizen whose parents first immigrated from Mexico more than 20 years ago. They are still undocumented, and he spoke about how their status has limited their ability to be with family back in Mexico, describing when his dad had to watch a family funeral over the phone.
“Seeing the heartbreak in his eyes of him wanting to be there but not being able to be there,” he said. “Not being able to have one last goodbye, especially since he hadn’t seen them for like over ten years, was definitely something that, it still sticks with me.”
Read more of their conversation below. These responses have been edited for clarity and length.
On voting this year
Of those in the group eligible to vote in 2020, all cast their ballots for Biden, though several were disappointed in aspects of his leadership and cautioned Harris to set a different path.
Some argued that Biden’s handling of issues related to immigration and the U.S. response to the Israel-Hamas war have made it difficult to immediately support Harris. But for these young people, voting is essential.
Le Roux: As someone who voted for [Biden] in hope of protecting my community, my family and immigrants in the U.S., he failed. … I can only hope that Harris at least learns from those mistakes … I’m very torn because part of me doesn’t want to vote for a nominee that continues to profit and encourage foreign policies that result in human costs and dead bodies that look like me. But at the same time, I don’t want the minimal protections I do have for me and my partner, both in terms of her immigrant status and LGBT protections, to be lost.
Moore: I’ve talked to folks around the country, young people who lean Democratic, … who were debating sitting out of this race when it was Biden versus Trump. … How does the idea of skipping an election or skipping the top of the ticket feel to you?
Parish Moreno: We can’t afford to sit this out. We’re in a unique situation because we’ve seen already what the Trump presidency was like. … And so to sit this race out would be to kind of gamble with it and risk returning to that.
Jasmine Parish Moreno, 23, is a graduate student aiming to work in immigrant advocacy and policy. It’s a goal influenced by her own family’s immigration story.
Joseph Bui for NPR/NPR
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Moore: Raneem, I see you nodding.
Le Roux: Yes, I am nodding because I do agree for the most part with you, Jasmine … It’s our responsibility and in our community’s interests, all our communities, immigrants, as women, as members of the LGBT community, to ensure that Trump doesn’t get elected.
On Trump and his political impact
While these young people generally don’t support Trump, they come from families who have different political opinions on how another Trump presidency could affect their communities.
Parish Moreno: Just because my parents are now citizens doesn’t take away the fact that they were immigrants, doesn’t take away the fact that my dad’s a Muslim man in America, doesn’t take away the fact that under the Trump presidency, my family wasn’t able to come visit because of the Muslim ban that Trump enacted. … I’m a first-generation American. So I try to tell in my head that I have every right to take up space and to speak and have my voice heard as someone who is like a 10th-generation American, but it’s hard.
Ureno: I find this to be a very tough question. … After now going through a Biden presidency, my parents themselves have actually said to me and my brothers, … ‘When Trump was in office, inflation was down. Everything was cheaper. It seemed to be like the world, the United States was more at peace.’ … My parents feel that because of the situation that’s going down in the southern border, that that’s actually hindering them. And so because of that, they’re like, honestly, Trump, he handled it better. … Now that Harris is running, I don’t know what their stance is.
Moore: Your parents are still trying to become citizens here. They’re not. Trump has threatened to deport millions of people. And how does that square with them?
Ureno: My parents are like, he’s just fear mongering, he’s just pandering. He’s trying to get the vote. They don’t really – they’re like, ‘You said it the first time you didn’t do it with the unified Congress. How are you going to do it this time?’
Jossue Ureno, 22, works for a Latino voter advocacy organization. Watching the national debate about immigration since the 2016 election has affected his professional goals. “It’s what’s making me want to pursue becoming an immigration attorney in the coming years,” he explained.
Joseph Bui for NPR/NPR
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On what they want from politicians moving forward
Lopez: They always use [immigration] as a pawn. We are not pawns. We are people.
Rodriguez: We know that there’s more asylum claims coming through the border. What are their stories? They don’t talk about their stories. They just talk about the numbers. … I wish the Democrats would call the bluff that the Republicans are doing so that we can start humanizing people.
Moore: If you had to meet with [Harris,] what would be your message to her?
Lopez: Call for a cease-fire. Immediately. That’s the one thing that I will say.
Parish Moreno: I know, especially with Joe Biden, there was a lot of minority communities that were mobilizing to get him elected. So, just don’t forget who got you into that power seat.
Ureno: Bipartisanship. That’s how you get stuff done in Congress. If you want to see real results, sometimes, you may not like it, but that’s how politics works. You got to work with the other party to get stuff done.
Moore: Was there an issue that we didn’t hit on?
Rodriguez: I would just mention like, with deferred action, DACA. The program itself is technically ending and we’re waiting on a court ruling. So, just kind of putting that at the forefront, too, that I could become undocumented tomorrow if the court goes against it. So I just kind of want to make sure that that’s still at the forefront of the conversation.
As a DACA recipient, Josue Rodriguez, 28, is not able to vote. But he urged the group to vote against a second Trump term. “It really doesn’t matter who [the Democratic nominee] is,” he said. “As long as [Trump] is not voted back into office, because that will solidify the new version of the Republican Party.”
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On what voting means to them
Lopez: For me, it’s such a weight. I have my aunt, she’s an immigrant, and she’s the one who’s always, like, go vote for me. You – I know, sorry. But just hearing it from her because she can’t do it. That’s why it carries so much weight for me.
Rodriguez: The one link I have on my Instagram is how to register to vote. So that tells you that, yes, voting is very dear and near to me. … I know in my bones that one day, I’ll be able to vote. But even now, I mean, it’s getting to the point where friends come to me for suggestions or for just insights into people running for office. And I’m blessed to be an asset to them. And I like to think that through me and my opinions and my standpoints, they’ve been able to be educated. And I’m comfortable with that for now.
This conversation was recorded at Houston Public Media, with engineering from Todd Hulslander of Houston Public Media.
For decades, immigrants who have followed the rules and have not broken the law have had hopes of earning a green card, a document that allows them to live legally in the United States and gain a path to citizenship.
But under new guidance issued by the Trump administration, immigrants can now be denied a green card for expressing political opinions, such as participating in pro-Palestinian campus protests, posting criticism of Israel on social media and desecrating the American flag, according to internal Department of Homeland Security training materials reviewed by The New York Times.
The documents, which have not been previously reported, show how expansively the Trump administration is carrying out a directive from last August to vet green card applicants for “anti-American” and “antisemitic” views.
The administration includes criticism of Israel as a potentially disqualifying factor, with the training materials citing as an example of questionable speech a social media post that declares, “Stop Israeli Terror in Palestine” and shows the Israeli flag crossed out.
The materials were distributed last month to immigration officers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security and handles applications for green cards and other forms of legal status.
They reflect how U.S.C.I.S. — long considered the gateway agency for legal migration — has rapidly transformed under President Trump into another cog in his administration’s deportation machine. The agency has worked to strip naturalized Americans of their citizenship and has hired armed federal agents to investigate immigration crimes.
The administration is also granting permanent legal residency to far fewer applicants. Green card approvals have fallen by more than half in recent months, according to a Times analysis of agency data.
“There is no room in America for aliens who espouse anti-American ideologies or support terrorist organizations,” Joseph Edlow, the agency’s director, told Congress in February.
Critics of Mr. Trump’s approach say the administration is seeking to restrict legitimate political speech, and has conflated opposition to Israeli government policies with antisemitism.
Basing green card decisions on “ideological screenings is fundamentally un-American and should have no place in a country built on the promise of free expression,” said Amanda Baran, a senior agency official under President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Administration officials said they were defending American values.
“If you hate America, you have no business demanding to live in America,” said Zach Kahler, a spokesman for U.S.C.I.S.
Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said the administration’s policies had “nothing to do with free speech” and were meant to protect “American institutions, the safety of citizens, national security and the freedoms of the United States.”
The administration has moved aggressively against immigrants for expressing political views that officials have deemed anti-American, making ideology a central part of its immigration vetting process. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has revoked the visas of pro-Palestinian student activists, including one who wrote a column criticizing her university’s response to pro-Palestinian demands.
The Department of Homeland Security has proposed reviewing the social media histories of tourists seeking to visit the United States.
Immigration officers have significant discretion in deciding whether to grant foreigners long-term permanent residence. They have long considered a variety of factors, including criminal records, national security threats, family ties to the United States and employment histories.
Ideology has also traditionally been one of those factors. In some cases, U.S. law forbids officers from granting green cards to people who have belonged to a Communist or other “totalitarian” political party, have promoted anarchy or have called for the overthrow of the U.S. government by “force or violence or other unconstitutional means.”
But in the past, immigration officers have focused on statements that could incite or encourage violence, given concerns about infringing on constitutionally protected speech, former U.S.C.I.S. officials said.
The new training materials reviewed by The Times guide immigration officers through the factors they should consider when ruling on green card applications. They discourage officers from granting green cards to people with a history of “endorsing, promoting or supporting anti-American views” or “antisemitic terrorism, ideologies or groups.”
Immigration officers have been told to weigh those factors as “overwhelmingly negative.”
The documents list support for “subversive” ideologies as among other factors that could lead to an application being rejected. As an example, the materials point to someone “holding a sign advocating overthrow of the U.S. government.”
In addition, the guidance describes the desecration of the American flag as a negative factor, citing Mr. Trump’s executive order last year directing the Justice Department to prosecute protesters who burn the flag. The Supreme Court has ruled that flag burning is a form of political expression protected by the First Amendment.
Immigration officers have also been told to scrutinize applicants who encourage antisemitism “through rhetorical or physical actions.” They were instructed to “focus particularly on aliens who engaged in on-campus anti-American and antisemitic activities” after the Hamas attacks against Israel in 2023, the documents show.
Further examples in the documents of conduct characterized as antisemitic include a social media post showing a map of Israel with the nation’s name crossed out and replaced with the word “Palestine.” Another illustrative post suggests that Israelis should “taste what people in Gaza are tasting.”
Immigration officers must elevate all cases involving “potential anti-American and/or antisemitic conduct or ideology” to their managers and to the agency’s general counsel’s office for review, according to the documents.
In recent months, the agency has also changed the way it refers to the employees who adjudicate green card applications, long known as “immigration services officers.” In job postings, it now calls them “homeland defenders.”
“Protect your homeland and defend your culture,” one posting says.
Steven Rich contributed reporting.
Additional work by Jana Tauschinski
Oil and gas tanker location and destination data are from Kpler. The map shows the latest position for vessels with an active AIS signal on April 19–20, filtered by minimum capacity thresholds: crude tankers of at least 50,000 deadweight tonnage (DWT); oil product tankers of at least 55,000 DWT; oil/chemical tankers of at least 40,000 DWT; LNG carriers of at least 150,000 cubic metres; and LPG carriers of at least 50,000 cubic metres. Net fossil fuel import data by country are based on Ember analysis of the IEA World Energy Balances 2023.
A 26-year-old man is facing two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of two University of South Florida doctoral students who went missing last week, local authorities said Saturday.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in Florida said that evidence presented to the state attorney’s office resulted in the charges against Hisham Abugharbieh, the roommate of Zamil Limon, one of the doctoral students.
Abugharbieh is accused of premediated murder with a weapon. He was arrested on Friday, the same day Limon was found dead.
The family of Nahida Bristy, the other doctoral student, told CBS News that police said she is also likely dead. That is based on the volume of blood discovered at Abugharbieh’s residence, which he shared with Limon.
“Police told us she is no longer with us,” Bristy’s brother, Zahid Prato, said early Saturday.
The family was told her body may never be found and police believe she may have been dismembered, according to Prato.
CBS News has reached out to police for more information.
Authorities said in a statement Saturday they were still searching for Bristy.
Limon’s remains were found on the Howard Franklin Bridge in Tampa Friday morning, Chief Deputy Joseph Maurer with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said. His cause of death was pending autopsy results.
Deputies with the sheriff’s office took Abugharbieh into custody on Friday after responding to a domestic violence call at a home in the Lake Forest Community, a neighborhood near USF’s Tampa campus, officials said. He also faces charges of domestic violence and evidence tampering, as well as a charge of failing to report a death to law enforcement.
Limon and Bristy, both 27, had last been seen in the Tampa area on April 16.
Limon was studying the use of AI in environmental science and was set to present his doctoral thesis this week, his family said. Bristy is studying chemical engineering.
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