Tuesday, March 25, 2025
New to URL Media? Subscribe below to get our weekly newsletters.
A View From the Ground
News and information about politics, government, civic participation and engagement from URL Media's network of Black and Brown publishers.
Good evening. We’re taking a look at the cruelty exacted by the Trump administration in its approach to detaining and deporting even legal green card holders. In one case a surgeon at an Ivy League university and in another a child who desperately needs brain cancer treatment. It seems that customs agents are looking for anything they can to get rid of anyone the president dislikes.
The turmoil coming out of the president’s cabinet is affecting even those who depend on regulations to protect them from environmental risk. It was already bad enough, now EPA rollbacks threaten vulnerable communities and the harm done seems to be intentional. But people who have been fighting this battle are not surprised.
Black Greek-lettered organizations are angered by the push to dismantle the Department of Education, saying the move will impact marginalized communities and push back progress in educational equity. They are urging action against what they believe will damage what they feel is the right of children in America to have access to learning.Instability in Haiti is threatening the Madan Sara informal economic system in the country, which local markets depend on to distribute food to people who have no access to farms. The danger is too great, say the traders who must navigate dangerous terrain to sell their merchandise.
Don’t forget our career day later this week at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Get details and get registered!Plus, we’re bringing you the latest updates at URL-Media.com as events unfold. Have a question? Write to us at [email protected].
Credit: iStock
It should come as no surprise that ICE would sweep legal green card holders into its net along with undocumented immigrants in the Trump administration’s heavy-handed, and probably malevolent initiative to essentially rid the country of as many people as possible that they deem unworthy of breathing free air on American soil. But here we are.
Documented has outlined nine separate cases in which people who have every right to be in the United States have been detained. Some of them were taken because of minor infractions in their past like marijuana charges or mixed-up bureaucracy. Several were stopped at airports upon re-entry into the country or at border crossings. In one case, a person was deported because they misinterpreted a customs officer’s question.
In two of the cases, it’s clear that the cruelty is the point. Why else would the government detain and deport Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a Lebanon-born kidney transplant specialist at Brown University, who held a valid H1-B visa? She was visiting relatives in her home country, but officials claim they found photos of a Hezbollah leader whose funeral she attended, along with thousands of others, on her phone. Although a court order barred her from being kicked out of the country, she was sent back to Lebanon anyway.
Probably the most egregious is the case of an unnamed 10-year-old brain cancer patient whose parents were deported, which interrupted her treatment. She was traveling with her parents while going to receive medical care. Before, it was no problem. They just presented the necessary papers at Texas immigration checkpoints. On Feb. 4, the parents were detained and deported to Mexico under policies that Border Czar Tom Homan insists say that families can be deported together. That led to disruption in the child’s care and an inability to obtain the treatment she needs while in Mexico.Read more at Documented. →
Amid the political chaos that seems unavoidable these days, it’s hard to focus on the basics like clean air and water. But the rollback of 30 important EPA rules could expose poor and minority communities to further pollution and injustice. Capital B says the agency’s new head, Lee Zeldin, says he wants to “unwind” protections under the rules. The Trump administration also got rid of the EPA’s environmental justice offices, killing decades-old programs.
But it was probably about petty retribution against the Biden administration, which helped to set up grants, partnerships and regulation that targeted pollution in Black and Brown communities that have been severely afflicted.
Stil it comes as no surprise to activists like Debra Ramirez in Lake Charles, La. Her community was hit with numerous cancer cases stemming from a nearby chemical plant. Zeldin’s brand of thoughtlessness is something that she is accustomed to, but others will soon feel it.
“As far as people of color, Black people, we have been through it all our lives, so it’s nothing new to us,” said Ramirez. “Now everyone else will feel it, too.”
→
Education is one of the most common professions of members of organizations belonging to the National Pan-Hellenic Council – colloquially known as the “Divine Nine” fraternities and sororities. Two of them are being vocal about their objection to the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education.
On March 20, Trump signed an executive order directing the agency’s head Linda McMahon to dismantle as many of its operations as possible, which will set up a litany of legal challenges, not to mention the fact that only an act of Congress can completely eliminate it. Still, that infuriates organizations that were founded by Black students more than a century ago with educational opportunity as part of their ideals.
“We firmly believe that access to quality education is a fundamental right, not a privilege,” said Dr. Stacie N.C. Grant, International President & CEO of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority in a statement, according to Watch The Yard. “The dissolution of the U.S. Department of Education would be a direct attack on this ideal, disproportionately harming historically marginalized communities, students with disabilities, first-generation college students, and underfunded school districts.”
Alpha Phi Alpha also made clear that it thinks Trump’s initiative is an attack on education for underserved communities and is urging legislative and judicial action in response. According to their statement: “...this attack is the antithesis to why our illustrious Fraternity was conceived and founded, as well as in direct opposition to what we as men of Alpha represent. Currently, we are also asking all Alpha Phi Alpha Chapter Presidents to contact their U.S. Congressmen and Senators, expressing the Fraternity’s position as well as confirming where each elected official stands on this matter.”
With the national economic infrastructure in dire straits, many people in Haiti are dependent on an informal economy known as Madan Sara, which takes its name from the women traders who buy produce from farmers and sell it in various local markets. But the instability now threatens even this system, according to The Haitian Times.
The traders must cross troublesome terrain, including poor roads, gang-controlled territories and other dangers across long distances. But if not for them, markets would not remain supplied and people would not get crucial food and sundries. The informal economy accounts for more than 30 percent of Haiti’s GDP, and Madan Sara traders form a significant part of it.But, a 2024 study by the Bank of the Republic of Haiti revealed that the status of the country has had a significantly negative impact. Trade travel, which is largely done in dayslong stints, has declined and 80 percent make no more than three trips per week. Another 72 percent have relocated the spots where they sell, and 58 percent have made changes to their sources to avoid dangerous areas.“I woke up at 5 a.m. to buy my goods,” said Anite Désir who sells goods in Port-au-Prince. “Before, I had some savings, but now everything I earn goes into security and bribes just to cross dangerous areas. This is no longer a business—it’s a fight for survival.”Learn more in The Haitian Times. →
5 years after Covid, 5 takeaways from the epicenter- Epicenter NYC
“¿Y si un día te vas y no vuelves?” (“And if one day you leave and not return?”) - palabra
Your ultimate guide to summer festival season - URL Media
Check out our Currency of Impact dashboard, a new tool designed to revolutionize media buying conversations and put community impact on the foreground. Dive into our impact tracker and case studies highlighting demonstrated impact across the URL Media network. This project was co-produced with the Reynolds Journalism Institute. Visit it here.
