Pitch-Latin-American-Immigrants-Rachel-&-Pedro

gistfile1.md

Title:

6.2 Million Left out: Who's Affected by Obama's Executive Action on Immigration

The president's plan helps more than half of undocumented Mexicans living in the U.S., it leaves out bigger portions of immigrants from South America and the Caribbean.

Pitch:

Why we care now: In November, U.S. President Barack Obama announced new executive action to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation, affecting an estimated 5 million people. However, around 6.2 million immigrants will be left out. With regards to Latin Americans, the plan will help more than half of undocumented Mexican immigrants, but it leaves out large portions of undocumented immigrants from South America and the Caribbean.

As the new policy is set to go into effect, some Republican congressmen are trying to defund the new policy within the Department of Homeland Security budget. Plus, on February 16, a federal judge in Texas ordered a temporary halt to the new immigration policy. As this debate continues and as the government implements the new policy, it's an important time to return to the subject and provide details on who will benefit and who won't.

Who cares: This is important not only to immigrants and their families, but to the communities where immigrants live, as well as employers. Moreover, as advocates, we want to frame this issue as an unfixed problem that will need to be continually addressed by new policies.

Along with detailing the population expected to be granted deportation protection in the data points below, we also want to compare the current policy to President Ronald Reagan's 1986 immigration action, which provided amnesty to 3 million immigrants. We also want to note the potential economic impact of the policy. A North American Integration and Development Center report found that offering deferred action to parents of U.S. citizen and legal resident children would lead to $2.5 billion in new tax tax revenue. (Plus, undocumented immigrants already pay almost $11 billion in state and local taxes.) The President's Council of Economic Advisers estimates the new policies as a whole will grow the country's GDP by $90 billion to $210 billion over the next decade.

Pre-reporting: We've researched what the new immigration policy entails, and who it doesn't include. Notably, the new executive action excludes parents of immigrants who qualify for deferred action, which means that the phenomenon of "mixed status" families--those who have some members at risk of deportation--will continue to be an important issue that can potentially mean more separations. The policy also doesn't include those who arrived less than 5 years ago. This is especially relevant in the wake of the Central American child migrant crisis last year.

Data Points

1. Undocumented immigrants by location and birth country – The Pew Research Center's Hispanic Trends has a report with some of the basic numbers to get us started: how many undocumented immigrants live in each state, and number of undocumented immigrants by country of origin. This gives us the big picture we need before we narrow down the community further.
2. Latin American immigrants by immigration status – The Immigration Policy Institute indicates that around half of foreign-born Latinos living in the United States are undocumented. This means that a substantial portion of Latin Americans living in the U.S. have faced the risk of deportation.
3. Demographics of Latin American immigrants – The U.S. Census has a series of data points on Latin American immigrants, including what year they entered the country, age, race, household size and type, marital status, school enrollment and education level, employment, and income.
4. Undocumented immigrants by arrival year – The Department of Homeland Security (DHS)'s 2012 unauthorized immigrant report has the number of undocumented immigrants who entered over different periods of time, from 1980 to 2011. This helps us get a sense of how long undocumented immigrants have been in the country, as well as who may be eligible for Obama's deportation relief.
5. Undocumented immigrants by age– The DHS also tracks undocumented immigrants by age. This is important, since part of Obama's executive action covers immigrants who've been living in the U.S. since 2010 and began living in the U.S. before they were 16 years old.
6. Eligibility for deportation relief by birth country – The Pew Research Center has a breakdown of how many people will benefit from Obama's executive action by birth country and region, as well as the percentage of undocumented immigrants eligible by birth country. This is the most important starting point to give us an idea of roughly how many people are left out. An additional Pew report shows that Mexican immigrants account for the largest group of people to benefit from executive action.
7. Eligibility for deportation relief by U.S. state and county – The Migration Policy Institute has two datasets that show how many undocumented immigrants are eligible for deportation relief by state, as well as how many are left out, by county. This will show us the locations of the largest groups of people who won't benefit from executive action on immigration.
8. Students with unauthorized parents – Pew also has numbers on the number of children from kindergarten to 12th grade who have undocumented parents. This is crucial to understanding a rough number of what are known as "mixed status" families.
9. Undocumented workers in the labor force – Around 8.1 million unauthorized immigrants were employed or searching for work in 2012, according to Pew. Unauthorized immigrants make up an estimated 5.1 percent of the labor force. We can use this data to determine the approximate percentage of undocumented immigrants who are working.
10. 2014 deportations by location and country of origin – The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency keeps annual data on how many people are deported, their country of origin, and where they were deported from. This will help give us a general idea of where people are most at risk, and which nationalities tend to be the most affected.
11. Number of immigrants deported by criminal status – DHS has a breakdown of how many immigrants were deported by criminal status and country. This is important because we can see how many people were deported after committing misdemeanors, and how many were serious criminals.
12. Number of immigrants granted refugee status by country – The DHS's Yearbook provides a breakdown of how many people were granted refugee status from 2003-2013. This gives us an idea of trends among Latin American immigrants granted refugee status. We care because given the crisis in Central America, some undocumented immigrants are trying to get refugee status after they enter the U.S.

Characteristics of the Community

• Where they live in the United States
• What country they're from
• Employment status
• Legal status of family members living in the U.S.
• Age
• How long they have been in the United States
• Immigration status
• Police records

Storyboard.md

Title:

6.2 Million Left out: Who's Affected by Obama's Executive Action on Immigration

The president's plan helps more than half of undocumented Mexicans living in the U.S., it leaves out bigger portions of immigrants from South America and the Caribbean.

Introduction

In November 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama announced new executive action to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation, affecting an estimated 5 million people. The program will expand deferred action for immigrants brought to the United States as children, and will benefit undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents.

But there's an important challenge. As the new policy is set to go into effect, some Republican congressmen are trying to defund the new policy within the Department of Homeland Security budget. Plus, on February 16, a federal judge in Texas ordered a temporary halt to the new immigration policy. As this debate continues and as the government implements the new policy, it's important to look at who will ultimately benefit.

How Many Latin American Immigrants Are Undocumented? -- PEDRO

First chart shows the percentage, illustrated, of Latin American immigrants by immigration status

Undocumented Immigrants in the U.S.: Age and Arrival Year PEDRO

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The above one is a line chart showing undocumented immigrants by arrival year

Another, this one a pyramid-shaped, to better visualize undocumented immigrant population by age

Who Is Eligible for Executive Action? RACHEL

(Another short paragraph explaining where they are and where they come from, with brief facts) Bacon ipsum dolor amet officia prosciutto sint strip steak pariatur, irure labore aute laboris lorem. Aute doner dolor sint tail shank fugiat proident pancetta pig pariatur sirloin strip steak mollit ham.


(above chart showing, with toggling options like the ones from Infogr.am: Undocumented immigrants by birth country / Undocumented immigrants by state / Eligibility for deportation relief by country / Eligibility for deportation relief by state, hopefully with flags)

Who's Left Out?

Around 6.2 million immigrants will be left out of the deportation relief policy. With regards to Latin Americans, the plan will help more than half of undocumented Mexican immigrants, but it leaves out large portions of undocumented immigrants from South America and the Caribbean.

The new executive action excludes parents of immigrants who qualify for deferred action, which means that the phenomenon of "mixed status" families--those who have some members at risk of deportation--will continue to be an important issue that can potentially mean more separations. The policy also doesn't include those who arrived less than 5 years ago. This is especially relevant in the wake of the Central American child migrant crisis last year.

Mixed-Status Families

Number of students with unauthorized families, and percentage, really big text

Historical and Economic Context of Executive Action

This isn't the first time a president has taken executive action on immigration. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan offered amnesty to 3 million immigrants. While Obama's policy doesn't go this far, it will offer deportation relief for up to 4 million immigrants--assuming the policy clears the legal hurdles it's currently facing. Plus, executive action has the potential for economic benefits. A North American Integration and Development Center report found that offering deferred action to parents of U.S. citizen and legal resident children would lead to $2.5 billion in new tax tax revenue. (Undocumented immigrants already pay almost $11 billion in state and local taxes.) The President's Council of Economic Advisers estimates the new policies as a whole will grow the country's GDP by $90 billion to $210 billion over the next decade.

The above shows undocumented workers in the workforce. If we find a number (of a reliable estimate), it will be a toggling pie chart, showing before and after the executive action takes effect.

Deportations of Latin American Immigrants

Data: Rachel - Map: Pedro

Last paragraph explaining that the executive order is trying to stop, or slow, our rate of deportations. To ilustrate:

We show a map of Latin America, with lines coming out of United States, pointing to the 15 countries with most deportations, with numbers long the arrows.