LATINO-TENNESSEE-VOICES

What is Biden's policy at the border on family separation? Mixed messages abound.

Other stories in the Latino Voices newsletter: Check out our new Nashville mayoral scorecard and read about Shakira opening up about her breakup.

Portrait of David Plazas David Plazas
Nashville Tennessean

Good morning, amigos:

You may remember a few weeks ago that I included a blurb in this newsletter about the National Association of Hispanic Journalists' student project and encouraged readers to donate to its fundraiser if they could.

The good news is that the project is moving forward with 12 Latina and Latino students learning from a group of eight professional mentors, to report, write and produce stories from and around NAHJ's annual convention in Miami during the week of July 10. Thank you to all who lent their moral and financial support for the benefit of these students.

I'll be traveling to the convention to check in on them every now and them and also to help with efforts to recruit journalists to the USA TODAY Network. I led the student project in the past and several of my former students are now leading the program, including Jason Gonzales, a former reporter at The Tennessean in Nashville, now at the nonprofit newsroom Chalkbeat in Denver, Colorado, and Rafael Carranza, a reporter at The Arizona Republic in Phoenix.

It was incredibly gratifying to hear Rafael's voice on USA TODAY's "Five Things" podcast on Monday. He shared insights from his reporting along the U.S.-Mexico border. There are mixed messages from the White House. President Joe Biden says he supports ending the separation of families at the border, but the U.S. Department of Justice is trying to deny the families relief. Rafael and his colleagues are working to get to the truth.

A group of migrant families walks from the Rio Grande, the river separating the U.S. and Mexico in Texas, near McAllen, Texas, March 14, 2019.

The United States' Southern border might be 1,000 miles away from Tennessee, but immigration politics makes into Tennessee elections regularly and politicians such as U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn and U.S. Rep. Mark Green have visited the border to criticize Biden's policies.

In 2021, Rafael kindly agreed to talk to me about the border situation and the influx of migrants for a column I wrote. The focus was on how fears of insecurity at the border have helped win elections for Republicans in Tennessee.

Blackburn is up for re-election next year, so I suspect the topic will come up again, especially since it's also a presidential election year that could pit Biden again former President Donald Trump who supported an America-first, build-the-wall philosophy. Interestingly, Biden continued many of Trump's border policies for the first part of his presidency, which disappointed immigrant advocates.

Scroll to read one of Rafael Carranza's latest stories.

What else you'll find in this week's newsletter

  • In one of my latest columns, I shared a scorecard I created to help differentiate the 12 candidates for Nashville mayor. It's a basic look at their backgrounds and priorities, but it also links to much more in-depth information about their policies.
  • Mexico’s ‘narcocorridos’ going mainstream. What’s behind their popularity explosion? By the way one of the featured artists, Peso Pluma, comes to Ascend Ampitheater in Nashville on June 30.
  • Shakira opens up about split from Gerard Piqué, how she learned he 'betrayed' her
  • Many flagship universities don’t reflect their state’s Black or Latino high school grads

Resources

Please send your recommendations, story ideas, events and other tidbits.

¡Muchas gracias!

David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network - Tennessee. He is of Colombian and Cuban descent, has studied or worked in several Spanish-speaking countries, and was the founding editor of Gaceta Tropical in Southwest Florida. He has lived in Tennessee since 2014. Call him at (615) 259-8063, email him at [email protected] or tweet to him at @davidplazas.