She was highly organized, phenomenally competent, and extremely energetic, making it possible for her to juggle her activities as a devoted mother, full-time professional, new immigrant, expert seamstress, accomplished cook, entertainer, and much-loved friend.
And while Trump is characterizing the barrier as a non-negotiable tenet of border security, immigrant experts told HuffPost it's an ineffective solution that will endanger migrant families.
"Legislation may be introduced to try to protect US workers from immigrants," Cornell Law School immigration expert Stephen Yale-Loehr told me, "either by reducing the number of green cards for lesser-skilled immigrants or by imposing higher wage requirements on employers that want to hire foreign nationals.
Through interviews with government officials, immigration experts, immigrants and citizen children of deported immigrants, Hinojosa paints a picture of an immigration enforcement system that is in overdrive, destroying lives and showing no sign of slowing down.
"The social standard in major receiving countries is higher than in the United States, and a relatively much larger share of social welfare benefits are spent on immigrants," said Kay Hailbronner, an immigration expert.
One practice — used by some immigrants, experts said — involves dousing furniture in kerosene or gasoline to combat bedbugs and other pests.
But Trump's estimate greatly exaggerates the overall number of undocumented immigrants, experts say ― leaving them to wonder whether he's still embracing the idea of mass deportation on which he campaigned, or whether he's simply winging it at this point.
In "Census Shows Big Gain for Mexican-Americans" (news article, May 10), an immigration expert says welfare rates are higher among Hispanic immigrants.
But the work of another immigration expert in the US, Giovanni Peri from the University of California, suggests immigrants can help boost the prospects of native workers.
The climate for illegal immigrants in the United States has worsened since then, with an increase in hate crimes, activity by anti-immigrant groups and ranting on cable television and the Internet, according to Angela Kelley, an immigration expert at the liberal Center for American Progress.
On Wednesday the storyteller and educator Judith Heineman will relate tales inspired by city lore, including narratives about her grandmother, an immigrant and expert tailor, and about a baker who lived when New York City was still New Amsterdam.
