A note from...
Catesby Holmes
Global Affairs Editor
Remember those immigration raids that, Donald Trump touted in June, would deport “millions of illegal aliens”? Well, only 35 people were arrested. Migrants, well prepared for ICE to come knocking, stayed home or sheltered at a friend’s house. Some sought sanctuary at church – a place ICE considers to be a sensitive location where officers should avoid making arrests.
Religious congregations have long protected Central American refugees as part of their faith-based duty to “help the poor and oppressed,” says Mario Garcia, a historian at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in this brief history of the 1980s church sanctuary movement.
Honduran migrant Vicky Chavez with her daughter Issabella on May 31, 2018 in the First Unitarian Church in Salt Lake City, where she sought protection from deportation in late 2017.
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
Mario Garcia, University of California, Santa Barbara
The number of migrants living in churches has spiked recently in anticipation of threatened immigration raids, but churches have long protected refugees in an act of faith-based civil disobedience.
John M. Murphy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Difficult to pronounce, synecdoche is the form of rhetoric used by President Trump when he told four Democratic congresswomen of color to “go back” to the “corrupt” countries they came from.
Once hunted into corners of North America, black bears have expanded across the continent since the early 1900s. But bears that end up living near people aren't seeking close encounters.
Can your kids be too clean? Increases in allergies suggest so. But how much dirt is too much? A pediatric allergist explains the fascinating reasons the immune system needs dirt for training.
Recent reports describe people dying from infections caused by flesh-eating bacteria. But that doesn't that mean you can't still enjoy time at the beach frolicking in warm water.
Lucy Sorensen, University at Albany, State University of New York; Charmaine Willis, University at Albany, State University of New York; Melissa L Breger, Albany Law School; Victor Asal, University at Albany, State University of New York
While more and more countries have moved to ban corporal punishment in schools, certain types of nations have been slower than others to outlaw the practice. A recent analysis seeks to explain why.
Unions should move their focus away from traditional collective bargaining and instead embrace new ways to attract new members, such as by offering discounted benefits and engaging in more advocacy.
Scientists know the bacterium that causes Lyme disease has been out in the wild since long before any biological weapons research could have focused on it. And that's just for starters.
