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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   16448 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 3, 2026

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Footage of encounters between travelers and ICE officers have flooded social media. In one widely circulated video, Chantal Morales Rojas, a 27-year-old from Ecuador, was detained by plainclothes officers as she boarded a Southwest Airlines flight from Denver to Oakland, Calif., on July 20. She had been spending the weekend with the family for whom she had worked as an au pair, according to the family.

So she was here as an au pair and thought she could stay indefinitely?

Au pairs are age-capped at 26, how long ago did this au pair enter? Oh:

Ms. Morales Rojas, the au pair, entered the United States lawfully in January 2023 as a J-1 exchange visitor, a legal status that allowed her to work for two years, according to her lawyer. Her visa expired Jan. 4, 2025, according to D.H.S. Before the exchange program ended, Ms. Morales Rojas filed an application with immigration authorities to remain in the country, said the lawyer, Laura Lichter.

So she came on a non-immigrant visa, was attempting to turn that into permanent residency, and the government at that point was okay with that.

I have very few degrees of separation from Rojas's situation, and more or less gave up on finding out any relevant details (e.g., "You said she's here on a visa; did the visa expire?") from anyone who might know them pretty quickly. This article answers that question and provides a bit more than I knew, while still leaving me suspicious that anything not stated sinks her case. For example:

  1. Rojas would've been under the au pair age cap (which I didn't know about at all; thanks!) when she started in Jan 2023, and according to medium amounts of googling, au pairs can finish out their position if they turn 27 after being hired. However, the article uses the past perfect tense: "for whom she had worked as an au pair", not "for whom she works as an au pair". The article also refers to he people who hired her as "her former employers" without saying how recently the "former" entered into effect.
  2. I cannot seem to get good information on whether or not someone is allowed to stay in the US during processing of their extension. It probably varies by visa. The closest I can find is that it was USCIS policy to allow it, not whether that policy remains current. Given the current administration's general stance on immigration, I wouldn't bet much on it.
  3. DHS doesn't mention her extension application, and I suspect if they had reviewed it and denied it, they would have said so. Then again, I'm reading what the NYT says DHS said and not what DHS said. Maybe DHS did mention the extension, and the NYT left that part out, opting instead for the rote "in violation of our nation’s laws, she overstayed her visa", without technically lying!
  4. The article quotes a different immigration lawyer revising advice she had given regarding domestic travel, and at no point does the article confirm whether the advice refers to the law as-is or to how it has been enforced. I'm pretty sure this depends on the type of visa and whether it's currently active or the situation in #2 applies. It seems possible that Rojas may have been allowed domestic travel as part of her au pair duties under her J-1, but would no longer be covered either because the J-1 had expired or because she was no longer an au pair.

As a result of not being able to discern any of this, I am quite frustrated, mostly because more than a few people I know are very up in arms about it. I have been asked to donate to her legal fund, and even supposing I were inclined to spend my next $100 frustrating immigration enforcement, it's unclear whether or not this particular donation would be setting that $100 on fire.

Au pairs are age-capped at 26

Didn’t know the US actually had an age cap for au pairs. But indeed, dwight_schrute_its_true.gif

Rare based policy of the US government, being a wingman for husbands out there: “Honey, if we get an au pair to live with us and help you around the house, she’ll have to be a young woman between 18 and 26… I know, how awful right… it’d totally be so much better to have an older woman with more experience… but it’s the law, our hands are tied.”

In practice this woman's goal was probably to find an American husband to switch her au pair visa into a greed card, but she got caught before she could seal the deal.

The idea is that an au pair is not a professional nanny or maid, she's a young woman (college student perhaps) getting to live with a host family and learn/practice the language while being paid pocket money/allowance for some light domestic work or childminding. It's not supposed to be "cheaper than legally hiring a live-in housekeeper" but often that's how it's used.

So she came on a non-immigrant visa, was attempting to turn that into permanent residency, and the government at that point was okay with that.

US doesn't have the concept of implied status? Canada does; so long as an application is in the works you can stay. Imagine being a student working to extend a study permit in the middle of your semester and being deported.

This doesn't seem like a big problem, if the rest of your system is ruthless about clearing the backlog and removing them once they fail (or letting them in in the first place).

It does, it's generally referred to as "period of authorized stay" but it takes a bit more work to get than simply filing an application. And applicants need to carefully make sure that "period of authorized stay" actually starts before the previous visa expires.

So she came on a non-immigrant visa, was attempting to turn that into permanent residency, and the government at that point was okay with that.

According to her lawyer it was. Previously I was generally inclined to believe stories of the immigration bureaucracy screwing people, because they're known for it and have been for a long time (even pre-Trump). But having uncovered any number of immigration atrocities which didn't happen (Salvadoran grandpa), were justified (frog-smuggling Russian), or simply could not be substantiated, I'm not willing to give the NYT the benefit of the doubt here. It's certainly possible that the Trump administration is being overzealous and is arresting people who have work authorization and temporary reprieves despite their original visa being expired. But that case has not been made.

It seems like the NYT and its supporters, donors, etc. simply hate any and all immigration law existing or being enforced.

And that’s not a realistic opinion. The average NYT reader would turn very much against immigration if their desired policies were actually done. Not enforcing tourists visas while also issuing more tourists visas would create a huge backlash quickly. It would essentially be the same thing as Abbott sending migrants to NYC. Except orders of magnitude more. This is essentially a luxury belief.

The funny thing about NYC is the actual voters vote against migration to NYC. Rent control and anti-development is essentially a policy that blocks immigration to NYC. The US could also stop immigration by banning home building and restricting most existing housing to heritage Americans.

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