Following a week of “historic” raids in North Carolina, demonstrators unsuccessfully asked a Burlington hotel to kick out their guests who were ICE agents, Qué Pasa reports. Activists and relatives of a man who had been detained that same day in Asheboro staged the Feb. 7 protest at the reception of a Holiday Inn Express. “ICE wants us immigrants to be afraid. They want to provoke chaos and then blame the local police for ‘not doing enough’ on family separation,” said Laura Garduño García, member of community group Siembra NC. “We are united against this injustice.”

The Polish Triangle in Chicago marks the heart of what used to be a thriving Polish neighborhood with stores, schools, churches and organizations, but in recent years as immigrants moved to the suburbs, the neighborhood has been losing its ethnic feel. Dziennik Zwiazkowy reports that the Polish Triangle Coalition has reached out to Bugaj Architects to help preserve the location’s Polish character, and now the organization hopes that the modernization of the local CTA train station will cast new light on the Triangle and bring in more funds for its revitalization.

More than 800 California car washers, mostly immigrants, got $4.2 million in compensation in a massive wage-theft case against Southern California car wash mogul Vahid David Delrahim, La Opinión reports. The landmark case was possible thanks to a 15-year-old U.S. Department of Labor initiative for Spanish-speaking workers called Employment, Education and Outreach (EMPLEO). Angélica Salas, of the Immigrant Rights organization CHIRLA, said EMPLEO is an invaluable tool for “vulnerable workers who are often afraid of reporting labor complaints to the authorities or are threatened with being reported to ICE.”

According to a study by the University of Miami, Puerto Ricans fleeing Hurricane María in Florida felt discriminated against by fellow Puerto Ricans, El Nuevo Día reports. The report, the “Mental Health Impact of Hurricane María on Displaced Puerto Ricans living in Puerto Rico and Florida,” found that many refugees felt their compatriots who had been long-established in Florida “turned their backs” on them, ignoring calls for help or not offering housing. “It is something that happens when people arrive in a new country, go through an adaptation process… but then resent those arriving later,” said Dr. Seth Schwartz.

The exodus of doctors away from Puerto Rico due to the economic crisis and other factors, including obstacles from the insurance industry, has created a “health crisis,” El Vocero reports. The number of dentists on the island has gone from 2,300 to 856 in two years. Similarly, six years ago there were 300 cardiologists in Puerto Rico and now only 125, and the number of community pharmacies has gone from 1,200 to 750. “I would say this is already a humanitarian problem in our country,” said Dr. Elena Jiménez Díaz.

Four candidates for Chicago mayor, including two Mexican-Americans, faced off at a Multicultural and Interfaith forum hosted by the Indo-American Democratic Organization, La Raza reports. Gery Chico and Susana Mendoza joined Lori Lightfoot and Paul Vallas, part of a field of 14 candidates for the Feb. 26 election, to debate on such issues as education, immigration, street security and affordable housing. Chico is a real estate lawyer who worked as Mayor Rick Daley’s chief of staff, and Mendoza is the comptroller of Illinois. They were both born and raised in Chicago, the children of Mexican immigrants.

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) spoke with The Arab American News about the reasons she believes Donald Trump should be impeached. “My articles of impeachment are going to be solely based on the fact that in the Constitution there’s a clause that states any sitting president of the United States has to completely divest from their foreign or domestic investments,” she said. “The Trump organization is still being run by this president. It creates conflict. They know this is a part-time gig and they’re not going to be there forever.”

Furious El Paso residents are preparing a “mega march” to protest President Trump’s planned speech on Monday in the Texan city, El Diario de El Paso reports. Large paseño sectors are accusing the president of lying about the border town during the State of the Union address, in which he falsely claimed that El Paso was one of the country’s most dangerous cities before a border fence was built in 2008. “Trump lied about immigrants; he lied about the wall, and he lied about my hometown,” said Fernando García, of Border Network for Human Rights.

Some 70 undocumented immigrants were arrested at a pre-dawn raid in a gun manufacturing company in Sanford, North Carolina, in one of the state’s biggest ICE operations, Qué Pasa Raleigh/Durham reports. The company, Bear Creek Arsenal, which employs more than 250 people, many of them Hispanic immigrants, said this was the result of an ongoing identity theft and fraud investigation. “They took away our friends, people who wake up early, leave their kids at the bus stop and come to work… Now, who will pick up those kids from school today?” said a worker, weeping.

Dreamers are pushing Congress to restore DACA’s Advance Parole, a permit to leave and return to the country that the Trump administration canceled in September 2017, La Opinión reports. From Jan. 14 to 18, at least 20 Dreamers from different states gathered 30 signatures from members of Congress in Washington, arguing that they need the travel permit to pursue their studies and be able to visit relatives. “This is the first national effort to reestablish Advance Parole, which doesn’t hurt anyone. Its elimination is pure racism. It has a profound humanitarian impact,” said Armando Vásquez-Ramos, president of the California-Mexico Studies Center.

A group of Cubans in Miami is collecting humanitarian aid for victims of the tornado that ravaged parts of Havana last Sunday, Diario Las Américas reports. Donations of money and non-perishable products are being gathered at Porto Alegre Brazilian Grill restaurant and Monte de Oca travel agency, both in Hialeah. Donations will be distributed to the victims directly, without any Cuban government intermediation, through “private individuals” who will travel to the island with plane tickets that are also being donated by entrepreneurs and residents of South Florida, said organizer Concepción Cabrera.

Recognized immigrant rights activist in Atlanta, Georgia, Eduardo Samaniego agreed to “voluntarily leave the country” after being detained for more than 100 days, Mundo Hispánico reports. The young Mexican had become an icon of the Dreamers’ fight nationally. According to his lawyer Charles Kuck, he was desperate after spending most of his time in prison in solitary confinement. “Regrettably, Eduardo could not apply for DACA and he doesn’t have a citizen spouse or children born here, so we had no arguments to make a case for him to stay,” said Kuck.

The 23 “Hamilton” performances in Puerto Rico brought a massive injection of capital to the local economy, El Nuevo Día reports. The impact was felt well beyond the area around Centro de Bellas Artes Luis A. Ferré in San Juan where the Lin-Manuel Miranda musical was staged until Sunday, as 1,475 tourism packages for ticket buyers that included three-day sightseeing visits around the island were sold at a cost of $4,350,000, according to the organization Discover Puerto Rico. International Hospitality Enterprises, which manages six hotels, reported an economic impact of 2,693 night-rooms booked and a $2 million profit.

Hundreds of people representing pro-immigrant and human rights organizations from all over the country marched peacefully this Saturday in El Paso to chant ‘No to the wall!’ and to repudiate President Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant policies, El Diario de El Paso reports. The march was mainly organized by the group Border Network for Human Rights. “We want to tell the president that we should not treat people with cruelty, and the wall is cruelty,” said Rep. Verónica Escobar (D) to the attendees’ cheers.

At a meeting with ethnic media, elected officials and community leaders urged Los Angeles County to refinance and increase funds for a program that provides free legal representation for immigrants facing deportation cases, La Opinión reports. The L.A. Justice Fund started out in 2017 with a $7.4 million budget that was distributed among 17 nonprofit organizations, but now they estimate that they will need more financing by the end of the year. “We are running out of money,” said County Supervisor Hilda Solís.