I recently learned of a horrific ordeal undergone by a New York resident that began with an act of... jaywalking? I'd missed this event when it happened in December 2019, and only found out about it thanks to Shakira Solis, a guest speaker at a recent event on the DACA program at Coe College. Perhaps you knew about this at the time. If you are undocumented, or love someone who is, you surely did.
Javier Castillo Maradiaga is one of many people caught in the web of America's byzantine immigration policy. The short version of his story, from Correal and Shanahan 2021: He came to the U.S. from Honduras as an 8-year-old child in 2002, and received legal status under DACA in 2012. During the chaos of the Trump administration, his DACA authorization lapsed. Thus he was undocumented when he was arrested by New York City police. Against city policy, particularly since his offense was nonviolent, he was transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in whose custody he remained in various locations until a court ordered his release in March 2021. Last week at Coe, Solis used him as an example of how even DACA protection is far from airtight.
The story struck me, not just as another example of immigration policy gone wrong, but because he was arrested for jaywalking. I am pretty much pro-jaywalking. A Strong Towns article by Daniel Herriges (2020) cites the legal definition as crossing mid-block or against a traffic signal. I do this all the time. In an environment built for (ever-growing) motor vehicles, the main way pedestrians arrive safely at their destinations is by avoiding interactions with them. Whatever it takes to avoid interactions with cars is what you should do. The greatest danger in even semi-walkable areas is from traffic turning at intersections, so if you can cross mid-block, you should. If vehicles are stopped at a traffic light, and you have a clear shot to cross, you should do it.
Herriges adds that jaywalking is "extremely common" on truly walkable urban streets, which also happen to be the most financially productive; commenter Thomas B. adds, "In NYC, jaywalking is practically a birthrite." Herriges's article includes links to a Streetsblog study showing vastly disproportionate jaywalking arrests of blacks and Latinos, and a video by "Adam Ruins Everything" explaining the origins of criminalized jaywalking in efforts by auto manufacturers to take over city streets from other users.
Jaywalking is often the best choice for pedestrians. Its stigma is borne out of political power shoving the less powerful out of the way, and is mostly enforced in a racist way. U.S. immigration policy is bad enough without using this against them.
SEE ALSO: "Dear America Brings Light in the Heat," 8 July 2021
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