Tracing Points: 5 immigration stories you missed this week

Each week, we put you on the map with immigration and transnational culture stories you might have missed throughout the week. And if you’ve come across any articles worth mentioning, write to us sonic.trace@kcrw.org or tweet us @SonicTrace_KCRW.

(Photo: pamhule via Flickr)

May Day comes to Los Angeles

Thousands of immigration reform supporters took to the streets of Los Angeles for the annual May Day March. This year’s event was geared towards stopping deportations and keeping mixed-immigration-status families together. An activist told KABC:

“It’s the day that we remind the American public and the government that there’s a great debt to our community,” said Angelica Salas, executive director of Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. “We work hard in every single industry, yet we don’t have the recognition or the respect that we deserve.”

Immigration protests resurface at the Capitol, youths arrested

Ten youths were arrested for protesting against deportations at the U.S. Capitol. “I lost my childhood,” Elias Gonzales, 15 told the AP. “But I’m protesting not just for me but so that deportations don’t continue separating other families.”

Boehner blames Obama, not GOP, for lack of immigration reform

Speaker John Boehner said on Tuesday that distrust from President Obama is halting immigration reform, not his Republican colleagues. He told reporters during a press conference, “I wanted to make sure the members understood the biggest impediment we have in moving immigration reform is that the American people don’t trust the president to enforce or implement the law that we may or may not pass.”

h/t the Washington Post

This week’s Sonic Trace story…

Finding hope after an autism diagnosis

When Isela Santillan saw her 2-year-old son, Alexis, use tantrums and cries to ask for food, she felt something was different. Her family would say he was huraño or spoiled and that’s why he acted like that. But it was more than that.

“That’s when I decided to go to the doctor and tell him my concerns,” she says. Listen to what the doctor said here.

Why this year’s Cinco de Mayo is lime-less, and how you can still celebrate

The story of the drug war has become the story of limes.

A staggering 97 percent of limes Americans consume are imported from Mexico, and a combination of disease and a massive storm in Mexico has sharply driven up the price of the citrus. The price hike has spurned opportunism from Mexican drug cartels who have been seizing trucks with limes en route to the U.S., further driving up the cost. Limes previously averaged $50 a case, but now a case goes for $140.

All of this in time for Cinco de Mayo, a holiday where Americans love nothing more than to sip on margaritas and garnish tacos with fresh squeezes of lime. More from KCRW’s Good Food here.