President Trump is considering a "border czar" or "immigration czar" to coordinate immigration policy across various federal agencies as he continues to threaten to close the U.S.-Mexico border, AP reports.
Between the lines: Two potential candidates — former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.
STORM LAKE, Iowa — In 1991, Manuel Arceo emigrated to the United States, finally settling three years later in the small Washington state city of Chehalis. There, he parlayed his cooking skills into Plaza Jalisco, a restaurant he named after his native state in Mexico.
A quarter-century later, Arceo and several of his brothers are the owners of 14 restaurants in three states — including an improbable five here in Iowa. Against the toxic U.S. debate around Hispanic immigrants, the Arceos' story illustrates a lesser-told dimension of the decades-long Mexican influx into the country — a familiar tale of pluck aligning with bedrock American tradition.
What's happening: Until around 1980, Storm Lake, a city in northwest Iowa, was, like the rest of the state, almost entirely white. But then a first wave of immigrants arrived — Tai Dams, an ethnic minority from Vietnam and Laos. Many of the adults went to work at local pork and turkey slaughtering houses, Art Cullen, the Pulitzer Prize-winning editor of the local paper, tells in his lyrically crafted book, "Storm Lake."
The immigrants have infused Storm Lake with a surprising Hispanic feel, with Spanish-language downtown storefronts, including Mexican restaurants like La Juanita and Plaza Mexico.
Going against the national trend: Storm Lake, like the state, went for President Trump in 2016. In the 2018 midterms, it re-elected Rep. Steve King, the anti-immigrant Republican congressman.
A tale of Jalisco: It turns out that the Arceo family tale may be less surprising than it seems at first: Talking in a booth at Plaza Mexico, Efreen tells me that Jalisco natives are notorious restaurateurs, running restaurants in Idaho, Florida, California, and more. He reckons they run some 1,000 Mexican restaurants across the country.
Getting to Iowa: In 2000, the Arceos opened a Des Moines restaurant. Four years later, Efreen began looking for another location, and in Storm Lake he noticed a vacant McDonald's. He bought it for $140,000, figuring that, between the heavily immigrant meat packing workers and local Buena Vista University, there would be plenty of customers.
At the time, a couple of Mexican restaurants were already open in town. But Efreen figured that, between the heavily immigrant meat packing workers and the local Buena Vista University, there would be plenty of customers.
It has turned out that way. And Efreen figures the town is better for the immigrants, too. While other parts of the state are moribund, Storm Lake "has more people and more business. It's good for the stores, for everybody."
