Beth Vilen

Writer. Storyteller. Advocate for immigrants, refugees, children, women . . . humanity.

[Beth Vilen @BethVilen]

Child Care is Key to Disaster Resilience. Read my latest in @dailyyonder here: https://t.co/jOAYgpwepp

[Beth Vilen @BethVilen]

@Hasan_Merali Love it! This echoes a piece about with a similar title from the New York Times, The Good List. I spent a lot of time wild swimming in Ontario this summer--Lake Huron, Lake Ontario, several provincial parks with Lakes--and it was indeed magical.

[Beth Vilen @BethVilen]

I had a conversation with an Afghan asylee yesterday about just this thing. He filed and paid for his green card/EAD application in 2024 and is still waiting for adjudication. "What can I do?" he asked me. "I can't go home and I can't stay here."

[Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @ReichlinMelnick]

Legal immigrants are losing their jobs and their legal status not because THEY did anything wrong, but because the GOVERNMENT refuses to adjudicate the applications they paid for and filed. It should be a massive scandal.

[Beth Vilen @BethVilen]

@buitengebieden This is my life at 4 ft. 10.

[Beth Vilen @BethVilen]

My latest blog for @HomeGrownOrg . . . and a clip from the forthcoming documentary:)

[Home Grown @HomeGrownOrg]

Happy Provider Appreciation Day!

Home-based child care providers are the essential caregivers who make it possible for parents to work, knowing their children are safe, loved, and learning— even in the face of disaster.

Our latest blog features interviews with parents and providers in Western North Carolina who forged a deep bond during Hurricane Helene that has continued to sustain the families, the children, and the economy through the region’s recovery.

To all home-based child care providers:

Thank you for your love, generosity, wisdom, and prodigious experience doing the hardest, most important job in the world: growing our children from the tiniest sprouts into strong and resilient human beings.

Read the blog here: https://t.co/Rg1OGhKkkh

[Beth Vilen @BethVilen]

Shifting Immigration Policies Are Changing Daily Life for Child Care Providers @The74 https://t.co/2uXfrXZ5CG

[Beth Vilen @BethVilen]

Home-based child care providers can't afford to own homes or stay in business. But some states have found a solution. Ed Surge outlines the problem. My piece in The Daily Yonder shares some solutions. https://t.co/0rbWBsB4mp

[Home Grown @HomeGrownOrg]

83% of providers who rent their homes aspire to be homeowners. However, 66% report that they cannot afford a down payment, and 58% cite a lack of affordable housing options.

When a provider’s home is also their workplace, housing instability becomes a child care crisis.

The rising cost of living and stagnant low wages are forcing essential caregivers out of the sector, leaving families with fewer options and providers without livelihoods.

Learn how housing barriers and low wages are impacting the child care landscape: https://t.co/XUd62K9aT2

[Beth Vilen @BethVilen]

Funding the military or funding child care: it's NOT a zero sum game. When will the feds commit to winning the care war? Great piece in @nytimes by Lisa Levenstein: https://t.co/4BXmEhGx83

[Jesus Freakin Congress @TheJFreakinC]

🚨BREAKING: DHS agents are now illegally arresting U.S. citizens at airports… and trafficking them across state lines.

A 28-year-old U.S. citizen, Sunny Naqvi, was detained by DHS, for 43 hours, after landing at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago.

She wasn’t charged with a crime, and she wasn’t accused of doing anything illegal…

Agents reportedly detained her over what they called a “curious travel history.”

Even though Sunny was born in Illinois…they still disappeared her.

After being held for about 30 hours inside the airport, agents secretly moved Sunny to an ICE detention facility in Broadview, Illinois.

While this was happening, federal agents repeatedly told her family she was NOT in custody, even though her phone location showed she was inside the facility.

Then it gets worse.

According to witnesses, agents asked for Sunny’s phone number so they could “look for her phone.”

Minutes later, the phone was opened, her messages were read, and the device was shut off, cutting off the family’s ability to track her.

After that, agents transported the U.S. citizen across state lines, to another detention facility in Dodge County, Wisconsin.

And then she was eventually released early Saturday morning… in a random state, alone.

Her phone was dead, and she had no transportation.

So, a U.S. citizen detained by the federal government had to hitchhike to a hotel, just to be able to reunite with her family.

And this is what people need to understand…

When federal agents can detain U.S. citizens without charges… lie to families about their custody, search personal phones, and secretly transport people across state lines…

That puts every single American in danger.

Because they can do it to anyone.

[Beth Vilen @BethVilen]

@mamboitaliano__ This was MY childhood . . . and I still just call people on the phone without texting. The saddest part to me is that this is a tik tok video. I still don't have tik tok, and I never will.

[Beth Vilen @BethVilen]

@KateClanchy1 My heart aches for this poet making art from pain.

[Beth Vilen @BethVilen]

Clear, truth to power.

[Cyrus Janssen @thecyrusjanssen]

An Iranian man left this comment on my YouTube channel. This is without a doubt the single best explanation of the reality facing Iranian people today👇

"As an Iranian, I can tell you the situation is no longer just political—it's existential. We are trapped between two collapsing structures: one internal, one external. On one hand, we face a deeply dysfunctional government, led by the Supreme Leader and the Islamic Republic’s unelected institutions.

Decades of economic mismanagement, suppression of dissent, and brutal ideological control have alienated multiple generations. No one believes in reform anymore—because every attempt has either been co-opted or crushed. But here's the paradox: We are also terrified of regime collapse—because we've watched the aftermath of Western intervention in countries like Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Afghanistan. Each was promised freedom; each descended into chaos, civil war, or foreign occupation.

So no, we don't trust the U.S. or Israel. Not because we support our regime—but because we know how imperial powers treat ‘liberated’ nations in the Middle East.

Freedom, in their language, often means vacuum, fire, and permanent instability. Right now, many Iranians live with three truths at once: The Islamic Republic is morally and politically bankrupt. The alternatives offered by foreign actors are not liberation—they’re collapse.

A bad government is survivable. No government is not. We are not silent because we agree. We are cautious because we’ve learned—too well—what happens when superpowers decide to "help." In a sentence: Iran is a nation held hostage by its own regime, but haunted by the fate of its neighbors. We are stuck in a house we hate, surrounded by fires we fear more."

[Beth Vilen @BethVilen]

@akafaceUS Those are absolutely not 5 and 6 year olds. Stop lying.

[Beth Vilen @BethVilen]

The only true remark in Trumps SOU is the phrase "like you wouldn't believe . . . " Right, I don't and won't believe any of these promises.

[Beth Vilen @BethVilen]

@realseand Seriously, so far the entire speech has been about the hockey team. Stupid!

[Beth Vilen @BethVilen]

@buitengebieden Dog's name must be Mudge . . . love it

[Beth Vilen @BethVilen]

Reading matters. So do high expectations. https://t.co/I8CN3Iu9rs

[Beth Vilen @BethVilen]

These are my peeps!

[Suzie rizzio @Suzierizzo1]

These are Minnesotans out there in the freezing cold weather showing their way of Resisting ICE!

[Beth Vilen @BethVilen]

Child care is in short supply, but some states are finding solutions. Supporting home-based caregivers is key. My latest reporting @dailyyonder @HomeGrownOrg
https://t.co/H1PTNxGCqr

[Beth Vilen @BethVilen]

@amyklobuchar Minnesota no-ice!