Trump Administration Considers Unprecedented Curbs on Asylum for Migrants Image

The following article by Caitlin Dickerson was posted on the New York Times website July 18, 2018:

A Honduran asylum seeker waited to cross from Matamoros, Mexico, to Brownsville, Tex., in June. CreditCallaghan O’Hare, The New York Times

The kidnappings and mass killings were a fact of daily life for Francisco Miguel-Francisco, a young man living in Cerro Martín, a small village tucked into the indigenous highlands of Guatemala. He grew up in fear of the warring factions that battled for control of the region and that would kill without hesitation for a transgression as small as sharing food or water across enemy lines.

Fed up and desperate, he set out for the United States in 1984 and won asylum. He now lives in Arizona as a legal permanent resident with his daughter, who goes to an American school and speaks unaccented English.

Three decades later, his son Miguel, who had been left behind in Guatemala, began his own journey away from a life that had become intolerable. Miguel reached Arizona on May 15, 2018, to a much different reception.

View the complete article here.

Trump Family Separation Crisis

Trump created the family separation crisis. The president’s policy has led to thousands of children being separated from their families.

Ahead of tomorrow’s court-ordered reunification deadline, more than 1,000 children remain separated as a result of Trump’s family separation policies, and this week, the Trump administration admitted in court that it has deported more than 450 immigrant parents without their children.

Now, the Trump administration is using every excuse not to reunite separated families. They’ve continued to incarcerate children in nightmarish conditions, deport parents without their children, and refuse immigrants urgent medical care with dire consequences. They’re even putting infants into deportation court by themselves. Continue reading “Trump Family Separation Crisis”

How Trump’s tariffs on Mexico are taking jobs from U.S. workers

The following article by Erica Werner and Kevin Sieff was posted on the Washington Post website July 18, 2018:

Jessica Lopez packages wire coil nails at the Mid Continent Nail Corp. in Poplar Bluff, Mo. Credit: Brad Vest, The Washington Post

 When a Mexican company bought Mid Continent Nail Corp. in 2012, workers at the factory here feared it was the beginning of the end. Their jobs, they suspected, would be given to lower-paid workers in Mexico, more casualties of the hollowing out of U.S. manufacturing driven in part by an embrace of global trade.

Instead, Mid Continent’s factory has doubled in size since Deacero’s purchase. The company, facing fewer restrictions on steel exports after the North American Free Trade Agreement, shipped steel into Missouri, willing to pay skilled workers more to take advantage of cheaper energy costs in the United States and a location that allowed swift delivery to U.S. customers.

But President Trump has put 25 percent tariffs on steel imports, bumping production costs and prompting Deacero to reconsider this arrangement. With Mid Continent charging more for nails, orders are down 70 percent from this time a year ago despite a booming construction industry. Company officials say that without relief, the Missouri plant could be out of business by Labor Day — or that remaining production could move to Mexico or another country.

View the complete post on the Washington Post website here.

Trump and Iran

Monday morning in an all caps tweet, Trump foolishly threatened Iran with war over Twitter.  He is once again playing games with America’s national security and making the world less safe.  He is manufacturing another crisis, at a time when we are already facing increasing isolation from the international community.

Remember, it was Donald Trump and his administration that abandoned the Iran deal.  He sacrificed our security to satisfy his political base. The facts show that the Iran Deal was working, and the entire international community is a better place for it.

The Iran Deal reduced the nuclear threat, and is undoubtedly in the best interests of both the United States and the international community at-large. The facts and evidence show that the Iran Deal was working: Continue reading “Trump and Iran”

In a possible rebuke to Trump, Japan and the EU sign a landmark trade deal

The following article by Rebekah Entralgo was posted on the ThinkProgress website July 17, 2018:

“America First” policies leave the U.S. alone on the international stage.

European Council President Donald Tusk during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing, China. Credit: Ng Han Guan,Pool, Getty Images

The rest of the world is moving on without the United States.

The European Union and Japan signed a benchmark trade deal Tuesday that effectively eliminates nearly all tariffs on the products they trade. European Council President Donald Tusk described the deal as the “largest bilateral trade deal ever.”

“The EU and Japan showed an undeterred determination to lead the world as flag-bearers for free trade,” Japanese Prime Ministor Shinzo Abe said at a joint news conference with European dignitaries.

View the complete article on the ThinkProgress website here.

Trump thanks Finland for support on NATO, but Finland is not in NATO

The following article by Rebekah Entralgo was posted on the ThinkProgress website July 16, 2018:

Alternative facts.

Trump thanks Finnish president for support on NATO, forgets Finland is not in NATO. Credit: Chris McGrath, Getty Images

President Donald Trump met with Finnish president Sauli Niinistö Monday, ahead of his scheduled summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.

According to reporters, Trump thanked the Finnish president for his support and said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has never been stronger.

“I enjoyed being with you a couple of days ago. NATO has, I think, never been stronger. It was a little bit tough at the beginning, but it turned out to be love. I appreciated your support,” Trump said in his opening remarks.

View the complete article on the ThinkProgress website here.

Trump gives interview attacking May ahead of meeting

The following article by Lauren Meier was posted on the Axios website July 12, 2018:

President Trump, in an interview with the popular British newspaper the Sun, criticizes Prime Minister Theresa May’s handling of Brexit, says the mayor of London doesn’t do enough to fight terrorism, and said May’s rival Boris Johnson would make a “great prime minister.”

Why this matters from Axios World Editor David Lawler: May is in the fight of her life with hardliners within her own party, and President Trump — while visiting the U.K. — has just openly sided with the rivals that may attempt to force her from power.

In the interview, Trump said May “had ignored his advice by opting for a soft Brexit strategy” and said any possible trade deal between the U.S. and U.K. would be wrecked by May’s strategy of keeping close ties to the EU.

View the complete article on the Axios website here.

President Trump makes good on his threat to target an additional $200 billion in Chinese imports with tariffs, ramping up the trade war

The following article by David J. Lynch and Danielle Paquette was posted on the Washington Post website July 10, 2018:

President Trump escalated his trade war with China on June 18, and threatened to put in place tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. (Reuters)

President Trump escalated his trade war with China Tuesday, identifying an added $200 billion in Chinese products that he intends to hit with import tariffs.

The move makes good on the president’s threat to respond to China’s retaliation for the initial U.S. tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese goods, which went into effect on Friday, and would eventually place nearly half of all Chinese imports under tariffs.

Administration officials said the tariff fight is aimed at forcing China to stop stealing American intellectual property and to abandon policies that effectively force U.S. companies to surrender their trade secrets in return for access to the Chinese market.

View the complete article on the Washington Post website here.

Trump’s NATO trip shows ‘America First’ is ‘America Alone’

The following article by Ishaan Tharoor was posted on the Washington Post website July 11, 2018:

President Trump arrived in Brussels with a clear message: It is time America stopped footing Europe’s bill. His complaint is not new for European leaders, who have weathered Trump’s attacks on the transatlantic system for more than a year, but it is becoming more and more troubling.

The NATO summit that starts Wednesday will be shadowed entirely by Trump’s irritation with the alliance and the inability or unwillingness of many of its members to set their military budgets at the recommended 2 percent of gross domestic product. Ahead of Trump’s arrival in Brussels, he issued tweets linking his antipathy toward NATO with his broader anger over trade relations with the European Union: Continue reading “Trump’s NATO trip shows ‘America First’ is ‘America Alone’”

Analysis: Donald Trump’s ‘Schmucks’ and KGB Summer Sojourn

The following article by John T. Bennett was posted on the Roll Call website on July 9, 2018:

‘Do you know what? Putin’s fine,’ president declares amid Dems’ concerns

President Donald Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 Summit in July 2017. They will meet again on July 16. Credit: Evan Vucci/, P file photo

President Donald Trump’s European summer swing will be bookended by summits that form a microcosm of his contrarian presidency. Some worry his coming talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin could alter the post-World War II global order.

Trump’s seven-day trip will start with NATO allies he believes are making “schmucks” of Americans and will end with Putin, whom Trump believes is “fine” despite agreement among his intelligence agencies that Russia tried to upend U.S. politics with a disinformation campaign in 2016. Democratic lawmakers are warning that Trump’s unique foreign policy philosophy — a mix of pre-World War I realism and modern-day mercantilism — could lead him to further anger allies and give in to a Russian strongman.

The president and his top aides have given few signs that he intends to moderate his tough love rhetoric and demands for America’s NATO allies or that he plans to deliver ultimatums to the Russian president about meddling in future American elections or giving up the Crimea region of Ukraine he seized in 2014.

View the complete article on the Roll Call website here.