Tag: Trump immigration policy

Federal judge in California halts Trump’s latest asylum ban

Washington Post logoA federal judge in San Francisco temporarily blocked a new Trump administration policy Wednesday that sought to bar Central Americans and other migrants from requesting asylum at the southern border, saying the federal government’s frustrations with rising border crossings did not justify “shortcutting the law.”

The policy aimed to curtail Central American migration across the southern border by requiring asylum seekers to apply in countries they had passed through on the way to the United States, particularly Mexico or Guatemala.

U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar, who halted another version of the Trump administration’s asylum ban last year, said a “mountain” of evidence showed that migrants could not safely seek asylum in Mexico. He said the rule likely violated federal law in part by categorically denying asylum to almost anyone crossing the border. U.S. law generally allows anyone who sets foot on U.S. soil to apply for asylum.

View the complete July 24 article by Maria Sacchetti and Spencer S. Hsu on The Washington Post website here.

Federal judge allows Trump asylum restrictions to continue

The Hill logoA federal judge ruled Wednesday that he would not halt an effort by the Trump administration to restrict Central American migrants’ ability to apply for asylum in the U.S.

The order from U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly of the District of Columbia came in response to a lawsuit filed by Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition and the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), two immigration advocacy groups.

The case is the first challenge to a rule to bar migrants from applying for asylum if they migrated through a third country and did not first seek protection from persecution there on their journey to the U.S.

View the complete July 24 article by Tal Axelrod on The Hill website here.

‘We’re better than that!’: Top Democrat unleashes fury on Trump official over migrant children being left in ‘feces’

AlterNet logoHouse Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) brought down the hammer on acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan on Thursday over his department’s cruel treatment of migrant children.

“You feel like you’re doing a great job, right?” asked Cummings during the day’s committee hearing. “Is that what you’re saying?”

“We’re doing out level best in a very challenging —” McAleenan said, starting to answer, but Cummings cut him off.

“What does that mean?!” Cummings erupted. “What does that mean when a child is sitting in their own feces. Can’t take a shower. Come on, man! What’s that about?! None of us would have our children in that position. They are human beings. And I’m trying to figure out — and I get tired of folks saying, ‘Oh, oh they’re just beating up the border patrol. Oh, they’re just beating up on Homeland Security.’ What I’m saying is I want to concentrate on these children. And I want to make sure that they’re OK. I’ve said it before, and I will say it again. It’s not the deed that you do to a child, it’s the memory. It’s the memory!”

View the complete July 18 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.

White House readies immigration plan amid uproar over Trump’s ‘go back’ remarks

Washington Post logoAs the uproar over President Trump’s racist remarks demanding four minority Democratic lawmakers “go back [to countries] from which they came” continued to flare Tuesday, the White House prepared to roll out a plan that would detail the type of immigrants the administration wants to admit to the United States.

But the ongoing controversy over Trump’s comments got in the way of the White House’s initial plans, as a late-afternoon meeting with a half-dozen congressional Republican leaders on the administration’s new immigration bill was abruptly postponed amid an unexpectedly drawn-out fight on the floor of the House as lawmakers debated condemning Trump’s racist tweets.

That interruption Tuesday is far from the only obstacle the White House will face this year as it tries to generate momentum for its new immigration plan, which aims to reorient the current legal immigration system to one based primarily on an immigrant’s ability to contribute to the economy, rather than on family ties.

View the complete July 16 article by Seung Min Kim on The Washington Post website here.

Six officials at nonprofit Southwest Key, which runs migrant child shelters, earned more than $1 million in 2017

Washington Post logoSix high-ranking employees at a nonprofit organization housing thousands of migrant children for the federal government made at least $1 million for their work in 2017, according to tax filings released Tuesday.

The tax records show that Juan Sanchez, founder of nonprofit Southwest Key Programs, which is based in Texas, earned $3.6 million in total compensation that year, which The Washington Post reported last week. They also showed that other prominent employees — including the group’s chief financial officer, who earned more than $2.4 million — were earning substantial, seven-figure salaries there.

Sanchez left Southwest Key earlier this year amid anger over his income and scrutiny of its facilities and processes. Three of the other officials who earned at least $1 million in 2017 also have left the group, according to an official at Southwest Key who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to comment.

View the complete July 16 article by Mark Berman on The Washington Post website here.

Phillips to Lead Problem Solvers Caucus on a Bipartisan Visit to the Southern Border

WASHINGTON, DC – Members of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus will be visiting the southern border of the United States in the Rio Grande Valley on Friday, July 19, 2019. Among the facilities the Caucus members will be inspecting are points of entry, a border patrol station, and a centralized processing center. Caucus members will also be inspecting the physical U.S.-Mexican border and will participate in briefings and discussions with experts on the ground. Reps. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) and Dean Phillips (D-MN) are co-leading the Problem Solvers Caucus’s visit.

“Like so many Americans, I remain deeply concerned about the humanitarian crisis at our border that is affecting so many children and families. It’s important that members of the Problem Solvers Caucus are able to speak with experts on the ground during their inspection of the facilities there,” said Rep. Josh Gottheimer.

“We care deeply about the people caught up in the broken immigration system.  As a result, we need to come together to find a solution to this crisis that can be signed into law,” said Rep. Tom Reed.  “We, as a caucus, and more broadly, as a nation, need to have the hard discussions on this matter in order to find consensus that ensures the safety of our border and fair treatment of all immigrants, legal and illegal.” Continue reading “Phillips to Lead Problem Solvers Caucus on a Bipartisan Visit to the Southern Border”

The extraordinary trek of George Takei

Washington Post logoThe cult icon is on a mission to make sure America doesn’t forget a shameful legacy

NEW YORK — As a child, he believed the camp to be a magical oasis, where mythical dinosaurs prowled the woods at night. A native of Los Angeles, he marveled at the “flying exotica” of dragonflies, the treasures of rural life and, that first winter, the “pure magic” of snow.

George Takei spent ages 5 to almost 9 imprisoned by the U.S. government in Japanese American internment camps. A relentless optimist, he believed the shameful legacy of incarcerating an estimated 120,000 Americans during World War II would never be forgotten or duplicated.

At 82, Takei came to understand that he may be mistaken on both counts.

View the complete July 16 article by Karen Heller on The Washington Post website here.

A Border Patrol Agent Reveals What It’s Really Like to Guard Migrant Children

With the agency under fire for holding children in deplorable conditions and over racist and misogynistic Facebook posts, one agent speaks about what it’s like to do his job. “Somewhere down the line people just accepted what’s going on as normal.”

The Border Patrol agent, a veteran with 13 years on the job, had been assigned to the agency’s detention center in McAllen, Texas, for close to a month when the team of court-appointed lawyers and doctors showed up one day at the end of June.

Taking in the squalor, the stench of unwashed bodies, and the poor health and vacant eyes of the hundreds of children held there, the group members appeared stunned.

Then, their outrage rolled through the facility like a thunderstorm. One lawyer emerged from a conference room clutching her cellphone to her ear, her voice trembling with urgency and frustration. “There’s a crisis down here,” the agent recalled her shouting.

View the complete July 16 article by Ginger Thompson on the ProPublica website here.

Border Patrol Kept Families Separated To Avoid ‘Paperwork’

Unsettling details of Trump’s family separation policy were laid out in a new investigative report released by congressional staff for Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), acknowledging that “child separations were more harmful, traumatic, and chaotic than previously known.”

The investigation found that the youngest known child to be ripped away from his parents was a four-month-old Romanian boy.

In another instance, an eight-month-old baby was taken from her father in May 2018. At the time of his father’s release from custody, “the baby had spent nearly half of his life without his parents, in the custody of the Trump Administration,” according to the report. “It is unclear whether the child and father have been reunited.”

View the complete July 13 article by Dan Desai Martin on the National Memo website here.