Tag: Trump immigration policy

Barr Says Legal Path to Census Citizenship Question Exists, but He Gives No Details

New York Times logoEDGEFIELD, S.C. — President Trump and Attorney General William P. Barr began working to find a way to place a citizenship question on the 2020 census just after the Supreme Court blocked its inclusion last month, Mr. Barr said on Monday, adding that he believes that the administration can find a legal path to incorporating the question.

“The president is right on the legal grounds. I felt the Supreme Court decision was wrong, but it also made clear that the question was a perfectly legal question to ask, but the record had to be clarified,” Mr. Barr said in an interview. He was referring to the ruling that left open the possibility that the citizenship question could be added to the census if the administration came up with a better rationale for it.

“It makes a lot of sense for the president to see if it’s possible that we could clarify the record in time to add the question,” Mr. Barr added.

View the complete July 8 article by Katie Benner on The New York Times website here.

New York Times Hits Back At Trump Claim Of ‘Phony’ Story On Migrant Detention

The president denied the paper’s report about nightmarish conditions at a Clint, Texas, facility.

The New York Times is hitting back at President Donald Trump after he accused the paper of fabricating a story about nightmarish conditions inside a Clint, Texas, migrant detention center.

On Sunday, Trump tweeted that the Times had written “phony and exaggerated accounts,” adding that “people should not be entering our Country illegally, only for us to then have to care for them.”

In response, the publication’s communications department told the president it stood by its reporting.

“We are confident in the accuracy of our reporting on the U.S. Border Patrol’s detention centers,” it said.

View the complete July 7 article by Amy Russo on the Huffington Post website here.

We Can Enforce Border Security Without Trump’s Racist Cruelty

You don’t have to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement or “decriminalize” illegal entry into the United States to humanize the Border Patrol. You don’t have to close all the detention centers into which migrants are now cramped and stacked as if, yes, they are in concentration camps (though that would help). You don’t have to give up enforcing the country’s borders.

You do have to replace President Donald J. Trump, who has stage-managed the cruelty and fed the racism that seeps through ICE. And you have to fire many of the men now working as Border Patrol agents — men so steeped in racism and misogyny and violence that they never should have been hired in the first place. The agency can be fixed, but many of its hirelings cannot be.

That is clear from reading some of the “secret” messages that were posted on a Facebook page that was closeted from public view — a page for retired and current Border Patrol agents. Aired earlier this week in an investigative report by ProPublica, the messages ranged from the crude to the violent. Some made light of the deaths of migrants trying to cross into the United States illegally. Others used racist language and ugly stereotypes to refer to both migrants and Latino members of Congress.

View the complete July 6 article by Cynthia Tucker on the National Memo website here.

ICE Officials Sent ‘Happy Hunting’ Emails To Agents Preparing Migrant Raids

ICE officials preparing to carry out Trump’s mass-arrest raids expressed glee at the prospect of “hunting” thousands of people, newly released emails revealed.

In September 2017, the Trump administration was planning a series of raids, dubbed “Operation MEGA,” that were designed to round up at least 8,400 undocumented immigrants across the country and take them from their homes, families, and communities. It would have been the largest ICE operation of its kind, but was called off at the last minute.

A trove of documents, resulting from a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the Detention Watch Network and Mijente, were provided to the Daily Beastand published Wednesday. The documents detail internal communications from the government agency on the eve of the planned event.

View the complete July 5 article by Oliver Willis on the National Memo website here.

Alleged abuse by US border guards who forced detained migrant to wear humiliating sign around his neck reminiscent of Nazi camps

AlterNet logo“Guards are trying to assert total control over detainees, and to demonstrate that there’s nothing they can do to protect themselves.”

An incident at a Texas Border Patrol detention center in which a prisoner was forced by guards to wear a humiliating sign around his neck is directly reminiscent of abuse that took place in Nazi concentration caps in the 1930s, an expert on the camps said on Friday, and could be the precursor for worse treatment around the corner.

In March, according to CNN, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents forced a Honduran man at the El Paso Processing Center to hold a sign reading “Me dustan los hombre,” or “I like men,.” CNN shared a photo of the note, which was revealed in emails about the incident obtained by the network.

The incident was reported to higher-ups, but no action was taken.

View the complete July 6 article from Common Dreams on the AlterNet website here.

Trump Says Migrants Are ‘Living Far Better’ in Overcrowded Border Facilities

New York Times logoWASHINGTON — President Trump said on Wednesday that migrants were “living far better” in Border Patrol detention centers than in their home countries, one day after his own administration reported that children in some facilities were denied hot meals or showers, and that cells were so crowded that migrants begged to be freed.

In a series of posts on Twitter, Mr. Trump criticized Democrats who this week visited Border Patrol facilities in Texas, and reported that migrants had been forced to drink from a toilet. Customs and Border Protection officials have disputed that claim.

“Many of these illegal aliens are living far better now than where they came from, and in far safer conditions,” Mr. Trump said over multiple tweets. “No matter how good things actually look, even if perfect, the Democrat visitors will act shocked & aghast at how terrible things are.”

View the complete July 3 article by Zolan Kanno-Youngs on The New York Times website here.

Five critical findings from watchdog report on border detentions

The Hill logoAn internal report describing dismal conditions at detention centers holding migrants at the border is stirring tensions between the Trump administration and Congress over Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) handling of the growing crisis.

The report from the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) showed little progress in conditions at the centers run by Border Patrol and CBP, its parent agency.

The report described standing room only cells for migrants, who were not fed hot meals or given showers.

View the complete July 3 article by Rafael Bernal on The Hill website here.

Border agents confiscated lawmakers’ phones. Joaquin Castro captured photo and video anyway.

Washington Post logoWhen the delegation of congressional Democrats arrived in Texas on Monday to tour border facilities holding migrants, they were told in briefing packets and by Customs and Border Protection personnel that photos and videos were prohibited — to protect the privacy and safety of those inside.

The lawmakers followed those guidelines while they toured an El Paso facility for migrant children, operated by the Department of Health and Human Services, according to Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif).

“We understand protecting kids,” Aguilar said.

View the complete July 2 article by Katie Mettler, Mike DeBonis and Reis Thebault on The Washington Post website here.

Squalid Conditions at Border Detention Centers, Government Report Finds

New York Times logoWASHINGTON — Overcrowded, squalid conditions are more widespread at migrant centers along the southern border than initially revealed, the Department of Homeland Security’s independent watchdog said Tuesday. Its report describes standing-room-only cells, children without showers and hot meals, and detainees clamoring desperately for release.

The findings by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General were released as House Democrats detailed their own findings at migrant holding centers and pressed the agency to answer for the mistreatment not only of migrants but also of their own colleagues, who have been threatened on social media.

[Read the report from inspector general’s office.]

In June, inspectors from the department visited five facilities in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, and found children had few spare clothes and no laundry facilities. Many migrants were given only wet wipes to clean themselves and bologna sandwiches to eat, causing constipation and other health problems, according to the report. Children at two of the five facilities in the area were not given hot meals until inspectors arrived.

View the complete July 2 article by Zolan Kanno-Youngs on The New York Times website here.

Trump administration drops citizenship question from 2020 census

The Hill logoThe Trump administration said Tuesday it was dropping a citizenship question from the 2020 census, days after the Supreme Court ruled against the question’s inclusion.

President Trump had initially said that he wanted to delay the decennial census as his administration continued to push for the question to be included in the 2020 survey.

But that effort appears to be over, after a Justice Department lawyer said the decision was made to start printing census materials without the question included.

View the complete July 2 article by Jacqueline Thomsen on The Hill website here.