Tag: Trump immigration policy

‘This gruesome logic is profoundly disturbing’: Judge reverses convictions of border humanitarians

AlterNet logoThe Trump administration’s yearslong taxpayer-funded mission to criminalize humanitarian aid at the southern U.S. border continues to be rebuked in the courts, with a federal judge on Monday reversing the convictions of four workers who had been charged for their actions volunteering with No More Deaths, the humanitarian aid group whose sole mission has been to prevent agonizing migrant deaths in the border desert.

The Tucson Sentinel reports that Natalie Hoffman, Oona Holcomb, Madeline Huse, and Zaachila Orozco-McCormick had been found guilty of federal misdemeanors early last year for their work leaving water and other lifesaving supplies in the searing desert, Hoffman “for operating a motor vehicle in a wilderness area and entering a national refuge without a permit while Holcomb, Huse, and Orozco-McCormick were found guilty of entering without a permit and abandonment of property.”

But in her ruling this week, U.S. District Judge Rosemary Márquez wrote, “Defendants argue that those actions, taken with the avowed goal of mitigating death and suffering, were sincere exercises of religion and that their prosecution is barred by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.” According to the court document, all four are affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Church. Márquez’s ruling, noting the thousands of sets of human remains that have been found in Arizona during the past two decades, further castigated the government for “gruesome logic.”

Trump scapegoats almost a quarter of Africa’s population

Washington Post logoIt says a lot about this fraught moment in U.S. politics that President Trump’s move to slap immigration restrictions on almost a quarter of Africa’s population transpired with little more than a murmur in Washington. But amid the final throes of the Senate impeachment trial and the chaos of the Democratic caucuses in Iowa, the White House reinforced its virtual border wall Friday when it added six countries to the administration’s list of nations subject to either sweeping travel bans or strict immigration limits.

Trump’s proclamation would “bar most citizens of Nigeria, Eritrea, Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan from coming to work and live in the United States,” reported my colleagues. “Two nations, Tanzania and Sudan, would be banned from applying for the visa lottery, which issues up to 50,000 visas a year worldwide to countries with historically low migration to the United States.” The six newly designated countries join seven other nations — most of which are majority-Muslim — already subject to travel bans. The nations on the current list encompass close to a quarter of the more than 1.2 billion people living in Africa. Nigeria happens to be Africa’s most populous country, as well as its largest economy.

The Trump administration justifies these maneuvers as “common-sense” steps to protect U.S. national security, arguing that the vetting procedures in place in these countries are insufficient in helping U.S. officials determine security risks such as passport fraud or links to extremist groups. However, it leaves open the possibility of rescinding the bans should those countries do enough to satisfy American requirements. Continue reading.

New U.S. Travel Ban Shuts Door on Africa’s Biggest Economy, Nigeria

New York Times logoThe visa rules will affect nearly a quarter of the people on the African continent, including many hoping to join loved ones already in the U.S.

The newlyweds had already been apart for half their yearlong marriage. Miriam Nwegbe was in Nigeria. Her husband was in Baltimore, and until she could join him, everything was on hold: finding a home together, trying for their first baby, becoming an American family.

Then, on Friday, their lives were thrown into disarray by the expansion of President Trump’s ban on immigration to include six new countries, including four in Africa. Nigeria, the continent’s most populous nation, was one of them.

“America has killed me,” Ms. Nwegbe’s husband, Ikenna, an optometrist, texted her when he heard. “We are finished.” Continue reading.

Trump says he cares about migrant trafficking. His policy tells a different story.

Washington Post logoFRIDAY’S WHITE HOUSE summit on human trafficking, marking the 20th anniversary of landmark legislation intended to protect victims, is a master class in political cynicism. Take an unimaginably vulnerable population, pretend to champion their cause on humanitarian grounds, and meanwhile, in the real world, subject them to a minefield of new monetary, bureaucratic and legal risks, up to and including deportation. That’s the Trump administration’s approach to the trafficking of noncitizens exploited for sex and labor in the United States.

President Trump has made the cause of migrant trafficking victims a go-to rhetorical device in his arsenal of justifications for building a border wall; never mind that most exploited migrants enter the country with valid visas through legal ports of entry, according to their advocates. His daughter and aide, Ivanka Trump, has presented herself as the administration’s leading patron of such victims, writing op-eds, touring shelters and making statements on their behalf. To hear the president and Ms. Trump tell it, migrant trafficking victims have never had more forceful advocates in the White House.

The facts of administration policy tell a far different story. Continue reading.

Federal judge temporarily halts Trump administration policy allowing local governments to block refugees

Washington Post logoState and local officials cannot block refugees from being resettled in their jurisdictions, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, finding the Trump administration’s new refu­gee policy is likely to be “unlawful” and “does not appear to serve the overall public interest.”

U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte of Maryland temporarily halted President Trump’s executive order requiring governors and local officials nationwide to agree in writing to welcome refugees before resettlements take place in their jurisdictions.

“Giving states and local governments the power to consent to the resettlement of refugees — which is to say veto power to determine whether refugees will be received in their midst — flies in the face of clear Congressional intent,” Messitte wrote in a 31-page decision. Continue reading.

US border officer uses horrifying Nuremberg defense to explain his involvement in separating families

AlterNet logoIn a new Frontline documentary, a Border Patrol agent describes taking part in a pilot program to separate families nearly a year before the Trump administration officially unveiled the policy—saying that while he was unhappy about separating children from their parents, he and other agents were following orders.

Journalist Martin Smith interviews agent Wesley Farris in “Targeting El Paso” about the program Farris worked on in the summer of 2017 in El Paso, Texas. Agents were instructed to separate families as the administration tested the theory that doing so would deter people from trying to enter the U.S. at the border city.

“That was the most horrible thing I’ve ever done,” Farris tells Smith in an excerpt released ahead of the documentary. “You can’t help but see your own kids.” Continue reading.

Under secret Stephen Miller plan, ICE to use data on migrant children to expand deportation efforts

Washington Post logoThe White House sought this month to embed immigration enforcement agents within the U.S. refugee agency that cares for unaccompanied migrant children, part of a long-standing effort to use information from their parents and relatives to target them for deportation, according to six current and former administration officials.

Though senior officials at the Department of Health and Human Services rejected the attempt, they agreed to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to collect fingerprints and other biometric information from adults seeking to claim migrant children at government shelters. If those adults are deemed ineligible to take custody of children, ICE could then use their information to target them for arrest and deportation.

The arrangement appears to circumvent laws that restrict the use of the refu­gee program for deportation enforcement; Congress has made clear that it does not want those who come forward as potential sponsors of minors in U.S. custody to be frightened away by possible deportation. But, in the reasoning of senior Trump administration officials, adults denied custody of children lose their status as “potential sponsors” and are fair game for arrest.

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Gov. Tim Walz to Trump on refugees: ‘The inn is not full in Minnesota’

Governor gives consent to refugee resettlement after new executive order by the president.

Gov. Tim Walz notified the Trump administration Friday that the state will continue to welcome refugees, pointedly saying that the “inn is not full in Minnesota.”

In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Walz wrote that he rejects the intent of President Donald Trump’s recent executive order requiring state and local governments to independently approve the resettlement of refugees in their communities. The DFL governor also sought to highlight the contributions of immigrants and refugees.

“Minnesota has a strong moral tradition of welcoming those who seek refuge,” Walz wrote. “Refugees strengthen our communities. Bringing new cultures and fresh perspectives, they contribute to the social fabric of our state. Opening businesses and supporting existing ones, they are critical to the success of our economy.”

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Doctors protested Border Patrol to offer flu vaccines to detained migrants. They left in handcuffs and without answers.

Washington Post logoAs police handcuffed two men in doctor’s coats and scrubs who were lying on the ground in protest of the government’s refusal to offer vaccinations to migrants held in detention, protesters gathered this week in front of U.S. Customs and Border Protection headquarters in San Diego sang in a chorus of constant chants.

“No more deaths! No más muertes!”

“Shame! Shame! Shame!”

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With Trump backing, Border Patrol contract significantly increases union staffing

Washington Post logoPresident Trump urged his top border security official to finalize a new labor contract with the Border Patrol union just weeks before the deal was signed in September, an agreement that significantly increased the number of union officials allowed to collect a government salary without performing patrol duties, according to current and former administration officials.

The new collective bargaining agreement, which took effect Nov. 1, requires the government to finance the equivalent of 74 full-time union positions, more than comparable Department of Homeland Security unions and about three times the working hours that the National Border Patrol Council has used in recent years, even though the number of agents has declined.

The move pulls additional Border Patrol agents from their jobs to focus on labor relations matters at a time the administration considers the situation at the U.S. southern border to be a national security crisis. It also expands the number of border agents whose roles as union officers allow them to engage in partisan political activity, a potential benefit to the president’s 2020 campaign.

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