Tag: Trump racism

How the government shutdown is making the U.S. immigration system even worse

Protesters rally against the separation of immigrant families in front of a U.S. federal court. Credit: John Moore, Getty Images

“The irony is not lost on us that immigration court is shut down over immigration.”

Over two weeks into the partial federal government shutdown and with no end in sight, the fight over $5 billion for a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border wall has put the federal immigration system at standstill.

While cases for immigrants in government custody are proceeding, immigration courts are not holding hearings for non-detained immigrants during the shutdown, meaning immigrants re-authorizing work visas, applying for permanent residency, or contesting government charges on deportability are in a precarious situation.

Missing even a single day of hearings could add hundreds to the current backlog of 800,000 cases — over a million if you include the ones the U.S. Attorney General wants on the docket.

View the complete January 7 article by Rebekah Entralgo on the ThinkProgress.org website here.

The Trump administration’s misleading spin on immigration, crime and terrorism

“In the last two years, ICE officers arrested 235,000 criminals who were able to come in over the years through the United States.”

— President Trump, in remarks at the White House, Jan. 2

“This group has apprehended, last year, 17,000 criminals trying to get across the border. Seventeen thousand. And that’s one category. There are plenty of others.”

— Trump, in a White House briefing with border officials, Jan. 3

“3,755 Known or suspected terrorists prevented from traveling to or entering the U.S. by DHS (FY17)”

— Border security briefing from the Department of Homeland Security, Jan. 4

View the complete January 7 article by Salvador Rizzo on The Washington Post website here.

The Memo: Trump puts isolationism at center stage

President Trump’s embrace of isolationism has been a hallmark of his presidency.

It is now at the center of a foreign policy that will remove troops from Syria and cut the U.S. presence in Afghanistan in half.

The president’s “America first” instincts and his willingness to make public his differences with military commanders differentiate him from recent presidents and from many members of his own party.

View the complete December 27 article by Niall Stanage on The Hill website here.

Judge strikes down bulk of Trump asylum policy

A federal judge on Wednesday struck down most of the policies former Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued that made it almost impossible for victims of domestic and gang violence to seek asylum.

Judge Emmet Sullivan, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said the policies, which created a stricter test to satisfy the “credible fear” standard for asylum claims, were unlawful.

He also ordered the government to return to the United States the plaintiffs who were unlawfully deported under the policy.

View the complete December 19 article by Lydia Wheeler on The Hill website here.

DHS watchdog launches probe into death of 7-year-old migrant girl

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) inspector general announced Friday it would investigate the death of a 7-year-old migrant girl who died after being taken into Border Patrol custody.

The watchdog will investigate the circumstances surrounding the girl’s death and release a report on its findings, the inspector general’s office said in statement.

The inspector general said it would also continue its unannounced inspections of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities.

View the complete December 14 article by Tal Axelrod on The Hill website here.

7-year-old migrant girl taken into Border Patrol custody dies of dehydration, exhaustion

Facing an uncertain future, migrants confront a series of choices – seek asylum in Mexico, return back home or cross the border illegally. (Drea Cornejo , Jon Gerberg/The Washington Post)

A 7-year-old girl from Guatemala died of dehydration and shock after she was taken into Border Patrol custody last week for crossing from Mexico into the United States illegally with her father and a large group of migrants along a remote span of New Mexico desert, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Thursday.

The child’s death is likely to intensify scrutiny of detention conditions at Border Patrol stations and CBP facilities that are increasingly overwhelmed by large numbers of families seeking asylum in the United States.

According to CBP records, the girl and her father were taken into custody about 10 p.m. Dec. 6 south of Lordsburg, N.M., as part of a group of 163 people who approached U.S. agents to turn themselves in.

View the December 13 article by Nick Miroff and Robert Moore on The Washington Post website here.

DNC on Death of 7-year-old Girl in Government Custody

DNC Hispanic Media Director Enrique Gutiérrez released the following statement in response to the death of a 7-year-old Guatemalan girl while in CBP custody:

“Everyone must be treated with dignity and respect—whether you’re a U.S. citizen or a 7-year-old Guatemalan girl immigrating with her family to the U.S. Since the start of this administration’s ‘zero-tolerance’ policy, we’ve seen an escalation in the cruel treatment of immigrants, with children being separated from their parents, housed in cages, and fleeing tear gas retaliation by the U.S. Border Patrol. This cannot be who we are as a country, and we need an immediate investigation to ensure this never happens again.”

Trump throws a tantrum over wall most Americans don’t want

Credit: Andrew Harnik, AP Photo

Trump still isn’t getting funding for his racist border wall, and he’s pitching a fit.

Trump has been threatening to shut down the government over his deluded fantasy of building a 30-foot concrete border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

Most Americans (57 percent) don’t want to see the government shut down because of the wall, according to a new poll. Even more Americans (69 percent) don’t think the wall should be an immediate priority for Congress in the first place.

Trump probably knows deep down that he’s not going to get what he wants, and he’s not happy about it.

View the complete December 11 article by Oliver WIllis on the ShareBlue.com website here.

Republicans’ hard-line stance on immigration may alienate millennials for years

President Trump is restricting the path to asylum in his quest to curb immigration into the United States. (Video: Jenny Starrs /Photo: Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)

In the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections, President Trump doubled down on the restrictive immigration positions that fueled his 2016 presidential campaign. The last few weeks of the campaign, he repeatedly warned Americans about the migrant caravan headed to the United States from Central America, and advocated for the repeal of birthright citizenship. Trump hoped to mobilize Republican voters, thereby helping to elect Republican candidates. Especially in the Senate, this may have helped Republicans gain two seats.

But in the long term, Trump’s anti-immigration approach may alienate millennial voters — and backfire on the Republican Party. The millennial generation, born between 1980 and 1997, is the largest and most diverse adult cohort.

In the midterms, majorities of millennials voted for Democrats. That’s a troubling sign for Republicans

Almost 7 in 10 voters (67 percent) ages 18 to 29, and nearly 6 in 10 (58 percent) of those ages 30 to 44, supported Democratic candidates. That’s mostly the millennial generation. Researchers who study party identification suggest that it’s “sticky” — that the party you vote for in your first few elections tends to harden and become your party for life.

View the complete December 3 article by Stella M. Rouse on The Washington Post website here.

The Trump Administration’s Harsh Immigration Policies Are Harming Schoolchildren

Children at an elementary school in California recite the Pledge of Allegiance, September 2010. Credit: Sandy Huffaker, Getty Images

In the past two years, the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has arrested people leaving a church hypothermia shelter, a father who had just dropped his daughter off at school, and a mother of young children who was paying a traffic fine. These stories, as well as those of the more than 2,600 children taken from their parents under the Trump administration’s family separation policy, are heartbreaking.

As these stories circulate, ICE’s increasingly callous actions and the Trump administration’s immigration policies more broadly have come under criticism and scrutiny. In the final weeks of the 2018 election, however, President Donald Trump continued to hammer anti-immigrant rhetoric in speeches across the country and propose fear-based immigration policies. The administration has made multiple attempts—at least one of which has been placed on hold by a federal court—to close the southern border to people from Central American countries seeking asylum in the United States. And just this past weekend, U.S. Border Patrol agents fired tear gasat a group of asylum seekers—including mothers and small children—near the San Ysidro port of entry.

This column outlines research showing that Trump’s rhetoric and policy actions on immigration for the past two years have had measurable negative effects for children and families across the country.

View the complete November 30 article by Lisette Partelow and Philip E. Wolgin on the Center for American Progress website here.