Understanding Trump’s Deportation Raids

[The Trump administration says mass deportation raids will start on June 23. This article from shortly after the 2016 elections seems relevant now. It explained that as a government with only minority support, Trump’s administration would need raids as a way to distract attention from its failures to fulfill the president’s populist promises.

In fact, the White House has carried out a number of mass raids in cities and has restarted the huge workplace raids from the George W. Bush era, although the 2016 article overstated the White House’s ability to carry these raids out. Partly this has been due to the administration’s own incompetence, but a more important factor has been popular resistance—which may have a major impact on this new round of raids. (The article also has a factual error: John Kelly was the third general to head up immigration services, not the second.)—TPOI editor.]

Trump’s Deportation Machine

By David L. Wilson, Jacobin

December 19, 2016

Like so much about the incoming administration, president-elect Donald Trump’s intentions for undocumented immigrants remain unclear. But he seems likely to go forward with a substantial program of “getting them out of our country.”[…]

Read the full article:

https://jacobinmag.com/2016/12/trump-undocumented-immigration-ice-sessions

Photo: nflravens / Flickr

If San Pedro Sula Is Murder Capital of the World, Who Made It That Way?

One of San Pedro Sula's poorest barrios.  Photo: David Bacon

[Many people here continue to say they sympathize with Central American asylum seekers but that horrific conditions in their countries aren’t a U.S. problem. Here veteran journalist David Bacon focuses on just one city, San Pedro Sula, and the way U.S. policies have in fact made it "a vast, American-owned sweatshop."—TPOI editor]

By David Bacon, The American Prospect

June 13, 2019

A 30-second search on the internet produces at least two dozen stories from U.S. newspapers and other media about San Pedro Sula in Honduras. "Honduran City is World Murder Capital," announces Fox News. Business Insider calls it "the most violent city on earth."  In an attempt to explain the motivation for migrant caravans traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border, NPR labels it "one of the most violent cities in the world."

This wave of media attention has been going on for at least half a decade, as tens of thousands of Hondurans arrive at the border seeking refuge. President Trump's rhetoric portraying the caravans as a threat has focused even more attention on this Honduran city.[…]

Read the full article:

https://prospect.org/article/if-san-pedro-sula-murder-capital-world-who-made-it-way

https://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2019/06/if-san-pedro-sula-is-murder-capital-of.html

James D. Cockcroft, 1935-2019

Cockcroft addresses Mexican electric workers in 2009. Photo: Heriberto Rodríguez

[Our friend James Cockcroft, author of numerous books on Latin America and other subjects, passed away on April 16. Below are links to an obituary from his website and a tribute from his brother George Cockcroft, the novelist who writes as Luke Rhinehart.—TPOI editor]

James Donald Cockcroft, 83, of Montréal, QC, passed away on 16 April, 2019, after a hard fought battle with bladder cancer.

James was born on October 26, 1935 to Donald Griswald Cockcroft and Elizabeth Lillian Powers in Albany, NY. After attending Albany Military Academy, he attended Cornell University, graduating in 1957 in Philosophy and English, then receiving his M.A. at Stanford University, 1964 (English) and his Ph.D. at Stanford University in 1966 (Sociology, History, Political Science, with a Latin America /U.S./ Europe/ Development focus).[…]

Read the full obituary:

https://www.jamescockcroft.com/node/327

Well, my brother Jim edged me out to the finish line today, dying of stage 4 bladder cancer. Jim and I were about as close as two brothers can ever be, both in childhood and in later life even after we both had established families.

We were close in childhood because our father died when we were both under nine years old, leaving us with only each other to play sports and spend our time with, having no other male figures to relate to.[…]

Read the full post:

https://www.facebook.com/luke.rhinehart.18/posts/693663761066932