Trump’s America Already Exists on the Border
By Todd Miller, TomDispatch
August 23, 2016
At the federal courthouse, Ignacio Sarabia asks the magistrate judge, Jacqueline Rateau, if he can explain why he crossed the international boundary between the two countries without authorization. He has already pleaded guilty to the federal misdemeanor commonly known as “illegal entry” and is about to receive a prison sentence. On either side of him are eight men in the same predicament, all still sunburned, all in the same ripped, soiled clothes they were wearing when arrested in the Arizona desert by agents of the U.S. Border Patrol.
Once again, the zero tolerance border enforcement program known as Operation Streamline has unfolded just as it always does here in Tucson, Arizona. Close to 60 people have already approached the judge in groups of seven or eight, their heads bowed submissively, their bodies weighed down by shackles and chains around wrists, waists, and ankles. The judge has handed out the requisite prison sentences in quick succession -- 180 days, 60 days, 90 days, 30 days.
On and on it goes, day-in, day-out. Like so many meals served in fast-food restaurants, 750,000 prison sentences of this sort have been handed down since Operation Streamline was launched in 2005.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176179/tomgram:_todd_miller,_the_great_mexican_wall_deception/
Friday, September 2, 2016
Thursday, September 1, 2016
It’s Children Against Federal Lawyers in Immigration Court
By Fernanda Santos, New York Times
August 20, 2016
TUCSON — After a long, scary trek through three countries to escape the gang violence in El Salvador, a 15-year-old boy found himself scared again a few months back, this time in a federal immigration court here. There was an immigration judge in front of him and a federal prosecutor to his right. But there was no one helping him understand the charges against him.
“I was afraid I was going to make a mistake,” the boy said in Spanish from his uncle’s living room, in a modest cinder-block house on the south side of this city. “When the judge asked me questions, I just shook my head yes and no. I didn’t want to say the wrong thing.”
Every week in immigration courts around the country, thousands of children act as their own lawyers, pleading for asylum or other type of relief in a legal system they do not understand.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/us/in-immigration-court-children-must-serve-as-their-own-lawyers.html
August 20, 2016
TUCSON — After a long, scary trek through three countries to escape the gang violence in El Salvador, a 15-year-old boy found himself scared again a few months back, this time in a federal immigration court here. There was an immigration judge in front of him and a federal prosecutor to his right. But there was no one helping him understand the charges against him.
“I was afraid I was going to make a mistake,” the boy said in Spanish from his uncle’s living room, in a modest cinder-block house on the south side of this city. “When the judge asked me questions, I just shook my head yes and no. I didn’t want to say the wrong thing.”
Every week in immigration courts around the country, thousands of children act as their own lawyers, pleading for asylum or other type of relief in a legal system they do not understand.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/us/in-immigration-court-children-must-serve-as-their-own-lawyers.html
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Judge Refers Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio for Criminal Prosecution
By Fernanda Santos, New York Times
August 19, 2016
PHOENIX — A federal judge on Friday referred Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his second-in-command for criminal prosecution, finding that they ignored and misrepresented to subordinates court orders designed to keep the sheriff’s office from racially profiling Latinos.
In making the referral to the United States attorney’s office for criminal contempt charges, Judge G. Murray Snow of Federal District Court in Phoenix delivered the sharpest rebuke against Mr. Arpaio, who as the long-serving sheriff in Maricopa County made a name for himself as an unrelenting pursuer of undocumented immigrants.
Sheriff Arpaio and Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan “have a history of obfuscation and subversion of this court’s orders that is as old as this case,” Judge Snow wrote in his order.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/20/us/arizona-sheriff-joe-arpaio.html
August 19, 2016
PHOENIX — A federal judge on Friday referred Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his second-in-command for criminal prosecution, finding that they ignored and misrepresented to subordinates court orders designed to keep the sheriff’s office from racially profiling Latinos.
In making the referral to the United States attorney’s office for criminal contempt charges, Judge G. Murray Snow of Federal District Court in Phoenix delivered the sharpest rebuke against Mr. Arpaio, who as the long-serving sheriff in Maricopa County made a name for himself as an unrelenting pursuer of undocumented immigrants.
Sheriff Arpaio and Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan “have a history of obfuscation and subversion of this court’s orders that is as old as this case,” Judge Snow wrote in his order.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/20/us/arizona-sheriff-joe-arpaio.html
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Photos Offer Glimpse Inside Arizona Border Detention Centers
By Fernanda Santos, New York Times
August 18, 2016
PHOENIX — In June 2015, legal and civil rights groups filed a class-action lawsuit in Federal District Court in Tucson accusing the Border Patrol of holding migrants in dirty and crowded cells at stations in southeastern Arizona, after they were caught illegally entering the United States.
Late Wednesday, still images from surveillance video at the stations, offering a glimpse inside the cells, were publicly released. The videos were part of the evidence filed with the court during the discovery process and unsealed by Judge David C. Bury last week.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of migrants by the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, the American Immigration Council, the National Immigration Law Center and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Some photographs show migrants lying shoulder to shoulder on bare concrete floors while neighboring cells are empty, sleeping pads stacked against walls. In one image, a man drinks from a gallon jug, apparently the only source of water for all the detainees in his cell. In another, men sleep against a toilet stall.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/19/us/photos-show-conditions-in-arizona-border-detention-centers.html
August 18, 2016
PHOENIX — In June 2015, legal and civil rights groups filed a class-action lawsuit in Federal District Court in Tucson accusing the Border Patrol of holding migrants in dirty and crowded cells at stations in southeastern Arizona, after they were caught illegally entering the United States.
Late Wednesday, still images from surveillance video at the stations, offering a glimpse inside the cells, were publicly released. The videos were part of the evidence filed with the court during the discovery process and unsealed by Judge David C. Bury last week.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of migrants by the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, the American Immigration Council, the National Immigration Law Center and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Some photographs show migrants lying shoulder to shoulder on bare concrete floors while neighboring cells are empty, sleeping pads stacked against walls. In one image, a man drinks from a gallon jug, apparently the only source of water for all the detainees in his cell. In another, men sleep against a toilet stall.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/19/us/photos-show-conditions-in-arizona-border-detention-centers.html
Monday, August 29, 2016
Immigrant Family Detention Center Made For-Profit Prison Company $1 Billion in No-Bid Deal
By Sam Knight, District Sentinel, via Truthout
August 16, 2016
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) used an existing contract with a private prison company to reach a separate deal with the firm, without having to publicly solicit bids for a new detention center.
ICE and the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) agreed on the four-year, $1 billion no-bid deal in 2014, to rapidly implement an Obama administration initiative designed to deter the arrival of asylum seekers from Central America.
The terms of the agreement were reported on Monday in an investigation published by The Washington Post.
The paper said that the deal was hastily struck after Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson determined that the US "could cut down the surge [of migration] only by demonstrating that asylum seekers wouldn't receive leniency."[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/37248-immigrant-family-detention-center-made-for-profit-prison-company-1-billion-in-no-bid-deal
August 16, 2016
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) used an existing contract with a private prison company to reach a separate deal with the firm, without having to publicly solicit bids for a new detention center.
ICE and the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) agreed on the four-year, $1 billion no-bid deal in 2014, to rapidly implement an Obama administration initiative designed to deter the arrival of asylum seekers from Central America.
The terms of the agreement were reported on Monday in an investigation published by The Washington Post.
The paper said that the deal was hastily struck after Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson determined that the US "could cut down the surge [of migration] only by demonstrating that asylum seekers wouldn't receive leniency."[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/37248-immigrant-family-detention-center-made-for-profit-prison-company-1-billion-in-no-bid-deal
Sunday, August 28, 2016
La Barrera del Perfeccionismo/The Perfection Barrier
La barrera del perfeccionismo
Por Elvira Arellano, Familias Unidas
13 de agosto, 2016
(English Version follows below)
Me dio gusto ver que hubo una gimnasta latina que representó a la selección estadounidense en las olimpiadas. También me encantó ver que Donald Trump va perdiendo apoyo según los sondeos de intención de voto, y que hasta dirigentes del partido republicano lo están rechazando. Sí, estamos logrando cambiar las cosas.
Hace 20 años, las familias indocumentadas latinas contábamos con poquísimos aliados. El congresista Gutiérrez introdujo un proyecto de ley que hubiera legalizado a los indocumentados en el Congreso, y prácticamente nadie del partido demócrata – y mucho menos del partido republicano—lo apoyaba. Actualmente cuesta esfuerzo hallar un político del partido demócrata que no apoya nuestras luchas. ¿Cuáles son los factores detrás de esta transformación?
Hemos obligado a esta nación vernos, nos hicimos muchos y logramos la unidad. Millones de familias comunes y corrientes luchaban para sobrevivir en el medio de hostilidad, de la dificultad de criar sus familias a base del salario mínimo o menos. Nosotros registramos la cifra más elevada de trabajadores heridos en el contexto del trabajo. Nos hacían muchas trampas. Tuvimos que vivir bajo una amenaza constante de ser deportados. Pero no nos dimos por vencidos.[...]
The Perfection Barrier
By Elvira Arellano, Familias Unidas
August 13, 2016
I was pleased to see the first Latina gymnast representing the U.S. in the Olympics. I was also pleased to see Donald Trump dropping in the polls, rejected even by leaders of the Republican Party. Yes we are making change.
Twenty years ago, undocumented Latino families had few allies. Congressman Gutierrez introduced a legalization bill in the Congress and had almost no democrats – much less Republicans – step forward to support his effort. Now it is hard to find a democrat who does not embrace our cause. What has brought about the change?
We made this nation see us, we became many and we were unified. Millions of ordinary families struggled to survive in the midst of hostility, raising children on minimum wages or less than minimum wages. We had the highest rate of injuries on the job. We were often cheated. And we lived with the constant threat of deportation. Yet we persevered.[...]
Lea el artículo completo/read the full article:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/la-barrera-del-perfeccionismo-rev-walter-l-slim-coleman
Por Elvira Arellano, Familias Unidas
13 de agosto, 2016
(English Version follows below)
Me dio gusto ver que hubo una gimnasta latina que representó a la selección estadounidense en las olimpiadas. También me encantó ver que Donald Trump va perdiendo apoyo según los sondeos de intención de voto, y que hasta dirigentes del partido republicano lo están rechazando. Sí, estamos logrando cambiar las cosas.
Hace 20 años, las familias indocumentadas latinas contábamos con poquísimos aliados. El congresista Gutiérrez introdujo un proyecto de ley que hubiera legalizado a los indocumentados en el Congreso, y prácticamente nadie del partido demócrata – y mucho menos del partido republicano—lo apoyaba. Actualmente cuesta esfuerzo hallar un político del partido demócrata que no apoya nuestras luchas. ¿Cuáles son los factores detrás de esta transformación?
Hemos obligado a esta nación vernos, nos hicimos muchos y logramos la unidad. Millones de familias comunes y corrientes luchaban para sobrevivir en el medio de hostilidad, de la dificultad de criar sus familias a base del salario mínimo o menos. Nosotros registramos la cifra más elevada de trabajadores heridos en el contexto del trabajo. Nos hacían muchas trampas. Tuvimos que vivir bajo una amenaza constante de ser deportados. Pero no nos dimos por vencidos.[...]
The Perfection Barrier
By Elvira Arellano, Familias Unidas
August 13, 2016
I was pleased to see the first Latina gymnast representing the U.S. in the Olympics. I was also pleased to see Donald Trump dropping in the polls, rejected even by leaders of the Republican Party. Yes we are making change.
Twenty years ago, undocumented Latino families had few allies. Congressman Gutierrez introduced a legalization bill in the Congress and had almost no democrats – much less Republicans – step forward to support his effort. Now it is hard to find a democrat who does not embrace our cause. What has brought about the change?
We made this nation see us, we became many and we were unified. Millions of ordinary families struggled to survive in the midst of hostility, raising children on minimum wages or less than minimum wages. We had the highest rate of injuries on the job. We were often cheated. And we lived with the constant threat of deportation. Yet we persevered.[...]
Lea el artículo completo/read the full article:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/la-barrera-del-perfeccionismo-rev-walter-l-slim-coleman
Saturday, August 27, 2016
Chicago alderman Rosa, community, activists denounce ICE raids on day laborers
By Michelle Zacarias and Earchiel Johnson, People's World
August 10 2016
CHICAGO -- Activists, community residents and laborers gathered on the corner of Milwaukee and Belmont in the heavily Latino neighborhood of West Avondale August 9 to denounce the recent increase in ICE raids taking place on the north west side of the city. Government agents had raided a neighborhood location where immigrant workers gather on Friday August 5 at around noon, forcing a group of laborers to to submit to illegal searches and mobile fingerprint scanners.
Aristides Banegas was one of the laborers who came face to face with ICE agents that day. He recalled details of the incident. He said that in the 23 years he's been living in the U.S., the last couple of years have exposed the type of energy and effort being directed at targeting immigrant communities. [Ed. note: Mr. Banegas' remarks are translated from Spanish.] "I came to this country for a better life and for change, and not to be mistreated." [...]
Read the full article:
http://peoplesworld.org/chicago-alderman-rosa-community-activists-denounce-ice-raids-on-day-laborers/
August 10 2016
CHICAGO -- Activists, community residents and laborers gathered on the corner of Milwaukee and Belmont in the heavily Latino neighborhood of West Avondale August 9 to denounce the recent increase in ICE raids taking place on the north west side of the city. Government agents had raided a neighborhood location where immigrant workers gather on Friday August 5 at around noon, forcing a group of laborers to to submit to illegal searches and mobile fingerprint scanners.
Aristides Banegas was one of the laborers who came face to face with ICE agents that day. He recalled details of the incident. He said that in the 23 years he's been living in the U.S., the last couple of years have exposed the type of energy and effort being directed at targeting immigrant communities. [Ed. note: Mr. Banegas' remarks are translated from Spanish.] "I came to this country for a better life and for change, and not to be mistreated." [...]
Read the full article:
http://peoplesworld.org/chicago-alderman-rosa-community-activists-denounce-ice-raids-on-day-laborers/
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