The immigration thread: American Melting Pot or Get off my Lawn

[China]

So Fox News is going back to what sells...fear brown people; the migrant caravans are coming to overrun the border.

 

Migrant caravan demands Biden administration 'honors its commitments'

 

A migrant caravan moving from Honduras toward the U.S. border is calling on the incoming Biden administration to honor what it says are "commitments" to the migrants moving north, amid fears of a surge at the border when President-elect Joe Biden enters office.

 

More than 1,000 Honduran migrants moved into Guatemala on Friday without registering, The Associated Press reported. That is part of a larger caravan that left a Honduran city earlier in the day.

 

The outlet reported that they are hoping for a warmer reception when they reach the U.S. border, and a statement issued by migrant rights group Pueblo Sin Fronteras, on behalf of the caravan, said it expects the Biden administration to take action.

 

"We recognize the importance of the incoming Government of the United States having shown a strong commitment to migrants and asylum seekers, which presents an opportunity for the governments of Mexico and Central America to develop policies and a migration management that respect and promote the human rights of the population in mobility," the statement said. " We will advocate that the Biden government honors its commitments." 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[visionary]

 

Edited January 18, 2021 by visionary

[China]

Judge blocks Biden from enforcing 100-day deportation ban

 

A federal judge on Tuesday barred the U.S. government from enforcing a 100-day deportation moratorium that is a key immigration priority of President Joe Biden.

 

U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton issued a temporary restraining order sought by Texas, which sued on Friday against a Department of Homeland Security memo that instructed immigration agencies to pause most deportations. Tipton said the Biden administration had failed “to provide any concrete, reasonable justification for a 100-day pause on deportations.”

 

Tipton’s order is an early blow to the Biden administration, which has proposed far-reaching changes sought by immigration advocates, including a plan to legalize an estimated 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. Biden promised during his campaign to issue the moratorium.

 

The order represents a victory for Texas’ Republican leaders, who often sued to stop programs enacted by Biden’s Democratic predecessor, President Barack Obama. It also showed that just as Democratic-led states and immigration groups fought former President Donald Trump over immigration in court, often successfully, so too will Republicans with Biden in office.

 

While Tipton’s order bars enforcement of a moratorium, it does not require deportations to resume at their previous pace. Immigration agencies typically have latitude in processing cases and scheduling removal flights. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Trump Judge Issues Bizarre, Unenforceable Injunction Against Biden’s Deportation Pause

 

On Tuesday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton, a Donald Trump appointee, issued a bizarre decision purporting to block Joe Biden’s 100-day halt on deportations. Tipton’s order, which applies nationwide, claims to freeze Biden’s effort to pause the Department of Homeland Security’s deportation machine while the new president revises its priorities. In reality, however, it is unclear whether the order will do anything. Tipton does not appear to have a rudimentary understanding of either immigration law or the practical realities of the immigration system. His ignorance may well render Tuesday’s order effectively toothless.

 

Upon assuming the presidency, Biden issued a memo that began the process of readjusting the federal government’s immigration policies. The government cannot, realistically, deport every immigrant eligible for removal, so every new president prioritizes certain categories of deportations and deprioritizes others. Biden ordered a 100-day pause on most deportations while his Department of Homeland Security established new rules, with exceptions for immigrants suspected of terrorism or convicted of an aggravated offense. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who recently led an unsuccessful effort to overturn the 2020 election, promptly asked the federal judiciary to issue a nationwide block on Biden’s memo.

 

Paxton filed his case in the Southern District of Texas to ensure that he would draw a conservative judge. Sure enough, his case landed before Tipton, a member of the Federalist Society. The judge swiftly blocked Biden’s deportation freeze across the entire country, finding that it likely exceeded DHS’ authority.

 

There are several remarkable aspects of Tipton’s decision. First, it applies nationwide—even though conservative jurists and Republican politicians spent the last four years decrying nationwide injunctions as illicit and unlawful. Trump’s Department of Justice launched a campaign against these injunctions, complaining that they unconstitutionally interfered with executive power. Right-wing judges condemned them as lawless power-grabs that promote “gamesmanship and chaos.” Republican lawmakers proposed legislation bringing them to heel. Intellectuals in the conservative legal movement accused “resistance judges” of using them to sabotage the president. Now, six days into Biden’s term, a conservative judge has issued a nationwide injunction at the behest of a Republican politician.

 

Second, it is extremely difficult to determine the harm that Biden’s memo inflicted on Texas—and, by extension, why the state has standing to bring this case at all. In his lawsuit, Paxton failed to identify any concrete harm to Texas that actually flows from the deportation pause. Instead, he rehashed general complaints about the state’s expenditures on immigrants eligible for deportation—using estimations from 2018—and asked the court to assume that Biden’s memo would raise these costs. Paxton offered zero evidence that this specific memo would raise costs to Texas. Tipton gave the state standing anyway.

 

Third, and most importantly, Tipton’s decision is utterly divorced from both the entire framework of federal law governing deportation and the removal system as it functions on the ground. The thrust of Tipton’s reasoning is that a federal statute says the government “shall remove” an immigrant who has been “ordered removed” within 90 days. But, as the Supreme Court recognized as recently as last June, federal law also gives DHS sweeping discretion to determine which immigrants to deport and when. A slew of statutes and regulations recognize this authority and address immigrants who are not removed within 90 days, a clear signal that this deadline is not, in fact, an iron rule.

 

Click on the link for the rest

[China]

Two faith leaders silenced for bringing up race during testimony on immigration bill Tuesday

 

A minister and a rabbi were both stopped from testifying Tuesday for bringing up racism and race during testimony on a bill that would ban sanctuary cities in Montana.

 

“I don’t want this hearing to be about race,” said House Judiciary Chair Barry Usher, R-Billings, after the Rev. Laura Jean Allen testified on the bill. “We have not had any major complaints across the state of Montana about the rhetoric that’s going around the country.”

 

House Bill 200, sponsored by Rep. Kenneth Holmund, R-Miles City, would prohibit “sanctuary cities” in Montana and fine localities that did not comply with federal immigration policies.

Sanctuary cities provide certain protections for undocumented immigrants against deportation. Montana has no sanctuary cities.

 

Opponents of the bill argued in part that it would erode the trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve as well as harm some of Montana’s most vulnerable populations.

Those in favor said it was necessary for public safety and to control legal immigration. Similar bills were introduced in 2017 and 2019, but both failed.

 

One of the opponents was Rabbi Laurie Franklin, who testified the bill was grounded in white supremacy — a comment that provoked a point of order from Republican Rep. Derek Skees of Kalispell and a response from Usher.

 

“White supremacy is a problem in Montana,” Franklin said in an interview after the hearing. “Anything that encourages white supremacy in Montana is a danger to not just Jews but to anyone with black or brown skin or who speaks another language, so I think this [type of legislation] is a real concern.”

 

The bill is one of many that GOP lawmakers have introduced as they rush to move forward on passing conservative policies and capitalize on having a Republican in the governor’s office for the first time in 16 years. The committee did not take action on the bill Tuesday.

 

Testimony from both the Rev. Jean Allen, senior minister at Helena’s First Christian Church, and Rabbi Franklin, with the Har Shalom congregation in Missoula, were halted because they mentioned race, which Usher said was not related to the bill.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[visionary]

 

[visionary]

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[visionary]

 

[visionary]

 

[LD0506]

but ICE says FU.........

New claims of migrant abuse as Ice defies Biden to continue deportations

Ice condemned as ‘rogue agency’ after rights groups allege torture by agents and man deported to Haiti who had never been there

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/02/ice-immigration-migrants-asylum-seekers-abuse-allegations?fbclid=IwAR2XsoJNLPizHnbySf3l6hHKYFIAxFiJhLEuzwnGzkL_aclNEo4Qba6T_bE

[China]

ICE THREATENED TO EXPOSE ASYLUM-SEEKERS TO COVID-19 IF THEY DID NOT ACCEPT DEPORTATION

 

THREE CAMEROONIAN ASYLUM-SEEKERS locked up at the Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center in Louisiana say that a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement guard threatened to expose them to Covid-19 if they failed to obey his orders and submit to a transfer. The guard made the threat clear, Clovis Fozao, one of the detained men, told The Intercept: If the detained migrants didn’t submit, they would be transferred to Bravo-Alpha, the detention unit where Covid-19-positive detainees are held in quarantine.

 

“They were forcing us out of the dorm, pushing and dragging us,” Fozao said, explaining the altercation when the guards tried to force them to submit to the deportation. “They threatened to call the SWAT team. They said they were going to put all of us into Bravo-Alpha, which is for quarantine, where they keep everyone with coronavirus.”

 

The Pine Prairie facility, which is operated by the private prison firm GEO Group, currently has 21 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to ICE’s own tracker.

 

After the threat of contagion, guards forcefully dragged and pushed the group of Cameroonian asylum-seekers — five in total — yelling at them and repeatedly threatening them in an attempt to begin the deportation process, three of the detainees involved told The Intercept.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Maryland senators push for permanent status for TPS holders

 

Maryland’s Democratic senators are hoping to secure permanent status for more than 400,000 residents who first came to the U.S. temporarily.

 

The bill would help those with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) gain residency in the U.S., ending a cycle by which holders have to apply to renew their status every six to 18 months. The status has been given to people whose home counties have been hit by a natural disaster, civil unrest or other disruption starting in 1990.

 

The legislation comes as TPS holders battle a decision from the Trump administration, which sought to end the status for those from Sudan, Haiti, El Salvador and Nicaragua, many of whom came to the U.S. years before. The prior administration argued that those countries had since recovered from the disasters and unrest.

 

“For decades, our country has welcomed and protected those fleeing violence and turmoil around the world,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said in a release.

 

“Many have lived here legally for over twenty years – and have come to call our country home. But over the last four years, the livelihoods of these individuals have been under constant threat. Now, alongside the Biden Administration, we must prioritize providing TPS recipients security and certainty.”

 

The bill would provide a path to residency for people from El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen who are TPS holders.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Despite Being Born in The US, Adopted Man Says He is In Danger of Being Deported to Mexico Again

 

A Spring Valley resident who was born in the U.S. was adopted as a baby by a family in Mexicali, and due to the change of his last name on his birth certificate, immigration officials could deport him at any moment.

 

José Ángel Torres Uraga grew up in the U.S. believing he was Mexican and years later, was deported.

 

“They began to deport me because I got into some trouble, but I fought the case and won,” Torres Uraga told Telemundo 20.

 

It was before his second deportation that the man’s adoptive mother took action.

 

According to their lawyer, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) gave them 30 days to prove Torres Uraga’s U.S. citizenship.

 

“Both the U.S. and Mexico have said the same thing – that my client was born here in the United States,” said Esther Valdes, the couple’s immigration attorney.

 

Their lawyer presented DNA proof of the man’s six biological siblings, medical records that prove he was born in a U.S. hospital to two American parents, a Mexican birth certificate that indicates he was adopted, documents that show his original last name was changed and statements from his family, including a testament from his biological mother.

 

“By right and legitimacy on behalf of his biological mother, who was also a U.S. citizen as well as his biological father, he was adopted by a Mexican couple,” Valdes said. “The dispute is over his last name, which is customary in Hispanic culture. He has maternal and paternal last names of his biological and adoptive parents.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Loyal Trump Republican moves to cut off all noncitizens from government assistance programs

 

A congressman who is considered among the most loyal supporters of former President Donald Trump is pushing Congress to go further than even the previous administration attempted with a move to bar immigrants from federal assistance programs.

 

Rep. Glenn Grothman, a Wisconsin Republican, introduced this month the Smarter Plan for Immigrant Welfare bill to expand guidelines for eligibility for any kind of welfare or government assistance. Since 1996, when the last major welfare legislation was passed, only immigrants who have green cards, or legal permanent residents, were allowed to request assistance.

 

The Trump administration had proposed a plan to update existing rules so that the government would have the ability to block immigrants who apply for green cards on the basis that they may rely on federal assistance and would be a "public charge" to the government. That effort is now being reviewed and expected to be undone by the White House.

 

But over on Capitol Hill, Grothman wants lawmakers to take it a step further and bar all noncitizens from getting so much as a penny from any federal programs.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Parents of more than 100 separated migrant children have been found in past month

 

Lawyers appointed to reunite migrant families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border as a result of a Trump-era immigration policy say they’ve found the parents of more than 100 children over the past month, NBC News reports. 

 

In 2018, the Trump administration instituted a “zero tolerance” immigration policy that called for the criminal prosecutions of adults illegally crossing the southern border. The move resulted in the separation of thousands of families.

 

The policy was abandoned by the summer of 2018, and a federal judge assigned a team of lawyers to search for hundreds of missing parents following a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

 

A status report filed by the team of lawyers Wednesday said they have found the parents of 105 children in the past month, but are still searching for the parents of 506 children. 

 

Parents of 322 of the children have likely been deported, making efforts to find them more challenging. Lawyers say many agreed to be deported without their children to allow them to claim asylum and stay in the U.S. 

 

President Biden earlier this month signed an executive order establishing a new task force to identify and reunify separated families. The task force is chaired by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Susan Rice is burning sage in her West Wing office, once occupied by anti-immigrant hardliner Stephen Miller, used to cleanse a space of negativity

 

Susan Rice, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, occupies the same West Wing office recently used by Stephen Miller, the Trump administration's anti-immigration hardliner, The New York Times reported Saturday.

 

As a prominent Black Democrat often vilified by conservatives, she's aware of the "symbolism" of occupying the space where Miller formulated policies, including the widely reviled child separation policy, and has taken a few steps to redecorate.

 

In the room, a painting from Haiti's Caribbean nation now hangs, and the room is scented with sage candles.

 

Burning sage has been used in indigenous people's rituals for centuries to cleanse a person or space of negativity and promote healing and wisdom.

 

Apparently confirming the report, Rice, on Saturday evening, tweeted a picture of the office's new decorations.

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[visionary]

 

[LD0506]

[TheGreatBuzz]

Hahaha....must be prior military.  We use that one a lot.

[balki1867]

Is there a GoFundMe to buy that man a beer?

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[visionary]

 

[visionary]