rolling US immigration reform thread for 2013 and beyond

so, she's being persecuted instead of prosecuted. it's probably not a difference that is very comforting to her.

jesus

Desperate asylum seekers are being turned away by U.S. border agents claiming there’s “no room” https://t.co/AzOyznAlOc by @DebbieNathan2

— Jon Schwarz (@schwarz) June 16, 2018

The Trump administration is implementing a new asylum policy at the border that will result in potentially thousands of asylum seekers being turned away before they can plead their case in court.

The guidance, reviewed by CNN, also applies to refugee applicants -- immigrants seeking similar protections in the US who are still abroad.

Under new guidance given Wednesday to the officers who interview asylum seekers at the US' borders and evaluate refugee applications, claims based on fear of gang and domestic violence will be immediately rejected. In addition, the guidance tells officers they should consider whether an immigrant crossed the border illegally and weigh that against their claim, potentially rejecting even legitimate fears of persecution if the immigrant crossed illegally.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/11/politics/border-immigrants-asylum-restrictions/index.html

Wow, ICE is ... really desperate for recruits. #abolishICE pic.twitter.com/wOxn4pQX0E

— The Break with Michelle Wolf (@thebreaknetflix) July 20, 2018

An ICE detainee diagnosed with schizophrenia spent 21 days in solitary confinement — then took his own life https://t.co/qLZcpIeyak by @jlosc9

— Jon Schwarz (@schwarz) July 27, 2018

The Trump administration on Thursday announced a new rule that would allow the government to indefinitely detain migrant children with their parents, abandoning in the process a decades-old settlement that banned the government from holding migrant children after 20 days....

A DHS official told NBC News that the average length of detainment for migrant adults awaiting their court cases is 39 days. As the San Diego Union-Tribune reported this week, however, the national immigration court backlog had reached nearly 750,000 by the end of July. On top of that, wait times are getting longer as well; according to a June report by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, wait times in several cities such as Houston, San Antonio, Chicago, and Arlington, VA, are now more than 1,400 days long “before an immigrant is even scheduled for a hearing on his or her case.”

In a statement to the network, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen called the ban on detaining children for more than 20 days one of the “primary pull factors for illegal immigration.”

“Today, legal loopholes significantly hinder the Department’s ability to appropriately detain and promptly remove family units that have no legal basis to remain in the country,” Nielsen said.

The ACLU, which is involved in ongoing litigation against the government over its family separation policy, strongly disputed that characterization.

“It is sickening to see the United States government looking for ways to jail more children for longer,” ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project director Omar Jadwat said in a statement. “That’s the complete opposite of what we should be doing — and it’s yet another example of the Trump administration’s hostility toward immigrants resulting in a policy incompatible with the most basic human values.”

This will get buried by other news. Most of it not as important as this. This is fueled by malice and stupidity, so you knew it was bound to happen. Godspeed, ACLU, but I don't think the courts will stand against the executive on this one.

Why is HHS expanding its tent city to detain immigrant children? It's not grappling with an emergency. It's making a choice, and telling us what future it envisions: mass incarceration of immigrants and people the administration decides are non-citizens. https://t.co/kK7JBskrqY

— Carly Goodman, Ph.D. (@car1ygoodman) September 12, 2018

GO CARLY, FORMER ILXOR AND CANDY STORE DENIZEN!

Oh dang I thought she was the author of the article. Well, go her anyway, she's awesome.

https://secure-hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/b/6/f/b6f40defd83a8e64/_____ALLEGRA_LOVE_12.07.2018_01.mp3?c_id=28416059&cs_id=28416059&expiration=1544403010&hwt=1eb62832dd9fdea2e990c67036c2d16a

no idea if this link will work, and I don't know anything about the podcast in general, but I would like it if you would listen to it

we are not too far gone to respond to caravanistas (and all other immigrants) with kindness and love*

*credit A- L- for the phrasing

also hit me up on FB if you want to find a way to help, we are looking for sponsors, particularly for trans chicas looking for asylum

street-teaming fulltime do NOT @ me

In the wake of the largest-ever immigration raid in a single state, child welfare services were left grappling with children who came home from school to find their parents had been arrested at one of the seven Mississippi food processing plants targeted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday.

The agency said it took some precautions to ease the burden on families, but as one ICE official said, “We are a law enforcement agency, not a social services agency.” The official said that any advance notice to welfare agencies or schools could have alerted undocumented immigrants to the raid and botched the operation.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/what-ice-did-did-not-do-kids-left-behind-mississippi-n1040776

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/08/09/poultry-industry-recruited-them-now-ice-raids-are-devastating-their-communities/?fbclid=IwAR2cqCxa0htZvqtMRGUepccZKhKkqj9sDOcLbJ3bVljzhYI7k2iN2uqyTE0

In a nutshell:

1) African American workers start to organize against bad conditions and low pay
2) poultry plants replace them with immigrant workers who they obviously know are going to be mostly undocumented -- in fact, they go out of their way to encourage these workers to bring their family and friends, some of whom probably even cross the border for the jobs
3) eventually these immigrant workers also start to complaint, protest, raise issues about conditions
4) suddenly, whaddyaknow mass raids
5) no evidence that "American" workers benefit, jobs will probably eventually be filled with undocumented immigrants again, who will now be more circumspect about complaining (or else Trump will create some kind of bullshit "guest worker" program to fill them)

Here's acting USCIS director Ken Cuccinelli saying on NPR this morning that the Statue of Liberty plaque should be changed to read, "give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet, and who will not become a public charge." pic.twitter.com/q8OoNn3k6r

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 13, 2019

In keeping with the values of the French Republic, of course.

As the meeting ended, Miller held up his hand to make a final comment. “I didn’t mean to come across as harsh,” he said. His voice dropped. “It’s just that this is all I care about. I don’t have a family. I don’t have anything else. This is my life.” https://t.co/TA6oFlZ1cq

— Grace Panetta (@grace_panetta) February 21, 2020

ProPublica: ICE Guards “Systematically” Sexually Assault Detainees in an El Paso Detention Center, Lawyers Say

The allegations, detailed in a filing first obtained by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, maintain that guards systematically assaulted at least three people in a facility overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement — often in areas of the detention center not visible to security cameras. The guards told victims that no one would believe them because footage did not exist and the harassment involved officers as high-ranking as a lieutenant.