The architect and anti-border wall campaigner Ronald Rael has installed three pink seesaws on the US-Mexico border to allow families on each side to ‘meaningfully connect’ with each other and highlight the bond between the two countries. Rael says the seesaws have turned the wall into a ‘literal fulcrum for US-Mexico relations’
Continue reading...Category Archives: US immigration
Trump says agreement reached with Guatemala to restrict asylum seekers
Immigrant rights advocates say the ‘safe third country’ agreement is cruel and unlawful, though it could still be blocked
Donald Trump announced Friday that Guatemala was signing an agreement to restrict asylum applications to the US, a move that immigrant rights advocates said was cruel and unlawful.
The so-called “safe third country” agreement would require migrants, including Salvadorans and Hondurans, who cross into Guatemala on their way to the US to apply for protections in Guatemala instead of at the US border.
Continue reading...Supreme court allows Trump to use $2.5bn in Pentagon funds for border wall
Move allows administration to redirect money despite lawmakers’ refusal to provide funding
The US supreme court cleared the way for Donald Trump to use billions in Pentagon funds to build a border wall.
The decision allows the Trump administration to redirect approximately $2.5bn approved by Congress for the Pentagon to help build his promised wall along the US-Mexico border even though lawmakers refused to provide funding.
Continue reading...Fear, confusion, despair: the everyday cruelty of a border immigration court
At a federal immigration court in El Paso asylum seekers wait in limbo as a result of Trump’s policies
Judge Sunita Mahtabfar, presiding over the El Paso immigration court in south-west Texas, kicked off the hearing by asking the 16 asylum seekers a question.
“Is anyone here afraid to return to Mexico?” she said.
Continue reading...Ocasio-Cortez wants ‘9/11-style commission’ on family separations
- Democratic congresswoman hosts event in New York district
- Tells crowd Trump ‘sent me back to Queens’ with racist attack
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for a “9/11-style commission” to investigate child separation on the border with Mexico on Saturday, and said the US government has a life-long responsibility to children it severed from their parents, to provide them with mental health support.
Related: Bieber thanks Trump over A$AP Rocky but urges: 'Let those kids out of cages'
Continue reading...Trump administration to continue deporting Venezuelans despite crisis
- US as yet unwilling to grant temporary protected status
- Senators accuse Trump of ‘having it both ways’ over Maduro
The Trump administration has said it is not yet willing to grant temporary protected status to Venezuelans, meaning it will continue to deport people back to a country it says is being destroyed by a tyrant.
The news comes amid a humanitarian crisis that could forcibly displace as many as 8.2 million people by the end of 2020, and the same month that the United Nations accused the Venezuelan government of killing thousands of its own citizens.
Continue reading...Impending immigration raids across US spark anxiety and protests
- Raids expected to target 2,000 migrants in nearly a dozen cities
- Vigils held from Los Angeles to Berlin
Immigration raids conducted by the Trump administration are expected in major US cities on Sunday, a prospect that has sparked vigils, protests, condemnation and fear.
Related: 'This is tough stuff': Pence visits caged, unwashed, overcrowded migrants
Continue reading...Man dies as police shootout follows firebomb attack on immigration centre
Authorities say man threw incendiary devices and tried to ignite propane tank at Tacoma Northwest Detention Centre in Washington state
A 69-year-old man armed with a rifle threw incendiary devices at an immigration jail in Washington state early on Saturday morning, then was found dead after four police officers arrived and opened fire, authorities said.
The Tacoma police department said the officers responded about 4am to the privately run Tacoma Northwest Detention Centre, a US Department of Homeland Security detention facility that holds migrants pending deportation proceedings.
Continue reading...Mike Pence visits migrant detention facilities on southern US border – video
The vice-president, Mike Pence, got a first-hand view of migrant detention facilities after touring two centres in Texas as he spoke out against grandstanding on Capitol Hill after legislators delivered emotional testimony about appalling conditions. Pence was in the border city of McAllen, Texas where he was joined by a delegation of Republican lawmakers as they toured migrant detention centres. President Donald Trump has said that a nationwide wave of arrests of immigrants facing deportation will begin over the weekend.
Continue reading...‘This is tough stuff’: Pence visits caged, unwashed, overcrowded migrants
- Men say they have been held for 40 days and want to brush teeth
- Vice-president claims migrants are ‘in good shape’
Controversy continued on Saturday over Mike Pence’s visit to a detention facility on the Texas border, in which the vice-president said appalling conditions described by a pool reporter were “tough stuff” but placed the blame for the migrant crisis on Democrats in Congress.
Families fleeing violence, poverty and drought in Central America have been coming to the US in record numbers, peaking in May when the border patrol made nearly 133,000 apprehensions. Detention facilities quickly filled up, forcing many migrants to languish in unsuitable facilities much longer than the 72 hours required by law.
Continue reading...‘Every day, it is a risk’: immigrant communities paralyzed by fear of impending Ice raids
Mayors in major cities have pledged to support those targeted by Sunday’s ‘enforcement operations’
When CG heard that Donald Trump had announced raids by the immigration enforcement agency Ice a few weeks ago, she turned to her husband. Get groceries, she told him, like a storm is coming.
“Bananas, milk and bread,” CG lists off, remembering what she told him, “Because who knows when we’ll leave the house.”
Continue reading...Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Pressley detail conditions in border detention facilities – video
In an emotional testimony to the House oversight committee on Friday, Democratic representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib described conditions at an immigrant detention center, decrying alleged mistreatment happening 'in front of the American flag'. During Ocasio-Cortez's testimony a congressional staffer fainted. The testimony comes as Mike Pence was due to travel to Texas on Friday to tour a facility and participate in a roundtable with border patrol and members of the Senate judiciary committee
Continue reading...Trump labor secretary Alex Acosta resigns amid Epstein plea deal scandal – live
Acosta was under fire for having granted Jeffrey Epstein immunity from federal prosecution in 2008, following sex trafficking ring investigation
Another big House vote this afternoon.
With a 402-12 vote, Congress approved a bill that would ensure funding for the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund.
Jon Stewart says he looks forward to signing ceremony for bill funding 9/11 first responders compensation fund: "We'll all be here for that one final moment—not of celebration, but of relief. Let them exhale." https://t.co/NkJuIoh4fP pic.twitter.com/p7PI4cLDOc
The House has just voted to limit Trump’s authority to make war in Iran as part of a bill which also restricts the president’s budget request for the Pentagon.
Republicans joined the majority Democrats for a 251-170 vote.
Trump said last month he believes he does not need congressional approval to strike Iran. The vote Friday amounted to a pointed and bipartisan rebuttal — led by strange ideological bedfellows, Representatives Ro Khanna, a liberal Democrat from California, and Matt Gaetz of Florida, one of Trump’s most strident Republican allies in Congress.
“When this passes, it will be a clear statement from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle that this country is tired of endless wars, that we do not want another war in the Middle East,” Khanna said before the amendment vote.
Continue reading...Trump orders federal agencies to hand over citizenship data – video
Donald Trump abandoned his attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 US census but will sign an executive order forcing federal agencies to hand over citizenship data to the commerce department. 'As a result of today's executive order we will be able to ensure the 2020 census generates an accurate count of how many citizens, non-citizens and illegal aliens are in the United States of America. We will leave no stone unturned,' the US president said. The attorney general, William Barr, said including a question on the census was not the only way to obtain this 'vital information'
Continue reading...Trump abandons effort to put citizenship question on 2020 census
- Trump drops census proposal and blames ‘radical left’
- Executive order tells federal agencies to turn over citizenship data
Faced with a defeat in court and few viable options, Donald Trump on Thursday backed off his effort to place a question about citizenship on the next US census while announcing executive action by his administration to collect information on its own.
Trump ordered federal agencies to turn over records on the number of citizens, non-citizens and undocumented immigrants living in the US.
Continue reading...Yazmin Juárez delivers searing testimony on death of her daughter in Ice custody – video
In the House oversight committee, Yazmin Juárez, whose 21-month old baby daughter died in Ice custody, delivered searing testimony before Congress on Wednesday afternoon. 'We came to the United States where I hoped to build a better safer life for us,' said Juárez. 'Instead I watched my baby girl die slowly and painfully just a few months before her second birthday'
Continue reading...Canada pension fund quietly divests from US migrant detention firms
- CPPIB pulls investments in CoreCivic and Geo Group
- Unannounced move follows Guardian report on holdings
One of Canada’s biggest pension funds has quietly divested from two private prison operators responsible for the detention of thousands of migrants along the US-Mexico border.
Late last year, the Guardian reported that the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) held nearly US$8m in stock in Geo Group and CoreCivic, which between them hold the lion’s share of contracts to manage Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention facilities in the US.
Continue reading...‘Happy hunting!’ Immigration agents swapped cheery messages about raids, records reveal
In 2017, agents made plans to apprehend more than 8,000 people and described the work as ‘fun’
US immigration officials planning countrywide raids targeting thousands of undocumented immigrants wrote cheerful messages about the potential arrests, wishing one another “Happy hunting!”, jokingly calling the initiative “Operation Super Epic Mega”, and saying the work was “fun”, records show.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) documents released Wednesday show how officials at the agency prepared for a set of coordinated raids in 2017 that aimed to detain more than 8,000 people for deportation. The agency officially called it “Operation Mega” and officials boasted in the documents that it would be the “largest operation of its kind in the history of ICE, targeting all aliens who are present in the United States in violation of the [law]”. Some documents also suggested field offices might have had specific arrest quotas.
Continue reading...Texas migrant detention facilities ‘dangerously overcrowded’ – US government report
Report from government’s own auditors includes images of children and adults penned into rooms
New images of children and adults in “dangerously” overcrowded US border patrol facilities in Texas have been released as part of a report from government auditors.
The congressional House oversight committee announced on Tuesday it will hold a hearing next week on the treatment of migrants held in detention facilities at the southern border after a series of reports of poor treatment.
Continue reading...Drowned father and daughter mourned in private El Salvador ceremony
Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and Angie Valeria were brought to their final rest in ceremony attended by 200 relatives and friends
A Salvadoran man and his young daughter who drowned trying to cross into Texas were brought to their final rest on Monday, a week after a heartbreaking image of their bodies floating in the Rio Grande cast a spotlight on America’s migration crisis.
About 200 relatives and friends followed a hearse bearing the bodies of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his 23-month-old daughter, Angie Valeria, to La Bermeja municipal cemetery in southern San Salvador. The ceremony was private, and journalists were not allowed access.
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