Category: Racist: Hispanic

Jeff Sessions jokes about separated families to laughing crowd

Leave a comment

Attorney General Jeff Sessions cracked a joke about the administration’s immigration chaos, and was greeted with laughs at the idea of separated families.

Sessions spoke Tuesday to a crowd at the conservative-leaning Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, and accused critics of his “zero tolerance” immigration policy of hypocrisy.

“These same people live in gated communities, many of them, and are featured at events where you have to have an ID to even come in to hear em speak. They like a little security around themselves,” he said.

“If you try to scale the fence they’d be even too happy to have you arrested and separated from your children.”

The last line brought laughs and a few cheers from the audience in Los Angeles, which was greeted with protests by those who see the separation of children from their undocumented parents as inhumane.

After first insisting that Congress deal with the problem, President Trump signed an executive order amid the outrage reversing the policy he put in place in April, allowing children to remain with their parents for 30 days.

The fates of those families that have already been separated have hung in limbo with limited action from the federal government, though on Tuesday a federal judge ordered authorities to reunite the loved ones within 30 days.

That order, in response to an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit in California, also ordered an injunction against future family separations.

[New York Daily News]

Media

Reality

Poll after poll found massive disapproval with the Trump administration’s cruel policy of indefinitely separating children from their families as a deterrent to future immigration. So this is not the “lunatic fringe” but the vast majority of Americans.

Even Sessions’ joke is lie and based on a complete misunderstanding of our justice system.

If you take a Criminal Justice 101 class, you will learn the primary intention of incarcerating people for crimes is because they have harmed our society and as a form of punishment they are forced to rectify that harm. Removing that individual from their family is a side-effect. Have you ever heard the term, “he’s paid his debt to society?” That is what we are talking about.

Trump, separating families, is their primary intent.

Sarah Sanders: ‘Just Because You Aren’t Seeing a Judge Doesn’t Mean You Aren’t Getting Due Process’

Leave a comment

Sarah Huckabee Sanders offered an intriguing defense of Donald Trump on Monday when asked about his apparent call for the country to disregard due process when dealing with illegal immigrants.

It’s been over a week since the last White House press briefing, so Sanders was buried under an avalanche of questions regarding the president’s rescinded policy of taking migrant children away from their parents at the U.S. southern border. As Trump railed against immigration laws and people “[invading] the country” over the weekend, he tweeted at one point that immigrants need to be sent back where they came from “with no Judges or Court Cases” involved.

When CNN’s Jeff Zelany asked Sanders if Trump was saying illegal immigrants have no right to due process, she defended the president by saying that current laws allow for the deportation of illegal aliens without having to go through court.

“Thousands of illegal aliens are removed every month without seeing an immigration judge as a result of procedures in current law including voluntary removal and expedited removal. Just because you don’t see a judge doesn’t mean you aren’t receiving due process. The president is focused on securing our borders and reforming our immigration system to prevent the crisis at the border from betting worse.”

Zeleny continued to press Sanders by asking her if immigrants who are deported this way don’t get a chance to appeal for asylum or make their case before a judge.

[Mediaite]

Reality

On one hand we have the Constitution, which makes it very clear due process applies to anyone on American soil.

This was reaffirmed in the 2001 Supreme Court decision Zadvydas v. David (533 US 678): “the Due Process Clause applies to all persons within the United States, including aliens, whether their presence here is lawful or unlawful.”

But on the other hand we have expedited removal where a person does not see the inside of a courtroom and a low-level immigration officer simply deports a person without any due process. Expedited removal is only allowed to be applied to undocumented immigrants without any documentation, not on asylum seekers which we are mostly seeing today, and has historically been used only on individuals who are repeat offenders.

But the law has been used more and more over the past several years, for example 44 percent of all removals from the United States were conducted through expedited removal in 2013.

Media

Trump calls for deporting migrants ‘immediately’ without a trial

Leave a comment

President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday morning that the U.S. “Cannot accept all of the people trying to break into our Country” and called for migrants to be “immediately” deported without a trial.

“When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came,” he said. His tweet did not mention people coming to the U.S. to seek asylum, which is legal to do.

Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and Law and Order,” he said, adding in another tweet that legal entry to the country should be based on “merit.”

Immigration advocates pushed back on the comments. “What President Trump has suggested here is both illegal and unconstitutional. Any official who has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and laws should disavow it unequivocally,” said Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project.

Late Saturday night, the Trump administration released a “fact sheet” noting more than 2,000 children have yet to be reunited with their parents and revealing some details about the reunification process.

[NBC News]

U.S. Cancels Program For Recent Haitian Immigrants; They Must Leave By 2019

Leave a comment

Some 50,000 Haitians who’ve lived and worked in the United States since a catastrophic earthquake there in 2010 are reeling from news that their special protected status will be canceled.

They have 18 months until their temporary protected status — or TPS — is terminated in the summer of 2019. A statement from The Department of Homeland Security says the 18-month lead time is to “allow for an orderly transition before the designation terminates on July 22, 2019.”

It adds that the decision by acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Elaine Duke, follows then-Secretary John Kelly’s announcement that Haiti was recovering and that the status likely would end after a final six-month extension issued earlier this year.

“Since the 2010 earthquake, the number of displaced people in Haiti has decreased by 97 percent,” the statement said. “Significant steps have been taken to improve the stability and quality of life for Haitian citizens, and Haiti is able to safely receive traditional levels of returned citizens. Haiti has also demonstrated a commitment to adequately prepare for when the country’s TPS designation is terminated.”

While immigration advocates and Haitians were expecting the news, it was no less devastating.

“Haiti is in a really bad condition,” Peterson Exais, a high school junior in Miami with TPS, said on a press call with reporters. “I would like to call on Congress to please, please make your choices wisely. This decision is very selfish. I am a human, you are a human, this is my home, and America is my home. I consider myself American in every way except the papers I don’t have.”

Exais has been here since he was nine.

Royce Bernstein Murray, the Policy Director of the Washington-based American Immigration Council says that Haitians with TPS have 27,000 U.S.-born children, and that this decision throws those families into crisis. Some 20 percent own homes, and many are crucial in industries such as construction in Florida, a state that badly needs the skill set as it recovers from hurricane destruction.

“I think it’s a tragedy on a few levels,” Murray said. “Certainly for the Haitians who have been living and working here to support their families, but also for the communities and employers who’ve come to know them and rely on them as trusted neighbors and employees. ”

Haitians are the third nationality to have their protected status terminated in past three months. Nicaraguans and Sudanese will lose protection in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

[NPR]

Corey Lewandowski Mocks Disabled Migrant Girl Who Was Separated From Parents: ‘Womp Womp’

Leave a comment

Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski mocked a story about a migrant child with down syndrome who was taken from her mother by mimicking sad trombone noises and saying “womp womp.”

Democratic strategist Zac Petkanas, who was debating Lewandowski on the issue of undocumented migrant families being split apart by border officials, fiercely responded: “How dare you. How absolutely dare you, sir.”

When Lewandowski responded by falsely claiming the policy existed under the Obama administration, Petkanas fact checked him.

“This policy was not done during the administration,” the strategist said. “You are now lying about this policy, in addition to just saying, ‘womp, womp.’”

Petkanas continued:

“The difference now is they are accompanied minors, but the Trump Administration is forcibly making them unaccompanied minors when they take them from their parents and put them in cages. And we have members of the Trump team who are going wah wah when you learn about the stories — the horror that is going on down at the border.”

Lewandowski replied by arguing that “coming across the border illegally is a crime,” and criminals get separated from their children when they go to jail, therefore migrant kids should be taken from their parents too.

[Mediaite]

Trump Explains That “You Have to Take the Children Away” in Unhinged Speech to Small-Business Owners

Leave a comment

In a defensive and rambling speech in which the president was clearly venting frustration over the rising tide of bipartisan outrage over the policy that separates migrant families, Donald Trump told an audience of small-business owners a series of falsehoods and dramatic, fear-mongering warnings as he doubled down on his now familiar justifications for child separation.

While reserving blame for the Democrats (who, he said, support “open borders” because they consider MS-13 gang members future Democrat voters and who forced this outcome by building loopholes in the immigration laws) and Mexico (“They do nothing for us”), Trump still seemed to take some ownership of the policy, justifying it as a necessary step in protecting the border. “When you prosecute the parents for coming in illegally, which should happen, you have to take the children away,” he said.

The speech, delivered to the National Federation of Independent Businesses on Tuesday, dealt much more with immigration than with small-business issues, as Trump has appeared to become increasingly agitated in the face of both Democrats and Republicanscalling his administration’s policy cruel and inhumane.

But the president did deliver a strange set of remarks about trade and tariffs, with a warning to Canada that its tariffs are too high, meaning “we’re treated horribly.” He shared a strange example:

The tariffs to get common items back into Canada are so high that they have to smuggle them in. They buy shoes, then they wear them. They scuff them up. They make them sound old or look old.

It’s unclear where he pulled this anecdote from. He concluded, “No, we have to change our ways. We can no longer be the stupid country. We want to be the smart country.”

But the president’s most inflammatory statements came when he spoke about Central American migrants, who, in one of his more fearmongering speeches, he described as violent people, often either bringing gang violence to the country or trafficking children. Some highlights from the speech:

People that come in violate the law, they endanger their children in the process, and frankly, they endanger all of our children. You see what happens with MS-13 where your sons and daughters are attacked violently. Kids that never even heard of such a thing are being attacked violently. Not with guns but with knives because it’s much more painful.

And remember, these countries that we give tremendous foreign aid to in many cases, they send these people up, and they’re not sending their finest. Does that sound familiar? Remember I made that speech and I was badly criticized? ‘Oh, that’s so terrible what he said.’ It turned out I was 100 percent right. That’s why I got elected.

Trump also cited some false or misleading facts in his speech to bolster his anti-immigrant views, including his assertion that since Germany began accepting a large number of refugees, the country’s crime has increased by 10 percent. Germany’s crime levels are actually at a 25-year low.

Trump also portrayed migrants as savvy and able to hire lawyers who tell them exactly what to say to be released, allowing them to leave and never return for their court date. In reality, many asylum-seekers are left to navigate the asylum process without the help of any legal counsel, and a significant percentage do return for their hearing.

And he rambled about the large number of judges “they” want at the border. It’s unclear who he was saying wanted “thousands and thousands” of judges, though Ted Cruz has said he would increase the number of judges in his proposed immigration plan.

And he finally made a promise that he would withhold aid from the migrants’ home countries:

Hundreds of millions of dollars we give to some of these countries, and they send them up. Well, I’m going to go very shortly for authorization that when countries abuse us by sending their people up – not their best – we’re not going to give any more aid to those countries. Why the hell should we?

And for a little personal color in his attack on Democrats, who, he said, did a terrible job of letting people know what they stood for, he said his opposing party united around an anti-Trump message which, essentially, was too mean. “I used to go home, I started disliking myself,” he said. “It’s true. I said, man, am I that bad?”

Trump also hit some of his other traditional points. He boasted about the economy. He bragged about his election, “a beautiful thing.” And he threw in accusations that the “fake news” media were actively aiding criminals: “They are helping these smugglers and these traffickers like nobody would believe,” he said. “They know it, they know exactly what they’re doing, and it should be stopped.”

[Slate]

Media

 

Trump Says Democrats Want Immigrants to ‘Infest’ the U.S.

Leave a comment

One of the paradoxes of modern-day American politics is that white identity politics can be a potent political platform, as long as you don’t call it that. Policies with racist effects are often popular; explicit racism is verboten.

Thus Donald Trump can win the presidency while running, as my colleague Adam Serwer documented, on a program of discrimination, but when Corey Stewart, a Republican politician in Virginia, makes his white-identity politics too explicit he gets shunned by the GOP.

Sometimes, however, the president’s mask slips, usually at moments of national crisis, and he says the quiet part loud, as The Simpsons memorably put it. This happened after race riots in Charlottesville, when Trump insisted there were good people among the white-supremacist marchers. And it’s happening again now in the context of separating families at the borders.

After days of insisting, falsely, that the separations were the result of some Democratic-passed law, the president has partially shifted gears, defending the policy in a series of tweets. The most shocking is this one, with its description of unauthorized immigrants as an “infestation”:

[The Atlantic]

DHS Head Kirstjen Nielsen on Backlash to Child Migrant Policy: ‘Don’t Believe the Press’

Leave a comment

Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen looked to discredit the press in a speech to the National Sheriffs’ Association in New Orleans, LA on Monday — saying that illegal immigrant children detained after crossing the border are treated well.

“Don’t believe the press,” she said bluntly. “We operate according to some of the highest standards in the country. We provide food, medical, education, and all needs that the child requests.”

In the six weeks since Attorney General Jeff Sessions instated a “zero tolerance” policy of illegal immigration, 2000 immigrant children have been separated from their families, many of whom are being held in cages.

“Let’s be honest, there’s some who would like to us look the other way when dealing with families at the border and not enforce the law passed by Congress, including, unfortunately, some members of Congress,” she continued. “Past administrations may have done so, but we will not. We do not have the luxury of pretending that all individuals coming to this country as a family unit are, in fact, a family. We have to do our job. We will not apologize for doing our job. We have sworn to do this job.”

Contrary to what Nielsen would have the public believe, there is no law that requires parents and children be separated at the border.

“This administration has a simple message,” Nielsen explained. “If you cross the border illegally, we will prosecute you. If you make a false immigration claim, we will prosecute you. If you smuggle illegal aliens across an extraordinarily dangerous journey, we will prosecute you.”

“But I have also made clear you do not need to break the law of this country by entering illegally to claim asylum,” she added. “If you are seeking asylum, go to a port of entry.”

[Mediaite]

Trump Defends His Family Separation Policy, Blames Democrats: ‘The US Will Not Be a Migrant Camp’

Leave a comment

President Donald Trump turned a White House meeting with the National Space Council into a presser on his administration’s migrant children controversy on Monday. The president continued to falsely blame Democrats for the policy that separates kids from their parents and declared that the US will not become “a migrant camp.”

“Immigration is the fault and all of the problem we are having because we can not get them to sign legislation, we cannot even get them to negotiate to the table. And I say this very strongly: it’s the democrats fault,” Trump said. “The U.S. will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility, it wont be.”

He went on to claim that if the left side of the aisle would “sit down instead of obstructing, we could have something done very quickly” about the migrant situation.

Trump continued discussing the child migrant separation policy by saying: “We’re stuck with these horrible laws. What’s happening is so sad. And it can be taken care of quickly beautifully and we’ll have safety.”

[Mediaite]

Media

White House aide rages at ‘disgraceful’ Democrats for being upset about ripping apart families

Leave a comment

The White House director of strategic communications went on Fox News on Monday to lash out at Democrats for criticizing the administration’s policy of separating families at the southern border and detaining children.

Mercedes Schlapp repeatedly claimed the administration’s “hands are tied” despite the fact the policy was voluntarily adopted and could end with a single phone call from President Donald Trump.

“What does the president want us to know this morning as this debate rages on and seems to be putting a lot of pressure on Republicans?” host Sandra Smith asked.

“Clearly, the president is fully committed to enforcing the law,” Schlapp replied. “This comes also with ensuring that the Democrats come to the negotiating table with immigration.”

“It is because the Democrats want to play politics with this issue, using children as political pawns, that we are not able to solve this problem,” Schlapp claimed.

Despite the fact that Trump started the family separation policy and could end it today, Schlapp admitted that the children were being used as leverage to try and get United States taxpayers to pay for Trump’s border wall, that he repeatedly promised would be paid for by Mexico.

“The president has made it very clear he wants to see full funding for the wall,” Schlapp admitted.

“Does the president feel like Democrats are controlling the message right now?” Smith asked the senior White House communications advisor.

“The Democrats are using this as an emotional issue, as a political issue into the midterm election,” Schlapp claimed. “That is disgraceful.”

[Raw Story]

Media

1 … 9 10 11 12 13 … 20