The GOP “rule of law” motto is meaningless.
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Detaining migrant children grew to a $3.5 billion business last year. Now the Trump administration is shifting some of that work towards the private sector, to a for-profit firm with former WH Chief of Staff John Kelly on its board.
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Yeah taxpayer funded. 
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ICE Moved 700 Women Out Of A Detention Center And Won’t Tell Lawyers Where They Are
Some of the women have serious medical issues, such as cancer or HIV, and lawyers worry they could die in detention without their ability to advocate for better treatment.
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This asylum seeker was shot in the head. Ice jailed him and gave him ibuprofen
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Some good news for a change…
Judge blocks Trump rule to deny green cards and visas to low-income immigrants
And more:
Country over party; call out ALL injustice.
$200 Million, Jailed Immigrants and a Democratic Bastion Under Fire
A New Jersey county in one of the bluest regions of the country faces mounting pressure to stop housing detained immigrants in its jail.
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I have one for the Immigration thread but can’t post it there at the moment, if anybody can move/refresh, please.
Segovia-Benitez’s attorney Roy Petty told the Phoenix New Times that he didn’t find out Segovia-Benitez had been deported until after he arrived for a planned meeting with his client at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Arizona where he was being held.
“Certainly, this is a surprise,” he told the paper Wednesday. “ICE kept his deportation a secret. They kept it a secret from him, me, his other attorney, and they kept it a secret from his mother. It’s not common practice.”
“Generally, what ICE will do is they will notify the person so the person can make arrangements. They woke him up and put him on a plane,” he continued.
U.S. Marine combat veteran, long-time Long Beach resident, deported to El Salvador – Orange County Register
Jose Segovia-Benitez: Veteran With PTSD Deported to El Salvador
ICE Deleted Surveillance Video Of A Transgender Asylum-Seeker Who Died In Its Custody
Attorneys representing Roxsana Hernández’s family said ICE was required to preserve the surveillance footage for pending litigation.
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Many thanks. Moving the above cache of articles down here for now.
If you follow the horrors the Trump regime is committing against immigrants, both at the border and elsewhere, I cannot stress strongly enough how much you should follow @merylnyc.
This thread is just an example of the work she does to document this:
Trump administration testing rapid asylum review, deportation process in Texas
Trump Administration’s Immigration Policies Violate Civil Rights, Government Agency Says
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights said that the Trump administration’s immigration policies violate the rights of migrants.
Coming Out in Uganda Was a Death Sentence. The U.S. Border Was a Trap
Under Trump’s crackdown on asylum, the U.S. government is preparing to send a woman back to a place where she was beaten and raped for the “crime” of being a lesbian
Trump Policy Puts Migrants in Danger in Mexico, Advocates Say
The Migrant Protection Protocols applies to non-Mexicans, which means the vast majority who are affected are foreigners in a land that’s already dangerous enough for natives
Documents Show U.S. Military Allowed To Shoot At Moving Vehicles At U.S.-Mexico Ports Of Entry
Previously secret documents detail alleged abuse of children in Border Patrol custody
More Than 700 Women Have Disappeared From A Texas ICE Detention Center And Their Lawyers Don’t Know Where They Are
A ‘reasonable distance?’ Why U.S. Border Patrol can operate deep into Vermont
Trump’s Asylum Ban Could Apply Retroactively to Thousands of Migrants Even Though Officials Promised It Wouldn’t
The Trump administration promised that asylum-seekers who already had U.S. cases, but had been forced to return to Mexico to await court dates, could still get asylum. That might not be the case.
More refugee flights to the US are being canceled
ACLU says 1,500 more migrant children were taken from parents by the Trump administration
Let Immigration Judges Speak
Trump is keeping immigration judges, asylum officers, and ICE attorneys from speaking out about what they’re seeing.
Lawyers say video of a transgender immigrant who died in ICE custody may have been deleted
Criminal misconduct by US border officers has reached a 5-year high
US close to implementing asylum agreement with Guatemala
Human rights expert discovers secretive ICE detention centers
Anderson Cooper speaks with human rights expert Angelina Godoy who uncovered ICE had been taking a small number of immigrant teens it deemed to be dangerous far from their families and detaining them for months.
Remain in Mexico policy leaves more than 1,500 asylum seekers stranded in border camp
The number of children split from their parents at U.S.-Mexico border tops 5,400
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I am going to rant a bit.
Remember that line in Spaceballs where they joke about making Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money?
This defines the Trump regime, indeed the modern GOP, only it’s The Search for More Loopholes.
The great rallying cry of the GOP now is “THE LAW!”
But what that really means is finding the exact letter of the law that backs their views and schemes while ignoring the spirit of the law and any of those pesky contradictory bits.
In this manner we lost Merrick Garland, firearms restrictions, and voting rights protections and gained Neil Gorsuch, legal gerrymandering, and Citizens United.
The Search for More Loopholes means if you can do it, you will, regardless of whether or not you SHOULD. Thus we’re funding the Yemeni Genocide, robbing the military and disaster relief programs to pay for a useless wall, & snowed under a blizzard of lawsuits and subpoenas the Trump regime endlessly defies or appeals, merely because they can.
It’s death by a thousand cuts. Rule through nitpicking. And if they can’t find an obscure or outdated ruling to back them up, they just ignore things, since they own the branch of government that is supposed to rein them in.
So what horrible thing are they sneaking through now through some obscure backroom tactic?
The White House wants to appoint hardline asshole Ken Cuccinelli to head the Department of Homeland Security, because he will push all of their horrible, racist, evil schemes a thousand percent. BUT, by the rules of engagement, he can’t, because federal law states that both Cuccinelli, as well as Mark Morgan, his equally monstrous rival for the position, are ineligible – acting officials (Cuccinelli is acting head of the relatively obscure U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Morgan is acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection) must be either the “first assistant” to the position, a Senate-confirmed official detailed to the role or a senior employee at the agency for 90 days during a 365-day period before the vacancy occurred.
But an obscure loophole created because the Trump regime has so egregiously plundered and understaffed departments means the White House could tap someone to be the assistant secretary of the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office, which is vacant, and then elevate that person to be the acting secretary of homeland security. The chief of that office is known as an “inferior officer,” and under an exception in the laws governing appointments, such officials can be appointed to acting positions with the sole approval of the president.
And so Trump gets his hatchet man.
And more people will suffer.
And that is why I am fucking furious tonight.
Here is the article:
WASHINGTON — The White House has found a way to bypass a federal statute that dictates who can fill secretary positions, potentially allowing President Trump to choose whomever he wants to lead the Department of Homeland Security, according to an administration official. The route may run through an office established to counter weapons of mass destruction.
The Trump administration has encountered legal and personnel challenges in its search for a candidate who is aligned enough with Mr. Trump to carry out his hard-line immigration agenda and satisfy the legal credentials to be the acting secretary of a department riddled with vacancies.
After Kevin K. McAleenan, the acting secretary who had a tumultuous relationship with the White House, announced this month that he would resign, it was widely believed in the administration that Mr. Trump would tap someone who would not question his more extreme policies. Mr. McAleenan has said he will step down on Thursday.
But officials leading agencies in homeland security who echo Mr. Trump’s fiery language on immigration were initially deemed ineligible under the federal Vacancies Act. The law states that acting officials who take over cabinet-level positions must be next in the line of succession, have the approval of the Senate or have served 90 days under the previous secretary.
The White House, however, is exploring a loophole in the law, according to an administration official. Under this route, the White House would tap someone to be the assistant secretary of the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office, which is vacant, and then elevate that person to be the acting secretary of homeland security.
The chief of that office is known as an “inferior officer,” and under an exception in the laws governing appointments, such officials can be appointed to acting positions with the sole approval of the president, the official said.
The White House and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.
This year the Trump administration has purged, installed and transferred leaders in the department, sowing chaos among its ranks and creating a legal maze on personnel matters. The latest dubious workaround would mean that Mr. Trump has found a way to use the many holes in the department to fill a void.
It would also allow the White House to choose a hard liner previously believed to be ineligible for the position.
Mark Morgan and Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, who both joined the department in recent months in an acting capacity, were thought to be out of the running for the job after the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel advised that their appointment would violate the Vacancies Act. Neither Mr. Morgan, the acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, nor Mr. Cuccinelli, the acting director of the agency overseeing legal immigration, was confirmed by the Senate or served for at least 90 days under the last Senate-confirmed homeland security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen.
Mr. Cuccinelli, who would face a difficult road to nomination, was widely thought to be a top contender for the position after the acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, said that Mr. Cuccinelli “would be good at the job.”
But Mr. Cuccinelli has a tumultuous relationship with Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader. Mr. McConnell previously voiced his disappointment to the White House over Mr. Cuccinelli’s appointment to the Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Cuccinelli endorsed an effort by hard-line conservatives to force Mr. McConnell to step down and backed Mr. McConnell’s primary challenger in 2014.
Mr. Cuccinelli told reporters this month that Mr. McConnell’s comments were “political.”
The appointment of Mr. Cuccinelli, who said this summer that the Statue of Liberty “referred to people coming from Europe,” would be a significant turnaround for a conservative who just a couple years ago led a fierce opposition to Mr. Trump’s presidential candidacy, including by criticizing his immigration policies.
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This feels like a disaster in the making.
Border Agents Can Now Get Classified Intelligence Information. Experts Call That Dangerous.
The Trump administration is creating a center that will give immigration agents access to information from U.S. intelligence agencies. Migrants and others denied entry will be unable to see the evidence against them because it is classified.
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Really?
White House Halloween party had station for children to help ‘build the wall’
Wait, I thought “walls worked”?
Smugglers are sawing through new sections of Trump’s border wall
Mexican Immigrant Dies in Border Control Custody
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Trump admin. wants to raise costs to become a U.S. citizen by 83 percent
The citizenship application fee would go from $640 to $1,170 and fees associated with legal permanent residency will go up 79 percent — from $1,220 to $2,195.
Advocates like Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA,see the administration’s proposal as “a targeted and brazen attack especially on those who are poor and vulnerable” because it seeks to price out immigrants "of their rightful place in our communities and in America."
The proposed rule also outlines a series of other kinds of fee increases that impact immigration-related applications for asylum-seekers, Temporary Protected Status beneficiaries, DACA recipients and legal permanent residents.
DACA renewals would increase from $495 to $765, possibly giving Trump officials a tool to limit the program in case the Supreme Court allows the program to continue despite the administration’s efforts to end it.
The administration is also seeking to transfer $207.6 million of USCIS funding and divert it to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
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Border protection commissioner admits no miles of new border wall have been built despite Trump’s claim of “great progress”
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U.S. Has World’s Highest Rate Of Children In Detention: U.N. Study
There are more than 100,000 children in immigration-related custody, violating international law, according to the study.
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Federal government must provide mental health services to separated migrant families
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One for the Immigration thread, which needs a re-boot.
And this one is nuts.
I don’t know how I missed this before. The DHS and ICE set up a FAKE university to lure student immigrants either coming to the US on legal student visas or whose colleges lost accreditation to enroll and be caught. As many as 250 students have been arrested.
Federal prosecutors allege that more than 600 students enrolled at the university knew it was improper, but the emails and attorneys tell a different story.
There were more than 600 students enrolled at the university, which was created a few years ago by federal law enforcement officials with ICE. Records filed with the state Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) show that the University of Farmington was incorporated in January 2016.
Many of the students had enrolled with the university through a program known as Curricular Practical Training (CPT), which allows students to work in the U.S through a F-1 visa program for foreign students. Some had transferred to the University of Farmington from other schools that had lost accreditation, which means they would no longer be in immigration status and allowed to remain in the U.S.
Emails obtained by the Free Press earlier this year showed how the fake university attracted students to the university, which cost about $12,000 on average in tuition and fees per year.
The U.S. “trapped the vulnerable people who just wanted to maintain (legal immigration) status,” Rahul Reddy, a Texas attorney who represented or advised some of the students arrested, told the Free Press this week. “They preyed upon on them.”
The fake university is believed to have collected millions of dollars from the unsuspecting students. An email from the university’s president, named Ali Milani, told students that graduate programs’ tuition is $2,500 per quarter and the average cost is $1,000 per month.
So the long and the short of it is, ICE set up a fake university to entrap foreign students, collected millions from them that they’re not returning, used other foreign students as recruiters who they then arrested for fraud, and has arrested nearly 250 students out of nearly 600 potential. And though the first article from is from February, the most recent article is from today, as they’re still arresting people en masse.
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Thanks for this. Don’t know how I missed it either!
BTW, here’s a helpful summary from Axios of the series of Detroit Free Press articles:
ICE arrested 250 foreign students enrolled in the government’s fake university
ICE has arrested about 250 foreign students since January for immigration violations because they enrolled in a fake university created by federal officials that advertises a graduate program for technology and computer studies, the Detroit Free Press reports.
Background: Federal law enforcement officials created the University of Farmington based in the Detroit metro area in January 2016. The school was staffed with undercover agents acting as university officials. DHS even went so far as to have the fake school listed on its own website, as well as on an accreditation agency’s site.
But the university never offered any actual courses. The government has argued that it was clear to immigrants and recruiters that the school was a sham, as they were never required to participate in any classwork.
But many had enrolled through a government program that allows foreign students to work in the U.S. while on student visas.
During a similar operation in New Jersey a few years ago, a recruiter explained the lack of classes to students by claiming the start of the semester had been postponed.
The big picture: Similar operations have played out in past administrations as well. Most of the students arrested by ICE came to the U.S. legally on student visas. They enrolled in the fake university to keep their legal visa status, often recruited by other foreign students who were unaware of the sting operation.
Most of the immigrants arrested came from India, and were allowed to leave the U.S. voluntarily, rather than face deportation. Foreign students typically return to their home countries after finishing their educations in the U.S., unless they manage to obtain a work visa or other legal visa allowing them to stay.
Seven of eight recruiters who helped bring in foreign students, often knowing that the university was a scam but unaware of the government’s involvement, have pled guilty to criminal charges and have been sentenced.
Between the lines: Not only does the federal government lure foreign students trying to maintain their legal status to enroll in illegitimate universities, the fake school in Detroit is believed to have collected millions of dollars from students who enrolled.
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Our country is sinking lower everyday that T is in office. What they are doing to immigrants is shameful.
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