WTF Community

Immigration: issues and policy



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A big long thread about how the Trump regime is actively spreading the coronavirus to other countries through its hateful immigration policies.









https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/us-is-deporting-infected-migrants-back-to-vulnerable-countries/2020/04/21/5ec3dcfe-8351-11ea-81a3-9690c9881111_story.html












If They’re ‘Essential,’ They Can’t Be ‘Illegal’

If Americans don’t want to go hungry, we need these workers.


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Can I get this thread refreshed?

Trump Is Using the Pandemic to Flout Immigration Laws

Refugees and unaccompanied children are the targets of summary border expulsions.

For more than a month, under the guise of fighting the coronavirus, the Trump administration has used the nation’s public health laws as a pretext for summarily deporting refugees and children at the border.

This new border policy runs roughshod over legal rights, distracts from meaningful measures to prevent spread of the coronavirus and undermines confidence in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the nation’s top health protection agency, which delivered the directive that imposes these deportations.

The administration has weaponized an arcane provision of a quarantine law first enacted in 1893 and revised in 1944 to order the blanket deportation of asylum-seekers and unaccompanied minors at the Mexican border without any testing or finding of disease or contagion. Legal rights to hearings, appeals, asylum screening and the child-specific procedures are all ignored.

More than 20,000 people have been deported under the order, including at least 400 children in just the first few weeks, according to the administration and news reports. Though the order was justified as a short-term emergency measure, the indiscriminate deportations continue unchecked and the authorization has been extended and is subject to continued renewal.

The deportation policy was issued by the C.D.C. based on an unprecedented interpretation of the public health laws. The policy bears the unmistakable markings of a White House strategy imposed on the C.D.C. and designed to circumvent prior court rulings to achieve the administration’s political goals.

The Border Patrol is carrying out the C.D.C. directive by “expulsion” of anyone who arrives at U.S. land borders without valid documents or crosses the border illegally, not because they are contagious or sick but because they come from Mexico or Canada, regardless of their country of origin. The deportations violate the legal right to apply for asylum and ignore the special procedures for unaccompanied children.

Our immigration laws guarantee that any noncitizen “irrespective” of status, no matter how they arrive, is entitled to an asylum process. U.S. law has adopted the international obligation that refugees cannot be returned “in any manner whatsoever” to a place where they risk persecution. The courts have protected these rights again and again. When the administration tried to impose an asylum ban more than a year ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit blocked it, calling it an “end-run” around Congress, a decision the Supreme Court refused to overturn.

Now, with the C.D.C. directive, the administration is imposing an even more sweeping prohibition on asylum by exploiting pandemic fears, and U.S. Border and Customs Protection is labeling the policy a public health “expulsion” instead of an immigration deportation.

Despite what the administration says, the order is not part of any coherent plan to stop border travel or prevent introduction or spread of contagious people or the virus, which is already widespread in the United States. Nothing limits travel from Mexico or Canada by truck drivers, those traveling for commercial or educational purposes, and many others, including green card holders and U.S. citizens. And the restrictions that exist do not apply at all to travel if it’s by airplane.

The administration’s order is like a bull’s-eye drawn on the side of a barn around an arrow that’s already been shot. The targets are refugees and unaccompanied children, and the policy is designed to thwart their rights.

The order claims a public health purpose by saying it’s addressing the danger of crowded conditions at Border Patrol stations, noting that these stations are not equipped to quarantine people who may be infected with Covid-19, or to treat them medically. That’s a problem of the Border Patrol’s own creation and can be solved by changing procedures and detention practices. This medically gerrymandered definition of dangerous crowding is meant to deport those who are entitled to protection, while leaving others who pose an equal or greater risk untouched.

If the concern were truly congregate locations, the administration would address the dangerous conditions at immigration jails and prisons. If supermarkets can space out shoppers, the Border Patrol can adopt emergency processing measures to ensure sufficient distancing.

The law that the administration invokes allows the government to suspend through quarantine the introduction of goods and persons into the U.S. — not to issue deportation orders. Importantly, when that law was first enacted, Congress rejected calls for targeting immigrants. It recognized that any traveler — regardless of citizenship — could arrive here carrying a communicable disease and that any law addressing that concern should apply equally to all.

And critically, since that law was updated more than 75 years ago, Congress has enacted landmark refugee and child protection laws that the administration is now trying to evade.

The United States and the rest of the world face a pandemic of unknown scope and duration that has led to the greatest social and economic disruption in recent history. But the dangers we face are not limited to the pandemic alone. The risk is also that governments will abuse the emergency to abandon the rule of law and adopt discriminatory measures targeting those they disfavor.

Protecting public health and ensuring fair procedures for refugees and children are both essential. They are not in conflict and can be served side by side. Proper screening for both is possible. Neither needs to be sacrificed for the other.

The administration’s order expelling refugees and children tarnishes the C.D.C., does nothing to protect public health, targets the most vulnerable, tramples their rights and cloaks the deportations as fighting the coronavirus in order to escape accountability. “Flattening the curve” should not be an excuse for dismantling the law.

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keep on archivin’ @Windthin! :raised_hands:t3:

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As the Trump regime closes our borders indefinitely and deports thousands of refugees and other migrants, Brave New Films ( @bravenewfilms ) reminds us of the Immigrant Heroes who are on the front lines of this pandemic.

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Deep breath before reading this.

I posted a bit about it before.

That still doesn’t prepare one for this thread.

ICE is giving mothers trapped in their camps with their children a “choice”: stay locked up and hope you both survive COVID-19, or sign away your rights to your kids, allowing ICE to do whatever it wants with them, knowing you may never see them again but they’ll hopefully at least survive.












More on this:





ICE Attempted to Deport a 14-Year Old Girl From a New York Shelter, Despite the Pandemic

14-year old Jenny is one of a growing number of children who were previously in the government’s Remain in Mexico program that ICE is now trying to deport.

https://documentedny.com/2020/05/13/ice-attempted-to-deport-a-14-year-old-girl-from-a-new-york-shelter-despite-the-pandemic/








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Ice Protests in California about Covid-19 and lack of total testing.

Rally protests conditions at Adelanto ICE center

ADELANTO — Under a baking sun in triple-digit heat, at least 80 people gathered on Thursday to protest conditions at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, demanding that detainees who are vulnerable to the disease be released.

“We need to be advocating for them to be free,” Jack Miranda, a faith leader from La Puente, said during the rally hosted by advocacy groups. “Human beings on the other side of this street, of these walls, are being unjustly detained and now some of them have been exposed … to this virus, this COVID-19 that is impacting all of us.”

As of May 23, while no detainees had tested positive for COVID-19 at the Adelanto center, at least one employee has, according to ICE data. It’s unclear how many have been tested in total.

The Palm Springs Desert Sun reported last month that only six detainees had received results as of April 23, according to a declaration by an ICE official.

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I can’t get tweets to show up properly on here since I went to the new system. What am I doing wrong?

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Me as well. Not sure why. Just changed today for me…If you figure it out, let me know. :confused:

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Okay, so that means I know the issue.

Twitter today changed its format; it no longer recognizes old twitter. I had to turn off the masking scripts I used to still see the old format. I am betting the changeover somehow affected how this forum is interacting with tweets, much as I’ve seen some glitches with how sites are interacting with it during the transition.

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Not sure I follow all the tech stuff…if you have a suggestion for me to copy link to twitter from my smartphone (android) and/or from my computer, let me know.

Right now…I/we are not making those tweets easily readable.

Just another part of all the mounting strange number of things happening all around us am thinking.:grin:

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I should say, I know the cause, Twitter’s recent change in its interface. I am uncertain yet of the solution. It may require tinkering with the forum itself, though I can look for a solution.

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I tried different things all the same result. I think you’re right, it’s on Twitters end. Tweets no longer preview with just the link. Screen shots or quote boxes with reference below is slow but if you can please do. This is horrendous. Sorry y’all.

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Immigrant detainees say ICE is using coronavirus disinfectant sprays that cause bleeding, burns and pain

“The guards have started spraying this chemical everywhere, all over everything, all the time. It causes a terrible reaction on our skin,” one of the detainees said, adding, “When I blow my nose, blood comes out. They are treating us like animals. One person fainted and was taken out, I don’t know what happened to them. There is no fresh air.”

ICE denies it is using disinfectants in a manner that would be dangerous to detainees.

Some of the detainees who called the hotline identified the chemical being sprayed at Adelanto as a disinfectant called HDQ Neutral, based on labeled bottles they saw at the facility.

Safety guidelines for HDQ Neutral issued by its manufacturer, Spartan Chemical, warn that the disinfectant is “harmful if inhaled” and that it “causes severe skin burns and serious eye damage.” The guidelines specify that HDQ Neutral should be used “only outdoors or in a well-ventilated area” and protective gear should be worn while handling the chemical.

:sob::sob::sob: Title is a hyperlink

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The US Southern borders and Wall are not impenetrable. Wall continues to not be a barrier, when people can saw their way through it. CBP asking for suggestions now. WOW.

It was never going to work…and it will continue to be T’s rallying cry for re-election.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has asked contractors for help making President Trump’s border wall more difficult to climb over and cut through, an acknowledgment that the design currently being installed along hundreds of miles of the U.S.-Mexico boundary remains vulnerable.

The notice of the request for information that CBP posted gives federal contractors until June 12 to suggest new anti-breaching and anti-climbing technology and tools, while also inviting proposals for “private party construction” that would allow investors and activists to acquire land, build a barrier on it and sell the whole thing to the government.

Trump continues to campaign for reelection on a promise to complete nearly 500 miles of new barrier along the border with Mexico by the end of 2020, but administration officials have scaled back that goal in recent weeks. The president has ceased promoting the $15 billion barrier as “impenetrable” in the months since The Washington Post reported that smuggling crews have been cutting through new sections of the structure using inexpensive power tools.

In a statement, CBP officials said their request for information — first reported by the KJZZ Fronteras Desk in Arizona — does not amount to an admission that the current design is inadequate or flawed.

We have an adaptive adversary; regardless of materials, nothing is impenetrable if given unlimited time and tools,” the agency said. “Walls provide the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) the ability to slow and stop potential crossings. That means building wall will deter some people from attempting to cross, while slowing the efforts of those who still try.”

The public notice is the first indication that CBP officials do not think the steel bollard design they selected from prototypes in 2017 is sufficiently formidable to achieve that goal. The primary design, consisting of 30-foot-tall steel bollards topped with flat metal anti-climb panels, is being installed by private contractors along stretches of the border.

This is the most sophisticated border wall system we have ever built, but we will never disregard innovative and creative ideas that could continue to enhance border barriers,” CBP said.

Trump is expected to attend a ceremony in Yuma, Ariz., next week to mark the completion of the barrier’s 200th mile, according to officials who were not authorized to describe the plans.

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Detained migrants say they were forced to clean COVID-infected ICE facility

The migrants say the facility forced detainees in inadequate personal protective equipment to clean and work in the facility’s kitchen despite their fear it was a prime point for spreading the virus inside the center due to crowding at meal times. When some migrants protested, the letter says, they were punished with verbal threats and indefinite lock-ins. On one day when migrants resisted working in the kitchen, some were “sent to the hole,” otherwise known as solitary confinement.

Two migrants described being asked to clean the trash from the nurses’ office, where sick patients were treated. One said he was asked to clean the feces-covered cell of a mentally ill detainee without gloves.

Other allegations include guards not wearing adequate equipment to prevent infection as they passed from one cell to another and “no measures for social distancing” while immigrants lined up for food.

The detainees also described unsanitary conditions, like lockdowns that lasted for three days with no access to showers. The migrants say they were given two “disposable masks of very poor quality in the month of April” and received “2 cloth masks” in May. They also say they did not receive basic hygiene supplies, like toilet paper, on weekends.

Abolish ICE

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Related:






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https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1270735649117626369/9qxQqdAU?format=jpg&name=small

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Trump administration proposes sweeping changes to US asylum system in new rule

The Trump administration is proposing a new regulation that would make it exceedingly difficult for migrants to claim asylum in the United States, according to a draft rule released by the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice.

The 161-page rule, which is set to publish in the Federal Register on June 15, lists a series of changes that would pose even greater challenges to people seeking to be granted asylum in the US.

Over the course of Donald Trump’s presidency, the administration has closed off, or added obstacles, to the ways in which people can seek refuge in the US. The latest proposed rule, which still needs to undergo a public comment period and will not take effect immediately, is no exception.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, criticized the proposal, saying, “The goal of this asylum regulation – far from reshaping the system to improve it – is to make asylum impossible to win.”

Under one proposed change, an individual’s asylum claim could face greater scrutiny if the person traveled through at least one country while on the way to the US but didn’t seek refuge there. The Trump administration applied a similar rule to migrants traveling through Mexico from Latin America, but the latest rule widens the scope of people who could fall under those restrictions, with some exceptions, such as a victim of human trafficking.

“The Departments believe that the failure to seek asylum or refugee protection in at least one country through which an alien transited while en route to the United States may reflect an increased likelihood that the alien is misusing the asylum system as a mechanism to enter and remain in the United States rather than legitimately seeking urgent protection,” the draft rule states .

The proposed regulation also says that living unlawfully in the US for more than a year prior to filing for asylum would be considered a “significant adverse factor,” despite exceptions that currently exist. Similarly, failure to file taxes or having a criminal conviction – even if it was reversed, vacated or expunged – could count against an individual’s asylum claim.

Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst for the US Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute, said the rule will ultimately speed and streamline asylum adjudication, but it will also “further limit the number of individuals that qualify for asylum, as well as similar benefits,” she said.

“A lot of these provisions have been in the works with the administration for years,” Pierce added. “Rather than issue them as separate regulations, the administration has lumped together a lot of different provisions in this behemoth, Frankenstein asylum regulation.”

The draft regulation proposes redefining “membership in a particular social group,” which is one of the categories people can meet to claim asylum. Modifying this definition could stand to exclude a large swath of people.

Pierce said that, for a country that has evaluated asylum on a case-by-case basis for decades, this proposed change “goes counter to everything that the asylum system is built on, to draw a red line and say these types of victims are completely ineligible for asylum.”

CNN reached out to DHS and Justice Department for comment.

The litany of changes proposed in the regulation mark yet another attempt by the Trump administration to overhaul the US immigration system. During a Heritage Foundation event Tuesday, acting Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli said there would be more changes to the asylum system, but he stopped short of providing details.

The administration has already required asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their immigration proceedings in the US, as well as sent migrants to Northern Triangle countries to seek asylum there instead.

Over the past few months, there have also been more than a dozen changes to the immigration system as a result of the coronavirus pandemic: Immigration hearings have been postponed, refugee admissions put on pause and migrants, including children, have largely been barred from entering the United States. The proposed rule, however, makes no mention of coronavirus.

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