The immigration thread

The 2018 National Climate Assessment was released last week. Drawing upon the research of 13 federal agencies and more than 1,000 scientists, it details the dire effects of climate change on our health, on wildfires and hurricanes and on our nation's economy, infrastructure and natural resources. Donald Trump refuses to believe it -- so he likely will not believe this story, either:

A new report finds the number of immigrants in the US illegally to be the lowest since 2007

https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na...127-story.html

The Central American migrants thought the United States would be a warm, welcoming, friendy, caring, compassionate country. Yeah, well, welcome to Donald Trump's America.

'I'm done with the United States': Many migrants in Tijuana regret joining the caravan

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...BBQc0EP#page=2

I understand our immigrant-hating President is planning to change the plaque on the Statue of Liberty to read: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses learning to breathe free. On second thought, don't."

Asylum denials hit record high in 2018 as Trump administration tightens immigration policy

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/immigra...-report-today/

In June, we were outraged to learn that hundreds of immigrant children were separated from their parents and being kept in cages. A Massachusetts church has turned that outrage into a thought-provoking nativity display.

Baby Jesus placed in cage in church's immigration-themed nativity scene
CBS News, Dec 6 2018 10:38 AM

Baby Jesus is in a cage and the wise men are closed off by a wall in a nativity scene at Saint Susanna Parish in Dedham, Massachusetts. The display is meant to be thought-provoking. "We try to take a picture of the world as it is and to put it together with a Christmas message," said Father Stephen Josoma. This year, Jesus represents migrant children being held at the southern border, separated from their parents. The wise men represent a caravan of migrants behind the border wall. Those at the church believe it's very much the message of Jesus. "Jesus was about taking care of one another. This is not the way to take care of one another," said Josoma.

Josoma said the scene is not necessarily a dig at the Trump administration. Instead of political activism, he prefers to call it gospel activism. Parishioner Phil Mandeville said Jesus was no stranger to politics. "Christ was political. He was hung on a cross for making political statements and bucking the authority, and that's exactly why he died," Mandeville said. The nativity scene is meant to be a symbol of hope. At Saint Susanna Parish, the hope is that a conversation has begun.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/baby-je...am-2018-12-06/

In November, Trump arbitrarily and unilaterally ended the DACA program. An appeals court ruled that he can not do that. Then Trump arbitrarily and unilaterally decided that illegal immigrants can not apply for asylum, even though Congress had decided they can. Today, once again, an appeals court has ruled against our immigrant-hating President.

Appeals court denies Trump's bid to reinstate asylum ban

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...EKbN?ocid=AMZN

That ban on travel to the US from Muslim countries is really working out well, isn't it? We still have violence and mass shootings (committed by American-born men) -- and we have heartbreaking stories such as this one:

Yemeni mother unable to see her dying 2-year-old due to Trump's travel ban, advocates say
"My wife's calling me every day wanting to kiss and hold her son for that one last time," said the father, a US citizen whose son is in a California hospital.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...ld-due-n949096

Once again, the judiciary has ruled that the executive branch of government does not have the power to arbitrarily make its own laws and rules. We can call today's ruling "Democracy in action."

Judge blocks Trump restrictions on asylum for victims of domestic and gang violence
CBS News, Dec 19 2018 1:47 PM

US District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan today blocked restrictive Trump administration policies that prevented some immigrants from seeking asylum due to domestic and gang violence in their home countries. The new restrictions were denounced by immigration advocates and the American Civil Liberties Union sued the government over the policy.

The ruling applies to immigrants in expedited removal proceedings. The judge also ordered the government to return any of the deported plaintiffs back to the US and prevent their deportation.

In 2014, the Board of Immigration Appeals ruled that domestic violence could be used as the basis of an asylum claim. Asylum can also be granted on grounds of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political affiliation or membership in a social group.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/judge-b...gang-violence/

The travel ban Trump imposed on Yemen and four other Muslim-majority nations was ridiculous and unnecessary -- but the Supreme Court upheld it. Waivers are granted on a case-by-base basis. Two days ago I posted the story of a Yemeni woman who would not be allowed to visit her two-year-old son who is on life support in a California hospital. Showing a tiny bit of compassion, the State Department has granted a waiver and she has obtained a visa so she can be with her son and husband.

Yemeni mother granted visa to see dying son in California

https://www.kcra.com/article/yemeni-...in-us/25617196

Brett Kavanaugh, not surprisingly, sided with Trump but the Court refused to overturn lower court rulings that Trump cannot "rewrite the immigration laws" to deny asylum to illegal immigrants. The Immigration & Naturalization Act passed by Congress in 1979 says "any alien who is present in the United States" -- regardless of legal status -- may apply for asylum.

Supreme Court rejects Trump's plea to enforce asylum ban

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/su...htmB?ocid=AMZN

"She brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn." -- Luke 2:7. This Christmas Eve story has similarities with that verse:

ICE drops off 211 migrants at El Paso bus terminal
CNN, Dec 24 2018 11:33 PM ET

Immigration & Customs Enforcement officers dropped off 211 undocumented immigrants outside a Greyhound bus terminal in El Paso on Sunday night without an apparent plan for housing them, according to Sgt. Robert Gomez, spokesman with the El Paso Police Department. Police were first notified of the crowd at about 8 PM by officials at the bus terminal.

The waiting area at the bus terminal is small and many people were left standing outside in the cold. The group of 211 undocumented immigrants included some families and small children. Four buses later arrived for people to board and stay warm. Authorities eventually found housing for the migrants, including at a hotel and a nearby Catholic school, Gomez said.

Rep. Beto O'Rourke of Texas tweeted, "We're trying to ensure that ICE gives the community notice next time when they know that there's not going to be space in existing migrant shelters so we can find hotel rooms, beds, alternative shelters, food, volunteers -- everything these people will need to make sure that they are OK."

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/24/us/el...ice/index.html

Last month, Trump issued a proclamation banning illegal immigrants from applying for asylum -- but a federal law approved by Congress says they can apply. A 9th Circuit judge blocked Trump's ban. His decision was upheld by a 9th Circuit panel of judges and by the Supreme Court. Our immigrant-hating President is appealing the original decision. He obviously believes he is more supreme than the Supreme Court.

Trump administration appealing latest asylum ban ruling

https://www-m.cnn.com/2018/12/26/pol...an/index.html?

Trump's grandfather Friedrich was born in Germany, Trump's first wife Ivana was born in Moravia and his current wife Melania was born in Slovenia. Of all the millions of immigrants who have come to the United States, those three are probably the only ones Trump approves of. Cuomo, on the other hand, showed some compassion to several immigrants convicted on drug charges -- and denounced Trump's anti-immigrant "obsession."

With a fresh swipe at Trump, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo pardons 22 immigrants at risk of deportation

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/31/n...nts-trump.html

The Dreamers can continue to dream -- at least until December.

Supreme Court unlikely to hear Trump DACA appeal
NBC News, Jan 19 2018 1:06 PM

The US Supreme Court took no action today on the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. It now appears likely that the court will not take up the issue during its current term and the government will be required to keep the program going for at least ten more months. The Trump administration urged the justices to hear appeals of lower court rulings that prevent the government from shutting DACA down but today was the last day for adding cases to the current term's docket, barring unusual circumstances. Any cases accepted in subsequent weeks won't be heard until the next term, which begins October 1, and it would take a few months more for the court to issue a decision.

DACA allows children of illegal immigrants to remain here if they were under 16 when their parents brought them to the US, provided they arrived by 2007. The Obama-era initiative has allowed 700,000 young people, commonly referred to as "Dreamers," to avoid deportation. The nickname comes from the DREAM Act, which would have offered many of the same protections as DACA but was never approved by Congress.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/sup...appeal-n960321

Here is a Business Insider story about the many asylum seekers who, because of what I refer to as Trump's never-ending "Make America Hate Again" campaign, are leaving the US and heading to Canada:

One asylum seeker explains why he's fleeing Trump's America and seeking refuge in Canada

https://www.businessinsider.com/cana...merica-2018-12

I often refer to trump as an "immigrant-hating President." A few of Trump's blindly loyal supporters tell me he is against only illegal immigration, not legal immigration. Of course that isn't true. Trump has made several drastic changes to the legal immigration process, changes which include banning immigrants from Muslim countries and reducing the number of refugee admissions. The American Friends Service Committee is correct in saying these changes "support a white nationalist agenda":

Trump's attacks on the legal immigration system explained

https://www.afsc.org/blogs/news-and-...stem-explained

Another change: Trump has made it much more difficult for highly-skilled workers from other countries to get H-1B visas allowing them to work in the United States:

'I've never felt so helpless': Immigrant tech workers struggle to get H-1B visas under Trump
Los Angeles Times, Feb 1 2019 4:00 AM

Leo Wang thought a promising career in the United States was within his grasp. After leaving home in China in 2015, he earned a graduate degree in entrepreneurship and innovation at USC and was hired at a Silicon Valley data storage company. After his first year on the job, Wang, 32, found himself hunched over his laptop, obsessively refreshing the US Citizenship & Immigration Services website. He was hoping for good news. It was last October, six months since he'd applied for an H-1B work visa for high-skilled employees. He'd waited so long for a response that his extended student visa had expired and his employer was forced to place him on unpaid administrative leave. When still no response had come from the government agency by New Year's Eve, the company had to fire him. "I've never felt so helpless," he said.

Wang isn't alone. Many tech workers say the process of applying for and getting H-1B visas has become increasingly murky and difficult under President Trump's administration. While many people zero in on Trump's crackdown against illegal immigration, his administration has also tightened or ended various paths to legal immigration.

Experts say changes to the application process for H-1B visas could discourage high-skilled workers from seeking employment in the US. The changes, including heightened requirements for evidence showing that a foreign worker possesses exceptional qualifications and the temporary suspension of "premium processing," which fast-tracks applications for a $1,500 fee, have resulted in a backlog of applications. A process that could have taken two weeks has taken several months for many of those who filed petitions in the last year. Students and current tech industry employees are left in limbo, uncertain of whether they'll be allowed to remain in the US.

This week, the American Immigration Lawyers Association released an analysis of Citizenship & Immigration Services data showing significant delays in the agency's processing of applications for various immigration benefits. AILA found that overall case processing times have increased by 46% over the last two fiscal years and 91% since 2014. It also found that processing times increased last year even as fewer people submitted applications. AILA Vice President Jennifer Minear said the delays have reached a crisis level and are the result of policies that inhibit efficiency and act as "bricks in the Trump administration’s invisible wall against legal immigration."

https://www.latimes.com/business/tec...201-story.html

I'll say it again: That Trump administration is all heart. I wonder how Donald would feel if someone took Eric, Barron, Tiffany, Ivanka and Donald Jr. away from him -- and then lost them.

Finding all immigrant children separated from their families may be impossible, feds say
"The Trump adminstration's response is a shocking concession that it can't easily find thousands of children," said an ACLU attorney.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...ssible-n966266

The President -- who once bragged that he would be "winning" so often we would get tired of all the winning and ask him to stop -- has just lost again:

Federal judge bars Trump administration from tying immigration enforcement to qualifying for anti-gang police grants

https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-...215-story.html

Asylum seekers forced to wait in Mexico face a risk of being assaulted, robbed or kidnapped and they also have difficulty arranging for attorneys to represent them. Thus, Trump gets hit with another lawsuit:

ACLU sues Trump administration over policy requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/...216-story.html

Parents bring their children to the United States so the kids won't be subjected to the assaults, violence and criminal activity in their native country -- and this happens. No child deserves to be treated this way.

Thousands of allegations of sexual misconduct toward migrant children reported
NBC News, Feb 26 2019, 12:37 PM

Thousands of allegations that migrant children in US custody were subjected to sexual abuse, harassment or inappropriate sexual conduct were reported over a four-year span to the government agency tasked with overseeing their care, according to documents released today by a Democratic lawmaker.

The documents, provided by the office of Representative Ted Deutch of Florida, show more than 4,550 allegations were reported to the Office of Refugee Resettlement between fiscal years 2015 and 2018. That agency, which prepared the documents, oversees the care of unaccompanied and separated migrant children and is a part of the Department of Health and Human Services.

During the same period, about 1,300 sexual abuse allegations were reported to the Department of Justice. Nearly 180 involved allegations of staff committing sexual abuse against migrant children at government-run shelters.

Deutch said today during a House hearing on migrant family separations that he was "deeply concerned" about the "high number" of allegations of sexual assaults on migrant children in government custody. "These documents detail an environment of systemic sexual assaults by staff on unaccompanied children," he said. Deutch added that records show there have been 154 allegations of sexual assault by staff on unaccompanied migrant children in facilities under US custody in the past three years. Deutch said that amounted to an average of "one sexual assault by HHS staff on an unaccompanied minor per week."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...ported-n976286

Many thousands of migrant children were separated from their families, not only after Trump imposed his zero-tolerance policy but also before. Trump has no compassion whatsoever. He cares only about himself, his money and his stupid wall -- in that order.

Trump administration is responsible for 'potentially thousands' more separated children, judge rules
"The hallmark of a civilized society is measured by how it treats its people and those within its borders," the judge wrote.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ju...ren/ar-BBUyhK2