Offering asides, recommended links, blogworthy quotations, and more, In Brief is the Northwest Progressive Institute's microblog of world, national, and local politics.
The Iraqi Trump supporters facing deportation
The BBC: “More than 100 Iraqi Christians in Michigan are fighting deportation after being arrested in an immigration crackdown ordered by the Trump administration. Most were detained for visa violations, including past criminal convictions, that had been ignored by US officials for years, even decades. Many in the community supported Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and say they never thought they would be targeted by raids.”
We said our goodbyes at home. My dad decided it was better for my brother and my sister to not go all the way to the airport…. I don’t feel like it’s happening. And after so much fight that we went through, for it to just end like this. I mean, it’s not necessarily ending, but it is hard to see him go.
— Victoria Magana Ledesma, the eldest child of Andres Magana Ortiz, after her father left for Mexico ahead of an imminent attempt to deport him by the Trump regime. (The Washington Post: Facing deportation, Hawaii coffee farmer, father of three returns to Mexico after twenty-eight years).
To The Editor:
More than four hundred people have joined the hunger strike in the NWDC in Tacoma that started Monday. What are they demanding? Edible food, access to medical care, expedited immigration hearings, and pay of more than $1 per day of labor. These demands are not only utterly reasonable, it is horrifying that they are not already standard practice and that people detained in the NWDC have to take such extreme measures to demand basic rights and necessities.
This is not the first time the NWDC has drawn attention for it’s questionable practices. Last fall, we heard about the detention of a man who was adopted from Korea as a toddler and lived in the U.S. his entire life, simply because his adoptive parents didn’t fill out the proper forms. He was torn away from his wife and kids and locked up in the NWDC to be deported to a country he knew nothing about.
It seems clear that our current system of detaining undocumented people is a gross violation of human rights. And yet the Trump administration is asking for billions of additional tax dollars to implement mass detentions and deportations of undocumented people. What about America being “the land of the free,” “the land of opportunity?” Are these values we care about at all as a nation or are they just intended as cute catch phrases? Sen. Patty Murray, Sen. Maria Cantwell, and Rep. Dave Reichert should reject this unreasonable request.
But this is a bare minimum. These injustices have been going on for much longer than the current administration has been in power, and simply preventing them from getting worse doesn’t make them better. There should be an immediate investigation into the shady practices of the NWDC, and for long term solutions to this crises we must work towards comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship for undocumented Americans.
— Helen Mountjoy-Venning, Olympia
Highlights from court ruling halting Trump’s Muslim Ban 2.0
Courtesy of the New York Times: “Here are some highlights from Wednesday’s ruling by Judge Derrick K. Watson of United States District Court in Honolulu, who issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration’s revised travel ban from going into effect nationwide.”
There are so many problems with Trump. I always wanted to come to America, I love America, but not any more, not with Trump.
— Refugee Abdullahi Warsame (The Globe and Mail: Fearful of Trump policies, families risk frigid 3 AM hike from Minnesota into Canada)
How Washington State upended Trump’s travel ban
The New York Times profiles Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson. The nation’s attention is now on Washington after the state won a sweeping victory against the Trump regime in federal court, incensing the so-called president.
Mexico: We will not pay for Trump border wall
Mexico’s political leaders have wisely chosen defiance instead of capitulation. In a nationally televised address, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto declared that his country does not believe in walls and will not finance the border barrier that Trump has vowed to build. If the last few days have taught us anything, it’s that by uniting together against Donald’s bigotry, we can stop neofascism in its tracks.
Maricopa County’s Joe Arpaio officially charged with criminal contempt
“Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was officially charged Tuesday with criminal contempt of court when a federal judge affixed her signature, a formality that throws the lawman’s political and personal future into a level of crisis never before seen in his twenty-three years in office,” reports the Arizona Republic’s Megan Cassidy.
“Federal prosecutors on Monday charged Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County with criminal contempt of court, saying he willfully defied a judge’s orders to stop targeting Latinos — including citizens and legal immigrants — in traffic stops and other law enforcement efforts, behavior the judge said showed a pattern of discriminatory policing,” The New York Times reports.
A tale of two former Congressional bosses: A fighter & a lost soul
Former Capitol Hill staffer Murshed Zaheed praises Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid for defending America’s legacy of opening its doors to refugees while lamenting Congresswoman Louise Slaughter’s vote for a Republican-backed bill to slam those doors shut.
Jay Inslee: Why Washington won’t close its doors to Syrian refugees
“The American character is being tested. Will we hew to our long tradition of being a beacon of hope for those chased from their homelands?” asks Governor Jay Inslee in today’s New York Times.
I think that our nation is tested from time to time. And I think this is one of those times to really dig deep and see what kind of character our nation and my state has. And I’ve always believed in my state, and the country has always been a place of refuge from those who are persecuted. Right on the Statute of Liberty they talk about the wretched refuge of your teeming shore. And I don’t know where we’ve had more people who fit this classification of victims.
— Governor Jay Inslee, explaining to National Public Radio, why he is welcoming Syrian refugees to settle in Washington State.
For instance, if there’s a rabid dog running around in your neighborhood, you’re probably not going to assume something good about that dog, and you’re probably going to put your children out of the way… It doesn’t mean that you hate all dogs by any stretch of the imagination, but you’re putting your intellect into motion.
— The fearmongering continues: Ben Carson likens some refugees to ‘mad dogs’ (via The Washington Post).
A Syrian refugee family’s first hours in Seattle
KUOW’s Liz Jones tells the story of a Syrian refugee family’s arrival in Seattle, after a long journey that included stops in Cairo and New York.
If I was around Mr. Trump — Donald, who I know rather well — I would say, ‘You know, Don, let’s see what happens — let’s tell all the immigrants working in Trump hotels to stay home tomorrow… Let’s see what happens.”
— Colin Powell, telling Walter Issacson that Donald Trump doesn’t speak for all Republicans on immigration. Powell told Issacson that he’s “still a Republican” and wants to “continue to be a Republican because it annoys them.” By them, Powell means the extremist tea party movement. (Via The Hill).
This morning, Pope Francis became the first leader of the Roman Catholic Church to address a joint session of the United States Congress.
In his beautifully framed speech, firmly rooted in humanity’s universal progressive values, he urged Congress to act to address income inequality, the climate crisis, and immigration. He also called for the abolition of the death penalty.
While it seems almost everyone is in thrall to the visiting pontiff, many in the Republican base dislike much of what he has to say: climate change and poverty deniers reject his encyclical on degrading the planet or his call to help the poor; hawks can’t abide papal advice to make love, not war; immigration hardliners find him too soft, the list goes on.
— Political columnist Margaret Carlson: Republicans will tune out half of what Pope Francis says (via Bloomberg View).
Sorry, Republicans: I’m an anchor baby, and I’m not going anywhere
“The party’s presidential candidates want to deny birthright citizenship to people like me because they know we’ll vote them out of office,” writes Gustavo Arellano for The Guardian (Comment is free).
This summer camp just churned out eighty young progressive activists
The Los Angeles Times profiles Dream Summer, which it neatly describes as “an annual program that brings young immigrants from across the country to Los Angeles for a 10-week crash course designed to produce the next generation of immigrant rights leaders.”
In Brief is authored by the staff, board, and contributors of the Northwest Progressive Institute, a netroots powered strategy center working to raise America's quality of life through innovative research and imaginative advocacy.
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