☠️🤮🤯 ‼️🆘 WARNING: TRUMP GOES “FULL HITLER” IN HATEFUL, UNHINGED VETERANS’ DAY RANT! — Why Aren’t The “Mainstream Media” & U.S. Voters Takng This Assault On Humanity, Decency & Democracy Seriously! 🤯

Hitler
How soon we forget the horrors of 1939, at our own peril!
Public Realm

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/12/trump-rally-vermin-political-opponents/

By Marianne LeVine

November 12, 2023 at 5:45 p.m. ET

Former president Donald Trump denigrated his domestic opponents and critics during a Veterans Day speech Saturday, calling those on the other side of the aisle “vermin” and suggesting that they pose a greater threat to the United States than countries such as Russia, China or North Korea. That language is drawing rebuke from historians, who compared it to that of authoritarian leaders.

“We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections,” Trump said toward the end of his speech, repeating his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. “They’ll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American Dream.”

Trump went on further to state: “the threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within. Our threat is from within. Because if you have a capable, competent, smart, tough leader, Russia, China, North Korea, they’re not going to want to play with us.”

The former president’s speech in Claremont, N.H., echoed his message of vengeance and grievance, as he called himself a “very proud election denier” and decried his legal entanglements, once again attacking the judge in a New York civil trial and re-upping his attacks on special counsel Jack Smith. In the speech, Trump once again portrayed himself as a victim of a political system that is out to get him and his supporters.

Yet Trump’s use of the word “vermin” both in his speech and in a Truth Social post on Saturday drew particular backlash.

“The language is the language that dictators use to instill fear,” said Timothy Naftali, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. “When you dehumanize an opponent, you strip them of their constitutional rights to participate securely in a democracy because you’re saying they’re not human. That’s what dictators do.”

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian at New York University, said in an email to The Washington Post that “calling people ‘vermin’ was used effectively by Hitler and Mussolini to dehumanize people and encourage their followers to engage in violence.”

“Trump is also using projection: note that he mentions all kinds of authoritarians ‘communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left’ to set himself up as the deliverer of freedom,” Ben-Ghiat said. “Mussolini promised freedom to his people too and then declared dictatorship.”

. . . .

*****************************

Doubt the comparison? Check this out:

Nazi propaganda and “vermin”

In 1942, Adolf Hitler described Jews living in Germany as an “inferior race that multiplies like vermin.”

“The Nazis dehumanized the Jews. Nazi propaganda is replete with references to Jews as vermin, rats or parasites,” according to Harriet Over, a researcher in psychology at the University of York.

We are still creating [monsters]. We see it in … Russian attitudes toward Ukrainians, in Hindu Islamophobia, and in American racism against Black people,” psychologist David Livingstone, a professor at the University of New England in Maine, told EL PAÍS.

It wasn’t just Germany.

In 1909, a U.S. satirical magazine, Puck, published a cartoon that showed Uncle Sam as a pied piper leading a group of immigrants from Europe. The immigrants were rats. Sending them off: smiling, well-dressed White men.

. . . .

https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-channels-hate-and-hitler-in-veterans-day-speech-tells-supporters-those-others-are-vermin/

***********************

I appreciate that Marianne LeVine of WashPost was one of the few “mainstream journalists” with the guts to make the painfully obvious connection and comparison between Trump’s insane threats and Hitler, Mussolini, and other horrible dictators!

Marianne LeVine
Marianne LeVine
Political Reporter
Washington Post
PHOTO: WashPost

Even so, it was only “page 2” news in today’s Post, apparently being of far less concern to her editors than the plans of Middle Eastern countries to “upend global sports!” Harkens back to 1936, when participating in Hitler’s “Aryan Showcase Olympics” was more important to the U.S. and other Western Democracies than protesting and condemning Hitler’s ongoing persecution of Jews!

There was a time in the not too distant past when use of racist, neo-Nazi language like Trump’s would have earned an immediate forceful condemnation from politicians across the political spectrum, from the media, and would have ended a candidacy. Now, it’s “just another day at the office.” Hate, lies, racism, and threats by a powerful national politician, a former President no less, cause barely a ripple in our national political dialogue. Not even front page news! Not covered at all by most “legitimate” news outlets! Yet the threat to our nation is real! Very real!

And, in case anyone still doubts the existential threat to American democracy and civilization itself posed by Trump and his anti-American followers, his “plans” include politicization of government, economic chaos, increasing global warming, and destabilization of the U.S. and world economies. See, e.g., http://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=019284ab-7357-40c1-91c7-112654eb687a.

Deranged, false claims of being a “victim,” turning vengeance into a “holy quest,” dehumanizing enemies, uber race-based nationalism, presenting personal grievances as national priorities, and complete disregard for the common good were staples of Hitler’s National Socialism as they are of Trumpism! The question remains whether the U.S. will be able to stand up for democracy, reject Trumpism, and prevent a return to the horrific time of 1939! See alsohttps://immigrationcourtside.com/just-say-no-to-1939-how-judges-can-save-lives-uphold-the-convention-and-maintain-integrity-in-the-age-of-overt-governmental-bias-toward-refugees-and-asylum-seekers/.

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-13-23

⚖️🗽 WHAT DEMS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE BORDER — As Speculation Grows That Dems Will “Sell Out” Asylum Seekers To Get Aid For Israel & Ukraine, They Should Think About The Cruelty, Deadly Consequences & Inevitable Failure The GOP Seeks & The Real Costs Of Abandoning Human & Civil Rights —  “Deterrence won’t solve migration—it will only maim and mangle more men, women, and children.“

Border Death
Is it REALLY a good idea for Dems to trade war aid abroad for eradication of human rights and even more border deaths to appease right wing GOP extremists in Congress? — This is a monument for those who have died attempting to cross the US-Mexican border. Each coffin represents a year and the number of dead. It is a protest against the effects of Operation Guardian. Taken at the Tijuana-San Diego border.
Tomas Castelazo
To comply with the use and licensing terms of this image, the following text must must be included with the image when published in any medium, failure to do so constitutes a violation of the licensing terms and copyright infringement: © Tomas Castelazo, www.tomascastelazo.com / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

From The Border Chronicle:

https://open.substack.com/pub/theborderchronicle/p/the-political-pathology-of-border?r=330z7&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

We are happy to announce that we will be doing occasional guest op-eds here at The Border Chronicle, and today is our first. You probably remember Brian Elmore, the emergency-medicine resident physician who did a Q&A with Melissa last month. In this op-ed he vividly describes what border deterrence does to a person’s flesh, and he makes an eloquent call for its end. After 30 years of this strategy, which has proved both deadly and harmful for people crossing the border, it is our honor to publish this reckoning and call for action, especially since we are entering an election year (it is now November, after all).

Brian is also the cofounder of Clínica Hope, a free clinic for migrants in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, which he runs with the nonprofit Hope Border Institute.

And lastly, !Feliz Día de Muertos! Todd

****************

The Political Pathology of Border Deterrence: An Up-Close View of How This Policy Looks in the Emergency Room

“Deterrence won’t solve migration—it will only maim and mangle more men, women, and children. It will send more people to my emergency room. Some it will send to the morgue.”

. . . .

*********************

Read Dr. Elmore’s complete op-ed at the link.

So, exactly what makes “selling out” the legal, civil, and human rights of other persons a viable “strategy option” for Dem politicos, who certainly know better? See, e.g., https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/02/biden-ukraine-aid-deal-00125125.  Sounds “pretty GOP” to me — selling rights that aren’t yours in the first place! See, e.g., Women’s Right to Choose & the “Forced Birth Movement!”

Dems shouldn’t believe that by abandoning asylum seekers and trashing both civil and human rights at the border they will gain any credit from the GOP or leverage from their xenophobic voters. They will just leave a trail of dead bodies and sow the seeds for the destruction of our democracy.

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-07-23

🚩POLITICS: GOP’S BAKUNINIST CLOWN SHOW SOWS AMERICAN CHAOS!🤮☠️

Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876)Anarchist PHOTO: Wikipedia While nobody in today’s GOP is close to being on an intellectual level with the “Father of Modern Anarchy,” they are staunch disciples of his disruptive philosophy.
Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876)
Anarchist
PHOTO: Wikipedia
While nobody in today’s GOP is close to being on an intellectual level with the “Father of Modern Anarchy,” they are staunch disciples of his disruptive philosophy.

BAKUNINIST — One who advocates revolutionary anarchism. 

Jackie Calmes in the LA Times:

Jackie Calmes
Jackie Calmes
National Columnist
LA Times
PHOTO: Shorenstein Center, Harvard University

http://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=0544106b-7413-483c-9f58-c0b43ca7853d

. . . .

And that’s because so many in the party — elected officials and voters — won’t be led. Republicans have the majority in the House, but it’s a majority in name only. In reality, the House Republicans are an amalgam of competing factions, from right to far-right to extremist, and party members genuinely loathe one another more than they dislike Democrats.

Conservative media and social media stardom have turned even the most junior and otherwise inconsequential figures — say, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, the architect of this speaker-less anarchy — into power brokers who insist on having their sway. Like-minded conservative voters — small-dollar donors steeped in Fox News — bankroll the chaos agents; Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, that Georgia peach of a provocateur, is among Congress’ most successful fundraisers.

Here’s how insurgent and “Beetlejuice” fan Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado explained why House Republicans have failed to agree on a speaker: “There are 224 alpha males and alpha females who are here in the Republican Party. We are here because we convinced hundreds of thousands of people that we are leaders.”

No matter how this speaker mess ends — and it must somehow end — that perverse reward system will remain. And the House under Republican “leadership” will be all but ungovernable through the 2024 election.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi had a similarly thin Democratic majority yet managed to keep her party factions united and to shepherd into law major legislation, some of it bipartisan. But here’s the difference: Democrats believe in governance. Too many Republicans do not; their credo has shifted over the last quarter century from small government to anti-government. We’re watching the result.

Again, take it from a Republican: “Frankly, it doesn’t matter who the speaker is,” Rep. Mike Lawler of New York said, “because if we [Republicans] can’t govern as a group, as a conference, it doesn’t matter.”

Jordan, true to his brand as a belligerent, on Friday insisted on a third House vote for speaker. As widely predicted, he lost by even more votes than on the earlier ballots. He and his allies talked of pressing his candidacy through the weekend; after all, McCarthy was elected in January on the 15th ballot. But in a closed-door caucus and with secret ballots, Republicans voted to yank Jordan’s nomination as speaker.

His refusal to accept that he was not going to be speaker until the reality was forced on him was hardly a surprise. Jordan still won’t concede that Donald Trump lost reelection. He declined to do so yet again at a news conference Friday morning. His stubborn opposition to democracy — that’s what it is — only underscored why Jordan should never be the speaker.

The sad fact, however, is that Jordan’s reprehensible role as Trump’s chief congressional lieutenant in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection wasn’t even much of a factor in opponents’ thinking. Nor was the fact that as speaker, this unrepentant election denier could have sabotaged the certification of the 2024 presidential vote if the Republican lost.

Instead, the reasons Jordan’s foes gave were personal, political or both. Some blamed him for stoking the death threats against them and their families. One, Rep. Drew Ferguson of Georgia, said Republicans don’t “need a bully as the speaker.”

But they need someone — the country needs someone — so Congress can function. Government funding runs out Nov. 17. Biden is sending a request for aid to Ukraine and Israel. Other essential legislation, including agriculture and defense bills, are pending.

Many Republicans are trying to shift the blame for the fiasco onto Democrats because they all opposed McCarthy and then Jordan — as if Republicans would’ve voted to retain Pelosi had an insurgent Democrat ever moved, like Gaetz did against McCarthy, to unseat her.

But they know the blame actually lies with themselves — thus the name-calling and near-fisticuffs.

They need to come together, if only temporarily. And then voters should fire them in 2024.

********************

Today’s GOP is a thuggy gang of anarchists out to destroy America and destabilize the world — mostly because they believe they can, and complicit GOP voters have inflicted these ignorant, valueless, yet existentially dangerous, clowns upon the rest of us!

Totally classless and obstructionist till the end, Jordan forced his colleagues to vote to rescind his never-viable nomination for Speaker after losing three floor votes by increasing margins. By contrast, Scalise, the Conference’s initial nominee over Jordan withdrew without a vote upon determining that he lacked the votes to win the job.

Appearing on CNN Sunday, former GOP Representative Liz Cheney described some of her erstwhile colleagues as “White supremacists,” “anti-semitic,” and “involved directly” in the illegitimate attempt to seize power and overturn Biden’s election. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/liz-cheney-kevin-mccarthy-house-gop_n_6535ea7ce4b0689b3fbcfc66.

Yet, inexplicably, some in the “mainstream media”continue to treat the GOP as a “normal” opposition party. In one of a continuing string of jaw-droppingly poor choices for guests, NBC’s Kristen Walker gave deposed ex-Speaker McCarthy a forum to engage in a “Trumpian liefest” of mythic proportions, outrageously attempting to blame Dems, the Border, Biden, Jeffries, the GOP insurrectionists he empowered, and just about anyone but himself for the debacle he helped engineer and his morally bankrupt party carried out!

Every viewer should have felt dumber after watching Welker fruitlessly try to control the astounding stream of lies, nonsense, doublespeak, and intentional misrepresentations coming out of McCarthy. Honestly, that’s what Fox News, Breitbart, and the Examiner are for! No need to give shallow politicos with absolutely nothing to contribute another forum! I’ve always been a Kristen Welker fan, but her first month as moderator of Meet the Press can only be described as something between tragic and horrible.

As Calmes says, “fire [the GOP] in 2024.” The future of America, the world, and humanity might depend on the n common sense and decency of the majority of voters!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-23-23

🇺🇸🗽⚖️ LISTEN UP DEMS ⚠️ — THE SO-CALLED “ASYLUM CRISIS” CAN BE SOLVED WITHOUT THROWING REFUGEES, DUE PROCESS, & HUMANITY UNDER THE BUS 🚌☠️— Human Rights First Has Practical Proposals For Better Borders!

IMG_0004.png

 

***********************

Read the complete HRF report at the above link!

“Pie in the sky?” Hardly! Undoubtedly, these measures could be carried out far less expensively than further, ultimately fruitless, border militarization and enhanced cruelty being pushed by the GOP and some Dems. And, they would be more effective in bringing “law and order” to the border and our overall legal system.

Fanned by alarmist narratives being spread by folks like Adams and Hochul (no, Governor, 8 billion people aren’t going to descend on your state — in fact, the U.S. has a “refugee/1,000 population ratio” far below that of many smaller, much poorer countries), and the mainstream media’s insatiable need for a “trumped-up invasion narrative” to create headlines and sound bites, I suspect that the Administration and Dem politicos might be prepared to “throw asylum seekers under the bus” to reach an agreement with the GOP to keep the Government open. After all, asylum seekers don’t vote, and their advocates have historically been good “team players” who go to bat for the Dem Party despite having their contributions, energy, and ideas consistently undervalued, even dissed, once elections are over.

Don’t do it Dems! Giving in to the righty nativists will NOT solve anything, nor will abandoning values help you in the next election! Indeed, the Administration could set more “world records” for exclusions, deportations, denials, imprisonments, wall-building, enforcement hiring, “rocket dockets,” and the GOP would still spout the same “open borders” myth, and the media would give it equal, or greater, time. They largely ignore HRF and other experts who actually understand the border, migration, and have practical, humane, if less inflammatory or drastic, solutions to offer.

The mainstream media seems to have endless time for folks like Trump, Gaetz, Jordan, Haley, Ramaswamy, etc., who have little to contribute to solving pressing national problems. Why aren’t they talking to the folks who understand migration, asylum seekers, the border, and the legal framework? Why aren’t they “headlining” and publicizing reasonable, humane, values-based solutions rather than promoting narratives of doom, hopelessness, and expensive, often illegal, cruelty as the only “solutions?” There actually have been some bipartisan proposals for addressing the border while respecting and even enhancing the rights of asylum seekers. See, e.g., https://immigrationcourtside.com/2023/02/14/🇺🇸courtside-politics-rep-hillary-scholten-d-mi-is-part-of-a-bipartisan-group-of-new-house-members-reaching-across-the-aisle-in-an-attempt-to-govern-for-the-public-good/. But, you sure wouldn’t know it from listening to the so-called “mainstreamers!”

Here’s another fascinating thing. Humane, sensible, legally compliant, cost effective solutions to migration issues proposed by experts, many of whom are immersed in the reality on a daily basis, are often dismissed, if even mentioned, as “impractical,” “unrealistic,” “idealistic,” “costly.” On the other hand, when politicos, think tankers, reporters, commenters, profiteers, many largely removed from the human trauma of the border situation, present costly, proven to fail, draconian, often illegal measures directed against asylum seekers, the same prejorative, dismissive terms are seldom used.

Indeed, the worse, crueler, and more hare-brained a scheme is, the more likely it is to be mischaracterized as a “realistic response” to a hyped-up emergency! Somehow, wanton cruelty and end-running legal obligations are packaged as a “practical necessities,” while creative ideas on how to solve problems and make the current laws work are summarily brushed aside, often without meaningful analysis and discussion.

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-15-23

🏴‍☠️🤮 SURPRISE: NIHILISTS CAN’T GOVERN — INCOMPETENT, UNINTERESTED — With Wars Raging, GOP Clown Show On Full Display, As Scalise Withdraws!🤡

Clown Car
“GOP House Conference en route to Capitol.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Ellin Beltz, 07-04-16, Creative Commons License, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Creator not responsible for above caption.

 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/12/us/politics/scalise-jordan-house-speaker.html

By Luke Broadwater

Reporting from the Capitol

Oct. 12, 2023

Updated 8:57 p.m. ET

Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana withdrew on Thursday from consideration for the speakership he was on the cusp of claiming after hard-line Republicans balked at rallying around their party’s chosen candidate, leaving the House leaderless and the G.O.P. in chaos.

After being narrowly nominated for speaker during a Wednesday closed-door secret-ballot contest among House Republicans, Mr. Scalise, their No. 2 leader, found himself far from the 217 votes needed to be elected on the House floor. Many supporters of his challenger, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the right-wing Republican endorsed by former President Donald J. Trump, refused to switch their allegiance.

With no clear end in sight to the G.O.P. infighting that has left one chamber of Congress paralyzed at a time of challenges at home and abroad, Mr. Scalise said he would step aside in hopes that someone else could unite the fractious party.

“I just shared with my colleagues that I was withdrawing my name as a candidate for speaker-designee,” Mr. Scalise said. “If you look at where our conference is, there’s still work to be done. Our conference still has to come together, and it’s not there. There are still some people that have their own agendas.”

*************

With two wars involving our allies raging and the USG on track to run out of funding in a month, the GOP focuses on what’s important to them: THEMSELVES!

The GOP is a national disgrace and an international menace! They have brought the same disorder, callous disregard for the common good, and wacko, selfish, far right minority agenda to national politics that they have to the states they misgovern.

The GOP also also threatens America’s standing and influence on the world stage. The only thing standing between us and disaster is President Biden’s determination to lead and govern despite the GOP’s disgraceful chaos and betrayal of the common good!

And remember, it’s not like Scalise, who has coddled White Supremacists — once comparing himself to Klanster David Duke — and is a lifetime shill for a divisive far/right extremist agenda, was qualified to be Speaker. He was, at best, “slightly less unqualified” than insurrectionist election denier and Trump toady Jim Jordan!

As for Trump, his incoherent, hateful, anti-democracy rantings and unhinged ravings shows why the GOP he controls is an existential problem for American democracy. See, e.g.https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/10/12/hamas-israel-biden-trump/

Just vote ‘em out, vote ‘em out!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-13-23

🇺🇸 COURTSIDE POLITICS: DEMS BAIL OUT McCARTHY, SAVE AMERICA (FOR NOW)! — NATIVIST IMMIGRATION NONSENSE STRIPPED OUT, BUT GOP THROWS UKRAINE 🇺🇦 UNDER THE BUS!🚌

Matt Gaetz (R-Outer Space)
Matt Gaetz (R-Outer Space)
The so-called mainstream media has seen fit to anoint this evil clown as the official spokesthing for the insurrectionist GOP.
PHOTO: X (formerly Twitter)

By Paul Wickham Schmidt

Courtside Exclusive

October 1, 2023

Saturday, at the 12th hour, GOP Speaker Kevin McCarthy (D-CA) finally did the obvious — reached out to Dems to save America from insurrectionist, anti-American GOP extremists by passing a last-minute continuing resolution that will fund American government until Nov. 17. 

All Dems except one (who was protesting the GOP’s pro-Putin defunding of Ukraine aid) voted for the House bill, while 90 GOP insurrectionists voted to tank America and manufacture a needless crisis. The bill passed the nominally Dem-controlled Senate in about 30 seconds, and was signed by President Biden before midnight. The message about which party is serious about governing for the common good is obvious to all real patriots, even if a shocking number of GOP voters have foisted these far-right GOP clowns upon the rest of us.

The mainstream media uses the namby-pamby misnomer “border security,” to refer to the GOP’s proposed racist-nativist attack on immigration, destruction of the long-established right to asylum, and bogus attempts to reinstate “proven to fail,” draconian deterrence measures. As happened when tried unsuccessfully in the past, the GOP would turn over control of border migration policies to cartels, smugglers, and organized crime, while deflecting attention and undermining law enforcement efforts to control human and drug smuggling. 

A true accounting for the GOP extremist agenda would clearly show how firmly on the side of Putin and border bandits today’s dangerous, “destroy America” GOP has become. Too bad the so-called “mainstream media” has so little interest in digging beyond the cosmetics on the border issues and Ukraine aid.

The mainstream media is also salivating about the bogus prospect of MAGA-maniac Matt Gaetz (R-Outer Space) unseating McCarthy. The fact that Gaetz is an extremist idiot who has nobody to replace McCarthy with doesn’t seem to have dawned on the “mainstreamers.” (“Matt Gaetz’s Motto is, ‘I’m an Asshole, What are You Going to Do About It?’” https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjnkLH8h9WBAxXPkYkEHcr5CdoQFnoECBIQAQ&url=https://buzzflash.com/articles/matt-gaetz&usg=AOvVaw2XoHad3KzJeQitggMsTve3&opi=89978449). 

In perhaps the ultimate example of clueless, Fox News inspired, “mainstream journalism,” CBS’s “This Sunday” saw fit to inflict Gaetz and his bombastic nonsense on hapless viewers today. NBC, on the other hand, maybe still smarting from new-host Kristen Welker’s disastrous, totally uncalled for, “inaugural” interview with a raving, incoherent, lie-spouting Trump, gave us wall-to-wall coverage of the Ryder Cup in place of “Meet the Press.” Honestly!

Look forward to more clownish theatrics and anti-American posturing from the GOP and their “Chief Clown” Trump, and more insipid reporting from the mainstreamers as America careens toward another likely GOP-generated “crisis” in mid-November. It’s NOT a “Washington problem! It’s purely a GOP that lacks any interest whatsoever in responsible governing.

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-01-23

🇺🇸 PERSPECTIVE FROM HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: Don’t Let The Trump Gang’s Legal Shenanigans Deflect Focus From Biden’s Successful Initiatives To Restore America’s Prestige & Leadership On The World Stage!

Heather Cox Richardson
Heather Cox Richardson
Historian
Professor, Boston College

From Letters From An American 09-08-23:

https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/september-8-2023?r=330z7&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

It turns out the special purpose grand jury of Fulton County, Georgia, created in May 2022 to investigate the attempt to disrupt the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, recommended criminal charges against more people than the 19 the traditional grand jury indicted in August. Their report, published today, shows that a majority of the 23-person special grand jury also recommended the state bring charges against South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham and the two Georgia senators in early 2020: David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.

The special purpose grand jury also recommended charges against Trump lawyers Cleta Mitchell and Boris Epshteyn, Trump advisor Michael Flynn, and all the false electors.

In most of the votes, it appeared there was one staunch vote opposed to bringing charges against anyone associated with Trump.

Also today, U.S. district judge Steve C. Jones for the Northern District of Georgia denied the request of Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows to move his prosecution to federal rather than state court. This is important. Meadows had argued that the crimes for which the Fulton County grand jury indicted him were part of his duties as a federal official. If the judge had agreed, the removal of his case to federal court would have enabled Meadows to argue that his case should be dismissed because his actions were part of his official duties. But the judge determined that Meadow’s actions were part of his work for the Trump campaign and thus could stay in state court.

To make his case, Meadows testified himself, a high-risk step that now leaves him, as legal analyst Harry Litman of the Los Angeles Times put it, “in a very bad place. He gambled heavily on winning & then getting immunity. Now his ability to cooperate w/ either Jack Smith or Fani Willis is a) of much less value & b) possibly even off the table. He is in a world of hurt.”

Meadows has already appealed.

Other defendants, including Trump himself, were hoping their cases would be removed to federal court, but the decision in Meadows’s case does not bode well for them.

It would be a shame if the growing legal troubles of the Trump conspirators overshadow the work of the Biden administration on the global stage this week as it seeks to counter the power and influence of China by supporting other countries in the region. Vice President Kamala Harris took the lead in a visit to Jakarta, Indonesia, where she participated in the U.S.–Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit.

ASEAN is a political and economic group of 10 countries that, combined, have more than 600 million people. Within that group, different countries seek stronger ties either with the U.S. or with China, and Harris has become a key figure in the administration’s attempt to bolster U.S. interests there. This was her third trip to Southeast Asia as vice president and fourth to Asia.

In Jakarta, Harris told Chris Megerian of the Associated Press: “We as Americans…have a very significant interest, both in terms of our security but also our prosperity, today and in the future, in developing and strengthening these relationships.” She said the government must “pay attention to 10, 20, 30 years down the line, and what we are developing now that will be to the benefit of our country then.” Southeast Asia has a young population, with two thirds of it under 35; makes up the fourth-largest market for U.S. exports; and is a passageway for one third of global shipping.

As Harris returned to the U.S., Biden left for New Delhi, India, for the Group of 20 (G20) Leaders’ Summit. On Friday he and Indian prime minister Narenda Modi had a bilateral meeting, and on Saturday and Sunday he will participate in the G20 summit. The G20 is a forum made up of 19 countries and the European Union that works to address issues relating to the global economy. G20 countries are responsible for 85% of the world’s economy and 75% of the world’s trade. The G20 is meeting September 8–10 in New Delhi.

On Tuesday, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that the U.S. focus at the G20 will be to emphasize the scaling up of development banks, especially the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which provide funding for developing countries. In August, Biden asked Congress to increase funding for the World Bank, and at the G20, Biden will call on G20 members “to provide meaningful debt relief so that low- and middle-income countries can regain their footing after years of extreme stress,” Sullivan said.

The U.S. will also emphasize the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI), a collaborative effort by the Group of Seven (G7) put together in 2022 to fund infrastructure projects from rail to solar to supply chains in developing nations. The G7 is a political forum made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the U.S., and the European Union (EU).

At the center of the G20 meeting is the issue of money for developing countries. In 2013, China launched the so-called Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to invest in infrastructure development in more than 150 countries as part of its assumption of a greater role in world affairs. The U.S. and key allies, including Japan and Australia, saw the plan as an effort to tie world trade to China.

But now, economic troubles in the wake of the onset of the coronavirus pandemic have made BRI debt less attractive to borrowing countries, while China has tightened up lending to reduce its own risk in the midst of an economic downturn. China is planning a big celebration for the tenth anniversary of the initiative in October, but European leaders are not planning to attend. In August, Italy, which was the only G7 country to join BRI, announced it was withdrawing.

Meanwhile, China’s president Xi Jinping will not attend this week’s G20 for the first time since he took office in 2012, possibly signaling internal turmoil in China or Xi’s frustration with what he sees as its increasing orientation toward the U.S., especially the growing ties between the U.S. and India, which shares a contested 2,100-mile border with China. In his place, Premier Li Qiang, the second-ranking leader in the People’s Republic of China, will attend the meeting.

Xi appears to be focusing less on the G20 now and more on BRICS, a bloc of emerging economies that began in 2009 with four countries—Brazil, Russia, India, and China—and added South Africa in 2010. When the group suggested earlier this year that it might admit more member states, more than 40 expressed interest, and BRICS has invited six to join: Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen is with the president in New Delhi, where today she told the press that the U.S. is “committed to supporting emerging markets in developing countries” and outlined the ways in which the U.S. hopes to increase access to funds, especially to address climate change. She said the administration is asking Congress for $2.25 billion for the World Bank and a loan of up to $21 billion for the IMF, and is looking to find a way to provide debt relief for struggling countries.

After attending the G20, Biden will travel to Hanoi, Vietnam, as part of what national security advisor Jake Sullivan called “a vision for facing the 21st century together with an elevated and energized partnership.”

Russia is also part of the G20, but Russian president Vladimir Putin will not attend, sending foreign minister Sergey Lavrov instead. While that absence can be attributed to the increasing isolation of Putin and Russia by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there might also be a different source of tension between the normally cooperative Russia and India. Last month, both countries launched lunar probes. India’s landed successfully and has been completing scientific studies.

Russia’s crashed.

Notes:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23944933-2022-ex-000024-ex-parte-order-of-the-judge-2

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/judge-denies-meadows-bid-to-remove-georgia-case-to-federal-court

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/08/mark-meadows-georgia-election-charges

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/in-southeast-asian-summit-kamala-harris-at-the-center-of-white-house-efforts-to-oppose-china

https://apnews.com/article/kamala-harris-indonesia-summit-34ad8477fc9b0afb1f17adf807dda475

https://apnews.com/article/harris-2024-election-vice-president-7ecabc8d9f0117edad8e83a0c37c9134

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/05/20/fact-sheet-partnership-for-global-infrastructure-and-investment-at-the-g7-summit/

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202308/1297328.shtml

https://www.rferl.org/a/g7-global-infrastructure-investment-plan-bri-china/31915926.html

https://www.cfr.org/blog/why-italy-withdrawing-chinas-belt-and-road-initiative

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/08/22/the-border-dispute-that-s-bedeviling-china-india-ties/3e86f86a-40cf-11ee-9677-53cc50eb3f77_story.html

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/08/china/china-xi-g20-absence-global-governance-intl-hnk/index.html

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2023/09/08/press-gaggle-by-press-secretary-karine-jean-pierre-and-national-security-advisor-jake-sullivan-en-route-ramstein-air-base-germany/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2023/09/08/press-gaggle-by-secretary-of-the-treasury-janet-yellen-ahead-of-the-g20-summit-in-india-new-delhi-india/

https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/China-up-close/Analysis-Xi-reprimanded-by-elders-at-Beidaihe-over-direction-of-nation

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/5-things-watch-biden-travels-india-g20-vietnam/story?id=102977070

https://www.wsj.com/articles/europe-avoids-chinas-belt-and-road-forum-keeping-a-distance-from-xi-and-putin-14f6253b

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/29/putin-confirms-g20-absence-to-modi-congratulates-india-on-moon-landing

https://apnews.com/article/russia-moon-luna25-spacecraft-mission-33c9884c907998f06bf9562be6d47445

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/07/world/india-lunar-lander-chandryaan-mission-obit-scn/index.html

https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-column-brics-bloc-expansion-china-russia-western-alternative-shackelford-20230908-2slrpb52xnblppb3yrotkwtv7u-story.html

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2023/09/05/press-briefing-by-press-secretary-karine-jean-pierre-and-national-security-advisor-jake-sullivan-6/

Twitter (X):

harrylitman/status/1700278326902788237

MacFarlaneNews/status/1700305331392331999/photo/1

kyledcheney/status/17001500

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Forget the “age issue.” There is no way that narcissist Donald Trump and any of the “lesser clowns” 🤡 with whom he surrounds himself could represent America’s interests effectively on the world stage, particularly at this crucial point in time!

Watching low-key yet highly competent Secretary of State Tony Blinken working in Ukraine this week, there is no way that Pompeo could have pulled that off.  America needs a credible presence on the world stage. That’s one of many things that today’s insurrectionist, conspiracy theorist, Putin-appeasing GOP could never accomplish!  

Due Process Forever!

PWS

09-09-23

🇺🇸🗽⚖️ TAHIRIH’S CASEY CARTER SWEGMAN SPEAKS OUT FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS, RULE OF LAW — Urges Us To Reject Fareed Zakaria‘s Nativist BS!

Casey Carter Swegman
Casey Carter Swegman
Director of Public Policy at the Tahirih Justice Center
PHOTO: Tahirih Justice Center

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/20/asylum-seekers-not-gaming-system/

Letters to the Editor

Opinion | Asylum seekers are not ‘gaming the system’

August 20, 2023 at 5:16 p.m. ET

To say that people seeking asylum in the United States are “gaming the system,” as Fareed Zakaria did in his Aug. 14 op-ed, “Immigration can be fixed. Why aren’t we fixing it?,” not only was dehumanizing but also dismissed the very real and traumatic conditions that force people and their families to make the heartbreaking choice to leave their homes and embark on a journey in search of protection and safety.

Calling on people to claim asylum in their home countries revealed a fundamental misunderstanding of the asylum ban and asylum itself. Access to asylum in the United States remains critical because many of the countries that individuals are fleeing from and through cannot or will not protect them from violence.

The U.S. government’s asylum ban is exacerbating dangerous circumstances for all asylum seekers. Women, girls and other survivors of gender-based violence seeking asylum are being denied refuge and forced to remain in conditions along our border that increase their susceptibility to the same kinds of violence and threats to their lives that forced them to flee in the first place.

Asylum is a legal and human right for all people, born of our own recognition that every human being has the right to seek a life of safety and dignity. This has nothing to do with partisan politics. The United States has an obligation to uphold its own laws and live up to its promise as a welcoming nation.

Casey Carter Swegman, Falls Church

The writer is director of public policy at the Tahirih Justice Center.

********************

The legal right to seek asylum in the U.S. or at our border is clear! Getting the USG to respect it and the media to accurately report on abusive, illegal attempts to limit it, not so much! Thanks, Casey, for speaking truth and “taking it to” purveyors of White Nationalist myths like Zakaria!

Rather than urging fixing the legal asylum system to work in a fair, generous, timely, and humane manner — something that should be well within the Government’s capabilities and clearly in the national interest — folks like Zakaria, who should know better, have taken to victim shaming and blaming. The current law gives the Government plenty of tools to deal with frivolous claims to asylum. 

That our Government lacks the will and expertise to implement and staff the current system in a manner that would fairly and reasonably “separate the wheat from the chaff” is NOT the fault of those seeking asylum and their dedicated, hard-working, long-suffering advocates. Indeed, asylum and human rights advocates appear to be the only folks interested in insuring Constitutional due process and upholding the rule of law! 

I don’t dispute that our immigration system needs a legislative overhaul. But, that must NOT come at the expense of asylum seekers, refugees, and others who need and are deserving of our protection!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

08-21-23

🏴‍☠️🤯☠️ INVITE ‘EM TO DEFECT, THEN ARBITRARILY REJECT — Russian Allies Find Broken U.S. Asylum System Akin To Russian Roulette! — “I don’t understand how we are denying Russians at all,” says Jennifer Scarborough, Refugees’ Lawyer!

Russian Roulette
AG Merrick Garland thinks it’s fine to play “roulette” with human lives in his arbitrary, capricious, and dysfunctional EOIR. Those trying to help his victims obtain justice disagree! Is this REALLY the way things ran when Garland was on the D.C. Circuit? If not, why is it “good enough for Immigration Court?”
IMAGE: tvtropes
Jennifer Scarborough, EsquireLaw Firm of Jennifer Scarborough PLLC Harlingen, TX PHOTO: Firm
Jennifer Scarborough, Esquire
Law Firm of Jennifer Scarborough PLLC
Harlingen, TX
PHOTO: Firm
Hamed Aleaziz
Hamed Aleaziz
Staff Writer
LA Times

http://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=df3af6fe-6f28-47f0-a65a-95a9e0272c10

Hamed Aleaziz & Tracy Wilkinson report for the LA Times:

WASHINGTON — Numerous Russians attempting to escape conscription onto the Ukrainian battlefield have made perilous journeys to the United States, trusting in the Biden administration’s declaration that the U.S. would “welcome” those fleeing the war and their forced participation in it.

Instead of winning asylum, however, some of these men have been detained and, in at least one case, deported back to Russia, where they could be thrown into the fight against U.S.-armed Ukraine — into “the meat grinder,” as the U.S. secretary of State recently put it.

The U.S. has deported nearly 190 Russians since the beginning of October 2022, almost three times as many as were removed during the entire prior year.

Some Russian conscripts have refused to board deportation flights, forcing U.S. immigration officers to return them to immigration detention and legal limbo.

Three Russians the U.S. detained and sought to deport told The Times that certain abuse awaited them at home, where draft dodgers are subject to imprisonment or swift dispatch to front lines. The three Russians said they felt bewildered — betrayed, even — bythe U.S. asylum system. The Times is withholding their identities because they fear retribution if they are returned to Russia.

“Death awaits me there if I go back,” said one Russian man in his 20s. He said he was slated to be deported but fainted when immigration officials loaded him onto the plane, which forced them to return him to detention.

Although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Russians who opposed the war to stay at home and fight to topple Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Biden administration has explicitly encouraged Russians who do not want to fight in Ukraine to seek asylum in the United States.

“There are people out there in Russia who do not want to fight Putin’s war or die for it,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in September. “We believe that, regardless of nationality, they may apply for asylum in the United States and have their claim adjudicated on a case-by-case basis.

“We welcome any folks who are seeking asylum, and they should do that,” she said.

But Russians who have taken the U.S. up on that offer have quickly discovered that seeking asylum is not the same as winning it. The U.S. government’s willingness to help people who flee Russia — even if doing so undermines Russia’s war effort — is limited.

In some cases, the government has argued that being called up to serve in the Russian military is not alone sufficient grounds for asylum. Jennifer Scarborough, the lawyer for the three Russians The Times interviewed, has countered that they qualify for asylum because they did not want to be involved with the war for political reasons and would face unreasonable repercussions for refusing to serve.

“They could be deported back to a regime that is committing gross human rights violations,” she said. “I don’t understand how we are denying Russians at all.”

The number of Russians crossing the southern U.S. border surged in November and December, shortly after Putin, facing massive casualties among his troops, ordered up a fresh army mobilization and drafted up to 300,000 reservists.

Russians crossed the southern border more than 5,000 times in November and nearly 8,000 times in December, a major increase from earlier months.

More than 8 million Ukrainians have fled their homeland since Putin launched his invasion of the former Soviet Republic on Feb. 24, 2022. Their escapes have involved trains and commercial flights and massive assistance, and they have largely been welcomed in other countries.

By contrast, many of those fleeing Russia for the U.S. have used the same difficult and at times treacherous route that disfavored refugees from all over the world use. A flight from Dubai or Istanbul gets them to South America, where they continue on flights, buses and by foot northward, sometimes trekking through jungle, to reach Mexico and the U.S. border.

One man who spoke to The Times was picked up by immigration agents in December near Tecate. The man made the weeks-long journey to the U.S. with his younger brother.

The man fled Russia when his call-up notice arrived.

“Even in childhood, I understood that, for me, America was a symbol of freedom,” he said in a telephone interview from a detention center in Pennsylvania. “And yes, there was a dream to move here one day. Because during your entire life in Russia, it is difficult; you’re discriminated against at every turn.”

“I went through war,” the man said. “I know what this entails. I saw the war. And now they are trying to force me to bring this to Ukraine.”

. . . .

*****************

Read the complete report at the link.

Jenn Scarborough asks the right question. In a functioning protection system, one would expect most cases like this to be granted in short order. However, the BIA generally has restrictive precedents on draft evaders and deserters stemming largely from a desire to deny protection to applicants fleeing civil wars in Central America decades ago. See, e.g., Matter of A-G-, 19 I & N Dec. 502 (BIA 1987).

As “Courtsiders” know, the endemic problem is lack of expert, progressive, dynamic, courageous intellectual leadership in a system now solely controlled and operated by a Dem Administration that often acts more like an “old school GOP” one on immigration and human rights! Administration of both parties live in perpetual fear that making good on promises of fair treatment and legal protection would actually motivate refugees to seek it!

That’s a particular problem at EOIR which should be the legal intellectual leader here! We need practical, scholarly, generous, common sense precedents focusing on what should be easily grantable protection claims! 

Instead, we have a leaderless, bureaucratic, non-expert mess, still retaining too many elements of the anti-immigrant, anti-asylum, any reason to deny, go along to get along, court as a “deterrent” system constructed and promoted by the Trump Administration. That has continued to churn out both egregious inconsistencies and backlog-building inefficiencies in critical “life or death” cases! 

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

08-20-23

 

🇺🇸⚖️🗽🧑‍⚖️ CONGRATULATIONS TO HON. KATHERINE E. (“KATE”) CLARK, NEWLY APPOINTED APPELLATE JUDGE AT THE BIA: Practical Scholar, Legacy Arlington Immigration Court Intern Alum, Former EOIR JLC, Georgetown Law Grad, AYUDA Supervisor, Hill Staffer, Civil Servant, Judge Clark’s Broad Background Appears “Just What The Doctor Ordered” For Failing & Flailing “Supreme Court of Immigration!”😎

Hon. Katherine E. Clark
Honorable Katherine E. Clark
Appellate Immigration Judge & Board Member
U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals
PHOTO: AYUDA website

Here’s the EOIR press release:

https://www.justice.gov/eoir/page/file/1593116/download

EOIR Announces New Appellate Immigration Judge

FALLS CHURCH, VA – The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) today announced the appointment of Katharine E. Clark as a Board Member of EOIR’s Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA).

The BIA is the highest administrative body for interpreting and applying immigration laws, having nationwide jurisdiction to hear appeals of decisions by adjudicators, including Immigration Judges.

Biographical information follows:

Katharine E. Clark, Appellate Immigration Judge

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Katharine E. Clark as an Appellate Immigration Judge in August 2023. Judge Clark earned a Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, in 2003 from Brown University and a Juris Doctorate in 2006 from Georgetown University Law Center. From 2022 to 2023, and 2007 to 2018, she served as a senior litigation counsel and trial attorney at the Office of Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, Department of Justice. From 2019 to 2021, she was a managing attorney at Ayuda in Silver Spring, Maryland, where she also handled cases on a pro bono basis. From 2018 to 2019, she was counsel for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. From 2006 to 2007, she served as a Judicial Law Clerk at the Boston Immigration Court, entering on duty through the Attorney General’s Honors Program. Judge Clark is a member of the Maryland State Bar and the Pennsylvania State Bar.

— EOIR —

*****************************

Proud to say Judge Clark is a graduate of not only Georgetown Law (where I am an Adjunct), but one of many distinguished alums of the Legacy Arlington Immigraton Court Internship Program, established by my good friend and colleague Retired U.S. Immigraton Judge Mario Christopher Grant. I later inherited the “Mentor Judge” position upon Judge Grant’s retirement. Judge Clark is the first, hopefully of many, of those we mentored to be appointed to the BIA.

I am also a member of the Advisory Board at AYUDA, where Judge Clark worked as a supervisory attorney from 2019-21.

Judge Clark’s experiences give her an exceptionally broad, varied perspective. She has seen the system from the inside, at EOIR, as an NGO advocate assisting those struggling to deal with EOIR’s dysfunction and institutional unfairness, as an OIL attorney defending EOIR’s work, and as a legislative aide attempting to address the system’s many shortcomings.

She is well positioned to help the BIA and EOIR move beyond the flawed decision-making, unrealistic guidance, and backlog-building “Aimless Docket Reshuffling” that has plagued the Immigration Court System over the past two decades. Hopefully she will be a force in returning EOIR to it’s proper (though long-abandoned) vision of: Through teamwork and innovation, becoming the world’s best administrative tribunals, guaranteeing fairness and due process for all!

It’s far away from that now! But, there are some judges at EOIR like Judge Clark qualified and capable of leading a “due process renaissance” at the beleaguered tribunals. Whether and to what extent they will be able to do so remains to be seen.

Congratulations again and good luck to Judge Clark!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

08-16-23

🐝📈 IMMIGRANTS, BLACKS, HISPANICS LEAD WAY IN KEEPING ECONOMY HUMMING, RECESSION AT BAY! — “If the U.S. economy ends up having a soft landing, it will largely be because immigrants and people of color have kept entering the labor force — helping to keep production going, consumption solid and wage growth (and inflation) cooling to a more sustainable level.”

Heather LongHeather Long @ WashPost writes:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/09/employment-black-immigrant-workers-recession/

The U.S. labor market is on a gravity-defying streak. The June jobs report was a tad softer than expected, but the overall trend is so strong that recession fears are fading. Hiring remains solid across many industries, including construction, and companies are largely holding on to their workers.

There’s growing optimism that the country can avoid a downturn. One key reason this is possible is the surge of new workers. Nearly 4 million more people are employed now than just before the pandemic hit. That’s more families with steady incomes to spend, which helps explain the vigorous sales of everything from cars to gardening supplies. There has also been a big upshift in the labor force since the pandemic: Low-paying hospitality employment still hasn’t recovered, as workers have traded up to higher-paying business, health-care and warehouse work. This has brought another boost to incomes and an important mental shift as more workers who used to hop from job to job now see themselves on a steady career path.

. . . .

In contrast, over 2 million more Hispanics are employed now, over 800,000 more Asian Americans and over 750,000 more African Americans. This same trend played out just before the pandemic. Companies were also complaining then that they could not find workers, and experts were saying the nation was at “full employment.” Yet month after month, Black and Hispanic people (largely women) kept entering the labor force and getting jobs. It’s also notable that over 2 million more foreign-born people are employed now than before the pandemic. This means that more than half of the new workers have been immigrants.

If the U.S. economy ends up having a soft landing, it will largely be because immigrants and people of color have kept entering the labor force — helping to keep production going, consumption solid and wage growth (and inflation) cooling to a more sustainable level.

What’s going on is partly a result of low unemployment, what economists often dub a “tight” labor market. Black and Hispanic people often do not get hired until late in a recovery. In the past year, there has also been a strong uptick in jobs in government and health care, sectors in which women of color have historically found employment opportunities. Employers have also expanded their hiring searches, improved pay and benefits, and removed requirements for college degrees for many positions. All of this has helped expand opportunities. This past spring, for the first time, Black Americans were as likely to be employed as White Americans.

“There is sufficient demand that employers aren’t discriminating. They need workers,” economist William Spriggs told me in a conversation shortly before his death last month.

Spriggs spent years pointing out that too many experts were overlooking how many more people of color were ready to work if only employers would give them a chance and the jobs weren’t dead-end ones. As other economists were stunned by the labor market in recent months, especially the gains for Black people, Spriggs had a different take. “It’s not that the labor market is ‘overheated,’” he said. “It’s that the labor market is getting closer to how it’s supposed to work in a textbook.”

. . . .

********************************

Read Heather’s full article at the link.

Immigrants and minorities continue to over-perform for America! Not surprising to many of us. Just recently, there was an article in the LA Times about the outsized role of immigrant women, many from Ukraine, in boosting the U.S. labor market. https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-07-06/new-influx-of-refugees-help-cushion-an-american-economy-strapped-for-workers.

Yet, these groups receive little credit, to a large extent because of racist myths perpetrated and spread by GOP nativists like DeSantis, Trump, Abbott, Miller, Bannon, and many others. Too often these myths and intentionally misleading statements are accepted at “face value” by the media. 

With a tight labor market, one might well ask why the U.S. is spending billions trying to detain and discourage refugees from applying for asylum at the border? Why are we dumping on individuals who, despite the mischaracterizations by both parties, are “trying to do things the right way” by applying through the legal asylum system?

Seems like the resources would better be devoted to figuring our how to fairly and generously process refugees, asylees (an important source of legal immigration), and other immigrants in a fair, robust, and timely manner, both at the border and abroad! Get these folks into legal, work authorized status faster so that they can contribute and help our economy grow!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

07-11-23

⚖️🗽 GREAT NDPA OPPORTUNITY:  2023-2024 ABA International Law Section Diversity Fellowship!

My long-time friend and former EOIR colleague, Peg Taylor, now Adjunct Professor of Law at Maryland Francis Carey School of Law writes: 

As you may (or may not) know, ILS runs a fellowship for young diverse lawyers who have an interest in international law.  The benefits this fellowship offers include: generous entree to ILS substantive programs and conferences — including an allowance for registration, travel, and lodging; waiver of Section dues; liberal publishing opportunities; and speciality-specific mentorships/sponsorships with experienced attorneys.

ILS is currently accepting applications for the Fellows Program.  See attached information/application.  It would be great, if you would share this information either on immigrationcourtside or with potentially interested young lawyers or both. Applications are due to Angela Benson, ILS Director of Membership, Meetings, and Marketing – angela.benson@americanbar.org on or before Monday, June 26, 2023.

Thanks so much.  Best.  Peggy

***************************

pastedGraphic.png

2023-2024 ABA International Law Section Diversity Fellowship

About the Fellows Program

The ABA International Law Section (ILS or Section) proudly sponsors a generous Diversity Fellows Program (“Program”).  The Program robustly supports the ABA’s policy of active involvement and participation of diverse lawyers in the ABA, the Section, the profession, and the justice system.  See ABA Goal III (to promote full and equal participation).  The Program is for young barred lawyers (under 36 years old with five years or less of legal experience) who have an interest in international law and come from diverse backgrounds – including diverse races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and abilities/disabilities.

The application period for the term running from September 2023 to August 2024 is now open.  Among the opportunities available to the 3-5 selected Fellows will be:

·      abundant entrée to ILS substantive programs and conferences – including an allowance for registration, travel, and lodging;

·      waiver of Section dues;

·      specialty-specific mentorships/sponsorships with experienced attorneys;

·      membership in a close circle of Fellows and alumni of the Fellows program;

·      appointments to Section leadership positions; and

·      liberal publishing opportunities.

Fellows will be assigned to substantive ILS Committees.  The Committee Chairs will engage Fellows in all aspects of committee membership, including projects involving policy formulation and program development.  The ILS’ Diversity Officer and Membership Officer and their respective Deputies will also work with Fellows, monitoring their progress and providing periodic reports to ILS’ Administration Committee.

Fellowship Eligibility

Successful applicants will demonstrate that they work in the international legal arena and/or that they have a deep interest in international law.  They will further show that they are 36 years old or younger and at least one year out of law school.  Applicants will also document that they have been admitted to a bar and that their admission took place less than 6 years prior to the date of their Program application.  In furtherance of its goal to make the Fellowships available to a diverse group of young lawyers, application reviewers will take information regarding applicants’ race, ethnicity, disabilities (if any), and gender/sexual identities into account.  See ABA Goal III.

If an applicant is not a member of the ABA or the Section at the time of application, such applicant will be required to become a dues-paying member of the ABA upon a grant of the Program application.  The Section will, however, cover Section dues.

Fellows’ Responsibilities

During their Fellowship, Fellows will be required to produce specific deliverables, as directed by the ILS Diversity Officer.  At a minimum, Fellows will: engage in active Committee participation, as the Section requires of all Section Leaders; regularly communicate with their Committee Chair, the Diversity Officer, the Membership Officer, and their Section mentor and complete progress reports.[1] Fellows will be required to sign a Fellowship Agreement with ILS.  Should a Fellow fail to comply with the terms of the Fellowship, the Section will automatically stop all support – including but not limited to financial support.

Application Requirements

Applicants for the Section Diversity Fellows Program must submit:

·      a cover letter explaining why the Section should consider their application;

·      a fully executed application, addressing all the application questions;

·      two letters of recommendation; and

·      documentation of the requisite bar membership.

 

Complete applications must be submitted to Angela Benson, ILS Director of Membership, Meetings, and Marketing at angela.benson@americanbar.org. on or before Monday, June 26, 2023.

 

2023-2024 ABA International Law Section Diversity Fellowship Application

  1. Applicant Information:

Name:

Firm/Company:

Address:

City:                             State:               Zip:

Country:

Email:

Area of Practice:

  1. Are you an ABA member? Are you a member of any Sections?

Yes  ____      No ____

  1. Are you a member of the Section of International Law?

Yes ___   No ___

  1. Describe your interest in being a Diversity Fellow of the Section of International Law and how you plan to accomplish your goals and be of service to the Section (Max 500 words).
  2. Describe your Section of International Law activities including leadership roles, programs that you have organized, Section meetings attended. If you are not a Section member, then describe which committees you hope to join, how that will support the advancement of your career in international law, and how you are planning to achieve that goal through this Fellowship within the Section. (Max 500 words) http://www.americanbar.org/groups/international_law/committees.html
  3. Describe your leadership and participation roles in other bar associations including state, local, minority or foreign bars and your involvement in international law related activities/practice/etc. (Max 500 words).

7.     Please describe what diversity and inclusion and international law initiatives and programs you have been involved in and how, through this Fellowship program, you are planning to reach out to other lawyers of diverse backgrounds and have them involved in the Section of International Law. (Max 500 words).

[1] http://www.americanbar.org/groups/international_law/committees.html

**************************

This is a super NDPA opportunity! Thanks so much to the ILS and ABA for making it available and to Peg for passing it on.

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

05-26-23

🤯2D CIR. SAVAGES BIA’S ANTI-ASYLUM PRECEDENT Matter of Y-I-M-, 27 I. & N. Dec. 724 (B.I.A. 2019)! — Phantom Discrepancies, “Lunch Over Lives,” No Time To Listen, Staggering Due Process Violations, Legal Incompetence “Outed” By Appeals Court! — “[T]he adverse credibility finding relies, in large measure, on legal error by the agency, including misstatement and mischaracterization of the facts in the record and flawed reasoning . . . [and] the IJ’s unjustified refusal to allow Malets to present readily available witness testimony deprived him of a full and fair hearing.”

Kangaroos
“Hipppity, hippity, hop! Deny, deny, deny! For any reason, in any season, or for no reason at all! Hippity, hippity, hop!”
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rasputin243/
Creative Commons License

Dan Kowalski reports for LexisNexis Immigration Community:

Fwd: CA2 Vacates Matter of Y-I-M-, 27 I. & N. Dec. 724 (B.I.A. 2019)

https://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/39426c08-21a5-4276-9155-8503e595b65c/1/doc/19-4216_opn.pdf

https://www.lexisnexis.com/LegalNewsRoom/immigration/b/insidenews/posts/ca2-vacates-matter-of-y-i-m–27-i-n-dec-724-b-i-a-2019#

“Petitioner, a native and citizen of Ukraine, seeks review of a December 12, 2019 decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) affirming the denial of his application for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). Based on ostensible inconsistencies in Petitioner’s testimony and a purported failure to submit corroborating evidence, an Immigration Judge (“IJ”) entered an adverse credibility finding. However, we conclude that the adverse credibility finding is not supported by substantial evidence and that the IJ unjustifiably refused to allow Petitioner to present readily available witness testimony, thereby depriving him of a full and fair hearing. As such, we GRANT the petition for review, VACATE the BIA’s decision, and REMAND the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”

[Hats way off to John Giammatteo!]

John Giammatteo
John Giammatteo, Esquire
Clinical Teaching Fellow
Georgetown Law
PHOTO: Georgetown Law

Daniel M. Kowalski

Editor-in-Chief

Bender’s Immigration Bulletin (LexisNexis)

cell/text/Signal (512) 826-0323

@dkbib on Twitter

dan@cenizo.com

Free Daily Blog: www.bibdaily.com

***************

First, many congrats to NDPA super lawyer John Giammatteo! Obviously (to everyone but Garland), experts like John belong on the Immigration Bench, not just in front of it!

Notably, as Courtside readers know, this is hardly the first time during Garland’s tenure that the BIA has been”flagged” for essentially “fabricating” adverse credibility findings to deny asylum in a “life or death” case! See, e.g., https://immigrationcourtside.com/2022/07/23/%e2%9a%96%ef%b8%8f-5th-cir-rebukes-bia-for-fabricating-adverse-credibility-finding-to-deny-asylum-how-long-can-garland-ignore-this-poor-judicial-performance/.

Something is horribly wrong with a system that designates fabrications and denials of due process as “precedents” to guide other judges! Something is also disturbingly wrong with an Attorney General, a former Article III Federal Appeals Judge no less, who has failed to bring in real expert progressive judges to run EOIR, redo defective precedents as proper legal guidance, eradicate the disgraceful anti-asylum bias, and enforce due process, fundamental fairness, and decisional excellence in America’s most important “retail level” court system!

There currently are opportunities for better judges to get into the system, start eradicating bad judging like this, and replacing it with expert, due process focused, efficient, “real judging” by better judges. Get those applications in!

The “message” of Matter of Y-I-M- is clear: make it up, ignore it, cut it off, hustle off to lunch — whatever it takes to “get to no” — we’ll have your back!

“The decision is scorching,” says Dan Kowalski. And, well it should be! This is a disgusting, institutionalized travesty of justice 🤮, in life or death cases ☠️, going on right under AG Merrick Garland’s nose! It’s undermining American democracy! And, it’s totally preventable!

Remarkably, the BIA selected this pathetically bad adjudication — one that raises questions as to whether anyone at EOIR even read the record — combined with a horrendous denial of due process, and an IJ who obviously felt “empowered” to elevate time over fairness and substance — as a precedent! That means it was supposed to be a “model” for IJs — essentially a message that you should go ahead and deny asylum for any reason —  even if largely fabricated — and the BIA will give you a “pass.” This actually raises some serious ethical problems with the whole EOIR mess and Garland’s indolent stewardship over this critical part of our justice system!

The IJ actually said this: “So, don’t get frustrated if I shutdown your arguments. It’s just that —we’re now at 12:00, and we’re nowhere . . . near done in the case.”

Amazingly, this IJ “touted” that cutting off relevant testimony, actually “helped” the respondent by giving him more possible reasons to appeal! Does this sound like a system that encourages “efficiency” and “excellence?” 

No wonder they have backlogs coming out the wazoo! Yet, rather than slamming this IJ and using it as a precedent of how NOT to handle an asylum case, the BIA basically “greenlighted” an egregiously defective performance and made it a “model” for other judges! Outrageous!

It’s an example of why this system needs progressive, due process oriented leadership and radical reforms! Now!

A competent IJ could have granted this corroborated case and still have made their “noon lunch date!” Recognizing and institutionalizing consistent grants of relief is what “moves” the Immigration Court system without violating anyone’s rights and without tying up the Article III Courts!

Instead, because of the unchecked “culture of denial” and the incompetence allowed to flourish at EOIR, after four years this case is still bouncing around the system. That’s a key reason why EOIR is dysfunctional and their backlogs are out of control!

Correct, positive precedents establishing and enforcing best practices are essential to due process and fundamental fairness — once, but no longer, EOIR’s “vision.”

One of the “uninitiated” might logically expect that having exposed and eliminated this disingenuous “any reason to deny asylum” precedent, advocates for due process and fundamental fairness have “won this battle.” Not so in the “parallel universe” of Garland’s EOIR!

As pointed out by Hon. “Sir Jeffrey” Chase of the Round Table:

If they follow past practice, the BIA will continue to apply this decision as a model for IJs in every circuit but the 2d.

Come on, man!

The author of the Second Circuit decision, U.S. District Judge Gary Brown has an interesting background, according to “Sir Jeffrey:”

Also, the judge who wrote the decision for the panel, Gary Brown, is a Trump appointee to the Eastern District of NY sitting by designation on this panel. When John’s argument was being mooted, we actually discovered that Judge Brown is also a renowned magician, who invented an effect called the Viking Spirit Trumpet.

Actually, Judge Brown was nominated for the bench by both President Obama and President Trump! Wonder if he has any magic spells up his sleeve that would make EOIR disappear and reappear as a real, due-process-focused court!

Magic Hat & Wand
Magic Hat & Wand
Could U.S. District Judge Gary Brown, also a famous magician, conjure up a spell that would make due process “reappear” at EOIR?
PHOTO: Public Realm

Amazing how busy Article III Judges can take the time to read and understand records in asylum cases, but the BIA can’t! This system is broken!

Meaningful reform starts with a new, better qualified, expert BIA focused solely on due process, fundamental fairness, and decisional excellence. It’s very straightforward! Why doesn’t Garland “get it?” How many more will be wrongfully denied while our disconnected AG floats around in his surreal, yet deadly, “intellectual never never land?”

Alfred E. Neumann
Lost in an intellectual fog, and far removed from the “retail level of justice,” AG Merrick Garland can’t be bothered with the injustices heaped on asylum seekers and their dedicated representatives in his dysfunctional, deny for any reason, Immigration Courts!
PHOTO: Wikipedia Commons

Every time I read this decision I get more and more outraged about the continuing horrors of EOIR! Attorneys could face sanctions for making material misrepresentations in briefs. Yet, nothing happens to EOIR Judges who “make it up as they go along” to deny asylum!

I was told by some with  knowledge of the EOIR disaster that, at least until recently, those at higher levels of the Administration who (curiously) are “pulling the strings” at EOIR were unaware that Immigration Judges are not automatically “packaged” with Judicial Law Clerks! Duh! Anybody who has actually worked at the “line level” of EOIR as well as a whole bunch of widely available reports and studies could have told them that!

So, according to my sources, in at least some locations “flooded” with new IJs, the already poor IJ to JLC ratio has gotten much, much worse!

Yet, recent “practical scholarship” shows that providing JLCs to every IJ and diminishing the reliance on “contemporaneous oral decisions” would significantly increase due process at EOIR at a very modest systemic cost. See, e.g.https://immigrationcourtside.com/2022/08/31/☠️⚖️failng-justice-immigration-judges-👩🏽⚖️-need-individual-law-clerks-not-more-falls-church-bureaucracy-failed/

Just another piece of “low hanging fruit” that Garland has failed to “harvest.” I’ve also been told that problems with grade levels discourage individuals from making a career out of working in the law clerk program.

All of this makes it critical that new Immigration Judges be experts in immigration law with “hands on” experience. So, NDPA practical scholars, get those applications for judgeships in NOW! Indolence about due process at the top creates opportunities for spreading and institutionalizing due process at the “retail level!” But, that requires great judges with the right experience. So, don’t wait! Apply today!🗽⚖️👨🏾‍⚖️👨🏼‍⚖️👩🏾‍⚖️🧑🏻‍⚖️

See, e.g., https://immigrationcourtside.com/2023/04/15/%f0%9f%87%ba%f0%9f%87%b8%e2%9a%96%ef%b8%8f%f0%9f%97%bd%f0%9f%91%a8%f0%9f%8f%be%e2%9a%96%ef%b8%8f%f0%9f%a7%91%f0%9f%8f%bb%e2%9a%96%ef%b8%8f%f0%9f%91%a9%e2%9a%96%ef%b8%8f/

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

04-15-23

⚖️🗽 INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS EXPERTS PROFESSORS KAREN MUSALO & AUDREY MACKLIN LAMBASTE ADMINISTRATION’S EXPORT OF TRUMP’S CRUELTY TO THE NORTHERN BORDER! — LA TIMES —  “[M]ost tragically, they abandon principle and humanity, and set off a chain reaction that ends up returning refugees to persecution.“☠️⚰️

 

Karen Musalo
Professor Karen Musalo
Director, Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, Hastings Law
Professor Audrey Macklin
Professor Audrey Macklin
University of Toronto
Law Faculty
PHOTO: U of Toronto

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwici4Gv7YP-AhWXFFkFHd8TDXYQFnoECA4QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fstory%2F2023-03-29%2Fsafe-third-country-policy-at-canada-united-states-border-hurts-asylum-seekers&usg=AOvVaw0lGBjB9cBDdxHBiQnCQ5Zc

At almost 4,000 miles, the United States’ northern border is about twice as long as the U.S.-Mexico border — much of it wild, unmarked and dangerously cold for half the year. And yet, human smuggling and deaths at the U.S.-Canada border have not been a major phenomenon, as they have been down south. Nor has Canada poured billions of dollars into a network of walls, fences, robotic dogs and militarized border patrol. It is also true that historically the number of asylum seekers and migrants seeking entry to Canada has been relatively low.

But the ills of the U.S.-Mexico border seem bound to spread northward, now that Canada reached a deal with the Biden administration to expand a 2004 agreement to repel Canada-bound asylum seekers back to the United States (and vice versa).

As U.S. policies toward asylum seekers grew harsher from 2017 on, the number attempting to enter Canada increased. Instead of appealing to its southern neighbor to do better, Canada is coordinating with the U.S. to pass the buck on the legal obligation to protect refugees, which both countries undertook when they signed the Refugee Convention and Protocol more than 50 years ago. Their current approach foists responsibility onto poorer, less stable countries that are already doing more than their share.

Both the U.S. and Canada have pursued this under a “safe third country” rule, which enables a country to return asylum seekers to a nation they have passed through on their journey if it is considered safe and deemed to have a fair process for seeking protection. That “safe third country” then has the responsibility to determine their claims.

. . . .

This has been labeled a crisis, but it simply isn’t, especially when one considers that 85% of the world’s refugees are hosted in lower- and middle-income countries. Furthermore, Canada knows how to manage refugee inflows decently when it chooses to do so: Over 160,000 Ukrainian refugees have been welcomed during the past year.

. . . .

The Safe Third Country Agreement and related policies subvert the obligations to which Canada and the U.S. are subject under international refugee law. They undermine the existing global system of protection. But most tragically, they abandon principle and humanity, and set off a chain reaction that ends up returning refugees to persecution.

Karen Musalo is a law professor and the founding director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at UC Law, San Francisco. Audrey Macklin is the director of the Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies at the University of Toronto.

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Read the complete op-ed at the link.

Predictably, bad things happen when the border is closed to legal asylum seekers! Illustrating the point made by Professors Macklin and Musalo, the bodies are already being found along the Northern border.  See, e.g., http://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=071fc539-98b4-49fc-9656-26412f42e79b.

The obvious answer is to establish a fair, timely, generous asylum adjudication system at ports of entry and to dramatically increase the number of legal refugees who can come from countries in Latin America, particularly the Northern Triangle. If you build a functional legal refugee and asylum system refugees will use it.  Why wouldn’t they?

A legitimate refugee and asylum system results in permanent admission with permission to work that leads to green cards and, eventually, citizenship for those who choose the latter. It’s quite different from ad hoc, nationality and numerically limited use of discretionary “parole” stratus. Parole status lacks transparent criteria, does not necessarily prioritize refugees and asylees as the law requires, and most seriously has no “built in” path to permanent status. 

Consequently, “parolees” must either apply under a incredibly backlogged asylum system in the U.S. — thus guaranteeing delay and unnecessarily adding to the already monster backlog — or find themselves “in limbo” after two years and clearly becoming both a target and “political football” for restrictionists. And, there can be little doubt that even if the Biden parole program survives pending court challenges, it will immediately be terminated by any future GOP Administration.

Making the existing legal system work in a durable, fair, and properly generous manner to protect refugees is clearly the way to go! It would be hugely beneficial to both both the refugees and our nation! Why the Biden Administration insists on scofflaw “deterrence only” gimmicks that advance the racist/nativist agenda of the losers of the 2020 election is beyond me!

🇺🇸 ⚖️🗽 Due Process Forever!

PWS

04-02=3-23

🌟🗽⚖️🦸🏻  NDPA SUPERSTAR LAURA LYNCH CONTINUES TO RISE — CONGRATS ON HER NEW POSITION AS SENIOR COUNSEL, BORDER & IMMIGRATION, SENATE HOMELAND SECURITY & GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE! —She’ll Have Her Work Cut Out, As Biden Administration Takes “Toxic War On Asylum Seekers” To The Canadian Border!☠️

Laura Lynch
Laura Lynch
Senior Counsel, Border & Immigration, for the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee

Laura writes:

I’m happy to share that I just started a new position as Senior Counsel, Border & Immigration, for the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee.

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Laura most recently was Senior Immigration Policy Attorney at the  National Immigration Law Center. Prior to that, she held a similar position at the National Office of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. 

She’ll have her work cut out for her! As “leaked” yesterday, President Biden is “celebrating” his trip to Canada by expanding the existing “Safe Third Country Agreement” with Canada to allow summary turn back of asylum seekers without hearings at any point along the 4,000 mile plus border!

Experts on both sides of the border decried this latest gimmick designed to speed the demise of the legal asylum and refugee systems at the border.

Internationally-recognized expert Professor Audrey Macklin of University of Toronto School of Law, a former member of the Canadian Immigration and Refugees Board, told the NY Times:

“But they have to know that anything that closes off ways of entering only amounts to a job-creation program for smugglers and a kind of stimulus package for militarizing the border.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/23/world/canada/biden-migration.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

It’s also likely to increase business for body bag makers and undertakers as desperate asylum seekers are discouraged from turning themselves in to enforcement at or near the border. Instead, this untimely expansion appears “ready made” to encourage asylum seekers to hire smugglers and attempt ever more dangerous journeys into the interior of  both the U.S. and Canada to achieve “do it yourself/extralegal refuge.”

Another potential problem: Canada’s Federal Court has already rejected the previous, much more limited, version of the “Safe Third Country Agreement” on the basis that it violates Canada’s obligations under international law. That case currently is pending before Canada’s Supreme Court.

It’s past time for some Senate oversight of the Biden Administration’s disgraceful failure to honor due process, domestic law, and international law by establishing a safe, fair, orderly, and humane asylum and refugee adjudication and admission system as they promised before taking office! I hope Laura can spur some Congressional action (not just rhetoric) on this existentially important issue where the Administration’s lousy approach threatens both democracy and human lives.

Congrats again, and good luck, Laura!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

O3-24-23