Category: Human Rights

Sessions No “Civil Rights Hero,” Say Former DOJ Cvil Rights Attorneys

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/jeff-sessions-says-he-handled-these-civil-rights-cases-he-barely-touched-them/2017/01/03/4ddfffa6-d0fa-11e6-a783-cd3fa950f2fd_story.html

“J. Gerald Hebert is director of the Voting Rights and Redistricting Program at the Campaign Legal Center. Joseph D. Rich is co-director of the Fair Housing and Community Development Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. William Yeomans is a fellow in law and government at American University’s Washington College of Law; on Election Day, he worked as a voter protection legal volunteer for the Democratic Party of Virginia.”

All three of the authors worked for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice during Senator Session’s tenure as U.S. Attorney in Alabama.  Here’s part of what they have to say about the Senator’s claim to have supported important civil rights prosecutions:

“Sessions has not worked to protect civil rights. He worked against civil rights at every turn. Sessions knows that his real record on race and civil rights is harmful to his chances for confirmation. So he has made up a fake one. But many of us who were there — in Alabama in the 1980s, 1990s and beyond — are still around. We lived that story, too. And we are here to testify that Sessions has done many things throughout his 40-year career. Protecting civil rights has not been one of them.”

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Read the full op-ed from the Washington Post at the link.

PWS

01/04/17

Related posts:

  1. NEW DUE PROCESS ARMY CONTINUES TO SPEAK OUT AGAINST ADMINISTRATION’S STUPID AND ILLEGAL ACTIONS & POLICIES! — Jesica Yanez On NPR — I Speak With Sally Kidd @ Hearst News TV!
  2. JULY 4, 2018 IN TRUMP’S UGLY AMERICA – FORMER CBP AGENT SAYS RACISM, BIAS, DISRESPECT FOR HUMAN LIFE AND HUMAN DIGNITY HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A PART OF THE “CBP CULTURE” – Disgracefully, Under Trump & Sessions, It’s Now A Key National Policy! — “In the aftermath of our nation’s outcry against family separation, it is vital that we direct our outrage toward the violent policies that enabled it.”
  3. WASHPOST EDITORIAL: TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S IMMIGRATION POLICIES ARE A TOXIC MIX OF INTENTIONAL CRUELTY AND JAW-DROPPING INCOMPETENCE – “The result is Third World-style government dysfunction that combines the original sin of an unspeakably cruel policy with the follow-on ineptitude of uncoordinated agencies unable to foresee the predictable consequences of their decisions”
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Law Professors & Civil Rights Activists Oppose Sessions Nomination For AG — Reports From The Washington Post & NY Times

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/more-than-1100-law-school-professors-nationwide-oppose-sessionss-nomination-as-attorney-general/2017/01/03/dbf55750-d1cc-11e6-a783-cd3fa950f2fd_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_sessions-330pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.183362aa3493

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/03/us/naacp-occupy-jeff-sessions-office.html

I’m not aware that any Senator of either party has expressed an inclination to vote against Senator Sessions’s confirmation.

PWS

01/03/17

 

Related posts:

  1. LEADING ACADEMICS FILE OPPOSITION TO JUDICIAL QUOTAS WITH SESSIONS – The Continuing Saga Of The Due-Process-Killing Move That Nobody But Sessions Wants!
  2. THE ASYLUMIST: Jason Dzubow Wins Key “Firm Resettlement” Case — Wonders Why BIA Won’t Publish When Failing System Cries Out For More Consistency!
  3. FOURTH CIRCUIT EXPOSES EOIR’S CONTINUING BIAS AGAINST REFUGEES FROM THE NORTHERN TRIANGLE — “Here, as in [two other published cases], the agency adjudicators both disregarded and distorted important aspects of the applicant’s claim.” – Orellana v. Barr — Yet 4th Cir.’s “Permissive Approach” To Malfeasance At The BIA Helps Enable This Very Misconduct To Continue! — When Will Worthy, Yet Vulnerable Asylum Applicants Finally Get Justice From Our Courts?
  4. DERELICTION OF DUTY: 4th Cir. Exposes BIA’s Incompetence & Anti-Asylum Bias, Yet Fails To Confront Own Complicity — SINDY MARILU ALVAREZ LAGOS; K.D.A.A., v. WILLIAM P. BARR

Family Detention, Raids, Expediting Cases Fail To Deter Scared Central Americans!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/central-americans-continue-to-surge-across-us-border-new-dhs-figures-show/2016/12/30/ed28c0aa-cec7-11e6-b8a2-8c2a61b0436f_story.html?utm_term=.077ef694fd73

“Immigration advocates have repeatedly criticized the Obama administration for its increased reliance on detention facilities, particularly for Central American families, who they argue should be treated as refugees fleeing violent home countries rather than as priorities for deportation.

They also say that the growing number of apprehended migrants on the border, as reflected in the new Homeland Security figures, indicate that home raids and detentions of families from Central America isn’t working as a deterrent.”

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The “enforcement only” approach to forced migration from Central America has been an extraordinarily expensive total failure. But, the misguided attempt to “prioritize” cases of families seeking refuge from violence has been a major contributing factor in creating docket disfunction (“Aimless Docket Reshuffling”) in the United States Immigration Courts.  And, as a result, cases ready for trial that should have been heard as scheduled in Immigration Court have been “orbited” to the end of the docket where it is doubtful they ever will be reached.  When political officials, who don’t understand the Immigration Court and are not committed to its due process mission, order the rearrangement of existing dockets without input from the trial judges, lawyers, court administrators, and members of the public who are most affected, only bad things can happen.  And, they have!

PWS

12/31/16

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  1. LAND OF THE NOT SO BRAVE & NOT SO WISE: AS USUAL, TRUMP’S CLUMSY EXECUTIVE ORDER ON DETAINING FAMILIES LIKELY TO CAUSE MORE PROBLEMS THAN IT SOLVES — Strategy Appears Designed To Fail & (Dishonestly) Shift Blame Elsewhere!
  2. JULIAN CASTRO: A Democrat With A Sane & Sound Immigration Plan!
  3. REPORT FROM FBA, AUSTIN: Read My Speech “JUSTICE BETRAYED: THE INTENTIONAL MISTREATMENT OF CENTRAL AMERICAN ASYLUM APPLICANTS BY THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE FOR IMMIGRATION REVIEW”
  4. DERELICTION OF DUTY: 4th Cir. Exposes BIA’s Incompetence & Anti-Asylum Bias, Yet Fails To Confront Own Complicity — SINDY MARILU ALVAREZ LAGOS; K.D.A.A., v. WILLIAM P. BARR

Will General Kelly Be A Voice Of Reason at DHS?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/gen-kelly-has-talked-about-human-rights-will-trump-listen/2016/12/30/ebabbcea-c928-11e6-bf4b-2c064d32a4bf_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.a4f5dd9f5734

Naureen Shah, director of security and human rights at Amnesty International USA, writes:

“While at Southern Command, Kelly invited critiques from human rights groups. Every year, he asked Amnesty International and other organizations to join him for a frank roundtable discussion. After one meeting, he took me aside to explain his point of view and hear me out. Dialogue and decency: In today’s hyper-polarized political climate, these are as rare as unicorns.

And they matter. If I could talk to Kelly today, I think he’d listen. I would tell him that people are afraid. Activists worry that if they speak out, the government could retaliate or put them under surveillance. Trump’s idle tweets about stripping people of citizenship for flag-burning are eerily reminiscent of foreign dictators threatening to jail people for peaceful dissent.”

PWS

12/31/16

Related posts:

  1. NYT Editorial Blasts Trump Administration’s Anti-Immigrant Fear Mongering!
  2. REUTERS: Neither Rhyme Nor Reason Apparent In DHS Decisions to Undo Prosecutorial Discretion
  3. THE NY TIMES TAKES YOU INSIDE THE “NERVE CENTER” OF THE WHITE NATIONALIST EMPIRE: TRUMP’S “GONZO” IMMIGRATION POLICIES DRIVEN BY XENOPHOBIA, RACISM, IRRATIONAL FEAR, FAKE NEWS, MISINFORMATON, AND BIAS! – Trump & Cronies Deny Our Nation’s Immigrant Past While Seeking To Destroy Our Future As A Powerful and Diverse Democracy!
  4. HOW “AMERICA’S KILLER COURTS” PROMOTE “CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY” — HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: TRUMP & HIS WHITE NATIONALIST SYCOPHANTS & TOADIES TOUT LAWLESS POLICIES THAT VIOLATE LEGAL OBLIGATIONS & HELP KILL, RAPE, TORTURE THOSE RETURNED TO EL SALVADOR — Supremes & Article III Judiciary Complicit In Gross Human Rights Violations! 

Asylum Free Zones in the U.S. Examined by Inter-American Commission — Ignites Dialogue Pro and Con

http://immigrationimpact.com/2016/12/20/asylum-free-zones/

This article by Katie Shepard in Immigration Impact fueled a “spirited dialogue” among my long-time Lawrence University friend Thomas “The Mink” Felhofer, a retired Postmaster and U.S. Navy Veteran from Sturgeon Bay, WI; my former BIA colleague Hon. Lory D. Rosenberg; my former colleague, Retired U.S. Immigration Judge Bruce Einhorn, of Los Angeles, CA; and me.  For those interested, I’ve tried my best to recreate the back and forth (most of which occurred before the birth of immigrationcourtside.com) in the “Comments” section below.  Further dialogue is always welcome!

PWS

12/29/16

Related posts:

  1. Here’s My Keynote Address From Today’s FBA Immigration Law Conference In Denver, CO!
  2. AMERICA’S REAL IMMIGRATION CRISIS: THE ATTACK ON DUE PROCESS IN THE UNITED STATES IMMIGRATION COURTS — Read My Keynote Speech FromThe Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center’s “Light Of Liberty Awards” Ceremony Last Night!
  3. HARD RIGHT TURN: Barr Appoints “Death Squad” Of New “Appellate Judges” Tasked To “Snuff Out” Any Last Remaining Pockets Of Due Process For Asylum Seekers & Send As Many As Possible Unlawfully Into Harm’s Way! — Judge Earle Wilson Has An Astounding 98.1% Asylum Denial Rate, But His New Colleagues Are Hot On His Tail! — TAL @ SF CHRON REPORTS!
  4. HALLOWEEN HORROR STORY: Opaque & Biased Politicized Judicial Hiring Denies Migrants The Fair & Impartial Adjudication To Which They Are Constitutionally Entitled – Given The Generous Legal Standards, A Worldwide Refugee Crisis, & Asylum Officers’ Positive Findings In Most Cases, Asylum Seekers Should Be Winning The Vast Majority Of Immigration Court Cases — Instead, They Are Being “Railroaded” By A Biased System & Complicit Article III Courts!

No Happy New Year For 65 Million Refugees — Here Are Three Horrible Situations Not Named Syria or Iraq!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/humanitarian-crises-2017_us_58641081e4b0de3a08f6ed8f

Michael Bowers Vice President of Humanitarian Leadership and Response, Mercy Corps, writes in WorldPost:

“The crises in Yemen, South Sudan and the Lake Chad Basin are just three of many that flew under the radar this year, and they are very likely to deteriorate in the year ahead. Despite chronically underfunded responses, Mercy Corps is tackling all three humanitarian crises, helping more than 1 million people with food, water and sanitation, hygiene and other types of support.

We hope that in 2017, in an increasingly interconnected world, closer attention is paid to the stories of the many millions of people struggling every day just to survive and find solutions to build a brighter future for themselves and their children.”

As I have said many times before, including on this Blog:  Every morning when I wake up, I am thankful for two things.  First, that I woke up, never a given at my age.  Second, I’m thankful that, through pure good fortune and no personal merit on my part, I am not a refugee.

PWS

12/29/16

Related posts:

  1. Religion: Stephen Mattson In Sojourners: “American ‘Christianity’ Has Failed”
  2. WashPost Editorial: Refugees Belong In America — Anti-Refugee Scare Tactics, Not So Much!
  3. THE WORLD HAS MORE REFUGEES THAN AT ANY TIME SINCE WWII; REFUGEES NEED THE U.S. TO SAVE THEM & WE NEED REFUGEES’ ENERGY, BRAVERY, & TALENTS! — THE RESPONSE OF WHITE NATIONALISTS LIKE MILLER & SESSIONS IS TO RECOMMEND CUTTING REFUGEE ADMISSIONS TO AN ALL-TIME LOW OF 15,000! — Don’t Let These Racist Xenophobes Get Away With It!
  4. FORMER DHS SEC MIKE CHERTOFF TELLS HOW CUTTING REFUGEE ADMISSIONS HURTS AMERICA AND ENDANGERS NATIONAL SECURITY!

Hungarian Human Rights Scholar Sees Authoritarian Danger in Populist Drift — Cites Hungarian Example

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/i-watched-a-populist-leader-rise-in-my-country-and-that-is-why-i-am-genuinely-worried-for-america/2016/12/27/6b4cf632-cc65-11e6-b8a2-8c2a61b0436f_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-d:homepage/story&utm_term=.ac8ebaf01f3b

“The world is looking at the United States now in a way that we never thought would be possible: fretting that the ‘deals’ of its new president will make the world’s first democracy more similar to that of the others. I wish we onlookers could help the Americans in making the most out of their hard-to-change Constitution. We still are thankful for what they gave to the world, and we will be a bit envious if they can stop the fast-spreading plague of national populism.”

I sure hope he’s unduly pessimistic.  The United States has a history of being able to reorient back to the center when necessary.  Also, we do have a vigorous free press and, at least with respect to our “Article III Courts,” the world’s most independent court system.

PWS

12/28/16

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  1. THE HILL: Nolan Rappaport Says New Trump Travel Ban A Slam Dunk Winner In Court! Get Link Here!
  2. JURIST: Christopher N. Lasch Says Sessions More Interested In Politics Than Justice!
  3. WASHPOST: THE LATEST VULNERABLE GROUP TARGETED BY THE TRUMP/SESSIONS DEATH SQUADS: LGBTQ REFUGEES!
  4. COLBY KING @ WASHPOST: The “Original Dreamers” Were Disenfranchised African Americans! — “That fight must continue on behalf of today’s dreamers, the disenfranchised, the demeaned and left out, and all freedom-loving people in this nation.“

A Christmas Wish — Protect Children Seeking Refuge — Let Them Out of Jail — Get Them Lawyers — Treat Them As If They Were Ours — Because They Are

http://immigrationimpact.com/2016/12/23/wish-holiday-season/

In this article which I found on Immigration Impact, Katie Shepard says:

“The 19 children who will likely be spending the holidays in detention range in age from three to fifteen-years-old. In fact, just last week, the youngest child being held in the Berks detention facility turned three. This little boy fled Honduras with his mother after being targeted by the gangs and threatened with kidnapping and violence. He has spent more than half his life in detention.

Imagine going through such a harrowing journey to then have those you’ve asked to protect you, fail you. I don’t believe this nation can or should allow the most vulnerable among us to be held for prolonged periods, robbed of their access to a fair and just process, and left without protection. We can and must do better.

My wish this holiday season is that we find a way to do right by these families. My wish is that they, like me and many of you, will be able to live safe and happy lives with the people they love.”

I had similar thoughts.  During the Christmas Eve service at our church, we offered the following prayer:  “Tonight we give thanks for every child among us.  Each new birth — regardless of circumstances — reminds us of the preciousness of life, the potential of tomorrow, the promise of God.”

We say these words, but our country is falling short in its humanitarian and human obligation to protect vulnerable children.  We treat them as statistics, a “border surge,” an “enforcement problem,” a plague that should be deterred and discouraged.  In plain terms, we seek to dehumanize the most vulnerable and needy humans among us.  We detain them, expedite their cases, and tell Federal Courts that they can represent themselves in complicated, life determining, legal proceedings that baffle many smart attorneys, judges, and scholars.  Where is the mercy, compassion, kindness, humility, and championship of the downtrodden shown by Christ?

As I have previously said in my own op-ed:

“Children are the future of our world. History deals harshly with societies that mistreat and fail to protect children and other vulnerable individuals. Sadly, our great country is betraying its values in its rush to ‘stem the tide.’ It is time to demand an immigrant justice system that lives up to its vision of ‘guaranteeing due process and fairness for all.’ Anything less is a continuing disgrace that will haunt us forever.”

You can read my full op-ed which has been published in LexisNexis Immigration Community by clicking on this link:

https://www.lexisnexis.com/legalnewsroom/immigration/b/newsheadlines/archive/2016/10/18/saving-child-migrants-while-saving-ourselves-hon-paul-wickham-schmidt-ret.aspx?Redirected=true

Its is also posted on the index and information toolbar of this Blog.

PWS

12/26/16

 

 

Related posts:

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  2. ELISE FOLEY @ HUFFPOST: TRUMP’S WHITE NATIONALIST AGENDA APPEARS ON TRACK TO SINK DREAMER AGREEMENT, PERHAPS RESULTING IN USG SHUTDOWN! – Sen. Durbin, Dems “Just Say No” To Restrictionist Measures!
  3. THE TRUTH IS OUT, THANKS TO MICHELLE MENDEZ @ CLINIC: Practice Pointers on Matter of Castillo-Perez & “Takeaways” From FOIA Trove On In Absentias!
  4. LEE SUNDAY EVANS @ WATERWELL: “The Power of Transcripts”— “It wasn’t hard to recognize the power of each individual story, and the patterns revealed when reading two, three, ten testimonies were a disturbing depiction of how the protections outlined in the Flores Settlement Agreement (FSA) were being violated.”

With “Peacekeepers” Like These, Who Needs War? The UN Has a BIG Problem!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/they-served-an-abusive-government-the-un-made-them-peacekeepers-anyway/2016/12/23/05c0a5ad-108f-46b9-b6f7-5f2303f6cdfe_story.html?utm_term=.c36afbf0c92e

“The three officers had received blue badges and slipped blue covers over their helmets. They were now U.N. peacekeepers, sent from Burundi to help protect victims of a brutal war in the Central African Republic.

But each of them had a past the United Nations was unaware of. When the deployments became public, Burundian activists were aghast.

One of the officers had run a military jail where beatings and torture occurred, according to civil-society groups and former prisoners. Another had committed human rights violations when anti-government demonstrations erupted in Burundi last year, U.N. officials would eventually learn. The third had served as the spokesman for the Burundian army, publicly defending an institution accused of abuses.

They set out for the Central African Republic in different U.N. deployments over the past year. In each case, U.N. officials soon determined that the allegations against the soldiers and their units were credible enough to send them home.”

Apparently, according to this article in  the Washington Post, well-paying UN Peacekeeper jobs have become spoils that autocratic rulers hand out to their cronies for helping them stay in power.  Bad system.

PWS

12/26/16

Related posts:

  1. THE HILL: NOLAN RAPPAPORT ON “FGM!”
  2. AMERICA THE UGLY: WHY ARE WE ALLOWING OUR GOVERNMENT TO ABUSE THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF FAMILIES & CHILDREN? — “This policy is tantamount to state-sponsored traumatization.”
  3. HON. JEFFREY S. CHASE BLOG PRESENTS “THE FLORES EXHIBITS” – Truth, No Matter How Terrible & Disturbing, Is The Best Antidote To Notorious Human Rights Abuser “Big Mac With Lies” & His Truly Despicable Knowingly False Narratives & Immoral Actions! – “At this time when our nation is led by scoundrels, we are in need of heroes.”
  4. “KILLER ON THE ROAD” – EMBOLDENED BY THE COMPLICITY OF THE “ROBERTS’ COURT,” GOP ABDICATION OF LEGISLATIVE OVERSIGHT, & BREAKDOWN OF DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS AND VALUES, REGIME APPARENTLY PLANNING EXTRALEGAL MOVE TO KILL MORE OF THE MOST VULNERABLE REFUGEES – Refugee Women, Children, LGBTQ Community, Victims Of Government-Enabled Gangs Said To Among Targets of Miller/Trump White Nationalist “American Death Squads!”