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
Category: Human Rights
Family Detention, Raids, Expediting Cases Fail To Deter Scared Central Americans!
“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
Will General Kelly Be A Voice Of Reason at DHS?
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
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
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
Hungarian Human Rights Scholar Sees Authoritarian Danger in Populist Drift — Cites Hungarian Example
“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
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:
Its is also posted on the index and information toolbar of this Blog.
PWS
12/26/16
With “Peacekeepers” Like These, Who Needs War? The UN Has a BIG Problem!
“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