HuffPost – Page 11 – immigrationcourtside.com

Cost Overrun — Border Wall Tab Now Up To $21.6 Billion — To Paraphrase The Late GOP Sen. Ev Dirksen, A Billion Here, A Billion There, Soon You’re Talking About Real Money!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-border-wall-cost_us_589cf9d9e4b0ab2d2b13ae7b?ytwsf6htga11exw29

From HuffPost:

“WASHINGTON, Feb 9 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s “wall” along the U.S.-Mexico border would be a series of fences and walls that would cost as much as $21.6 billion, and take more than three years to construct, based on a U.S. Department of Homeland Security internal report seen by Reuters on Thursday.

The report’s estimated price-tag is much higher than a $12-billion figure cited by Trump in his campaign and estimates as high as $15 billion from Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The report is expected to be presented to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary John Kelly in coming days, although the administration will not necessarily take actions it recommends.

The plan lays out what it would take to seal the border in three phases of construction of fences and walls covering just over 1,250 miles (2,000 km) by the end of 2020.”

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PWS

02/10/17

Entertainment: Never Trust A Guy Who Can’t Take A Joke — Taking Their Cue From The President, The More Trump Lets Satire Rattle Him, The More SNL And Others In The World Of Comedy Are Going To Double Down On The Stuff That Gets To Him (The Only Way Out For The Prez — Get a Sense Of Humor — But, Sadly, That’s A Tall Order For a Guy Who Has Made His Life “All About Me”)!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/snl-women-trump-administration_us_5899c922e4b040613138f6f9

Maxwell Strachan writes in HuffPost:

“So, President Donald Trump is supposedly upset that a woman played his White House press secretary on “Saturday Night Live” last weekend.

Politico is reporting that seeing Sean Spicer depicted by a thunderous Melissa McCarthy bothered the president so much, particularly because he “doesn’t like his people to look weak.” Spicer himself said that he thought McCarthy “could dial back” the impression. The impression clearly bothered them both.
As a result, people have been excitedly starting to call for more women to play the men in Trump’s administration, hoping to further injure the president’s always sensitive ego, and maybe cause some behind-the-scenes drama.
Rosie O’Donnell, a longtime critic of the president, has already said she would be willing to play Trump adviser Steve Bannon if called upon by Lorne Michaels. To which we say: Why stop there? It’s time for “SNL” to throw the entire administration into a gigantic hissy fit by having women play them all.

To help out the people over at “SNL,” we decided to do a bit of the casting work for them, just so they can think about it. Look, “SNL” can do what it wants. But if what it wants is to create an existential crisis at the White House, it should do this.”

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Check out the full story (with pictures) at the link to see who Strachan would cast as whom. Talk about going viral on Sunday morning!

PWS

02/07/17

HuffPost: GOP Senators Seek To Halve Legal Immigration — Mount Attack On American Families, Refugees, Africans, Asian Americans, Latinos!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cotton-perdue-legal-immigration-bill_us_589a4f4ee4b04061313a3090?425ff5si0vd9uow29

Elise Foley and Dana Liebelson write in HuffPost:

“WASHINGTON ― For decades, a central tenet of U.S. immigration policy has been that American citizens should be able to reunite with their siblings, parents and grown children who live abroad. The government doesn’t make this easy. But now, emboldened by President Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant stance, two Republican senators want to make it almost impossible.

Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.) introduced a bill on Tuesday that would bar immigrants from bringing almost anyone but their spouses and minor children to the U.S. Latino and Asian Americans, who are more likely to be recent immigrants with family living abroad, would be disproportionately affected by this change.

The bill would also eliminate diversity visas, which many recent African immigrants rely on to get to the U.S., and cap refugee resettlement at 50,000 people per year. The bill doesn’t affect the millions of Irish, German and Italian Americans whose families came to the U.S. in earlier waves of immigration and no longer have close relatives abroad.

The senators predict the bill would cut legal immigration per year by half. They also think it stands a chance of passing.

“Once you get here, you have a green card and you can open up immigration not just to your immediate family, but your extended family, your village, your clan, your tribe,” Cotton said of ending the diversity lottery. “I don’t think it works for American workers.”

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The new GOP “family values?” Would we even be having this discussion if most recent immigrants were “white guys” from Canada, Australia, and the UK? My guess is no. It’s not about protecting American workers. The GOP doesn’t give a hoot about them. That’s why they are anti-union, anti-minimum wage, anti-universal health care, anti-safety net, anti-Medicare, anti-consumer protection, anti-financial regulation, anti-pension, anti-equal pay for equal work, anti-environment, anti-science, anti-public workers, anti-education and anti just about everything that doesn’t directly or indirectly help their fat cat friends get fatter and their business buddies get bigger — more profits, more money for upper management, more tax breaks for the rich, less money, fewer benefits, and no chance at a comfortable retirement for workers. No, something else is at work here.

PWS

02/07/17

My Wife Was Right (As Usual) — Sean Spicer CAN Take A Joke — And That’s A Good Thing — Does The Ghost Of Janet Reno Live In The White House Press Room?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sean-spicer-responds-to-melissa-mccarthys-snl-sketch_us_58988795e4b0c1284f26d5ed

From HuffPost:

“The [SNL spoof] performance apparently left such an impression that Spicer himself commented on it.

While at the Super Bowl on Sunday, Spicer talked to “Extra” and told them he received an onslaught of text messages after the sketch aired. He told the publication that though he thought that McCarthy “could dial back” a bit, he found the show to be really “funny.”

Spicer elaborated by saying McCarthy “needs to slow down on the gum chewing; way too many pieces in there.” Overall, Spicer’s response is a vast departure from how the rest of the administration ― namely Trump ― has been reacting to political sketches on “SNL.”

It seems the notorious gum-chewer can take a joke.”

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After watching this skit, my wife Cathy said to me “I’ll bet even Sean Spicer will laugh at that one.” Of course she was right!

“Alternate facts” or not, Spicer recognizes sizes one essential truth — only very significant people get parodied on SNL. Good for him!

For those who haven’t seen the SNL clip, go to the HuffPost link above and follow the other links to the complete skit, starring Melissa McCarthy as SS. The late Janet Reno’s unfailingly positive and good humored reaction to SNL’s “Janet Reno’s Dance Party” routine was one of the things I’ll remember most about her as not only a good Attorney General but a very genuine human being.

Can’t survive in Washington, particularly if you’re working in the filed of immigration, without a sense of humor. I wish President Trump would figure that one out and “get with the program.”

PWS

02/06/17

HuffPost: N. Rappaport Contests ACLU Exec. Director Romero’s Claim That Trump EO Is “A Muslim Ban Wrapped In A Paper-Thin National Security Rationale.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/58922d69e4b0f009905272bc?timestamp=1485983968492

“The ACLU Executive Director, Anthony D. Romero, claims that President Donald Trump’s Executive Order suspending the admission of aliens from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen for 90 days is “a Muslim ban wrapped in a paper-thin national security rationale.”

. . . .

President Trump’s Executive Order directs the Secretary of State and the Director of National Intelligence to determine what information is needed from any country to decide whether one of its nationals who is seeking admission to the United States is who he claims to be and is not a security or public-safety threat.

The Executive Order also requires finding out which countries will be willing to provide the needed information. If the governments of the seven designated countries agree to provide this information, the ban will not be extended, but their nationals will have to pass through the new screening process to get a visa to come to the United States.

In the meantime, the Executive Order permits the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security to waive this ban on a case-by-case basis when a waiver is in the national interest.

DHS already has applied this waiver to the entry of nationals from those countries who are lawful permanent residents returning from a trip abroad. He has stated that, “absent the receipt of significant derogatory information indicating a serious threat to public safety and welfare, lawful permanent resident status will be a dispositive factor in our case-by-case determinations.”

It certainly would have been better if President [Trump] had provided more guidance on such waivers and set up procedures for requesting them before issuing the Executive Order. He also could have delayed its effective date to prevent people from being caught by it in transit to the United States.

Nevertheless, it is apparent that it is not “a Muslim ban wrapped in a paper-thin national security rationale.”

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Read Nolan’s full article which develops his legal arguments further at the above link.

PWS

02/01/17

Sanctuary Wars: The Republic, And Its Cities, Strike Back!

Immigration beat reporter Beth Fertig of WNYC/NPR reports:

“There is no single definition of a sanctuary city, and policies vary tremendously across the country. But in New York City, immigration agents are not allowed in the jails. When immigrants without legal status are arrested, they can only be detained or turned over to federal agents for deportation if there’s a warrant and they’ve been convicted of a violent crime. A 2014 local law spells out nearly 170 different offenses that meet that definition. They include various forms of assault, arson and sex crimes.

Council Speaker Melissa Mark Viverito said these limits make sense.

“If you’re committing a nonviolent offense but you’re otherwise contributing positively to the city, why should you be torn apart from your family?”

Police Commissioner James O’Neill and Mayor Bill de Blasio joined the argument Wednesday, saying that immigrants will be less likely to cooperate with law enforcement if they’re afraid of deportation. “We build trust,” said O’Neill. “I wouldn’t want to do anything to put that at risk.”

Trump’s order changes enforcement priorities, too. In addition to aliens convicted of criminal offenses, the Department of Homeland security will also prioritize those who have been “charged with any criminal offense, where such charge has not been resolved.”

Avideh Moussavian, a policy attorney with the National Immigration Law Center, warned that this policy could lead to “gross infractions of due process protections.”

She said people could become enforcement priorities if “they have been merely charged with an offense, even if their charge is pending and turns out later to be dismissed.”

From a practical standpoint, it would be very difficult to deport more immigrants. The nation’s immigration courts have a tremendous backlog of cases. Judges who handle immigration cases estimate there are 75 vacancies among their ranks, and Trump has imposed a federal hiring freeze. However, the executive order means that the freeze on judges could be lifted in the name of national security.”

Read Beth’s complete article, including comments from Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute in favor of the President’s crackdown at:

http://www.wnyc.org/story/why-sanctuary-city-dispute-about-safety/

Mollie Reilly, Deputy Politics Editor, and her colleagues write on HuffPost:

“Independent of the ultimate legality of the executive order, politicians from those sanctuary cities say they aren’t budging, and legal advocacy groups are gearing up for the coming legal fight.
The president is “in for one hell of a fight,” California state Sen. Scott Weiner (D), who represents San Francisco, said in a statement.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh (D) said his city “will not retreat one inch” from its policy against holding undocumented immigrants it otherwise would not hold based on requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said his city “will not be intimidated by the authoritarian message coming from this administration.” San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee (D) said “nothing has changed” in his city, noting the lack of specifics in Trump’s order.
“We are going to fight this, and cities and states around the country are going to fight this,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said at a press conference Wednesday.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) already began hinting at a legal challenge, releasing a statement that Trump lacks the constitutional authority for his executive order and that he will do “everything in [his] power” to push back if the president does not rescind it.
Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D) also warned of potential legal challenges to come, saying in a statement that the order “raises significant legal issues that my office will be investigating closely to protect the constitutional and human rights of the people of our state.”
There’s no exact definition of “sanctuary city.” Places like San Francisco and New York use the term broadly to refer to their immigrant-friendly policies, but more generally the term is applied to cities and counties that do not reflexively honor all of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s requests for cooperation. Many of these localities do work with ICE to detain and hand over immigrants suspected or convicted of serious crimes, but they often release low-priority immigrants requested by ICE if they have no other reason to hold them.
“The reason that many local law enforcement officers don’t honor detainers is because courts have said that they violate the Constitution, and if they violate the Constitution, the localities are on the hook financially,” said Cesar Cuauhtemoc Garcia Hernandez, a law professor at the University of Denver who teaches on the intersection of criminal law and immigration.
Just on Tuesday, a federal court in Rhode Island joined several others that have ruled in recent years that certain ICE detainers can violate people’s constitutional rights ― even those of U.S. citizens.
But Trump’s executive order seems to overlook this legal reality, and instead frames sanctuary cities with the alarmist rhetoric he used on the campaign trail.”

Read Mollie & co.’s complete report here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-sanctuary-cities_us_

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PWS

01/26/17

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