Opinion: Cato’s Jonathan Blanks On How Trump’s Immigration Policies Endanger Safety & Why “Sanctuary Cities” Are Right To Resist

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-enforcing-trumps-immigration-actions-could-hurt-public-safety/2017/02/17/3644da9c-f553-11e6-b9c9-e83fce42fb61_story.html

Blanks writes in the Washington Post:

“Last week, federal immigration officials seized an unauthorized immigrant at an El Paso courthouse where she had been seeking a protective order against an alleged domestic abuser. The judge who oversees the court that issued the protective order expressed dismay that such a seizure took place when the person was seeking protection from violence, and perhaps acting on a tip provided by the alleged abuser himself.

President Trump has said his proposed actions to stiffen immigration enforcement are in the interests of public safety, but seizures such as the one in El Paso and the proposed revitalization of the 287(g) program that deputizes local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law make the public less safe and interfere with local policing priorities.

Certainly, immigration enforcement falls within the federal government’s prerogative, regardless of one’s opinion on current immigration laws. However, that does not make every single enforcement action wise or justifiable. Moreover, the respect for federalism — the recognition of state and local governments’ priorities over the whims of Washington — has long been a mantra of small-government Republicans. Yet, it is hard to think of a larger and more dangerous federal intrusion into local affairs than undermining local law enforcement.

. . . .

The federal government has the authority to enforce its immigration laws, but it should do so with discretion and in a way that aligns with the public trust. Likewise, local law enforcement should be free to protect the communities they serve in line with each community’s best interests. Taking law enforcement actions against people seeking protection is dangerous and irresponsible. Threatening those most vulnerable to crime is anathema to improving public safety.”

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PWS

02/18/17

Brennan Center For Justice Report: “Non-Citizens Are Not Voting. Here Are the Facts.”

http://Non-Citizens Are Not Voting. Here Are the Facts.

Wendy R. Weiser & Douglas Keith report:

“The Trump administration continues to double down on its false and widely-criticized assertion that 3 to 5 million non-citizens illegally voted in the 2016 election.

On Sunday, White House Senior Advisor Stephen Miller claimed 14% of non-citizens are registered to vote. “We know for a fact, you have massive numbers of non-citizens registered to vote in this country,” he said, appearing on ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos. “The White House has provided enormous evidence with respect to voter fraud.”

Actually, it hasn’t. Nevertheless, President Trump announced earlier this month, despite the lack of evidence, that Vice President Mike Pence will lead a federal investigation into voter fraud.

Tons of ink has been devoted to debunking the president’s claims that our elections are marred by widespread voter fraud. But few have focused specifically on his administration’s larger false claims about non-citizens. It is important to put this particular allegation to bed once and for all.

Like voter fraud generally, non-citizen voting is incredibly rare. Simply put, we already know that ineligible non-citizens do not vote in American elections — including the 2016 election — except at negligible rates. Here are the facts.”

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Read the entire report at the link. This matches my own experience. During my my 21+ years as a trial and appellate judge in the U.S. Immigration Court system, and having been involved in thousands of cases over that time, I can only recollect the illegal voting issue coming up once. I am also aware that one of my judicial colleagues in Arlington had it come up. But, it was very, very rare. And, I was serving as a judge during times of “enhanced enforcement” by administrations of both parties (no, President Trump is not the only one to ever think about strong immigration enforcement).

PWS

02-17-17

Like It Or Not, Trio Of Cases Now Before The Supremes Will Affect Trump Administration’s Enforcement Program — Issues Involve Long-Term Detention & Liability Of Government Officials

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/scotus-trump-immigrants_us_58a70e9be4b037d17d271444?tdoe77ccqm362bj4i

Lawrence Hurley reports in HuffPost:

“The U.S. Supreme Court will decide three cases in coming months that could help or hinder President Donald Trump’s efforts to ramp up border security and accelerate deportations of those in the country illegally.

The three cases, which reached the court before Democratic President Barack Obama left office, all deal broadly with the degree to which non-citizens can assert rights under the U.S. Constitution. They come at a time when the court is one justice short and divided along ideological lines, with four conservatives and four liberals.

The justices will issue rulings before the end of June against the backdrop of high-profile litigation challenging the lawfulness of Trump’s controversial travel ban on people traveling from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

The most pertinent of the three cases in terms of Republican Trump administration priorities involves whether immigrants in custody for deportation proceedings have the right to a hearing to request their release when their cases are not promptly adjudicated.

The long-running class action litigation, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of thousands of immigrants detained for more than six months, includes both immigrants apprehended at the border when seeking illegal entry into the United States and legal permanent residents in deportation proceedings because they were convicted of crimes. The case also could affect long-term U.S. residents who entered the country illegally and have subsequently been detained.

The Trump administration has said it wants to end the release of immigrants facing deportation and speed up the process for ejecting them from the country. A decision in the case requiring additional court hearings could have very direct implications for the administration’s plans, said ACLU lawyer Ahilan Arulananthan, especially since immigration courts currently have a backlog of more than 500,000cases.

The ACLU estimates that up to 8,000 immigrants nationwide at any given time have been held for at least six months. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official was unable to immediately confirm data on length of detention but said that in fiscal year 2016, the average daily count of detainees was just under 35,000.

“If Trump wants to put more people in deportation but does not increase the number of immigration judges, then people are going to have to wait longer and longer to get a hearing,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration law professor at Cornell Law School.”

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I would think that nominating a Solicitor General to be in charge of all Federal litigation, particularly at the Supreme Court level, would be a very high priority for President Trump.

PWS

02-17-17

Keeping It In Perspective: Trump Administration’s Arrest Of 680 Undocumented Immigrants In One Week Was About “Business As Usual” During Obama’s 1st Year

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/02/16/us/politics/immigration-arrests-trump.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

JUGAL K. PATEL, ALICIA PARLAPIANO, HAEYOUN PARK and SARAH ALMUKHTAR report in the NYT:

Last week, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials arrested more than 680 people in at least 12 states, shown below, stoking fears that the Trump administration is increasing the arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants.

But a comparison of last week’s arrests and similar ones during the first four years of the Obama presidency show that the recent level of enforcement activity is not unprecedented.

It is unclear, however, if the numbers are an actual increase in enforcement, because information on operations in only 12 states was disclosed.”

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Read the full article with analysis, charts, and maps.

PWS

02/16/17

HuffPost Reports ICE Arrest Of DV Victim At El Paso Courthouse

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/el-paso-ice-detains-domestic-violence-victim_us_58a51f68e4b037d17d24cb2d

Elise Foley and Roque Planas report:

“AUSTIN, Texas ― Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained a domestic violence victim at an El Paso County Courthouse last week shortly after the undocumented immigrant obtained a protective order to shield her from the man accused of abusing her, according to a state news report.

The arrest, first reported by The El Paso Times on Wednesday, would mark a shift in ICE practice under President Donald Trump and has legal experts worried that it will dissuade women from seeking the protection of the courts when they face abuse.

Barbara Hines, who headed the immigration clinic at the University of Texas at Austin and still serves as a professor, said victims of domestic violence have options under the law to normalize their immigration status. The U Visa, for example, protects victims of violence from deportation if they agree to cooperate with law enforcement.

“That’s outrageous. That’s all I can say,” Hines told The Huffington Post, referring to the arrest. “This is very unusual. I would say it’s a terrible precedent and it will discourage survivors of abuse or people being abused from seeking the protection they’re entitled to under our laws…. This is going to make immigrant women fearful of going to the authorities, and it will result in more domestic violence because women will be too afraid to seek protection.”

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.”

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The fear that police cooperation with ICE will dissuade the migrant community from reporting crime and cooperating with local police in solving crimes is one of the factors driving the so-called “Sanctuary Cities” movement.

PWS

02/16/17

After 20 Years In The U.S., Denver Mother Of Three Faces Removal

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/us/an-immigrant-mother-in-denver-weighs-options-as-deportation-looms.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

JULIE TURKEWITZ reports in the NYT:

“DENVER — In the basement of a white stone church here on Tuesday night, Jeanette Vizguerra gathered up her three youngest children, slipped them into pajamas and asked herself perhaps the hardest question of her life.

Should she present herself to the immigration authorities Wednesday morning for a scheduled check-in, risking deportation?

Or should she stay in the church, one of the few places federal agents do not go, almost surely resigning herself to months or years trapped inside?

“Tonight, I have to think,” Ms. Vizguerra said. “Because I promised my children — and it was a promise — that it was going to be very difficult to remove me from this country. I have already fought so long to be here; now is not the time to give up.”

It has been a difficult week for Ms. Vizguerra, 45, one of millions of undocumented immigrants contending with an uncertain future in the Trump administration. After she was convicted several years ago of using fake documents, Ms. Vizguerra, who has spent 20 years working in the United States, was ordered out of the country. But she was granted at least five postponements of deportation, and in December, her lawyer, Hans Meyer, asked for another.

Nothing happened. She was due for a regular check-in at the local office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday, and as the day crept closer, Ms. Vizguerra realized the possibility that she could be whisked onto a plane and separated from her three American-born children: Zury, 6, Roberto, 10, and Luna, 12.”

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PWS

02/15/17

 

What Are The Odds Of The US Immigration Courts’ Surviving The Next Four Years?

What Are The Odds Of The U.S. Immigration Courts’ Survival?

by Paul Wickham Schmidt

Despite the campaign promises to make things great for the American working person, the Trump Administration so far has benefitted comedians, lawyers, reporters, and not many others. But there is another group out there reaping the benefits — oddsmakers. For example, Trump himself is 11-10 on finishing his term, and Press Secretary Sean “Spicey” Spicer is 4-7 to still be in office come New Year’s Day 2018.

So, what are the odds that the U.S. Immigration Courts will survive the next four years. Not very good, I’m afraid.

Already pushed to the brink of disaster, the Immigration Courts are likely to be totally overwhelmed by the the Trump Administration’s mindless “enforcement to the max” program which will potentially unleash a tidal waive of ill-advised new enforcement actions, detained hearings, bond hearings, credible fear reviews, and demands to move Immigration Judges to newly established detention centers along the Southern Border where due process is likely to take a back seat to expediency.

While Trump’s Executive Order promised at least another 15,000 DHS immigration enforcement officers, there was no such commitment to provide comparable staffing increases to the U.S. Immigration Courts. Indeed, we don’t even know at this point whether the Immigration Courts will be exempted from the hiring freeze.

At the same time, DHS Assistant Chief Counsel are likely to be stripped of their authority to offer prosecutorial discretion (“PD”), stipulate to grants of relief in well-documented cases, close cases for USCIS processing, and waive appeals.

Moreover, according to recent articles from the Wall Street Journal posted over on LexisNexis, individual respondents are likely to reciprocate by demanding their rights to full hearings, declining offers of “voluntary departure” without hearing, and appealing, rather than waiving appeal of, most orders of removal. Additionally, the Mexican government could start “slow walking” requests for documentation necessary to effect orders of removal.

Waiting in the wings, as I have mentioned in previous posts, are efforts to eliminate the so-called “Chevron doctrine” giving deference to certain BIA decisions, and constitutional challenges that could bring down the entire Federal Administrative Judiciary “house of cards.”

The sensible way of heading off disaster would be to establish an independent Article I Court outside the Executive Branch and then staff it to do its job. Sadly, however, sensibility so far has played little role in the Trump Administration. Solving the problem (or not) is likely to fall to the Article III Courts.

So, right now, I’m giving the U.S. Immigration Courts about 2-3 odds of making it through 2020. That’s a little better chance than “Spicey,” but worse than Trump himself.

To read the WSJ articles on the “clogging the courts” strategy, take this link over to LexisNexis:

https://www.lexisnexis.com/legalnewsroom/immigration/b/outsidenews/archive/2017/02/13/will-strong-defensive-tactics-jam-immigration-jails-clog-immigration-courts-wsj.aspx?Redirected=true

PWS

02/14/17

 

 

Reuters Exclusive Report — Dreamer Arrested By ICE In Seattle — Mistake Or New Policy?

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-immigration-arrest-exclusiv-idUSKBN15T307

Daniel Levine and Kristina Cooke of Reuters San Francisco break this exclusive story:

“U.S. authorities have arrested an immigrant from Mexico who was brought to the United States illegally as a child and later given a work permit during the Obama administration in what could be the first detention of its kind under President Donald Trump.

Daniel Ramirez Medina, a 23-year-old with no criminal record, was taken into custody last week at his father’s home in Seattle by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. The officers arrived at the home to arrest the man’s father, though court documents did no make clear the reason the father was taken into custody.

Ramirez, now in custody in Tacoma, Washington, was granted temporary permission to live and work legally in the United States under a program called the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, established in 2012 by Democratic President Obama, according to a court filing.”

 

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As far as I know, the Administration has not made a final decision on whether or not to revoke, retain, or modify the Obama Administration’s DACA program. But, given the sloppiness with which this Administration has proceeded on immigration matters, who knows?

In any event, great reporting by Daniel and Kristina, and I appreciate their forwarding this to me.

PWS

02/14/17

 

 

Morning Joe: “Stephen Miller’s weekend performance: That was horrendous and an embarrassment!” — Other Than That, He Loves The Guy!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/02/13/joe-scarborough-is-trying-to-make-trump-turn-on-stephen-miller/?utm_term=.8c119ea36330

Callum Borchers Wirtes in “The Fix” in today’s Washington Post:

“Joe Scarborough is trying to use whatever influence he has over Donald Trump to change the president’s mind about Stephen Miller. It hasn’t worked so far.

The MSNBC host previously blamed Miller for mishandling the rollout of the travel ban and on Monday resumed his campaign against Trump’s senior policy adviser, who made a series of breathtakingly forceful statements on the Sunday political talk shows, including:

“Our opponents, the media and the whole world will soon see, as we begin to take further actions, that the powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned.”
“Sean Spicer, as always, is a hundred percent correct.”
“It is a fact, and you will not deny it, that there are massive numbers of noncitizens in this country who are registered to vote.”

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The video clips on this one (see link) are truly amazing.  Miller is the “Perfect Storm” of arrogance, ignorance, and intolerance all wrapped into a package of smart-ass, off-putting demeanor, lack of gravitas, and robotic delivery. Hopefully, they never let this guy into a courtroom. Or, perhaps they should . . . .

Come to think of it, I’d love to see him go “toe to toe” with Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit. Nothing Judge P loves better than being told “who’s in charge.” And, as for the “I’m from the White House come to tell you about your authority, you robed boob” tone, let’s just say it wouldn’t be pretty. On the other hand, couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy.

PWS

02/13/17

Immigration Raids Net 680

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/immigration-authorities-arrested-680-people-in-raids-last-week/2017/02/13/3659da74-f232-11e6-8d72-263470bf0401_story.html?hpid=hp_rhp-more-top-stories_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.87f8b6f9b6cb

According to the Washington Post:

“Immigration authorities last week arrested 680 people who were in the United States illegally, Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly said in a statement Monday.

The raids in at least a dozen states, which marked the Trump administration’s first large-scale crackdown on people living in the United States illegally, set off a wave of panic and protest in immigrant communities over the weekend and sparked questions from immigration advocates as to whether the arrestees posed legitimate threats to public safety.

DHS, which overseas U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said Monday that approximately 75 percent of those arrested were “criminal aliens,” including some who had been convicted of crimes such as homicide, sexual assault of a minor and drug trafficking.

Asked to provide further clarification, a DHS official confirmed that the term “criminal aliens” includes anyone who had entered the United States illegally or overstayed or violated the terms of a visa. There are an estimated 11 million people in the United States who fit that profile.

ICE declined to provide the names and locations of those who were detained in the raids, nor would the agency say how many of the 680 people had committed serious crimes.

Field offices in Los Angeles, San Antonio, Chicago, Atlanta and New York City released a total of 15 examples of people ICE took into custody last week, including one who was a “self-admitted MS-13 gang member” and one who was wanted for murder and attempted murder in Mexico. Seven had prior convictions for sexual assault or for lewd or indecent acts with a child, and three, including the gang member, had convictions for drug trafficking or distribution.

ICE carried out the arrests in New York, California, Illinois, Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Indiana and Wisconsin. Of those, about a quarter had no prior convictions.

ICE has characterized the raids as routine, but immigrant rights groups said the actions were out of the ordinary and that most of those swept up were not dangerous. They said ICE also handled the detentions — which activists described as playing out in homes, on the side of the road and outside workplaces — differently from how the agency had in the latter years of the Obama administration, and accused the government of sowing fear among the immigrant ­community.

“This is not normal,” Sulma Arias, field director for the Center for Community Change, said in a teleconference with reporters Monday, calling it a “horrific overreach that will destroy families and undermine the American Dream for thousands.”

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There still seems to be confusion as to whether these were “business as usual” by DHS or the result of the Trump Administration’s Executive Orders cracking down on so-called “criminal aliens.” Perhaps, it doesn’t really make any difference. Whatever it’s called, it’s the “new normal.”

PWS

02/13/17

More Nonsense From Miller — Preventing “Crime Before It Happens”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/white-house-deportations-prevent-crime_us_58a0874fe4b03df370d709f3?

Christina Willkie writes on HuffPost:

“White House policy director Stephen Miller on Sunday expanded the goals of President Donald Trump’s controversial immigration executive order, saying it would “prevent crime before it happens” by deporting undocumented immigrants deemed to “pose a threat to public safety.”

The statement was reminiscent of the plot of “Minority Report,” a film set in a dystopian future where people are arrested before they actually commit crimes.

A series of immigration raids authorized by the Trump administration in recent days were purportedly intended to arrest and deport criminals. Instead, many of the people being arrested have no criminal records.”

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Also worth noting that the Trump Administration is now taking “credit” for the “raids,” contradicting the earlier claim by DHS officials that they were “business as usual.”

PWS

02/12/17

 

Getting It Right: How a Small Town In Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley Makes Migration Work — For Everyone In The Community!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-one-small-virginia-town-embraces-immigration–and-is-better-off-for-it/2017/02/10/4c3ff190-ecbd-11e6-9662-6eedf1627882_story.html?utm_term=.99ac31cc3a66

Andrew D. Perrine writes in the Local Opinions section of today’s Washington Post:

“Who would guess that a city tucked in the Shenandoah Valley of western Virginia, with a population of 53,000 and a hard-working rural history, is a model of international coexistence?

Yet, only 55 percent of the students attending Harrisonburg City Public Schools were born in the United States. The second-largest segment of the population by country of origin is Iraqi. Then there are the Hondurans, Puerto Ricans, Salvadorans and Mexicans. The Congolese, Ethiopians, Jordanians, Ukrainians and Syrians are representd, too. As of January 2016, Harrisonburg City Public Schools are attended by students from 46 countries.

One might guess that so many people from so many places around the world never could get along in such a small town given the unnerving level of social discord represented in the media regarding immigration and the fear of terrorism. Yet they do. Crime is mostly petty. Only four police officers have died in the line of duty since the first in 1959. What on earth is happening in Harrisonburg?

Known since the 1930s as “The Friendly City,” Harrisonburg is an official Church World Service refugee resettlement community. It’s home to James Madison University and Eastern Mennonite University, which brings a lot of foreign nationals to town through its missionary work around the world. And the city lies in the path of Interstate 81. So, even though Harrisonburg is no bustling port city or cosmopolitan metropolis, its high level of diversity is not so hard to believe.

But what is so hard to believe is the level of concord among all the various walks of life. Listening to the current American national dialogue, or observing the rise of nationalist political candidates around the world, one would assume that mixing nationalities, religions and ethnic groups in such close quarters would produce enough emotional tinder to fuel a blaze of angry divisions and open fighting in the streets. Yet it does not.

In fact, less than a week after the White House issued an executive order banning refugees from seven majority-Muslim countries, 30 volunteers from churches of various faiths in Harrisonburg and the surrounding Rockingham County collected food donated to the Islamic Center of the Shenandoah Valley. According to the Daily News-Record, the food was set out after the Islamic Center’s 1 p.m. service, and 300 attendees grabbed lunch to go or sat down to a meal. One attendee reportedly said, “This support shows us the community is standing with us. This makes us feel like we are all Americans.”

Maybe everyone gets along well in Harrisonburg because the town is small and the community actively interacts. It is a lot easier to think badly of some group — or even hate them — if its members are an abstraction to you. If you don’t know or see the people you’re told to fear, it’s much easier to fear them. In Harrisonburg, we plainly see that our Mexican and Muslim neighbors are not as they are portrayed by some in elected office or in the media.

Maybe the answer is not a wall or a moratorium on immigration. Maybe the answer is exactly the opposite. Just ask the good people in the Friendly City of Harrisonburg.”

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Maybe guys like Stephen Miller, Jeff Sessions, and even President Trump need to spend a little less time in “the swamp” of Washington, D.C., and a little more time breathing the fresh air out in the Valley.

PWS

02/11/17

 

Meet Presidential Senior Adviser Stephen Miller, The Man Behind President Trump’s Immigration Policies!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/stephen-miller-a-key-engineer-for-trumps-america-first-agenda/2017/02/11/a70cb3f0-e809-11e6-bf6f-301b6b443624_story.html?hpid=hp_rhp-top-table-main_miller-1029am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.ae956d080521

Rosalind S. Helderman writes in a front-page article in today’s Washington Post:

“After attending Trump’s inauguration, Jared Taylor, another high-profile white nationalist, posted a piece to his website in which he wrote that Trump is “not a racially conscious white man” but that there “are men close to him — Steve Bannon, Jeff Sessions, Stephen Miller — who may have a clearer understanding of race, and their influence could grow.”

In an interview, Taylor said he was “speculating” and that he has not met or spoken with Miller.

Miller said he has “profound objections” to the views advanced by Taylor and Spencer, saying: “I condemn this rancid ideology.”

Elder, who is black, said he has never heard Miller speak of Spencer or Taylor or express what he considers racist views.

Instead, Elder said, Miller believes as he does: “Race and racism are no longer major problems in America. This is the fairest majority-white country in the world. If you work hard and make good decisions, you’ll be fine.”

Miller said that his views at the time were best summed up in a 2005 column in the Santa Monica Mirror, titled “My Dream for the End of Racism,” in which he argued that Americans should focus on how far the country has come in overcoming such prejudice. “No one claims that racism is extinct — but it is endangered,” he wrote. “And if we are to entirely extract this venom of prejudice from the United States, I proclaim Americanism to be the key.”
Focusing on “multiculturalism,” he wrote, has had the effect of keeping different groups separate.

Miller’s White House role is in many ways a departure for an activist who has mostly seen himself as representing an oppressed political minority. Now he holds the power, helping to drive the government while working steps from the Oval Office.

Bitner said he wonders how Miller’s tactics will translate.

“I don’t think he’s had the opportunity to practice this,” he said. “These are all outsiders, many of them people who have been vocal minorities. How do you transition from there to governing?”

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Summary: White guy is born into a well-to-do family in Southern California. Leads life of privilege and opportunity. Goes to diverse high school and is offended that Mexican Americans and other fellow students of different backgrounds are unwilling to accept the status quo and also want their “piece of the pie.” Voluntarily adopts borderline racist, white supremacist philosophy that converts him into a “persecuted minority” within his own privileged class. Like former boss and mentor Attorney General Jeff Sessions, bristles with righteous self-indignation when anyone has the gall to accuse him of sharing the noxious philosophies of those who have consistently applauded and felt empowered by his rise. Now holds position of power in government he basically despises where he can actively shove his extreme and divisive philosophy down the collective throats of the majority of Americans who don’t share his negative outlook. I suppose that it’s an overall positive for the American political system and its freedom of expression that even a self-created “philosophical minority” like Miller can find success.

PWS

02/11/17

Health: Fear Is Harmful To Your Health — Deportation Anxiety!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/02/10/living-in-fear-as-a-refugee-in-the-u-s-is-terrible-for-your-health/?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-f%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.704d0ac8184d

From the Washington Post:

“The damage to the next generation may be compounded by other, less obvious assaults on their biology and psychology. Research by Rachel Yehuda and her colleagues at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York has demonstrated that the consequences of Holocaust survivors’ extreme trauma can be passed down to their children and grandchildren, making them exquisitely sensitive to the ordinary stresses of relatively safe lives. Yehuda and other researchers believe that these are “epigenetic” effects, modifications in the ways genes express themselves, which transmit vulnerabilities to stress from one generation to the next. Though the mechanisms are not completely understood, animal studies as well as those on human adults who were abused as children demonstrate similar changes.

“There is no short-term fix for this kind of damage,” Lori Kaplan commented sadly, thinking about the young people and their families who are anxiously calling her and her colleagues, reporting physical and emotional distress, looking for answers. “We’ve been dealing with the trauma of the immigrant experience for so long,” the flight from violence, the loneliness, the poverty, the struggle to survive in a strange land and the longing for home. “Obama was deporting people, sure, and there was anxiety, but he also gave us hope. And now the roof’s been blown off.”

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PWS

02/11/17

Increased “Raids” And Removals Likely To Be The “New Norm” Under Trump Enforcement Policies

http://www.ksbw.com/article/are-immigration-raids-result-of-trump-policy/8730502

The AP reports:

“Advocacy groups claim that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are rounding up people in large numbers around the country as part of stepped-up enforcement under President Donald Trump. They have cited immigration action in Southern California that they believe is especially heavy-handed.
The government says it’s simply enforcing the laws and conducting routine enforcement targeting immigrants in the country illegally with criminal records.

The truth lies somewhere in between. Here are some of the facts surrounding what’s happening with immigration enforcement:”

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Read the full story at the link.  President Trump seems destined to “dethrone” President Obama as the “Deporter in Chief.”

PWS

02/10/17