Tuesday, August 4, 2020
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Click here to read their biggest stories as soon as they’re published.
This article is co-published with The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan local newsroom that informs and engages with Texans.
A teenage girl carrying her baby arrived at the U.S. border this summer and begged for help. She told federal agents that she feared returning to Guatemala. The man who raped her she said had threatened to make her “disappear.”
Then, advocates say, the child briefly vanished — into the custody of the U.S. government, which held her and her baby for days in a hotel with almost no outside contact before federal officers summarily expelled them from the country.
Similar actions have played out along the border for months under an emergency health order the Trump administration issued in March. Citing the threat of COVID-19, it granted federal agents sweeping powers to almost immediately return anyone at the border, including infants as young as 8 months. Children are typically entitled to special protections under the law, including the right to have their asylum claims adjudicated by a judge.
This article is co-published with The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan local newsroom that informs and engages with Texans.
A teenage girl carrying her baby arrived at the U.S. border this summer and begged for help. She told federal agents that she feared returning to Guatemala. The man who raped her she said had threatened to make her “disappear.”
Then, advocates say, the child briefly vanished — into the custody of the U.S. government, which held her and her baby for days in a hotel with almost no outside contact before federal officers summarily expelled them from the country.
Similar actions have played out along the border for months under an emergency health order the Trump administration issued in March. Citing the threat of COVID-19, it granted federal agents sweeping powers to almost immediately return anyone at the border, including infants as young as 8 months. Children are typically entitled to special protections under the law, including the right to have their asylum claims adjudicated by a judge.
Today, the Latino and Hispanic population is the largest ethnic or racial minority group in the country, according to the U.S. Census. Yet, experts say their presence in the juvenile justice system is severely underreported.
Many experts agree Latino, Indigenous and Hispanic youth are misidentified and poorly counted in county, state and national statistics due to inconsistencies in definitions, categories or even having the option to self-identify at all.
“We’re basically invisible,” said Marcia Rincon-Gallardo, director and founder of Noxtin and executive director of the Alianza for Youth Justice. Both organizations focus on the disproportionate impact of the juvenile justice system on Latino youth, families and communities.
Hispanic youth are disproportionately represented in the justice system, according to existing statistics from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Hispanic youth are detained at nearly twice the rate of white youth and are committed to court-ordered placement 30% more often than white youth.
In certain states, the disparity is significantly worse than the national average.
Many experts agree Latino, Indigenous and Hispanic youth are misidentified and poorly counted in county, state and national statistics due to inconsistencies in definitions, categories or even having the option to self-identify at all.
“We’re basically invisible,” said Marcia Rincon-Gallardo, director and founder of Noxtin and executive director of the Alianza for Youth Justice. Both organizations focus on the disproportionate impact of the juvenile justice system on Latino youth, families and communities.
Hispanic youth are disproportionately represented in the justice system, according to existing statistics from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Hispanic youth are detained at nearly twice the rate of white youth and are committed to court-ordered placement 30% more often than white youth.
In certain states, the disparity is significantly worse than the national average.
Arizona voters will decide a variety of primaries at the town, county, state and federal level today, all the way from Oro Valley Town Council to U.S. Senate.
Polls are open until 7 p.m.
You can find your precinct polling place here.
If you have an early ballot, you can turn it in any any polling station. This year, to help combat the spread of COVID-19, there will be drive-up ballot collection at all polling places, according to Pima County Elections Director Brad Nelson. Every 15 minutes, someone will come out from the polling place to collect early ballots.
The first results are expected to be released sometime around 8 p.m. Nelson says the county will continue to tabulate all votes cast today throughout the evening, with updates posted online as appropriate.
The early ballots that are turned in today along with any that arrive in the mail and still need to be verified through a signature check will be processed through the Recorder's Office and counted in the next few days.
Check back here tonight for results as they come in.
Polls are open until 7 p.m.
You can find your precinct polling place here.
If you have an early ballot, you can turn it in any any polling station. This year, to help combat the spread of COVID-19, there will be drive-up ballot collection at all polling places, according to Pima County Elections Director Brad Nelson. Every 15 minutes, someone will come out from the polling place to collect early ballots.
The first results are expected to be released sometime around 8 p.m. Nelson says the county will continue to tabulate all votes cast today throughout the evening, with updates posted online as appropriate.
The early ballots that are turned in today along with any that arrive in the mail and still need to be verified through a signature check will be processed through the Recorder's Office and counted in the next few days.
Check back here tonight for results as they come in.
Monday, August 3, 2020
ProPublica Illinois is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.
As violent crime continued to climb in Chicago and other cities across the country, Attorney General William P. Barr announced that the U.S. Department of Justice was mobilizing to help: Dozens of federal agents would be sent to work with local police to combat gangs and illegal guns.
“Our message to gangs, gang leaders and gang members is this: When we throw the federal book at you, it will be a knockout blow,” Barr said.
That was in 1992, during Barr’s first stint leading the Justice Department, under former President George H.W. Bush.
If it sounds too recent or familiar to have happened nearly three decades ago, that’s because Barr, now attorney general under President Donald Trump, made a strikingly similar announcement on July 22.
Some of the details were different, of course. In 1992, Barr said the FBI was shifting about 300 agents from monitoring spies from the recently collapsed Soviet Union to taking on gangs and violent crime in American cities. Eighteen of the agents would be redeployed to Chicago.
As violent crime continued to climb in Chicago and other cities across the country, Attorney General William P. Barr announced that the U.S. Department of Justice was mobilizing to help: Dozens of federal agents would be sent to work with local police to combat gangs and illegal guns.
“Our message to gangs, gang leaders and gang members is this: When we throw the federal book at you, it will be a knockout blow,” Barr said.
That was in 1992, during Barr’s first stint leading the Justice Department, under former President George H.W. Bush.
If it sounds too recent or familiar to have happened nearly three decades ago, that’s because Barr, now attorney general under President Donald Trump, made a strikingly similar announcement on July 22.
Some of the details were different, of course. In 1992, Barr said the FBI was shifting about 300 agents from monitoring spies from the recently collapsed Soviet Union to taking on gangs and violent crime in American cities. Eighteen of the agents would be redeployed to Chicago.
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Saturday, August 1, 2020
Congressman Raul Grijalva, a Democrat who was first elected to serve Southern Arizona in Congress in 2002, announced today that he had tested positive for COVID-19.
Grijalva, 72, had been in self-quarantine after Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas tested positive earlier this week. He said he felt fine and was showing no symptoms.
Grijalva's comment:
Grijalva, 72, had been in self-quarantine after Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas tested positive earlier this week. He said he felt fine and was showing no symptoms.
Grijalva's comment:
The Attending Physician of the Capitol informed me that I tested positive for COVID-19. As a result, I will be self-isolating in quarantine at his recommendation. I currently have no symptoms, feel fine, and hope to make a quick and speedy recovery.
While I cannot blame anyone directly for this, this week has shown that there are some Members of Congress who fail to take this crisis seriously. Numerous Republican members routinely strut around the Capitol without a mask to selfishly make a political statement at the expense of their colleagues, staff, and their families. I’m pleased that Speaker Pelosi has mandated the use of masks at the Capitol to keep members and staff safe from those looking to score quick political points. Stopping the spread of a deadly virus should not be a partisan issue.
I urge all of us to recognize the severity of this virus and follow the CDC guidance to keep our family, friends, and loved ones safe. We can all play a part in stopping the spread of COVID-19 in our communities.
Thursday, July 30, 2020
Gebrish Weldemariam, who was laid off by an airline catering company that later received government aid, with his family outside their Virginia home. (Dee Dwyer for ProPublica)
This spring, as the coronavirus spread and international travel bans grounded flights, Gebrish Weldemariam got a layoff letter from his airline catering job at Dulles International Airport.
He’d been working as a driver making more than $18 per hour for Flying Food Group, ferrying in-flight meals between the company’s kitchen and gated planes waiting on the tarmac. Between overtime at the airport and a part-time job driving buses on the side, Weldemariam felt that times were good. Last fall, with his wife expecting a fourth child, the family bought a house not far from the airport, allowing him to be nearby to help care for his oldest son, who has Down syndrome and needs constant attention.
“I have kids. I have a mortgage. I have two car loans,” Weldemariam said. “That’s why I work hard.”
Flying Food Group told him only that when business picks up, it would call him. Now, even with boosted unemployment benefits, he said he makes $600 less than a typical week when he was working. He’s worried he won’t be able to cover all of his monthly bills.
Flying Food didn’t just lay off Weldemariam. The Chicago-based company, one of the largest airline caterers in the country, has pink slipped more than 2,000 other workers since March. The cuts left the vast majority of its workforce out of a job at facilities in California, Chicago, Virginia and the New York City area, according to the union UNITE HERE, which represents Flying Food workers. Then in June, the Flying Food was approved to receive $85 million from the Trump administration from a pandemic relief program that was intended to preserve those very jobs.
The latest film in The Loft Cinema's virtual screening series follows the work of the attorneys at the American Civil Liberties Union. The Fight examines the struggle for civil rights when "a migrant mother is separated from her child, when a transgender soldier is at risk to lose his career, when reproductive rights and basic voting rights are under attack" and more. The Fight releases digitally July 31.
Immediately following the film, there will be a pre-recorded discussion between producer Kerry Washington and the ACLU lawyers featured in the film. This conversation is exclusive to Virtual Cinema engagements.
Directed by Eli B. Despres, Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg, The Fight comes from the same cinema team behind 2016's political documentary about Anthony Weiner’s campaign for Mayor of New York City.
The Loft's streaming releases series splits the revenue with the film’s distributor 50/50 and helps support The Loft in a time of mass theater closure. You can watch The Fight for 48 hours after you purchase an e-ticket, and can watch on your mobile device, computer, and other streaming devices.
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Tags: claytoonz , mythical , attorney , trump , maga , political , comic , Image
Wednesday, July 29, 2020
PHOENIX – The Trump administration said Tuesday it will stop accepting new Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals applications and will limit DACA renewals to one year while it undertakes a “full reconsideration” of the Obama-era policy.
The Department of Homeland Security announcement comes one month after the Supreme Court rejected the administration’s previous efforts to end the deferred deportation policy, and critics called Tuesday’s action little more than a ruse to kill the program again.
“This is another example of the actions that the Trump administration is taking to ensure thousands of Dreamers are living a life of uncertainty, fear, and anxiety,” said Reyna Montoya, CEO and founder of Aliento, as well as a DACA recipient.
But Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said in a memo to agency heads that the pause is needed so the department can “take action to thoughtfully consider the future of the DACA policy, including whether to fully rescind the program.”
In the memo, Wolf announced three immediate changes to DACA: new applications will be rejected and filing fees refunded, renewed applications will only be good for one year instead of the current two, and advance parole – which lets DACA recipients leave and re-enter the country – will be rejected without “exceptional circumstances.”
Under DACA, undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children could apply for a deferral of deportation if they had a clean record, were working or in school and met other criteria. DACA recipients could get driver’s licenses and work authorizations, allowing many who knew no country but U.S. to come out of the shadows, supporters said.
The Department of Homeland Security announcement comes one month after the Supreme Court rejected the administration’s previous efforts to end the deferred deportation policy, and critics called Tuesday’s action little more than a ruse to kill the program again.
“This is another example of the actions that the Trump administration is taking to ensure thousands of Dreamers are living a life of uncertainty, fear, and anxiety,” said Reyna Montoya, CEO and founder of Aliento, as well as a DACA recipient.
But Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said in a memo to agency heads that the pause is needed so the department can “take action to thoughtfully consider the future of the DACA policy, including whether to fully rescind the program.”
In the memo, Wolf announced three immediate changes to DACA: new applications will be rejected and filing fees refunded, renewed applications will only be good for one year instead of the current two, and advance parole – which lets DACA recipients leave and re-enter the country – will be rejected without “exceptional circumstances.”
Under DACA, undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children could apply for a deferral of deportation if they had a clean record, were working or in school and met other criteria. DACA recipients could get driver’s licenses and work authorizations, allowing many who knew no country but U.S. to come out of the shadows, supporters said.
