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Detention Centers

Report: Major Risks For ICE Officers In Migrant Detention

Yesterday marked the first deadline for the Trump administration to reunify migrant children under five with their families. Yet, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has failed to return even half of the children by the deadline. This has sparked a legal debate as to what consequences there are for administration officials who disobey judicial rulings designed to prevent serious harms to migrant children and their parents. We consulted with top law professors from around the country to assess what penalties there may be for ICE officers. We also explore what impact the nomination by Trump of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court could have.

A Tale Of Two Protests

This past week I traveled to El Paso, Texas with the Albuquerque Teachers Federation to protest the detaining of children from immigrant families. The first day’s events featured speakers from all the Abrahamic religions. Quoting passages from holy text, the theological speakers denounced inhumane policies that were designed to traumatize their victims in what appears to be cruelty for cruelty sake. The aim was clear for the righteous representatives of their faith, that they have the moral high ground; all supported by the words of God or any one of the many prophets. The fence to the facility was open and members of the group that had come to the rally were conversing with the guards. It was a kumbaya moment as the establishment figures from both sides could see eye to eye.

Targeting The Most Vulnerable: Children In Detention In The US And Palestine

Americans are grappling with the incarceration of 10-year-olds and the concept of “tender age detention centers” while morally bankrupt politicians wring their bloodied hands. As courts begin to respond, many folks across the political spectrum are wondering, “What happens to the children caught in this catastrophe?” Interestingly, there is much we can learn from research in the US and from the Israeli experience with regard to children and prisons. The US and Israel both perceive themselves as enlightened “western democracies,” yet both have high incarceration rates, particularly for children of color, sometimes involving the same global prison industries.  In both countries, these kinds of children are perceived as the “other,” the “enemy,” the “invading hordes ready to destroy America,” the “Muslim terrorists seeking to kill Israelis.”

National Unity Fast For Children Separated From Their Parents

Fifty years ago, in 1968 Chicano activist and farm worker organizer Cesar Chavez started his 25 day his fast. While running for President, Robert F. Kennedy, flew to meet him and break bread break the fast. This past weekend in McAllen, Texas, RFK’s daughter, Kerry Kennedy joined by Delores Huerta, the co-founder of the American Farm Workers Union in a new fast. This time around it won’t be Chavez’s life threatening 25 days, it will be 24 hours for each individual person which will then be passed along to the next person. 24 hours for 24 days for the 2400+ children separated from their parents.

The Immigration Con: How Duopoly Makes Public Forget About Roots Causes Of War And Economics

Many are focusing on the travel ban, largely targeting Muslim countries, and the separation and detention of asylum seekers separated from their children at the U.S.-Mexico border. The the U.S. media and political establishment has put the issue of immigration front and center, causing all manner of political venting and pro and anti Trump venom to spew forth. A silver lining seems to be that it has helped raise issues that -- unlike the Russiagate story much of the establishment media has obsessed over -- at least have some currency with the general public. But the manner in which immigration issues have been focused on has obscured the root causes of those issues. Desperate migration is ultimately caused by economics, like so-called trade deals, corrupt Central American governments, often U.S.-backed, U.S.-backed coups and other policies.

Outraged By Kids In Cages? Look At Our Entire Juvenile Justice System.

Last week, the nation witnessed an abrupt reversal from the White House. After claiming for days that he did not have the authority to address the family separation crisis at the border, President Donald Trump appeared to do just that with the stroke of a pen. Trump has purportedly put an end to the family separation policy, but he has also created a host of new issues to resolve. How and when will nearly 2,500 migrant children be reunited with their parents? How and where will families be detained together going forward? Even as these legal questions are being resolved, there is a persistent sense of outrage among most Americans. How could there not be? In 2018, in a time of tremendous economic prosperity, the United States is keeping migrant children in cages, claiming that a policy of family separation deters future illegal immigration. The images of what this policy entails are horrific: terrified, confused children watching as agents search their mothers...

Protesters Play Audio Of Crying Detained Children Outside DHS Secty Nielsen’s Home

ALEXANDRIA, Va. ― Protesters gathered outside Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s townhouse Friday morning, playing audio of detained migrant children and chanting “Free the kids!” The demonstration took place just days after she fled a Mexican restaurant in Washington while being heckled by protesters. The protest, organized by the progressive group CREDO Action, took place at 7:30 a.m. In the pouring rain, protesters shouted several chants over megaphones, held posters that read “Child Snatcher” and played the audio clip released by ProPublica over a speaker system.

Protesters March On Texas Tent City To Oppose Family Separations

A Texas tent city constructed last week to shelter migrant children became a protest site Sunday as crowds marched to oppose the separation of immigrant families at the border. More than 200 children are being housed in the makeshift tent structure built in Tornillo, Tex., according to Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Tex.), who organized Sunday’s protest. Protesters braved the Texas heat, carrying signs featuring slogans like, “Don’t use children to get your wall,” “Fight ignorance, not immigrants,” and “This is how the Holocaust started,” the El Paso Times reported. “We’re wanting to make sure that everyone in this country knows what is happening here, in their name, in Tornillo, where kids have traveled 2,000 miles, some alone, some with their parents, are being held in detention camps, tent cities that have just been constructed over the course of this last week,” O’Rourke said.

Beyond Racism, Immigrant Mass Detention Is All About Profit

BELLINGHAM, WA – While Donald Trump’s stepped-up repression of unauthorized migrants has been touted as a “get tough” policy meant to stem a flood of “animals” affiliated with transnational criminal groups, his draconian policies remain unlikely to deter desperate asylum-seekers from seeking entry to the United States. Instead, family separations and arbitrary prosecution and incarcerations are upping the scale of trauma suffered by refugees while asylum claims and border-crossings continue to increase. Trump’s “Make America Great” policies may have resulted in misery for thousands of poor migrants, yet the rise in human suffering has resulted in jackpot prizes for some players at the New York Stock Exchange.

Nevermind The Wall — They’re Building Warehouses

Most mornings lately, I’ve woken up to two things. First I hear my toddler, sounding off that it’s time to get up. Then I see the news stories about other toddlers our immigration authorities ripped away from their parents. For weeks, I’ve felt the gnawing need to write something, anything, about it. But God, where even to begin? First, there are the stories. The Congolese asylum seeker who heard her six-year-old scream “Don’t take me away from my mommy!” and couldn’t reach her. The woman forced to put her 18-month-old in a car seat in an ICE van, the door slamming shut before she could even say goodbye. The man who hasn’t seen his son in six months. Then there are the photos. The rows of children sleeping on thin mats behind chain-linked fences.

#FamiliesBelongTogether Rallies Around The Country

As more terrible news continues to pour out our immigration centers, rallies nationwide have popped up to call out local officials and government policies that separate children at the border. In downtown Syracuse, New York, not usually a hotbed of activism in my experience, roughly seventy people joined the rally that began in front of Republican Congressman John Katko’s office. Outside the Congressman’s offices activists handed out yellow wristbands that were meant to symbolize the barcoded wristbands that immigrant children are forced to wear to receive food and services.

Activists Calling For The Abolition Of ICE Blocking Seattle Streets Outside Of Homeland Security Building

Seattle, WA – Early yesterday morning, activists with Northwest Detention Center Resistance and Mijente locked down outside of 1000 2nd Avenue in downtown Seattle, Washington, calling attention to the building’s role as Washington State’s deportation epicenter. The building, owned by billionaire developer Martin Selig, houses regional offices for ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations and Office of Chief Counsel, regional offices for Customs and Border Protection, and the Department of Justice-controlled Seattle Immigration Court. The lockdown is part of the launch of the “Chinga La Migra” organizing tour to tell the story of what the deportation crisis under President Trump looks like in real time, and amplify the efforts and stories of resistance.

To Create True Sanctuary Cities, We Must End Racist Policing

Cities across the US have enacted sanctuary measures to resist the Trump administration’s escalation of anti-immigrant policing, but most municipal sanctuary measures have a central weakness: They only seek to protect immigrants deemed as “law-abiding,” leaving those already ensnared in a racist system of criminalization and policing unprotected. Sanctuary ordinances, such as the ones adopted by Chicago in 2012 and by the state of Illinois in 2017, seek to inhibit cooperation between local policing agencies and federal immigration authorities by prohibiting local police departments from using agency resources to hold immigrants for federal agents. But as with most sanctuary legislation, these bills distinguish otherwise “law-abiding” undocumented immigrants from “criminal aliens,” who are left unprotected by sanctuary measures and rendered highly vulnerable to detention and deportation.

In Response To ICE Raids And Family Separation, Immigrant Communities Are Fighting Back

Since May 19, a hotline dedicated to assisting families threatened by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been ringing nonstop. That same day is when ICE agents across the Chicagoland area began a widespread sweep, including at a worksite near a Home Depot, where laborers go to find work. According to immigrants’ rights organizers, at least 80 people have been detained since the sweep began, and likely many more. On Thursday, a group of around 75 protesters gathered on Chicago’s Southwest side at the intersection of 45th St. and Western Ave., across the street from the worksite. Organizers, as well as several workers who were at the job site when ICE arrived last weekend, spoke to the gathered crowd. With ICE threatening their livelihoods and their communities, those who spoke gave urgency to the ongoing fight to end police intimidation and for immigrants to earn a living and to live without fear.

Community Blockades Detention Center To Protect Asylum Seekers

Community members have blockaded the gates of MITA detention centre in Broadmeadows this morning in a desperate bid to stop the deportation of Tamil asylum seeker, ‘Santharuban’. Grave fears are held for him should he be returned to Sri Lanka. As a former member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers), he faces plausible threat to his safety on return. Former Tiger members and returned Tamil refugees are routinely harassed, interrogated and some are subjected to torture by Sri Lankan security forces. The UN Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) has asked the Australian government to stop Santharuban’s deportation until it is able to perform an investigation. The Home Affairs Department has issued a deportation notice for the 22nd of February in spite of the UNCAT request.

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Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

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