Daily Archives: July 16, 2019

2019-07-16: News Headlines

Eds. (2019-07-16). Science group opposes planned immigration raids, mistreatment of immigrants. mronline.org Statement by Ken Kimmell, President, Union of Concerned Scientists | Source

Text: R.R. Photos: Teri Vershel (2019-07-16). Mountain View Vigil Protests Immigration Camps. indybay.org On June 30, 2018 in Mountain View 2,000 people demonstrated to send a clear message to Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress: Families Belong Together! They demanded an end to cruel and unjustified treatment of immigrant children and their families. A year later, on July 12, 2019, members of Together We Will once again called upon the people to gather on the streets, for the situation has not improved. Quite the opposite, it has only become more dire. | Photos by Teri Vershel, Pro Bono Photo. Please credit the photographer.

Ruth Robertson (2019-07-16). ICE Sweep Protest is Display of Inimitable San Francisco Style at Cable Car Turnaround. indybay.org Dancers reenacted the historic meeting of world dictators Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un at a Powell Street cable car turnaround protest on July 12. While one protester revealed his tattoo of deep significance, many others hoisted signs that expressed just how pissed off citizens of San Francisco can get when ICE raids threaten their city. | Photos by Terri Scussel, Pro Bono Photo. Please credit the photographer.

WSWS (2019-07-16). Trump abolishes right to asylum on US southern border. wsws.org The White House order condemns many thousands of Central American men, women and children to be summarily returned to conditions of murderous violence.

Ruth Robertson (2019-07-16). Protest of Planned Federal Immigration Roundups Draws Hundreds to Redwood City. indybay.org President Donald Trump has threatened mass deportation roundups, starting today. On Friday July 12, in Redwood City, California, demonstrators said it was important to protest the administration's crackdown. | Photos by Charlie Moehle, Pro Bono Photo. Please credit the photographer.

Peter Maiden (2019-07-16). Fresno protest "Lights for Liberty" indybay.org Around 400 came out to protest the concentration camps in the U.S. being filled with migrants.

Ruth Robertson (2019-07-16). Protesters Target Palantir for Profiting from ICE Conracts. indybay.org July 12 was a national day of action to call for the protection of immigrants from ICE raids. In Palo Alto, demonstrators marched on Palantir Technologies' headquarters, saying the data mining company is helping the Trump administration separate families. Palantir sells software that assists the government in tracking and finding people to arrest and deport. | Please credit the photographer: Jack Owicki, Pro Bono Photo.

Curt Wechsler (2019-07-16). Immigrant Raids Part of a Larger Fascist Program. indybay.org Sports Basement | 1590 Bryant Street, San Francisco…

WSWS (2019-07-16). Amazon workers internationally protest against conditions on Prime Day. wsws.org Across the US and in Europe, Amazon workers are protesting dangerous working conditions, low pay and the company's ties to the US immigration Gestapo.

David Fields (2019-07-15). Hundreds gather in Appleton, Wisc. to protest Trump's immigrant concentration camps. peoplesworld.org APPLETON, Wisc.— Houdini Plaza here was one of over 700 sites around the world where rallies against immigrant concentration camps and detention centers for those seeking asylum were held under the banner of "Lights for Liberty" this weekend. On Friday, July 12, over 300 participants showed and several speakers shared their thoughts. The speeches were …

teleSUR (2019-07-15). Anarchist Activist Killed for Fighting US 'Concentration Camps'. telesurenglish.net United States Anarchist and anti-fascist activist, Will Van Spronsen, was killed Saturday by the police in the state of Washington while trying to take direct action against a migration concentration camp, by setting up migrants deportation buses on fire. | RELATED: | Small Scale Immigration Raids in US as Migrants Hide in Fear | The killing occurred a few hours after a peaceful demonstration against the migrants' detention camp when four police officers shot the 69-year-old campaigner in t…

Staff (2019-07-15). Trump's Asylum Ban 2.0 Is Broadest Attack Yet on the Asylum Process. truthout.org Today Trump's team announced its broadest assault yet on the asylum process: a regulatory change filed with the Federal Register saying that anyone who passes through another country to reach the United States would be ineligible to claim asylum here. Because it is an interim rule, it does not need to go through the regular and lengthy approval process. As a result, unless the courts intervene, at the stroke of a pen Trump will have gutted decades of American asylum and immigration p…

Staff (2019-07-15). Communities Fight Back as Threat of ICE Raids Terrorizes Immigrant Families. truthout.org This weekend, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents launched a handful of raids across the country as part of President Trump's push to detain and deport thousands of undocumented migrants in 10 major cities. Agents in Chicago reportedly arrested a mother and her children only to quickly release them. Arrests were also attempted in New York City, in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and Harlem, where immigrants reportedly refused to open their doors to ICE agents because they did not have warrants. Authorities say more raids are planned this week, prompting fear but also generating mass protests on the ground. We sp…

teleSUR (2019-07-15). Trump Bars Asylum Seekers at US Southern Border. telesurenglish.net The United States Departments of Justice and Homeland Security issued Monday a joint rule that blocks all migrants from applying for asylum at the southern border, requiring them first to attempt international protection in a safe third country. | RELATED: | Small Scale Immigration Raids in US as Migrants Hide in Fear | It "will affect all those who reach our southern land border but may have fled from anywhere in the world. It does nothing to fix our broken migration system," a DHS official…

Staff (2019-07-15). Pressley, AOC, Tlaib and Omar Hit Back at Trump's Bigotry. truthout.org After President Donald Trump on Sunday directed a series of racist tweets at Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley, the group of freshman congresswomen known as the "the Squad" rebuked the president for his bigoted remarks and vowed to continue fighting his cruel attacks on immigrants and other vulnerable communities. | "This is what racism looks like," tweeted Pressley, a Massachusetts congresswoman, after Trump said the freshman Democrats should "go back" to the countries "from which they came." | Trump's attack was met with a flood of outrage. By Monday morning, the…

Staff (2019-07-15). Trump Moves to End Asylum Protections for Central Americans. truthdig.com A new rule expected to go into effect this week aims to drastically reduce the number of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

Natasha Hakimi Zapata (2019-07-15). I Know What It's Like to Be Told to 'Go Back' to My Own Country. truthdig.com As the daughter of Iranian and Mexican immigrants, the president's racist attacks on four congresswomen of color have struck me to my core.

teleSUR (2019-07-15). Trump Says 'The Squad' Hates the US, Asks Them to Leave Again. telesurenglish.net The United States President Donald Trump Monday defended his attacks against four Democratic congresswomen, saying he was not concerned if people thought his tweets toward them were racist and accused the U.S. lawmakers of hating America. | RELATED: | Nancy Pelosi 'Salty' as Progressive Congresswomen Vote Against Right-wing Border Bill | "As far as…

teleSUR (2019-07-15). Ecuador: Workers, Farmers Launch National Strike Against Gov't. telesurenglish.net Ecuador's National Campesino Movement (Fecaol) and workers' unions have launched a five-day national strike Monday to protest President Lenin Moreno's neoliberal government, as massive manifestations in the country's capital and major cities are expected on Tuesday. | RELATED: | IMF Approves Second Million-Dollar Loan Installment to Ecuador | "The national strike is strengthened: Campesinos, Indigenous people, Afro-descendants, retail traders, health workers, electricians,…

Stephen Lendman (2019-07-15). Revanchist Israel Bent on Territorial Expansion. Towards "Greater Israel"? globalresearch.ca Israel is the only nation without official borders. From its inception it was planned this way to extrajudicially annex more territory. | A territorial expansion plan was drawn up in the 1980s as part of the US/Israel plan to redraw the …

Alicia Jrapko and Bill Hackwell (2019-07-15). Trump's Attack against Immigrants Meets Resistance. dissidentvoice.org Photo Credit: Bill Hackwell Nearly 800 events took place this weekend across the United States organized by grassroots organizations including religious sectors, community groups, students, labor and many individuals who had had enough of the Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids taking place in working and poor communities against immigrants and Trump's concentration camps on the …

Mark Gruenberg (2019-07-15). Amazon Prime Day Strike: Workers say no to overwork and discrimination. peoplesworld.org SHAKOPEE, Minn.—Amazon Prime Day is becoming Amazon Strike Day. Amazon is forcing its workers at its monster warehouse in Shakopee, Minn., to walk out again. The 1,500 workers, one-third of them migrants and refugees from Somalia and other nations of East Africa are walking off the job for six hours today, July 15. That's the …

Jon Britton (2019-07-15). Hundreds join united action in Palo Alto, Calif., to shut down Palantir Technologies for complicity with ICE. liberationnews.org In a great show of unity in action, more than a dozen groups from all over the San Francisco Bay Area joined together July 19 to protest at Palantir Technologies in Palo Alto for the company's provision of software facilitating ICE raids, detentions and deportations.

Mark Gruenberg (2019-07-15). 'Lights for Liberty' protests deliver message: Close the migrant concentration camps. peoplesworld.org WASHINGTON—From South Carolina to South Africa, at least according to speakers at the mass vigil in D.C., "Lights for Liberty" arose worldwide this weekend against what many protesters termed Donald Trump's "concentration camps" for migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. Vigils and protests occurred in 817 U.S. cities and others around the globe. Organizers urged …

Staff (2019-07-15). Cruelty Is the Point: Communities Fight Back as Threat of ICE Raids Terrorize Immigrant Families. democracynow.org This weekend, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents launched a handful of raids across the country as part of President Trump's push to detain and deport thousands of undocumented migrants in 10 major cities. Agents in Chicago reportedly arrested a mother and her children only to quickly release them. Arrests were also attempted in New York City, in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and Harlem, where immigrants reportedly refused to open their doors to ICE agents because they did not have warrants. Authorities say more raids are planned this week, prompting fear but also generating mass protests on the ground. We speak…

teleSUR (2019-07-15). Evo Gives Free Modern Farming Equipment to Bolivian Campesinos. telesurenglish.net On Sunday, Bolivia's government donated over $6 million worth of tractors and other farming equipment to small holding campesinos in the department of La Paz. Evo Morales attended the ceremony at which this equipment was handed over to the rural workers. | RELATED: | Bolivia's Campesino Union Slams Opposition Protests as 'Total Failure' | The equipment will benefit 14,380 families across 87 municipalities in the Andean region surrounding the town of Viacha. The donation i…

teleSUR (2019-07-15). . telesurenglish.net The United States authorities launched small-scale operations seeking to arrest undocumented immigrants over the weekend in an apparent start to President Donald Trump's vow to launch mass deportation round-ups across the country. | RELATED: | 1,600 Migrant Children Were Killed or Went Missing Since 2014 | The operation, which Trump revealed on Twitt…

teleSUR (2019-07-15). Over 39,000 Honduran Migrants Deported From Mexico. telesurenglish.net Over 39 400 Hondurans were deported from Mexico, from October 2018 to the date, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. | RELATED: | Two Honduran Vessels Wreck at Sea, 27 People Killed | Statistics released by the Consular and Migratory Observatory of Honduras reported that over 60 000 Hondurans have been sent back to the Central American nation, 43 percent higher than the same period of 2018. | In statements to the press, the head of the General Directorate of Migrant Protection, Li…

Staff (2019-07-15). "We Are in Fear": Undocumented Immigrant in Sanctuary Responds to Raids from Colorado Church. democracynow.org As immigrant communities face ongoing raids across the country, we speak with Rosa Sabido, one of dozens of undocumented immigrants living in churches across the United States. She entered sanctuary in May 2017 in the fellowship hall at United Methodist Church in Mancos, Colorado, after being told that her latest request of stay of deportation had been denied by ICE. She first came to the U.S. on a visitor visa in 1987 to see her mother and stepfather, who are both naturalized U.S. citizens. "We are in fear. We are on guard," says Sabido. "We are on constant panic, and we don't know what's going to happen in our…

Cora Currier (2019-07-15). Before Being Hacked, Border Surveillance Firm Lobbied to Downplay Security and Privacy Concerns About Its Technology. theintercept.com The CEO of Perceptics, which makes license plate readers, claimed that "CBP has none of the privacy concerns at the border that all agencies have inland."

teleSUR (2019-07-15). Guatemala Refuses Trump's Request to be Safe Third Country. telesurenglish.net Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales is postponing his visit to Washington as his office said the Central American leader had no interest in signing an agreement to make his country a safe third country. | RELATED: | Guatemala: Morales to Visit Washington to Discuss Migration | In a statement, Guatemala said the planned meeting between Morales and U.S. President Donald Trump this week had been postponed until the Guatemalan Constitutional Court had ruled on legal challenges. Last wee…

teleSUR (2019-07-15). Italy Seizes Air-To-Air Missile, Guns in Raids on Neo-Nazis. telesurenglish.net Italian police have seized Monday a large arsenal of weapons, including an air-to-air missile, in raids on neo-Nazi sympathizers. | RELATED: | Italy Shuts Down Europe's Once Biggest Migrant Center | "During the operation, an air-to-air missile in perfect working order and used by the Qatari army was seized," police said of the 245-kilogram (540-pound) Matra missile. They also found automatic assault rifles that they described as "latest generation" among the cache. | Three men were arre…

teleSUR (2019-07-15). Bolivia Works to Make Femicides Crimes Against Humanity. telesurenglish.net Bolivian President Evo Morales announced Monday new measures meant to address gender violence and femicides in the country, planning to label them as crimes against humanity. | RELATED: | Evo Gives Free Modern Farming Equipment to Bolivian Campesinos | After meeting with the women's defense cabinet, Morales told reporters that the new plan was adopted, expressing concern over the more than 70 femicides reported so far in 2019. | He said the issue was a "national priori…

WSWS (2019-07-15). Thousands march in Chicago to demand end to US immigrant detention camps, raids and deportations. wsws.org The event was aimed at containing the enormous social opposition to the extreme-right policies of the Trump administration and the Republicans, within the confines of the Democratic Party,…

WSWS (2019-07-15). Democrats back mass deportations. wsws.org Regardless of immigration status, all workers must understand that they are the ultimate target of the anti-democratic methods used against immigrants.

RT (2019-07-15). Trump administration will place 'new bar' on asylum for immigrants crossing southern border. rt.com The Trump administration announced new restrictions on asylum applications from immigrants traveling to the US through Mexico, the latest move in an immigration crackdown. |

WSWS (2019-07-15). Voices from the protests against Trump's attack on immigrants. wsws.org The WSWS spoke with hundreds across the country, including Kare, a paralegal in New York City, who said, "Change certainly won't be coming from the top. This has been going on too long, and now that people are aware of it, we have to stand up."

Eds. (2019-07-15). Close the concentration camps. mronline.org The U.S. government is detaining thousands of migrants, in what can only be described as a system of 21st century concentration camps. Justin Akers Chacón—professor of U.S. History and Chicano Studies in San Diego and author, with Mike Davis, of No One is Illegal—examines the background to this horrific story, suggesting that Trump's detention centres […] | Source

Jessica Corbett, staff writer (2019-07-15). 'Racist' and 'Patently Unlawful': Trump Unveils New Rule to Block Asylum-Seekers at Southern Border. commondreams.org Immigrant rights advocates vowed to challenge a new "racist" and "patently unlawful" policy from the Trump administration—set to take effect Tuesday—that aims to block many refugees from being eligible for asylum at the U.S. southern border. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/asylum_seekers_barr_0.png

RT (2019-07-15). Pass the ICE: Sizzling hot Border Protection agent causes a viral sensation (PHOTOS). rt.com With debate raging over the Trump administration's hardline immigration policies, some netizens paused to reflect on the more important news: the female Customs and Border Patrol agent who went viral as #ICEbae. |

Fight Back (2019-07-14). Activists in Oshkosh, WI call for closure of Trump's concentration camps. fightbacknews.org Oshkosh, WI – On the evening of July 12, the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Students for a Democratic Society (UWO SDS) hosted a Lights for Liberty rally, demanding an end to the Trump administration's detention policy and the closure of the concentration camps, where tens of thousands of immigrants are being held in clear breach of international law. The call to action drew roughly 30 people from Oshkosh and the surrounding Fox Valley area. | The event started with a silent candlelight vigil to help bring awareness to the disastrous conditions in the camps. The action featured 12 different people speaking…

Debbie Nathan (2019-07-14). Trump's "Remain in Mexico" Policy Exposes Migrants to Rape, Kidnapping, and Murder in Dangerous Border Cities. theintercept.com The big man with a little mustache sat slumped in his chair at an immigrant aid office in Ciudad Juárez. The Mexican city sits a block and a half from El Paso, Texas, across the shallow trickle of the Rio Grande. But proximity to the U.S. meant nothing in his case; the office might as well have been on another continent. The man was sobbing. "Soy un muerto. Un muerto vivo," he kept saying. "I'm a dead man. The walking dead." | The man, whom I will call Franklin to protect him from retaliation, said he was being pursued by assassins. Back in his home country months earlier, covered from head to toe to conceal his…

Andre Vltchek (2019-07-14). Why are Anti-Migrant Arguments in the E.U., U.S. Pure Hypocrisy? dissidentvoice.org Almost every day we read about the latest outbursts in Europe, targeting pro-immigration policies. There are protests, even riots. Right-wing governments get voted in, allegedly, because the Europeans "have had enough of relaxed immigration regulations". That is what we are told. That's what we are supposed to understand, and even sympathize with. Anti-immigration sentiments are …

Graham Peebles (2019-07-14). Breaking the Spiral of Hate and Intolerance. dissidentvoice.org Valeria Martinez Ramirez was 23 months old when she drowned in the Rio Grande with her father Oscar in June this year. They had made the long journey from Salvador to the US border with her mother and brother. The image of Valeria, her arm round her father's neck as they lay face down on …

Eoin Higgins (2019-07-14). With ICE Raids Expected to Begin Today, the Message is Clear: "Know Your Rights" theantimedia.com The ICE raids are expected to target migrant families in at least 10 cities on Sunday.

Fight Back (2019-07-13). San Diego demands closure of Trump's concentration camps. fightbacknews.org San Ysidro, CA – Protesters marched from Larsen Field in San Ysidro to the pedestrian border crossing Friday evening, July 12. The march was led by local Kumeyaay tribal elders, accompanied by the Brown Berets, and local immigrant rights and political organizations in demanding an immediate end to the Trump administration's refugee and immigrant concentration camps. | These camps have been the center of popular outrage, as many reports have surfaced of children being ripped away from their families, sexually assaulted and denied medical treatment. Some even died in custody or immediately following release. S…

C.J. Atkins (2019-07-13). Close the immigrant concentration camps, free the children. peoplesworld.org In Houston, Texas, a 9-year-old Guatemalan boy sits at the Shiloh Treatment Center, a private facility licensed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to house detained migrant children. He's likely wondering when, or if, he'll ever see his family again. It's been 14 months since government agents took him from his father at the Arizona …

David Rovics (2019-07-13). Embargoes and Other Acts of War. dissidentvoice.org The war between the United States and Japan began with a US-enforced oil embargo against the Japanese Empire. Right now, in the United States, huge detention camps are being constructed for the increasingly criminalized refugee and migrant population, a campaign of government-sponsored domestic terror run by a supposedly temporary, "acting" head of the department created …

Staff (2019-07-12). Ousted Honduran President Zelaya: The 2009 U.S.-Backed Coup Helped Cause Today's Migrant Crisis. democracynow.org Since the 2009 U.S.-backed military coup in Honduras, extreme poverty and violence has skyrocketed in the country, forcing tens of thousands of Hondurans to flee to the U.S. with the hope of receiving political asylum. We speak with ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya in the capital of Tegucigalpa about the 10th anniversary of the coup in Honduras, U.S. intervention in Central America and its link to today's migration crisis.

United Nations (2019-07-12). In aftermath of Libya airstrike deaths, UN officials call for refugees and migrants to be freed from detention. un.org "As a priority, we ask that 5,600 refugees and migrants currently held in centres across Libya be freed in an orderly manner and their protection guaranteed" the UN refugee and migrants chiefs said in a joint statement, released on Friday.