How ICE Treats Immigrant Children and Their Families

Daily Kos. Gabe Ortiz,

Mirian G., an asylum-seeker fleeing political unrest in Honduras, did everything she was supposed to do in her effort seeking safety in the U.S. Individuals who present themselves for inspection by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at a port of entry are following the law. Mirian did just that, handing over documents to Brownsville officials showing she was the child’s mother. But when she went to sleep that night, she writes that she never realized it would be the last time she’d sleep next to her child for the next two months:


When we woke up the next morning, immigration officers brought us outside where there were two government cars waiting. They said that I would be going to one place, and my son would go to another. I asked why repeatedly, but they didn't give me a reason.


The officers forced me to strap my son into a car seat. As I looked for the buckles, my hands shook, and my son started to cry. Without giving me even a moment to comfort him, the officer shut the door. I could see my son through the window, looking back at me -- waiting for me to get in the car with him -- but I wasn't allowed to. He was screaming as the car drove away.


Under the Trump’s new policy, children will now be ripped from the arms of immigrant parents at the U.S./Mexico border—and there’s no reason for it other than to terrorize immigrant families and deter the rights of other families with credible asylum claims from coming to the U.S. for protection. “I was brought to Port Isabel Detention Center in Los Fresnos, Texas,” Mirian continues. “I could barely move or speak or think knowing that my son had never spent time without me before, and now he was alone in a separate government facility.”

Organizing Day Labor in Los Angeles

By Magally Miranda Alcázar, DSA Los Angeles

Anyone who works with immigrant populations today will note that one thing has not been missing since Trump's inauguration last November: fear. Trump’s xenophobic campaign rhetoric and his promises to amp up deportations, unfortunately, have not been an empty threat, with estimates showing upwards of 30% increases in deportations to that of Obama (who already held the record for most deportations under any president). 

Scholars have coined the term “deportability” to refer to this looming threat of deportation which acts as an invisible force, like racism or sexism, to control immigrant behavior and enable the hyper-exploitation of immigrant workers. This regime of labor characterized by deportability is anything but arbitrary. It is a deliberate and tactical tool employed by states to control labor markets. Often, deportability enables employers to depress their workers’ wages far below market values either by employing the age-old threat of bringing in the “reserve army of labor” composed of eager or desperate workers, or with the threat of ICE. Important work has been done to debunk the myth that immigrants - especially undocumented workers - pose a threat to native workers. In the janitorial industry in California, for instance, immigrant workers have re-introduced new forms of labor militancy to an SEIU in decades of decline. For these reasons we must also talk about deportability as the performative or real threat of punitive measures such as raids, immigrant detention, and deportation.

A closer look at the Trumpian narrative on immigration reveals a blatant paradox. A study conducted by the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment showed that not only was there no correlation between counties that largely voted for Trump and counties with large Mexican immigrant populations; rather, there was a negative correlation between the two. On surveying the 2016 election results, they found that 60% of counties were “high Trump/low Mexican” or “low Trump/high Mexican” and only 2% fit the model of high Trump/high Mexican population. They found that “high Trump” voting counties not only lack large Mexican immigrant populations, but share higher than average rates of poverty, unemployment and low education. In short, the driving force behind Trumpism is not its ability to pinpoint the culprit (Mexican immigrants or immigrants in general), but its ability to capture the grievances of the “white working class” and channel it into misinformed xenophobic vitriol. After all, scapegoating immigrants is one way to displace the culpability of crisis from capitalism.

Nevertheless, what we are left with is a regime of deportability which can claim a mandate, and an immigrant population in the United States that is living in fear of a perceived and real threat.

A number of stories about mass raids have populated the news cycle. Mass immigrant deportations, especially but not exclusively in workplaces of people with no criminal records, have become one of the liberal media’s favorite spectacles. In many ways this most recent wave of mass deportations begs us to remember Operation Wetback, the 1950’s US policy that deported approximately 1.3 Mexican immigrants many of whom were employed by invitation to do degraded manual labor until they were no longer necessary. Operation Wetback, a blatantly racist policy in name and in deed, also sanctioned white backlash and discrimination against Mexican immigrants.

Thanks to these news stories we have become intimately acquainted with the industries that employ this hyper-exploitable and deportable population, and importantly with some of the impacts this has had on those communities. In the central valley of California in March, a truck full of workers on their way to pick tomatoes became the targets of an ICE raid as part of a sweep in the agricultural heartland of the state. 232 people were arrested in February at least 26 of whom were farm workers according to the United Farmworkers. Similarly in April a meatpacking plant in east Tennessee was raided and 100 people arrested. The story headline noted that 500 students went missing from class the next day which is a fact that should not be ignored. In addition to the workplace, deportability also functions to deter immigrants from accessing basic social services like schools, hospitals, and places of worship which has major ramifications for the well-being of immigrant communities.

As socialist organizers, it is more important than ever that we take these matters seriously and try to learn from organizations successfully working within and through the confines of this new age of increased deportability and immigrant fear. In their current campaign, the Los Angeles-based popular education institute, IDEPSCA, is conducting a watchdog operation over a new, more aggressively punitive security company being employed by various Home Depots in the city. IDEPSCA organizers are confronting deportability head on and trying to protect and empower their constituents: immigrant day laborers.

Interview with Daniel Chavez IDEPSCA

Q: Tell me a little bit about IDEPSCA and how it fits into the broader political landscape. I know IDEPSCA either began or gained steam after the large immigrant rights marches in Los Angeles in 2006. So, it can be described as one among a number of organizations that go by a number of names depending on who you’re asking: immigrant labor, economic justice, low-wage worker rights, “alt-labor,” the Los Angeles model of organizing, etc. 

A: IDEPSCA runs four day-labor centers across LA.We help coordinate a space with shade, restrooms, safety, and services to mostly the most economically struggling people. We are largely funded by the city and state, initially to help ‘control’ the day labor ‘problem,’ inviting all low-income workers to register at the center. 

El gobierno de EEUU reconoce que no sabe dónde están los 1,500 niños que...

William Barber II on a New Poor People's Campaign - The Atlantic

William Barber II on a New Poor People’s Campaign - The Atlantic

ICE Turned Children over to Human Traffickers

Getty Images

Will Bunch: Daily Kos,

On Jacinto’s wrist was the yellow bracelet that, the newspaper reported, federal authorities have begun using to mark mothers and fathers who’ve been forcibly separated from their kids under the heartless program that the so-called Justice Department has named Operation Streamline — bland Orwellian doublespeak to mask a human-rights outrage. It was just a decade ago that a yellow bracelet meant support for humanitarian causes like fighting cancer. Now, it’s a symbol of a cancer on the American spirit, led by a president and his top aides who dehumanize migrants and now terrorize their families, fueled by cynical demagogic politics and a dollop of old-time prejudice. [...]

[L]ast month top officials in the department made a stunning admission to a federal hearing: When officials tried to follow up from October through December of 2017 on the whereabouts of roughly 7.500 kids the federal government had placed with sponsors, it was unable to find out what happened to 1,475 of them, or roughly one in five. These children didn’t just disappear. The supposed adults of the U.S. government lost them.

On CNN, paid commenter Rick Santorum dismissed the reports, calling it "hyperbole to try to create an issue where I don't really think there is one."

Now, the reality is a lot of these sponsors are in many cases have -- they've been checked out but they may have other reasons for not communicating or dropping off the system. So this isn't what we've lost these kids. No, they were placed in vetted homes and for some reason or another these parents are not communicating [...]

Of import in the debate over whether 1,475 missing children is issue or mere hyperbole is the agency's past record of child placements. In 2016, the Senate found that some of the unaccompanied children handed off to sponsor homes by ICE had in fact been turned over to human traffickers.

Voter Guide - Important

 Sacramento Progressive Alliance

Progressive Voter Guide 

Vote Before June 5^th!

U.S. Senate

Kevin de León

Governor

Gavin Newsom

Lt. Governor

Gayle McLlaughlin

Attorney General
Xavier Becerra 

Superintendent of Public Instruction

Tony Thurmond

Congressional District 4

Jessica Morse

State Senate District 4

Phil Kim

Sacramento County District Attorney

Noah Phillips

Sacramento County Sheriff

Milo Fitch 

Sacramento City Council District 5

Tamika L’Ecluse

       Sacramento City Council District 7

Tristan Brown

Sacramento County Office of Education Area 2

Karina Talamantes

Sacramento County Office of Education Area 3

Richard Launey

Yolo County Supervisor District 2

Don Saylor

American River Flood Control District

Rachelanne Rae Vander Werf
Propositions.  Prop. 68- Yes; Prop. 69- Yes;Prop. 70 -No; Prop 71,-Yes; Prop 72 - Yes. 

Republicans Push Nightmare Immigration Bill - UFW

Farm workers need your help to stop Goodlatte’s nightmare immigration bill 

The House of Representatives last week voted down a bad Farm Bill. That seems like good news. But it’s not over. The House leadership is discussing a complicated deal that involves combining a revised Farm Bill and terribly anti-immigrant, anti-worker immigration legislation introduced by Rep. Goodlatte. Why? Because some right-wing conservatives in the House voted against the Farm Bill because they first want a vote on Goodlatte’s terrible immigration bill. We must stop the bill. 

According to Roll Call, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise has said that they will give in to this demand by the far right and the Goodlatte immigration bill will get a vote early the week of June 22 followed by the Farm Bill. This is a nightmare for farm workers. The Goodlatte immigration bill basically creates a modern day Bracero program that would undermine the wages and working conditions of all agricultural workers. The bill would expand the scope of the current H-2A program in a way that will harm both US and immigrant workers.

We cannot let agriculture be taken back to the 1940's.The current Republican efforts to replace the H-2A program with a new agricultural visa system will create even more unfairness and dysfunction in our already broken immigration system. Even worse, it would deprive US citizens and lawful permanent residents of job opportunities. It does this by weakening the laws that requires US citizens and legal residents to be offered these jobs first. The bill expands access to guest workers for even more employers, such as those in year-round food processing. It would also lower farm workers' already poor wages and allow exploitative conditions for hundreds of thousands of new guest workers who would have even fewer labor and political rights. The legislation would allow growers to replace any farm worker not willing to work for $8.34/hour or their state minimum wage.

Workers are concerned that the bill could affect their livelihood. Vicente Pizano has worked year round harvesting mushrooms for 39 years and is concerned about expanding the guestworker program to include year round jobs like his. He tells us, “I think that this program will affect the wages that we earn and also the benefits that we have. In my opinion, this program is going to create competition that will reduce our salaries. Ultimately, in the end, our lives and our families’ lives that are established in this country will be drastically impacted.”

One of the things we give thanks for living here in America is that we have laws that protect workers. Why would we change the law to lessen the protections of the people who work so hard to feed us? Or put new laws in place that would lower the wages of people already doing this work? We must defeat this bill and others like it.

Click here to contact your House of Representatives Member today and ask that they oppose the Goodlatte bill.  

http://bit.ly/goodlatte52018

PS: We have just started using our brand new system, so the click through page will look a little different than you might be used to. 

ICE Expands Deportations

The Immigrant Legal Resource Center released our latest survey and analysis of the disturbing trends in gang allegations against immigrant youth. Our new report, Deportation By Any Means Necessary: How Immigration Officials are Labeling Immigrant Youth as Gang Members reveals how immigration officials are accusing immigrant youth of gang involvement, putting young people at immediate risk of detention and deportation. This survey found the evidence immigration officials are employing of gang allegations in immigration proceedings is tenuous and lacks transparency. Our analysis sheds light on the often-specious evidence collected against immigrant youth, adding a disturbing new dynamic to the school-to-deportation pipeline.  In light of the Trump administration’s recent, cruel characterizations of immigrant youth as “animals”, it is essential we understand the methods by which officials gather evidence against immigrant youth in cases where gang allegations are in play. Read our new report to learn more, and please share with your networks.  Read report

Read report

18 Moral Witnesses Arrested Standing for Justice

After a rally packed with powerful voices from AIM, to BLM, to CIYJA, with leaders from the Islamic, Jewish and Christian faiths, we set off to deliver our demands to the Capitol. We filled the halls, singing, chanting, and blocking off Gov. Brown's office while delivering him a letter with our grievances. 5 hours after we entered the Capitol, police arrested 18 Moral Witnesses who had committed to stay until our demands were addressed. Sacramento

Poor People's Campaign - Week 2

The California Poor People’s Campaign is uniting people and organizations across the state to challenge the evils of systemic racism, poverty, the war economy and ecological devastation.  This second week of the campaign focused on Systemic Racism, Voting Rights, Immigration, Islamaphobia and the destruction of Indigenous communities.  

The May 21 non violent direct action  in Sacramento followed the May 14 launch of the nationwide poor people’s campaign. In the first action, on May 14s hundreds participated in non violent direct action and were arrested, including Poor People’s Campaign co chairs William J. Barber II, and Liz Theoharis. They were taken into custody along with over a hundred people from various states. Non violent events were held in over 35 state capitols the same day. 

At the conclusion of the 40 days, on June 23, poor people and clergy and advocates from coast to coast will join together for a mass mobilization at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Speakers at the Sacramento event included representatives from CAIR . indigenous communities, Wes White of the Salinas Homeless Union, Melina Abdullah, Black Lives Matter, and religious leaders from numerous communities including the PICO Network. 

Defend the Immigrants

Don't give Trump a Nobel Peace Prize. Defend the immigrants he bullies instead | The Sacramento Bee.  Sasha Abramsky.
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/california-forum/article211202719.html#.WwI6sDDePXQ.blogger

Move ICE Out of Sacramento Sheriff's Jail

 On Tues. May 22, 2018, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors will be meeting. A group of persons working with The Step Up Coalition, the Sacramento Immigration Coalition, ACT, and more will introduce a resolution to oppose Sacramento Country from extending the current contract for the Sacramento jail to be used as a holding facility of ICE. 

If they cannot get a supervisor to introduce the legislation, it will be introduced during the public comment time. 

The current contract expires June 15, 2018.   The Sheriffs Dept. receives over $1,000,000 per year for this service.  There are substantial testimonies of abuse and neglect at the facility. 

Meanwhile, the Sheriff is up for re-election. Vote prior to June 5. 

Background

Kevin de León Responds to Trump

On November 9th, 2016, many of us woke up feeling like strangers in a foreign land; abandoned by Donald Trump's dark vision for the future of America - one that included some, and excluded many.

By a margin in the millions, Californians overwhelmingly rejected politics fueled by resentment, bigotry, and misogyny and embraced a resistance fueled by diversity and inclusivity. 

Last night San Diego joined the majority of Californians in supporting SB54, which protects immigrant families and keeps our communities safe. 

Yesterday, Trump brought a gaggle of Republican, anti-immigrant politicians from California to the White House, to plot against the policies that keep all of our residents safe. 

The entire meeting was disappointing, but when President Trump called immigrants "animals," it became offensive. 

Our hardworking immigrant families aren’t “animals”, Mr. President. 

The families you’re tearing apart are people, just like you. No matter how hard you try, you can’t strip away their humanity.

Mr. President, you're lying through your teeth because you're terrified Republicans will lose control of Congress. I have news for you: California -- the largest state in the union and the strongest driver of our nation’s economy -- will make sure they do.

English Learners Need Your Support -Sacramento

Choosing Democracy: English Learners Need Your Support -Sacramento: The Community Priorities Coalition in Sacramento announces that it will present its alternative budget for Sacramento City Unified at Bo...

Launch Video - Poor People's Campaign | A National Call for Moral Revival

Progressive Alliance Voter Guide

GREATER SACRAMENTO PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE: Progressive Alliance Voter Guide:  Sacramento Progressive Alliance Progressive Voter Guide  Vote Before June 5 th ! U.S. Senate Kevin de León Governor Gavin...

Poor People's Campaign Comes to Sacramento

California Poor People’s Campaign 

Some 300 activists from a wide variety of organizations rallied at the California  Capitol today claiming Somebody’s Hurting Our People : and We are Not Going to Take It Anymore !

Some 55% of the people in California are poor or low income- a total of 21.4 million residents. This incudes 65% of children and 57 % of women.  From 1979 to 2012 the income of the top 1 % grew by 190 percent, while the income of the bottom 99% decreased by 6 %. Meanwhile the richest 1 % of California residents are expected to receive 14% of the new federal tax law. Their average tax cut in 2027 is expected to be $14,170, while the poorest 20% are expected to pay $270 per year more.

Danny Glover

"Though we have a reputation as being ’liberal’ in California, the four pillars of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, and the war economy are rampant in our state and are ‘hidden in plain sight.’ With the 1% prospering in their unregulated wealth, California has the highest poverty rate when housing is factored in. We must shine a bright light on the oppression and interlocking injustices which poor, impacted communities must face everyday regarding local to statewide issues, including but not limited to: immigration and ICE, racist police violence, homelessness, evictions, inequity in education, the school-to-prison pipeline, gentrification, rising cost of living, low wages, and the continuous commodification of Mother Earth causing ecocide in poor communities, all of which could be eliminated in California if our state's leaders and legislators would create policies that had human rights and non-partisan morality at their core." - Kait Ziegler, Co-Chair of California Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival

Advocates for the poor marched around the Capitol and briefly occupied a street intersection to demand attention to the issues of poverty. 

Protests and other activities during this first week will focus on child poverty, women in poverty and people with disabilities. Subsequent weeks will focus on systemic racism, veterans and the war economy, ecological devastation, inequality, and our nation’s distorted moral narrative.

Across the nation :

The plan is to have simultaneous "waves" of action across the country calling attention to the "enmeshed evils," including systemic racism and America's war economy that organizers say are contributing to so many living in poverty, the majority of whom are white.

According to the U.S. Census, there are nearly 41 million people living in poverty, though Barber believes that number is off.

He points to research by the Institute for Policy Studies, which estimates 140 million Americans are living in poverty when items beyond income are considered, including out of pocket costs for food, clothing, and utilities.

"It's just constant juggling, figuring out what bill to pay and what not," says Terrence Wise, a fast food worker for 20 years.

He lives in Kansas City but is making the trip to Missouri's capital, Jefferson City, to protest.

As a shift manager at McDonald's, he makes $10.25 an hour. His fiancé is a home healthcare worker who makes $12 an hour. Wise says it is difficult to make ends meet while raising their three teenage daughters.

"And it's really dangerous when we are skipping meals or having to buy less food. Now you are not only struggling financially, you're possibly affecting the health of your family and your children."

Wise is a leading voice in the push to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

He hopes that the new Poor People's campaign helps make Americans more mindful of the struggles low-income people go through.

"I'm hoping it shakes America's conscience — that it makes many more aware," Wise says. "The goal is to bring more and more Americans into the movement and help make things better on all levels for everyone."

At the conclusion of the 40 days, on June 23, poor people, clergy and advocates from California and coast to coast will join together for a mass mobilization at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. They’ll then return to their states to continue building the campaign, which is a multi-year effort.

Join the Poor People's Campaign for Justice -SACRAMENTO

‘Our People Are Being Hurt and We Won’t be Silent Anymore’

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CaliforniaPoor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival To Kick Off Six Weeks of Non-Violent Direct Action Monday in Sacramento

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Protests Planned in over 30 State Capitals, Washington, D.C.

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Movement Demands Sweeping Overhaul of Nation’s Voting Rights Laws, Policies to Address Poverty, Ecological Devastation, War Economy

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA—The CaliforniaPoor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will kick off a six-week season of nonviolent direct action Monday in Sacramento.  The Campaign is demanding a massive overhaul of the nation’s voting rights laws, new programs to lift up the 140 million Americans living in poverty, immediate attention to ecological devastation and measures to curb militarism and the war economy. 

The Monday rally in California is one of over 30 actions across the country by poor and disenfranchised people, clergy and advocates who will engage in 40 days of nonviolent direct action and voter mobilization, among other activities. As a movement, we aim at transforming the nation’s political, economic and moral structures by building on the work of the original Poor People’s Campaign 50 years ago. 

To emphasize the urgent necessity for action,hundreds of participants are joining ‘Freedom Trains’,in solidarity with their 1968 counter parts. These caravans will be launching from  Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. To Commemorate the daily hardships that Women  endure, these caravans will embark on Mother’s Day, May 13th, to join forces in Sacramento to focus on the first week’s theme: Somebody’s Hurting Our People: Women, Youth, Disabled, Children in Poverty and Right to Education.

Latino Rebels | How Student Activism Shaped My (Our) Life (Lives): On the 25th Anniversary of the ‘Chicana/Chicano Studies Now’ Movement at UCLA

Latino Rebels | How Student Activism Shaped My (Our) Life (Lives): On the 25th Anniversary of the ;Chicana/Chicano Studies Now; Movement at UCLA

Nazi Leads the Republican Field for U,S. Senate in California

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) could face Republican Patrick Little, a"very fine" Neo-Nazi who attended the Charlottesville March last year, in the November 2018 election, according to the latest SUSA .

Now that they have a friend in the White House, the Anti-Semites are coming out from under their rocks, with a vengeance:

A relatively unknown U.S. Senate candidate in California who was booted from the state's Republican Party Convention for a campaign promise to "remove Jewish leaders" from power is getting new attention since seen surging in one political poll.

Patrick Little, an unabashed admirer of Adolf Hitler who attendedthe Neo-Nazi March in Charlottesville last year, is now the Republican frontrunner in the California Senate Race, according to a new SUSA poll of likely voters. Little garnered 18% (behind Dianne Feinstein’s39%), establishing him as the leader among GOP hopefuls running against Feinstein. The poll, released on April 24th (SUSA receives an “A" rating from Nate Silver's 538 blog) also describes Little as Feinstein’s "likely Republican opponent” this November. And despite being denied permission to attend the GOP convention, Little is a fine (one might say “very fine") example of what can slither out of the Republican Party in the age of Trump: 

So, readers, vote for Kevin de Léon. Keep this guy off the fall ballot. Stop his smears.

Little, who has praised Adolf Hitler and calls himself a "counter-Semite," has been endorsed by former KKK leader David Duke and claims to draw inspiration from President Donald Trump.

"He showed me that people were willing to respond to dog whistles about whites having group interests, so I decided to state these things explicitly," Little said.

And why not? The concept of sending “dog whistles” has always seemed a little cowardly. Most Americans aren’t politically savvy enough to recognize them anyway (that's why they're called “dog whistles”). And the American people deserve to know what they’re getting. Here’s the Republican frontrunner explaining his views on David Duke’s radio show earlier this week:

“This chutzpah, this audacity—it’s psychopathic levels of audacity—and everything that Trump promised, these Jewish supremacists are preventing him from delivering and taking away when he has delivered. Whether they do it through the judiciary—J-E-W-diciary—or through their control of the Congress through AIPAC, the largest lobby, it’s a Jewish lobby, in Washington.”

Little said that in his campaign he wants to “not only offer what Trump was offering, but more.”

Trump's anti Immigrant Rage

For more than 30 minutes on Wednesday, President Trump, his face “reddened” (that’s the description in today’s Washington Post), “yelled” (that’s from today’s New York Times) at his cabinet in general, and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in particular, about the number of immigrants still crossing the U.S.-Mexican border.

Trump’s tirade makes clear what’s behind our new Get-Tough (more precisely, Get-Sadistic) border apprehension policy, as announced Monday by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Instead of simply busing undocumented border crossers who have no criminal records back to Mexico, our new policy is to incarcerate them all for the misdemeanor violation of crossing without papers, and to send children, no matter how young, to different detention facilities from their parents’.

What’s behind it is sheer rage, at once egomaniacal, xenophobic, and racist. Trump, the Times reports, claimed repeatedly during his first year in office that the 2017 drop in border crossings was entirely due to his tough stand. This year, however, as violence has grown unendurable in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, the number of crossings has risen, stripping him of a much-loved (by him) talking point at his rallies and press encounters. Since the decline in crossings testified to his manly resolve, the rise in crossings perforce undermines it.

Can’t have that!

A “person close to Nielsen,” the Times reports, describes her as “miserable in her job,” and the paper also reported that following the meeting, she drafted a resignation letter that she was persuaded not to submit. Miserable? Could that mean she has been troubled by having to defend the parent-child separations, which she has done repeatedly and vociferously since accounts of the policy began appearing in the press? Could it be that she secretly thinks that separating a two-year-old from her mother for many months might actually not be in that two-year-old’s best interest? Could she, in some nether region of her consciousness, harbor some instincts of a minimally decent human being?

Probably not. But if she does, the president wants to make damn sure they never surface. ~ HAROLD MEYERSON

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ICE and the Sacramento County Jail

Sheriffs Jail

On Tues. May 22, 2018, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors will be meeting. A group of persons working with The Step Up Coalition, the Sacramento Immigration Coalition, ACT, and more will try to introduce a resolution to oppose Sacramento County from extending the current contract for the Sacramento jail to be used as a holding facility of ICE. 

If they cannot get a supervisor to introduce the legislation, it will be introduced during the public comment time. 

The current contract expires June 15, 2018.   The Sheriffs Dept. receives over $1,000,000 per year for this service.  There are substantial testimonies of abuse and neglect at the facility. 

Meanwhile, the Sheriff is up for re-election, Or Not. 

 ICE and the separation of families.

ICE, Jails to be full,

CRISIS IN THE MAKING?: The Trump administration's decision to refer all suspected border crossers for federal prosecution could play out in a couple ways. The "zero tolerance" message may trickle down to would-be asylum seekers from Central America and quell the recent uptick in border arrests, with most traveling to ports of entry or bypassing the United States altogether. To that end, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told lawmakers at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee Tuesday that the department is trying to spread the word in Central America through youth outreach, radio promotions, and U.S. embassies. 

Here's another scenario: Asylum-seekers don't get the message, or don't consider it a good enough reason to endure conditions in their home countries. If that's the case, then the number of families and unaccompanied minors arrested at the border may continue to rise. Under this scenario, the new prosecution strategy would likely increase the number of kids who became "unaccompanied" when their parents got hit with federal illegal entry charges. That would make the number of beds available for unaccompanied minors an issue. A DHS official who declined to be identified told Morning Shift this week that at the current rate, the Health and Human Services Department will reach capacity within two weeks. The administration has some flexibility: A facility in Homestead, Fla., is contracted for 500 beds, but maintains the capacity for 1,300, according to a spokesperson from the Administration for Children and Families. (At the moment, it houses 425 unaccompanied children.) But that surplus will fill up quickly, too, if present trends continue.

The DHS official sees the new zero-tolerance policy in political terms. "What they are doing with this new family separation policy is precipitating a crisis," the official said. "[They're] using women and children to create chaos for deterrence or possibly to jam through a legislative package. But recent history says neither will work."

Immigration: Trump DHS is separating families based on bad statistics - Vox

Immigration: Trump DHS is separating families based on bad statistics - Vox

Gobierno de Trump podría permitir que ICE encarcele a niños para reducir...

Sessions - who spoke first in Scottsdale, Ariz., and then in San Diego - said: "We don't want to separate families, but we don't want families to come to the border illegally." ICE top official Thomas Homan, who joined Sessions at the California event, stressed that people with "a clear claim to asylum" should seek refuge at a port of entry, and not try to cross the border without authorization. Nielsen did not comment publicly on the controversial new approach to border arrests.

It's doubtful the administration can feasibly prosecute "100 percent" of suspected border crossers. Sessions himself conceded in his Arizona remarks that federal prosecutors would take on as many cases "as humanly possible." An increase in arrests of parents will require more children to be categorized as "unaccompanied minors" and transferred into the custody of the Health and Human Services Department pending placement with a parent or guardian. But the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which deals with unaccompanied minors, has already reached 86 percent of its capacity, according to internal data (current to May 6) that a DHS official shared with Morning Shift. The official said that 9,030 beds were filled and only 1,430 were still open. At the current growth rate, ORR will reach capacity in less than two weeks, according to the official: "I'm at a bit of a loss at where this goes."

Trump Administration Threatens Jail and Separating Children From Parents for Those Who Illegally Cross Southwest Border - The New York Times

Trump Administration Threatens Jail and Separating Children From Parents for Those Who Illegally Cross Southwest Border - The New York Times

Trump's Cruel New Border Policy- Jail Children

Trying to identify the cruelest policy of the Trump administration may be a fool’s errand, but the new border policy unveiled yesterday in a speech by Attorney General Jeff Sessions has quickly moved to the head of the pack.

Until now, people apprehended while crossing the border without legal documentation have been routinely bused back to Mexico so long as they have no criminal records. Under the new policy, everyone apprehended will be placed in already jam-packed detention facilities and have their cases heard—eventually—by over-burdened immigration courts, which already stagger under a backload of cases it will take years to hear and decide.

And that’s not even the half of it. As the Los Angeles Times reported, “Sessions also said that families who illegally cross the border may be separated after their arrest, with children sent to juvenile shelters while their parents are sent to adult detention facilities. Until now, border agents tried to keep parents and their children at the same detention site.”

Call it Trump’s “Suffer Little Children” initiative.

The Central American Caravan Has Come To An Official End | CALIFORNIA - MEXICO STUDIES CENTER, Inc.

The Central American Caravan Has Come To An Official End | CALIFORNIA - MEXICO STUDIES CENTER, Inc.

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