Defeat the Trump Fear Campaign- Vote !

Contrary to the current Trump Administration statements, we are not being invaded by people from Central America.  President Trump  has called the upcoming midterms an “election of the caravan”in reference to migrant caravan group of Central Americans currently walking towards the U.S.-Mexico border. 

Referring to the caravan as “an assault to [the U.S.],” Trump is extending  his racist rhetoric he used against Mexicans—calling them “rapists” and “criminals”—to migrants from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. 

This fear campaign being mounted by the Administration is an attempt to win the November Congressional electionat the cost of once again promoting racially exploitive politics. 

The caravan of poor people, mostly Hondurans, heading toward the border should not be stopped.  The Trump administration now threatens to deny refugee status to all of the migrants.  That would be a violation of our treaty obligations as required by the Convention Relating to the Status of Migrants a United Nations Multilateral Treaty (1951) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1946), which the U.S. government helped to draft. Many migrants are seeking asylum because the communities from which they are fleeing are taken over by violence. The U.S. has laws that allow suchrefugees to seek asylum and we have a due process system for determining who is eligible. 

International trade, trade agreements such as Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), the global drug trade, and increasing violence has led to thousands of people in Honduras and Guatemala to flee their homes in a caravan searching for a safer place, where families could have their basic needs such as food met.  

Rather than  recognizing the violence that  migrants are facing, Trump is suggesting that they are instead coming here to inflict violence by selling drugs or commit crime.  This campaign extends again  the fears of migrants he  used to win the election in 2016.  

Trump Proposes More Family Separations !

The Trump administration is apparently considering a reboot of its least popular immigration policy: the widespread separation of families who cross the US-Mexico border.

According to the Washington Post, senior administration officials are discussing a policy that would keep families in detention for a few weeks, and then force them to make a choice: to stay in detention for the months or years it takes for their cases to be resolved (and waive their rights under the Flores court settlement, which prevents the administration from keeping children in immigration detention indefinitely), or agree to be separated so that the child can go to the less restrictive custody of Health and Human Services. (They would also have the implicit option to give up on their asylum cases and agree to imminent deportation.) 

While the Trump administration’s last effort at family separation was put on hold after massive political blowback, first by an executive order from Trump and then with a legal injunction from a federal judge, courts and the American Civil Liberties Union have agreed with the administration that it would be legal to force families to choose between detention and separation, as long as they had the choice.

But that doesn’t really explain why the administration is contemplating doing this. It appears to contradict the administration’s own plans to indefinitely detain all families through a change in regulation. It ignores evidence that shows, uniformly, that harsh treatment isn’t deterring families from seeking asylum. And politically, it refocuses attention to the biggest scandal Trump has faced on his signature issue.

Forcing families to choose indefinite detention or immediate separation would be legal

The initial justification for family separation was that the administration was trying to end “catch and release” — apprehending families who’d illegally crossed the US-Mexico border, giving them court dates, and then allowing them to live in the US while their cases were pending. 

Asylum and the Central American Refugees

Bernie Sanders Calls For an End to Mass Deportation Raids of Central American Immigrants

Sanders has told the Obama administration, "I urge you to immediately cease these raids and not deport families back to countries where a death sentence awaits.” (Photo by Joshua Lott/Getty Images)

Sanders claims the Obama administration’s raids of Central American families and children are inconsistent with American values—and must be stopped. Hillary Clinton’s past support of such deportations sets her apart.

BY MILES KAMPF-LASSIN

In a letter sent today from Sanders to Secretary Johnson, the Democratic candidate states unequivocally that, “Raids are not the answer. We cannot continue to employ inhumane tactics involving rounding up and deporting tens of thousands of immigrant families to address a crisis that requires compassion and humane solutions.”  

Sanders claims that rather than deporting these families, the administration should seek to provide them protection and employment within the United States. A statement from his campaign explains: 

“Citing the extreme violence that these families face, Sanders urged the administration to use executive authority to protect those fleeing unsafe countries in Central America by extending Temporary Protected Status. By granting Temporary Protected Status, the Department of Homeland Security could provide employment authorization and protection from deportation for a significant portion of these vulnerable people.”

Obama Admin. Appalling Home Raids

President Obama once said this about his administration’s deportation priorities: “We’ll keep focusing enforcement resources on actual threats to our security. That means felons, not families. That means criminals, not children. It means gang members, not moms who are trying to put food on the table for their kids.”

Encouraging words, a year ago. But a new year has dawned upon an appalling campaign of home raids by the Department of Homeland Security to find and deport hundreds of would-be refugees back to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. The targets are those who arrived in a recent surge of people fleeing shockingly high levels of gang and drug violence, hunger and poverty and who offered themselves at the border to the mercy of the United States, but ultimately lost their cases in immigration court.

Since New Year’s, the administration has been sending agents into homes to make an example of the offenders and to defend the principle of a secure border. A president who spoke so movingly about the violent gun deaths of children here has taken on the job of sending mothers and children on one-way trips to the deadliest countries in our hemisphere. Mothers and children who pose no threat, actual or imaginable, to our security.

Obama Administration defends its deportation strategy

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration on Monday defended its deportation tactics and confirmed it has begun raids on families, despite Democratic candidates and immigrant advocates saying officials could be sending mothers and children to their deaths. 

"This should come as no surprise," Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said in a statement. "I have said publicly for months that individuals who constitute enforcement priorities, including families and unaccompanied children, will be removed."

The Department of Homeland Security began this weekend to conduct deportation raids that picked up 121 people, including children. All of them had exhausted their legal options to remain in the country after entering without authorization sometime after May 1, 2014, according to Johnson. Most of them are expected to be deported to Central America. 

Immigration activists say it's a dangerous and inhumane action, given the high levels of violence in Central America -- the homicide rate in El Salvador jumped 70 percent last year -- and that the current asylum-screening system can exclude some families who would be genuinely in danger at home.

Governor Perry acts like Pete Wilson

Castro to Perry: National Guard deployment 'rooted in politics'

JACOB FISCHLER | THE MONITOR FOLLOW @FISCHLERRGV | Posted: Monday, July 28, 2014 5:02 pm

U.S. Rep Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, on Monday repeated a denouncement of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s deployment of 1,000 National Guard troops to the Rio Grande Valley. And he urged the governor to “set a more positive tone” on border issues and meet with Texas' Congressional delegation to work to pass President Barack Obama’s $3.7 billion supplemental funding request to address the influx of Central American immigrants across the state’s southern border.

“[F]or too long the border has been used as a boogey man for political gain,” Castro wrote in a letter to the governor. “Whether you acknowledge it or not, many of the cities along the Texas-Mexico region are among the safest in our nation. By sensationalizing the level of crime and violence in our border communities you damage the economic potential of places like McAllen, Brownsville, Laredo and El Paso.”