Separated: Trump Adminstration Taking Migrant Children From Their Families.

 Separated: Documentary

 

 

Showing Dec. 7, on MSNBC.

 

https://watch.montanapbs.org/video/separated-1733435602/

Alone and Exploited. Migrant Children in the U.S.

  

Alone and Exploited.  Migrant Children in U.S.

Migrant children entering the U.S. alone are ending up in dangerous jobs that violate child labor laws — including in factories that make products for Cheetos and Fruit of the Loom.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/25/us/unaccompanied-migrant-child-workers-exploitation.html?

Texas Governor Seeks to Ban Immigrant Children from Schools.

 Texas Governor Ready to Challenge Schooling of Migrant Children

Gov. Greg Abbott may target a 1982 Supreme Court ruling that requires schools to educate undocumented children. Some conservatives see an opening for a fresh look at old precedent.

 

 

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas has taken a hard stance on immigration, using the issue to beat back challengers in the Republican primary.Credit...Brandon Bell/Getty Images

 

By J. David Goodman

May 5, 2022

Sign Up for the Education Briefing  From preschool to grad school, get the latest U.S. education news. Get it sent to your inbox.

HOUSTON — With the Supreme Court signaling a willingness to reverse decades-old precedents like the Roe v. Wade decision on abortion, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said on Thursday that he would seek to overturn a 1982 court decision that obligated public schools to educate all children, including undocumented immigrants.

Mr. Abbott’s comments opened a new front in his campaign to use his powers as governor to harden Texas against unauthorized migration. And they demonstrated just how expansively some conservatives are thinking when it comes to the kinds of changes to American life that the court’s emboldened conservative majority may be willing to allow.

The latest proposal for closing public schools to undocumented children significantly widens the range of precedents up for debate. After a draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade leaked this week, focus had been primarily on other rights that could be legally linked to the 1973 decision, such as access to contraception and same-sex marriage.

Little has changed in the legal landscape surrounding the education of undocumented children since 1982, when the court issued a 5-to-4 decision to strike down a Texas law allowing schools to refuse admission to unauthorized migrant children, legal experts said. Several attempts over the years to chip away at the decision in the case known as Plyler v. Doe have been unsuccessful, including an effort by Alabama more than a decade ago and in California in the 1990s.

“If Abbott is serious about raising a challenge to it, this would be the first time that this has been done in many years,” said Preston Huennekens, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates for limits on both legal and illegal immigration.

What has shifted is the composition of the court and, Mr. Abbott said, the number of new migrants arriving from a diverse range of countries, a situation that he said had placed an “extraordinary” burden on Texas schools. The migrants now arriving speak many different languages, “not just Spanish,” he said. The governor said educating undocumented children would soon become “unsustainable and unaffordable” if the federal government lifts its pandemic policy of turning back many migrants at the border, known as Title 42.

SCUSD and Covid- Our Kids

  

 Community Priorities Coalition 

 

 

 Statement on the Impact 

of COVID-19 on SCUSD Students 

 

The Sacramento City Community Priorities Coalition (CPC) is very concerned about the quality of education for children in the Sacramento City Unified School District. We recognize that the district, parents, and students are in very difficult times with the impact of COVID-19, but while the school doors are open, the education is fractured. That is not okay. 

The CPC has deep concerns about the following issues that must be addressed to address increasing learning loss of students, particularly for students who are academically behind and emotionally scarred by the pandemic. 

We particularly concerned about the following: 

•                • _Since classes resumed after the Winter break, the number of students without a regular teacher in SCUSD grew to over 15,000. Many students are attending day and after-school classes in which their teachers (or substitutes) are not available. 

 

•                • _We know that up to 40% of students in SCUSD schools are being shuffled into combined subject classes, and even in larger gym spaces. There is no curriculum for such mixed classes. Even a skilled teacher would have difficulty deciding what to teach and at which grade level. That is crowd control, not in person learning. 

 

•                • _Ignoring the emergence of a second wave of COVID-19 and the omicron variant, the district also made a poor decision to return to in-person classes and abandon remote learning for students and teachers who are quarantined or choose not to return to schools because of the pandemic. 

 

•                • _There are no apparent protocols for dealing with COVID health crisis. There’s no formal COVID testing or consistent tracking of COVID infections. This puts teachers, staff, and students at greater risks. And it’s difficult to reduce the spread of the virus in schools when there’s not adequate social distancing or ventilators in classrooms. 

 

 

•                • _We’re also deeply concerned about the learning loss of students. The district hasn’t reported on the academic and social-emotional impact of the pandemic on students, particularly among Black and Hispanic students with disabilities. 

 

Our Recommendations 

While we understand the challenges the district is facing, we are calling for SCUSD to close impacted schools, especially high schools for two weeks so alternative plans can be developed. Because what’s taking place now is clearly not working. 

Alternative plans might include the following: 

•                • _Return to a hybrid model of remote and in-classroom in order to serve students and teachers who choose not to return to school and who are in quarantine because of COVID infections. 

•                • _Start the development of a Virtual Academy for “students who qualify as medically fragile with documented health conditions.

                Lower class sizes.  Spreading children out not grouping them together.._ _

•                • _Increase the physical and mental health support for students. Increase health professionals on site at each school where there is an outbreak and improved ventilation. 

•                • _N-95 and K-95 masks for all teachers, staff and students. 

•                • _Require weekly testing for all unvaccinated teachers, staff and students. 

•                • _For teachers and staff: If you are sick, stay home. Remain at home until you complete the recommended quarantine. You should isolate for the full time needed to heal. You should test negative for the virus prior to returning to 

 

the classroom. Early returning to the school spreads the virus and places everyone at risk. 

•                • _For Parents: If your child does not have 24 or fewer students in the classroom, with a credentialed teacher, we recommend that you consider keeping your child safe at home for a few weeks – until the district creates and implements a responsible plan including no merged classes, expanding testing and optimal personal protective equipment. 

 

You should also insist during this time on the return of at least some form of 

on-line instruction for the Spring semester, until schools are safe. The district does have an independent study program you might consider for your child to learn from home. 

For more information contact Carl Pinkston, BPSB, info@blackparallelschoolboard.com or to the website: https://blackparallelschoolboard.com/program/lcfflcap/community-priority-coalition/

Signed, 

Black Parallel School Board, Building Healthy Communities, Tower of Youth, Democracy and Education Institute and League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC, 2862)

I Represent El Paso. What I’m Asking For Doesn’t Include Open Borders

 I Represent El Paso. What I’m Asking For Doesn’t Include Open Borders.

Veronica Escobar. 

Until we address what motivates vulnerable people to leave their home countries, they will continue to come.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/24/opinion/border-migrants-central-america.html

Until we address what motivates vulnerable people to leave their home countries, they will continue to come.

By Veronica Escobar

Ms. Escobar is a Democratic representative from El Paso.

March 24, 2021

 

Many Republicans are eager to blame President Biden for the increase in families and children arriving at the border, but the truth is that this is not a new phenomenon. Since 2014, as Central American migrants have come, generous border communities like El Paso have ensured that they are safe and cared for. Meanwhile, the rest of the country wrings its hands, politicians complain about the “crisis at the border,” businesses across the country benefit from the labor of these hard-working individuals — and nothing changes.

Americans must finally acknowledge that the real crisis is not at the border but outside it, and that until we address that crisis, this flow of vulnerable people seeking help at our doorstep will not end anytime soon.

Presidents’ words are a minor factor in migrants’ decisions to leave their homeland. Overwhelmingly and consistently, Central American refugees tell stories of fleeing violence, persecution, food insecurity and calamitous economic conditions in their countries. Back-to-back hurricanes and storms that have made it impossible to rebuild are new motivations to go north.

At most, what politicians say changes only the tone of the pitches criminal organizations make to the migrants they prey on, pitches of hope with a compassionate administration or fear with a cruel one. Policies limiting legal avenues for immigrants encourage them to undertake desperate measures to enter the United States, making it more difficult for agents and more profitable for criminal organizations.

Closing the border isn’t a real solution. It’s clear that even the most draconian efforts by the Trump administration — walls, family separation, expulsion — did not stop the flow of migrants to the southwestern border. Neither did a deadly pandemic. The Trump administration’s “remain in Mexico” policy put an unsustainable burden on Mexico, and pushing people back into that country fuels even more of the criminal activity that already plagues  it.

The Biden administration’s challenge is not just the number of children arriving at the border; it’s also that the previous administration effectively obliterated existing systems and infrastructure (flawed as they were), failed to work collaboratively on an orderly transition and created a backlog of vulnerable people on the other side of our ports of entry.

Politically, it’s never the “right time” for immigration reform. Even politicians genuinely seeking solutions have often been afraid to tackle the issue because there’s no quick and easy fix.

We came close in 2013. The Senate passed a bill with 68 votes. But John Boehner, then the speaker of the House, refused to bring the bill to the floor. Since then and especially during the Trump era, xenophobia has become useful politically to some as well as a tool of division.

The good news is that we now have an administration willing to work on the issue. It will take significant collaboration and something in very limited supply: patience.

Mr. Biden should engage the leaders of the Western Hemisphere for a summit that identifies shared responsibilities, challenges and opportunities. Engaging Northern Triangle countries, fully restoring the Central American Minors program (which allows children to apply for refugee status in their home countries) and reinstating aid (practices curtailed by former President Donald Trump) is a good start. But a multilateral approach must include our Canadian allies and address the causes of the migration coming not just from Central America but from Mexico as well. We need a shared plan with a focus on security to combat crime and persecution that includes cracking down on gangs and other criminal organizations and creates accountability for politicians and officials who turn a blind eye to criminals.

We must stop treating vulnerable children and families like a national security threat. We have to rethink our facilities and processes to include social workers, humanitarian aid workers and other civilian personnel at our processing centers to greet those who seek refuge here with humanity. And we need to reimagine the infrastructure where families and children are processed.

We also need to understand that climate change has made some of the poorest parts of our globe too difficult to inhabit. Hurricanes and drought are causing food insecurity and mass migration. We shouldn’t be surprised that populations in hard-hit areas have no choice but to leave.

Another driver is our country’s eagerness to employ migrant labor. A majority of unaccompanied children and families from Central America come to the United States to reunite with family members (parents, children, siblings or spouses) who are working here in construction, meatpacking, agriculture or the hospitality industry — paying taxes, helping their employers be profitable and supporting our economy. Many immigrants are the very essential workers we’ve depended on during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Congress must enact immigration reform. Last week the House passed H.R. 6, the American Dream and Promise Act, as well as other measures that would create a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, those granted temporary protected status for humanitarian reasons and agricultural workers and their families. They are promising, yet they address only a small fraction of the people already living and working here. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus has introduced another important piece of legislation that would take a multifaceted approach to immigration, including dealing with the root causes of it. (These bills also highlight why many of us believe we must eliminate the filibuster, which has been an instrument of gridlock for immigration reform.)

The Biden administration must work with Congress to reform the Department of Homeland Security. Border Patrol agents have been performing duties unrelated to their law enforcement functions, like data entry for processing migrants and child and family supervision. Agents should be on the ground, focused on collaborating with law enforcement partners to track criminal activity and apprehending those who pose a true threat to our security.

Those of us who represent border communities can help the administration reshape a system that has focused on border militarization, a flawed and expensive strategy that we should all agree — after decades and hundreds of billions of dollars — is a failure.

If we continue to ignore the facts and use the same failed approaches of the past, we shouldn’t be surprised when we have the same conversations every year. The Biden administration is willing to try new approaches and focus on solutions; it wants to restore order and humanity once and for all. It deserves a chance.

I’m not asking for open borders. I’m simply asking for open minds.

Veronica Escobar is a Democratic representative from Texas.

 

 

 

Border Surge by Children

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/15/us-border-immigrant-children-alone

Border agency reports spike of nearly 6,000 immigrant children crossing into US alone

The surge is low compared to past years, but Covid-19 has reduced housing capacity, necessitating use of a controversial influx facility

Alexandra Villarreal

Unaccompanied immigrant children deported from the US walk toward Mexico on 22 January. Photograph: José Luis González/Reuters

Mon 15 Feb 2021 05.00 EST

Last modified on Mon 15 Feb 2021 05.03 EST

Thousands of unaccompanied immigrant children are attempting to flee to the United States amid the coronavirus pandemic, propelled by devastating natural disasters, chronic violence, and severe economic hardship at home.

US Customs and Border Protection encountered 5,871 kids at the south-west border without a parent or legal guardian last month, the largest influx yet since the start of the public health crisis in early 2020.

That sudden spike is still relatively modest compared to huge figures from fiscal year 2019, when Border Patrol apprehended more than 76,000 unaccompanied children, a trend that reached its zenith that spring.

But unlike in past years, the Office of Refugee Resettlement – which cares for those kids – has had to slash its housing capacity nearly in half in light of Covid-19. And, with nearly 5,700 of 7,100 total beds already accounted for, ORR is preparing to resurrect a controversial influx facility to create more space.

“Even though the numbers of children in custody are still relatively low by historical standards,” the lack of available shelter beds is cause for concern, warned Mark Greenberg, director of the Human Services Initiative at the Migration Policy Institute.

Greenberg added: “If we return to the levels that had been experienced in all recent years except 2020, it will pose a significant challenge because of Covid.”

As more migrants attempt the arduous journey across the US-Mexico border, CBP officials are citing push factors such as “underlying crime and instability” in their countries of origin and “inaccurate perceptions of shifts in immigration and border security policies”.

Before taking office, Joe Biden’s administration warned that its comparatively pro-immigrant agenda would not translate to an immediate shift in practice at the border. On Wednesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated that, despite rare exceptions, the vast majority of migrants are still being turned away.

“Now is not the time to come,” she said.

Since 2014, a flood of immigrant children and families largely from Central America’s Northern Triangle have made their way to the US, many of them in search of refuge from a crush of gang-related violence, poverty and persecution. Between fiscal year 2013 and 2014, CBP apprehensions of unaccompanied children at the south-west border surged by 77%, while apprehensions for families more than quadrupled.

That significant change heralded a new era in US border migration, defined by asylum seekers and other vulnerable populations. In response to the humanitarian crisis, former president Donald Trump devised hard-line tactics to try to deter Central Americans and others from seeking protection in the US, then used Covid-19 as a rationale to effectively shutter the border altogether to defenseless migrants.

Under the guise of public health, the Trump administration subjected hundreds of thousands of people – and at least 13,000 unaccompanied children, according to the ACLU – to rapid expulsion from the US without due process during the pandemic.

A federal judge eventually blocked the US government from applying that policy to unaccompanied minors, and Biden has said he will not resume expulsions for kids who show up without a parent or guardian, according to CBS News.

But amid the border closure, children unable to safely enter US custody have turned to perilous border crossings, said Erika Pinheiro, policy and litigation director at Al Otro Lado.

“They suffer so much,” she said. “And the fact that the US government forces them to suffer more is really hurtful to think about.”

In an elaborate game of telephone, news articles about immigration enforcement in the US and Mexico have gotten distorted in the foreign press, then exploited by smugglers, who have every incentive to spread rumors encouraging people to cross the border.

“There’s sort of like one message that comes out of the news. It gets repeated down here, maybe not completely accurately, and then the smugglers really capitalize on that, too. So it sort of builds on itself,” Pinheiro said.

As the number of unaccompanied children encountered by border enforcement increases to levels not seen since the summer of 2019, ORR is preparing to reactivate a temporary influx care facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, that will initially be able to house about 700 kids.

ORR said in a statement that officials anticipate “the need to start placing children at Carrizo Springs in 15 days or soon after”, a move that has alarmed some advocates.

“There’s no reason to warehouse these children in these potentially dangerous facilities,” Linda Brandmiller, an immigration attorney in San Antonio, told USA Today.

Unaccompanied kids have been arriving primarily from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras in recent years. The vast majority are teenagers.

“In a substantial number of cases, they are fleeing for their lives,” Greenberg said. “But whether that will allow them to qualify for asylum will depend upon how asylum policies are now changed.”

© 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. (modern)

See prior post on creating new detention centers.

Current U.S. Immigration Policy

 

Plan for Resistance to Trump

​Listen to what Trump says.  He plans to steal the election!
It is hard to believe that it has come to this. We have to defend democracy itself.
 
We must plan to stop him ! 
​
Step #1.  Defeat him at the polls.
It is time to plan for steps 2-10.
  
 
How would you like a strategy that does all of the following?

Enables you and your friends to act close to home.

Gives you some “wins” on the way to the big goal of defeating a power grab.

Is easy to explain to your friends.

Allows any number of people to participate because it will all add up.

Reduces the risk of violent confrontations.

Can be calibrated to the amount of risk of arrest that you can handle.

Can be done in-person in a way that keeps the pandemic at bay.

Targets a set of people who especially have a personal stake in the elective process.

Takes on the politically powerful who are hesitating to commit, pressuring them to do the right thing.

Draws on the strengths that already exist in our political system.

Puts us on the offensive instead of merely protesting.

Maximizes the number of people who participate in the movement.

Doesn’t have to be the only strategy being carried out in order to be successful.

OK, here’s the idea: Go to people who hold elective political power near you, in your town, county, city, state. Urge them to “Join us in demanding every vote be counted.”
Continue with this plan here.  George Lakey. 
https://wagingnonviolence.org/2020/09/what-will-it-take-to-defend-the-election-heres-one-winning-strategy/  

Here is a detailed plan for another series of strategies.
Hold the Line. A Guide to Defending Democracy
 
http://holdthelineguide.com

​We should begin planning now. There is work to be done for all who are willing.



Share the pledge to resist . The only way to maintain momentum is to continue sharing information, resources, and actions with our friends and family. Sign the pledge and share it with everyone you know. If you tag us in a tweet or on your stories, we will share!

Additional resources

What If Trump Won’t Leave ?
Francis Fox Piven & Deepak Bhargava
 
https://theintercept.com/2020/08/11/trump-november-2020-election/
 
Video talk;  Strike- 
"Social Self Defense Against the Impending Trump Coup"

Jeremy Brecher
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBFn120hmI0&feature=youtu.be

https://organizingupgrade.com/strike-for-democracy/

https://protecttheresults.com/
​
 
 

Cruel- Trump Immigration Policy

Separate the Children - Trump Admin Policy

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/us/politics/family-separation-border-immigration-jeff-sessions-rod-rosenstein.html?

 

Court Order- Release the Children in Detention

(CNN)The US government must release migrant children held in the country's three family detention centers by mid-July due to the coronavirus pandemic, a federal judge ruled Friday.

The ruling is part of an ongoing effort to release immigrants held in detention who are particularly susceptible to the coronavirus given the confined settings at facilities and the potential for spread. 

In her order, Judge Dolly M. Gee of the US District Court for the Central District of California called for the swift removal of migrant children who are at one of the three family detention centers, which are run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and located in Texas and Pennsylvania. 

The children must be released with their parents or to "available suitable sponsors or other available COVID-free non-congregate settings" with the consent of their parents or guardians, Judge Gee said. 

As of June 8, there were 124 children in ICE custody, according to the ruling. The ruling, which calls for children to be let go by July 17, applies to children who have resided at the three facilities for more than 20 days. 

The efforts, Gee wrote, must be made with "deliberate speed.”

As of Friday afternoon, there are around 8,858 detainees in ICE custody who have been tested for coronavirus and there are 751 confirmed cases in custody, according to the agency's statistics.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement "is currently reviewing the most recent order issued by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California yesterday evening" in which the judge mandated the federal government release migrant children by mid-July, according to an ICE spokesperson.

Last month, House Democratic lawmakers urged the Trump administration in a letter to explain reported incidents of ICE asking migrant families in detention to choose between staying with their children or releasing them. 

Advocates and immigration lawyers shared anecdotes of detained families distraught over their encounters with ICE, describing meetings between parents and ICE officers regarding whether their children would remain in custody with the parent or be turned over to a sponsor in the US.

Families detained in all three ICE detention facilities -- Berks in Pennsylvania, South Texas (Dilley) and Karnes County Family Residential Centers in Texas -- shared similar stories. Children at the facilities range from 1 year old to 17 years old, according to lawyers and advocates who provide legal assistance.

"The Administration must stop using this public health crisis as a means for implementing unlawful and inhumane immigration policies. In these extraordinary times, human suffering need not be compounded by locking up families or instilling fear in the hearts of migrant parents," read the letter, directed to acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Matt Albence.

ICE denied instituting a binary choice or separating any parents from their children "pursuant to 'binary choice.'"

This story has been updated with a statement from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Washington, DC - The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) welcomed the long-overdue decision announced by Judge Dolly M. Gee of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California to release children being held in three detention centers after arriving here with their families as refugees seeking asylum.

“This is a true life and death matter for children being held against the will during a raging pandemic,” says Domingo Garcia, National President. “Innocent families’ lives have been destroyed waiting at the border for help that never came and for many parents who had no choice but to watch helplessly as their children were being taken from them. Now, COVID-19 has been sweeping through the detention centers at an alarming rate and we need to get the children out as fast as possible,” said Garcia.

Judge Gee’s ruling strongly criticizes the Trump administration and mandates release of the children without any further delay. “The family residential centers are on fire and there is no more time for half measures,” wrote Gee. Her order affects 124 children being held in three centers; one in Pennsylvania and two in Texas. The coronavirus has affected large numbers of ICE detainees. The latest reports show more than 2,500 people in custody have tested positive for COVID-19.

“LULAC hasn’t stopped fighting to free every child and family in detention by ICE,” says Garcia. “Tonight’s order by Judge Gee proves there are jurists on the bench who agree that these are people facing a threat to their very lives and they need to get out. We won’t stop until the centers, all of them, are shut down and with them, one of the darkest chapters in our history,” he added.

I assume that the Trump Administration will appeal this to the Trump judges on the Supreme Court.