Representatives of Morena Meet with Activists in the U.S.

David Brooks. La Jornada

Nueva York. Líderes y activistas de la diáspora mexicana en Estados Unidos se reunieron por primera vez desde la llegada de Andrés Manuel López Obrador a la Presidencia con representantes del nuevo gobierno, legisladores y el liderazgo de Morena para abordar la participación de los inmigrantes aquí en la llamada “Cuarta Transformación”.

Durante un foro comunitario de dos días, La voz de los migrantes en la 4Ta Transformación, en esta ciudad, Roberto Valdovinos, el director del Instituto de Mexicanos en el Exterior (IME), la diputada federal Tatiana Clouthier, de Morena, y Yeidckol Polevnsky, presidenta de ese partido, junto al legislador del Partido del Trabajo Gustavo Fernandez Noroña, se comprometieron ante representantes de comités de Morena en varias entidades de Estados Unidos, junto con académicos, estudiantes, líderes comunitarios y otros simpatizantes, que los migrantes mexicanos radicados aquí formaran parte integral del cambio que se impulsa en México y en la realidad binacional bajo el nuevo gobierno de López Obrador.

Corazón ! Chicano Art

Jayapal Unleashes on Whitaker Over Border Policy: Children Never Get to ...

The Reality Check: WITH LOPEZ OBRADOR IN, THOUSANDS OF WORKERS WALK O...

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There is No Wall in El Paso

Mr. Trump. There is no wall in El Paso.  Its a fence !
  

People are fleeing once again. They are fleeing hunger,  and violence  and official corruption. It is important to separate  Immigration and Refugees.  They have different laws applying to them. 

These migrants from are making their way north to the U.S. border to seek asylum, in search of  freedom from the poverty and violence that has been perpetuated by U.S. imperialism and neoliberal capitalism. 

Those eligible for refugee status should be admitted as required by the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Migrants and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights  (1946) which the U.S. government helped to draft.   860,000 on back list. 

Trump  claims  there is crisis of criminal gangs at the border.  Somewhat. But, not near what he claims.

The drug traffic at the border  is not caused by migration.  The drugs are brought in by gangs with trucks and tunnels. A wall will not stop the traffic.  It does need to be stopped. 

The issue is the Wall. There is not a dispute about the need for more border enforcement and protection.  The conflict is will a wall make the difference.  Contrary to what he said, there is no wall in El Paso.  It is a fence. 

  A  Wall will not stop drug trafficking. It will not even slow it down.  The well-funded and increasingly sophisticated cartels are not going to be stopped by a wall.  The overwhelming majority of illicit traffic flows through ports of entry—not in the vast stretches of land in between where any wall would be built.

Refugees are not the source of drugs.  There is a failure of drug enforcement. 

Trump Administration Continues to Jail Children- Divide Families

 The ACLU on Friday said HHS' latest filing in a case on child separations proves that the Trump administration doesn't know how many families it split up at the border. In the court filing in Mrs. L v. ICE, Jonathan White, a commander for the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, concurred with an OIG report stating that the total number of children separated at the border was "unknown." 

"The Trump administration's response is a shocking concession that it can't easily find thousands of children it ripped from parents, and doesn't even think it's worth the time to locate each of them," ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said in a statement. "The administration also doesn't dispute that separations are ongoing in significant numbers." 

White, for his part, said HHS never sought to tally the total number of children separated from their parents at the border — only those in the "class" identified in the Mrs. L case. "It is critical to understand that HHS knew the identity, location, and clinical condition of all re-categorized children at all times during their stay in [Office of Refugee Resettlement] shelters," White wrote. "HHS did not 'lose' any of them. OIG found no evidence to the contrary."

Trump Sends More Troops to the Border

Pentagon Deploying 3,750 Troops To Southern Border. NPR: “Another 3,750 troops will be sent to the southern border to help install wire barriers and to monitor crossings, officials said. The new deployment will bring the total number of active-duty troops there to around 6,000. In a tweet on Sunday, President Trump said that “STRONG border security” is necessary in the face of “Caravans marching through Mexico and toward our Country.” The announcement of new troops on Sunday comes just days before Trump is expected to discuss border security measures during Tuesday’s State of the Union Address. Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said Thursday that the troops would be deployed to the border over the next month, NPR’s Tom Bowman reported. They’ll join the 2,300 active-duty troops already there, bringing the total to about the same number as were deployed in the fall. Another 2,100 National Guard troops are also stationed there. “At the Pentagon, people I talk with say, listen: this is a waste of money,” Bowman said. Stringing razor wire is a job better suited to the National Guard, they tell Bowman; “you don’t use active-duty troops for this.” Military troops deployed at the border “are not allowed to apprehend migrants the way border agents do,” NBC News reported.”

Trump's Wall Will Not Stop This

Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has expedited the application process for humanitarian visas, raised the minimum wage, and pledged to expand public works projects in part to help migrants whose journey came to a halt in Mexico. But many Central Americans escaping violence and poverty are still trying to find a path to the United States—the country largely responsible for destabilzing their societies. 

“The economic and trade policies that the United States has supported in Mexico and Central America have resulted in the displacement of millions of workers and economic stagnation,” wrote Alexander Main five years ago in Dissent. “The militarized drug war that the United States has promoted and funded in Mexico and Central America has further unleashed repressive, abusive security forces and undermined the civilian institutions that might hold them accountable.” A half-decade on, beneath the multiplying self-inflicted crises of the Trump era, this longstanding U.S. agenda remains largely unchanged.

Perhaps we could have a wall to keep the U.S. out of Central America and Venezuela.

Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) categorically opposes any and all efforts by the US government to intervene in the domestic politics of Venezuela. The US has a long and bloody track record of actions to overthrow democratically elected governments, stop the spread of socialism, and maintain US imperial dominance in the region. This includes the US government’s support of the 2002 Venezuelan coup that led to the temporary ouster of the legitimately-elected president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez. These imperial interventions must stop immediately; the future of the Venezuelan people, and the broader prosperity of Latin America depend on it. 

DSA Condemns Interference With Migrants Rights to Legal Counsel

Joint statement by Democratic Socialists of America Immigrants’ Rights WG and International Socialist Organization Immigrants’ Rights WG on recent human rights interference by the governments of the United States and Mexico

February 4, 2019

The undersigned organizations condemn in the strongest terms possible actions taken to disrupt legal counsel to members of the Central American Exodus. Specifically, attorneys of the bi-national nonprofit organization Al Otro Lado have been barred from travel into Mexico or forcibly removed from Mexico after the placement of alerts on their passports — this after United States authorities began actively referring asylum seekers sent back to Mexico to visit Al Otro Lado’s offices in Tijuana. These actions are mind-blowingly contradictory. DSA members from several chapters across the country have supported Al Otro Lado in a range of capacities, and we can directly attest to the importance of its mission and the organization’s vital role in migration justice.

While neither the origin or rationale of the alerts has been determined, what is abundantly clear is a pattern of obstructive behavior designed to withhold the good faith consideration of asylum that is covenanted to individuals internationally by multilateral accords. Less than a week before Al Otro Lado attorneys found their travel impeded, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security began implementing the "Migrant Protection Program,” returning asylum seekers back to Tijuana to pursue the major portion of their asylum proceedings from Mexico. Near simultaneously, the transitional shelter in Tijuana preventing the worst humanitarian outcomes was abruptly shut down, its residents turned out on the street.

U.S. Claims it Can Not Unite Families it Divided

https://www.kcra.com/article/us-sees-limitations-reuniting-migrant-families-trump-administration/26121521

Felipe Gomez 

It's Not Just About the Wall!

While Donald Trump continues to make his demand to build "the wall", members of Congress are conferring on a possible "deal" on the budget before Feb. 15 -- the deadline set for the suspension of the government shutdown. Some Democrats in the conference process are floating funding "incentives" in appropriations for the Dept. of Homeland Security based on a "smart wall" -- with use of more technology (and the glee of the tech industry) -- along with increases in the border enforcement budget for everything except wall construction.

We cannot agree to these dangerous enforcement proposals, and as we have also repeatedly stated, "It's not just about the wall"!

Trump's call to "build the wall" has always been a rallying cry to his supporters to oppose immigration -- ALL immigration. Increases in enforcement personnel, surveillance technology and other infrastructure fuel the consolidation of deterrent immigration policies and will contribute to greater harm of migrants and the environment. This is not acceptable.

We join the #DefundHate Coalition in calling for:

Cuts, not increases funding for violent, abusive, and wasteful immigration enforcement; funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) should be decreased and there should not be ANY funding for barrier construction.

The prohibition of the Trump Administration from raiding other accounts to increase availability of funds for a wall, immigration detention and other anti-immigrant provisions. This is also an issue of accountability for federal spending.

A commitment from Trump not to invoke a national border emergency or undermine Congress' role on budget matters by seizing funds from other accounts to build the wall or other physical structures. 

Trump continues to say that the Congressional negotiations are "a waste of time", hinting that he "could" declare a national emergency during his State of the Union address on Feb. 5.

Continue to voice our opposition to the wall AND increased border enforcement! Click here for contact information to send a message to your representatives in Congress.

National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights 

No DACA, No TPS, in Negotions

NO DACA, NO TPS: House Democratic leaders expressed doubt that any border compromise brokered by the bipartisan Homeland Security Conference will include protections for participants in the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals program or recipients of Temporary Protected Status, POLITICO's Melanie Zanona and Sarah Ferris report. If the conference committee, set to meet for the first time today, fails to resolve the impasse over border security before Feb. 15, President Donald Trump says he'll shut the government down again. 

"The focus of the talks is expected to be limited in scope, with leaders already tempering expectations that the proposal will yield a wide-ranging immigration deal that has thus far remained elusive on Capitol Hill," Melanie and Sarah write. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyerconfirmed to reporters on Tuesday that protections from deportation for DACA and TPS participants won't likely be part of the compromise. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), suggested that Republicans would support a final agreement that included a DACA legal fix. More here.

From: Politico Morning Report. 

¿A qué se debe el problema de contratación de nuevos oficiales de la Pat...

Elliot Abrams: Assistant Secretary of Death

Trump's 'Axis of Evil': Pompeo, Bolton & Abrams Common Dreams staff January 26, 2019 Common Dreams 'This is truly an ominous development for the poor people of Venezuela.' United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo votes before addressing the United Nations (U.N.) Security Council in a meeting which was requested by the United States to offer a statement on the current situation in for Venezuela , Spencer Platt/Getty Images US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on countries to "pick a side" on Venezuela, urging them to back opposition leader Juan Guaido in a Saturday speech at the UN Security Council in New York. "Now, it is time for every other nation to pick a side. No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you're in league with Maduro and his mayhem," Pompeo told the Security Council. Russia accused Washington of plotting a coup attempt and had tried to stop the meeting requested by the United States. "Venezuela does not represent a threat to peace and security. If anything does represent a threat to peace, it is the shameless and aggressive action of the United States and their allies aimed at the ouster of the legitimately elected president of Venezuela," Russia's UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, told the UN Council. On Friday, neoconservative Elliott Abrams was appointed US special envoy for Venezuela.

5,600 Kids Still Held in Texas "Shelters"

Choosing Democracy: 5,600 Kids Still Held in Texas "Shelters": 5,600 migrant kids in Texas shelters Even after Tornillo tent city’s closure, more than 5,600 migrant kids are living in Texas shelter ...

The Reality Check: WILL GROWERS' DEMANDS FOR WAGE CUTS GET HELP FROM ...

The Reality Check: WILL GROWERS' DEMANDS FOR WAGE CUTS GET HELP FROM ...: WILL GROWERS' DEMANDS FOR WAGE CUTS GET HELP FROM THE U.S. GOVERNMENT? By David Bacon Capital & Main, 1/24/19 https://capitalandmain...

Shut Down the Wall : Open the Government !

DSA Member: Rashida Tlaib

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib,

I am a proud woman, mother, Muslim, and Palestinian-American, and I have dedicated my life to fighting for justice. And now, thanks in no small part to the work of MoveOn members this past election year, I am also a congresswoman from Detroit.

People like me don't usually run for Congress—let alone win. I'm the person who carries a bullhorn to a rally. And you can bet that I'm going to do things differently, as I fight day in and day out for working people and communities.

 I'm writing to you today—on the 34th day of the government shutdown—because we need to rise up, together, to reopen the federal government.

Trump's fake wall debate has led to a very real humanitarian crisis: People in my own district are begging their landlords not to evict them because Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding is suspended. My neighbors live among the biggest corporate polluters and are wondering—without EPA inspectors on duty—if they're breathing in dangerous levels of pollution. This is not right.

This shutdown will end only when we take to the streets—and in huge numbers. And that's why I'm joining MoveOn's "Shut Down the Wall, Open the Government" nationwide mobilization on Tuesday, January 29. On that day, regular folks across the country will rally at their senators' offices and closed government buildings to share their stories, speak truth to power, and demand that we, their elected officials, do our jobs.

Trump's Border Wall

Trump wall - all you need to know about US border in seven charts from the BBC

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46824649

Say No ! To Trump's Fraudulent Deal

Our immigrant communities, our allies -- all of us -- can take heart and inspiration from the words and actions of Dr. King, not just on his birthday, but in our daily struggle for justice. We are reminded of the persistence and commitment of the civil rights movement of decades past and as it continues today as we push back against the calls to racism and xenophobia by Donald Trump.

.

Just Say 'No'...to the Deal 

Donald Trump's "major announcement" Saturday was another version of his Jan. 8 televised proposal, employing his now-familiar tactic of hostage-taking. There don't seem to be many takers, as Democrats quickly denounced his proposal of a trade-off for border wall funding, while hard-liners claimed that he was proposing some type of "amnesty" (he's not).

[UPDATE: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is expected to introduce a bill ('End the Shutdown and Secure the Border Act') in the Senate this week, with a vote set for Thursday on this and the Democrats' short-term spending bill, that excludes wall funding and would re-open government until Feb. 8. Just over 1,300 pages, the Republican bill adds more troubling measures to Trump's "deal", including changes to asylum programs. We will share an overview and analysis separately, along with proposed actions over the next 2 days.]

The federal government has now been on shutdown for a month as Trump insists on $5.7 billion for his border wall construction -- a proposal that has been rejected by Democrats. In return for the wall funding and his other asks, Trump would "release" his hostages -- recipients under DACA, which he is trying to end -- and over 300,000 immigrants with TPS status, which he has refused to renew for several countries. $800 million would be allocated for humanitarian assistance, medical care (which should be provided anyway) and "temporary housing" -- which appears to largely be more tent cities, already underway. Other elements of Trump's proposal include: 

• $783 million for 2,750 border and enforcement agents and staff;
• $805 million for technology, canine units for drug deterrence;
• $563 million for immigration court support, including 75 more immigration judges (most likely intended to speed up deportations);
• $4.2 billion for 52,000 detention beds and other detention supports.

Trump proposes a 3-year provisional status is proposed for DACA and TPS recipients, with additional restrictions. However, DACA recipients will now continue their status for at least a year, as the Supreme Court has just decided it will not take up the Trump Administration's challenge to a lower court ruling, so the  program stays in place, for now. Similarly, there are legal challenges to ending TPS, and various legislative proposals are being considered to provide permanent solutions for both DACA and TPS recipients. 

The prolonged shutdown has put pressure on both the White House and all members of Congress, and the Trump/Republican Senate proposal is supposedly aimed at ending the shutdown with some type of compromise. However, the Republican and Democrats' bills are wide apart and neither is expected to get the 60 votes for passage. 

Moreover, Dreamers, affected communities and most advocates have consistently called for no trade off for the border wall. Trump's obsession with building the wall has been transparent: to reinforce his racist campaign promise to his supporters to keep immigrants out of the country.

Increased border enforcement and militarization, including border barriers, have forced migrants and asylum seekers to travel under more dangerous conditions, sometimes resulting in deaths; these border enforcement measures have undermined environmental protections and health; and they are extremely costly. Most illicit drugs enter the country through ports of entry, not between them, and the emphasis on drug trafficking has had little effect on the health crisis of drug addiction in the U.S. As for terrorism -- even DHS has had to admit that no terrorist has ever been arrested at the southern border. The wall and border control proposals do not constitute responsible and humane border governance, and certainly do not facilitate U.S. responsibilities and obligations towards asylum seekers. 

We do need to address the complex, short and long term issues of immigration. But these proposals undermine any informed consideration and do not move us towards more just and fair policies untainted by racism and xenophobia and the intentional criminalization of immigrants.

Join the chorus of opposition to a deal cut on the backs of asylum seekers, DACA, TPS recipients and unpaid federal workers! Send a message to your members in Congress -- they need to hear from ALL of us!

DACA Safe- For Now

The Supreme Court just announced they will NOT take up a case on DACA this summer. This means that current DACA recipients can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that our DACA protections will be safe for a few more months.  So, if you have DACA, we recommend you continue to renew, visit RenewMyDACA.com for more information.

We know that DACA’s protections have provided hundreds of thousands of immigrant youth with peace of mind and safety as well as work and educational opportunities. Shamefully, Trump has done everything he can to rip that apart and is playing a cruel game with our lives. As we wait for the Supreme Court to announce whether or not they will take up the case for their session this fall, let’s get this info out!

It is crucial to get this information out to as many DACA recipients as possible  , can you help us share these top 5 things everyone should know?

It’s super important we get this information out ASAP:

Why Are Los Angeles Teachers On Strike ?

Teachers may have a contract.  An agreement was reached. A vote will be taken today !

Stand Up Against Nativism ! Trump !

“All Right Then, We Are Two Nations.” That’s what John Dos Passos wrote in his great USA trilogy, recounting the divisions in the country at the time of the 1927 execution of Sacco and Vanzetti—another season when nativism was running high and Italians were viewed by many “older stock” Americans as an inherently dangerous population.

Plus ca change:  In a survey released yesterday by the Pew Research Center, Americans opposed expanding what we have in the way of a border wall by a 58 percent to 40 percent margin, but that 58 and that 40 couldn’t be more entrenched. Not surprisingly, given the centrality of nativism, racism and Trumpism to the modern GOP, “Republican support for the wall,” Pew reports, “is at a record high, while Democratic support has reached a new low.” Moreover, Pew continues:

Nearly nine-in-ten (88 percent) opponents of expanding the border wall say it would not be acceptable to pass a bill that includes President Trump’s request for wall funding, if that is the only way to end the shutdown. Among the smaller group of wall supporters, 72 percent say a bill to end the shutdown would be unacceptable if it does not include Trump’s funding request.

I take these numbers to fairly represent what has become an unbridgeable divide between our two nations. I take them as an indication that those who are seeking the “center” in American politics will fail to find one. Neither side has any significant political incentive to plant a flag in midfield; neither side believes in the other side’s facts, epistemology, or sense of right and wrong. For the sentient American majority, the only long-term solution is to mobilize and enlarge our ranks to overcome the anti-majoritarianism of both the Republicans and the Constitution, and thereby win the political power that would strip from Republicans their capacity to inflict their bigotry on their fellow Americans. ~ HAROLD MEYERSON

Another Congressperson on Our Side

Why We Need to Listen to Rashida Tlaib


Jeffrey C. Isaac
January 10, 2019
Public Seminar

Defending liberal democracy from Trumpism is not a distraction from what is really important. It is itself really important, as an end and as a means of further advancing a progressive agenda.



Rashida Tlaib is seen at her campaign headquarters in Detroit, Michigan, Aug.7 2018, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75701495




Last week saw the swearing in of the new, Democratic-controlled Congress, the fruit of the “blue wave” that swept across the country last November. The 116th Congress has been rightly hailed as “historic” for its demographic diversity. The country’s first female speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, was re-elected, and a record number of women joined the ranks of the Democrats in Congress, including the first Native-American and Muslim-American women ever to serve in the House.

Less remarked by the mainstream media has been the ideological diversity of the newly-elected Democrats, who bring to the forefront of national politics not simply a broader range of “faces” but a broader range of ideas about public policy and social justice.

At the same time, the media have taken notice of two of most visible “faces” (and audible voices) of ideological diversity, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib. Both are young women of color, one a Latina and one an Arab-American Muslim. But more importantly, both are members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) who successfully ran very vigorous campaigns from the left of the party, and who have been outspoken in their support of progressive issues.

Reject the Border Wall _ The Poor People's Campaign

Our president and his enablers are pushing an agenda of fear, racism and white nationalism while millions of government workers and families suffer as a consequence.

With Martin Luther King Jr. Day a week away, it’s only fitting this movement not simply commemorate Dr. King and the original Poor People’s Campaign’s mission, we re-consecrate it by using our voices and bodies to protest and organize against the atrocities this administration continues to promote. 

Help hold our elected officials accountable: Make a call to your senator now and demand they end this shutdown, reject any compromise for this border wall and stand firm against the declaration of a state of emergency. Call now >>

Forward together, not one step back.

Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II and Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis

President of Repairers of the Breach & Director of the Kairos Center

Co-Chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival

---

As we speak, the Trump administration and the Senate are trying to divide us. They are using a racist border wall to immorally justify holding hundreds of thousands of federal workers hostage and millions of others are facing the loss of vital services from healthcare to food safety to affordable housing as the shutdown continues. At the same time, they are fueling contempt and cruelty towards migrants at the border and our undocumented neighbors. It is poor and working people on both sides of the border who face the consequences of these extremist policies and divisive tactics.

There can be no Congressional compromise that includes a dime of funding for a wall and we must stand against any future attempt to institute a state of emergency by the president.

We don’t have time to waste. Lives are at stake, and those who are most vulnerable are caught in the crossfire.

Demand your elected officials reject this border wall compromise, commit to end the government shutdown and stand against the invocation of a state of emergency. Click to call your senator now.

Rep. Veronica Escobar on Trump and the Wall

Donald Trump wants more than a wall.

Jorge Ramos, 

The president, once again, has created his own reality, manufactured a crisis, invented an invasion, criminalized immigrants, made up facts and, in a nationally televised speech on Tuesday, argued for a new wall at the United States-Mexico border. “How much more American blood must we shed before Congress does its job?” he asked from the White House.

Mr. Trump is not the first president to ask for money for a wall. George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush built fences and walls along the southern border. Barack Obama maintained the resulting system of roughly 700 miles of physical barriers. So why don’t we want Mr. Trump to build his wall? What is different?

The difference is that Mr. Trump’s wall is a symbol of hate and racism, it would be completely useless, and it does not address any national emergency.

The $5.7 billion requested by the Trump administration to build 234 more miles of walls and fences would be an enormous waste of time and money. Beginning with the first, 14-mile stretch of border fencing, built between San Diego and Tijuana in the early 1990s, undocumented immigrants have shown they can adapt very fast and move to areas with no border barriers. Deserts in Arizona and open areas along the Rio Grande in Texas are now a favorite point of entry. The same thing would happen with a new Trump wall.

Border Patrol Trained Killers in Guatemala

Washington Trained Guatemala’s Mass Murderers — and the Border Patrol Played a Role

Now two Guatemalan children have died under Border Patrol custody. The agency’s role in Latin American oppression has a long history. It has has operated with near impunity, becoming arguably the most politicized branch of federal law enforcement...

January 10, 2019 Greg Grandin and Elizabeth Oglesby  THE NATION

Teachers to hold "Teach In" at Tornillo Detention Center

In February, educators will gather outside a massive detention camp for migrant children and stage a 24-hour "teach in." 

The upcoming protest at the Tornillo, Texas detention camp is organized by Mandy Manning, the 2018 National Teacher of the Year, who teaches newly arrived refugee and immigrant students in Washington state. When she met President Donald Trump at the White House in a May ceremony, Manning gave him a stack of letters from her immigrant students. (She also wore buttons supporting women's rights, LGBTQ rights, and other political causes in a silent rebuke.) 

Several other state teachers of the year are joining her in speaking out against the separation of families and child detention, Manning said. (One of those teachers is Ivonne Orozco, the 2018 New Mexico Teacher of the Year, who immigrated from Mexico as a child and then received protection by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.) 

Paso por paso, repasamos las imprecisiones y afirmaciones dudosas del di...

A New Day for Mexican Workers

A NEW DAY FOR MEXICAN WORKERS
David Bacon
The American Prospect - 1/9/19
https://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2019/01/a-new-day-for-mexican-workers.html
https://prospect.org/article/new-day-mexican-workers

Two days before Christmas, deputies from Lopez Obrador’s Morena Party-in-formation introduced their labor reform bill into the Chamber of Deputies.  It will abolish the JCAs and substitute an independent system of labor tribunals.  Unions will be independent of the government and business, and leaders must be elected by a majority of the workers.  Union contracts will be public, and must be ratified by the majority of the workers in a free and secret vote.

Fact Checking Trump

Trump Steers Clear Of Facts On Immigration

Fact-checking Trump’s Oval Office speech. WaPo: “Trump does not accurately describe migrant children illegally brought into the United States. Trump describes the children as ‘human pawns by vicious coyotes and ruthless gangs.’ But the number of suspected cases of fraudulent parentage is a fraction of the overall number of family units apprehended — in other words, in most cases tracked by CBP, the children are being brought in by their parents. The Post’s Joshua Partlow and Nick Miroff reported that, between April 19, when the trend was first suspected, and Sept. 30, the end of the 2018 fiscal year, CBP agents separated 170 families after determining that the child and adult traveling together were not related. That equals about 0.25 percent of all family units apprehended.”

Trump Misleads on National TV

WASHINGTON — President Trump doubled down on one of the biggest gambles of his presidency on Tuesday night with a televised appeal to pressure Congress into paying for his long-promised border wall even at the cost of leaving the government partially closed until lawmakers give in.

Embarking on a strategy that he himself privately disparaged as unlikely to work, Mr. Trump devoted the first prime-time Oval Office address of his presidency to his proposed barrier in hopes of enlisting public support in an ideological and political conflict that has shut the doors of many federal agencies for 18 days.

In a nine-minute speech that made no new arguments but included multiple misleading assertions, the president sought to recast the situation at the Mexican border as a “humanitarian crisis” and opted against declaring a national emergency to bypass Congress, which he had threatened to do, at least for now. But he excoriated Democrats for blocking the wall, accusing them of hypocrisy and exposing the country to criminal immigrants.

But his alarming description of a “crisis” at the border has raised credibility questions. While experts agree there are serious problems to address, migrant border crossings have actually been declining for nearly two decades. The majority of heroin enters the United States through legal ports of entry, not through open areas of the border. And the State Department said in a recent report that there is “no credible evidence” that terrorist groups had sent operatives to enter the United States through Mexico.

More deception.  https://www.vox.com/2019/1/8/18173721/trump-border-facts-truth-speech-lying

Children Held in Concentration Camp in Texas

Support the Migrant Caravan

We'd also like to acknowledge and thank our DSA comrades currently in Tijuana providing direct aid support to migrants whose trip has stalled just shy of our border. They've joined up with a coalition of volunteers to provide aid work with some of the migrants. The following is a message from DSA-LA organizer Andrew Hall on why he volunteered: 

"On any given day, tens of thousands of immigrants are locked up within our borders. Many have been held against their will for years. Those in for-profit detention centers may labor for as little as $1 per day in order to access hygiene products, clean water, and food. Some haven’t breathed fresh air, or felt the warmth of sunshine on their skin in months. Nearly all are utterly cut off from someone they love.

The Problem of Border Security

On December 11, President Donald Trump hosted an Oval Office sit-down with incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Charles “Chuck” Schumer (D-NY). Among the many noteworthy lines and exchanges which stick out is when Trump stated, “We need border security. And I think we all agree that we need border security.”

“Yes. We do. We do,” Schumer immediately responded.

“See? We all get along,” pronounced the president.

Democrats and Republicans agree on the fundamentals regarding the policing of the U.S.-Mexico border.While Trump’s declaration that “we all get along” might come across as just another over-the-top statement from the current occupant of the White House, it speaks to an important truth that is indispensable for understanding the current federal government shutdown: Democrats and Republicans agree on the fundamentals regarding the policing of the U.S.-Mexico border. Their disagreement over Trump’s border wall proposal is thus not first and foremost one of conflicting principles. Instead, it is one born largely of what Freud referred to as the “narcissism of small differences”—relatively minute distinctions that, due to the need to maintain group identities (in this case of the Republican and Democratic parties), lead to hostilities.

One group agitates for overt, brutal means—a “big, beautiful wall” in Trump’s words, and highly visible expressions of force along the international divide. The other side calls for “smart” border policing policies and infrastructure, contending that such policies are more effective in stymieing unwanted border crossings than Trumpian wall-building. However, despite such objections, the Democrats have supported the construction of large barriers along the international divide on many occasions.

Indeed, just as telling as Schumer’s “we do” was Pelosi’s “we agree with that” in response to Trump’s insistence that “this country needs border security.” In other words, though CNBC characterizedthe meeting as a “heated Oval Office fight,” the ultimate goal was not in question. It was a debate about means, not ends. And this has long been the case.

Yet mainstream commentators focused on the dramatic disagreement while failing to note and explore how much the two sides have in common. It is this common ground, the shared embrace of “border security,” that requires our scrutiny. For those of us concerned with human rights for all and who refuse to accept discrimination on the basis of birthplace or ancestry—the foundations for exclusionary national citizenship—it also requires our rejection.

It is border security—in the form of the high walls and fences that scar much of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands— that regularly impales, maims and injures countless individuals trying to scale the formidable barriers.

Border security was a decisive factor in the death of seven-year-old Jakelin Caal Maquín.Border security was a decisive factor in the death of seven-year-old Jakelin Caal Maquín. She and her father were compelled to emigrate and to undertake an arduous journey due in large part to decades of U.S. support for Guatemala’s military and the country’s ruling elite that dispossessed and impoverished her family. Just a few days before Trump’s meeting with Pelosi and Schumer, she died in an El Paso, Texas hospital, after being rushed from a Border Patrol detention facility due to seizures and severely elevated body temperature. A second Guatemalan child, an eight-year-old boy, died in CBP custody on Dec. 24.

Epicenters of Refuge: A Tale of Two Cities

Epicenters of Refuge: A Tale of Two Cities: The U.S./Mexico border has become the focal point for an international human rights crisis that only seems to be getting worse. Veteran photographer Arturo Talavera captures images from refugee camps in Mexico City and Tijuana, and the desperate lines of asylum seekers arrayed along the U.S./Mexico border.

Trump Produced Thousands of Family Separations

The Trump Administration Carried Out Thousands More Family Separations Than Previously Acknowledged

Photo: John Moore/Getty Images

An Amnesty International report describes an orchestrated campaign by the Trump administration to seek “the full dismantling of the U.S. asylum system.”
By Ryan Devereaux, Alice Speri, Cora Currier