Tag: Immigration

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Senator Mitch McConnell Discusses Inflation Reduction Bill On Fox News’ Special Report Show

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) appeared on Fox News Special Report w/Bret Baier (08/03/22) to discuss the Inflation Reduction Act currently being negotiated in the U.S. Senate. Senator McConnell said he found the way Democrats characterized the bill “laughable”, because in his opinion, the bill actually increases inflation. Senate Democrats appear poised to approve the measure on a straight party vote.

Senator McConnell said this about the Inflation Reduction Act (0:27): “First, I think all of us were somewhat shocked by Senator Manchin’s reversal of positions he’d taken as recently as last week, against raising taxes. This raises taxes, it increases the burden of taxation on lower income people significantly. Calling it inflation reduction bill is rather laughable. Independent analysis indicates it actually increases inflation in the next two years, and may have an impact over ten years, and their policies from last year have already produced 40-year high inflation, so it’s a terrible package. It appears as if they are all in line, but one, it will be up to Senator Sinema from Arizona, who’s quite independent, to determine what the final contours of the bill are.”

Asked about the charge by irate Republicans, that he was “played” by Democrats regarding the reconciliation bill, McConnell responded (1:28): “Reconciliation is something done by one party only. There’s nothing we could have done to prevent the Democrats from doing a bill that only they will vote for, so it’s not a question of being played here, what’s the story line here is that Senator Manchin had agreed to something that he had said publicly and privately over the last two weeks that he would never agree to. We’re not involved in the reconciliation bill. There won’t be a single Republican vote for it. There’s nothing we could do to deter it, other than to criticize it publicly, and that’s what we’re doing right here.”

Host Bret Baier then cornered Senator McConnell with a very interesting question as to why he has repeatedly cited renowned economists Larry Summers and Jason Furman on ways to tackle the current record inflation, yet now he refuses to follow their advice that the Inflation Reduction Act will help reduce inflation? Senator McConnell accused the economists of trying to appease President Biden. He specifically said (2:41):“The quotes they used me in, were Summers’ observations about what they [Biden Administration] did last year. Two trillion dollars they dumped on the economy, that both Furman and Summers predicted would produce rampant inflation, and it did. What they’ve done this year is kind of fall in line, and I assume they wanted to get back on the White House Christmas card list, but people who are not active Democrats, independent observers have said it has no impact on inflation, at all, over the long term, and actually increases it slightly in the short term. So Furman and Summers were certainly helpful as active Democrats in describing last year’s bill, but this year they’re sort of falling in line because I think they want to get back in the good grace of the White House.”

Asked about criticism from House Republicans, some of whom don’t want him as Senate Majority Leader any more, over what they perceive as him being “played” repeatedly by Democrats, and making President Biden look good, McConnell responded(3:55): “Well, I guess they’ve forgotten the Supreme Court that I’ve helped usher into–three new Supreme Court justices, the 2017 tax bill…I think just because you have closely divided government doesn’t mean you do nothing. The past two administrations tried to achieve bipartisan infrastructure, didn’t get it done, we needed to rescue the post office. Just because it’s a Democrat in the White House, I don’t think means Republicans should do nothing that’s good for the country. In the meantime, on the big issues, we are totally opposed to what this administration is trying to do, but on things like school safety, mental health, infrastructure, postal reform, why would we not want to make progress for the country no matter who’s in the White House?”

Asked about reservation by some Republicans, that expanding NATO to include Sweden and Finland, increases the likelihood of sending our troops into combat in Europe, Sen McConnell responded (5:08): “The NATO alliance is the most successful military alliance in world history. The way to prevent Americans from having to actively get involved in combat is to prevent it in the first place, and that’s what NATO is about. It won the cold war without firing a single shot. Putin has succeeded not only in actually expanding NATO and making it even more effective as a deterrent. Remember Reagan said peace through strength, and that’s what NATO is all about, and that’s why Finland and Sweden add a lot to NATO.”

Asked to pick between the Russia-Ukraine war, and the situation at our southern border, which one was a bigger national security threat to the United States, McConnell said both were threats that needed to be dealt with seriously–probably not the answer Fox News viewers obsessed with the southern border, wanted to hear.

Importantly, when asked about his earlier prediction that there would be a “red wave” in this year’s midterm elections, McConnell appears to have had a change of mind (probably due to Kansas), saying now that it will be a “very tight” election. McConnell specifically said (7:02): “I think it’s going to be very tight, we have a 50-50 Senate now, we have a 50-50 nation, and I think when the Senate race smoke clears, we are likely to have a very, very close Senate still, with either up slightly, or the Democrats up slightly”–a far cry from the “red wave” talk we heard earlier in the year from McConnell and his fellow Republicans.

Asked about the Kansas abortion vote heard around the world, McConnell responded (7:35): “I think what the Supreme Court has done is said people who are elected by the American people are going to deal with this highly sensitive issue, and it will be playing out all year, and I don’t think we really know until the end of the year, what kind of an impact putting this issue back into the hands of those of us who are elected, as opposed to nine unelected judges, will have on the country. We’re in the process of finding that out…It tells us that there are a lot of people interested in the issue in Kansas, there’s no question about that.”

Asked whether he would survive his leadership role if “Trumpified” candidates(J.D. Vance, Oz, Blake Masters, Ted Budd etc) win this November, Sen McConnell responded (8:37): “I’ve been elected eight times without opposition. I don’t own this job, and there’s always an election every two years for leader. If anybody wants to challenge me, have at it.” McConnell added that he will still hang on as Minority Leader if Republicans don’t take over the Senate this Fall.

Asked whether, given his lengthy career in the U.S. Senate, there is a single issue the modern Republican Party gets right, which the old Republican Party got wrong, McConnell was all over the place. He didn’t give an answer that specifically answered the question.

Bottom line folks, the key takeaway from Senator McConnell’s interview on Fox News is that the “red wave” fantasy is gone. Republicans now acknowledge that even with the challenging economic times, and President Biden’s low approval numbers, the 2022 midterm elections will be very competitive. Reasonable politicos will agree that given historical trends re midterms, the fact that Dems are even still in the ball game, tells you all you need to know about the state of affairs at Trump’s GOP. 

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White Nationalism Cited As Motive In Terrorist attack On Buffalo Grocery Store

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Tops grocery store in Buffalo New York, the site of a racially motivated terrorist attack on 05/14/2022

As news reports continue to trickle in about today’s(05/14/22) shooting at a Tops grocery store in Buffalo New York, a troubling picture of the suspect is emerging and that is, he was steeped in the kind of White nationalism we are increasingly witnessing in populist Europe, and at home with Trump’s GOP. The common theme among these budding White nationalism movements is their belief in the so-called “replacement theory”–a belief that there is a global conspiracy to replace/eliminate White people. This naturally instills in them a deep-seated hate of immigrants and non-Whites generally. NBC law enforcement analyst Jim Cavanaugh made a bombshell observation on American Voices show, telling host Alicia Menendez that this replacement theory rhetoric and the associated White nationalism screeds were commonplace in Trump’s White House, a startling revelation indeed.

Host Alicia Menendez(video at 4:02):“Jim, officials say that they believe that the suspect acted alone. How are they going to confirm that?”

Jim Cavanaugh:“It’s going to be what we[law enforcement] call like a psychological autopsy. We go back and we look at all of his telephone, computer, all of his contacts. He’s going to have contacts on the web, Alicia. He’s going to be reading the White supremacist websites, there’s many of them out there, and he’s going to have read them, maybe even posted on them, and he’s talking to these like-minded people like this is all okay. And of course he’s probably railing against immigrants–this is another thing where the DA or the police chief mentioned, the screeds about immigration, these White hate books. There’s a screed from Europe called “The Camp of The Saints”, and it’s just a horrendously racist book about immigrants to Europe. It was passed all over the White House when Trump was president, everybody’s reading it like it’s some book to read, I mean it’s just garbage, and they put this out in these White supremacist circles and these people read it, and they start to believe it, and what it does is it denigrates immigrants, anybody of color…That’s why the constant talk about the immigrants at the border is really coming right from this White nationalist perspective…”

You’ll remember the Trump administration was notoriously anti-immigrant, so this bombshell revelation about a White nationalist screed being circulated at his White House raises a whole host of questions as to whether racism was driving force behind his administration’s immigration policy. The anti-immigrant sentiment within the GOP remains strong even with Trump outside the White House, so it will be interesting to see how congressional Republicans and their allies on Fox News(looking at you, Tucker Carlson), respond to this White nationalist screed bombshell. Just the other day there was a news report saying Fox News’ Tucker Carlson show was a hit among White nationalists, and specifically, that the show’s segments dealing with the border/immigration draw the highest ratings.

Bottom line folks, it would foolhardy for anyone to argue that we do not have an immigration problem in the United States. Reasonable people will agree that our immigration system is broken, and has been for decades, largely due to our equally broken Congress(dithering on a permanent legislative fix). But having said that, it is impossible to ignore the racism that has emerged within Trump’s GOP, when it comes to immigration. One only hopes that this horrendous terrorist attack in Buffalo New York, will ignite a serious discussion about the replacement theory rhetoric that belies Trump GOP’s immigration policies.

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Rep Beth Van Duyne Defends Gov Abbott’s Immigrant Bussing Ploy

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Rep Beth Van Duyne(R-TX) on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures(04/17/22)

Texas Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne, a former Mayor of Irving who is considered to be a rising GOP star, appeared on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures show(04/17/22) to discuss the Biden administration’s recent lifting of Title 42 and other immigration issues related to the southern border. Rep Van Duyne defended Texas Gov Abbott’s controversial bussing of migrants caught crossing the southern border to Washington DC, saying this will make politicians in DC “see what it has been like in areas all around Texas.”

Rep Beth Van Duyne specifically told host Jason Chaffetz(video at 4:38):“In Texas we are seeing a huge influx of illegal immigrants, a huge influx of illegal drugs, of illegal weapons, and quite honestly the citizens of the state of Texas are sick of it, which is why I think you see some of the desperate measures that our Governor is taking to put them on buses and send them to Washington, DC since the Biden administration finds themselves too busy to actually be able to come back to the border, well maybe they need to see what its like in DC, what it has been like in areas all around Texas…I guarantee you if we see a mass immigration of illegal aliens, you are going to see those walls go back up around the Capitol to be able to protect the politicians, while we are leaving a wall down on our southern border and ignoring the effects it’s having on the rest of the nation.”

She went on to add that the number of illegal immigrants that have come through the southern border in the last 15 months is more than the combined population of three U.S. states, and that mixed in with these illegal immigrants, are people from “questionable countries” like Syria and Yemen–presumably terrorists.

For the record, illegal immigration has been and still remains a big problem in the United States, and the concerns Rep Van Duyne raised in her Fox News interview regarding the sheer numbers of migrants illegally crossing the southern border, and the prospect of some of them being criminals/terrorists are for the most part, valid concerns. The question here is whether Governor Abbott’s bussing ploy, and that’s exactly what it is–a ploy, is the best way to deal with this decades old, complex immigration problem? Reasonable people will agree that the bussing ploy employed by Gov Abbott, which essentially amounts to playing with the lives of desperate migrants, is no way to deal with a complex problem like immigration. The bussing ploy may play well among Fox News viewers eager to embarrass Democrats in Washington, but it will ultimately blow up in the face of Texas Republicans because it does zero to address the real illegal immigration problem at the southern border.

Bottom line folks, illegal immigration is a complex problem that calls for serious politicians to sit down and come up with concrete solutions to fix it. Texas Governor Abbott, and it appears Rep Van Duyne, are clearly not up to the task of coming up with a concrete solution to this complex problem, and have instead settled for ploys/gimmicks, or “stunts” as Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Beto O’Rourke calls them.

Maybe it’s time stuntman Abbott stepped aside, and allowed Gov O’Rourke to work with serious Texas Republicans, to come up with concrete ways of tackling the complex illegal immigration problem. Hopefully Texas voters will arrive at this conclusion this Fall.

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Gov DeSantis Blames Florida Covid Surge On Migrants Coming Through the Texas-Mexico Border

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis On Fox News’ Ingraham Angle Show (08/04/2021)

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appeared on Fox News’ Ingraham Angle show(08/04/2021), where he made the ridiculous assertion that it is migrants coming through the Texas-Mexico border, who are to blame for the surge of covid-19’s delta variant in Florida. Yes, folks, Governor DeSantis, with a straight face, told host Laura Ingraham, that the Biden administration is apprehending covid-stricken migrants coming through the Texas-Mexico border, and shipping them to Florida.

Gov DeSantis’ full interview on Ingraham Angle is available here, but the relevant clip is below.

Gov DeSantis told host Laura Ingraham:“He[President Biden] is bringing in people from over a hundred different countries across the southern border. Every variant on this planet, some we don’t even know about, are absolutely coming into our country that way. What they are doing is, people are coming, and then they are farming them out all over the United States, putting them on buses, putting them on planes. So when he is lecturing people about imposing covid restrictions and lock down policies on the one hand, and yet not only doing nothing to stop the border surge, but actually facilitating it on the other hand, he just loses all credibility when it comes to covid.”

Governor DeSantis, noticing how ridiculous his assertion was, then tried to justify it, telling host Ingraham that migrants coming through the Texas-Mexico border have a particular affinity to Florida. He said, “I have[Florida] law enforcement there helping[Texas]Governor Abbott, and we’ve been there for a month, and they say of the illegal border crossers that they come in contact with, a majority of them are telling our guys that they want to end up in Florida…” Gov DeSantis’ totally made-up assertion that migrants coming through the Texas-Mexico border have a fixation with Florida was so ridiculous, even host Ingraham chuckled.

This is the kind of crazy talk one expects to hear from an obscure subreddit or Facebook page. However, when it is uttered by a Governor of a major U.S. state, one thought of as a serious presidential contender in 2024, it should be serious cause for alarm. It is not a lot to ask that a Governor of a major U.S. state like Florida, address a deadly global pandemic that has killed over half a million U.S. residents, and left many more with serious health complications, with the seriousness it deserves. Reasonable people will agree that Gov DeSantis’ argument, that the covid surge in Florida is caused by migrants shipped in from the Texas-Mexico border, is a totally frivolous argument, bordering on lunacy.

Bottom line folks, whether you are a Republican or Democrat, we are at a point where we can all agree that covid-19 is a deadly virus that demands serious attention from our leaders across the board. President Biden is absolutely correct in calling out Gov DeSantis for playing games in the face of this deadly pandemic, and urging him to either start leading, or step aside. Just so you know Governor DeSantis, there’s a very capable Floridian, ready and willing to take over, and help the Sunshine State defeat the deadly covid-19 pandemic.

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Immigrant Basher Tomi Lahren Called Out On Her Family’s Immigration History

In case you missed it, conservative firebrand Tomi Lahren, best known for her hateful attacks on immigrants on social media and on her favorite hate outlet Fox News, was recently called out about her own family’s immigration history on the popular daytime TV show The View. Specifically, Lahren was called out about the hypocrisy in her insistence that immigration to the United States should be based on academic merit and that once admitted, immigrants must learn to speak english so as to assimilate to American culture.

Turns out the hosts of CBS’ The View got their hands on a report by a researcher who dug into Lahren’s family history and found out that Lahren’s great grandmother came to the U.S. from Germany and that after 40 years of living here, she still spoke german. This means by Lahren’s own standards, her great grandmother was a bad immigrant who failed to assimilate to the U.S., and deserved to be sent back to her native Germany.

Lahren was asked on Fox and Friends to address the immigration hypocrisy charge. To her credit, she correctly stated what she is being called out for. Lahren said, “What she [the researcher] was hoping to do was trying to call me a hypocrite for believing in merit-based immigration. Again she failed miserably….” However after correctly laying out the accusation against her, Lahren wentoff on a tangent, deliberately sidestepping the central charge–that by her own standards, her great grandma , who never learnt english, is no different than the non english speaking immigrants she now greatly despises. True to form, Lahren’s Fox News buddies never pressed her on the central charge, instead allowing her to wiggle her way out of it.

It would be interesting if the same researcher who dug into Lahren’s family history would go back and also look into whether the said german-speaking great grandma or other Lahren’s ancestors were ever beneficiaries of federal government programs she now wants Trump to use as a basis of denying people green cards. My guess is more Tomi Lahren immigration hypocrisy will come to light .

Bottomline folks, immigration has always been a complex issue in America because we are a country of immigrants. Tomi Lahren is the latest but certainly won’t be the last of Republicans who continue to advocate harsh immigration policies that punish and malign the current crop of immigrants for things their own ancestors did when they first arrived here. Surely Tomi Lahren, if it was okay for your great grandma to speak german after living here for 40 years, a reasonable argument can be made that she wasn’t a merit-based immigrant and that maybe you should not be advocating for policies that pin assimilation to the ability to speak/learn english.

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5,460 Migrant Children Separated From Parents By Trump Admin

In a shocking new piece, the Associated Press now places the tally of migrant children separated from their parents as a result of Trump’s harsh immigration policy at 5,460. This is almost double the initial 2,814 figure the government cited in court when U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw of the Southern District of California ordered an end to the cruel family separation policy in June 2018. In ordering the Trump administration to stop the family separation policy except in limited circumstances (unverifiable parent or threat to child safety), the federal judge also ordered the immediate reunification of the separated children with their families.

For the record, back in June 2018 when the federal judge ordered an end to the family separation policy, it was widely acknowledged both by immigration activists and government officials that the final tally would end up being higher than the 2,814 figure presented in court because the Trump administration was already separating migrant children from their parents even before they officially embarked on the family separation policy in the Spring of 2018.

It is fair to say that the new tally of 5,460 migrant children which almost doubles the initial 2,814 figure, is way more than anyone expected and further cements the conclusion already reached by many that Trump’s immigration policy is the most cruel and inhumane in U.S. history. The government separating one child from their family as a result of an immigration violation is already cruel and unusual punishment. When the government separates 5,400 children from their families as a result of immigration violations, that is sufficient grounds for a Human Rights violations probe by the United Nations, especially when according to the AP piece, as many as 71 children 2 years old or less(5 of them only months old) were also victims of this cruel immigration policy. Simply put folks, no immigration policy is worth ripping a baby less than a year old from their mother, and no decent human being would ever defend such a policy.

It is also worth pointing out that child health advocates repeatedly warned the Trump administration that separating children from their parents would cause severe and irreversible mental and psychological injuries to them. These warnings were made while the Trump administration was still conducting the family separation policy. Well, according to the AP piece, it appears that even after the federal judge ordered the an end to the family separation policy in June 2018, the Trump administration disregarded the judge’s order and proceeded to separate a further 1,090 children—an inexcusable abuse of power.

Bottom line folks, immigration has always been and still remains one of the most complex issues any U.S. administration faces. The reason for this is very simple–America remains a country of immigrants and issues related to immigration elicit sharp reactions from both sides of the political divide. The Trump administration is not the first, nor will it be the last one to enact an immigration policy that generates a lot of public outcry. One only hopes however that the Trump administration’s cruel and inhumane family separation policy is the last immigration policy any U.S. administration ever enacts in total disregard to the serious and irreversible health consequences it subjects young migrant children to. As Senator and Presidential candidate Kamala Harris (D-CA) famously says, “We are better than this.”

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El Paso Shooter’s Manifesto Echoes John Cornyn’s Tweet

After the deadly weekend shootings in El Paso Texas and Dayton Ohio, the President’s hateful rhetoric and especially his hardline stance on immigrants has taken center stage. A recent tweet by Senator John Cornyn(R-TX) is also getting closer scrutiny because some claim the El Paso shooter’s manifesto echoed similar anti-Hispanic sentiments as Senator Cornyn’s tweet–that Hispanics are replacing Whites in Texas.

Now we can all agree that it is unfair to pin any national tragedy on a politician’s previous public comments and Yours Truly is certainly not suggesting here that the El Paso shooter read Senator Cornyn’s tweet and then decided to open fire on Hispanic shoppers at a Walmart in El Paso. What is fair debate however is that President Trump has a well documented history of stoking racial tensions using very incendiary language that has even garnered praise from White Supremacy groups. It is also well known that Congressional Republicans like Senator Cornyn rarely push back on the President when he engages in such hateful rhetoric, the subject of Yours Truly’s recent post “GOP Complicit In Trump’s Racism”

Therefore when a hate crime against Hispanic shoppers like the one that happened in El Paso takes place, it is fair to confront Senator John Cornyn and other Republicans about their decision to remain silent even when the President engages in race-baiting speech. In Senator Cornyn’s case in particular, his tweet pointing out the fact that the Hispanic rate of migration to the state of Texas outnumbers that of Whites by a 9 to 1 margin certainly raises justifiable questions in light of the El Paso shooting. Was Senator Cornyn pushing the “White Replacement” conspiracy theory that is very popular among White Supremacy Groups worldwide?

It is well known that one of the grievances raised by hate groups and especially White Supremacists worldwide is this idea of “White Replacement”—that somehow there’s a global conspiracy to replace the White race with other ethnic groups. You’ll remember during the Charlottesville, Virginia riots, that White Supremacy advocates could be heard chanting “Jews will not replace us”. This “White Replacement” hysteria is fueling the growth of anti-immigrant political groups in Western Europe and some political pundits argue is the same hysteria currently being pushed by President Trump and his GOP with their harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric. It is therefore perfectly in order for Senator Cornyn to be questioned about the motivation behind his 9 to 1 tweet.

It also cannot be left unsaid that during a recent Congressional hearing, Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took Deputy FBI Director Michael McGarrity to task over why the FBI and other law enforcement agencies(like DHS) are not doing more to combat the rising threat of domestic terrorism posed by White Supremacy groups, a subject Yours Truly wrote about in “AOC Exposes FBI’s Terrorism Double Standard” . (AOC is always ahead of the curve folks).

Deputy Director McGarrity’s response was that there are no current laws/legal provisions that allow the FBI to vigorously go after domestic terrorists. The question then becomes, how does the same FBI and DHS currently target people they perceive to be “Black extremists” or “Black militants”? What current provisions/laws are they basing these surveillance practices on, that they are seemingly unwilling or unable to apply to White Supremacists? There have been numerous credible media reports that surveillance on “Black militants” is indeed happening as we speak in most major U.S. cities–some for reasons as mundane as anti-Trump/DHS social media posts, or even organizing,/participating in Black Lives Matter protests. Are these media reports “fake news”? These are some of the questions the public expects the mainstream media to pose to FBI and DHS brass in light of the two deadly weekend mass shootings.

Bottom line, the mainstream media fails the public miserably in the way it covers national tragedies. Specifically, the questions that need to be answered are often not answered because other incidents usually pop up and take the cameras/spotlight away. The El Paso shooting has raised two very important questions that needs to be addressed the first one being how surveillance capabilities of the FBI and DHS are being misused/abused. Are the FBI and DHS wasting surveillance resources needlessly chasing down perceived “militants” of color while totally ignoring the actual threat of domestic terrorism by White Supremacists? The second question (a no-brainer), is whether the hate-filled rhetoric emanating from President Trump and his Republican party is fueling the rise White Supremacy groups in the U.S.? These are two questions the mainstream media must seriously delve into in the aftermath of the two deadly shootings in El Paso and Dayton. The Mainstream media will likely give Trump and Senator John Cornyn a pass as they usually do with Republicans. However you can rest assured that Yours Truly, your trusted grassroots journalist, will not only hold Sen Cornyn’s feet to the fire regarding this racist tweet, but will also and make it the citadel upon which his 2020 reelection prospects fail. Stay tuned.

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Missouri Court Denies Illegal Immigrant An English Translator Then Takes Away Her Biological Son

A shocking ABC News piece says a Missouri court has stripped an illegal immigrant from Guatemala of parental rights to her biological son, ruling in favor of the boy’s American adoptive parents. What’s even more shocking about this seemingly cruel Missouri court decision is that the Guatemalan mother, Encarnacion Bail Romero, who does not speak English, was denied an English translator throughout the court proceedings that resulted in her losing her biological son to the American adoptive parents. Encarnacion Bail Romero told ABC News, “Nobody could help me because I don’t speak English.” The Missouri court also stripped Romero of visitation rights to her biological son–a total travesty of justice.

According to the ABC News piece the only offense this Guatemalan mom seems to have committed is coming to the U.S. illegally. She was apparently arrested after an immigration raid at a chicken processing plant where she worked. So this was clearly someone who came to the the U.S. to work and provide a better future for her young son. After her arrest, her then 11 months old son was adopted by American parents Seth and Melinda Moser and stayed with them for the entire duration of her incarceration (5 years).

Bottom line, reasonable people will disagree as to whether coming to the U.S. illegally is sufficient cause for someone to lose custody of their Biological child. All reasonable people will agree however that it is a serious miscarriage of justice for a court to take away the parental rights of a non-English speaking illegal immigrant without even according them a translator. This is wrong and immoral!!

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DHS-ICE Illegally Detaining U.S. Citizens

A troubling report on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow show says DHS-ICE is increasingly detaining U.S. Citizens, something it has absolutely no legal authority to do. According to host Joy Reid who was subbing for the vacationing Maddow, this stems from a legally questionable practice currently in place in many U.S. counties where DHS-ICE places “detainers” on county jail inmates it suspects are either not in the U.S. legally, or even if here legally, are subject to deportation proceedings based on their criminal convictions. The Maddow segment focused on Peter Brown, a Philadelphia native who DHS-ICE almost mistakenly deported to Jamaica. For the record DHS-ICE has no legal authority to detain a U.S. citizen so any ICE detainer placed on a U.S. citizen is void on its face.

The full Maddow segment is available here but the relevant clip is below.

So for example if someone is convicted in Harris County Texas for say DWI, and jailed for say 6 months at the county jail, one of the preliminary issues that is determined by county jail officials is whether the inmate is a U.S. citizen. If it is determined that the inmate is not a U.S. citizen then DHS-ICE places a “detainer” on them essentially telling the Harris County jail officials to detain the said inmate for an extra 48 hours(2 days) to allow DHS-ICE to come and pick them up for deportation proceedings.

The problem with this policy is that it is prone to a lot of racial and ethnic profiling by county jail officials who often arbitrarily classify inmates who don’t “look like” or “speak like” Americans as non-citizens and thereby illegally subjecting them to DHS-ICE detainers. This is especially problematic in immigrant-rich cities like Houston which is home to many naturalized U.S. citizens who don’t “look like” or “speak like” Americans.

According to the Maddow segment, DHS-ICE apparently enters into contracts with county officials where they pay them an agreed sum for every inmate the county detains for them. It turns out however that in addition to this “detainer” policy being patently illegal as applied to U.S. citizens, it is also draining county tax dollars from the resultant lawsuits. In other words this “detainer” policy is ending up costing counties infinitely more money in lawsuits than the money DHS-ICE pays them to detain inmates for them. So in their zeal to push a “tough-on-immigration” agenda using the “detainers”, county officials(often Republican counties) are ending up wasting much needed tax dollars settling lawsuits brought by illegally detained U.S. citizens—a total travesty.

Bottom line as Yours Truly has said all along, Congress must step in and enforce some checks on DHS-ICE’s seemingly absolute powers. It seems as if at every turn DHS-ICE is violating the constitutional rights of poor immigrants whether that be through its evil family separation policy, illegal surveillance of legal immigrants or now illegally detaining U.S. citizens. A wise man once said, “power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It’s about time the U.S. Congress reigned in DHS-ICE’s absolute power.

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Handy List Of GOP Senators Supporting Trump’s Unconstitutional Emergency Declaration

The U.S. Senate recently voted on President Trump’s 2/15/2019 national emergency declaration. President Trump had requested 5.7 billion to build a wall at the U.S border with Mexico in an effort to stem the tide of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. through the southern border. Congress did not approve the 5.7 billion Trump requested and as a result Trump resorted to declaring a national emergency which would among other things grant him authority to redirect monies already earmarked by congress for other projects to be used for his border wall–a clear cut end-run around the well-established congressional “power of the purse” and a separation of powers issue.

Shortly after Trump declared his national emergency, the Democrat-controlled House passed HJ Resolution 46(HJ Res.46), essentially rebuking the declaration for among other things, its unconstitutionality. The resolution passed the House by a vote of 245-182 on 2/26/2019. The U.S. Senate then took up HJ Res. 46 and on 3/14/2019 passed it with a 59-41 vote (12 GOP Senators opposing Trump and crossing over to vote with Democrats in support of HJ Res.46).

There was absolutely no question that President Trump’s national emergency declaration was an affront to the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers. You don’t have to take Yours Truly’s word for it on the unconstitutionality of Trump’s national emergency declaration, just listen to GOP Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT). Sen Romney said about his opposition to Trump’s national emergency declaration, “This is a vote for the Constitution and for the balance of powers that is at its core…For the Executive Branch to override a law passed by Congress would make it the ultimate power rather than a balancing power.”

Even on a clear cut constitutional issue as this, 41 Republican Senators still supported Trump’s move. Below is a Handy List of the shameful GOP Senators


Bottom line, these 41 GOP Senators who supported Trump’s clear cut unconstitutional national emergency declaration have demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that they have no idea what their constitutional duties are and consequently, do not belong in the U.S. Senate. Voters should look closely at this Handy List to see which of these 41 Senators are up for reelection in 2020 and vote them out!!

For those of you very happy with @Emolclause’s activism don’t shy away from the “tip jar” below on your way out. 

You may reach the author via email at author@grassrootsdempolitics.com or author@emolumentsclause.com