OMNI
UNITED STATES,
REFUGEES, ASYLUM NEWSLETTER #4, April 7,
2016.
COMPILED BY DICK
BENNETT FOR A CULTURE OF PEACE, JUSTICE, AND ECOLOGY
(#1, August 2, 2014; #2 Nov. 24, 2015;
#3 Dec. 17, 2016)
See newsletters
on: climate change, economic, genocide, immigration, Iraq War, Jewish
Holocaust, Native Americans Holocaust, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Refugees International, Tibet, Vietnam
War, warming, wars, cost of wars, unnecessary wars, illegal wars, serial wars,
conversion from war waste to civilian well-being .
Contents
#2 and #3 at end
Contents US Refugees,
Asylum, April 7, 2016
History
of US Xenophobia
Tom Head, a
Brief, Illustrated History
Tom Dillard:
Protestants vs. Catholics 1850s
USA
Mother of Exiles, Statue of Liberty, Emma Lazarus: What Do We Stand For?
Dick: What WWII Taught Us
US
and Middle Eastern Refugees
Bridge of Peace
Fundraiser
First Syrian
“Surge” Family to Kansas City
A Greek
Receiving Center on Island of Lesbos
Fleeing Danger at Home, Encountering Danger in Flight
US
and Central American Refugees
Martinez. A History of Violence: Living and Dying in Central America.
Life-Threatening
Deportation Process
President Obama
Call Off Raids
Africa
Ben Rawlence. City of
Thorns: Nine Lives in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp.
Asians to Europe
The May 2016 no. of In
These Times favorably reviews Jacques Audiard's new film Dheepan on life in Europe from pov of Sri
Lankan refugees. --Dick
HISTORY OF US XENOPHOBIA
Poet Emma
Lazarus wrote a poem titled "The New Colossus" in 1883 to help raise
funds for the Statue of Liberty, which was completed three years later. The
poem, often cited as representative of the U.S. approach to immigration, reads
in part:
"Give
me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free ..."
But
bigotry against even European-American immigrants was rife at the time Lazarus
wrote the poem, and immigration quotas based on racial hierarchies formally
passed in 1924 and would remain in effect until 1965. Her poem represented an
unrealized ideal--and, sadly, still does.
American Indians
When
European nations began to colonize the Americas, they ran into a problem: The
Americas were already populated. They dealt with this problem by enslaving and
ultimately eliminating most of the indigenous population--reducing it by
approximately 95%--and deporting the survivors to undeveloped ghettoes that the
government unironically referred to as "reservations."
These harsh policies could not have been justified if American Indians were
treated like human beings. Colonists wrote that American Indians had no
religions and no governments, that they practiced savage and sometimes
physically impossible acts--that they, in short, acceptable victims of
genocide. In the United States, this legacy of violent conquest remains largely
ignored.
African Americans
Before
1965, the United States' few non-white immigrants often had to overcome
considerable hurdles to settle here. But until 1808 (legally) and for years
thereafter (illegally), the United States forcibly recruited African-American
immigrants--in chains--to serve as unpaid laborers.
You'd think that a country that had put so much brutal effort into bringing
immigrant forced laborers here would at least welcome them when they'd arrived,
but the popular view of Africans was that they were violent, amoral savages who
could be made useful only if forced to conform to Christian and European
traditions. Post-slavery African immigrants have been subjected to many of the
same prejudices, and face many of the same stereotypes that existed two
centuries ago.
English and Scottish Americans
Surely
Anglos and Scots have never been subject to xenophobia? After all, the United
States was originally an Anglo-American institution, wasn't it?
Well, yes and no. In the years leading up to the American Revolution, Britain
began to be perceived as a villainous empire--and first-generation English
immigrants were often viewed with hostility or suspicion. Anti-English
sentiment was a significant factor in John Adams' defeat in the 1800
presidential election against the anti-English, pro-French candidate Thomas
Jefferson. U.S. opposition to England and Scotland continued up to and
including the American Civil War; it was only with the two world wars of the
twentieth century that Anglo-U.S. relations finally warmed up.
Chinese Americans
Chinese-American
workers began to arrive in large numbers in the late 1840s, and helped build
many of the railroads that would form the backbone of the emerging U.S.
economy. But by 1880 there were some 110,000 Chinese Americans in the country,
and some white Americans didn't like the growing ethnic diversity.
Congress responded with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which stated that
Chinese immigration "endangers the good order of certain localities"
and would no longer be tolerated. Other responses ranged from bizarre local
laws (such as California's tax on the hiring of Chinese-American laborers) to
outright violence (such as Oregon's Chinese Massacre of 1887, in which 31
Chinese Americans were murdered by an angry white mob).
German Americans
German
Americans make up the largest identified ethnic group in the United States
today, but have historically been subjected to xenophobia as well--primarily
during the two World Wars, as Germany and the United States were enemies in
both.
During World War I, some states went so far as to make it illegal to speak
German--a law that was actually enforced on a widespread basis in Montana, and
that had a chilling effect on first-generation German-American immigrants
living elsewhere.
This anti-German sentiment bubbled up again during World War II, when some
11,000 German Americans were detained indefinitely by executive order without
trials or normal due process protections.
Indian Americans
Thousands
of Indian Americans had become citizens when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down
its ruling in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind (1923),
holding that Indians are not white and therefore may not become U.S. citizens
by immigration. Thind, an officer for U.S. Army during World War I, initially
had his citizenship revoked but was able to quietly immigrate later. Other
Indian Americans were not so lucky, and lost both their citizenship and their
land.
Italian Americans
In October
1890, New Orleans police chief David Hennessy lay dying from bullet wounds he
received on his way home from work. Locals blamed Itslian-American immigrants,
arguing that the "mafia" was responsible for the murder. Police duly
arrested 19 immigrants, but had no real evidence against them; charges were
dropped against ten of them, and the other nine were acquitted in March of
1891. The day after the acquittal, 11 of the accused were attacked by a white
mob and murdered in the streets. Mafia stereotypes affect Italian Americans to
this day.
Italy's status as an enemy in World War II was also problematic--leading to
arrests, internments, and travel restrictions leveled against thousands of
law-abiding Italian Americans.
Japanese Americans
No
community was more significantly affected by the World War II "enemy
alien" detentions than Japanese Americans. An estimated 110,000 were
detained in internment camps during the war, detentions that the U.S. Supreme
Court dubiously upheld inHirabayashi v. United States (1943)
and Korematsu v. United States (1944).
Prior to World War II, Japanese-American immigration was most common in Hawaii
and California. In California, in particular, some whites resented the presence
of Japanese-American farmers and other landowners--leading to the passage of
the California Alien Land Law of 1913, which prohibited Japanese Americans from
owning land.
Related
Articles
Tom Dillard, “Politicians
‘Know Nothing’: Current Rhetoric a Reminder of Worse Days.” AD-G (March
6, 2016). 1850s Protestant
hatred of Catholics esp. Irish C. immigrants.
Statue of Liberty
National Monument
Emma Lazarus’ Famous Poem
A poem by Emma Lazarus is graven on
a tablet
within the pedestal on which the
statue stands.
|
The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant
of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs
astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed,
sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch,
whose flame
Is the imprisoned
lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her
beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome;
her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor
that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands,
your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips.
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses
yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of
your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless,
tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the
golden door!"
|
FUTURE OF THE IRAQI, AFGHAN,
SYRIAN, AND OTHER REFUGEES FROM WAR and VIOLENCE: WHAT WWII TAUGHT US
At this time of desperation for
millions of refugees fleeing wars and seeking asylum, we can learn from our
behavior following WWII. I am quoting
from The Autobiography of Eleanor
Roosevelt (1961).
The United Nations was divided over
the refugees. The US and its allies
argued that the refugees “must be guaranteed the right to choose whether or not
they would return to their homes.” On
the other side, the USSR, Yugoslavia, and their allies argued “that the
refugees in Germany should be forced to return home and to accept whatever
punishment might be meted out to them.”
Mrs. Roosevelt presented the Western position. Andrei Vishinsky the
Soviet. The West won the vote. “This vote meant,” Mrs. Roosevelt wrote,
“that the Western nations would have to worry about the ultimate fate of the
refugees for a long, long time but the principle of the right of an individual
to make his own decisions was a victory well worthwhile” (307-308). That the two historic crises may not be
perfectly analogous should not delay the United States from repeating its
humanitarian WWII refugee solution over that of the Soviet Union’s. --Dick
UNITED STATES and MIDDLE EASTERN
REFUGEES
Fund-raiser in Fayetteville, April
10, 2016
|
|
|
329 N West Ave,
Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701
|
|
Bridge of Peace Syria Presents:
A SILENT AUCTION of WIND BELLS, MAGIC LANTERNS & A
POTPOURRI of POTTERY by artist John Ward and the Ward family:
A PARTY to benefit building the BRIDGE OF PEACE SCHOOL for
refugee children inside Syria.
SUNDAY, APRIL 10th, 2 - 5pm TEATRO SCARPINO, Fayetteville,
Arkansas
First
Syrian “Surge” Family to Kansas City
First Syrians arrive in US under surge resettlement program. By KHETAM MALKAWI.
Apr. 7, 2016
AMMAN,
Jordan (AP) — The first Syrian family to be resettled in the U.S. under a
speeded-up "surge operation" for refugees left Jordan on Wednesday
and arrived in Kansas City, Missouri, to start a new life.
Ahmad
al-Abboud, who is being resettled with his wife and five children, said he is
thankful to Jordan, where he has lived for three years after fleeing Syria's
civil war. But the 45-year-old from Homs, Syria, said he was ready to build a
better life in the U.S.
"I'm
happy. America is the country of freedom and democracy, there are jobs
opportunities, there is good education, and we are looking forward to having a
good life over there," al-Abboud said.
They
have been living in Mafraq, north of Amman. Al-Abboud was unable to find work,
and the family was surviving on food coupons.
"I
am ready to integrate in the U.S. and start a new life," he told The
Associated Press in Amman's airport before the family boarded a flight to
Kansas City.
Al-Abboud
said he wanted to learn English and find a job to support his family.
A
spokeswoman for the social services organization helping resettle the family
said they arrived in Kansas City late Wednesday night.
Since October, 1,000 Syrian
refugees have moved to the U.S. from Jordan. President Barack Obama has set a
target of resettling 10,000 Syrian refugees by Sept. 30.
A
resettlement center opened in Amman in February to help meet that goal, and
about 600 people are interviewed every day at the center.
The
temporary processing center will run until April 28, said U.S. Ambassador Alice
Wells, who was at the airport to see the al-Abboud family depart.
Gina
Kassem, the regional refugee coordinator at the U.S. Embassy in Amman, said that
while the target of 10,000 applies to Syrian refugees living around the world,
most will be resettled from Jordan.
"The
10,000 (figure) is a floor and not a ceiling, and it is possible to increase
the number," Kassem told reporters.
While
the resettlement process usually takes 18 to 24 months, the surge operation
will reduce the time to three months, Kassem said.
The
U.N. Refugee Agency prioritizes the most vulnerable cases for resettlement, and
refers them to the U.S. to review, Kassem said. The priority is given to
high-risk groups such as unaccompanied minors and victims of torture and
gender-based violence, she said.
"We
do not have exclusions or look for families with certain education background,
language skills or other socio-economic factors, and we do not cut family
sizes," she said.
Jordan
hosts about 635,000 of the more than 4.7 million Syrians who have registered
with the U.N. refugee agency after fleeing the war. The total number of Syrians
in Jordan is more than 1.2 million, including those who arrived before the
conflict began in 2011.
A FIRSTHAND DESCRIPTION OF A
GREEK REFUGEE RECEIVING CENTER: the Moria Refugee Registration Camp on the
island of Lesvos:
The author’s appreciation
for the organizations doing useful work at the camp helps us know which
organizations we might support.
It’s reassuring to know the
Greek Coast Guard and the Greek police are rescuing.
UNHCR the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees
International Rescue
Committee (IRC)
Starfish, Greek NGO (the
author works for this org.)
Greenpeace
Drop in the Ocean
All work amidst hard
pressures of a thousand people a day.
Read the author’s
description of the camp. And I recommend
the magazine for understanding the Middle East from Arab/Muslims perspectives.
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March/April
2016, pp. 30-32
Special
Report Eyewitness to the Refugee Crisis in Lesvos By Sara R. Powell
As winter draws nearer, refugees cook food in a camp by the Moria
processing center on the Greek island of Lesvos, Nov. 15, 2015. (CARL
COURT/GETTY IMAGES)
According to
statistics listed on the website of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR), more than 850,000 refugees arrived in Greece by sea in 2015.
In January 2016, there were more than 60,000 arrivals by sea—a 3,571 percent
increase. The European Commission, the executive body of the European Union
(EU), predicts that another three million will arrive in 2016. There already
have been almost 7,000 in the first three days of February alone.
Just looking
at the numbers, and knowing they represent people fleeing for their lives, is
breathtaking—but seeing in person the individuals who make up those numbers is
staggering.
A barbed wire fence surrounds the Moria processing center, a former
military prison camp, on the island of Lesvos. (CARL COURT/GETTY IMAGES)
As the crisis
continues, the organization and operating procedures for coping with the vast
numbers of people arriving change frequently. Recently, the Greek island of
Lesvos has been divided into several crisis administrative zones. Here in the
north, where most of the boats arrive—a six-mile trip across the Aegean from
Turkey—there are three administrative zones. In zones one and two, when a boat
arrives on its own, the passengers are taken to the International Rescue
Committee (IRC) camp—a transit camp that functions as a sort of triage,
providing dry clothing, medical attention, food and occasionally overnight
shelter, if refugees arrive too late for a bus to the Moria refugee
registration camp in southeastern Lesvos.
A sign at the Moria processing center directs refugees by nationality.
(CARL COURT/GETTY IMAGES)
Molyvos,
where I am based, is in zone one. Here the situation is slightly different.
Refugees on a boat coming into Molyvos receive food, dry clothing and medical
attention at the harbor before transport to Moria. If, however, a boat has been
rescued, the rules are different again—depending on what group rescued the
refugees. If the Greek Coast Guard picks up a boat, everybody on board is
considered under arrest, and Starfish, the Greek NGO I volunteered for, is
given the task of preliminarily registering those aboard, in addition to
providing the basic triage services all refugees receive. If Greenpeace or Drop
in the Ocean, the other groups allowed to do rescue work, pick up the
distressed boat, the procedure is the same as if the boat arrived on its own.
In all cases, the refugees are sent on to Moria within a day of their arrival.
Though I have done shifts at the IRC camp, the harbor and Donkey—a clothing
storage and sorting center—most of my work has been at Moria.
There every
refugee who lands on Lesvos—thousands of people daily—passes through on his or
her road to safety. Most are from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, although there
are refugees from other nations as well. Lately, the numbers of refugees from
Afghanistan have been growing as the security situation there has deteriorated.
The camp is a
dismal place. Administered by the Greek police, with the UNHCR in a support
role, it is an old military prison camp. Though refugees are free to come and
go—there are a number of kiosks just outside the gates selling food, sleeping
bags, cigarettes and other sundries—Moria still looks and feels like a
detention center. Built on a steep hillside, and surrounded with high,
razor-wire topped fences, the camp is severely overstressed by the numbers of
people passing through. Though construction to alleviate the overcrowding has
begun since I arrived, drainage at the bottom of the hill, especially near the
bathrooms, is still a major problem.
The entire
area is covered with mud so deep and thick it sucks at your shoes as you walk.
The refugee housing units (RHUs) are grouped about halfway up the hill, on
either side of the road that runs up to the dorms. About half of the almost 60
RHUs are difficult to access, involving hiking around the rocky, muddy
hillside.
There are
also some issues with how the space has been utilized. For instance, the
“dorms” where “extremely vulnerable individuals” (EVIs) are housed are at the
top of a steep and slippery hill, although the reasoning behind that is
somewhat understandable: these dorms are enclosed in yet another layer of
fencing and razor wire, allowing vulnerable refugees to be more protected from
the general population. Another example of poor spatial planning is the bank of
phone charging stations located just outside the women’s restroom, where large
groups of young men congregate. This intimidates many women—and not just the
refugee women, but some NGO and volunteer workers as well, especially at
night.
In addition
to the dorms and the RHUs, there is the “Rubhall,” one large heated tent
reserved for single men.
The worst
problem at Moria is the inadequate shelter. The dorms are heated and lit, but
only about ten of the RHUs, where families are housed, are heated, and none
have lighting. The few heaters are a new addition since I arrived, so some
progress is being made in improving accommodations. The Starfish volunteers
serve under the auspices of the Danish Refugee Council responsible for housing
allocation at Moria, and every afternoon, when housing allocation starts, and
on into the night, we struggle with trying to explain to exhausted refugees
that these small IKEA huts, meant to hold 5 people, must be crammed with 20-25
people because there is simply not enough shelter to go around. Since
translators are scarce, the process becomes even more problematic.
Refugees buy food at a snack van outside the Moria processing
center. (CARL COURT/GETTY IMAGES)
Most refugees
stay only one day at Moria before taking the ferry to Athens for the next stage
of their trip—although recent ferry strikes have been a complicating factor.
From Athens, they continue by bus to the Macedonian border, stopping—often for
several days—at a gas station where women and children are housed in heated
tents, but men sleep outside in the cold. There they wait their turn to cross
the tightly controlled border, where they receive a stamp allowing them to
proceed to Germany. Only Syrians and Iraqis are allowed through, however. All
others are sent back to Athens at their own expense.
Refugees line up for food at a feeding station by the Moria
processing center. (CARL COURT/GETTY IMAGES)
But while
they may have reached Europe safely, the refugees too often discover that they
have not reached the land of milk and honey. ◙
Sara R.
Powell is a former director of the AET Book Club. She is
currently volunteering with refugee assistance in Lesvos.
FLEEING
DANGER AT HOME, ENCOUNTERING DANGER IN FLIGHT
10,000 refugee children are
missing, says Europol
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/30/fears-for-missing-child-refugees
The
EU’s criminal intelligence agency warns pan-European gangs are targeting minors
for sex work and slavery
A migrant child walks from the Macedonian
border into Serbia, near the village of Miratovac. Photograph: Darko
Vojinovic/AP
Saturday 30
January 2016 15.15 ESTLast modified on Saturday 30
January 201619.25 EST
At least 10,000 unaccompanied child refugees have disappeared
after arriving in Europe, according to the EU’s criminal
intelligence agency. Many are feared to have fallen into the hands of organised
trafficking syndicates.
In the first attempt by law enforcement agencies to quantify one
of the mostworrying aspects of
the migrant crisis, Europol’s chief of staff told the Observerthat
thousands of vulnerable minors had vanished after registering with state
authorities.
Brian Donald said 5,000 children had disappeared in Italy alone,
while another 1,000 were unaccounted for in Sweden.
He warned that a sophisticated pan-European “criminal infrastructure” was now
targeting refugees. “It’s not unreasonable to say that we’re looking at
10,000-plus children. Not all of them will be criminally exploited; some might
have been passed on to family members. We just don’t know where they are, what
they’re doing or whom they are with.”
The plight of unaccompanied child refugees has emerged as one of
the most pressing issues in the migrant crisis. Last week it was announced that Britain would accept more
unaccompanied minors from Syria and other conflict zones. According to Save the
Children, an estimated 26,000 unaccompanied children entered Europe
last year. Europol, which has a 900-strong force of intelligence analysts and
police liaison officers, believes 27% of the million arrivals in Europe last
year were minors.
“Whether they are registered or not, we’re talking about 270,000
children. Not all of those are unaccompanied, but we also have evidence that a
large proportion might be,” said Donald, indicating that the 10,000 figure is
likely to be a conservative estimate of the actual number of unaccompanied
minors who have disappeared since entering Europe.
In October, officials in Trelleborg, southern Sweden, revealed
that some 1,000 unaccompanied refugee children who had arrived in the port town
over the previous month had gone missing. On Tuesday a separate report, again
from Sweden, warned that many unaccompanied refugees vanished and that there
was “very little information about what happens after the disappearance”.
An entire criminal
infrastructure has developed over the past 18 months around exploiting the
migrant flow
Brian
Donald, Europol chief of staff
In the UK the number of children who disappear soon after
arriving as asylum seekers has doubled over the past year, raising fears that
they are also being targeted by criminal gangs.
Mariyana Berket, of the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said: “Unaccompanied minors from regions of
conflict are by far the most vulnerable population; those without parental care
that have either been sent by their families to get into Europe first and then
get the family over, or have fled with other family members.”
Donald confirmed Europol had received evidence some
unaccompanied child refugees in Europe had been sexually exploited. In Germany
and Hungary, the former a popular destination country for refugees and
migrants, with the latter an important transit state, large numbers of
criminals had been caught exploiting migrants, he said. “An entire [criminal]
infrastructure has developed over the past 18 months around exploiting the
migrant flow. There are prisons in Germany and Hungary where the vast majority
of people arrested and placed there are in relation to criminal activity surrounding
the migrant crisis,” said Donald.
The police agency has also documented a disturbing crossover
between organised gangs helping to smuggle refugees into the EU and
human-trafficking gangs exploiting them for sex work and slavery. He said that
longstanding criminal gangs known to be involved in human trafficking, whose
identity had been logged in the agency’s Phoenix database, were now being
caught exploiting refugees.
“The ones who have been active in human smuggling are now
appearing in our files in relation to migrant smuggling,” said Donald.
Europol will take evidence from organisations working on the Balkans route, which requested a meeting with
the law enforcement agency specifically to discuss children vanishing. “Their
concern is in relation to the number of unaccompanied minors. They’re asking
for help in identifying how these children are identified and then brought into
the criminal infrastructure. They’re dealing with this on a daily basis,
they’ve come to us because they see it as a big problem.” He warned the public
to be vigilant, stating that most child refugees who had gone missing would be
hiding in plain sight. “These kids are in the community, if they’re being
abused it’s in the community. They’re not being spirited away and held in the
middle of forests, though I suspect some might be, they’re in the community –
they’re visible. As a population we need to be alert to this.”
Europe’s chaotic approach to the migration crisis led last week
to calls for Greece to be removed from the open-borders Schengen zone, a
development that a senior UN official has described as a “new nadir” in the
EU’s approach.
Writing in the Observer, the UN special
representative on migration, Peter Sutherland, said such a move would
“effectively transform it [Greece] into an open-air holding pen for countless
thousands of asylum seekers. The idea is inhumane and a gross violation of
basic European principles”.
UNITED
STATES AND CENTRAL AMERICAN REFUGEES
WHY ARE CENTRAL AMERICANS
FLEEING THEIR COUNTRIES?
OSCAR MARTINEZ. A
HISTORY OF VIOLENCE: LIVING AND DYING IN CENTRAL AMERICA. Rev. The
Nation (March 21, 2016). Provides
important context for evaluating refugees from CA. “’I want you to understand what thousands of
Central Americans are forced to live through.’”
https://www.aclu.org/news/groups-sue-us-government-over-life-threatening-deportation-process-against-mothers-and-children
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: 212-549-2666, media@aclu.org
WASHINGTON — The
American Civil Liberties Union, American Immigration Council, National
Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, and National Immigration Law
Center today sued the federal government to challenge its policies denying a
fair deportation process to mothers and children who have fled extreme
violence, death threats, rape, and persecution in Central America and come to
the United States seeking safety.
The groups filed the case on behalf of mothers and children locked up at an
isolated detention center in Artesia, New Mexico — hours from the nearest major
metropolitan area. The complaint charges the Obama administration with enacting
a new strong-arm policy to ensure rapid deportations by holding these mothers
and their children to a nearly insurmountable and erroneous standard to prove
their asylum claims, and by placing countless hurdles in front of them.
"These mothers and their children have sought refuge in the United States
after fleeing for their lives from threats of death and violence in their home
countries," said Cecillia Wang, director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights
Project. "U.S. law guarantees them a fair opportunity to seek asylum. Yet,
the government's policy violates that basic law and core American values — we
do not send people who are seeking asylum back into harm's way. We should not
sacrifice fairness for speed in life-or-death situations."
According to the complaint, the Obama administration is violating
long-established constitutional and statutory law by enacting policies that
have:
- Categorically prejudged asylum cases with a
"detain-and-deport" policy, regardless of individual
circumstances.
- Drastically restricted communication with the outside
world for the women and children held at the remote detention center,
including communication with attorneys. If women got to make phone calls
at all, they were cut off after three minutes when consulting with their
attorneys. This makes it impossible to prepare for a hearing or get legal
help.
- Given virtually no notice to detainees of critically
important interviews used to determine the outcome of asylum requests.
Mothers have no time to prepare, are rushed through their interviews, are
cut off by officials throughout the process, and are forced to answer
traumatic questions, including detailing instances of rape, while their
children are listening.
- Led to the intimidation and coercion of the women and
children by immigration officers, including being screamed at for wanting
to see a lawyer.
"Fast-tracking the deportations of women and children from immigration
detention is an assault on due process. There is no way that justice can be
served when so many people are being rushed through the system without any
real opportunity to assert claims for relief. What we are seeing in
Artesia is nothing less than a sham process that values expediency over
justice," said Melissa Crow, legal director of the American Immigration
Council.
The plaintiffs include:
- A Honduran mother who fled repeated death threats in
her home country to seek asylum in the United States with her two young
children. The children's father was killed by a violent gang that then
sent the mother and her children continuous death threats. When she went
to the police they told her that they could not do anything to help her.
It is common knowledge where she lived that the police are afraid of the
gang and will do nothing to stop it.
- A mother who fled El Salvador with her two children
because of threats by the gang that controls the area where they lived.
The gang stalked her 12-year-old child every time he left the house and
threatened kidnapping. She fears that if the family returns to El
Salvador, the gang will kill her son. Some police officers are known to be
corrupt and influenced by gangs. The mother says she knows of people who
have been killed by gang members after reporting them to police.
- A mother who fled El Salvador with her 10-month-old
son after rival gangs threatened to kill her and her baby. One gang tried
to force the mother to become an informant on the activities of another
gang, and when she refused, told her she had 48 hours to leave or be
killed.
"The women and
children detained in Artesia have endured brutal murders of loved ones, rapes,
death threats, and similar atrocities that no mother or child ever should have
to endure, and our government is herding them through the asylum process like
cattle," said Trina Realmuto, an attorney at the National Immigration
Project of the National Lawyers Guild. "The deportation-mill in Artesia
lacks even the most basic protections, like notice and the opportunity to be
heard, that form the cornerstone of due process in this country."
The lawsuit, M.S.P.C. v.
Johnson, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of
Columbia. Co-counsel in this case includes the law firms of Jenner & Block,
and Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale, LLP; and the ACLU of New
Mexico, ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties, and ACLU of the Nation's
Capital.
"Any mother will do whatever it takes to make sure her children are safe
from harm's way," said Karen Tumlin, managing attorney for the National
Immigration Law Center. "Our plaintiffs are no different: they have fled
their homes to protect their children, only to find that the U.S. deportation
system is intent upon placing them back in the dangerous situations they left.
We are filing this lawsuit today to ensure that each mother is able to have her
fair day in court, and that we are not sending children and their mothers back
to violence or their deaths."
The complaint is
available at:
aclu.org/immigrants-rights/mspc-v-johnson-complaint
© 2015 ACLU
Top of Form
TELL PRESIDENT OBAMA TO CALL OFF RAIDS AGAINST
IMMIGRANT FAMILIES
Campaign created by Emilio
Vicente
EMAIL
TO: PRESIDENT
OBAMA [I sent 1-10-16.
–Dick]
Tell President Obama:
Immediately
cease your administration’s raids against recent Central American immigrants
fleeing violence in their home countries.
Why is
this important?
President
Obama’s administration has launched a series of raids against undocumented
families who came to the US seeking refuge from violence in their home
countries. [1]
According
to Wall Street Journal, “The last time targeted roundups occurred on a large
scale was about a decade ago, when the George W. Bush administration conducted
high-profile raids at meatpacking plants and other work sites to detain
undocumented workers.”
For
President Obama to allow this to happen is inhumane and unacceptable. He must
immediately cease his administration’s plans.
President
Obama has the worst deportation record in history, with over 2.4 million people
deported during the seven years of his presidency. [2]
Continuing
with these massive raids across the country in the last year of his presidency
will cement President Obama’s legacy as the Deporter-In-Chief. There will be no
going back, and no way to undo the pain and separation of countless families.
As
an undocumented person, I’m scared to think of the consequences that President
Obama’s program will have on thousands of families. I understand the psychological
toll of being under constant threat of deportation because it’s something that
I think about constantly. From personal experience, I know well the trauma that
the separation of families creates — no one deserves such life-devastating
experiences.
These
raids are inhumane and violate the dignity and human rights of countless
people. They are in line with and will worsen the racism and xenophobia that
Republican presidential candidates like Donald Trump are promoting. In fact,
Donald Trump has already taken credit for the administration's plans. [3]
President Obama can’t blast Trump for extremist comments against immigrants
when he himself is implementing inhumane policies that help legitimize Trump’s
position.
That
is why I’ve started this petition. Join me in calling on President Obama to
immediately cease his administration’s raids against Central American families
and continue to feed the deportation machine that has already deported over 2.4
million people.
Will
you stand with me and do the right thing? Sign this petition now.
REFERENCES:
[1]
Miriam Jordan, “U.S. Begins Crackdown on Central Americans,” Wall Street
Journal, January 3, 2016.
[2]
Tami Abdollah and Vivian Salama, “AP FACT CHECK: Sour notes on immigration,
security in debate,” Associated Press, December 16, 2015
[3]
Eugene Scott, “Trump claims credit for DHS deportation plan,” CNN, December 26,
2015.
AFRICA
CITY OF THORNS
Nine Lives in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp
Ben Rawlence. Picador, Macmillan, 2016.
To the charity workers, Dadaab refugee
camp is a humanitarian crisis; to the Kenyan government, it is a 'nursery for
terrorists'; to the western media, it is a dangerous no-go area; but to its
half a million residents, it is their last resort.
Situated hundreds of miles from any
other settlement, deep within the inhospitable desert of northern Kenya where
only thorn bushes grow, Dadaab is a city like no other. Its buildings are made
from mud, sticks or plastic, its entire economy is grey, and its citizens
survive on rations and luck. Over the course of four years, Ben Rawlence became
a first-hand witness to a strange and desperate limbo-land, getting to know
many of those who have come there seeking sanctuary. Among them are Guled, a
former child soldier who lives for football; Nisho, who scrapes an existence by
pushing a wheelbarrow and dreaming of riches; Tawane, the indomitable youth
leader; and schoolgirl Kheyro, whose future hangs upon her education.
In City
of Thorns, Rawlence interweaves the stories of nine individuals to show
what life is like in the camp and to sketch the wider political forces that
keep the refugees trapped there. Rawlence combines intimate storytelling with
broad socio-political investigative journalism, doing for Dadaab what Katherine
Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers
did for the Mumbai slums. Lucid, vivid and illuminating, City of Thorns is an urgent human story with deep international
repercussions, brought to life through the people who call ... more
Praise for City of Thorns
"[Rawlence] has done a remarkable
job, bringing home the reality behind those statistics by telling us what life
is really like inside one of those camps... Rawlence's description of the camp
economy is fascinating and shocking... A masterful account. Next time someone
refers derisively to a 'bunch of migrants,' get them to read this
book."—The Sunday Times (London)
"[A]remarkable book…. Like Dadaab
itself, the story has no conclusion. Iti is a portrait, beautifully and moving
painted. And it is more than that. At a time when newspapers are filled with
daily images of refugees arriving in boats on Europe’s shores, when politicians
and governments grapple with solutions to migration and erect ever larger walls
and fences, it is an important reminder that a vast majority of the world’s
refugees never get as far as a boat or a border of the developed world. They
remain, like the inhabitants of Dadaab, in an indefinite limbo of penury and
fear, unwanted and largely forgotten.”—The New York Times Book Review
"[An] ambitious, morally urgent
new book."The New York Times
“Magisterial….We see Dadaab through an
accumulation of vivid impressions….[The book] moves like a thriller.”—Los
Angeles Times
“The most absorbing book in recent
memory about life in refugee camps… Mr. Rawlence’s major feat is stripping away
the anonymity that so often is attached to the word “refugee” by delving deeply
into the lives of nine people in the camp. By doing so, he transforms its
denizens from faceless
Asians
to Europe
The May 2016 no. of In
These Times favorably reviews Jacques Audiard's new film Dheepan on life in Europe from pov of Sri
Lankan refugees. --Dick
Contents Refugees,
Asylum Newsletter #2 (November 24, 2015)
Contents Refugees,
Asylum Newsletter #3, Dec. 17, 2015.
Christianity
and Refugees: See Newsletters on Jesus
Countries Rescuing Syrian Refugees and
How Well?
Canada 25,000
Syrians
Other Countries
and UNHCR, Google Search
US Should Take More
Dick, US Should
Harbor More Refugees
Daalder, And
More Syrians
CNN, Pressure
on US to Take More
Film on
Xenophobia
Lazare, Common
Dreams: US Helped Cause the Crisis
Arkansas
Emergency Management
Hinckly, CSM: Marshallese
Climate Refugees to Northwest Arkansas
Move-On Campaign to
Increase Refugees
OMNI Latin
American Children’s Coalition Fundraiser
UA/OMNI Endowed
Scholarship for Asylum-Seekers
Hoyt Purvis,
US, S. Africa, Racism, Refugees, and Xenophobia
END REFUGEES NEWSLETTER #4
