As the White House faces court orders to reunite families separated at the border, immigrant children as young as 3 are being ordered into court for their own deportation proceedings, according to attorneys in Texas, California and Washington, D.C. “We were representing a 3-year-old in court recently who had been separated from the parents. And…
The billboard once read: “We make junk disappear” — an advertisement for a junk removal firm, but the artists altered it overnight to read: “We make kids disappear,” signed “ICE.” The billboard is located in Emeryville and faces an area where several hundred thousand commuters drive each day on their way into San Francisco. The…
President Trump on Wednesday sought to quell the uproar over his administration’s systematic separation of immigrant children from their families at the border, signing an executive order he portrayed as ending the problem. However, Trump’s Executive Order explicitly states that the executive branch will continue to criminally prosecute people who cross the border illegally, signaling…
More than 600 members of the United Methodist Church have issued a formal complaint against Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a fellow church member, charging that his “zero tolerance” policy on immigration violates church rules and may constitute child abuse. The complaint charges Sessions with violating the United Methodist Church’s Book of Discipline, its code of…
Trump admin officials have been sending babies and other young children forcibly separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border to at least three “tender age” shelters in South Texas with another one planned in Houston. Lawyers and medical providers who have visited the shelters described play rooms of crying preschool-age children. Due to the…
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Thursday he opposes the new Trump administration “zero-tolerance” policy of forcibly separating immigrant children from their parents at the border. Ryan said Congress should address the issue with legislation, and a draft of a compromise immigration bill that circulated on Capitol Hill late Thursday would end the practice of…
The U.S. government will open a temporary shelter for unaccompanied immigrant children in far west Texas. There is no more room in the existing facilities for children. This is the direct result of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy on migrants and the resulting separation of families. A spokesman for Health and Human Services said…
Judges cannot consider domestic and gang violence as grounds for asylum, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Monday in a ruling that could affect large numbers of Central Americans who have increasingly turned to the United States for protection, overruling a Board of Immigration Appeals decision in 2016. Sessions took aim at one of five…
Trump was joined at the White House meeting by mayors, sheriffs and other local leaders from Republican California who oppose the state’s immigration policies and who applauded his administration’s hard-line efforts. While engaged in his usual ugly rant against California for its immigration policies, Trump referred to some people who cross the border illegally as…
The Trump administration is moving forward with plans to split up families who cross the border illegally. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will make site visits to four military installations in Texas and Arkansas during the next two weeks to evaluate their suitability for minors under age 18 who arrive at the border…
President Donald Trump unloaded on Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen at a heated cabinet meeting this week, railing against her for failing to stop illegal border crossings because it’s ALL HER FAULT that apprehensions at the border have tripled. Also, it’s her fault the courts keep slapping Trump down. Nielsen tried to explain the issues…
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Monday that The U.S. Department of Homeland Security would refer all arrests for illegal entry to federal prosecutors. A conviction for illegal entry carries a maximum penalty of six months in custody for first-time border-crossers. Nearly one of every four Border Patrol arrests on the Mexican border from October through…
The Supreme Court refused to hear the Department of Justice’s challenge to a lower court ruling on Monday that blocked President Trump’s initiative to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The DOJ’s request asked the Court to jump ahead of the 9th Circuit Appellate Court in reviewing the case in order to expedite…
President Trump urged Republican lawmakers to shut down the government later this week if they can’t tighten immigration laws in an upcoming budget deal. “If we don’t change the legislation, if we don’t get rid of these loopholes where killers are allowed to come into our country and continue to kill … let’s have a…
The Department of Homeland Security has removed Haiti from a list of countries eligible for a program granting U.S. visas to low-skilled workers, Reuters reports. The Trump administration announced the news less than a week after President Trump questioned why the U.S. would want immigrants from Haiti in a meeting where he reportedly called Haiti…
President Trump on Friday denied referring to Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations as “shithole countries” during a bipartisan meeting with senators on Thursday. A Democratic aide told NBC News that lawmakers were in the Oval Office discussing changes to the visa lottery system when talk turned to immigrants from Africa and Trump asked why…
President Trump grew frustrated with lawmakers Thursday in the Oval Office when they floated restoring protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal, according to two people briefed on the meeting. Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here? Trump said, according…
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly called Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke on Monday to pressure her to expel tens of thousands of Honduran immigrants living in the United States, the Washington Post reported. Duke, who at the time was preparing to extend their residency permits, reportedly refused to reverse her decision. “As…
In exchange for letting young undocumented immigrants, dubbed DREAMers, stay in the United States legally, the Trump administration will ask Congress to fund a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and limit federal grants to “sanctuary cities,” The Washington Post reports, citing a document the administration distributed to Congress. White House aides told reporters Sunday that…
Former President Obama is expected to speak on President Trump’s reported decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration program (DACA), a change which would make some 800,000 immigrants who were brought to America illegally as children ineligible to work in the U.S. and eligible for deportation. A source “close to Obama” told…
President Trump will support a bill that aims to reduce legal immigration into the United States by 50 percent, CNN reported Wednesday. Along with Republican Senators David Perdue and Tom Cotton, Trump’s top aides are working to revamp the “outdated” current immigration system, which allows citizens to bring family members to the U.S. with work…
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a nationwide injunction against President Trump’s travel ban on Thursday, saying the executive order “drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination.” Trump’s executive order planned to restrict travel from several predominantly Muslim countries. In particular, the ruling noted that president Trump’s power to deny entry to immigrants, while…
A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked President Trump’s executive order that threatens to cut off federal funding for sanctuary cities that refuse to comply with federal immigration orders by protecting undocumented immigrants. U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco ruled that the plaintiffs, San Francisco and Santa Clara County, would likely be able…
President Donald Trump will sign an executive order Tuesday calling for the end of America’s lottery system for H-1B work visas in favor of a merit-based system, Axios reports. The “Buy American, Hire American” order will look to scrap the existing visa application system, which enters applicants into a lottery for limited number of visas.…
Rep. Steve King (R-IA) on Monday morning refused to say that Muslim Americans are equal to German Americans in their usefulness to society—effectively quadrupling-down on his previous comments that white people have made greater contributions to Western civilization than other “sub-groups.” King appeared on CNN specifically to discuss his Sunday afternoon tweet about a far-right…
President Trump on Monday signed a new version of his immigration executive order, following a federal court’s block last month of the original order he issued Jan. 27. No cameras were present as Trump signed the revised order, which newly excludes Iraq — an ally in the fight against the Islamic State — from the…
The White House has said construction could begin quickly on President Trump’s border wall using “existing funds and resources” from the Department of Homeland Security, but a DHS document says the agency so far has identified just $20 million that could be redirected to the project, Reuters reported Wednesday. The document, which was given to…
Following pressure from the Pentagon and State Department, President Trump’s next executive order on immigration will take Iraq off the list of countries whose citizens are temporarily barred from entering the United States, several U.S. officials told The Associated Press. The officials said that Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen will stay on the…
Border agents detained and questioned the son of the boxing legend Muhammad Ali about his religion when he flew back to the US this month, a family lawyer said. “Where did you get your name from? Are you a Muslim?” they asked the 44-year-old Muhammad Ali Jr, who was born in Philadelphia and is a…
Former President George W. Bush ripped President Donald Trump on his views about the media and immigration on an interview with Matt Lauer on NBC’s TODAY show, Bush said the news media are “indispensable to democracy” and said he is in favor of an immigration policy that is “welcoming and upholds the law.” Trump has…
