Tomorrow, January 19, is the deadline for either further government funding or shutdown. Congress continues to debate, with new Republican proposals for a one-month funding extension, additional defense funding, continuation of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)—and no DACA. Will Democrats stand strong for DACA?
In an heated exchange with DHS Secretary Kristjen Nielsen, Senator Cory Booker said, “When the Commander-in-chief speaks or refuses to speak, those words just don’t dissipate like mist in the air. They fester. They become poison. The give license to bigotry and hate in our country.” Nielsen said she could not recall what the president had said in last week’s meeting on immigration, and that she had never met a Dreamer.
Also on Tuesday, Republican Senator Lindsay Graham, in a Senate Judiciary Committee circus, characterized the continuing back-and-forth with the White House as a “shit show,” saying:
“Tuesday we had a president that I was proud to golf with, call my friend, who understood immigration had to be bipartisan,” Graham said, adding later: “I don’t know where that guy went, but I want him back.”
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who was an immigration hard-liner last week, “told Democratic lawmakers Wednesday that the United States will never construct a physical wall along the entire stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border and that some of President Trump’s campaign promises on immigration were ‘uninformed.’” Meeting with members of the Hispanic Caucus, Kelly told them Trump was committed to a “permanent solution to DACA.”
FiveThirtyEight predicts that Democrats won’t force a shutdown over DACA, but acknowledges that if they won’t stand firm now, they lose even more leverage:
“This wariness from Senate Democrats about demanding DACA relief as part of a government funding bill raises two important questions: If the Democrats don’t have the votes this week to sustain a shutdown over DACA, even amid the controversy over Trump’s racist comments at a White House meeting, will they ever? And if blocking government funding over DACA is not actually a realistic strategy for Democrats, as it appears, does that severely weaken their ability to get an immigration bill adopted that reflects their policy preferences?”
CNN points to electoral politics as weakening Democratic support for DACA:
“They must defend 10 Senate seats in states won by Trump two years ago, in many cases by wide margins over Clinton. That means incumbent Democrats in need independent and moderate Republican voters wary of the party line on DACA….
“Democrats in this position include Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Claire McCaskill in Missouri and Jon Tester in Montana.”
Meanwhile, Quartz reports that top Department of Homeland Security Homeland Security officials “have been barred from speaking to members of Congress in recent days, potentially limiting the information lawmakers can get…”
Deporting immigration activists
NYC Immigration Activist Jean Montrevil Speaks Out After Deportation: ‘My Heart Is Broken’ ((Democracy Now, 1/17/18) On January 16, Jean Montrevil was deported, despite his still-pending appeal in court.
“On Tuesday, yesterday, immigrant rights leader Jean Montrevil was deported to Haiti after residing in the United States for over three decades. He came to the U.S. from Haiti with a green card in 1986 at the age of 17. During the height of the crack epidemic, he was convicted of possession of cocaine and sentenced to 11 years in prison. He served that time. Upon his release, he married a U.S. citizen, had four children, became a successful small businessman, as well as an immigrant rights activist. He has had no further interaction with the criminal justice system.”
Is ICE Targeting Immigration Activists? (Democracy Now, 1/17/18) Ravi Ragbir, an immigration rights activist, was detained without warning and is set for deportation. Democracy Now talks to his wife, Amy Gottlieb. Other immigrant activist interviews come from Colorado and Seattle.
“Ravi legally immigrated to the U.S. from Trinidad and Tobago more than a quarter of a century ago, but a 2001 wire fraud conviction made his green card subject to review. Even though he’s married to a U.S. citizen and has a U.S.-born daughter, the government refused to normalize his status.
“AMY GOTTLIEB: You know, as an immigrant rights activist for more than 20 years, like I’ve known this, abstractly. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen families suffer. I’ve fought against the system of immigration detention. But to see my husband like snatched away from me and disappeared for—you know, I actually had no idea where he was. I heard from him Friday morning at 6 a.m.
“AMY GOODMAN: And you’re an immigrants’ rights lawyer.
“AMY GOTTLIEB: That’s right. So I know the system. But still, to have my husband disappeared, to have ICE not communicating with the lawyer or me to tell us where he is—they actually, on Friday, took him in a van outside of the Krome Detention Center. He didn’t know where he was going. I had no idea where he was all day Friday also. And when I finally went down to see him, you know, fly to Miami to see
On the border
U.S. border patrol routinely sabotages water left for migrants, report says (The Guardian, 1/17/18) The vandalism has continued throughout the years since the Clinton administration.
“Volunteers found water gallons vandalised 415 times, on average twice a week, in an 800 sq mile patch of Sonoran desert south-west of Tucson, from March 2012 to December 2015, the report said. The damage affected 3,586 gallons.
“The report also accused border patrol agents of vandalising food and blankets and harassing volunteers in the field….
“The practice of destruction of and interference with aid is not the deviant behavior of a few rogue border patrol agents, it is a systemic feature of enforcement practices in the borderlands.”
Immigration news 