Latest news with #immigrationrights
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
5 questions with legendary Akron climate, immigration, justice activist Rev. John Beaty
If there's ever a protest in Akron with just one man, that man would probably be the Rev. John Beaty. Beaty, an 86-year-old retired United Methodist minister, can often be found speaking at a city council meeting or standing on a street corner with a sign, always for causes like racial justice, immigration rights or climate change. Beaty volunteers with Akron Interfaith Immigration Advocates, a local organization that welcomes newcomers to the area and helps them settle into life in the United States and in Akron. Beaty and his wife have become near family members to many of the immigrants they have helped, often watching their children, helping with immigration appointments or offering transportation. Beaty lives in Northwest Akron, in a home with a hot pink "RESIST" banner in the window and several signs out front welcoming anyone, regardless of where they come from. Beaty has made a life's work out of service. Born in Indianapolis, Beaty bounced around the country, including time in East Harlem, New York, and East St. Louis. He and his wife Linda moved to Akron in 2000, just after his retirement. They have four kids together, including three they adopted. Beaty recently answered five questions with the Beacon Journal about his service, how he approaches people new to the country, and why his neighborhood gives him hope. This interview has been edited for clarity. I would say my mother. One of the things that sticks in my mind that she said: "We will have peace when we all intermarry and we're all brown." That was one thing, but she was a truly committed Christian, but a fundamentalist, and when I went to college, what I was learning about science and so forth, I realized that I could not believe the way my mother did. But I remained committed to my my savior, Jesus, as much as she did. The cause that I feel motivated (by) now in our situation today is the immigrants. Our present president has decided that this is the way he can ride prejudice against immigrants to power. And I truly believe that our president is a fascist. I try to listen more than talk. (I say,) "You're welcome. Welcome. You are so welcome. Wherever you're from, we're glad you're here." We (recently) went to three protests. (One at the statehouse in Columbus on immigration) was so diverse, so well, so compassionate for old folks like Linda and me. What gives me hope is the diversity, the neighborliness, the compassion, the understanding between folks. This neighborhood gives me hope because we've lived here 25 years. And we've seen it change from a basically mono-all-white neighborhood to such a diverse, marvelously diverse neighborhood. And it's irreversible. No would-be dictator would be able to reverse the change in this neighborhood. Contact reporter Jennifer Pignolet at jpignolet@ at 330-996-3216 or on Twitter @JenPignolet. This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: 5 questions with Akron's justice activist Rev. John Beaty
CBS News
05-07-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
U.S. deports men from Asia and Latin America with criminal records to South Sudan after legal saga
The Trump administration said it deported a group of eight men convicted of serious crimes in the United States to the conflict-ridden African country of South Sudan, following a weeks-long legal saga that had kept the deportees in a military base in Djibouti for weeks. Assistant Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the deportation flight carrying the deportees landed in South Sudan just before midnight EST on Friday. A photo provided by the department showed the deportees, with their hands and feet shackled, sitting inside an aircraft, guarded by U.S. service members. Eight men from Asia and Latin America were deported from the United States to South Sudan after a weeks-long legal fight. U.S. Department of Homeland Security The deportations to South Sudan — a country plagued by armed conflict and political instability that the U.S. government warns Americans not to visit — mark an unprecedented new frontier in President Trump's government-wide crackdown on illegal immigration. None of the deportees is from South Sudan. They hail from Cuba, Mexico, Laos, Myanmar, Sudan and Vietnam, and were ordered deported from the U.S. after being convicted of crimes, including murder, homicide, sexual assault, lascivious acts with a child and robbery. The high-profile legal battle over the fate of the men culminated when two federal judges on Friday denied a last-ditch attempt by immigration rights advocates to halt the deportations, saying their hands were tied by recent orders from the U.S. Supreme Court. The deportations signify a major political victory for the Trump administration, which has sought to convince countries around the world — irrespective of their human rights record — to accept deportees who are not their citizens, including those convicted of serious crimes. "A district judge cannot dictate the national security and foreign policy of the United States of America," said McLaughlin, the DHS spokeswoman. "This Independence Day marks another victory for the safety and security of the American people." The deportations have also alarmed human rights advocates, who fear the men could face jail time, torture or other harms in South Sudan. They've argued the deportations to South Sudan are designed to punish the men for their crimes, even though they have already served criminal sentences in the U.S. "The U.S. State Department warns Americans against all travel to South Sudan, yet deported these men there without any due process," said Trina Realmuto, an attorney for the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, which tried to halt the deportations. "Make no mistake about it, these deportations were punitive and unconstitutional." It's unclear exactly how the deportees will be treated in South Sudan. A Justice Department attorney told a federal judge Friday that South Sudan informed the U.S. it would offer the men a temporary immigration status, but the lawyer could not confirm whether they would be detained. The Trump administration has said in court filings that South Sudanese officials have made assurances that the deportees will not face torture. The men's deportation was made possible by a Supreme Court order earlier this week. At the request of the Trump administration, the Supreme Court on Thursday clarified the scope of an earlier order it had issued to pause a lower court ruling barring deportations to third-party countries without a degree of due process and notice. That April lower court ruling by U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Massachusetts had required the Trump administration to give detainees sufficient notice and a chance to be interviewed by a U.S. asylum officer before any deportation to a country where they did not hail from. That case thwarted several deportation efforts, including a plan to send detainees to Libya. When he learned of the administration's plan to deport the eight men to South Sudan in May, Murphy blocked that effort, mandating the U.S. to retain custody of the detainees and to offer them a chance to contest their deportation. The administration transferred the detainees to the Camp Lemonnier naval base in Djibouti, where U.S. officials described dangerous conditions, including concerns about malaria, rocket attacks, inadequate security protocols and triple-digit outdoor temperatures. But the Supreme Court last month suspended Murphy's ruling from April. And on Thursday, it said Murphy could no longer require the government to allow the detainees in Djibouti to contest their deportation, since the order underpinning that requirement had been paused. Hours later, immigrant rights advocates asked a different federal judge, Randolph Moss in Washington, D.C., to halt the deportations to South Sudan. He did so on Friday, but only briefly before saying the request should be handled by Murphy. Moss expressed concern about risks to the men's "physical safety" and said the U.S. government should not be in the business of inflicting "pain and suffering" on people who have already served their sentence, even for "terrible crimes." But he said his hands were tied, telling the advocates they needed to ask Murphy for any intervention. Later on Friday, Murphy denied the advocates' request, saying the Supreme Court orders were "binding."
The Guardian
27-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Florida plan for ‘Alligator Alcatraz' migrant jail sparks chorus of outrage
Environmental groups, immigration rights activists and a Native American tribe have decried the construction of a harsh outdoor migrant detention camp in the Florida Everglades billed by state officials as 'Alligator Alcatraz'. Crews began preparing the facility at a remote, largely disused training airfield this week in support of the Trump administration's aggressive goal of arresting and incarcerating 3,000 undocumented migrants every day. It is among a number of controversial new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) jails appearing around the country as the number of detentions by the agency surges dramatically. Florida officials say the Everglades camp, which has been criticized by the Democratic congressman Maxwell Frost as 'a cruel spectacle', will open in the first week of July – a month in which south Florida's daily heat index regularly exceeds 100F (37.8C). Paid for by Florida taxpayers and homeland security department funds, the project came about after the state seized the 39-square-mile site from its owners, Miami-Dade county, under emergency powers enacted by the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis. It now faces staunch opposition from an alliance of groups. These groups say housing up to 5,000 detainees in tents in the heat and humidity of the Florida summer, at a site surrounded by marshes and wetlands containing alligators, Burmese pythons and swarms of mosquitoes, amounts to inhumane treatment. James Uthmeier, the state's hard-right attorney general, laughed off the criticism. 'We believe in the swamp down here in Florida. We are swamp creatures,' he told the conservative podcast host Benny Johnson in a reveal of the scheme on Monday that bordered on mockery. 'There's no way in and no way out. The perimeter's already set by Mother Nature. People get out, there's not much waiting for them other than pythons and alligators.' The airfield's 11,000ft runway, he said, was perfect for large planes bringing in scores of undocumented persons detained by Ice from all over the US. 'There's a lot of low-hanging fruit,' said Uthmeier, who was held in civil contempt by a federal judge this month for continuing to enforce a state immigration law she blocked. The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians condemned the use of its ancestral lands in the Big Cypress national preserve for detention purposes, citing parallels with the government's mass roundup and forced removal of Native Americans in the 19th century. 'The state would save substantial taxpayer dollars by pursuing its goals at a different location with more existing infrastructure and less environmental and cultural impacts to the Big Cypress and Tribal lands,' Talbert Cypress, chair of the Miccosukee Tribe, said in a statement posted to social media. Environmental fears have been raised by, among others, the Friends of the Everglades group, and the mayor of Miami-Dade, Daniella Levine Cava, who sent the Guardian a statement detailing her 'significant concerns about the scope and scale of the state's effort'. She said the project would have a 'potentially devastating impact to the Everglades', and noted that the state and federal government had invested billions of dollars in Everglades restoration efforts, some of which she fears could now be undone. 'We continue to have concerns about how a facility at this scale can operate without impacts to the surrounding ecosystem,' she said. Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, said the site was found unsuitable for development in the 1960s, when ambitious plans to make it a six-runway Everglades jetport with monorail service ferrying tourists to Florida's east and west coasts, was thwarted by environmental activism. 'All the reasons this was terrible back then still exist today,' she said. 'These are really valuable and protected Everglades wetlands, and if we move forward with a thousand-bed prison detention facility, whether it's temporary or not, there will be impacts from ancillary development, water and sewer impacts, water supply needs, traffic impacts. Those impacts were analyzed a half-century ago, and we know that they would be negative. 'Combined with the assault on Florida state parks last summer, and the rock mine proposal that we're currently fighting in the Everglades, it suggests the DeSantis administration is out of touch with what Floridians want, which is to protect the Everglades and our last remaining green spaces.' Neither the Florida department of emergency management, which is managing construction of the camp, nor Uthmeier's office responded to requests for comment. Immigration advocates, meanwhile, say the Everglades camp represents a sinister ramping up of the DeSantis's already vigorous endorsement of Donald Trump's agenda. The Tampa Bay Times reported on Wednesday that a second new detention facility, at the Florida national guard's Camp Blanding training center west of Jacksonville, was in the works. 'He just always has to throw red meat to his base, always has to generate controversy and polarization,' said Thomas Kennedy, spokesperson for the Florida Immigrant Coalition. 'So obviously, they pick the most controversial site possible, right in the Everglades, using language like the alligators and the snakes, making it seem like it's going to be like a medieval castle with a moat. 'There's no adequate running water or plumbing facilities. Uthmeier is out there saying we don't need to build brick and mortar because we'll just throw some tents up in the middle of the swamp, in July, in hurricane season, with the heat, no proper infrastructure and the mosquitoes. 'It's designed to enact suffering.' Frost, in a statement, called Uthmeier 'a Trump sycophant', and said the Everglades project was 'disgusting'. 'Donald Trump, his administration, and his enablers have made one thing brutally clear: they intend to use the power of government to kidnap, brutalize, starve, and harm every single immigrant they can,' he said. 'They target migrants, rip families apart, and subject people to conditions that amount to physical and psychological torture. Now, they want to erect tents in the blazing Everglades sun and call it immigration enforcement. They don't care if people live or die; they only care about cruelty and spectacle.'
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
"Here's Everything We're Gonna Do If We Get Arrested By ICE": This Immigration Attorney's Tips Are A Must-Read For All Americans
Earlier this month, President Trump ordered ICE to increase arrests of undocumented people in the US from 1,000 a day to 3,000, and since then, the agency's tactics have drawn increasing criticism and protest. With reports that ICE has in some cases arrested legal residents and citizens, including New York City comptroller Brad Lander, it's so important for all of us to know our rights, just in case. That's where New York-based immigration attorney Michael Foote comes in. Foote has been practicing immigration law for 7 years, and he recently took to TikTok to share some tips for what to do if you find yourself getting arrested by ICE. In the video, which has been viewed over 3.4 million times, he begins by saying, "Here's everything we're gonna do if we get arrested by ICE," and then lays out 4 key steps to remember. he says, after you're arrested, you'll be taken to the nearest detention center to be booked and processed. When you're there, Foote says, "Do not ever sign a document that anyone gives you unless it was given to you by your immigration attorney. That's the only person you are signing documents for." On a call with BuzzFeed, Foote explained why it's so important not to sign anything without your attorney. "Detention officers, ICE officers are allowed to trick people. There is no protection from ICE officers using persuasion, taking advantage of the fact that you don't speak English. So you really want to make sure you're not signing anything. If you are forced to sign something, there's very much a strong legal case of coercion entering a deportation order under duress or coercion. But unfortunately, that suit will probably be fought after you're deported." Foote wants you to know that you have the right to a hearing before an immigration judge. "You have a day in court," he says. "You have due process rights." The right to due process is essentially the right to a hearing and to be treated fairly under the law. Foote explained to BuzzFeed that although immigration court is not the same as criminal court, immigrants are still entitled to due process under the Fifth Amendment. Related: Donald Trump Supporters Are Waking Up To The Reality Of Their Ballot Choices, And The Stories Are A Loooooot you meet the judge, Foote goes on to say, "You're going to ask the judge for a list of pro bono, free attorneys in the area, and guess what? That's it. You're not going to say anything else to that judge. They can ask your name, they can ask your address. That's fine. But anything after that, you say, I really would prefer to discuss this with an attorney present." Foote told BuzzFeed, "In immigration court, you have the right to consult an attorney, but you don't automatically get one the way that, when you're arrested for a criminal act, you get Mirandized, and then the second you show up for your arraignment, there's a public defender there. You just don't get those same rights." So it's vital to know that you have to ask for representation in immigration court. He also explained why you don't need to say much else to the judge. "That judge is a neutral third party. They're separate from you and your rights, and you and your attorney. So I feel like when people go in front of a judge, they're often like, I have to do whatever the judge says. It's like, that's actually not true. Sometimes judges are going to be looking out for completely opposite interests, or they're looking to clear a docket, or we just don't know what their motivations are. They are supposed to be third-party arbiters of a case, but they're not always going to have the same interests; they're not there to look out for your rights. That's your lawyer's job." Related: "He Torched His Entire Reputation For Nothing": 27 Of The Best Political Tweets From This Messy, Messy Week for the last step, he advises you to memorize an emergency contact's phone number today so you can make a call while you're in detention. "You're going to memorize someone's phone number right now, someone you trust who you know is going to answer the phone. That's all you need to know how to do by yourself, because after that, you're going to have an immigration lawyer. You're going to contact your emergency contact." Foote told BuzzFeed, "Definitely be careful what you say on the phone. Lines are recorded if you're calling from a detention center. So don't say, 'Hey, this was that crime I committed, and this is how I ended up getting in this detention center.' You just want to say, 'Hey, I was picked up by ICE. I'm now being held here. Please help me out.'" He went on to say, "Even if you don't have someone's phone number memorized, or you don't know who to contact, these detention centers have been in existence for quite some time, so there are a lot of nonprofits that are quite literally next door, or sometimes even attached to the detention center. Those nonprofits are great resources to help get you a lawyer or in contact with your family. They've been doing this for, decades, so they're able to really help. They're no strangers to a crisis, and I lean on them all the time." Foote says these 4 steps apply whether you're undocumented, a legal resident, or a citizen, but if you have legal status, he says you should make that known at every step of the way. "You definitely want to let everyone and anyone at the ICE facility, your detention officer, the people who are arresting you, know that you are a citizen and provide those documents as quickly as possible, like a US passport, birth certificate, something like that, that is evidence." You can watch his full video here: @michael_foote_ / Via Plus, here's a Spanish-language translation of Foote's video, and you can find more Spanish-language resources about immigrant rights at the National Immigration Law Center. @theabogada / Via In the comments, people also mentioned asking for a credible fear interview. Foote told BuzzFeed, "Credible fear interviews are conducted immediately after someone crosses the border without documentation, before they see an immigration judge. It is supposed to be a short series of questions to determine if someone qualifies for asylum; however, the person deciding the outcome of a CFI is the asylum officer conducting the interview. That person works for DHS and USCIS. They are not a neutral third-party arbiter like an immigration judge. So, anyone being asked to talk to an asylum officer in a CFI should request to have an attorney present, then ask for a list of pro bono attorneys in the area of the detention center, and say nothing to an asylum officer until they have an attorney present." Finally, Foote shared his perspective on the Trump administration's immigration tactics. He told BuzzFeed, "The US does not have the capacity or the resources to do on such a large scale what they want us to believe they're capable of doing. So I think that they are being very subversive in the information that they're letting out. They'll deport someone who's a citizen. It'll dominate headlines. They'll deport someone who has a green card, it'll dominate headlines." "The immigrant community is very much a word-of-mouth community, so once you sort of get a message out there that really bad, crazy things are happening, it very much spreads. But if you look at it, we haven't built a wall, we haven't taken major immigration legislative reforms, even though the conservatives have the House and Senate." He says that the situation is far more nuanced than what people may be seeing on social media, and the system is not as broken as it may seem. He summed it up, saying, "Immigration judges understand the law and how it's applied and when it's being violated. So, I'm having plenty of wins in front of immigration judges who understand that ICE is violating well-established constitutional law." Also in In the News: "Honestly Speechless At How Evil This Is": 26 Brutal, Brutal, Brutal Political Tweets Of The Week Also in In the News: Trump Had A Middle-Of-The-Night Meltdown About... Well... So Many Things Also in In the News: A Clip Of Donald Trump Getting Angry After Being Fact-Checked Is Going Mega Viral, And It Sums Up His Entire Presidency In A Nutshell
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Who are these people?' Masked immigration agents challenge local police, sow fear in L.A.
Increasingly aggressive immigration raids carried out by masked federal agents, sometimes using unmarked vehicles, are creating problems for local law enforcement agencies. Police have little or no insight into where the federal enforcement actions are taking place but often have to deal with the aftermath, including protests and questions from residents about what exactly happened. In some cases, local cops have been mistaken for federal agents, eroding years of work to have immigrant communities trust the police. In Bell, chaos erupted when masked men arrived at a car wash and began detaining its workers, sparking a confrontation with residents and immigration rights advocates before they were forced to hastily drive over curbs and street islands to escape. In Pasadena last week, a man stepped out of his unmarked vehicle at an intersection, unholstered his pistol and aimed it at a group of pedestrians before returning to his car, turning on its red and blue emergency lights and speeding off. Video of the incident went viral. That incident left the police chief of Pasadena resigned to figure out whether it was a crime or part of a federal raid. "There's no way for us to verify," Police Chief Gene Harris said. The department reviewed surveillance footage and other video and saw the credentials on the man's uniform, according to the chief. "We were able to determine that to the best of our estimation he was an ICE agent. ... We will not look into it any deeper than that," he said. Read more: Feds vow to continue immigration enforcement 'every day in L.A.' Here are your rights At Dodger Stadium last week, immigration agents staged outside the parking lot prompted protests and questions that local officials had to address. "They show up without uniforms. They show up completely masked. They refuse to give ID," Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said during a news briefing after the Dodger Stadium incident. "Who are these people? And frankly, the vests that they have on look like they ordered them from Amazon. Are they bounty hunters? Are they vigilantes? If they're federal officials, why is it that they do not identify themselves?" Ed Obayashi, a Northern California deputy and use-of-force expert, said federal agents enjoy great autonomy and "can do what they want in their official capacity." "If they point a gun or take someone in, local police cannot step in and interfere regardless of the circumstances," Obayashi said. He said that federal agencies have extensive use-of-force policies on drawing weapons but that, ultimately, if the overall directive is to take this action, then the guidelines don't matter. "If Homeland Security says this is what we want, the policy guidelines when it comes to gun and force doesn't matter," he added. "There is little redress against federal law enforcement in the civil courts compared to local police." Federal agents are not subject to the same statues as local police, namely Section 1983 claims that allow people to sue certain government agencies and employees for violating their civil rights. "The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly shielded federal agents from legal repercussions," Obayashi said. The incidents at Dodger Stadium, in Bell and in Pasadena unfolded more than two weeks after masked immigration agents descended on the region carrying out a wave of immigration sweeps in predominately Latino communities. Residents are on edge as masked men are appearing and detaining their friends, relatives and neighbors without any clear sign they are part of federal immigration enforcement and refuse to show identification or a warrant. The Pasadena incident showed how social media can amplify an incident and highlight the lack of response from local officials. In a video posted to Instagram from Pasadena, a suspected federal agent is seen exiting a Dodge Charger at an intersection and pointing his gun at members of the public. In the video, a person walks up to the back of the Dodge Charger and appears to take a photo of the license plate. That's when the driver gets out of the vehicle and points a gun at the person who was behind the vehicle, then toward another person outside of the video frame. The word "Police" is visible on the driver's vest, along with a badge on his hip. After a few seconds, the man puts the gun away and gets back into the car as bystanders shout at him. The man then activates the vehicle's red and blue lights common to law enforcement vehicles and drives away. Citizens shared the vehicle's license plate on social media, which led to more questions than answers. According to Pasadena officials, the vehicle's license plate is a "cold plate," or untraceable, which is typically used by law enforcement in undercover criminal operations. "One question is this a law enforcement agent or someone pretending to be a law enforcement agent, and there is no good answer here," Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo told The Times. "[To] have a law enforcement agent draw his weapon and point it toward someone using their iPhone, and a crowd, is showing a lack of training and a lack of temperance in the use of force." He's still hopeful that the federal government will acknowledge the incident and provide some clarity. As more immigration sweeps happen, Gordo is worried that there could be an accidental shooting or that police could end up caught in the middle if unidentified federal agents are pulling out their guns in public. Previous administrations informed the city of enforcement actions to avoid accidental confrontations between law enforcement, according to Gordo. "Our police need to be aware of undercover or unmarked law enforcement operations. These operations are endangering everyone in our neighborhoods," he said. If citizens do encounter a matter where it appears that someone is impersonating law enforcement, they should call 911, Harris said. But local police will not interfere with federal activities, he said. "I understand the lingering fear in the community," Harris said. "I would tell [citizens] to defer to their own feelings, understand what's going on around them." He added that federal immigration activities in Pasadena have not impeded local police efforts or response times. There have been no arrests, property damage or violence related to protests against the immigration sweeps in Pasadena, officials said. About an hour's drive inland in Fontana, the lack of clarity is making work harder for local police who have been mistaken for federal immigration agents. Officers investigating a recent burglary were mistaken for federal immigration agents over social media, Fontana Police Sgt. Nathan Weiske said. In another instance, undercover officers were confronted by protesters who thought they were conducting surveillance for an immigration sweep. "It is not safe for our officers, or for others involved in any active police operations if misrepresentations or misunderstandings lead to inappropriate engagement," Fontana Police Chief Michael Dorsey said in a Facebook post. In some parts of the Southland, the response to the immigration raids can be swift and fierce. In Bell, masked men in fatigues detained at least three people at a car wash, drawing a large protest. Dozens of people swarmed the area and shouted at the agents, 'Are you a bounty hunter? How much is the bounty for an illegal right now?' questioning their identities. Video showed the men, wearing fatigues and balaclavas and carrying long weapons, fire tear gas to disperse the crowd so they could leave. The Department of Homeland Security said Border Patrol vehicles were damaged during the incident. Huntington Park Mayor Arturo Flores calls the federal government's presence in the region "political theater" meant to antagonize the Latino population. Flores plans to introduce a motion to the City Council that will direct local police to ask federal agents to identify themselves if they attempt to carry out an immigration operation in the city. "What happens if you have bad actors who decide to throw on an olive drab outfit and go around abducting people?" Flores told The Times. "I would not ask our officers to interfere with federal matters. But we have to be prepared to hold these agencies accountable for their actions. There's a tragedy waiting to happen." Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
