NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

A new report

from the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General reveals the
extent to which then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions pushed for the Trump
administration's "zero-tolerance" family separation policy in
2018, The Washington Post
's
Nick Miroff and Matt Zapotosky report.

The report reveals that Sessions and other officials understood the
policy would separate families and their children at the border -
traumatizing families and overwhelming immigration courts - but
proceeded anyway. The findings "provide new details about Sessions's
lead role in pushing for the crackdown, despite numerous red flags,"
they write.

"Once the policy was underway, Sessions at one point told U.S. attorneys
along the border that 'we need to take children away,' according to
the report, even as the Trump administration publicly claimed that it
did not have a policy that called for separating families."

The ACLU estimates that more than 5,000 children have been separated
from their families under the Trump administration. To date, attorneys
representing the families separated under "zero-tolerance" have been
unable to contact

more than 500 parents to reunite them with their children, Miroff and
Zapotosky add.

TGITLF (Thank goodness it's Trump's last Friday).

See a local story we should include? Send it my way at
[email protected] . 

[link removed]

**VACCINATIONS -**Earlier this year, I read Laura Spinney's book,
"Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World
."
So I was thrilled to see her op-ed in The Guardian

raising the flag that the Trump administration's "public charge
"
rule was creating "fear and confusion" among immigrant communities,
meaning they are "seeking out [testing and vaccination] services later
than those from communities whose resident status is more likely to be
assured - if they are seeking them out at all." In contrast to the
situation in the U.S., Jordan offers an example of how to do this
differently. UNHCR

reports: "As part of Jordan's national COVID-19 vaccination plan,
which commenced this week, anyone living in the country, including
refugees and asylum seekers, is entitled to receive the vaccine free of
charge."

**BACKYARD WALL**-

****For some Texans, the debate around Trump's signature border wall
has literally shown up in their backyards, Ted Oberg of ABC13

in Houston reports. The federal government filed 14 lawsuits in November
to seize land for the wall and another 26 in December. Nayda Alvarez,
who belongs to one of 208 Texas families fighting an attempted federal
land seizure in court, said the proposed construction through her
backyard would leave her "with nothing." Speaking of the wall: In an
op-ed for USA Today
,
Laura Carlsen of the Americas Policy Program think tank in Mexico City
reflects on President Trump's border visit last week, concluding that
the wall has "already cost the nation far too much - in resources,
division and human lives. The country faces a health security threat
that requires prioritizing resources to save lives. An immediate halt to
the corruption, waste and deception of the border wall is a welcome and
necessary step to a safer nation." 

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**10-POINT PLAN -**A coalition of more than 30 public defender
organizations from 14 states is proposing a 10-point immigration policy
plan to reverse the Trump administration's "unjust, harmful, and
destructive tactics," reports Chris Van Buskirk of WWLP 22 News
.
Among the proposals: redirecting funding from U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE), ending immigration detention, a one-year
moratorium on deportations, and establishing a federally funded legal
representation program for immigrants facing removal. "It will take time
to ensure basic fairness in our laws, and to undo [the Trump
administration's] devastatingly strict legal changes. Families should
not be torn apart while the Biden Administration works to pick up the
pieces from these scorched earth policies." Van Buskirk notes that the
coalition has met with President-elect Biden's transition advisors and
received "very positive feedback."

**100 YEARS AGO**-

****A feature piece in Smithsonian Magazine

by Ross Benes covers the story of Robert Meyer, a teacher who fought for
the rights to teach and speak German for his students in Nebraska amid
nativist attacks on immigration in the wake of World War I. In 1920,
Benes notes, Nebraska had the largest population of German immigrants
- but a new state law prohibited the instruction of any foreign
language to students who had not passed the eighth grade. Meyer, who was
convicted and fined a month's salary for continuing to teach German,
ultimately brought his case before the Supreme Court. The resulting
ruling in

**Meyer v. State of Nebraska** set a precedent for the legal right to
privacy and reaffirmed the rights of immigrant communities amid a period
of xenophobia.

Thanks for reading,

Ali

 

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