Tag: Human migration

“Everybody sees but this is the same sight that Obama had, that Bush had: same sight,” the president said. In fact they said, ‘Look at this sight, look at President Trump, look at this picture.’ Excuse me, it was 2014 and it was President Obama. They won’t vote.” In terms of reunification, I have zero – zero – understanding that anyone has been reunited with their parents Jackie Speier Trump acknowledged that immigration is an election issue. “Our issue is: strong borders, no crime. “Wacky Jacky is campaigning with Pocahontas, you believe this? Democratic members of Congress visited immigration facilities in different parts of the country. Twenty-five Democrats visited children and families at a detention centre near McAllen, Texas. In many cases children too young to speak were taken away from their parents, raising fears that they may never be reunited. In McAllen, Speier told reporters: “In terms of reunification, I have zero – zero – understanding that anyone has been reunited with their parents.” Speier said each immigrant received an alien number from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) when they entered the US, but when children were transferred to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), they were given a different number. How family separations caused Trump's first retreat – and deepened his bunker mentality Read more In Florida on Saturday, the Democratic senator Bill Nelson and four members of the House toured a facility where about 100 immigrant children are being held.

As immigrant organizers laid bare in February 2017 by shutting down businesses nationwide with a “Day Without Immigrants” strike that exposed the inability of restaurants, construction companies and other businesses to function without their immigrant workforce, the US economy would collapse without the labor of the very immigrants that Republican lawmakers are trying to push out of the country. Last year, the Pew Research Center estimated that some 11 percent of workers in restaurants and bars, some 1.3 million people, are undocumented. “In major cities,” labor activist Saru Jayaraman told The Washington Post, “you’re talking about a restaurant workforce that is maybe 75 percent foreign-born, and maybe 30 to 40 percent undocumented. Their position is that current hiring practices are crucial for the survival of the industry, as Americans are not willing to do agricultural work and increasing wages to attract native-born workers would result in significantly higher food prices or a decline in American food production. The issue is not just with undocumented workers. At one point in the process, House Speaker Ryan and Freedom Caucus chairman Rep. Mark Meadows got into a heated nose-to-nose argument over the legislation on the floor of the House chamber. “The talking points,” said Meadows after his tangle with Ryan, “do not match the legislative text.” After a Thursday filled with fuss and feathers, a vote on the second bill was postponed. They are not “taking American jobs.” They are trying not to die, and find themselves ensnared in a long game of profits, prices and politics. To keep profits high and prices low, major US industries like agriculture do not want undocumented workers to have a path to citizenship, as that would require paying them a living wage and even providing benefits like health insurance. “Illegal immigrants are some of the most exploited workers in history,” writes immigration activist Garrett S. Griffin.

You know, in terms of policy reversals, the Trump administration's handling of the issue of separating migrant children from their parents at the border is pretty remarkable. The administration has gone from denying this was a policy at all to insisting it was up to Congress to change it, to President Trump changing the policy himself two days ago. Congress had already punted plans to vote on a compromise immigration bill until next week. Let's bring in NPR White House correspondent Scott Horsley to help us sort through this. HORSLEY: Well, it's certainly not helpful for those trying to pass a bill. It's the Republicans who could pass this bill if they were united - they're not. I mean, you've got these kids who were separated from their parents under the president's policy. GREENE: Well, Scott, I'm also curious about something we learned from the Department of Health and Human Services yesterday, which is the fact that that agency is asking the Pentagon to assess whether it can house up to 20,000 children. HORSLEY: She visited a shelter where young people who are on their own are being housed. GREENE: NPR's Scott Horsley.

To many conservatives, the compromise immigration proposal released this past week by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, is little more than “amnesty.” One tea party group described the Republican plan as “the final betrayal.” Fox Business host Lou Dobbs, who is close to President Donald Trump, tweeted Friday that Ryan is “trying to open our borders even more and give illegal immigrants the biggest amnesty in American history.” The tension threatens to exacerbate the GOP’s political challenges this fall, when their majorities in the House and Senate could be at risk. “The hardcore Trump voter has a different point of view than the ever-important independent voter, and there doesn’t seem to be a middle ground.” The draft legislation, resulting from intense negotiations between moderates and conservatives, includes a path to citizenship for an estimated 1.8 million young immigrants in the country illegally. The plan includes $25 billion for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and other security measures sought by the White House. Republicans had trumpeted Trump’s support for the plan, yet he told reporters early Friday he would not sign it if it reached his desk. “House Republicans are not going to take on immigration without the support and endorsement of President Trump,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-North Carolina., the GOP’s chief deputy vote counter. “We’re studying the proposal,” said Arizona Rep. Martha McSally, who is viewed as the GOP establishment’s favorite in one of the top Senate races. “Congress should focus on border security and stop talking about amnesty as a solution.” In Pennsylvania, Rep. Lou Barletta, the Republican nominee against Democratic Sen. Bob Casey took an equally aggressive approach against his own party’s immigration plan. It’s amnesty.” Barletta said he has compassion for the children caught up in the immigration debate. Barletta said his party should “absolutely” fear a political backlash from its base this fall should Republicans push through the current compromise. In an election year in which Democrats appear to have an advantage on voter enthusiasm, Republicans can ill afford to alienate any voters this fall, particularly their most passionate supporters.

A Republican congressman from Texas who toured a tent-like shelter for hundreds of minors who entered the country illegally said on Saturday the facility is a byproduct of a flawed immigration strategy. Federal authorities are separating children from their parents as families arrive at the border. Hurd said the treatment of minors should not be used as a threatening means to prevent others from entering the US. “This is a symptom of a flawed strategy and in the land of the free and home of the brave we shouldn’t use kids as deterrence,” said Hurd, who represents a vast border district that includes the port of entry. The US Department of Health and Human Services announced earlier in the week that it intended to open the shelter. The port is located about 40 miles south-east of El Paso in an area that is mostly desert and where temperatures routinely approach 100F (37C). The tent-like structures that comprise the shelter have air conditioning. Jeff Sessions accused of political bias in hiring immigration judges Read more The administration’s decision to separate children, combined with the flow of unaccompanied minors attempting to cross the border illegally, has prompted a surge in the number of children in US shelters. A smarter immigration strategy would address root problems such as economic instability and a breakdown in the rule of law in Central America, he said, while noting the need to use advanced technology and manpower to guard the border. “Building a 30ft-high wall is a fourth-century solution to a 21st-century problem,” he said, referring to Trump’s call to build a wall along every mile of border with Mexico.

Welcome to a weekend of tariff talk. Before you get ready to go out—or stay in—let's review the top political stories from today. Trump Wasn't Kidding Trump announced on Friday, June 15, that he was slapping $50 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese imports. In case you're worried about a trade war, Brian Sozzi, executive editor of TheStreet, talked to top executives about what a trade war could mean. This could be the start of a trade war with China. Politico reported that Paul Ryan and other GOP members had described Trump as "excited" for the bill, but we guess that's not the case. I can't take away his cellphone," said Judge Amy Berman Jackson, a federal judge, about Paul Manafort on Friday. The judge said that she had no choice but to jail Manafort after evidence of witness tampering was revealed by Robert Mueller's team. President Trump apparently felt bad for Manafort and said at an impromptu news conference on Friday, Mueller's team "went back 12 years to get things that he did 12 years ago." The special counsel has charged Manafort with a 12-count indictment.

Washington (CNN)The Arizona Republican Party is calling on a Republican state lawmaker to resign after he said that "immigration today represents an existential threat to the United States" and "there aren't enough white kids to go around." David Stringer, a member of the Arizona House of Representatives, can be seen criticizing immigration in a video posted to Twitter on Tuesday that has since gone viral. The video shows him saying, "There aren't enough white kids to go around ... immigration is politically destabilizing ... immigration today represents an existential threat to the United States. If we don't do something about immigration very, very soon the demographics of our country will be irrevocably changed and we will be a very different country." "In light of today's reports detailing Representative David Stringer's comments, I am calling on him to resign immediately," Arizona GOP Chairman Jonathan Lines said. In response to a request for comment, Stringer emailed a statement to CNN accusing his political opponents of attempting to "distort" what he had to say. "My political opponents have taken 51 seconds out of a 16-minute speech to try to distort my message and mislead voters. We recognize the tactic. I'm not interested in taking the fake news bait," he said in the statement. The statement said his remarks touched on a number of issues, "including immigration -- both legal and illegal -- and the challenge of successfully assimilating large numbers of immigrants over a short period of time."

Think back to the height of the migrant crisis three years ago, when EU countries couldn't slam the door on their neighbours fast enough in order to avoid the influx of asylum seekers. Why Italy's Salvini has changed Europe's debate Many migrants don't want to be in Italy at all. And before you dismiss Matteo Salvini as an alt-right, anti-EU troublemaker and admirer-in-chief of President Donald Trump's brash and brutal style of politics (all allegations with quite some truth to them) consider this: It was the centre-left government of normally mild-mannered former Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni that first threatened to close Italy's ports to migrant rescue vessels not licensed by the Italian authorities. Italy coalition: What you should know Italy's economy in charts Mr Gentiloni implored other EU countries to open their doors, to share some of the burden of housing and processing irregular migrant arrivals, integrating migrants with successful asylum claims and arranging the return home of those not eligible to stay in Europe. "Salvini has changed the identity of this enemy over the years, as he moved from regional to national politics. Spain's new prime minister rushed to earn his stripes in Brussels by stepping into the painful stand-off between Italy and Malta over the Aquarius this week with a decision to open up the port at Valencia to the migrants instead. Fast forward three years and - once again without Brussels and outside the EU framework - the interior ministers of Austria (the country that currently holds the rotating EU presidency), Germany and Italy have announced they're forming their own "axis" of co-operation on security and migration. But as a result of Italy's antics this week, European leaders are being spurred into action, or are at least considering it far more seriously. And so it is with irregular migration. In order perhaps to alert the rest of Europe to the crisis - for the ostriches to take their heads out of the sand, as Spain's prime minister has put it - and finally co-ordinate coherent, responsibility-taking pan-European migration policies.

Spain’s foreign minister has described his government’s decision to take in the hundreds of refugees and migrants aboard the Aquarius rescue ship as a “highly symbolic act” intended to jolt Europe out of its “ostrich politics” on the issue of migration. The 629 people, including children and pregnant women, were rescued by the French NGO SOS Méditerranée from waters off the coast of Libya on Saturday, and the Aquarius was caught in a standoff over the weekend in which both Italy and Malta refused to allow it to dock. Spain’s new prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, stepped in on Monday and said the ship would be welcome in the port of Valencia, insisting his country had a duty to help avert “a humanitarian catastrophe”. “This is a shared problem and it has to be treated as a shared problem,” he said. “This is a victory for the people who are on the boat,” he said. “They’re the ones who have won because we don’t know where they’d be without Spain.” He also dismissed suggestions that the move could bring more people across the Mediterranean, saying demographics and economics had already made Europe “a magnet”. Spain rescues hundreds of migrants from Mediterranean Read more MSF applauded Sánchez’s offer of safe harbour but said the priority had to be the immediate disembarkation of the rescued migrants. “However, this would mean already exhausted people rescued at sea would have to endure four more days exposed to the elements on the deck, in an overcrowded boat already well over maximum capacity and in deteriorating weather conditions. The Valencia regional government said it was expecting the migrants to arrive by the end of the week. Italy cannot accept hypocritical lessons from countries that have always preferred to turn their backs when it comes to immigration,” Conte’s office said.

ROME, Italy (AFP) — Spain offered Monday to take in a ship stranded in the Mediterranean with 629 migrants aboard after Italy and Malta refused to let the vessel dock in their ports. The migrants, including pregnant women and scores of children, were saved by the French charity SOS Mediterranee on Saturday. “The prime minister has given instructions for Spain to honor international commitments on humanitarian crises and announced that the country will receive the ship Aquarius,” his office said in a statement. “The priority of both the Italian and Maltese authorities should be ensuring these people receive the care they need,” European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters, calling for a “swift resolution.” Italy’s refusal to take in the migrants is the first sign of the new government’s hardened stance on immigration. Its far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini showed no sign of backing down on Monday. “Saving lives is a duty, turning Italy into a huge refugee camp is not. Italy is done bending over backwards and obeying, this time THERE IS SOMEONE WHO SAYS NO,” he wrote on Twitter followed by the hashtag #closethedoors. ‘Vulnerable patients at risk’ “We haven’t moved since last night, people are starting to wonder why we’ve stopped,” journalist Anelise Borges, who is aboard the Aquarius, said in a tweet. We need to have an idea of what port to go to, something that up to now we haven’t had,” Aquarius crew member Alessandro Porro told news channel Sky TG24 on Sunday. The French organization said those brought on board included 123 unaccompanied minors, 11 small children and the seven pregnant women.