Today's Liberal News

Gabe Ortiz

‘Under no circumstances is this legal’: Cuccinelli’s attempt to delay Biden changes gets ridiculed

The Trump administration has signed agreements with Arizona, Louisiana, Indiana, and one lone sheriff’s office in North Carolina that state any future immigration changes made by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) first have to be run by the localities before the federal government can act, BuzzFeed News reports. If that sounds like a bunch of bull to you, you’re not wrong.

Citing DHS secretary’s unlawful appointment, court blocks changes further gutting asylum system

A federal judge on Friday blocked the recently finalized Trump administration rules that advocates have previously said “all but gut” the U.S. asylum system, ruling that unlawfully appointed acting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Chad Wolf lacked the authority to implement the anti-asylum changes that were set to go into effect just days before President-elect Biden’s inauguration.

Border Patrol marks Christmas by again harassing humanitarian group saving lives at border

Border Patrol yet again targeted the humanitarian group that provides lifesaving aid to migrants in the desert along the southern border, No More Deaths said in a statement received by Daily Kos. The humanitarian medical group, which provides water and other help to migrants in crisis, said that border agents on horseback surrounded the camp on the day before Christmas Eve to harass volunteers and tell them that they were obtaining a warrant to again raid the medical camp.

Liberian immigrants facing difficulty applying for legal status due to Trump admin win extension

Thousands of Liberian immigrants who are otherwise eligible to apply for permanent status in the U.S. through a law passed last year but faced immense difficulties largely due to intentional sabotaging by the Trump administration will now have one more year to complete the application process.

“Tucked inside the $900 billion spending deal passed by Congress on Dec. 21, 2020 and signed by the president on Dec.

Liberian immigrants eligible for legal status facing intentional ‘roadblocks’ set up by Trump admin

A new law last year allowing thousands of Liberian immigrants who faced separation following loss of their temporary protections to apply for green cards should have brought some much-needed relief. Should have. Instead, ProPublica reports that the Trump administration has largely undermined the application process, leaving advocates “surprised by how many hoops immigrants were being asked to jump through” as the deadline to apply quickly approaches.

Liberian immigrants eligible for legal status facing intentional ‘roadblocks’ set up by Trump admin

A new law last year allowing thousands of Liberian immigrants who faced separation following loss of their temporary protections to apply for green cards should have brought some much-needed relief. Should have. Instead, ProPublica reports that the Trump administration has largely undermined the application process, leaving advocates “surprised by how many hoops immigrants were being asked to jump through” as the deadline to apply quickly approaches.

Asylum-seeking families still jailed by ICE face double threats of virus, deportation

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has had every power and ability to release detained immigrants—including parents and their children—amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, but the government agency has refused. Inside one migrant family jail in Texas, like at other adult detention camps across the U.S., it has continued to result in the inevitable (and preventable): outbreaks.

Acting ICE director to retire this month. If he feels better thinking it’s his choice, sure

Tony Pham, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the soon-to-be-ending Trump administration, is reportedly set to resign from the agency by the end of the year. If he feels better thinking it’s somehow his decision, sure, whatever, adiós. What’s for sure is that Pham was a complete disgrace during his handful of months in the unconfirmed acting position.

‘Stay tuned to us’: California radio providing Indigenous farmworkers with vital pandemic knowledge

The solution to reaching Indigenous farm workers in the U.S. who are unable to fully access novel coronavirus pandemic information due to language barrier issues may start as simply as turning on the radio. 

CNN reports that a pair of radio hosts in California have used their show to help educate Indigenous migrants who make up part of the state’s farmworkers about the pandemic. Radio Indígena 94.

‘I am proud to be bilingual’: US-born Latinas detained by CBP after speaking Spanish settle lawsuit

Two U.S.-born Latinas who were racially profiled, harassed, and unlawfully detained by an out-of-control Customs and Border Protection agent for speaking Spanish while shopping at a Montana convenience store in 2018 have reached a settlement in their lawsuit against the Trump administration, legal advocacy groups announced.

The settlement includes an undisclosed monetary sum, advocates said.

‘Putting their lives at risk’: Coalition urges farmworkers be prioritized for COVID-19 vaccine

The Desert Sun reports that as essential workers, farmworkers will likely have earlier access than most of the public to the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available for distribution. However, a coalition of California farmworker and health advocacy groups including the UFW Foundation (UFWF) say that farmworkers should be prioritized for vaccination at the same time as healthcare workers, who’ll likely be first.

Resettlement agencies say Biden pledge to raise refugee admissions ‘offers hope’

Agencies that have typically worked with the federal government to resettle refugees in the U.S. have welcomed the pledge from President-elect Joe Biden to raise admissions to 125,000 annually. I wrote “typically worked” because the outgoing administration has decimated the resettlement program, reducing admissions to record lows and leading to the closure of some agencies.

ICE is again trying to deport Georgia gynecologist’s victims amid investigation

Ana Cajigal Adan was given just a couple days reprieve before federal immigration officials again tried to deport her. Vice News reported earlier this month that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was set to deport Adan, one of the immigrants who may serve as a key witness in the abuses allegedly carried out by a notorious Georgia gynecologist, until a Democratic legislator stepped in.

U.S. border officials tried to cover up unlawful detention of Iranian Americans, documents reveal

Internal documents released in litigation against Customs and Border Protection (CBP) following the detention of U.S. citizens and permanent residents of Iranian descent at the U.S.-Canadian border earlier this year reveal that officials not only detained far more people than previously known, they actively misled the public in an effort to cover up their unlawful and discriminatory actions.

With undocumented immigrants essential amid pandemic, advocates push for driver’s license access

Many immigrants have already been essential workers—that role has become clearer than ever as the novel coronavirus pandemic has ravaged the U.S. But for immigrants who lack legal status, every day becomes risk on top of risk. Not only does their status as an essential worker leave them vulnerable to contracting COVID-19; driving as part of being an essential worker can also leave them at greater risk of being turned over to federal immigration authorities.

Trump admin is rushing to build more border fencing before Biden is inaugurated

Impeached president Donald Trump lost the election (it feels great to write that), but his stupid and racist border fencing construction continues (it doesn’t feel great to write that). In fact, NPR reports that not only is construction continuing, the administration is rushing to build as much as possible before Joe Biden is sworn in on January 20. The president-elect has vowed to end construction.

Coalition sues Customs and Border Protection for records on agency’s role in suppressing protests

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) failed to disclose information as required by law regarding its deployment to national protests following the police killing of George Floyd earlier this year, so a coalition of leading civil and immigrants’ rights organizations have now sued the out-of-control federal immigration agency in order to force it to release the records.

Supreme Court will soon hear Trump’s push to exclude undocumented immigrants from census

The Supreme Court isn’t finished possibly issuing another devastating ruling in the 2020 census count. Just days after issuing a brief, unsigned order allowing the U.S. Census Bureau to end data collection early, the court last Friday agreed to fast track impeached president Donald Trump’s discriminatory order seeking to erase undocumented immigrants from the count in order to affect apportionment of House seats.

Angered judge orders ICE to reduce population at facility hit by COVID-19, slams officials as liars

A federal judge put Trump administration officials through the wringer this week, calling them liars and ordering them to start reducing the detainee population at a notorious immigration prison devastated by the novel coronavirus pandemic by at least 50 people per day. The judge first issued a ruling in April, but the administration has fought it as more at the notorious California prison have gotten sick.