8 Immigration News Headlines You May Have Missed In A Week

By Felicia J. Persaud

News Americas, FORT LAUDERDALE, FL, Fri. Aug. 30, 2019: There’s no denying that when it comes to immigration under the Trump administration, the news cycle is moving at a fast and furious pace. The past week seems like a blur already when it comes to the myriad of anti-immigrant policies and actions this administration took. Here are 8 headlines from the week you may have missed on this red-hot issue.

1: The Justice Department’s Promotes A Blog Post From A White Nationalist Website

The Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) reportedly sent court employees, including immigration judges, a link to a blog post from VDare, a white nationalist website. The post “directly attacks sitting immigration judges with racial and ethnically tinged slurs,” according to a letter sent by an immigration judges union and obtained by BuzzFeed News. The briefings are sent to court employees every weekday and include links to various immigration news items. The particular post  included brazenly “features links and content that directly attacks sitting immigration judges with racial and ethnically tinged slurs and the label ‘Kritarch,’ a deeply offensive and Anti-Semitic term, the union said.

2: Moves To Detain Immigrant Families And Children Indefinitely

The Donald Trump administration on Wednesday August 21st unveiled a sweeping plan to detain migrant families and children for longer periods of time than currently allowed under the 1997 court settlement known as the Flores Agreement. Under the rule, published in the Federal Register on Friday august 23rd and which and would go into effect 60 days later, there would not be a limit to the number of days immigrant families with children could be detained.

3: No Flu Shots For Immigrant Families In Detention

The administration also brazenly announced they won’t provide flu shots to families in detention, even though six children have already died, three in part from the flu. “In general, due to the short-term nature of CBP holding and the complexities of operating vaccination programs, neither CBP nor its medical contractors administer vaccinations to those in our custody,” a Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman said in a statement to CNBC.

4: Immigrant Hotline Shut Down

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, (ICE) reportedly shut down a toll-free hotline for detained immigrants to connect with a lawyer after it was featured on the hit Netflix series “Orange Is The New Black.” The Los Angeles Times reported that a hotline operated for several years by the Freedom for Immigrants organization was shut down less than two weeks after it was mentioned on the show. The hotlines were the only toll-free option that many immigrants in the detention facilities had, as they do not have the right to a free phone call upon being detained and the facilities do not allow calls to 1-800 numbers.

5: ICE Keeps Arresting Prominent Immigration Activists

Prominent immigration activists tell Vice News they feel targeted by US ICE. Since Donald Trump took office with his anti-immigration agenda, ICE has reportedly arrested at least 20 undocumented activists. In May, for instance, ICE agents arrested an undocumented college student just three days after he read a poem criticizing the agency.

6: 64 Percent Of Federal Arrests Were Of Non-Criminal, Non-Citizens

People who aren’t U.S. citizens made up 64 percent of all federal arrests in 2018, though the majority of these arrests were for non-violent crimes, according to a Justice Department report said according to the Huffington Post. The report showed that 90 percent of those arrests were connected with immigration offenses or were immigration-related, not violent crimes or drug trafficking as Donald Trump has claimed.

7: Journalist Says CBP Agent Accused Him Of Being ‘Fake News Media At LAX

Yes, you read that right. Empire Magazine writer James Dyer said last week that a Customs Border Protection (CBP) officer derided him as “fake news” and inquired about whether he worked for MSNBC or CNN, both frequent targets of the President.

Dyer said a CBP officer “accused [him] of being part of the ‘fake news media'” at the Los Angeles International Airport after the British journalist presented his press visa.

“He aggressively told me that journalists are liars and are attacking their democracy,” Dyer said.

8: The Trump Administration Plans To Deny Work Permits To Asylum-Seekers Who Cross The Border

And the Trump administration said it now plans to issue a new policy that would deny work permits to asylum-seekers who cross the border without authorization as well as those who are convicted of a felony. They also will significantly delay those qualified to apply for a work permit. The proposal from US Citizenship and Immigration Services comes as acting Director Ken Cuccinelli, an immigration hardliner, pushes restrictive policies. The new work permit policy is expected to be included in a forthcoming proposed regulation that would only allow those who applied for asylum at a port of entry to be eligible for a work permit BuzzFeed reports. The new restrictions mark the latest move by the Trump administration to reduce the number of asylum-seekers crossing the southern border.

The writer is publisher at NewsAmericasNow