Fall 2018 National Immigrant Solidarity Network Monthly News Digest and News Alert! National Immigrant Solidarity Network No Immigrant Bashing! Support Immigrant Rights! URL: http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org e-mail: Info@ImmigrantSolidarity.org Information about the Network: FLYER Washington D.C.: (202)595-8990 Los Angeles: (213)403-0131 Every Donation Counts! Please Support Us! Send check pay to: National Immigrant Solidarity Network/AFGJ National Immigrant Solidarity Network P.O. Box 751 South Pasadena, CA 91031-0751 (All donations are tax deductible)

Please download our latest newsletter: http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/Newsletter/Fall18.pdf

6/24: Separation and killing of children

Ron Forthofer - Common Dreams

President Trump's cruel policy of separating immigrant children from their parents as they sought asylum here mocked the idea that the US government values families. Unfortunately the US has a long and sad history of separating children from their parents. For example, the US took American-Indian children from their parents and Black slave families were often torn apart.

Fortunately the media provided non-stop coverage of Trump's latest abomination. In addition, the US public continues to express its outrage about this horrific situation. This public outrage is one of the factors that finally caused Trump to end his appalling policy.

Unfortunately, the media has not provided much coverage of the reasons these immigrant families are leaving everything familiar behind and seeking asylum. The media sometimes mentions the terrifying violence in Central America while ignoring the US role in creating it.

Some US interventions

For example, since early in the twentieth century, the US has frequently intervened in Central and South America in support of US corporate interests. For example, in 1935 US Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, one of the most highly decorated Marines in US history, wrote:

"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism."

In his writing, Butler specifically referred to his service in Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and Honduras among other places on behalf of Wall Street, US banks and other corporate interests.

The US has continued to intervene in Central and South America, including the overthrow of elected governments. In 1954 the US supported the illegal coup against the democratically-elected Guatemalan government of Jacobo Arbenz. Perhaps more well known is the US support for the military coup against the democratically-elected Salvador Allende, president of Chile, in 1973 that led to a brutal dictatorship and horrendous human rights abuses.

Skipping over many more interventions, more recently the US quickly recognized the results of a coup in Honduras in 2009 that ousted the democratically-elected President Manuel Zelaya who was not favored by the US. Increasing violence and repression against the Honduran people by the coup government and gangs followed almost immediately and continues today.

Little media coverage of some children's deaths

Contrast highly warranted public outrage over the separation of families to the relatively little public reaction to the reported large number of extra deaths of Iraqi children during the 1990s. These deaths followed the attack on Iraq in 1991 and the subsequent sanctions. In a 1996 interview, Leslie Stahl asked Madeleine Albright, then US ambassador to the UN: "We have heard that a half-million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And - and, you know, is the price worth it?" Albright replied, "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price - we think the price is worth it." The number of deaths reported was likely overestimated but, regardless, Albright's response is chilling. The sanctions preceded the 2003 US-led attack on Iraq that was even more destructive.

Perhaps this lack of public outrage was partially related to the US media that didn't provide non-stop coverage of US war crimes similarly to its current coverage of Trump's sickening and indefensible separations.

Also note the meager media coverage of the killing of children and their families and the US role in these murders in Yemen, Syria, Libya and Afghanistan. Have we as a people become so jaded to the deaths of the other when it is supported by both major political parties? Or is the lack of outrage related to the media's poor coverage?

In addition, where is the outrage against the illegal siege of and the lethal Israeli attacks on Gaza that are incredibly devastating to the entire Palestinian population in Gaza, particularly to the children? Unfortunately the US media pays little attention to Palestinians, allowing the incredible suffering and the trauma to continue.

Lastly, consider the Israeli treatment of Palestinian children who are forcefully separated from their families and imprisoned where they are often further abused. Rep. Betty McCollum has introduced H.R. 4391 that would stop US support for Israeli abuse of Palestinian children. Encourage your representative to support this bill.

Link the article: http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=1670

8/7: FBI Pressed Detained Anti-ICE Activist for Information on Protests, Offering Immigration Help

An end to "administrative closure" in immigration court foreshadows a dramatic ramp-up of detentions.

Cora Currier - The Intercept

On Friday, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested a longtime U.S. resident protesting against ICE in San Antonio, Texas, the FBI stepped in for an interrogation, telling the resident, 18-year-old Sergio Salazar, that his immigration status had been revoked because he was a "bad person." The FBI agents asked him to inform on fellow protesters and said if he did so it could help his immigration case.

"It seems evident that he was targeted here because of his involvement in the anti-ICE protests," said Jonathan Ryan, Salazar's lawyer from RAICES Texas, an immigrant advocacy group. "We're very concerned about how directed and targeted and aggressive and quick this was." ICE has been criticized for recent detentions and deportations of other activists, but little else has emerged that indicates an FBI interest in anti-ICE protests.

Salazar, an aspiring filmmaker who came to the U.S. when he was two, was quoted extensively in the San Antonio Express-News in late July under his nickname "Mapache," saying that his group planned to remain in its encampment in front of an ICE processing facility until "ICE no longer operates in San Antonio." He was arrested as he stepped away from the encampment a few days later.

"An ICE agent pulled up in a truck behind me, called me over," Salazar said in a recorded call from the detention center where he is being held. "He yelled that I was under arrest匢 saw another truck come up behind me and they pushed me into a van and took me away."

The agents took him behind an abandoned Walmart, Salazar said, where they shackled him and emptied his pockets before carting him off to the South Texas Detention Complex, in Pearsall, southwest of San Antonio. Salazar is originally from Mexico, and for several years he has had legal status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, the Obama-administration initiative that protects some immigrant youth from deportation and which the Trump administration has tried to terminate. Salazar had applied for a renewal of his status about a month earlier, but it wasn't until he was in detention that ICE agents told him that his application had been denied. What's more, at Pearsall, he was interviewed by FBI agents, who said his DACA hadn't been renewed because he was a "bad person ."

"I was taken aside to a little room by the FBI," Salazar said in the recording, which was provided to The Intercept by RAICES. "They wanted to ask me about my friends. Their words were that I am someone who has a lot to say, and they'd like to hear it. But they also were implying that if I got them useful information, about something I'm about to be a part of, that, the fact that it was useful would get to an immigration judge."

Salazar refused to speak with them, and was then transferred to another facility, the Webb County Detention Center, on the border in Laredo, Texas. There, FBI agents questioned him again, but this time they said they had a warrant to search his cellphone, related to "impeding a federal officer," and something to do with threats of bomb making, Salazar said.

Salazar hazarded a guess that maybe "some of my friends and I were singing protest songs and one of the words is 'Molotov,' so now on that basis they want to search for incendiary stuff." But the FBI didn't mention anything specific, and his lawyer hasn't seen the warrant. Local law enforcement told the San Antonio Express-News that he was being looked at because of his or his group's online postings.

Ryan said that Salazar's work permit under DACA had expired on August 2. His letter of denial, which makes no mention of any specific reason, was dated August 3, the day of his arrest: "It's a one-liner, saying you don't merit prosecutorial discretion." Up to that point, they had assumed the process for renewal was moving along; indeed, Salazar had an appointment to give fingerprints for his new work permit this week.

Salazar had joined the Occupy ICE encampment that sprang up in San Antonio in mid-July. A Facebook page called "Free Mapache," linked by the "Occupy ICE SATX" group describes him as "a dedicated, long-time community activist who has committed himself to fighting deportations, police violence, and corporate exploitation. He is overflowing with generosity and is always willing to put himself on the line for others." On the call with RAICES, Salazar said he spent his time at the camp distributing food and toys to children who were visiting family at the ICE facility.

On July 28, members of the fascist white supremacist group Patriot Front had descended on the camp, scattering tents, signs and coolers, and chanting, "Strong borders! Strong nations!," a scene captured in a video posted by the Occupy group. Mapache gave his quotes to the Express-News that day, telling the newspaper that he was a self-identified anarchist. "They outnumbered us five-to-one, so we pretty much stood back and allowed them to take their videos and to attempt to tear apart the camp," he said. He spoke out about Occupy ICE SATX's goals, saying that ICE "is doing what (Patriot Front) wants." In an interview with The Intercept, Salazar's father said that he had just graduated from high school and hoped to study filmmaking in Austin. He idolized Mexican-American filmmaker Roberto Rodriguez and the Mexican directors Alejandro I襻rritu and Guillermo del Toro.

"He is not a violent person, in fact he's a pacifist," said the father, who declined to use his name out of concern for the family's privacy and safety. "He's not a criminal and he should not be in jail."

But about three weeks before Salazar's arrest, a neighbor told the family she'd noticed a strange car idling in front of their house.

"She went up to them to ask what they were doing. And they lowered the glass and she saw that they had the initials FBI on their shirts," Salazar's father said. The neighbor said the FBI asked her about who lived in Sergio's house, and she told them it was a couple and their two sons. She came soon after to tell Sergio's father about the incident.

"It was really strange, we've never had problems with the law, we don't get involved in anything," he said.

As ICE cracks down on undocumented immigrants across the country, detaining people who previously would not have been priorities for deportation, many advocacy groups are expressing concern that the agency is singling out activists. In February, The Intercept reported on a lawsuit brought by a coalition of groups after two high-profile New York-based immigrant leaders were detained and one of them deported.

William Perdue, a lawyer with Arnold & Porter who is working on the case, said he had tallied at least a dozen instances of activists who'd faced immigration enforcement actions.

"It's really very simple," said Perdue. "The government can't retaliate against someone for criticizing the government, and that includes immigration officials. They're not allowed to take enforcement action against activists because of their activism."

Jacob Hutt, a fellow with the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, added that the ramifications extended beyond an individual's First Amendment rights: "It tells everyone else in your community what they can expect to happen to them if they speak out on an issue, and that's especially chilling when people are already fearful because of their immigration status."

A spokesperson for ICE said that Salazar was arrested "for being in violation of federal immigration law." The statement said that ICE "does not target unlawfully present aliens for arrest based on advocacy positions they hold or in retaliation for critical comments they make," but added that "target information is based on intelligence-driven leads - this may include open source information." United States Citizenship and Immigration Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Salazar's DACA denial.

The FBI has leveraged immigration charges to gain information in the past. For years, Muslim immigrants in particular have complained that the FBI leaned on them for information about terror investigations. The Intercept has published FBI documents showing that the bureau works with Customs and Border Protection to identify potential sources, offering them an "immigration relief dangle" in exchange for cooperation. Internal FBI policy documents also confirm that the FBI coordinates with immigration authorities to locate and deport informants who are no longer useful to the bureau.

Asked about this specific case, San Antonio FBI spokesperson Michelle Lee said "our policy is to neither confirm or deny the existence of an investigation." She added that "we're not aware of any criminal charges against Mr. Salazar at this time."

FBI involvement has not surfaced in recent stories of deported immigration activists, but over the past several years documents have shown FBI and Department of Homeland Security surveillance of Black Lives Matter activists. The surveillance in those cases was often triggered by socia l media posts that law enforcement identified as signaling a potential threat, as may have happened in Salazar's case.

Ryan said that Salazar was likely to have an immigration hearing scheduled in the next few months, and that RAICES is demanding his immediate release in the interim.

In a call with reporters over the weekend from Laredo, Salazar said that he had never previously felt persecuted, and that the ICE arrest came out of nowhere.

His father last spoke with him on Sunday. "He's doing a little better, but he's still sad, still desperate," he told The Intercept. "I feel really angry, really sad, really frustrated and the only thing I want is for him to come back home."

Link the article: http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=1679

Also Read..

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6/24: Separation and killing of children
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6/25: Doctor giving migrant kids psychotropic drugs lost certification years ago (1)
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6/25: Doctor giving migrant kids psychotropic drugs lost certification years ago (2)
http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=1672

6/26: Minnesota rejects Supreme Court’s decision of support for Trump’s Muslim ban
http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=1673

6/26: Whistleblower Leaks Video From Detention Facility Where Children Were Threatened Against Speaking to Press
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6/29: Trump May Deport 1,200 People To Yemen As The U.S. Bombs The Country
http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=1675

6/30: Coast-to-coast protests denounce Trump immigration policies
http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=1676

7/3: Targeting The Most Vulnerable: Children in Detention In The US and Palestine
http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=1589

7/7: Mediterranean Sea – The Largest Graveyard in Modern History
http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=1678

7/14: Cleaning Toilets, Following Rules: A Migrant Child’s Days in Detention (1)
http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=1680

7/14: Cleaning Toilets, Following Rules: A Migrant Child’s Days in Detention (2)
http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=1681

7/18: Counties Cancel ICE Detention Contracts (1)
http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=1682

7/18: Counties Cancel ICE Detention Contracts (2)
http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=1683

7/20: L.A. Program Targets Muslims Under Guise of National Security
www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=1684

8/7: FBI Pressed Detained Anti-ICE Activist for Information on Protests, Offering Immigration Help
http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=1679

8/7: New York Case Shows Cruelty of ICE Toward the Mentally Disabled
http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=1686

8/8: At White House CEO Dinner, Trump Call Most Chinese Students “Spies”
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8/27: Racine, WI Leaders Condemn Sheriff Schmaling's Attacks on Latinos & Immigrants
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Please download our latest newsletter: http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/Newsletter/Fall18.pdf

Useful Immigrant Resources on Detention and Deportation

Immigrants Shape California: New "Access to Justice" Laws
http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=1688

ICE custody program and its budget
http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=1699

Refugee Appropriations Docs & Resources
http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=1702

Immigration Bond: How to Get Your Money Back (1)
http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=1708

Immigration Bond: How to Get Your Money Back (2)

Face Sheet: Immigration Detention--Questions and Answers (Dec, 2008) by: http://www.thepoliticsofimmigration.org

Thanks for GREAT works from Detention Watch Network (DWN) to compiled the following information, please visit DWN website: http://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org

Tracking ICE's Enforcement Agenda
Real Deal fact sheet on detention
Real Deal fact sheet on border

- From Raids to Deportation-A Community Resource Kit
- Know Your Rights in the Community (English, Spanish)
- Know Your Rights in Detention
- Pre-Raid Community Safety Plan
- Raids to Deportation Map
- Raids to Deportation Policy Map

More on Immigration Resource Page
http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/resource.htm

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