The Indian Panorama

Tag: American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon (ACLU of Oregon)

  • Trump to declare national emergency to build border wall: Democrats say “will challenge the move in the Supreme Court”

    Trump to declare national emergency to build border wall: Democrats say “will challenge the move in the Supreme Court”

    WASHINGTON, DC(TIP): US President Donald Trump will sign an executive order declaring a national emergency, which will empower him to fund the construction of a massive wall along the US-Mexico border to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the country and curb drug smuggling.

    The move would help Mr. Trump get $5.6 billion for the construction of the wall that, he has asserted, is essential for national security.

    President Trump will sign the government funding bill, and as he has stated before, he will also take other executive action – including a national emergency – to ensure we stop the national security and humanitarian crisis at the border, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

    The President is once again delivering on his promise to build the wall, protect the border, and secure our great country, she said.

    The White House statement came soon after Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell made the move public.

    “I had an opportunity to speak with President Trump and he, I would say to all my colleagues, has indicated he’s prepared to sign the bill. He also (will) be issuing a national emergency declaration at the same time. I indicated I’m going to support the national emergency declaration,” Mr. McConnell said.

    On the Democrats saying they will challenge the move in the Supreme Court, Sanders said, “We’re very prepared, but there shouldn’t be [legal challenges]. The president’s doing his job. The Congress should do theirs.”

    Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that declaring a national emergency would be a lawless act, a gross abuse of the power of the presidency and a desperate attempt to distract from the fact that Trump broke his core promise to have Mexico pay for his wall”.

    It is yet another demonstration of President Trump’s naked contempt for the rule of law. This is not an emergency, and the president’s fearmongering doesn’t make it one, they said in a joint statement.

    He couldn’t convince Mexico, the American people or their elected representatives to pay for his ineffective and expensive wall, so now he’s trying an end-run around Congress in a desperate attempt to put taxpayers on the hook for it. The Congress will defend our constitutional authorities, they said.

    Opposing the proposed move, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said that Mr. Trump’s hankering for a wall at the southern border cannot be justified by calling a national emergency.

    This would be a clear abuse of presidential power — one that sidesteps the role of Congress in the appropriation of funds. Shame on any member of Congress who doesn’t clearly and vigorously speak out on this illegitimate invocation of emergency authorities, ACLU said.

    Senator James Inhofe said Mr. Trump had no choice but to declare a national emergency.

    I want to make sure this declaration has minimal, if any, impact on our military and reimburse all the necessary accounts affected by the decision. As I heard in a hearing yesterday, military housing and all military installations are facing disrepair and poor conditions. We cannot afford to allow them to be further impacted, he said.

  • Judge blocks administration from deporting asylum seekers: threatens Jeff Sessions with contempt of court

    Judge blocks administration from deporting asylum seekers: threatens Jeff Sessions with contempt of court

    The government reportedly tried to deport a woman and her daughter while their case was still being heard in court.

    WASHINGTON(TIP): A federal judge on Thursday, August 9, erupted at the Trump administration when he learned that two asylum seekers fighting deportation were at that moment being deported and on a plane to El Salvador, a CNN report says.

    DC District Judge Emmet Sullivan then blocked the administration from deporting the two plaintiffs while they are fighting for their right to stay in the US — reportedly excoriating the administration and threatening to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt, according to the American Civil Liberties Union and The Washington Post.

    The government raced to comply with the court’s order, and by Thursday evening the immigrants had arrived back in Texas after being turned around on the ground in El Salvador.

    They asked for asylum. Instead, they say they were sent to a prison and treated like criminals

    They asked for asylum. Instead, they say they were sent to a prison and treated like criminals

    Sullivan agreed with the ACLU that the immigrants they are representing in a federal lawsuit should not be deported while their cases are pending.

    The emergency hearing in the case turned dramatic when attorneys discovered partway through the hearing that two of their clients were on a plane to El Salvador.

    During court, Sullivan was incensed at the report that one of the plaintiffs was in the process of being deported, according to the ACLU and The Washington Post. Sullivan demanded to know why he shouldn’t hold Sessions in contempt, according to the Post and the recollection of lead ACLU attorney Jennifer Chang Newell.

    Chang Newell said the administration had pledged Wednesday that no one in the case would be deported until at least midnight at the end of Thursday. But during a recess in the proceedings Thursday, she got an email from attorneys on the ground in Texas that her client, known by the pseudonym Carmen, and Carmen’s daughter had been taken from their detention center that morning and deported. After investigating during recess, she informed government attorneys and Sullivan what had happened.

    “He said something like, ‘I’m going to issue an order to show cause why I shouldn’t hold the government in contempt, I’m going to start with the attorney general,’ ” Chang Newell said, explaining that Sullivan was suggesting he would issue an order that would require the government to explain why they didn’t deserve to be held in contempt. Such an order has yet to be issued by the court.

    He ordered the plane turned around or the clients brought back immediately, the ACLU said.

    “This is pretty outrageous,” Sullivan said, according to the Post. “That someone seeking justice in US court is spirited away while her attorneys are arguing for justice for her?”

    “I’m not happy about this at all,” he continued, adding it was “not acceptable.”

    The lawsuit was brought by immigrants only referred to by their pseudonyms in court: Grace, Mina, Gina, Mona, Maria, Carmen and her daughter J.A.C.F. and Gio.

    After the hearing, Sullivan issued an emergency order halting the deportation of any of the immigrants as he considers whether he has broader authority in the case.

    Sullivan also ordered that if the two being deported were not returned, Sessions, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Lee Francis Cissna and Executive Office for Immigration Review Director James McHenry would have to appear in court and say why they should not be held in contempt.

    The lawsuit brought by the ACLU is challenging a recent decision by Sessions to make it nearly impossible for victims of domestic violence and gangs to qualify for asylum in the US. That decision was followed by implementation guidance from the Department of Homeland Security that almost immediately began turning away potentially thousands of asylum seekers at the southern border.

    According to their lawsuit, Carmen and her young daughter came to the US from El Salvador after “two decades of horrific sexual abuse by her husband and death threats from a violent gang.” Even after Carmen moved away from her husband, he raped her, stalked her and threatened to kill her, the lawsuit states. Further, a gang held her at gunpoint in May and demanded she pay a monthly “tax” or they would kill her and her daughter. Carmen knew of people killed by their husbands after going to police and by this gang and thus fled to the US.

    But at the border, the government determined after interviewing her that she did not meet the “credible fear” threshold required to pursue an asylum claim in the US, and an immigration judge upheld that decision.

    The ACLU is using Carmen’s story and the similar experiences of the other immigrants to challenge Sessions’ ruling on asylum.

     

  • Indians detained in US ‘in shackles’: India’s Consulate General in San Francisco seeking access

    Indians detained in US ‘in shackles’: India’s Consulate General in San Francisco seeking access

    PORTLAND USA(TIP) Three men bunked in a small cell for more than 22 hours a day. No access to legal help. Lawyers willing to help pro bono, but authorities say no. In shackles and forced to eat food in cells next to open toilets. No idea where their families might be, or when the next court hearing is. Two men shot at but not provided medical care.

    Activists and lawyers working for the detainees have told The Tribune in India that almost all of the 123 persons — 52 of whom are Indians — being held at a federal prison in Portland, Oregon (US), are living in sub-human conditions. The Tribune could not independently verify these claims, but a host of respected legal and voluntary organizations have talked about the inhuman conditions in which these detainees from 16 different countries, including Bangladesh, China, India, Nepal and Brazil, have been kept at Oregon’s Sheridan detention center.

    “They are from 16 countries and speak 13 languages. We believe many of them have been detained since mid-May after seeking asylum at the port of San Diego,” said Jai Singh, Field Organizer for voluntary organization APANO (Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon).

    Facing criticism globally and at home, even within his own Republican Party, President Donald Trump has backed down on the controversial immigration order separating young children from families. However, the fate of 1,600 plus illegal immigrants detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) remains unsure. The largest group of immigrants at the Sheridan facility comprises 52 Indians, most of them Sikh or Christian, who have sought asylum to avoid “religious persecution” back home.

    Ministry of External Affairs sources underline that the cases of asylum seekers are different from the diaspora arrested in foreign countries under criminal charges.

    Officials claim some of them could be seeking asylum under the pretext of “religious persecution” only to avoid the law of the land for crimes they might have committed.

    However, sources said K Venkata Ramana, Consul (Community Affairs, Information & Culture), Consulate General of India, San Francisco, was seeking consular access to the detainees in Portland. He would try to ascertain details of the Indians at the Oregon center.

    The detainees have not been allowed visits by faith leaders or any meaningful access to attorneys, which is in violation of the US Constitution, federal immigration laws and international treaties, point out lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon (ACLU of Oregon), Innovation Law Lab and the American Immigration Lawyers Association Oregon Chapter (AILA Oregon).

    In a joint letter, they have said while the courts decide the fate of these men’s asylum claims, the ICE must ensure the federal prison complies with civil detention standards. “There should be no deportations until all 123 men have meaningful access to lawyers,” said Mat dos Santos, legal director of ACLU, Oregon. Civil organizations claim the detainees are allowed out of their cell for 15 minutes at a time, three times a day. They are forced to eat in their cells nextto open toilets.