Trump administration made it harder to investigate police abuse – True and Tragic – kra
This is old news, but the EFFECT of it is more important now than ever. tRump is a disaster for criminal justice in many ways … from his use of private prisons (which Obama, wisely, was phasing out) to his total incompetence with the issues. He does not care about meaningful reform, does not care about individuals’ rights, and is as “lost in space”on criminal justice as he is on many other issues!
Remember, justice is the result sought. B4 this move by Sessions, the D OJ had significant clout to help lead toward that end. Not anymore.
Excerpts from the Article:
President Donald Trump’s decision in May 2018 to disband a National Security Council unit focused on preventing pandemics flew largely under the radar — until the coronavirus began its deadly march across the globe. Now, it’s the subject of widespread attention.
There’s a similar story unfolding around a different and less-noted decision made six months later by outgoing U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, one that’s now a key backdrop to the protests against police abuse of Black Americans that have swept the nation following the death last month of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis officers.
In November 2018, shortly before he left office, Sessions signed a memo restricting U.S. Department of Justice investigations into alleged abuse in local police departments. Such past probes — in Ferguson, Mo., Baltimore, Newark, N.J., Detroit and beyond — had followed high-profile killings by police. Sessions’ move followed an 18-month review he’d ordered of all previous probes, some of them dating back decades.
Sessions’ decision significantly weakened a federal oversight tool the Department of Justice had used since 1994 to investigate allegations of police abuse and to force reforms through court-ordered consent decrees — sometimes the only viable route for causing systemic change in municipal police departments.
Sessions’ move set higher hurdles to start DOJ investigations of new claims of abuse, with more complex and difficult criteria. In formal resolutions, the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners and their counterparts in other cities urged Sessions not to weaken the federal controls, to no avail. His successor, Attorney General William Barr, has kept those changes in place.
The FBI and DOJ are investigating Floyd’s death, but in light of Barr’s continuing restrictions, a broader probe of the entire Minneapolis police force is uncertain.
It worked in Detroit
In Detroit, a Free Press series about local police shootings of civilians sparked a DOJ probe that began in December 2000. The subsequent 30-month investigation focused on allegations of excessive force, illegal dragnet arrests and mistreatment of prisoners.
The investigation produced two June 2003 consent decrees that placed the Detroit Police Department under the supervision of a federal monitor to track compliance with 175 reforms. Key changes modified the department’s detention procedures and arrest criteria, along with the circumstances in which officers could use forceful restraint and fire or even point their weapons. Others revised use-of-force policies and training, putting an emphasis on de-escalation.
Detroit Police Chief Jerry Oliver, right, looks on during a 2003 press conference as U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Collins announces an agreement on two court-backed consent decrees that will force the DPD to cease practices that led to civil rights abuses. Also pictured are Assistant Attorney General Ralph Boyd and Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. With more than 200 citizen complaints having languished for years, the agreement compelled DPD to complete thorough internal probes of alleged police misconduct in a timely fashion.
The consent decrees were in effect until August 2014, followed by a two-year transition period to full freedom from federal oversight. Judith Levy, now a federal judge based in Ann Arbor, played a leading role in overseeing implementation of the police reforms as an assistant U.S. attorney in Detroit working in the office’s civil rights section. “Reforms were adopted, and they became Detroit Police Department policy,” Levy said in an interview. “It was painful, it was long, it was expensive, but we got it done. Of course, it’s way more expensive (for police) to shoot people and pay them in settlements.”
“It does affect morale, but it affects morale because too often police departments don’t want to change,” Levy said. “And perhaps the fact that it affects police morale speaks volumes about how concerned we ought to be about police culture. That’s the last reason to back off.”
“We are using the tools that we have,” he said in an interview earlier this month. “Where we think that things need to be investigated, we investigate them.”
While Schneider acknowledged that his office has received complaints about police, he repeatedly declined to say whether there are any current investigations based on those complaints. He pointed to a separate probe instead.
There’s literally no way to tell if any local police departments are under investigation. A DOJ website on the conduct of law enforcement agencies invites readers to click on links to see “results of our work.” But the page has not been updated since Sept. 4, 2017.
Beneficial outcomes
Former Detroit Deputy Mayor Saul Green was the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan when the DOJ probe of the city police department began in late 2000. He and then-Mayor Dennis Archer had gone to Washington and argued for an investigation.
“Based on a series of police events relative to the use of force and deaths in holding cells, the decision was made to request that DOJ start an investigation,” Green said in an interview.
Among the signs that the DOJ probe and subsequent consent decrees produced results are a significant drop in lawsuits against the police department and reduced city payouts for abuse, the Detroit News reported earlier this month.
Even before the Detroit police department emerged from oversight, conditions improved. There were fewer fatal shootings of suspects and fewer false arrests, and fewer deaths in police holding cells, the Free Press reported. The number of holding-cell deaths also decreased, according to Bridge Magazine.
“It has had a beneficial effect in Detroit. I don’t think there’s any question about it,” Green said in an interview. “The police force is better trained, and they’re implementing the policies they’ve been trained upon. The result is you get policing that’s more equitable with fewer instances where citizens are harmed.”
Green, however, believes that such federal oversight doesn’t tackle broader social problems that police often are compelled to address.
“With all this talk about ‘defunding the police,’ what they’re really talking about is funding organizations that can address the hard problems police are really bad at,” he said. “Issues like mental health. They’re not trained in that. Homelessness is another issue they should not have to respond to. There’s a whole myriad of issues that police are called on to solve that they’re not trained in.”
During the protests over Floyd’s death, Detroit has not seen the looting, burned cars, damaged buildings or shootings of police that other cities have experienced.
Levy sees a clear link between the consent decree that reined in the police department here and the city’s relative lack of violence in recent weeks. And so she regrets that other police departments can’t benefit from the kind of DOJ investigation, thanks to Sessions and Barr that forced Detroit police to tackle deep-rooted problems.
“It’s too much work now if they use force,” she said. “Our consent decree redefined use of force. Now if you take your weapon out of the holster and acquire a target — any target, person, dog or house — you have to write a report justifying it. Cops don’t like to fill out paperwork.”
DNA Database of NYC’s Chief Medical Examiner Plagued with Errors
Wrongful convictions occur for a number of reasons, but a sloppy Medical Examiner Lab should not be one of them!
Excerpts from the Article:
Darrell Harris was arrested for a home burglary that occurred in December 2018.
A detective from the New York Police Department (“NYPD”) told Harris his DNA had been recovered from a window of the home. Even though the arrest cost Harris his job at the John F. Kennedy Airport, he paid $25,000 for a lawyer and provided an alibi placing him in New Jersey when the burglary was committed. Then, in June 2019, police dropped the charges.
An investigation revealed that a lab technician from New York City’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner (“OCME”) had cross-contaminated the DNA sample from the window with a sample Harris had earlier provided in a sexual misconduct investigation.
“Errors like these, and the lab’s inability to detect them, should concern the public,” said Terri Rosenblatt, staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society (“Society”). “More and more often, criminal cases rise and fall on DNA evidence.”
The Society filed a Freedom of Information Law request and learned of other errors at the OCME’s DNA lab, including:
• a man who was wrongfully arrested for rape based on a confirmed DNA match from the lab (the man provided an ironclad alibi — he was in prison when the rape occurred);
• DNA profiles in the database taken from witnesses and victims (these are prohibited by law);
• DNA profiles in the database that were taken from minors without parental consent (again, prohibited by law); and
• DNA profiles in the database from deceased persons and victims of homicide.
The Society, along with NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea, are insisting the City Council impose tougher regulations on the OCME lab. “These changes are common sense and incorporate feedback we have gathered without compromising the ability for officers to successfully identify criminals, build strong cases and bring justice for victims,” Shea said in a New York Times article.
Currently, the OCME is required to disclose errors to the City Council only if one or more of the following occurred: (1) intentional analyst misconduct leading to fabricated results; (2) significant errors affecting the accuracy of a report; (3) a failure to follow protocols that affected a report’s accuracy; or (4) misleading statements in testimony by laboratory employees.
Two Effingham Co. jail officers arrested for bringing controlled substances into the facility
Contrary to what prison officials say, the truth is that more than 90% of contraband is brought in by D O C staff, not “visitors”. If convicted, they need prison time!
Excerpts from the Article:
Two Effingham County jail officers have been arrested and two more on paid administrative leave after a three month investigation. Jaleen Connerly, 32, and Betrice Taylor, 50, were arrested and charged with numerous things to include bringing a controlled substance inside the facility.
Connerly is charged with:
Obtaining, procuring, or giving an inmate tobacco or tobacco product without consent of jailer
Attempt or conspiracy to violate Georgia controlled substance act
Bribery
Unlawful for person/employee to associate with criminal street gang to conduct/participate in criminal activity
Unlawful to come inside guard lines to deliver to inmate a controlled substance, giving to or possession by inmates prohibited items
Giving to or possession by inmates prohibited items
Taylor is charged with:
Unlawful for person/employee to associate with criminal street gang to conduct/participate in criminal activity
Giving to or possession by inmates prohibited items
Unlawful to come inside guard lines to deliver to inmate a controlled substance
Attempt or conspiracy to violate Georgia controlled substance act
Both women posted bail and have been released. The ongoing investigation also indicated two other employees that will remain on leave until the investigation is completed.
An unarmed 23-year-old black man died after police stopped him. The Colorado governor wants a new probe.
I saw the video. This is another police murder. They stopped him for “being suspicious”! The kid was walking down the sidewalk! “Being suspicious”? What the hell does that mean, being Black? INVESTIGATE.
You don’t have to be a Racist to work here, but if you are I don’t suppose anyone will notice.
Excerpts from the Article:
Facing mounting pressure from the public, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) vowed on Wednesday to explore how the state could re-examine the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old black man who died after being detained while walking down the street in Aurora, Colo.
McClain’s death has come back into the public spotlight during the last month of demonstrations against racism and police brutality, following the death of George Floyd, who was killed after police in Minneapolis pinned him to the ground for several minutes.
McClain was walking home wearing a ski mask and dancing to music on Aug. 24, 2019, when someone called 911 to report him as suspicious. Police tried to stop him, but he kept walking, insisting he had done nothing wrong and had a right to continue his walk.
Then, officers tackled him, placed him in a chokehold and restrained him. A paramedic who arrived on the scene later injected him with ketamine to subdue him. McClain had a heart attack while being taken to the hospital. He suffered brain damage and was placed on life support until he died on Aug. 30, 2019, the Denver Post reported.
After an internal investigation, the Aurora Police Department found the officers involved in the stop had acted within the bounds of acceptable policy and training. The local district attorney declined to prosecute any criminal charges related to McClain’s death.
The city had proposed an independent review of the case, but after the first man chosen to head the inquiry turned out to be a former police officer, Aurora officials scrapped that effort and asked the city manager to nominate a different investigator.
Celebrities like Michelle Branch and Kacey Musgraves have recently voiced support for a new inquiry into McClain’s death, and an online petition to suspend the officers and reconsider the case has more than 2.6 million signatures.
“Public confidence in our law enforcement process is incredibly important now more than ever,” Polis said on Twitter. “I am hearing from many Coloradans who have expressed concerns with the investigation of Elijah McClain’s death. As a result, I have instructed my legal council to examine what the state can do and we are assessing next steps.” Despite Polis’s willingness to pursue a state-level investigation, it remains to be seen if he can order such an action. Past attempts to intervene in local police investigations have not succeeded, the Denver Post reported.
Some local Aurora officials have voiced support for potentially reexamining the case, however.
Mayor Mike Coffman (R) on Wednesday accelerated a vote to choose a new independent investigator to scrutinize the actions of the police and paramedics involved in McClain’s death. City council member Curtis Gardner sent a letter on behalf of the city’s public safety committee to the city manager, urging him to nominate a neutral investigator to take a second look at the case.“Over the last several days, we have received thousands of contacts from all over the country – phone calls, text messages, emails and social media tags,” the committee said in the letter. “The community has made clear they support our call for an independent investigation.”
Also read this excellent article about the murder of young Mr. McClain
FBI’s Long History of Squelching Political Dissent Under the Guise of National Security
The FBI is a great national asset and crime fighting agency. But it must further rein in those who would abuse its power. No doubt tRump and Barr are using it inappropriately, and that is what we must guard against.
Politics should have NO role in any law enforcement agency.
Excerpts from the Article:
For nearly a century, one of the most important duties of the FBI has been to act as the primary counterterrorism force on American soil. Unfortunately, throughout that time, the FBI has shown a troubling tendency to surveil dissidents and view challenges to the status quo as national security threats. This tendency began with the young Bureau’s first large-scale raids and has continued, according to a recently released report, up to today.
The FBI began as the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Investigation in 1908. Founded by Theodore Roosevelt despite congressional resistance, this early Bureau was intended to be the leading edge of a national response to anarchists and violent unionists. After successfully silencing opposition to World War I, the Bureau began raids in 1919 aimed at what it called “subversives and Communists” but which really targeted Eastern European immigrants, Italians, and labor organizers, according to Alice Speri in her article, “The FBI Has a Long History of Treating Political Dissent as Terrorism.”
The so-called Palmer Raids (after then-Attorney General Mitchell Palmer) lasted months and led to the arrests of over 10,000 people in a dozen cities, though none of those arrested were even tied to any of the violence that purportedly inspired them.
The raids did, however, have consequences. The first was the founding of the American Civil Liberties Union, organized just a few months after the raids began. The second was the dramatic career advancement of the young federal agent who orchestrated them—J. Edgar Hoover.
Hoover’s genius for policing dissent would come to the fore again in the 1960s. The FBI pursued an operation called COINTELPRO. Systematic efforts to infiltrate and sabotage civil-rights groups and anti-war protesters were carried out under the auspices of guarding national security.
The exposure of these efforts led to congressional investigations and the application of some oversight. While this oversight may have reined in some of the Bureau’s worst excesses, there is evidence that old tendencies remain firmly in place.
After 9/11, many civil-rights activists expressed concern about what they believed was an FBI campaign targeting Muslim Americans. Eventually, the inspector general of the Justice Department would release a report in 2010 that acknowledged the Bureau had exceeded agency guidelines, but the report declined to definitively conclude that any action had resulted from political or religious bias.
In October 2019, civil liberties group Defending Rights and Dissent published a report detailing a long list of political activists who have been the object of FBI surveillance and worse.
The Bureau has watched Occupy Wall Street, Abolish ICE, Palestinian solidarity groups, and organizations dedicated to normalizing relations with Cuba and Iran. The report, based largely on public-records requests, reveals a broad effort of surveillance and infiltration, even at times before a group had staged a single protest.
Recent efforts aimed at domestic political dissent have shown several disturbing trends. The first is what appears to be a near single-minded focus on progressives and the left, despite the fact that most politically motivated violence over the last 10 years had its ideological origin on the right. Social justice, anti-war, and environmental activism remain the primary targets of FBI interest, just as they were during the Palmer Raids.
Secondly, the targeting of progressive causes is paired with what appears to be disproportionate targeting of immigrants, Muslims, and people of color. Some Muslims and African immigrants in the Minneapolis area report being “used to being surveilled by the government,” according to Mustafa Jumale, an activist with the Black Alliance for Just Immigration.
More troubling are instances of co-opting local law enforcement to pursue operations that could arguably be called entrapment. Creation of the Joint Terrorism Task Forces after 9/11 allowed the FBI to utilize manpower and resources from local law enforcement to pursue its policies while often escaping stricter federal rules. At the same time, as long as surveillance and infiltration failed to reveal criminal activity or violence, FBI agents or informants have reportedly resorted to acting as agent provocateurs. In one instance, after the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, FBI informants reportedly recruited and equipped two protestors with fake bombs and a list of targets. This type of activity is not legally entrapment, according to the courts.
Without a statutory charter outlining its authority or real oversight of its activity, the FBI seems committed to continue confusing dissent and terrorism.
U.S. Must Release Children From Family Detention Centers, Judge Rules The ruling applies to children held in the nation’s three family detention centers for more than 20 days. They must be let go by July 17, a federal judge ruled on Friday.
How bad is the tRump administration? It doesn’t get worse than killing people, and so far their incompetence has killed more than 125,000 via the coronavirus, and hundreds of thousands more with their dismantling of the EPA, poisoning land, water, and air.
But a close second is their cruelty to CHILDREN! You saw the kids in cages. I have written and posted several articles about it. Here is the latest decision by a federal judge, hammering ICE and saying: “The family residential centers are on fire and there is no more time for half measures.” Many of the children never should have been detained at all; they should have been placed with loved ones already in America!
Excerpts from the Article:
Citing the severity of the coronavirus pandemic, a federal judge in Los Angeles on Friday ordered the imminent release of migrant children held in the country’s three family detention centers.
The order to release the children by July 17 came after plaintiffs in a long-running case reported that some of them have tested positive for the virus. It applies to children who have been held for more than 20 days in the detention centers run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, two in Texas and one in Pennsylvania.
There were 124 children living in those facilities on June 8, according to the ruling.
In her order, Judge Dolly M. Gee of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California criticized the Trump administration for its spotty compliance with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To prevent the virus from spreading in congregate detention facilities, the agency had recommended social distancing, the wearing of masks and early medical intervention for those with virus symptoms.
“The family residential centers are on fire and there is no more time for half measures,” she wrote.
Given the pandemic, Judge Gee wrote, ICE must work to release the children with “all deliberate speed,” either along with their parents or to suitable guardians with the consent of their parents. The order was the first time a court had set a firm deadline for the release of minors in family detention if their parents designated a relative in the United States to take custody. Recent orders had required their “prompt” release.
“Some detained parents facing deportation brought their children to this country to save them from rampant violence in their home countries,” said Peter Schey, counsel for the class of detained children, “and would prefer to see their child released to relatives here rather than being deported with the parent to countries where children are routinely kidnapped, beaten and killed.”
Judge Gee oversees compliance with the 1997 Flores settlement agreement that sets national standards for the treatment and release of detained immigrant children.
The Trump administration has been trying to terminate the settlement for the last two years, but those efforts have been blocked by Judge Gee and are currently being appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Eleven children and parents have tested positive for the coronavirus at a family detention center in Karnes City, Texas. Some migrants at a family facility in Dilley, Texas, are awaiting test results after workers there tested positive for the virus.
Over all, about 2,500 immigrants in ICE detention have tested positive for the virus. The agency has said that it has released at least 900 people with underlying conditions and that it has shrunk the population in each facility to mitigate the spread of the virus.
The Whole Story
To save money, California will close its youth prison system – GREAT! – kra
This article was sent to me by my dear friend, Charito, who teaches restorative justice internationally, and now heads the Delaware Civil Rights Coalition.
Charito Calvachi-Mateyko, J.D./M.A.C.T.
Coordinator, Delaware Civil Rights Coalition
charitocw@aol.com
Cell 717-951-0905
I have written much about juvenile detention, and, bottom line: it is ineffective, counter productive, and often cruel!
Excerpts from the Article:
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to weigh heavily on state budgets, state leaders are working to reappropriate funds as they try to deal with the massive loss of revenue. In California, though, money woes have indirectly delivered a win for criminal justice reform advocates. To forestall the severity of an inevitable budgetary shortfall, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a revised spending plan Thursday that includes dissolving the state’s juvenile incarceration arm, the Department of Juvenile Justice.
The announcement calls for disbanding the DJJ in two parts: halting entrance of new youth detainees beginning next January, and closing the four currently operational state-run facilities by 2023. The 750 youth detainees held by DJJ are generally between the ages of 15 and 25, says Renee Menart, a spokesperson for Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, and most have been convicted of robberies and burglaries. Menart tells Mic that those under the age of 18 will be directed to county-run facilities, and those over the age of 18 will be directed to adult facilities.
The conditions of incarceration are dire — and as the governor indicates in the new budget, they’re also expensive. State-run juvenile detention and probation programs cost the state about $200 million each year, and a state budget report found that California spent about $300,000 on each incarcerated young person in 2019.
In order to stave off the economic harm from coronavirus, the state needs to cut costs. “With a higher demand for social safety net services increasing state costs, the $54.3 billion deficit is more than three times the size of the record $16 billion set aside in the state’s Rainy Day Fund,” a press release from the governor’s office explained.
The move isn’t a surprise to advocates, as the governor had already indicated in earlier budget proposals a readiness to reduce the state’s rate of incarceration, with specific attention paid to the hundreds of young people who are incarcerated in California. The pandemic did accelerate Newsom’s timeline, though, which Jay Jordan, the executive director of Californians for Safety and Justice, says is a “huge win.” Ideally, no child would be locked up, Jordan tells Mic, but it’s a “transformative step in the right direction” and a shift in “the way California is viewing public safety.”
Jordan says that minors who are incarcerated in DJJ facilities will be transferred back to a local juvenile detention center, an important move as half of those currently incarcerated by the state are over 100 miles from their “home communities,” according to CJCJ. Isolation from family and support systems can have dire consequences on the health and wellbeing of an incarcerated young person, Jordan says, and connection to community is one of the “biggest indicators of [future] success.”
Jordan, who was himself incarcerated by the state’s juvenile system, says that his parents “visited me every visiting time they got. It helped me out so much that I felt loved.” Being close to family and loved ones is a way of saying “you are still human, we still value your life. That speaks volumes to kids,” Jordan tells Mic.
The move also indicates to the public, Jordan says, that “we don’t need youth prisons.” The CJCJ found that “most youth return to the justice system within three years of their release from DJJ.” In other words, incarceration often leads to further incarceration for young people. Menart says that these “facilities prepare youth for an institutional setting,” as opposed to preparing them to be successful members of their local communities when they’re free.
Closing the larger state-run juvenile prisons is also a matter of public health: A CJCJ report found that the state-run prisons often had unsanitary common area and dormitory conditions, and additionally failed to protect incarcerated youth from beatings and sexual assault. There’s also evidence that suicide attempts are on the rise.
California’s move to close state juvenile detention facilities is just the latest in a number of steps taken across the country to reduce the number of incarcerated people incarcerated. The movement has gained particular steam as coronavirus threatens the close quarters and resource-strapped conditions in jails.
Justices boost Trump administration’s power in asylum cases – not good! – kra
Amidst all of tRumnp’s racist rants against immigrants, we should remember two fundamental facts: 1. This nation was built by immigrants, and 2. America is a haven for oppressed people everywhere.
Given the tRump administration’s dislike of immigrants and its manifestly crazy and often unfair decisions, I say this is wrong and all should have access to our courts.
Excerpts from the Article:
The Supreme Court on Thursday strengthened the Trump administration’s ability to deport people seeking asylum without allowing them to make their case to a federal judge.
Immigration experts suggested the administration would use sweeping language in the majority opinion to bolster broader efforts to restrict asylum.
The high court’s 7-2 ruling applies to people who are picked up at or near the border and who fail their initial asylum screenings, making them eligible for quick deportation, or expedited removal.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote the high-court opinion that reversed a lower-court ruling that said asylum-seekers must have access to the federal courts. Congress acted properly in creating a system “for weeding out patently meritless claims and expeditiously removing the aliens making such claims from the country,” Alito wrote.
He noted that more than three-quarters of people who sought to claim asylum in the past five years passed their initial screening and qualified for full-blown review.
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer agreed with the outcome in this case, but did not join Alito’s opinion. In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, “Today’s decision handcuffs the Judiciary’s ability to perform its constitutional duty to safeguard individual liberty.” She was joined by Justice Elena Kagan.
Lee Gelernt, the American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who argued the case in the Supreme Court, said the outcome will make it hard to question the actions of immigration officials at the U.S. border. “This decision will impact potentially tens of thousands of people at the border who will not be able to seek review of erroneous denials of asylum,” Gelernt said.
In practical terms, the impact may be limited. Even after the ruling from federal appeals court in San Francisco that the justices threw out Thursday, only about 30 asylum-seekers whose claims were quickly rejected had sought access to the courts, Gelernt told the justices during arguments in February.
But Cornell University law professor Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration expert, said the decision lends support to broader administration action on asylum.
“Justice Alito used sweeping language in his majority opinion upholding Congress’s efforts to limit due process for arriving immigrants. While not necessary to the precise holding in the case, the Trump administration is sure to use such language to justify its broader efforts to restrict asylum seekers,” Yale-Loehr said.
The administration has made dismantling the asylum system a centerpiece of its immigration agenda, saying it is rife with abuse and overwhelmed by meritless claims. Changes include making asylum-seekers wait in Mexico while their cases wind through U.S. immigration court, denying asylum to anyone on the Mexican border who passes through another country without first seeking protection there, and flying Hondurans and El Salvadorans to Guatemala with an opportunity to seek asylum there instead of the U.S.
On Monday, the Trump administration published sweeping new procedural and substantive rules that would make it much more difficult to get asylum, triggering a 30-day period for public comment before they can take effect.
The United States became the world’s top destination for asylum-seekers in 2017, according to UN figures, many of them Mexican and Central American families fleeing endemic violence.
The justices ruled in the case of Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam, who said he fled persecution as a member of Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority, but failed to persuade immigration officials that he faced harm if he returned to Sri Lanka. The man was arrested soon after he slipped across the U.S. border from Mexico.
He was placed in expedited removal proceedings that prohibit people who fail initial interviews from asking federal courts for much help.
Since 2004, immigration officials have targeted for quick deportation undocumented immigrants who are picked up within 100 miles of the U.S. border and within 14 days of entering the country. The Trump administration is seeking to expand that authority so that people detained anywhere in the U.S. and up to two years after they got here could be quickly deported.
On Tuesday, a federal appeals court threw out a trial judge’s ruling that had blocked the expanded policy. Other legal issues remain to be resolved in the case.
State senator brokers donation of masks to Department of Correction – “Good on Him!” – kra
State Sen. Darius Brown recognizes that inmates must be treated humanely. Prison is the worst place to get ill, for the “health care” is notoriously abominable. God Bless Sen. Brown and the many organizations involved.
This measure will save lives, and more states should do it. Using them for in person visits is smart. All studies show that those inmates who maintain contact with friends and family are far less likely to re-offend.
Excerpts from the Article:
State Sen. Darius Brown, D-Wilmington, announced on Thursday the donation of 5,000 surgical masks to the Delaware Department of Correction.
The masks were provided by the REFORM Alliance, a nonprofit criminal justice reform advocacy organization co-founded in part by rapper, songwriter, and activist Meek Mill and Philadelphia 76ers partner Michael Rubin.
The masks will be used by the DOC to help restart in-person visitation and in-person programming, which have been temporarily suspended since March.
“I have been in regular communication with (DOC) Commissioner (Claire) DeMatteis and her staff during this pandemic and I appreciate their diligence in acting to protect Delaware’s inmate population,” Sen. Brown said. “Accepting this donation from the REFORM Alliance is yet another measure they have undertaken to protect the lives of those men and women, as well as the families who eventually will welcome them home.”
Brokered by Sen. Brown, the donation is one of many being made across the country by REFORM Alliance, which has set a goal of delivering protective masks to every correctional facility in the United States.
As an added measure of protection, DOC will require both inmates and visitors to wear DOC-issued face masks during visitation sessions, which will begin Monday. Additionally, DOC will require individuals who enter its facilities to lead instructional programs, activities, and faith-based programs to wear DOC-issued face masks as a measure of protection against transmission of COVID-19 from the community. These activities are tentatively set to restart in July.
Delaware’s prison facilities are today operating at 73% of operating capacity, which has allowed the DOC to spread out some inmate populations, designate separate housing tiers for new commits during their first 14 days of incarceration, and set aside isolation tiers for inmates. A vacant building at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna also has been converted to a COVID-19 treatment center.
“In a prison where social distancing may be difficult, this donation will help our prison system protect the health and safety of its correctional employees and those serving their debt to society,” said Sen. Brown.
“While I understand the security concerns of inmates wearing face masks, whether guilty or innocent, these men and women deserve to be protected from this deadly virus.”
The organization has already donated over one million face masks to correctional facilities across the United States. The effort has been made possible largely thanks to a recent $10 million donation from Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey’s #startsmall initiative. REFORM’s mask effort has also been aided by Madonna’s Ray of Light Foundation, apparel company Pair of Thieves, New York Times-bestselling author Shaka Senghor, The Bail Project, The Dosberg Fund, Operation LIPSTICK and #cut50.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has tragically reminded us that those in prisons and jails are often the most vulnerable to viral spread and often unable to access adequate protection,” said Jessica Jackson, Chief Advocacy Officer at REFORM Alliance.
“While the Delaware DOC has effectively contained and mitigated the risk of COVID-19, the coronavirus is hitting correctional systems nationwide hard, and a comprehensive approach is needed to protect the people who live and work in these facilities. “We hope this donation can provide a layer of protection for Delaware’s incarcerated population and correctional staff. We thank Senator Brown and Commissioner DeMatteis for allowing us to help them take this step.”
State senator brokers donation of masks to Department of Correction
Appeals court orders judge to dismiss Michael Flynn case
Sad to say, the judge here is quite right. This does not exonerate Flynn; he is guilty and he pled guilty. This episode is all about the continued despicable behavior of William Barr, a disgrace to his office!
Excerpts from the Article:
A federal appeals court on Wednesday ordered Judge Emmet Sullivan to dismiss the case against former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, a possible conclusion to a long-running political fight.
Despite Flynn twice pleading guilty for lying to the FBI about his conversations with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition, the Justice Department moved last month to dismiss the case against him. Sullivan did not immediately act, instead asking for a review of the decision.
Flynn’s case has become a touchstone for President Donald Trump and his supporters in their criticism of the FBI’s Russia investigation and special counsel Robert Mueller’s criminal prosecution of several Trump campaign associates.
In late April, Trump, Flynn’s legal team and conservative allies seized on the disclosure of a hand-written note from a top FBI official outlining how agents may either refer Flynn for prosecution for illegally negotiating with a foreign government or “get him to lie” or “get him fired.” Trump used the document to argue that Flynn should be “exonerated” and that the charges should be dropped. He also suggested that he’s considering a full pardon for Flynn.
The three-judge panel on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday decided the trial judge, Sullivan, didn’t have enough reason to question the DOJ’s prosecution decisions in this case. They also said Sullivan having a third-party attorney weigh in on Flynn’s case, the former judge John Gleeson, isn’t needed anymore. Sullivan “fails to justify the district court’s unprecedented intrusions on individual liberty and the Executive’s charging authority,” DC appeals court Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, wrote in the majority opinion.
Contact Us
Citizens for Criminal JUSTICE
430 Kings Hwy
Ste 414
Dover DE 19901
302.423.4067
