Democrats are known for embracing illegal immigrants --- Congress called on the INS to more aggressively scrutinize immigrants entering and living in the US, and in 2002, the Joint Terrorism Task Force recommended closer integration of counterterrorism and immigration enforcement.
Among the government’s earliest post-9/11 experiments, its secret detention of an estimated 1,200 Muslim men and other FBI initiatives like “Operation Flytrap”(where agents conducted indiscriminate sweeps in the nation’s airports), yielded no arrests of terrorists. But they did set a pattern that would be repeated time and again in the future. They trampled the constitutional rights of those detained without charges, and unleashed a wave of fear in Muslim communities. Non-Muslim immigrants, including dozens of undocumented immigrants who worked at the airports and were deported as a result of Operation Flytrap, also directly suffered from the government’s zealous national security measures after 9/11. Around the same period, the government instituted the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS). Using fingerprint technology that had been piloted in the 1990s by the US Border Patrol to catch “criminal aliens,” NSEERS required men from a list of “suspect” nations to register and interview with immigration authorities and submit their fingerprints; these were then checked against FBI, state and local law enforcement, and immigration databases. These “special registrations” led to the deportation proceedings against more than 13,000 Muslim and Middle Eastern men, few of whom the government connected to terrorism. NSEERS ended in 2011 following intensive lobbying by Muslim American and civil liberties organizations, but it set the stage for the immigration system’s ongoing central role in counterrorism operations. Another anti-Muslim immigration program that began under Bush and was continued by Obama is the previously secret Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program. Under CARRP, initiated in 2008, Muslims applying for citizenship, legal residency and asylum routinely find their applications delayed and denied without being informed that they have been labeled security threats, denying them the chance to respond to vague and often baseless allegations. Immigration officers are instructed to blacklist any applicant who was born in, has lived in or traveled through “areas of known terrorist activity”; the same goes for those who have wired money home to family members in select countries, speak a foreign language or hold “certain professions.” Such initiatives have taken a clear toll on Muslim immigrants, though theirs are not the only communities caught upon in the enforcement fervor. The “War on Terror” has led to a more widespread war on all immigrants. The same year that CAARP was born, DHS created the Secure Communities Program, which promotes cooperation between ICE, the FBI and local police for identifying the immigration status of people who are arrested across the nation. Immigrants suspected of being deportable can be held for ICE to take them into custody. Even if the criminal charges are dropped or individuals are found innocent, they become enmeshed in a deportation system that cares little about whether or not they have committed a crime. Local police forces around the country routinely set up traffic checkpoints that ensnare undocumented immigrants driving without licenses or with broken taillights, leading to their arrest and eventual transfer to ICE custody. Critics have noted that Secure Communities works through and exacerbates the racial profiling that is rampant in the US criminal justice system. In 2011, Latinos comprised <http://www.apple.com/> 93 percent of all the people arrested through Secure Communities, even though they represented only 77 percent of the undocumented population. While Latin American and Muslim immigrants are drawn into the immigration system through different paths, once they are detained or placed in deportation proceedings, their experiences are often very similar. Public discussion of immigration, as well as organizing around the issue, has tended to overlook these commonalities and what they say about the connections between immigration and the “War on Terror.” In April 2013, the California Ninth District Court decided in favor of the six petitioners, ruling that ICE cannot detain non-citizens for longer than six months without a hearing. But there was a caveat. The Court exempted people detained for national security reasons or serious crimes, signaling how the “War on Terror” will continue to shape the immigration system and US law. <https://subscribe.thenation.com/servlet/OrdersGateway?cds_mag_code=NAN&cds_page_id=122425&cds_response_key=I12SART1> Indeed, the “War on Terror” has its fingerprints all over the immigration reform legislation pushed by Democrats and the Obama administration. While we desperately need bold political action to fix our nation’s broken immigration laws, all of the immigration bills before Congress perpetuate the criminalization of immigrants by codifying and expanding the worst practices of the current system. As attorney and immigrant rights leader Victor Narro observes, “Comprehensive immigration reform is a crime bill in disguise.” *Reform Without Justice* The current blueprint for reform is the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act (S. 744) approved by the US Senate on June 27, 2013. Immigrant advocates have criticized S. 744 because it would increase border militarization and create a ten-year temporary status before immigrants can become legal permanent residents, yet few have expressed concern that the bill expands the government’s profiling of Muslim immigrants by requiring additional security screening of immigration applicants, spouses and children who resided in a region or country “known to pose a threat, or that contains groups or organizations that pose a threat to the US.” Also overlooked is the fact that S. 744 creates new categories of deportability that target alleged criminals. S. 744 would exclude untold numbers of undocumented and legal immigrants from the benefits of reform and leave them vulnerable to detention and deportation. On Wednesday, August 10, 2016 at 7:38:45 AM UTC-5, Bear Guy wrote: > > > Dems Worried About One Immigrant: *Melania Trump* Issue of convenience. > 8.9.2016 > News <http://www.truthrevolt.org/news> > Brian Lilley <http://www.truthrevolt.org/author/brian-lilley> > 42 > <http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/dems-worried-about-one-immigrant-melania-trump#disqus_thread> > > > Democrats are known for embracing illegal immigrants -- they even featured > several of them at their convention last month. But now they are being > critical of Donald Trump's wife Melania, insinuating that she entered the > United States illegally, which in this particular instance is a bad thing. > When Trump supporter and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich faced off > against Democratic Congressman Xavier Becerra on *Fox News Sunday*, > Becerra tried to claim that Melania Trump's status was unknown. > > "We don’t yet know how his wife gained her immigration status because he > won’t reveal that as well," Becerra said in the middle of a rant about > Trump and his taxes. > > The claim had Gingrich stopping the conversation to try and correct the > record. > > "First of all, we know that his wife had a green card before she met > him," Gingrich said. > > "How did she get the green card?" Becerra asked several . > > "She came here legally. She applied for a green card," Gingrich responded. > "This is the only immigrant in America you’re worried about," Gingrich > said. "I think it’s amazing that the one person you decide to pick on > happens to be the wife of Donald Trump." > > When Becerra called Trump an immigrant basher, Gingrich noted that both > his wife and mother were legal immigrants and that he has employed many > legal immigrants. > > "He just likes his immigrants to be legal," Gingrich said. > > "I’m the son of immigrants," Becerra said. "But what does concern is when > some guy goes out and bashes immigrants, not only undocumented but legal > immigrants, and won’t explain how his wife gained her legal status, it’s > important to note." > > Becerra's parents came to the United States from Mexico. The congressman > was born in Sacramento, California. > > > > http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/dems-worried-about-one-immigrant-melania-trump > -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. 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