San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

You are here: Home / Archives for Columns

Muro (The Wall) | Video Worth Watching

by

The bilingual band from L.A., The Mexican Standoff, performs Muro (The Wall). From their YouTube site:

“Muro” is the narrative of one of eight hundred thousand stories. Today´s president is making a lot of noise about building a border wall when there are around 344 miles of wall built already. Politics are out of control, and as musicians and story tellers we want to bring some humor and music to today’s issues. We hope to bring people together in these days where America is divided. We support dreamers. We support immigration. We support equality.

  [Read more…]

Immigration Protests: The Whole World is Watching | Progressive Activist Calendar June 22-July 2, 2018

by

Protests Set for Three Cities in San Diego County As Trump’s Psychosis Continues

The Trump administration’s policies on immigration have fired up local activists, with protests set for Escondido, San Ysidro, and downtown San Diego this weekend.

Another round of demonstrations is in the works for next weekend, coinciding with actions in over 400 cities being organized by Move-On. See calendar further down in the story for details.

And while a substantial part of the U.S. looks on in horror at the cruelty and chaos within the administration, the rest of the world is taking notice.   [Read more…]

Syntagma Square | Geo-Poetic Spaces

by

Today
there was no teargas in Syntagma Square
just tears swallowed by the austere protest
of laid off workers
forced to lie all night
outside sleeping churches

No loud speakers
just nails hammered into stone
by the old guards’ shoes
guarding the cenotaph beneath parliament   [Read more…]

Migrant Kids Update: Trump Fixed It! (Snark Alert) | Video Worth Watching

by

Full Frontal’s Samantha Bee regrettably notes that Trump’s Executive Order attempting to “fix” the problem of baby jails that his policy of “zero tolerance” has created, essentially just replaces the baby jails with Mommy & Me jails. In passing she also reveals that Border Patrol is uncomfortable about the use of the “c” word in reporting on its facilities.   [Read more…]

Immigrants as Hostages: The GOP’s Midterm Election Strategy

by

Plus: Listings of ways you can help in San Diego

I laughed when late-night host Steven Colbert said the President folded like an origami Trump Casino on the child separation issue. The joke, however, is on us. The immigration policies of the administration remain fundamentally unchanged. And it has nothing to do with comprehensive reforms or building the great wall of Donald.

The motivation for those policies, exploiting a fear of the “other” manifested as racism remains. Donald Trump has overruled GOP strategists who thought campaigning on the strength of the economy and tax cuts was the ticket to victory (defined as not losing too many seats) in November 2018.

The specter of immigrant “gangsters, drug deals, rapists and welfare cheats” ‘infecting’ America will be the core GOP strategy this fall, whether the (few) remaining rational people in the party like it or not.   [Read more…]

Mom Separated From Son: We’re ‘Trying To Save Our Lives’ | Video Worth Watching

by

Supporters of the current administration’s policy of “zero tolerance” for the federal misdemeanor of illegal entry appear to believe that the vast majority of those seeking asylum are actually dangerous criminals intent on “infesting” the United States. Congressional representative Roger Marshall (R-KS), interviewed by Chris Hayes earlier today, referred to “people that are doing human trafficking, terrorists and cartel members using young kids” as the typical border crossers “posing as families”, even though when pressed by Chris Hayes for evidence, he could only say that the DHS reassured him that it is the truth.

For a more accurate understanding of a typical asylum seeker, watch this interview by MSNBC’s Trymaine Lee of an El Salvadoran mother who sought refuge with her husband and their two children, a four-year old and a fourteen-month old. When the husband presented himself for asylum with the fourteen-month old, the infant was taken from him without explanation and it took eighty-five days for the mother to be reunited with her infant. The father is still in custody.   [Read more…]

San Diego Protests Are Still On: Trump’s Immigration Action Just Makes Things Worse

by

This article has three parts, a simple explanation of what’s coming up from the government, a listing of San Diego responses to Trump’s immigration policies over the next 10 days, and an analysis of what’s likely going to happen on the legal and political fronts in the coming days.

I cobbled these sections together from other people’s work to make the situation more understandable for our readers.

You need to know the only things changed today were the details. Your voice is needed more than ever to stop these abominations.   [Read more…]

San Diego’s June Primary: Winners, Losers, Winners Who Lost, and a Flip Flopping DA

by

We’re a couple of weeks past the June primary. While there has been no change in those claiming victory, there are bits and pieces of data emerging worthy of further analysis.

First up: Voter turnout. The depressing numbers bandied about (I saw one guesstimate as low as 19%) in the days following the election just weren’t correct.

In the 2014 primary election, 27% of voters cast ballots. This time around, the number is 39%, according to the County Registrar of Voters. Not great, but I’ll take it for now. There are 15,000 ballots still to be counted.   [Read more…]

Elijah Cummings Rips Republicans For Allowing Trump’s Child Internment Camps | Video Worth Watching

by

During a joint hearing of the House Oversight Committee and the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, investigating the investigation into Hilary Clinton’s emails, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) in his opening remarks called out the unwillingness of the Republicans to exercise any oversight of the Trump administration, including the new policy of separating children from their […]

Student, Farmworker Visas to Be Targeted as Administration Looks to Double Down on Immigration

by

Officials with the Trump administration have been quietly meeting for several months, according to an article in Politico, planning additional crackdowns on immigration prior to the mid-term elections.

While the details are still being worked out, proposals include tightening rules on student visas and exchange programs; limiting visas for temporary agricultural workers; creating obstacles making it harder for legal immigrants to obtain residency; and collecting biometric data from visitors from suspect countries.

The H-2A program for agricultural workers is uncapped, meaning there’s no annual limit on visas. Limiting the number of visas flies in the face of immigration bills proposed by Congressional Republicans, which typically try to make it easier for farmers to bring in guest workers.   [Read more…]

Listen to Children Who’ve Just Been Separated From Their Parents at the Border | Video Worth Watching

by

Yes, folks, this is still happening. Prepare to have your heart ripped out. ProPublica received an audio recording of children from inside a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility. According to ProPubilca:

The person who made the recording asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation. That person gave the audio to Jennifer Harbury, a well-known civil rights attorney who has lived and worked for four decades in the Rio Grande Valley along the Texas border with Mexico. Harbury provided it to ProPublica. She said the person who recorded it was a client who “heard the children’s weeping and crying, and was devastated by it.”

The person estimated that the children on the recording are between 4 and 10 years old. It appeared that they had been at the detention center for less than 24 hours, so their distress at having been separated from their parents was still raw. Consulate officials tried to comfort them with snacks and toys. But the children were inconsolable.

The Washington Examiner notes that HHS reports holding around 11,500 children at the moment, but at the current rate of prosecutions and separations, that figure will climb to around 30,000 by August.   [Read more…]

Trump’s Cruel Immigration Policies Provoke Protests on the Left, Misinformation on the Right

by

The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” – George Orwell, “1984”

On Fox and Friends this morning, host Steve Doocy told America what the Dear Leader wanted them to hear: No, these aren’t cages, the authorities simply “built walls out of chain-link fences.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s Sunday tweets denying the obvious– “We do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period” –hasn’t worked.

Over the past few days, the American public has been told the practice of separating families is an “effective deterrent, biblically compliant and/or the Democrats’ fault,” depending on who was talking.

(Local Protests listed inside…)   [Read more…]

©2010-2017 SanDiegoFreePress.org

Code is Poetry