There is a new blog post entitled, “Heil Trump.”
I have to say, the weather here in Pittsburgh seems a bit extreme. There isn’t just rain, but flash flood warnings (and a lot of them). There aren’t just thunderstorms, but severe thunderstorm warnings. It isn’t just hot, but there’s an excessive heat warning. And so it goes. People don’t talk about it much so I don’t quite know what to make of this.
Last night, as I went to bed, the lightning and thunder started in earnest. Yesterday, as I was driving some folks to Monroeville, the downpour was so intense that 1) people actually slowed down, and 2) I ran the windshield wipers on very fast (it rarely does any good so I generally don’t do this) almost the whole way.
I don’t remember it being like this when I was here for a couple years as a kid, fifty years ago. But there are other differences: The alerts come on my phones now: I always know about the alerts and warnings today where I don’t know if there even was an alert system when I was a kid.
Brexit
The resignations have begun as Boris Johnson, the prime minister-apparent, prepares to take over 10 Downing Street.[1]
William James and Elizabeth Piper, “UK minister quits before Johnson becomes PM, decries ‘dark cloud’ of Brexit,” Reuters, July 22, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-idUSKCN1UH0UE
Migration
Image attributed to alicejoy1248 on Tenor, January 6, 2017, fair use.
I am deeply suspicious, given the culture evident at Customs and Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement,[2] that no amount of proof will be sufficient for non-whites to avoid deportation:
Immigrants apprehended in Iowa, Nebraska or other inland states would have to prove to immigration officials that they have been in the United States continuously for the past two years, or they could end up in an immigration jail facing quick deportation. And it could be relatively low-level immigration officers — not officers of a court — making the decisions.[3]
This sounds more like it to me:
“This new directive flows directly from the racist rhetoric that the president has been using for the last week and indeed months, but this new rule is going to terrorize communities of color,” said [Vanita] Gupta, who was head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division under President Barack Obama. “It really reads as a send-them-all-back policy,” she added, referring to the audience’s “Send her back!” chants at a Trump rally last week in response to the president’s attacks on a Somali-born Muslim congresswoman, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).
David Leopold, a Cleveland immigration lawyer and former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said expanding the expedited-removal program shifts the decision-making to immigration officers who might not have much experience with such a policy and means that many immigrants who might have the right to remain in the country will not be given the opportunity to show it.[4]
But let’s be clear: The new policy flows from a law signed by Bill Clinton whose administration limited its enforcement. The George W. Bush administration expanded that enforcement along the southern border.[5] Donald Trump is just taking advantage.
Maria Sacchetti, “Trump administration to expand its power to deport undocumented immigrants,” Washington Post, July 22, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/trump-administration-to-expand-its-power-to-deport-undocumented-immigrants/2019/07/22/76d09bc4-ac8e-11e9-bc5c-e73b603e7f38_story.html
- [1]William James and Elizabeth Piper, “UK minister quits before Johnson becomes PM, decries ‘dark cloud’ of Brexit,” Reuters, July 22, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-idUSKCN1UH0UE↩
- [2]Sam Levin, “‘Happy hunting!’ Immigration agents swapped cheery messages about raids, records reveal,” Guardian, July 3, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/03/ice-us-immigration-messages-raids; Geneva Sands and Nick Valencia, “2nd Customs and Border Protection-connected secret Facebook group shows mocking images,” CNN, July 5, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/05/politics/cbp-second-facebook-group-images/index.html; A. C. Thompson, “Inside the Secret Border Patrol Facebook Group Where Agents Joke About Migrant Deaths and Post Sexist Memes,” ProPublica, July 1, 2019, https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-border-patrol-facebook-group-agents-joke-about-migrant-deaths-post-sexist-memes↩
- [3]Maria Sacchetti, “Trump administration to expand its power to deport undocumented immigrants,” Washington Post, July 22, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/trump-administration-to-expand-its-power-to-deport-undocumented-immigrants/2019/07/22/76d09bc4-ac8e-11e9-bc5c-e73b603e7f38_story.html↩
- [4]Maria Sacchetti, “Trump administration to expand its power to deport undocumented immigrants,” Washington Post, July 22, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/trump-administration-to-expand-its-power-to-deport-undocumented-immigrants/2019/07/22/76d09bc4-ac8e-11e9-bc5c-e73b603e7f38_story.html↩
- [5]Maria Sacchetti, “Trump administration to expand its power to deport undocumented immigrants,” Washington Post, July 22, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/trump-administration-to-expand-its-power-to-deport-undocumented-immigrants/2019/07/22/76d09bc4-ac8e-11e9-bc5c-e73b603e7f38_story.html↩