ICE is the Real Terror this Halloween
Welcome to our news segment: TL;DR of Immigration News, for when the news is Too Long and you Didn’t Read it.
This is a weekly collection of immigration-related news stories. These bite-size summaries will keep you up to date without overwhelming your inbox.
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Pastor’s pilgrimage to New York
The Reverend Gary Graf will walk more than 800 miles from the south suburbs of Chicago to New York City’s Ellis Island to speak out against the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts. Rev. Graf is the head pastor of Our Lady of the Heights in south suburban Chicago Heights, and a member of the group Priests for Justice for Immigrants.
“To tear families apart is to wound the very heart of God. We must announce these actions for what they are: immoral and un-American policies and enforcement actions that divide families and fracture our nation.”
Graf’s walk comes as the Trump administration launched “Operation Midway Blitz” in September, rounding up undocumented immigrants and others across the Chicago area and detaining them. Two people have been shot in the operations, one fatally.
Graf said he hopes to reach Ellis Island by Dec. 1. He will end his trip at the Statue of Liberty and hold an interfaith service in support of immigrant families affected by ICE.
In Chicago, a Halloween weekend of immigration arrests and violence
Donald Trump continues to use Chicago to demonstrate the supposed invincibility and inevitability of the ethnic cleansing operation at the center of the fascist hate machine.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker demanded that the federal government offer the children of Chicago a reprieve from violence - if only for Halloween weekend.
Kristi Noem called the request ‘shameful,’ then proceeded to demonstrate over and over again exactly whose conduct was shameful in the Windy City with violent raids, an arrest at a daycare, and federal agents brutalizing a man who came out to protest outside of a middle school.
Daniel Biss, the Mayor of greater Chicago area city of Evanston, said it best:
“Just today, ICE agents have assaulted Evanston residents, beaten people up, grabbed them, abducted them, taking people off the street once again because of the color of their skin," he said. "It is an outrage. Our message for ICE is simple: Get the hell out of Evanston."
Pittsburgh rally and march target ICE actions at Home Depot stores
Across the country this past week, activists remembered those in the past year who have died in ICE custody, and the multi billion dollar corporations, like Home Depot, who have aided and abetted the Trump administration in its violent campaign against immigrants, as part of NDLON’s Disappeared in America Day of Action.
Never Again Action Organizer, Symone Saul, spoke at the Pittsburgh rally, saying, “We know from our history that fascist regimes gain consolidated power by vilifying and taking away the rights of certain groups who they can isolate progressively over time, so they can normalize overall repression for everyone over time. When we insist on everyone’s rights, we also protect our own.”
According to the American Immigration Council, this past year of the Trump Administration has proven more deadly for people in ICE custody than the entirety of the COVID 19 pandemic. With the amount of people kidnapped by ICE growing comes worsening conditions inside detention centers, as well as an administration that refuses to be held accountable for any wrong doing, a recipe for negligence and increased death in the system.
Trump Administration sets lowest ever cap on refugee admissions
The Trump administration is cutting the number of refugees it will admit to the U.S., capping it at 7,500 for the current fiscal year – the lowest since the U.S. refugee program was established in 1980. (The Biden administration had set the refugee cap at 125,000 for fiscal year 2025.)
The U.S. wants to primarily admit Afrikaners from South Africa, according to a notification in the Federal Register filed on Thursday, and "other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands." Thursday's notification does not provide a reason for the lower cap.
Senate Democrats, including Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the Trump administration disobeyed the law by not consulting with Congress on the refugee cap before imposing it.
As one of his first executive actions, Trump paused the refugee resettlement program. Various agencies including the State Department have also paused disbursing funding for critical services for other refugees, such as the home, job and school assistance Afrikaners would be poised to receive. The admission of Afrikaners has drawn scrutiny from resettlement agencies in the U.S., who have faced sharp budget, resource, and personnel cuts since President Trump took office.
The pause sent the refugee resettlement agencies into turmoil as refugees already cleared to arrive in the U.S. received notice their flights had been cancelled. Among those left in limbo were Afghans who worked with the U.S. military, despite past promises to help those who supported the U.S. in America's longest war.
DHS unleashes historic surveillance Dragnet on Migrants and Citizens
DHS is planning to roll out a new sweeping surveillance program that would require anyone filing or associated with filing for an immigration benefit request to submit biometric data on themselves. Biometric data includes fingerprints, facial images, iris scans, voiceprints, and even DNA samples. This new requirement has no age limit.
In practice, this will mean that immigration benefits holders, family members, and sponsors will face ongoing surveillance that could potentially last for years, with the government empowered to share people’s data with state and local agencies.
This is a historic expansion of government surveillance in the American immigration system, with potentially far-reaching consequences for privacy and government oversight.
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