Welcome to the Respect Existence & Expect Resistance (RE&ER) Family! Thank you for taking 5 minutes out of your day to learn about the injustices that are happening in our nation.
Check us out on Social Media! Follow our Instagram and like our Facebook page.
Contents
Voting, Voting, Voting
Refugees Illegally Turned Away From Asylum
Mask to School Night
Mail-In vs. Absentee Voting and USPS Delays
Who is ICE?
Life in Jail for Stealing Hedge Clippers?
Justice in the News
Voting, Voting, Voting
Stephanie Byers, a transgender woman, expected to win a seat in the conservative Kansas legislature
Puerto Rico suspends primary voting because not enough ballots were available for voters
Ongoing Court Cases
Refugees Illegally Turned Away From Asylum
Over the past decade, immigrants seeking refuge primarily from Mexico and the Northern Triangle Countries have been unlawfully turned away from even the opportunity to apply for asylum. As a result, Al Otro Lado, Inc., et al. v. Chad F. Wolf et al., a class-action lawsuit, was filed against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Important context to know:
Mexico and the Northern Triangle Countries (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras) have been filled with unforeseen levels of violence, causing residents to seek refuge in the US
Women, who are forced to flee their countries, face rape, assault, and other violence during their journey
US foreign policy has in part, been fueling the migrant crisis and the need for asylum in the first place
Since 2016, CBP officials have “used lies, threats, coercion and physical abuse, among other tactics, to deny migrants access to the asylum process”
Examples of these lies include “Donald Trump just signed new laws saying there is no asylum for anyone” and “Guatemalans make us sick”
Just a few days ago on August 6th, 2020, a federal judge granted class certification in this case.
What does this mean?
Before a class action lawsuit can continue, the class must be certified to ensure that the plaintiffs (in this case, the asylum seekers) are similar enough to be a part of one large case
All non-citizens who are seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border will be certified or included in this case
This is a huge step forward for asylum seekers and immigration advocates, and in fighting back against the Trump Administration’s Asylum Turnback Policy!
Education
Mask to School Night
On Friday, August 7th, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that all school districts within the state will be allowed to reopen this fall. This signifies that the largest school district in the nation, New York City, will be allowed to hold in-person learning. This move will contrast with the nation’s other major school districts that are planning to start the school year on strictly remote learning.
What you should know about this decision:
Governor Cuomo’s announcement arrives as infection rates in the state have dropped to 1%, one of the lowest rates in the country
Although the governor has given school districts the green light to reopen, the final call will be left to superintendents and local officials to decide
In New York City, the district will allow students to choose between online learning or a hybrid option where there will be up to three days of in-person instruction
Mayor Bill de Blasio has stated that schools in the city will remain open if infection rates stay below 3%
What is happening with reopening plans in other states?
As schools in theSouth and Midwest have begun in-person learning this month, concerns regarding infection rates have already started due to students and teachers spreading the virus, causing immediate quarantines and schools to shutdown
Many are blaming these issues on the lack of safety protocols from school and local officials, who are ill-prepared to administer effective infection outbreak and prevention protocols
This problem was witnessed last week when a high school student in Georgia was initially suspended, then had the suspension lifted, for posting a photo demonstrating the lack of social distancing and mask-wearing at her school
While cases continue to rise throughout the nation, many are questioning what type of protocols states will mandate to declare the closure of schools once outbreaks proliferate, similar to what New York and California have done with their school reopening plans.
2020 Elections
Mail-In vs. Absentee Voting and USPS Delivery Delays
In our last edition, we mentioned the pros and cons of Mail-in voting; today, we are going to discuss Mail-in vs. Absentee voting and the USPS’s vital role in this process.
What is Absentee Voting?
A voter must request a ballot if they are to be absent in their precinct at the time of the election
Most states require a valid excuse to obtain an absentee ballot (Due to COVID these rules are changing)
Only a handful of states allow both absentee and mail-in voting together
A recap of Mail-in Voting:
A registries voter receives a mail-in ballot automatically without request
Currently Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, and Utah practice automatic mail-in voting
What's the difference between the two?
Before COVID-19, both absentee and mail-in voting were different in terms of terminology by states, while other states who are less strict find the two ways of voting by mail to be interchangeably
Post COVID-19, 37 states will permit absentee ballots, without any special excuse and 8 states will use mail-in voting
Currently, only Louisiana, Tennessee, Indiana, Mississippi, and Texas do not accept COVID-19 as a valid excuse to request an absentee ballot
For mail-in and absentee voting to exist, we need the United States Postal Service (USPS), which has recently had issues of delayed delivery due to its lack of funding from the government.
Context about the USPS and upcoming election:
Louis DeJoy, Postmaster General under the Trump administration, is a longtime Republican donor and one of Trump’s financial backers
The USPS will likely be overwhelmed by mail-in and absentee ballots due to lack of funding
The GOP is refusing to give the USPS emergency government funding as part of the second pandemic relief bill
The Trump administration has opposed bailing out the USPS, making it harder for the USPS to conduct timely deliveries
Sign these petitions to help save the USPS and provide hazard pay for its employees!
Immigration
Who is ICE?
Eleven days after the 9/11 attacks, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created and split into three separate agencies: legal immigration processing → US Citizenship and Immigration Services, border enforcement → Customs and Border Protection, and interior enforcement → Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The agency has an annual budget of approximately $8 billion.
Their work includes immigration enforcement, combating transnational crime, and preventing terrorism through the following operations:
Enforcement and Removal Operations
Upholding immigration law within and beyond borders
ERO operations target public safety threats, such as convicted “criminals” and gang members as well as those illegally re-entering the country after being removed and immigrants who have been ordered removed by federal immigration judges.
Homeland Security Investigations
Principle investigative components of DHS
Conducts transnational criminal investigations
HSI has the broad legal authority to investigate all types of cross-border criminal activity.
DHS is a stand-alone, cabinet-level department that is run by the Department of Justice, a federal executive department of the United States government. Because of this, ICE has a lot of autonomy within its departments.
A few statistics about deportation:
More than 12 million people were "deported"—either removed or returned—from the US during the Clinton administration
More than 10 million were removed or returned during the Bush administration
More than 5 million were removed or returned during the Obama administration
Although the Obama administration claims that they prioritized “criminals,” many individuals with no criminal record were still deported.
Trump’s Influence in the White House:
In April 2018, the White House posted a fact sheet on its website warning that there are legal “loopholes” that allowed tens and thousands of immigrant children who entered the country on their own to remain in the U.S
The administration considers children fleeing from violence a threat to American society and portrays these laws as “loopholes” that are preventing the deportation of supposedly gang-affiliated teenagers
In reality, in 2017, 30 of 35 teenagers rounded up during these ICE raids last year have subsequently been released because the gang allegations against them were thin
Even with these laws are in place, ICE has not been abiding by them and instead choose to criminalize immigrant youth and detain and deport them back to their countries that they are fleeing from. At the end of the day, no matter what law is in place, ICE has the complete discretion to choose whether or not they want to abide by it.
Call-to-Action
Life in Jail for Stealing Hedge Clippers?
Last week, the Louisiana Supreme Court declined to review Fair Wayne Bryant’s life sentence which was given to him for allegedly stealing hedge clippers. He has already served 23 years in prison, because of a pig law that says theft of any object over $10 is to be considered grand larceny.
30 seconds: Sign this petition to free Fair Wayne Bryant
1 minute: Read this short excerpt on Black Codes and Pig Laws
2 minutes: Read this article to learn more about Bryant’s case
5-10 minutes: Learn about life sentences and how they are becoming increasingly common
$ for a good cause: Support The Sentencing Project with a tax-deductible donation
Written by: Namrata Subramanian, Daniele’ Evans, Daisy Flores, & Jacob Neel
We welcome your feedback and comments below! Please share this edition with friends and family.