Monthly Archives: July 2019

u.s. hotels caught in fight over housing detained asylum-seeking migrants

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associated press

yuma sun etc.

22 July 2019

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USA — There’s a new target in the clash over immigration: hotels.

Advocacy groups and unions are pressuring Marriott, MGM and others not to house asylum-seekers who have been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

For decades, the U.S. government has occasionally detained migrants in hotels, and Acting ICE Director Matthew Albence says it might have to split up families if hotels don’t help.

It’s the latest example of a private industry caught in the political fray of an overtaxed immigration system.

American and United Airlines said last year they didn’t want to fly migrant children separated from their parents. Greyhound told authorities to stop dropping off immigrants inside its bus stations. More recently, immigration groups have criticized Enterprise for renting vans to federal agents and PNC Bank for funding private detention centers.

Hotels don’t like to wade into politics. They’re used to accepting business without questions and tuning their lobby televisions to nonpolitical channels. They’re also used to working with the government, whether to host displaced flood victims, defense contractors or conferences.

But when the Trump administration announced immigration arrests targeting families the weekend of July 13 and said it might use hotels, the big companies responded. Marriott, Hilton, Choice Hotels, Best Western, Wyndham, Hyatt, IHG and MGM Resorts all released statements saying they don’t want their hotels used to detain migrants.

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Hotels felt pressure from their unions — which represent thousands of immigrants — as well as from customers angered by recent scenes of overcrowding and other squalid conditions at detention facilities.

“Hotels are meant to welcome people from all over the world, not jail them,” said D. Taylor, president of the hotel workers union Unite Here.

The companies also needed to reassure customers that their properties are safe and not overrun by armed guards watching migrants, said Daniel Mount, an associate professor of hospitality management at Pennsylvania State University.

So far, there’s been little evidence of widespread arrests.

But the hotels’ stance frustrates Albence. He said ICE uses hotels “strategically” to keep families together before transferring them to detention centers or deporting them. As of July 16, the agency had 53,459 individuals in custody, including 311 members of families.

“If hotels or other places do not want to allow us to utilize that, they’re almost forcing us into a situation where we’re going to have to take one of the parents and put them in custody and separate them from the rest of their families,” Albence told The Associated Press in a recent interview.

The Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy last year led to the separation of families at the southern border, igniting widespread outcry before it was abandoned.

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One national chain, Motel 6, faced lawsuits after it was accused of sharing guests’ names with immigration authorities.

ICE wouldn’t say whether it’s now using hotels to detain migrants.

Despite the corporate positions, individual hotels might still work with ICE. Franchisees run 88% of hotels in the U.S., according to data firm STR, and their franchise agreements don’t expressly prohibit detained migrants.

Hotel companies could change those agreements to ban the practice, but waiting for the deals to expire and rolling out new ones would take years, Mount said. And not all hotel owners would back the change.

Walter Barela, who runs 10 hotels across the Southwest as principal of Albuquerque, New Mexico-based Peak Hospitality, said some of his hotels on the border work with church groups to house newly arrived immigrants at discount rates. But he has never been approached by ICE about rooms for detained migrants.

If he was, he said he would consider it. Barela, who serves on the board of the national Latino Hotel Association, said hotels close to Mexico “live and breathe off the Border Patrol.” He once sold a hotel because occupancy dropped sharply after border officers were reassigned.

“It’s not our business to stand on one side of the debate or another,” Barela said. “We have to make people across a wide spectrum feel comfortable in our establishments.”

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Contracts with the government can be lucrative. According to federal contract listings, Quality Suites San Diego Otay Mesa, near the Mexican border, could earn $502,900 between 2016 and 2020 housing migrants for ICE.

Mount says the government generally pays a higher rate than a budget hotel could command.

“If the government is saying, ‘We can fill half the hotel at $99 per night for six months or a year,’ that’s hard business to turn away from,” he said.

Available data suggests the government detains migrants at hotels on a limited basis. On a November 2017 list of government detention facilities, just 12 of the 1,685 sites were hotels. The list, obtained by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, also includes county jails and hospitals.

Only one of those hotels — the Quality Suites — had recently housed more than three migrants. It had as many as 120 detained migrants at one time in fall 2017.

In a September 2017 customer review on the Quality Suite’s website, a guest wrote, “The hotel booked two floors for detainees and held them there with guards in the hallways all night and noisy too. And they put our group just doors away on the same floor.”

In 2016, another guest reported that rooms were being guarded by border security. Washcloths were stuffed in the doors to prevent them from being closed, the review said.

Choice Hotels, which owns the Quality Suites brand, said the hotel signed a contract with the Department of Homeland Security — which oversees ICE — in 2016 but doesn’t plan to renew it. Choice said no migrants are currently being detained at the hotel.

The hotel’s general manager didn’t respond to several requests for comment from the AP.

John Sandweg, a former acting ICE director, said immigrants detained in hotels are usually kept there less than a week while their deportation papers or other orders are processed. They are generally confined to the room and guarded. Meals are provided.

“People will be upset about this, but in the end, it’s probably cheaper than detention,” he said.

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house passes senate border bill

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by Julie Hirschfeld Davis & Emily Cochrane

New York Times

June 27, 2019

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WASHINGTON — Congress sent President Trump a $4.6 billion humanitarian aid package on Thursday after Speaker Nancy Pelosi capitulated to Republicans and Democratic moderates and dropped her insistence on stronger protections for migrant children in overcrowded border shelters.

The vote came after a striking display of Democratic disunity and was a setback for Ms. Pelosi. Until Thursday, she had proved adept at navigating the complexities of a caucus rived by powerful progressive and moderate factions that often work at cross purposes. But their priorities clashed, the liberal flank was vanquished and the speaker — who had put her reputation on the line, calling herself a “lioness” out to protect children as she held out for stronger protections in the migrant facilities that house them — grudgingly had to accept defeat.

The final vote, 305 to 102, included far more Republicans in favor, 176, than Democrats, 129. It left House liberals furious.

“In order to get resources to the children fastest, we will reluctantly pass the Senate bill,” Ms. Pelosi said in a letter to Democratic lawmakers. “As we pass the Senate bill, we will do so with a battle cry as to how we go forward to protect children in a way that truly honors their dignity and worth.”

Her retreat came after Vice President Mike Pence gave Ms. Pelosi private assurances that the administration would abide by some of the restrictions she had sought. They included a requirement to notify lawmakers within 24 hours after the death of a migrant child in government custody, and a 90-day time limit on children spending time in temporary intake facilities, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

A last-minute revolt by centrist lawmakers ensured the demise of Ms. Pelosi’s efforts to toughen the conditions in the Senate’s $4.6 billion bill. The moderate Democrats had begun to worry about the possibility of leaving Washington on Friday for a weeklong July 4 recess without having cleared the humanitarian aid, and some were balking at a funding reduction for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That left the House floor in chaos, with emotions running high.

Ms. Pelosi was left with little choice but to accept the less restrictive Senate bill, which had passed on a lopsided bipartisan vote this week and would do far less to rein in Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown.

“We already have our compromise,” Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, said on the Senate floor, calling his chamber’s bill “the only game in town.”

Ms. Pelosi resisted bowing to the Senate until the end, maneuvering for days among the competing factions in her ranks to try to find a set of restrictions to rein in Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown that would satisfy progressives without alienating moderates and lawmakers from Republican-leaning districts.

The final vote badly divided the party, including at its highest levels. The leaders themselves split, with Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the majority leader; Representative James E. Clyburn, the whip; and Cheri Bustos, the campaign chief, all supporting the bill. Much of the younger, second tier of leaders — including Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the caucus chairman; Representative Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, the assistant speaker; and Representative Katherine M. Clark of Massachusetts, the caucus vice chairwoman — voted “no.”

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus issued a blistering statement calling the measure “a betrayal of our American values.”

“This bill — opposed by the Hispanic caucus and nearly 100 Democratic members of the House — will not stop the Trump administration’s chaos and cruelty,” the statement said. “What happened today is unacceptable, and we will not forget this betrayal.”

Liberal Democrats were left fuming. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York called the decision “an abdication of power we should refuse to accept.” The Trump administration, she said, “will keep hurting kids if we do.”

Representative Mark Pocan, Democrat of Wisconsin and a chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, scathingly singled out the Problem Solvers Caucus, a group of 23 moderate Democrats and 23 Republicans who lobbied lawmakers to accept the Senate measure, asking on Twitter, “Since when did the Problem Solvers Caucus become the Child Abuse Caucus?”

The moderates were livid about the comment, which Representative Max Rose, Democrat of New York, said, “Just speaks to why everyone hates this place.”

Liberal lawmakers were left with a bitter taste, lamenting that a small group of colleagues in their own party had been able to force the majority of Democrats to swallow an outcome they did not want.

“There’s a level of resentment,” said Representative Raúl Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona. “We have to assess how we go forward. This is not a death fight between us, but it is certainly something that I think us progressives cannot take for granted.”

The divisions came to a head when members of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition and several lawmakers from Republican-leaning districts forced House Democrats to delay a vote to bring up a new version of the measure, which combined the Senate bill with restrictions and rules previously passed by the House. Moderate Democrats had threatened to block that bill by voting against the rule that sets the debate procedures, a show of disloyalty to the leadership that is almost unheard-of under Ms. Pelosi. She was forced to cancel the procedural vote rather than see it defeated.

“They are melting down, in disarray,” crowed Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 Republican.

House Democrats also harshly criticized Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, for joining with Republicans to support an aid package they said contained inadequate limitations on the Trump administration, arguing that his position had undercut their negotiating leverage.

“I blame Senate Democrats first and foremost for putting us in this position,” said Representative Pramila Jayapal, Democrat of Washington and a chairwoman of the progressive caucus.

Asked how such a collapse could be avoided in the future, Ms. Jayapal said, “I am looking for a new pharmaceutical drug that builds spines.”

But ultimately, divisions in the House, not differences with the Senate, forced Ms. Pelosi’s hand. Moderate Democrats privately told House Democratic leaders that they were wary of supporting a bill that provided less money for ICE that could later be used against them in their re-election campaigns to portray them as weak on immigration enforcement, according to two lawmakers and several aides familiar with the discussions who described them on the condition of anonymity.

The squabbling grew intense on the House floor on Thursday afternoon, as a scrum of the moderate members huddled in tense discussion about how to proceed. At least one, Representative Abigail Spanberger, Democrat of Virginia, grew visibly emotional and at one point stormed out red-faced, barking at a reporter who tried to interview her: “I do not want to talk!”

The legislation posed a tricky political test for Ms. Pelosi. Liberals, including some Hispanic lawmakers, balked at the bill early in the week because they feared it would only enable Mr. Trump’s harsh immigration tactics by funding the very agencies that have carried them out. They threatened to withhold their votes, insisting on adding new restrictions and stiffer standards for facilities that house for migrant children, as well as more conditions on how the funding would be spent. In the end, almost every Democrat supported the resulting House bill.

But on Thursday, another proposed change, an $81 million cut for ICE, prompted a brush fire on the right of the caucus.

Representative Raul Ruiz of California, a medical doctor who trained in refugee assistance at Harvard and drafted the humanitarian standards supported by many Democrats, said that merely increasing funding for medical care, shelter and other needs would not be enough when a Justice Department lawyer argued in court that Customs and Border Protection may not be required to provide soap and toothbrushes for children in custody.

“This bill will fund a dysfunctional system,” he said. “There are no standards that will force them to comply and be accountable to a basic level of humanitarian treatment and humanitarian needs.”

While the bill would significantly increase the funds available to shelter migrants, he said, “It doesn’t say that an individual should have at least a two-meter-square space; it doesn’t say that temperatures should be kept in a humane range; it doesn’t say that lights and noise should be off between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. so we can respect the sleep of the families which is necessary for health.”

Tragic images of the migrant crisis and details of the horrid conditions migrant families and their children face in overcrowded, squalid detention centers and facilities have intensified the urgency to pass any legislation, but it also hardened some of the Democrats’ resolve to fight for tougher oversight in the bill.

“It’s difficult to see how anyone would object to some protections that would enhance protection of children and transparency,” Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts said.

But Republicans argued that the overwhelming bipartisan vote on the Senate bill — and the blunt rejection of the House’s initial legislation — showed that the core bill should be allowed to move forward without changes.

“You’re going down a path that doesn’t ensure a presidential signature,” warned Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the House Rules Committee. “Frankly, I have some concerns that even the Senate version meets the definition of what the president will sign.”

The now-jettisoned House changes, released early Thursday, included language ensuring the release of unaccompanied migrant children from temporary facilities after three months and allowing for lawmaker visits to facilities without notice.

It would have toughened health and safety standards for detention centers and other facilities, provided money for a pilot processing program in conjunction with nonprofits and reduced some funding for ICE and other agencies. Customs and Border Protection would have had to establish plans and protocols to deliver medical care, improve nutrition and hygiene, and train personnel to ensure the health and safety of children and adults in custody.

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Catie Edmondson, Nicholas Fandos and Sheryl Gay Stolberg contributed reporting from Washington. Sheri Fink contributed reporting from New York

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https://www.nytimes.com

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go ahead, laugh it off

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Here’s a picture promoting a popular series no longer airing on u.s. television, which is too bad, because it was a good show very related to immigration, illegal or otherwise.

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by Chirstopher Wilson

Yahoo News

July 1, 2019

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sharply criticized the conditions at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detention camps, stating that migrants were subject to “systemic cruelty.”

“Just left the 1st CBP facility,” the New York congresswoman wrote on Twitter. “I see why CBP officers were being so physically &sexually threatening towards me. Officers were keeping women in cells w/ no water & had told them to drink out of the toilets. This was them on their GOOD behavior in front of members of Congress.”

On Monday, ProPublica published messages from a Facebook group of roughly 9,500 members, including current and former Border Patrol agents, named “I’m 10-15,” a reference to the agency’s code for “aliens in custody.” Among the messages were jokes about a 16-year-old Guatemalan migrant who died in Border Patrol custody in May and sexist references to Ocasio-Cortez, including illustrations of her performing oral sex on migrants and President Trump.

The group, Ocasio-Cortez said, also suggested raising money for an agent to throw a burrito at her and Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat who represents the El Paso, Texas, area. The two freshmen congresswomen were among a delegation visiting the border on Monday.

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U.S. House Representative, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is so active in the news these days that she now is known by the acronym,  AOC.

https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov

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“Now I’ve seen the inside of these facilities,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “It’s not just the kids. It’s everyone. People drinking out of toilets, officers laughing in front of members Congress. I brought it up to their superiors. They said ‘officers are under stress & act out sometimes.’ No accountability.”

“After I forced myself into a cell w/ women & began speaking to them, one of them described their treatment at the hands of officers as ‘psychological warfare’ – waking them at odd hours for no reason, calling them wh*res, etc,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “Tell me what about that is due to a ‘lack of funding?’ Now I’m on my way to Clint, where the Trump admin was denying children toothpaste and soap. This has been horrifying so far. It is hard to understate the enormity of the problem. We’re talking systemic cruelty w/ a dehumanizing culture that treats them like animals.”

“There’s abuse in these facilities,” said Ocasio-Cortez to reporters outside the facility.  “There’s abuse. This is them on their best behavior, and they put them in a room with no running water and these women were being told by CBP officers to drink out of the toilet. They were drinking water out of the toilet, and that was them knowing a congressional visit was coming. This is CBP on their best behavior, telling people to drink out of the toilet.”

Other members of the delegation concurred with Ocasio-Cortez’s assessment.

“We can’t just focus on the children anymore,” tweeted Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. “I met grandmothers, mothers and fathers who are suffering. This is devastating. The look in one father’s eyes broke me. I can’t look away.”

“‘If you want water, just drink from a toilet,’” wrote Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif. “That’s what border patrol told one thirsty woman we met on today’s #DemsAtTheBorder trip. These are the same CBP personnel who threatened to throw burritos at members of Congress. Changes must be made.”

“Just left the first CBP facility,” tweeted Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa. “The conditions are far worse than we ever could have imagined. 15 women in their 50s- 60s sleeping in a small concrete cell, no running water. Weeks without showers. All of them separated from their families. This is a human rights crisis. We were met with hostility from the guards, but this is nothing compared to their treatment of the people being held. The detainees are constantly abused and verbally harassed with no cause. Deprived physically and dehumanized mentally – everyday. This is a human rights issue.”

Conditions at the border detention camps have continued to draw scrutiny. On Monday, NBC News reported that a Department of Homeland Security document revealed that agents were arming themselves out of fear of riots because the conditions were so bad. Over the weekend, a federal judge ordered that doctors be allowed into child migrant camps in order to ensure they were “safe and sanitary” after multiple reports of young migrants being unable to shower, brush their teeth or wash their hands. Acting CBP chief John Sanders announced last week he was resigning, making no mention of the conditions at the facilities.

“It just felt, you know, lawless,” Dolly Lucio Sevier, a doctor who visited the centers, said in an interview with ABC News last week. “I mean, imagine your own children there. I can’t imagine my child being there and not being broken.”

Earlier in the day, Ocasio-Cortez criticized CBP for having a “violent culture.”

“This just broke: a secret Facebook group of 9,500 CBP [Customs and Border Protection] officers discussed making a GoFundMe for officers to harm myself & Rep. Escobar during our visit to CBP facilities & mocked migrant deaths,” she wrote on Twitter, linking to the story. “This isn’t about ‘a few bad eggs.’ This is a violent culture.”

“9,500 CBP officers sharing memes about dead migrants and discussing violence and sexual misconduct towards members of Congress,” added Ocasio-Cortez. “How on earth can CBP’s culture be trusted to care for refugees humanely? PS I have no plans to change my itinerary & will visit the CBP station today.”

Ocasio-Cortez repeatedly made the point Monday that the views expressed by members of the secret Facebook group were indicative of a larger problem at at CBP, which oversees the Border Patrol.

“There are 20,000 TOTAL Customs & Border Patrol agents in the US. 9,500 – almost HALF that number – are in a racist & sexually violent secret CBP Facebook group,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “They’re threatening violence on members of Congress. How do you think they’re treating caged children+families?”

In May, the Arizona Daily Star reported that a Border Patrol agent who is accused of knocking down a Guatemalan man with his vehicle allegedly sent text messages that included references to migrants as “disgusting subhuman s— unworthy of being kindling for a fire” and that asked the White House to “PLEASE let us take the gloves off trump!”

ProPublica later reported that the CBP was going to investigate members of the group, stating, “Any employees found to have violated our standards of conduct will be held accountable.”

Ocasio-Cortez was was criticized last month by Republican members of Congress for calling the facilities “concentration camps,” although a number of experts and historians agreed with her classification. On June 22, the Salt Lake Tribune editorial board published an op-ed entitled “Yes, we do have concentration camps.”

In a call last week, a CBP official disputed the critical accounts and said the children housed there were given periodic access to showers and unlimited snacks.

“I personally don’t believe these allegations,” said the CBP official, who spoke on the condition he not be identified, according to the New York Times.

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follow-up story, more detail:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-us-is-headed-to-fascism-says-ocasio-cortez-after-tour-of-detention-facilities-at-southern-border_n_5d1bb8bde4b07f6ca5857226

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british india famine yesteryear

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original story

https://news.yahoo.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-border-patrol-violent-culture-171703682.html

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editor ~ rawclyde! ~ old timer chronicle

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