Political Report # 1410 The Government Relies on False "Evidence" Against Migrants

By Melissa del Bosque ProPublica

Laura Peña could see that her 36-year-old client was wasting away. Gaunt and haggard after nearly two months in jail, he ran his fingers through his hair and opened his hands to show her the clumps that were falling out. He was so distraught that his two young children had been taken from him at the border, he could barely speak without weeping. After Carlos requested political asylum, border and immigration agents had accused him of being a member of the notorious MS-13 gang in El Salvador - a criminal not fit to enter the United States. But as Peña looked at him, she saw none of the typical hallmarks of gang membership: the garish MS-13 tattoos or a criminal record back home. He was the sole caregiver for his 7-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter. He'd even brought an official letter from El Salvador's Justice Ministry certifying that he'd never been in jail. Something else about his case bothered her, too: She'd been peppering the government's lawyers with phone calls and emails for weeks and they'd yet to reveal any evidence to back up their accusation. Unlike most attorneys working pro bono to reunite families, Peña was familiar with MS-13, because she'd pursued the deportation of gang members as a trial attorney for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She understood how the system worked, because she'd been a part of it. Her long tumble of curly hair, which makes her look younger than her 37 years, is paired with a forthright-bordering-on-blunt manner of speaking forged from her years as a prosecutor on the front line of the immigration debate. She was empathetic toward the plight of clients like Carlos, whose last name is not being used for his protection. But she was also unwilling to give any of them false hope. If Carlos was a gang member, his chance for asylum was zero.

Political Report # 1244 Mexican Journalist Seeking Asylum for Facing Death Threats Detained at US Border for 60 Days

By TeleSur

Mendez Pineda is seeking political asylum over death threats in one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. Reporters Without Borders is calling on U.S. authorities to admit Mexican journalist Martin Mendez Pineda into the United States, detained at the border for the past 60 days while fleeing threats of violence in his home country to seek asylum north of the border. In a statement released Wednesday, the group explained that Mendez Pineda, the target of attacks and death threats in his home state of Guerrero, has been waiting for a response to his political asylum request since Feb. 5. While he passed the "credible fear interview" on March 1, which authorities use to decide whether a real threat exists, and would ordinarily have been allowed to enter the United States, he instead has been detained under "deplorable conditions," according to his lawyer. "We call on ICE to release Martin Mendez Pineda without delay," Emmanuel Colombie, the head of the Latin America bureau of Reporters Without Borders, also known as RSF, said in the statement. "This journalist, who has been persecuted and threatened with death in his country, must be allowed to present his case for political asylum freely and with dignity before an immigration judge." After covering a number of violent arrests made by federal police officers in February, Mendez Pineda, a former journalist with Novedades Acapulco, was attacked by these same police officers. Weeks later, armed men threatened to kill him outside his home. He then decided to resign from Novedades Acapulco, file a complaint with Mexico's National Human Rights Commission and flee to the United States. According to the RSF, journalism is a dangerous job in Guerrero, with 11 journalists having been murdered in Guerrero since 2003. The most recent victim was Cecilio Pineda Birto, a crime reporter who was gunned down in the violence-ridden state of Guerrero last month. The rest of Mexico is just as deadly for reporters - the country is the most dangerous place to be a journalist in the Western hemisphere. Recently, the newspaper Norte was forced to shut down in the city of Juarez. Its editor penned an editorial informing readers of the publication's decision to shut down, citing the story of Miroslava Breach, a journalist from a city nearby who was shot in the head eight times while she was in her car with her child. The slain La Jornada reporter, who often collaborated with Norte, was left with a note by the gunman that read, "For being a loudmouth." And just last month, a spate of other murders took place, with two journalists killed in Veracruz, in addition to the ones in Guerrero and Chihuahua. An armed attack on a journalist in San Jose del Cabo, Baja California Sur, also left his bodyguard dead. The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that at least 38 journalists have been killed in the country since 1992 for motives linked to their reporting, with another 50 slain in the same time period for unclear reasons. A recent report by the Inter-American Press Association found that 13 journalists have been killed in Latin America just in the last 6 months, with Mexico leading in the number of these deaths. Since last October, Mexico has seen 5 journalists murdered; Peru has seen three; Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, two; and Honduras, one. Meanwhile, a new report by press freedom group Article 19, found that people who kill journalists in Mexico get away with murder 99.7 percent of the time. It points out that 2016 was "the most violent year for the press in Mexico" with a record of 426 attacks and 11 journalists murdered, the largest number in the last 10 years. Original article and sources can be found here: http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Mexican-Journalist-Seeking-Asylum-for-Facing-Death-Threats-Detained-at-US-Border-for-60-Days-20170405-0011.html

Political Report # 1125 ICE's War on Refugees By Nick Tabor, Jacobin

A protest against ICE in 2013. Bonnie Gutierrez / Flickr By Nick Tabor, Jacobin

From the time that she fled from El Salvador and was picked up at the US border, Ana Silvia Orellana Urias wore an ankle monitor so the immigration police could track her between check-in dates. On January 2, when immigration agents surrounded her house and she awoke to them banging on the door, she was living just outside Atlanta with her four children. The agents said they'd only come because of her ankle monitor. She was confused - she'd just changed the batteries. When she tried to call her lawyer, an agent reportedly seized her phone. Then they rounded up Urias and her children and sent them to a jail in south Texas, where she said an agent tried to make her sign a paper agreeing to be deported. Hers is one of twenty-eight families the federal government arrested over New Year's weekend, in a series of deportation raids intended to scare off other would-be asylum seekers from Central America. News of similar arrests has trickled in since, and the secretary of homeland security has pledged to keep them up indefinitely. In reaction to the roundups, activists across the country have launched a social media campaign, "Know Your Rights" workshops, and street protests in at least ten cities. On the legal front, attorneys have set up a makeshift bureau in the Texas jail where deportees are being housed and halted the deportation of a dozen families. Other attorneys are investigating possible civil rights abuses during the raids.