July, 15 2019, 12:00am EDT
New Asylum Rule Could Leave Families and Individuals Vulnerable to Grave Harm
The US government published a new interim rule that would prevent anyone at the US southern border who has traveled through another country on the way to the United States from seeking asylum here. This new rule would prevent anyone other than people from Mexico or Canada from seeking asylum in the United States.
In response, Amnesty International USA advocacy director for the Americas Charanya Krishnaswami issued the following statement:
WASHINGTON
The US government published a new interim rule that would prevent anyone at the US southern border who has traveled through another country on the way to the United States from seeking asylum here. This new rule would prevent anyone other than people from Mexico or Canada from seeking asylum in the United States.
In response, Amnesty International USA advocacy director for the Americas Charanya Krishnaswami issued the following statement:
"This rule is an outrageous violation of our obligation to protect families and individuals seeking safety. Once again, the Trump administration has shown the lengths it will go to deny people protection.
"As US State Department reporting makes clear, people cannot access protection in the countries they commonly transit through on the way to the United States. Families and individuals who have fled violence and persecution could be turned away at our doors and left vulnerable to grave harm, all as a result of the administration's agenda of fear and hate.
"This is nothing short of deliberate cruelty. While the Trump administration argues that this policy upholds the integrity of the asylum system, it actually destroys the institution of asylum as we know it.
"Everyone seeking safety has the right to humane treatment and a fair asylum process, per international and domestic standards. The US government must immediately abandon this ill-advised and illegal policy."
This statement can be found online at https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/new-asylum-rule-could-leave-families-and-individuals-vulnerable-to-grave-harm/
Follow Amnesty International USA on Twitter.
Amnesty International is a global movement of millions of people demanding human rights for all people - no matter who they are or where they are. We are the world's largest grassroots human rights organization.
(212) 807-8400LATEST NEWS
Democrats, Progressive Groups to Demand Probe of Alito Over Insurrection Flags
"This is a justice who is going to weigh in on cases that are about our democracy, about the former president's participation in an insurrection," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal.
Jun 03, 2024
A pair of House Democrats and a coalition of progressive advocacy groups on Wednesday will hold a press conference on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court demanding a Senate probe into right-wing Justice Samuel Alito, who is under fire after reporting revealed that flags associated with the January 6, 2021 insurrection were displayed at two of the judge's homes in recent years.
Reps. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, will join the leaders of Stand Up America, MoveOn, Demand Justice, and other advocacy groups at the Wednesday press conference, which is scheduled to begin at 9:00 am ET.
"Participants will call on Senate leadership to launch a full and thorough investigation into Justice Alito's actions as well as push forward essential legislation to reform the Supreme Court," organizers said in a press advisory.
Johnson, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced legislation last year that would establish 18-year term limits for Supreme Court justices. Jayapal has also been a vocal supporter of Supreme Court ethics reforms.
The press conference will come days after Alito rejected calls to recuse from pending cases related to former President Donald Trump and the January 6 insurrection after The New York Timesreported that the justice and his wife flew an upside-down American flag and the "Appeal to Heaven" flag at their homes in Virginia and New Jersey.
Both flags were "carried by rioters at the Capitol on January 6, 2021," the Times noted.
"To say that it has no bearing that his wife was flying not just one but two flags is really disturbing."
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said following publication of the Times stories that his panel "has been conducting a thorough investigation into years of ethical lapses by some justices on the Supreme Court—and the committee has been reviewing the latest reporting on Justice Alito as part of this ongoing investigation."
"Flying the American flag upside down at his home is a signal of defiance, which raises reasonable questions about bias and fairness in cases pending before the court," Durbin added.
In letters to members of Congress last week, Alito blamed his wife for flying the two flags and claimed that "a reasonable person who is not motivated by political or ideological considerations or a desire to affect the outcome of Supreme Court cases would conclude that this event does not meet the applicable standard for recusal."
Jayapal, one of the Democratic lawmakers who demanded Alito's recusal, called the justice's response to the request "outrageous" and said he "had an obligation" to step away from cases involving Trump and the 2021 Capitol attack.
"This is a justice who is going to weigh in on cases that are about our democracy, about the former president's participation in an insurrection," Jayapal said in a CNN appearance last week. "To say that it has no bearing that his wife was flying not just one but two flags is really disturbing."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Conditions ‘Unspeakable’ as Israeli Onslaught Forces Over 1 Million to Flee Rafah
"Public health concerns are beyond crisis levels" in the areas where Palestinians have been forced to shelter, and "the sounds, the smells, the everyday life, are horrific and apocalyptic," a U.N. official said.
Jun 03, 2024
More than 1 million Palestinians have fled Rafah as the city comes under a continued Israeli assault, forcing many to shelter in badly damaged buildings in the nearby city of Khan Younis, according to the United Nations.
The assault on Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip, has left the displaced in "unspeakable" conditions, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said on social media. Approximately 1.7 million displaced people are now in Khan Younis and "Gaza Middle Areas," according to UNRWA.
Forced displacement has pushed over 1 million people away from Rafah.
Thousands of families now shelter in damaged & destroyed facilities in Khan Younis, where @UNRWA keeps providing essential services despite increasing challenges. Conditions are unspeakable.#CeasefireNOW pic.twitter.com/qRVnWmfZSr
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) June 3, 2024
Khan Younis, which saw sustained fighting earlier in the war, still does not appear to be a safe zone: Israeli military vehicles entered the city in recent hours after advancing to two towns just east of Khan Younis with "heavy gunfire and artillery shelling," Al Jazeerareported.
Since early May, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has issued evacuation orders for parts of Rafah, telling people to go to an "expanded humanitarian zone" in Al-Mawasi, located roughly 12 miles from the city.
Israeli forces subsequently launched attacks on designated safe zones, including in Al-Mawasi. Two strikes killed 45 and 21 people last week, mostly women and children. The first of the attacks, known as the "tent massacre," was carried out with U.S. weapons, later analysis showed.
Many of the people fleeing Rafah are having to move for at least the second time during the war. Roughly 1 million Palestinians who'd been displaced elsewhere had gone to Rafah for refuge earlier in the war. They began to leave Rafah nearly four weeks ago as Israeli started its assault on the city. Before the war, Rafah's population was about 275,000, but the governorate reached a population of 1.4 million by February as Israel ordered Palestianians to move there from northern Gaza. This meant squeezing more than half of Gaza's prewar population of 2.3 million into one governorate, NPRreported.
More than 18,500 pregnant women have been forced to leave Rafah, while about 10,000 pregnant women remain in the city in "desperate conditions," the U.N. reported.
"They're exhausted, traumatized, dehydrated, and malnourished," the U.N. Population Fund wrote on social media of pregnant women dealing with "Israel's terrifying military operation in Rafah."
"Pregnant women in Gaza are living in an unrelenting nightmare," the agency added.
After successive operations last month, Israel now controls the entire Gaza-Egypt border. Humanitarian corridors have shut down, with many agencies and aid groups pausing operations in Rafah due to lack of supplies and security concerns.
"We are living and working precariously in the south," Matthew Hollingsworth said, World Food Program (WFP) country director in Palestine, said late last week, the U.N. reported. The areas where the displaced have been forced to shelter are nightmarish, he said.
"Public health concerns are beyond crisis levels" and "the sounds, the smells, the everyday life, are horrific and apocalyptic," Hollingsworth added.
More than half of the structures in the Gaza Strip have been damaged, destroyed, or possibly destroyed during the eight-month Israeli assault, the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) concluded, in findings released Monday.
🏚️ According to our analysis, we identified 36,591 destroyed structures, 16,513 severely damaged, 47,368 moderately damaged, and 36,825 possibly damaged structures. A total of 137,297 structures, or about 55% of the total in Gaza, are affected. #DamageAssessment #SatelliteImagery pic.twitter.com/UZjh64o0j7
— UNOSAT (@UNOSAT) June 3, 2024
The mass displacement from Rafah continued as the Biden administration sought to arrange a cease-fire after after being pressured for months to end its military support for Israel’s onslaught. President Joe Biden called for an end to the war on Friday and backed a roadmap to a deal, which drew praise from Palestine defenders—the Council on American-Islamic Relations called it "long overdue" and a "positive step"—as well as criticism that it did not address the root causes of the conflict.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that the deal would not stop the war, which could not end until "total victory" had been achieved, according toIsraeli National News.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Maldives Bans All Israeli Travelers Over 'Genocidal Acts' in Gaza
Nearly 11,000 Israelis visited the Indian Ocean archipelago nation last year.
Jun 03, 2024
Citing the Gaza genocide, the Maldives said Sunday that it will ban all Israeli passport holders from entering the Indian Ocean archipelago nation, in which income from tourism accounts for nearly 30% of the gross domestic product.
Acting on a recommendation by his Cabinet, Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu will impose the travel ban, the details of which will be determined by a specially appointed subcommittee. Muizzu's office also said the president will appoint a special envoy "to assess Palestinian needs."
Muizzu will also launch a fundraising campaign "to assist our brothers and sisters in Palestine with the help of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and to conduct a nationwide rally under the slogan 'Falastheenaa Eku Dhivehin,' which translates to 'Maldivians in Solidarity with Palestine,' to show support."
The Maldives
“We don’t want your money with blood on it."
Israel 🇮🇱 is a pariah nation committing genocide
Follow the Maldives. Say no to blood money:
Boycott Israel
Sanction Israel
Ban Israeli 🇮🇱 passports
Stand against genocide
Support Palestine 🇵🇸pic.twitter.com/6kVWrLv9LY
— Howard Beckett (@BeckettUnite) April 18, 2024
Like Palestine, the Maldives is a majority Sunni Muslim nation. There have been numerous well-attended pro-Palestine rallies in the Maldivian capital Male since October.
Last month, the Maldives reaffirmed its intention to join the South Africa-led genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, with Muizzu's office accusing the Israeli government and military of violating the Genocide Convention and causing "mass displacement, acute starvation, and blockage of humanitarian aid."
According to Palestinian and international officials, at least 36,479 Palestinians—mostly women and children—have been killed by Israeli forces since October 7, when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel and killed more than 1,100 people and kidnapped over 240 others. At least 82,777 other Palestinians have been wounded and an estimated 11,000 Gazans are missing and believed dead and buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed-out building.
Responding to last month's massacre of dozens of Palestinian refugees in a Rafah tent encampment and the wider Israeli assault on Gaza's southernmost city, the Maldivian government said that "such deliberate aggression and genocidal acts targeted against civilians are in gross violation of international humanitarian law."
This isn't the first time the Maldives has banned Israeli travelers. The country's government ended the previous ban in the early 1990s with an eye toward normalizing relations with Tel Aviv. However, normalization efforts were abandoned following the 2012 coup that ousted then-President Mohamed Nasheed.
Maldivian government data show 528 Israelis visited the country—known for its pristine white sand beaches and stunning turqouise lagoons—during the first four months of 2024, a decrease from 4,644 during the same period last year. Nearly 11,000 Israelis visited the Maldives last year.
Israel and many of its international supporters shrugged off the impending ban, with the Israeli government's account on the social media platform X saying, "We're good," and one prominent Tel Aviv attorney scoffing, "Maldives, Schmaldives."
The Israeli Foreign Minister advised Sunday that citizens already in the Maldives should "consider leaving, because if they find themselves in distress for any reason, it will be difficult for us to assist."
According to the Israeli government, 10 other nations—Algeria, Bangladesh, Brunei, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Pakistan, and Yemen—ban entry of Israeli passport holders.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular