November, 10 2010, 07:18am EDT
AWOL Soldier Refusing Deployment Because of Severe PTSD
Jeff Hanks has refused to return to
Afghanistan due to the injuries he has sustained as a soldier in the
Army's 101st Airborne Division. Having already served deployments in
Iraq and Afghanistan, Jeff was due to receive medical evaluation and
treatment by the Army during a mid-September leave. But his command
effectively canceled his appointments in order to send him back to
Afghanistan. Feeling he had few options, Jeff made the difficult
decision to break the law and go AWOL in order to get the care he so
desperately needs. He will turn himself in to his military co
WASHINGTON
Jeff Hanks has refused to return to
Afghanistan due to the injuries he has sustained as a soldier in the
Army's 101st Airborne Division. Having already served deployments in
Iraq and Afghanistan, Jeff was due to receive medical evaluation and
treatment by the Army during a mid-September leave. But his command
effectively canceled his appointments in order to send him back to
Afghanistan. Feeling he had few options, Jeff made the difficult
decision to break the law and go AWOL in order to get the care he so
desperately needs. He will turn himself in to his military command at
Fort Campbell, KY this Thursday - Veterans Day - to face the legal
consequences of his actions.
Read Jeff's full story in this article originally published on Truthout.org.
With the help of Iraq Veterans Against the War's Operation Recovery Campaign,
Jeff has gotten civilian medical care, and the moral and legal support
he needs. IVAW is working with Courage to Resist to raise legal funds
for Jeff's case. To make a donation, click here
and type "JH Legal Defense" in the Special Project box, or you can make
a check out to IVAW and put "JH Legal Defense" in the memo line. Send
your check or money order for Jeff's legal defense to: IVAW, 630 Ninth
Avenue, Suite 807, New York, NY 10036.
To forward Jeff's story to your friends and colleagues click here.
Thousands of soldiers like Jeff are
being denied their right to heal by the U.S. military so it can continue
its ongoing occupations. Approximately 20% of the current fighting force are suffering from un-treated trauma. Our Operation Recovery Campaign will to stop the deployment of traumatized troops and hold those accountable who send them back into war.
Operation Recovery's Veterans Day Outreach Week
This week, in honor of Veterans Day,
teams of IVAW members across the country are conducting outreach to
veterans on college campuses and to service members on military bases.
We are surveying veterans and GIs about their experience with trauma and
spreading the word about our right to heal. Our campaign Research Team
is analyzing data and preparing to file Freedom of Information Act
Requests (FOIA) to find out:
- Which military bases are re-deploying the most troops to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan?
- How many service members are being screened for trauma before they are re-deployed?
- How do military protocols for mental health care compare to actual treatment?
This Veterans Day, we are honoring our military brothers and sisters by taking action. Join us by signing the Operation Recovery Pledge of Support to help us reach 10,000 signatures by Thursday.
Can you help us meet this goal? It will take 60 seconds or less to sign the Pledge of Support. Just click here.
Today we are at 5,177 pledges.
We need 4,823 more signatures to meet our goal of 10,000 by Thursday, Veterans Day.
Letting
GIs and veterans know that we have 10,000 supporters standing with us
will send a powerful message that they are not alone.
With your help, we can get there.
Take the Pledge of Support now.
Thank you for standing with us.
Matt Howard, Communications Director 646.723.0989Media@ivaw.org
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Congressional Report Calls Trump Deportation Plan 'Catastrophic' for Economy
"All it will do is raise grocery prices, destroy jobs, and shrink the economy," JEC Chair Martin Heinrich said of the president-elect's plan to deport millions of immigrants.
Dec 12, 2024
Echoing recent warnings from economists, business leaders, news reporting, and immigrant rights groups, Democrats on the congressional Joint Economic Committee detailed Thursday how President-elect Donald Trump's planned mass deportations "would deliver a catastrophic blow to the U.S. economy."
"Though the U.S. immigration system remains broken, immigrants are crucial to growing the labor force and supporting economic output," states the new report from JEC Democrats. "Immigrants have helped expand the labor supply, pay nearly $580 billion a year in taxes, possess a spending power of $1.6 trillion a year, and just last year contributed close to $50 billion each in personal income and consumer spending."
There are an estimated 11.7 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, and Trump—who is set to be sworn in next month—has even suggested he would deport children who are American citizens with their parents who are not and attempt to end birthright citizenship.
Citing recent research by the American Immigration Council and the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the JEC report warns that depending on how many immigrants are forced out of the country, Trump's deportations could:
- Reduce real gross domestic product (GDP) by as much as 7.4% by 2028;
- Reduce the supply of workers for key industries, including by up to 225,000 workers in agriculture and 1.5 million workers in construction;
- Push prices up to 9.1% higher by 2028; and
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Highlighting how mass deportations would harm not only undocumented immigrants but also U.S. citizens, the report explains that construction worker losses would "make housing even harder to build, raising its cost," and "reduce the supply of farmworkers who keep Americans fed as well as the supply of home health aides at a time when more Americans are aging and requiring assistance."
In addition to reducing home care labor, Trump's deportation plan would specifically harm seniors by reducing money for key government benefits that only serve U.S. citizens. The report references estimates that it "would cut $23 billion in funds for Social Security and $6 billion from Medicare each year because these workers would no longer pay into these programs."
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), who chairs the JEC, said Thursday that "as a son of an immigrant, I know how hard immigrants work, how much they believe in this country, and how much they're willing to give back. They are the backbone of our economy and the driving force behind our nation's growth and prosperity."
"Trump's plan to deport millions of immigrants does absolutely nothing to address the core problems driving our broken immigration system," Heinrich stressed. "Instead, all it will do is raise grocery prices, destroy jobs, and shrink the economy. His immigration policy is reckless and would cause irreparable harm to our economy."
Along with laying out the economic toll of Trump's promised deportations, the JEC report makes the case that "providing a pathway to citizenship is good economics. Immigrants are helping meet labor demand while also demonstrating that more legal pathways to working in the United States are needed to meet this demand."
"Additionally, research shows that expanding legal immigration pathways can reduce irregular border crossings, leading to more secure and regulated borders," the publication says. "This approach is vital for managing increased migration to the United States, especially as more people flee their home countries due to the continued risk of violence, persecution, economic conditions, natural disasters, and climate change."
The JEC report followed a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday that explored how mass deportations would not only devastate the U.S. economy but also harm the armed forces and tear apart American families.
In a statement, Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of the advocacy group America's Voice, thanked Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) "for calling this important discussion together and shining a spotlight on the potential damage."
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One advocate called the CFPB's new rule "a major milestone in its effort to level the playing field between regular people and big banks."
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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, one of President-elect Donald Trump's top expected targets as he plans to dismantle parts of the federal government after taking office in January, announced on Thursday its latest action aimed at saving households across the U.S. hundreds of dollars in fees each year.
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The rule is set to go into effect next October, but the incoming Trump administration could put its implementation in jeopardy. Trump has named billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk to co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency, an advisory body he hopes to create. Musk has signaled that he wants to "delete" the CFPB, echoing a proposal within the right-wing policy agenda Project 2025, which was co-authored by many officials from the first Trump term.
"The CFPB is cracking down on these excessive junk fees and requiring big banks to come clean about the interest rate they're charging on overdraft loans."
"It is critical that incoming and returning members of Congress and President-elect Trump side with voters struggling in this economy and support the CFPB's overdraft rule," said Lauren Saunders, associate director at the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC). "This rule is an example of the CFPB's hard work for everyday Americans."
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The Federal Reserve Board exempted banks from Truth in Lending Act protections in 1969, allowing them to charge overdraft fees without disclosing their terms to consumers.
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Similarly, in April Barr claimed at a hearing that "the vast majority of Americans" believe credit card late fees are legitimate after the Biden administration unveiled a rule capping the fees at $8.
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Police use of "catch-and-release" tactics is particularly worrying for press freedom advocates, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Dec 12, 2024
Arrests and detainments of journalists in the United States surged in 2024 compared to the year prior, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a project of the Freedom of the Press Foundation.
The tracker reports that journalists were arrested or detained by police at least 48 times this year—eclipsing the number of arrests that took place in the previous two years combined, and constituting the third highest number of yearly arrests and detentions since the project began cataloging press freedom violations in 2017. 2020, however, still stands as far and away the year with the most arrests and detentions.
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While a year with a high number of protests typically leads to more arrests, "it was protests in response to the Israel-Gaza war that caused this year's uptick," according to the tracker.
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The report also recounts the story of Roni Jacobson, a freelance reporter whose experience on the last day of 2023 was a harbinger of press freedom incidents to come in 2024. Jacobson was on assignment to cover a pro-Palestinian demonstration for the New York Daily News on December 31, 2023 when she was told to leave by police because she didn't have city-issued press credentials with her. She recounted that she accidentally bumped into an officer and was arrested. She was held overnight at a precinct and then released after the charges against her, which included disorderly conduct, were dropped.
Even five arrests that the tracker deems "election-related" took place at protests that were "at least partially if not entirely focused on the Israel-Gaza war." Three of those election-related arrests took place at protests happening around the Democratic National Convention in August.
One police force in particular bears responsibility for this year's crackdown: Nearly 50% of the arrests of journalists this year were at the hands of the New York Police Department (NYPD). Many of those taken into custody had their charges dropped quickly, but the tracker notes that the NYPD's use of "catch-and-release" tactics was particularly worrying to press freedom advocates.
Two photojournalists, Josh Pacheco and Olga Federova, were detained four times this year in both New York City and Chicago while photographing protests. They were both "assaulted and arrested and [had] their equipment damaged" while documenting police clearing a student encampment at Manhattan's Fashion Institute of Technology; however, they were released the next day and told their arrests had been voided.
"While [we are] glad that some common sense prevailed by the NYPD not charging these two photographers with any crime, we are very concerned that they are perfecting 'catch-and-release' to an art form,” Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, told the tracker.
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Besides covering protests, 2024 also saw the continued practice of "criminally charging journalists for standard journalistic practices," according to the tracker. For example, one investigative journalist in Los Angeles was repeatedly threatened with arrest while attempting to cover a homeless encampment sweep in the city, and then was detained in October, though he was let go without charges.
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