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With The Stroke of a Pen, Trump Administration Puts Immigrant Youth at Grave Risk
Today, the Trump administration put nearly 800,000 young immigrants at grave risk of becoming undocumented and being deported. The administration's announcement that it is ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative is a devastating and mean-spirited attack on America's young immigrants.
The administration announced the following:
WASHINGTON
Today, the Trump administration put nearly 800,000 young immigrants at grave risk of becoming undocumented and being deported. The administration's announcement that it is ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative is a devastating and mean-spirited attack on America's young immigrants.
The administration announced the following:
- The Acting Secretary of Homeland Security has issued a memorandum formally rescinding the 2012 memorandum that created DACA.
- Young people who currently have DACA will be returned to their undocumented status and susceptible to deportation as early as March 5, 2018.
The following is a statement from Beth Werlin, Executive Director of the American Immigration Council:
"When President Obama announced the DACA initiative in 2012, he brought stability to the lives of young immigrants living, learning, and working in the United States. By the hundreds of thousands, these young people have taken advantage of the opportunity to participate openly in American society. They now will live in fear of deportation. The risk that anyone who is undocumented will be detained and deported by the Department of Homeland Security is very real.
"The Trump administration's decision today will have profound consequences not only for the lives of these young people, but for the nation as a whole. DACA beneficiaries are our friends and neighbors and a critical part of American communities. Unnecessarily destabilizing their lives will have a ripple effect across our society.
"While the administration is now calling on Congress to act, today's decision is manipulative and ostensibly uses young immigrants as a bargaining chip. Nonetheless, Congress has no choice but to act to save our kids. We must not squander the potential of this generation of young people who will help write the next great chapter of American history. They need a clear and permanent path forward."
The American Immigration Council, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is a powerful voice in promoting laws, policies, and attitudes that honor our proud history as a nation of immigrants. Through research and policy analysis, litigation and communications, and international exchange, the Council seeks to shape a twenty-first century vision of the American immigrant experience.
LATEST NEWS
Tlaib Says US Has Sent a Message: 'Israel Can Kill Americans and Get Away With It'
"Dear Americans, if you are killed by the Israeli government, our country won't care," the Michigan Democrat lamented. "No one will be held accountable."
Sep 10, 2024
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib said Monday that the Biden administration has effectively communicated to the world that the Israeli military "can kill Americans and get away with it," a comment that came hours before the Israel Defense Forces predictably concluded that its killing of a U.S. citizen in the occupied West Bank was accidental.
"Dear Americans, if you are killed by the Israeli government, our country won't care," Tlaib (D-Mich.) wrote in response to remarks from U.S. State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel, who deferred to the Israeli military's internal investigation when asked about the killing of 26-year-old Turkish American citizen and human rights activist Aysenur Eygi last week at a protest in the illegally occupied West Bank.
"No one will be held accountable," Tlaib added. "It doesn't matter who you are, Israel can kill Americans and get away with it."
.@iclalturan: Eyewitnesses say she was killed by Israeli sniper, autopsy says she was shot in the head…do you have any doubt
Patel: I appreciate all you’re sharing but our partners Israel are conducting a process
Rabia: Her family wants an independent investigation, would you… pic.twitter.com/5EqxXpYKSQ
— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) September 9, 2024
On Tuesday, the Israeli military said in a statement following its inquiry into the killing of Eygi last week that it is "highly likely that she was hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDF fire" which was aimed not at her but at another demonstrator, whom Israel characterized as a "key instigator" of a "riot."
"Israel has sent a request to carry out an autopsy," the IDF said.
Ghassan Daghlas, the governor of the West Bank city Nablus, saidSaturday that an autopsy conducted at a nearby university "confirmed that Eygi was killed by an Israeli occupation sniper's bullet to her head." Eyewitnesses have also said Eygi was deliberately shot in the head, pushing back on the IDF's narrative.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in response to the IDF's findings that "no one should be shot and killed for attending a protest" and declared that "Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes in the way they operate in the West Bank, including changes in their rules of engagement."
Blinken, who recently signed off on a $20 billion sale of U.S. weaponry to Israel, did not specify the changes the U.S. wants to see, nor did he suggest there would be any consequences if the Israeli government refuses to implement them.
The United States' top diplomat also did not say the Biden administration would launch its own investigation of Eygi's killing.
Over the weekend, as Common Dreamsreported, Eygi's family said in a statement that an internal Israeli probe was "not adequate" and called on the Biden administration to "order an independent investigation into the unlawful killing of a U.S. citizen and to ensure full accountability for the guilty parties."
Eygi is at least the third U.S. citizen Israeli forces have killed in the West Bank since the October 7 Hamas-led attack. Since then, Israeli forces and violent far-right settlers have operated with near-total impunity in the occupied Palestinian territories, killing tens of thousands of people in Gaza and hundreds in the West Bank, including one child every two days.
Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, said Monday that "the Biden Administration should be launching its own investigation into the killing of an American citizen."
"Instead," he added, "it's deflecting and deferring to Israel to hold its own soldiers and settlers accountable, which Israel has repeatedly failed to do."
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'Unbearable and Horrific Massacre': IDF Kills Dozens in Tent City Bombing
"The far-right genocidal Israeli government continues to use its one-ton Biden bombs to massacre Palestinians as if they were sheep for the slaughter," said one advocacy group.
Sep 10, 2024
The Israeli military bombed Gaza's overcrowded tent city of al-Mawasi early Tuesday morning in its latest attack on a supposed "safe zone," killing dozens of people and intensifying anger at the countries enabling the assault—principally the United States.
Video footage from the scene shows rescue workers transporting wounded people to barely functioning nearby hospitals as others desperately searched for bodies buried under sand.
The Israeli military claimed it was targeting Hamas militants and used "precise munitions" in an effort to mitigate civilian harm, but observers said the massive craters left by the attack were consistent with 2,000-pound MK-84 bombs supplied in large numbers by the United States. The Biden administration has transported thousands of the bombs to Israel since the October 7 Hamas-led attack.
Maha Hussaini, strategy director at the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, said in the wake of Tuesday's attack that "in an overcrowded camp where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are scattered in makeshift tents, even the smallest bomb can cause immense damage and numerous casualties."
"Now, imagine the devastation when the Israeli occupation army uses three U.S.-made MK-84 bombs on them," Hussaini added.
Horrifying scenes from the israeli massacre of displaced Palestinian families in Mawasi, west Khan Younis: who in God’s name bombs tents pic.twitter.com/1sBEG7vUb9
— Sarah Wilkinson (@swilkinsonbc) September 10, 2024
A spokesperson for Gaza's civil defense said the Israeli attack destroyed dozens of tents, killed at least 40 people, and wounded over 60 more.
"Entire families disappeared... under the sand, in deep holes," the official said. Reutersnoted that "tents in the surrounding area had been completely incinerated, leaving only their metal frames dusted with ghostly ash in a wasteland littered with debris."
The Israel Defense Forces said its target was a "command center" that Hamas purportedly established in the designated humanitarian zone, which Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked. Hamas denied its fighters were in the area and said the Israeli bombing killed mostly women and children.
The Associated Pressreported that one of its camera operators "saw three large craters at the scene, where first responders and displaced people were sifting through the sand and rubble with garden tools and their bare hands by the light of mobile phones."
"They pulled body parts from the sand, including what appeared to be a human leg," the outlet reported. "Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, one of three hospitals to receive casualties, said around two dozen bodies were brought in from the strike. An Associated Press cameraman saw 10 bodies in the hospital's morgue, including two children and three women."
U.S.-based advocacy groups said the attack was the latest example of the Biden administration's complicity in Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 41,000 people and sparked mass starvation.
"The U.S. continues sending the Israeli government the bombs and warplanes it uses to slaughter Palestinians," said Jewish Voice for Peace Action. "Now, another unbearable and horrific massacre of forcibly displaced Palestinians who were sheltering in a tent encampment. STOP ARMING ISRAEL."
Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said in a statement that "the far-right genocidal Israeli government continues to use its one-ton Biden bombs to massacre Palestinians as if they were sheep for the slaughter, not human beings deserving life and freedom."
"The continued military and financial support for Israel's genocide by President Biden will live in the memories of the survivors of these massacres and in the hearts of their loved ones for generations to come," said Awad. "If the Biden administration does not radically change course now by forcing a cease-fire on Netanyahu, it will be clear that it does not seem to have a shred of humanity left and that no crime will stop it from enabling the Gaza genocide."
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Israel Lobbies US Congress to Pressure South Africa to Drop ICJ Genocide Case
One human rights expert said Israel's effort to bully South Africa is born from "obviously fearing it will lose" its World Court trial.
Sep 09, 2024
Israeli officials are lobbying U.S. lawmakers to pressure South Africa into dropping its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, according to a report published Monday.
Axiossaid it obtained a classified Israeli Foreign Ministry cable sent Monday to the country's embassy in Washington, D.C. and all its U.S. consulates threatening consequences if South Africa proceeds with its case in The Hague—which is backed by dozens of nations and regional blocs, as well as countless legal and genocide experts.
"We are asking you to immediately work with lawmakers on the federal and state level, with governors and Jewish organizations to put pressure on South Africa to change its policy towards Israel and to make clear that continuing their current actions like supporting Hamas and pushing anti-Israeli moves in international courts will come with a heavy price," the cable states.
As Axios reported:
The Israeli diplomats were instructed to ask members of Congress to issue public statements condemning South Africa's actions against Israel and threaten that it could lead tosuspending U.S. trade relations with South Africa. That's unlikely to happen because the U.S. wants to maintain its relationship with South Africa in order to counter the influence of Russia and China.
According to the report, Israeli officials are hoping that South Africa's new coalition government—the country's first to not be led by the leftist African National Congress since the beginning of post-apartheid majority rule—will eschew "boycotts and punishments" and prove more malleable.
This isn't the first time that Israel has been accused of trying to intimidate those who seek to hold it accountable for its obliteration of Gaza. Earlier this year, its government launched a pressure campaign urging world governments to condemn the ICJ trial.
South Africa filed its genocide case against Israel in December, alleging that statements and actions by Israeli government officials and armed forces "are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part" of the Palestinian population in violation of Article II of the Genocide Convention.
A final ICJ ruling is not expected for years. Israel says the case is "baseless" and has accused South Africa of "functioning as the legal arm of Hamas," which led the attacks in which more than 1,100 Israelis and others were killed—at least some by so-called "friendly fire"—last October 7. More than 240 other people were kidnapped and taken to Gaza.
Since October, Israeli forces have killed or maimed at least 145,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, while forcibly displacing almost all of the embattled strip's 2.3 million people. Israel's " complete siege" of Gaza has caused widespread starvation and disease. Eliminationist rhetoric by Israeli politicians, military officials, journalists, entertainers, and others started shortly after the Hamas-led attack of October 7 and continues to this day.
In January, the ICJ ordered Israel to "take all measures within its power" to uphold its obligations under Article II of the Genocide Convention. Israel's far-right government and military have been accused by human rights groups of ignoring the order.
As Israeli forces launched a major ground invasion of Rafah four months later, the ICJ issued another order for Israel to "immediately halt its military offensive" in the city, where around 1.5 million forcibly displaced and local Palestinian residents were sheltering. Instead of heeding the order, Israel ramped up its assault on Rafah.
At the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan is urging the tribunal to promptly act upon his May application for warrants to arrest Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders—at least one of whom, political chief Ismail Haniyeh, was subsequently assassinated by Israel.
Israeli and U.S. officials have threatened ICC members with retaliation if the tribunal issues arrest warrants for Israeli leaders. In June, 42 House Democrats joined Republican lawmakers in passing legislation to sanction ICC jurists in the event they authorize the Israeli leaders' arrest.
The U.S. is by far Israel's biggest benefactor, providing billions of dollars worth of weapons and invaluable diplomatic cover including United Nations Security Council cease-fire resolution vetoes.
Many experts say the U.S. is complicit in Israel's genocide. A group of Palestinians, Palestinian Americans, and rights groups is seeking to hold President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin criminally accountable for supporting Israel's Gaza slaughter at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
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