March, 06 2019, 11:00pm EDT
Amnesty Response to Reports of Surveillance on Journalists and Immigration Advocates on the US-Mexico Border
According to reports, the United States government is tracking and investigating journalists and immigration advocates believed to have supported or documented the situations of asylum-seekers and migrants at the US-Mexico border. Leaked documents reveal a list including US citizens, organizers mostly based in the US and Latin America, and journalists who covered the recent caravans of migrants and asylum-seekers from Latin America.
WASHINGTON
According to reports, the United States government is tracking and investigating journalists and immigration advocates believed to have supported or documented the situations of asylum-seekers and migrants at the US-Mexico border. Leaked documents reveal a list including US citizens, organizers mostly based in the US and Latin America, and journalists who covered the recent caravans of migrants and asylum-seekers from Latin America.
Amnesty International has interviewed some of the people on this list who were targeted for investigation, including through additional screenings at the border.
Ashley Houghton, tactical campaigns manager at Amnesty International USA, issued this statement:
"Our worst suspicions about the administration's attempts to interfere with human rights defenders could be confirmed. Monitoring journalists and immigration advocates is outrageous--and if based on their political opinions or legitimate human rights-related activities, as we suspect, it is unlawful.
"Lawyers and immigration advocates on the ground at the US border provide life-saving services to help ordinary people navigate a complex and unfamiliar legal process. We must stand up for people who speak out against injustice just as they stand up for the rights of others.
"It is equally appalling to witness this attempt to stop journalists from covering stories at the border. The horrific violations of human rights occurring at the US-Mexico border should not be hidden from the eyes of the world. Journalists must be free to report on the facts without fear of consequences."
In January 2019, Amnesty International joined with legal services organization Al Otro Lado to accompany a group of three Honduran LGBT children as they approached the San Ysidro port of entry to ask for asylum. One of their lawyers, Nicole Ramos, is identified on the list of people being tracked.
Amnesty International USA calls on Congress to immediately exercise oversight of the administration's attempts to crack down on advocates and reporters who attempt to shine a light on the situation of asylum-seekers at the US-Mexico border.
This statement can be found online at https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/amnesty-response-to-reports-of-surveillance-on-journalists-and-immigration-advocates-on-the-us-mexico-border/
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.
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'The Next Recession Starts Here': Trump Team Weighs Abolishing Bank Regulators
The president-elect's advisers are reportedly discussing plans to shrink or eliminate key bank watchdogs, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Dec 13, 2024
President-elect Donald Trump and his advisers are reportedly considering plans to weaken—or abolish altogether—top bank regulators, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
The Wall Street Journalreported Thursday that members of Trump's transition team and the new Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency have asked nominees under consideration to head the FDIC and OCC if the bank watchdogs could be eliminated and have their functions absorbed by the Treasury Department, which is set to be run by a billionaire hedge fund manager and crypto enthusiast.
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The Trump team's internal and fluid discussions about the fate of the key bank regulators broadly aligns with Project 2025's proposal to "merge the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, and the Federal Reserve's non-monetary supervisory and regulatory functions."
The FDIC, which is primarily funded by bank insurance premiums, was established during the Great Depression to restore public trust in the nation's banking system, and the agency played a central role in navigating the 2023 bank failures that threatened a systemic crisis.
Observers warned that gutting the FDIC and OCC could catalyze another economic meltdown.
"The next recession starts here," tech journalist Jacob Silverman warned in response to the Journal's reporting.
Eric Rauchway, a historian of the New Deal, wrote that "even Milton Friedman appreciated the FDIC," underscoring the extreme nature of the incoming Trump administration's deregulatory ambitions.
Musk, the world's wealthiest man, is also pushing for the elimination of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency established in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
The Journal noted Thursday that "Rep. Andy Barr, a Republican from Kentucky and Trump ally on the House Financial Services Committee, has backed the plan to eliminate or drastically alter the CFPB and said he wants to get rid of what he calls 'one-size-fits-all' regulation for banks."
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Guterres "is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria" and has stressed the "urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country," said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
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Other countries including France, Russia, and Saudi Arabia have criticized Israel's invasion, while the United States defended the move.
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"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," he said. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together."
Dec 12, 2024
Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
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"What you're seeing, the outpouring of anger at the insurance companies, is a reflection of how people feel about the current healthcare system."
"What you're seeing, the outpouring of anger at the insurance companies, is a reflection of how people feel about the current healthcare system," he continued, noting the tens of thousands of Americans who die each year because they can't get to a doctor.
"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," Sanders added. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together and understanding that it is the right of every American to be able to walk into a doctor's office when they need to and not have to take out their wallet."
"The way we're going to bring about the kind of fundamental changes we need in healthcare is, in fact, by a political movement which understands the government has got to represent all of us, not just the 1%," the senator told Jacobin.
The 83-year-old Vermonter, who was just reelected to what he says is likely his last six-year term, is an Independent but caucuses with Democrats and sought their presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020. He has urged the Democratic Party to recognize why some working-class voters have abandoned it since Republicans won the White House and both chambers of Congress last month. A refusal to take on insurance and drug companies and overhaul the healthcare system, he argues, is one reason.
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In addition to highlighting Sanders' interview on social media, Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) pointed out to Business Insider on Wednesday that "you've got thousands of people that are sharing their stories of frustration" in the wake of Thompson's death.
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"You condemn the murder of an insurance executive who was a father of two kids," he said. "At the same time, you say there's obviously an outpouring behavior of people whose claims are being denied, and we need to reform the system."
Two other Medicare for All advocates, Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), also made clear to Business Insider that they oppose Thompson's murder but understand some of the responses to it.
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