February, 21 2021, 11:00pm EDT
US: Take New Approach at Mexico Border
Video shows family separated under Trump policy have reason to hope.
WASHINGTON
The administration of United States President Joe Biden should move swiftly to ensure fair, dignified, and humane treatment of asylum seekers and migrants at the border, Human Rights Watch and the Iowa City Catholic Worker said in a video released today. The video follows a family still separated after almost two years under the "Remain in Mexico" program, also known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP).
The administration of former President Donald Trump sent over 71,000 asylum seekers back to Mexico under MPP, adopted in 2019. President Biden ended the returns last month. Some asylum seekers sent to wait in Mexico with active cases in immigration courts may sign up to start a process to enter the US as of February 19, 2021, according to a Department of Homeland Security announcement.
The new video follows one family from El Salvador - Alejandro, Juliza, and their infant son, Anderson - who were separated at the border in 2019. US officials forced Alejandro to wait in Mexico while eight-months pregnant Juliza continued alone to claim asylum in the United States, where she was welcomed by the Iowa City Catholic Worker, a Gamaliel affiliate. Returned to one of the most dangerous cities in Mexico, Alejandro was kidnapped and abused, treatment that has become very common for migrants and asylum seekers in Mexico.
"Faith communities have done crucial work to support asylum seekers and keep families together, but it should not be solely up to them," said Policy Advocate with Faith Communities at Human Rights Watch Victoria Strang. "While the Biden administration has taken some positive steps, bold action is needed to transform the US border response into one that treats all asylum seekers with dignity."
With the announcement of a process for some asylum seekers in Mexico to enter the United States, Alejandro and Juliza have a reason to hope that they may soon be together again. But the Biden administration has only promised to allow back about a third of those previously subject to MPP, and it is continuing summary expulsions of asylum seekers without due process under a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) order adopted at the Trump White House's urging over the objections of career public health officials.
"I pray Alejandro and all the refugees currently trapped in Mexico are permitted to enter the United States to pursue their asylum claims and reunite with their families and I call on the President to protect them," said Father Guillermo Trevino, Jr., a Catholic priest from West Liberty, Iowa. "Iowa City Catholic Workers remain committed to building a better world where the God-given dignity of all humans is respected no matter the color of their skin or their immigration status."
The Biden administration should implement a new approach at the border that treats asylum seekers in a fair, efficient, and rights-respecting manner that also protects public health. That means ending summary expulsion and return, prioritizing a humanitarian reception system, providing sufficient resources and structural reforms to process asylum claims fairly and efficiently, and moving quickly to address agency impunity, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch is one of the world's leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, we give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. Our rigorous, objective investigations and strategic, targeted advocacy build intense pressure for action and raise the cost of human rights abuse. For 30 years, Human Rights Watch has worked tenaciously to lay the legal and moral groundwork for deep-rooted change and has fought to bring greater justice and security to people around the world.
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'Growth Has Simply Vanished': Under Trump, US Economy Shrinks for First Time Since 2022
"Our economy is crumbling under President Trump's mismanagement," said the head of one progressive group.
Apr 30, 2025
The United States economy decelerated during the first quarter of 2025, as businesses braced for sweeping tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump, according to a Wednesday "advance estimate" from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis—marking the first contraction of the country's real gross domestic product since 2022.
Real GDP declined at an annual rate of 0.3% in January, February, and March of 2025, according to the report. That headline figure is a dramatic turn around from the final quarter of 2024, when real GDP increased 2.4%.
According to the report, "the decrease in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected an increase in imports... and a decrease in government spending." When calculating GDP, imports are subtracted, meaning more imports will yield a lower number.
A number of outlets have cautioned that the 0.3% contraction figure is somewhat misleading. Axiospointed to solid business investment and consumer spending data in the report as evidence "signaling at least some underlying momentum in the economy—at least once volatile measures like trade are stripped out." The New York Timesoffered similar analysis.
But even with this caveat, the economic picture is less than rosy. "Maybe some of this negativity is due to a rush to bring in imports before the tariffs go up, but there is simply no way for policy advisors to sugar-coat this. Growth has simply vanished," said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at Fwdbonds.
Several observers were quick to point the finger at the Trump administration.
"Our economy is crumbling under President Trump's mismanagement, and today's falling GDP data confirms our slide toward a recession," said Lindsay Owens, the executive director of the progressive group Groundwork Collaborative. "Trump is creating the conditions for a particularly brutal recession."
"It turns out that when you launch a trade war with blanket tariffs, layoff federal workers en masse, cancel federal contracts, and reduce skilled immigration, you will have negative GDP growth," wrote Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on X.
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) said that "Trump's chaos is clearly and significantly raising the risk of a recession, and the economic warning lights are all flashing red."
In response to the release, markets slipped on Wednesday.
Trump, for his part, took to his social media site Truth Social on Wednesday to say that "This is Biden's Stock Market, not Trump's." He added that "tariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA in record numbers … This will take a while, has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS, only that he left us with bad numbers, but when the boom begins, it will be like no other."
Economists say they think Wednesday's numbers are related to tariffs. According to reporting from the Times, the main takeaway from the report is that consumers and businesses started to modify their behavior even prior to Trumps "Liberation Day" tariffs on April 2, which rattled markets.
A surge in the trade deficit edged GDP into negative territory, said Dean Baker, senior economist for the left-leaning economic think tank the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in a statement on Wednesday. "This was due to massive stockpiling of inventories and purchases of durable goods in anticipation of tariffs."
"The negative GDP number could also mean the end of the big upswing in productivity growth under Biden. This is bad news for both real wage growth and inflation," continued Baker.
"No surprise that GDP took a hit in the first quarter, mainly because the balance of trade blew up as companies imported goods like crazy to front-run tariffs. The more telling number for the future of the expansion was consumer spending, and it grew, but at a relatively weak pace," said Robert Frick, corporate economist with Navy Federal Credit Union, according to CNBC.
Wednesday's report also registered increased inflation. The personal consumption expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve's favored inflation gauge, registered a 3.6% gain for Q1, up from 2.4% in the final quarter of last year.
The numbers from the Bureau of Economic Analysis come a day after reports of consumer confidence in April dipping to lows not seen since early in the COVID-19 pandemic.
There is still major economic data set to be released this week. On Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its jobs report for the month of April.
This article was updated with a comment from Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.).
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'Democratic Freedoms' Under Threat as Migrants Charged for Entering Trump Militarized Border Zone
"As presidential overreaches pile up, they underscore the urgent need for Congress and the courts to reassert their roles as checks on executive authority," said two experts at the Brennan Center for Justice.
Apr 30, 2025
At least 28 migrants who crossed into the U.S. over the southern border could face up to a year in detention and $100,000 in fines after being charged Monday not only with "illegal entry" but also with violating "security regulations"—the result of U.S. President Donald Trump's transformation of the border into a 170-mile-long "National Defense Area."
As Common Dreamsreported last month, the White House has pushed to create a "buffer zone" patrolled by U.S. troops along a stretch of the southern border in New Mexico, with soldiers empowered to immediately detain anyone who "trespasses" in the 60-foot-wide area before handing them over to Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The Washington Postreported that the migrants were apprehended on a route that has been used for years by people entering the U.S., and were accused in court filings of violating "the order issued on April 18, 2025, by the U.S. Army Garrison Fort Huachuca military commander designating the New Mexico National Defense Areas, also known as the Roosevelt Reservation, as both a restricted area and a controlled area under Army Regulation 190-13."
Carlos Ibarra, a court-appointed attorney for the migrants facing charges, told the Post that the government was "piling on" by adding the security violation charge, and said that "if these folks had $100,000, they wouldn't be coming over here."
The arrests came after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made an appearance at the border last week, saying in a video posted on the Pentagon's social media accounts, "This may as well be a military base."
"Any illegal attempting to enter that zone is entering a military base," he said. "You add up the charges of what you can be charged with, misdemeanors and felonies, you could be looking up to 10 years in prison when prosecuted."
Ordinarily people who are charged for crossing the border without authorization have faced a potential six-month jail term and up to $5,000 in fines.
The area was turned into a de facto military base when Trump signed an executive order earlier this month giving the Pentagon jurisdiction over the Roosevelt Reservation, saying in a memo that the southern border "is under attack from a variety of threats" and requires a more direct security role for the U.S. military.
According to the Migration Policy Institute, apprehensions of migrants by U.S. Border Patrol sank to just 7,000 in March, the fewest in at least 25 years.
The memo creating a military installation at the border was designed to give federal troops a "legitimate military reason" to apprehend, search, and detain troops without violating the Posse Comitatus Act and without Trump having to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807, the Brennan Center for Justice explained in a blog post on Monday.
The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits federal armed forces from engaging in civilian law enforcement without the approval of Congress. The Insurrection Act provides an exception to that law, as does a loophole in the Posse Comitatus Act called the "military purpose doctrine." Trump's advisers have so far recommended against invoking the Insurrection Act, which authorizes the president to deploy military forces inside the United States to enforce the law in certain situations.
Trump's memo allowing the military to "act as a de facto border police force," wrote Elizabeth Goitein and Joseph Nunn at the Brennan Center, "could have alarming implications for democratic freedoms."
"It continues a pattern of the president stretching his emergency powers past their limits to usurp the role of Congress and bypass legal rights," they wrote. "He has misused a law meant to address economic emergencies to set tariffs on every country in the world. He declared a fake 'energy emergency' to promote fossil fuel production. And he dusted off a centuries-old wartime authority to deport Venezuelan immigrants, without due process, to a Salvadoran prison notorious for human rights violations."
"As presidential overreaches pile up, they underscore the urgent need for Congress and the courts to reassert their roles as checks on executive authority," wrote Goitein and Nunn.
Along with concerns about the legality of Trump's move, Goitein and Nunn noted that troops "are trained to fight and destroy an enemy; they're generally not trained for domestic law enforcement." Empowering them to engage with civilians now could make it easier for the administration to "justify uses of the military in the U.S. interior in the future."
"Asking them to do law enforcement's job creates risks to migrants, U.S. citizens who may inadvertently trespass on federal lands at the border, and the soldiers themselves," they wrote.
Rebecca Sheff, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of New Mexico, wrote last week that Trump's creation of a military installation on public border land "represents a dangerous erosion of the constitutional principle that the military should not be policing civilians."
"By authorizing service members to detain, search, and conduct 'crowd control,' these new authorities undermine our state's values of dignity, respect, and community," said Sheff. "We don't want militarized zones where border residents—including U.S. citizens—face potential prosecution simply for being in the wrong place. This isn't how we want to be in relation with our neighbors. This dangerous expansion of military authorities threatens both our civil liberties and the cultural fabric that makes our borderlands unique."
Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU National Security Project, also described potential impacts on U.S. citizens who live in border areas.
In addition to endangering migrants who cross the border, Shamsi wrote, Trump's actions "are worsening the conditions under which civilian border communities live."
"Our southern border is home to approximately 19 million people, in addition to the regular business and trade commuters who come across the border every day," wrote Shamsi. "The new policy has serious implications for border residents living under this expanded militarized zone, which includes cities like San Diego, California; Nogales, Arizona; El Paso, Texas and other heavily populated, thriving communities. People in these areas could now face federal prosecution for trespassing if they unintentionally walk or drive onto a designated 'national defense area.'"
Shamsi warned that while Trump has not yet invoked the Insurrection Act, "his administration continues to invest in the theater of war," and called on Congress "to insist on oversight for these expanded actions... and to call for safeguards and transparency to protect border residents from escalating military control over their daily lives."
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'I Am Not Afraid of You,' Freed Mohsen Mahdawi Tells Donald Trump
The court's order for the release of the detained student protest leader, said one lawyer, "is a victory for all people in this country invested in their ability to dissent and speak and protest."
Apr 30, 2025
This is a breaking story… Please check back for possible updates...
Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student targeted for deportation by the Trump administration because he participated in anti-genocide protests at Columbia University, was released on bail Wednesday following an order from Vermont-based U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford.
Politicoreported that upon his release, Mahdawi shared a message for President Donald Trump outside the courthouse.
"I am saying it clear and loud," Mahdawi declared. "To President Trump and his Cabinet: I am not afraid of you."
When Mahdawi, a green-card holder, arrived at a Colchester, Vermont immigration office to complete the process of becoming a U.S. citizen earlier this month, he was arrested by masked, hooded federal agents and put in an unmarked vehicle.
Mahdawi has been held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans since U.S. District Judge William Sessions III blocked the Trump administration's attempt to send him to a detention facility in Louisiana, like other student organizers.
His legal team—including attorneys with the ACLU and Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR)—is arguing in court that Mahdawi's detention violates his constitutional rights, including free speech and due process.
"Nobody should fear detention for exercising their rights under the First Amendment. We are delighted that the court recognized that Mohsen is not a flight risk and that he should be released while his case proceeds," said Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, in a Wednesday statement.
CLEAR staff attorney Shezza Abboushi Dallal also welcomed the development: "The court's order to free Mohsen today is a victory for Mohsen, in his just pursuit of continued advocacy for Palestinian lives, and it is a victory for all people in this country invested in their ability to dissent and speak and protest for causes they are morally drawn to. We will continue our legal battle for Mohsen until his constitutional rights are fully vindicated."
Vermont's congressional delegation—Rep. Becca Balint (D) and Sens. Bernie Sanders (I) and Peter Welch (D.)—said in a joint statement Wednesday that "we are relieved that Mohsen Mahdawi was released on bail... and that the constitutional right to due process has prevailed."
"Mohsen Mahdawi is here in the United States legally and acted legally. He should never have experienced this grave injustice," they added. "The Trump Administration's actions in this case—and in so many other cases of wrongfully detained, deported, and disappeared people—are shameful and immoral. This is an important first step. We will continue the fight against President Trump's assault on the rule of law.”
The trio has been advocating for Mahdawi since his arrest. Welch visited him in detention last week and Sanders was among several lawmakers who spoke at a Tuesday rally organized by Balint outside the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C.
"Mohsen Mahdawi is a cherished member of our community in Vermont, and I want to do everything that I can to elevate his story, because it is an indication of just how far from our values we have strayed," Balint said.
"This administration needs to know that we are watching very carefully what they are doing, that we care about our rights," she stressed, addressing the importance of taking to the streets to protest Trump's actions. "It is about standing up for all of our rights, but it's also about giving Mohsen Mahdawi and other people like him the understanding that we are standing with him."
Highlighting some other cases that have made headlines during Trump's first 100 days, Balint said that "people right now, in our country, are being disappeared by this administration. Children with cancer are being shipped off illegally—babies. Students are being harassed, and detained, and intimidated, and threatened. Why? Because they exercised free speech rights and the right to assemble. These are the rights that are basic to who we are—or who we say we are—as Americans."
Mahdawi grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, which remains illegally occupied by Israel. Sanders noted Tuesday that "he has used his voice to advocate for peace, justice, and dignity for Palestinians and Israelis."
Speaking out against Mahdawi's arrest, the senator said that "not only was this action cruel and inhumane, most importantly, it was illegal, it was unconstitutional."
"This is not just about Mohsen Mahdawi. It is about you and you and you," he continued, pointing to members of the crowd. "If you can pick up a legal resident off the streets, throw them into a car, and put them in jail without any due process, that could happen to you."
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.)—who recently traveled to El Salvador to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia—and Reps. Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.), Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) also delivered remarks on Tuesday, as did leaders from Demand Progress and Indivisible.
Many of them pointed to others swept up in the Trump administration's effort to crush critics and carry out mass deportations, including Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to a megaprison in his native El Salvador alongside hundreds of Venezuelan migrants; former Columbia organizer Mahmoud Khalil; Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University; and Tufts University Ph.D. student Rümeysa Öztürk.
A federal district court judge had ordered the Trump administration to transfer Öztürk, a Turkish national, from Louisiana to Vermont by Thursday for a hearing on her petition challenging her detention. However, the government appealed, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit on Tuesday halted the directive. Arguments for the appeal are now scheduled for next week.
Öztürk's legal team, which also includes the ACLU and CLEAR, said in response to Tuesday's decision that "Rümeysa Öztürk never should have been arrested and detained, period. We are ready to argue her case before the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, and we won't stop fighting until she is free."
Also on Tuesday, a U.S. district judge in New Jersey rejected the Trump administration's attempt to shut down Khalil's lawsuit arguing that the government is unlawfully detaining him for his political views. Like Öztürk and Mahdawi, his legal team includes the ACLU and CLEAR.
"The court has affirmed that the federal government does not have the unreviewable authority to trample on our fundamental freedoms," Noor Zafar, senior staff attorney with the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, said Tuesday. "This is a huge step forward for Mahmoud and for the other students and scholars that the Trump administration has unlawfully detained in retaliation for their political speech, and a rebuke of attempts by the executive to use immigration laws to weaken First Amendment protections for political gain."
Khalil recently missed the birth of his child, due to his detention. His wife, Noor Abdalla, said Tuesday that "as I am now caring for our barely week-old son, it is even more urgent that we continue to speak out for Mahmoud's freedom, and for the freedom of all people being unjustly targeted for advocating against Israel's genocide in Gaza."
"I am relieved at the court's finding that my husband can move forward with his case in federal court," added Abdalla, a U.S. citizen. "This is an important step towards securing Mahmoud's freedom. But there is still more work to be done. I will continue to strongly advocate for my husband, so he can come home to our family, and feel the pure joy all parents know of holding your first-born child in your arms."
All of these cases are expected to continue to move through the federal judicial system. One case—Abrego Garcia's—has already reached the U.S. Supreme Court. Despite the high court's right-wing supermajority, which includes three Trump appointees, the justices earlier this month unanimously ordered Trump to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return to the United States.
During a Tuesday interview, ABC News anchor Terry Moran suggested that Trump could bring Abrego Garcia home to his family in Maryland with one phone call, saying: "You could get him back. There's a phone on this desk."
Trump responded: "I could... And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that." The president then accused him of being a member of the gang MS-13, which Abrego Garcia has denied.
On Wednesday, Trump's homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, toldCBS News that Abrego Garcia "is not under our control. He is an El Salvador citizen. He is home there in his country. If he were to be brought back to the United States of America, we would immediately deport him again."
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