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Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Navajo, San Juan County leaders extend accord bolstering voting access
San Juan County and Navajo Nation leaders have agreed to extend an agreement meant to help assure voting access for Navajo residents. The agreement, stemming from a 2016 lawsuit filed by the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission against the county, extends a prior accord that expired after the November 2024 general elections. Notably, the accord calls for creation of three language-assistance locations and polling places within Navajo Nation land in San Juan County, pre-election advertising in the Navajo language, Diné Bizaad, and employment of Navajo interpreters to aid in the election outreach. 'This settlement affirms a fundamental truth — the voices of Navajo voters in San Juan County matter. We are dedicated to making sure the ballot box remains open and accessible to Navajo language speakers today, tomorrow and every day after that,' said Abby Cook, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, which helped represent the Navajo Nation. The Navajo Nation is spread across southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico, but the settlement agreement applies to the Utah portion of the reservation. According to 2024 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, 46.5% of the county's 14,601 residents are American Indians or Alaska Natives. The original 2016 lawsuit stemmed from the move in Utah in 2014 to mail-in balloting and concerns the change disenfranchised Navajo voters, in part due to unreliable postal service in Navajo Nation territory. The first settlement agreement resolving the dispute was executed in 2018, the second was finalized in 2021, and the new one, extending the varied provisions through the 2028 general election cycle, was inked last week. The San Juan County Clerk's Office is the main county party in the matter. The new accord, filed in U.S. District Court in Utah, says the goal of those involved is 'to continue to achieve, if possible, a larger turnout by Navajo voters in future elections.' The language assistance, it reads, has 'produced some noteworthy results,' including turnout by voters on the Navajo reservation of 89.07%, which compared to overall Utah voter turnout that year of 90.09%. Per the agreement, voting information centers will be created in the run up to elections in Montezuma Creek, Navajo Mountain and Monument Valley. 'Each center will be staffed with a trained Navajo language interpreter, offering services including voter registration, ballot replacement, and language assistance,' reads an ACLU press release. Additionally, election information will be provided in Diné Bizaad, on local radio stations and newspapers. 'All eligible voters have a right to full and equal voting access without barriers, including the right to read and understand their ballot and voting resources,' said Aaron Welcher, spokesman for the ACLU of Utah.
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Utah international students and ACLU sue DHS over abrupt visa terminations
The Orrin G. Hatch United States Courthouse is pictured in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (McKenzie Romero/Utah News Dispatch) Eight international students in Utah whose permits to study in the country were revoked have sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the 'unilateral' and abrupt termination of their legal status in the country, forcing them to lose school time and jobs while subjecting them to detention and deportation. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed the lawsuit in federal court in Utah on behalf of the students on Friday, asking for a temporary restraining order halting the removal of the individuals' records from Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVIS), a database that tracks their visa compliance and allows them to stay in the country while they complete their studies, or in the case of recent graduates, maintain an early career job. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX That, after more than 50 students were reported to be impacted by status revocations in Utah, many without any type of notice. Some of them didn't have links with protests or a criminal background, generating confusion on campuses. According to the suit, the Department of Homeland Security action violated the students' rights for due process since they didn't get a chance to contest the decision. It also alleges that erasing the SEVIS records was against federal law and violated the Constitution. '(The students) were following all their visa requirements and had committed nothing that should have changed their status,' Aaron Welcher, communication director for the ACLU of Utah, said on Friday. The ACLU declined to release some details about the students to protect their privacy. However, the organization said they are from China, Nigeria, Mexico and Japan and are attending different universities across the state, including the University of Utah, Brigham Young University and Ensign College. A ninth student from BYU-Idaho was also included in the complaint. Cox asks for clarity from Trump administration on revoked student visas The students have been experiencing high levels of stress and anxiety after learning about their status terminations, and are uncertain about their futures, including fears of being labeled a national security or foreign policy threat, forbidding them from reentering the United States or other countries. 'The abrupt and unexplained termination of these students' lawful SEVIS registration is profoundly concerning. These students now face deportation or worse, placing their education and futures in jeopardy,' Tom Ford, staff attorney at the ACLU of Utah, said in the release. 'Coordinated attacks on due process are paving the way for the kind of tyrannical government our Constitution was meant to prevent — and the ACLU of Utah is taking action to stop that abuse of power and keep rights intact for all of us.' The termination of SEVIS records effectively ends the students' permits to be in the country. While the students have the option to apply for reinstatement of status with USCIS, according to the lawsuit, the federal government has informed multiple schools that they will deny all reinstatement applications for students in this specific situation. The new process of removing SEVIS records was also criticized in the suit. 'If ICE believes a student is deportable for having a revoked visa, it has the authority to initiate removal proceedings and make its case in court,' the lawsuit reads. 'However, it cannot misuse SEVIS to circumvent the law, strip students of status, and drive them out of the country without process.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
