Latest news with #SuiChung
CBS News
3 days ago
- General
- CBS News
Sui Chung, of Americans for Immigrant Justice, talks about immigration enforcement in Florida
Immigration enforcement Jim talks to Sui Chung, the executive director of Americans for Immigrant Justice. The two discuss immigration enforcement here, specifically what is happening inside local detention centers like Krome. She has been documenting the conditions, and shares how they have deteriorated when it comes to overcrowding, as well as access to counsel, and medical care Guest: Sui Chung/Exec. Dir., Americans for Immigrant Justice About the issue The Krome Detention Center may soon house more immigrants under tent structures as overcrowding concerns grow, according to U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson. Family member describes overcrowding conditions Jessica Rodriguez said her husband, Josue Aguilar, 27, was transferred to Krome two weeks ago after being detained at a U.S. immigration services office. Aguilar told her the facility was overcrowded and detainees were lying on the floor. "He would tell me 20 people would be taken out and 50 would come in," she said. Rodriguez reached out to Rep. Wilson, a Democrat representing South Florida, who requested a tour of the immigration facility. Wilson also reviewed social media video reportedly taken by a detainee describing a lack of cleanliness.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Civil Rights Groups Say Immigrants Are Being Denied Legal Access at Detention Centers
A group of civil rights and legal organizations say immigrant detainees being held at two federal detention centers are being denied their constitutional right to legal counsel. One of those detention centers is a Miami facility flagged by Reason earlier this week for allegations of overcrowding and dysfunction. In letters to the Trump administration released Thursday, Americans for Immigrant Justice (AIJ), the American Civil Liberties Union, and several other groups urged the administration to immediately restore detainees' access to legal counsel at Federal Correctional Institution Leavenworth (FCI Leavenworth) and Federal Detention Center-Miami (FDC Miami), two Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facilities that are holding hundreds of detainees for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). According to the letters, attorneys for AIJ, Florida Legal Services, and the University of Miami Immigration Clinic "have witnessed and documented troubling systemic failures to provide individuals detained in immigration custody with access to vital legal resources and counsel" at FDC Miami. Those deprivations include regular denial of access to legal documents, legal mail, and attorney calls. The groups say these restrictions violate detainees' due process rights under the Fifth Amendment and their First Amendment right to free speech. "Denying detained immigrants access to legal documents, mail, and phone calls makes it all but impossible to fight and win an immigration case," AIJ Executive Director Sui Chung said in a press release. "The systemic denial of due process at FDC-Miami has impacted immigrants who desperately seek refuge and are legally entitled to pursue relief in the United States." The letter echoes descriptions by BOP employees and immigration lawyers of poor conditions and bureaucratic chaos in FDC Miami, where roughly 400 immigrant detainees are being held on two floors. The federal prison system has struggled for years to get a handle on crumbling facilities, understaffing and low morale, and endemic corruption, but it was nevertheless pressed into service to handle the influx of detentions under Trump's mass deportation program. A BOP employee told Reason that four of the eight elevators in the multi-story tower are broken, leading to frequent lockdowns that restrict detainees' access to phones and computers. "I've been at FDC Miami for 16 years," Kenny Castillo, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 501, the union representing Bureau of Prisons employees at the lockup, said. "I've never seen the building like I see it right now." In their letter, the civil rights groups say crucial legal paperwork is going missing when detainees are transferred to and from FDC Miami. Legal mail is delayed or never arrives. They say it takes days, sometimes over a week, for attorneys to schedule a phone call with a client. "These failures and delays have serious—potentially devastating—consequences for detained individuals' ability access and communicate with counsel, as well as their ability to apply for protection in the U.S. and to fight their cases in immigration court, as is their constitutional right." The cumulative effect of all this is that attorneys say it's nearly impossible to plan a legal strategy for their clients. "I had a hearing this morning, and the judge ordered me to speak with [my client]," Katie Blankenship, an attorney at Sanctuary of the South, said. "I couldn't be at FDC, and they wouldn't get me on the phone with him. I had to go to court this morning and be like, 'Sorry judge, no, I did not speak to my client, because I couldn't.'" The dysfunction at FDC Miami erupted into a mini-riot on April 15, after the afternoon headcount dragged on for nearly five hours. A group of disgruntled detainees flooded a floor of the unit, and BOP correctional officers responded with concussive flashbang grenades. The civil rights groups allege similar conditions at FCI Leavenworth in Kansas, where they say immigrant detainees are subjected to lengthy lockdowns, abusive use-of-force, and medical neglect. In response to a request for comment, a BOP spokesperson said the agency is "committed to ensuring the safety and security of all inmates in our population, our staff, and the public. However, we do not comment on matters related to pending litigation, legal proceedings, or investigations." ICE did not respond to a request for comment. The post Civil Rights Groups Say Immigrants Are Being Denied Legal Access at Detention Centers appeared first on
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ether Bears Are Done and That's Fueling ETH's Surge, Crypto Benchmark Issuer Says
Ether's ETH rally, though impressive, leaves much to be desired. That's because the unwinding of shorts is said to be fueling the rally, not fresh longs or bullish leveraged bets on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). "The rally is primarily the result of short covering – traders unwinding bearish positions – rather than a surge of bullish conviction," Sui Chung, CEO of crypto index provider CF Benchmarks, told CoinDesk. CME's derivatives, preferred by institutions, track the CF Benchmarks' Bitcoin Reference Rate – New York (BRRNY) variant. When bears cover their shorts, it means they are buying back futures contracts initially sold. This action of short covering temporarily boosts demand in the market, putting upward pressure on prices. Chung pointed to the still-low CME futures premium (basis) as evidence that the rally is led by short covering. While ether's spot price has surged nearly 90% to above $2,600 since the early April sell-off, the annualized one-month basis in the CME's ether has held flat between 6% and 10%, according to data source Velo. "In more conventional setups, we would expect rising basis levels if traders were initiating fresh longs with leverage," Chung noted. "It's a reminder that not all rallies are fueled by new demand; sometimes, they reflect repositioning and risk reduction." One might argue that the basis has held steady due to sophisticated trades "arbing" away the price difference between the CME ETH futures and the spot index price by shorting futures and buying ETH spot ETFs. That argument looks weak when considering the U.S.-listed spot ETFs have seen net positive inflows on just ten trading days in the past four weeks. Besides, net inflows tallied over $100 million just once, according to the data source SoSoValue. "The lack of inflows into ETH ETFs and the muted basis paints a different picture, this latest move higher doesn't appear to be driven by new leveraged longs," Chung said. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bitcoin just got a Wall Street upgrade — thanks to CF Benchmarks
Crypto markets are no longer the Wild West — and that's exactly the point, says Sui Chung, CEO of CF Benchmarks. Speaking with host Rob Nelson on TheStreet Roundtable, Chung explained how CF Benchmarks — a UK-regulated subsidiary of crypto exchange Kraken — plays a critical role in making crypto markets more transparent and institution-ready. 'We call them benchmarks — that's the regulatory term — but really they're indices,' said Chung. 'The S&P 500 or Russell 3000 for equities, the AGG for fixed income… CF Benchmarks provides those same kinds of indices, but for crypto.' One of their most important roles? Pricing the Bitcoin ETFs that have taken U.S. markets by storm. 'There are many Bitcoin ETFs now, foremost of which is IBIT from BlackRock,' Chung said. 'The Bitcoins held by that ETF are actually valued and benchmarked using the CF Benchmarks BRRNY — the Bitcoin Reference Rate New York variant.' Every day, the ETF multiplies the number of Bitcoins it holds by that benchmark price — most recently over $83,000 — to calculate its net asset value (NAV). Retail investors don't interact with CF Benchmarks directly, but their ETF shares are priced based on it. 'It's how you get a reliable, transparent dollar value for the Bitcoins you own through ETF shares,' Chung said. That kind of infrastructure is helping crypto move from fringe to mainstream. 'Ten years ago, Bitcoin was a fringe market,' said Chung. 'But that's changed. There's increased institutional participation, and products like ETFs and CME Bitcoin futures are part of that evolution. Those futures are also settled using our benchmarks.' The goal, Chung says, is to bring 'tradfi-grade' infrastructure to digital assets — making crypto look more like Wall Street, and giving investors tools they can actually trust. At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) was down 2.6%, trading at $77,461.18, according to Kraken price feeds. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
30-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bitcoin cycles may change — but halvings still rule the game, says CF Benchmarks CEO
The traditional four-year Bitcoin cycle may be shifting, but one thing hasn't changed: the impact of supply shocks. That's according to Sui Chung, CEO of CF Benchmarks, who joined TheStreet Roundtable with Rob Nelson to break down whether past patterns can still predict the future. In a world with massive ETF inflows, institutional exposure, and increasing regulation, Bitcoin's environment has changed radically. But does that mean the famous cycle of price surges and corrections tied to halving events is broken? Nelson asked. 'It's very hard to predict with any certainty whether the old Bitcoin four-year cycle will hold,' Chung said. 'Given that there's so many different forces now at play in the market.' Bitcoin halving is a pre-programmed event that occurs approximately every four years, cutting the reward miners receive for validating transactions in half. This reduces the rate at which new Bitcoin enters circulation, tightening supply. Historically, halvings have preceded major price increases due to the resulting supply shock. But despite the new players and deeper scrutiny, Chung still sees the halving cycle as structurally powerful. 'Bitcoin is fundamentally a demand and supply driven market,' he explained. 'It has no cash flows apart from those involved in mining.' That, he said, sets it apart from traditional financial assets. 'And so therefore the demand supply is the key catalyst. And as a scarce, limited supply asset, when the cycle was always correlated, it was always driven by the halvings,' he added. Each halving reduces the rewards paid to miners, effectively cutting new Bitcoin issuance in half. It's a built-in supply crunch, and Chung believes its effects are too powerful to ignore — even in a more complex environment. 'When supply is restricted, the impacts of that supply restriction [are] very hard to completely overcome through any change in the market participants,' he said. Chung didn't go as far as saying the cycle will repeat exactly. But he did lean on a popular adage among Bitcoin veterans: 'History may not repeat itself, but it's very likely to rhyme.' So while the faces, money, and headlines around Bitcoin have changed, the core driver of its booms and busts may still come down to one thing — the block reward halving. Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at $86,598.33, down 0.0% on the day, but still up 1.5% over the past week and 2.8% in the last month, according to Kraken's price feeds. Sign in to access your portfolio
