Latest news with #ZeroTolerancePolicy
The Guardian
7 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Why families separated during Trump's first term face new risks as legal aid remains in limbo
A US district judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore legal services for potentially thousands of migrant families after officials violated a historic settlement agreement that had forced the federal government to repair some of the devastating impact of the family separation scandal from the first Trump White House that sparked bipartisan uproar at the time. Judge Dana Sabraw has mandated that the executive branch resume services by an independent contractor advising parents and children who were separated during Donald Trump's 'zero tolerance' policy at the US-Mexico border in 2017 and 2018, when accounts of traumatic scenes spread around the world and a secret recording was made public of terrified, sobbing children being torn from their parents by federal agents, to be detained separately. These legal services help families apply for permission to stay in the US, having been allowed to return or remain years after they were broken up by the first Trump administration for crossing the southwest border without authorization. It is unclear when or if the federal government will comply with Sabraw's decision last week. At stake are the families' futures in the US, and even whether they will be vulnerable to Trump's current mass deportation campaign, which is now leading to similar scenes, this time across the US interior, where other children and spouses scream and sob as their family is effectively separated amid escalating immigration enforcement. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) challenged the Trump administration in court this spring over its 'sudden and unexplained termination' of contracted legal services for those covered in the 2023 settlement that had finally emerged, during the Biden administration, from the ACLU's lawsuit 'on behalf of thousands of traumatized children and parents' from Trump 1.0. That settlement provided the formerly separated families with assisted access to basic legal help, and the Biden administration complied with its requirements last year by hiring an independent contractor – the Washington DC-based Acacia Center for Justice – to run a new program, Legal Access Services for Reunified Families (LASRF). Trump then failed to renew Acacia's contract – and the court ruled breach of settlement. 'This is not a minor or technical breach. In the absence of lawyers to assist them, these children who have suffered so much at the hands of the first Trump administration will be in real danger of being separated again,' ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said in a statement. 'This ruling will help make sure that doesn't happen.' Through LASRF, formerly separated families aren't guaranteed free, full representation. But they are given limited support that can be gamechanging. For instance, with filling out forms that could help stop them from being deported from the US, or make getting jobs possible, or reopen an immigration court case to pursue the protection they had hoped to ask for years ago when they were criminalized by Trump 1.0. However, this spring, Trump 2.0 abruptly 'federalized' the LASRF program at the suggestion of Elon Musk's so-called department of government efficiency (Doge). In practice, that meant the responsibility of orienting, informing and referring out formerly separated families to a small number of pro bono attorneys now fell to staffers at the Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), which houses the immigration courts (in the executive branch of government not the judicial branch). These are the same immigration courts where people are increasingly afraid to go now, because of rampant arrests nationwide by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) in a highly unorthodox collusion between court and enforcer – as judges are allowing government attorneys to quickly dismiss potentially meritorious cases for protection, so that the administration can deport families with ease. And these are the immigration courts that will eventually adjudicate the formerly separated families' fate, even as its parent sub-agency provides legal help. In its court challenge, the ACLU had pointed out that EOIR providing these legal services itself signified 'a clear conflict'. And, in his decision, Sabraw slammed the government for failing to provide the quality and quantity of services required, ordering the Trump administration to rehire Acacia. Turnout has been low in recent weeks – three or six attenders – for virtual group orientations hosted by EOIR's version of the LASRF program, even as the sub-agency said it would primarily focus on those kinds of group services, not the individualized help that is so often necessary to successfully apply for legal relief in the US. And if families tried to look elsewhere for free legal advice, they were likely to come up short after the Trump administration defunded other programs such as immigration court help desks and detention-based legal orientation programs across the country. 'It's particularly indicative of how cruel and anti-children this administration is. You know, they seem to have no interest in a fair day in court for people, including those living with lifelong trauma caused by their [previous] policies,' said Jess Hunter-Bowman, a senior attorney at the National Immigrant Justice Center, one of the independent subcontractors that has provided services through LASRF. Thousands of families were separated at the US-Mexico border during the first Trump administration, including a Guatemalan father and his 10-year-old son in Texas. When the father – whom the Guardian is not identifying for his safety – learned he was going to be deported, his son was off playing with other kids at the detention center where they were being held. Agents had refused to let father and son say goodbye. The kid played on, oblivious as his father was chained as if he were a dangerous criminal and removed in tears, forced to leave his son behind. The boy was also eventually sent back to Guatemala. Several years later, as they were barely scraping by, they received an unexpected invitation for their family to come to the US, as part of the federal government's attempt, now under the Biden administration, to answer for family separations like theirs. Despite the previous mistreatment and trauma, the pull of the American dream remained unassailable, and in a matter of months, the father, son and their loved ones touched down stateside. Although their first days in a new country were difficult, they soon found work and community. And, when they eventually needed help with their next steps in the immigration process, they turned to a lawyer who, through LASRF, patiently guided them through complex application forms they needed to fill out in English – a language they don't speak. Because of the program, their entire family has been able to preserve humanitarian permissions and can continue to live and work legally in the US while they pursue more permanent status. 'If it hadn't been for the attorney's help,sincerely, I wouldn't have been able to do anything,' the father said. The Trump administration has not yet contacted Acacia about the ruling, which means services have not been able to resume. For good measure, judge Sabraw flayed the original 'zero tolerance' strategy at the border. 'The policy resulted in the separation of thousands of parents from their minor children, many of whom remain separated to this day,' he wrote. 'The policy caused lasting, excruciating harm to these families, and gratuitously tore the sacred bond that existed between these parents and their children.'
Hans India
01-05-2025
- Hans India
123 CCTV cameras inaugurated in Bowenpally
Hyderabad: As part of the North Zone Police's initiative to enhance public safety and promote inclusive development, a newly established Command and Control Centre, along with 123 CCTV cameras — including several equipped with advanced number plate recognition technology was inaugurated on Wednesday within the jurisdiction of Bowenpally police station. These cameras were generously installed by Gemini Edible and Fats India Ltd, Banjara Hills, under their CSR initiative, in collaboration with the Hyderabad city police. This initiative aligns with the government's broader vision of positioning Telangana as a global model for development and inclusivity. A key focus of this vision is the Zero Tolerance Policy towards crimes against women, which is being implemented through several proactive policing measures, including technological integration and community partnership. DCP North Zone S Rashmi Perumal expressed heartfelt gratitude to Anurag, Vice President and Rajesh Agarwal, CSR Executive of Gemini Edible and Fats India Ltd for their remarkable contribution. The DCP also highlighted the critical role CCTV cameras play in crime prevention, detection and tracking of offenders, further strengthening public safety and instilling confidence among citizens.
Epoch Times
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
Gun Rights and the Second Amendment in Trump's First 100 Days
While campaigning in 2024, Donald Trump promised to defend the Second Amendment. Gun rights advocates say the president has kept that promise in the first 100 days of his second term, and that he began fulfilling it on Jan. 21, the day after he was inaugurated. That's when the website for President Joe Biden's White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention went dark. The office was a crown jewel of Biden's gun control plan, along with the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which he signed on June 25, 2022. Biden touted the law as the most significant gun legislation signed in 30 years. It expanded background checks, provided funding for mental health services and community-based violence prevention initiatives, and added to the roster of people restricted from owning firearms. Under Vice President Kamala Harris, the office was staffed with veterans of the gun control movement whose mandate was to 'prevent gun violence and save lives.' The head of the gun control organization Brady, formerly the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence, criticized the office's closure online. Related Stories 3/18/2025 2/7/2025 'The White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention wasn't about politics – it was about strengthening the government's ability to protect Americans ... from guns,' Brady President Kris Brown wrote. On Feb. 7, Trump Gun rights activists are especially interested in how the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) will operate under a second Trump administration. Many say the agency is too powerful. In one of its most popular decisions among gun rights activists, Trump's Department of Justice (DOJ) rescinded the ATF's Enhanced Regulatory Enforcement Policy, also known as the 'Zero Tolerance Policy,' on April 7. Critics of the policy say it allowed ATF inspectors to revoke gun dealers' federal firearms licenses for clerical errors that were previously considered minor infractions. The zero-tolerance policy defined these errors as 'willfully' violating the law. Gun Owners of America (GOA) filed a lawsuit claiming the ATF used the policy to bully gun dealers into ceasing operations. The Epoch Times reached out to the ATF for comment and did not receive a response by publication time. GOA stated that the number of dealers with federal licenses who stopped operating after a compliance inspection without a negative finding jumped from 96 in 2020 to 789 in 2021, after the policy went into effect. It increased to 1,037 in 2022, a rise of more than 1,000 percent from 2020. The day after the policy was repealed, Bondi GOA leadership celebrated the developments. 'For years, the Zero Tolerance Policy has been a tool of political retribution—targeting gun stores and Americans who were simply trying to exercise their rights,' Erich Pratt, GOA senior vice president, In an email to its members, Brady accused the administration of adopting dangerous policies. 'By dismantling this [Zero Tolerance] policy, the Trump Administration is essentially signaling to irresponsible gun dealers that they can now break the law without consequence,' the email stated. The Brady email also criticizes the administration for failing to appoint a full-time director for the ATF. 'The ATF needs permanent, dedicated leadership committed to public safety, not gun industry profits. Without proper leadership, the American people will ultimately be the ones to suffer,' the email stated. FBI Director Kash Patel was appointed acting ATF director in February and was removed from the job shortly after. He was replaced by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll. The future of the ATF appears to be uncertain. There have been reports that it may merge with the Drug Enforcement Agency, though nothing definitive has been announced. Gun control proponents accuse Trump of taking other actions under the guise of fiscal responsibility. FBI Director Kash Patel during an annual worldwide threats assessment hearing at the Longworth House Office Building in Washington, on March 26, Giffords Center for Violence Intervention, founded by former U.S. Rep Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who was shot in the head at a campaign rally in 2011, Cuts also have been made to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services, which study and gather data on violent crime involving guns and its impact on society. 'It's not an exaggeration to say that pulling violence intervention workers out of communities will lead to an immediate surge in violence—people will die,' Paul Carrillo, vice president of the Giffords Center, wrote. In a social media They included $2 million for 'national listening sessions of individuals with lived experience,' $695,000 for 'a parallel convergent mixed-methods case study research design to assess the efficacy of police departments' LGBTQ liaison services,' and $250,000 for 'working with incarcerated transgender individuals providing gender affirming care to including housing in gender appropriate facilities.' During his campaign, Trump also promised to sign a national reciprocity bill if it crossed his desk. It would require states to honor concealed firearms permits of other states. Permit holders would have to comply with all gun laws of the state they are in. For example, if a state prohibits guns in churches, they could not carry there even if their home state allows it. 'All of those laws and restrictions and conditions would be unchanged and would still be in effect,' Amy Swearer, an attorney and a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, told The Epoch Times. Opponents, however, stated that police would have to learn the gun laws of all 50 states. David LaBahn, president and CEO of the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, said his organization opposes the legislation for this and other reasons. An Oklahoma resident in New York would be under Oklahoma law rather than New York law, he said. This would require New York law enforcers to know the law in all other states. 'If there's reciprocity, the New York laws don't apply, your Oklahoma laws would apply,' LaBahn told The Epoch Times. A reciprocity bill is in Congress, but it appears to have little chance of making it to Trump's desk. Second Amendment advocates say they are generally pleased with the president's actions so far. 'The revocation of the 'zero tolerance' policy is a very big course correction that President Trump's administration has delivered,' Mark Oliva, spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said in an email to The Epoch Times. 'The firearm industry sees that President Trump is keeping his promises.' Gun control groups did not respond to requests for comment from The Epoch Times by publication time.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump administration repeals ‘zero-tolerance' gun dealer regulations. What's Florida doing?
Last year, the Supreme Court struck down a ban on bump stocks — controversial devices that allow someone to shoot hundreds of bullets a minute from a semi-automatic rifle. The ban was passed during President Donald Trump's first term after the deadliest mass shooting in the nation's history when one man killed 58 people at a Las Vegas concert, firing more than 1.000 rounds in 11 minutes. In response to that and recent moves by the Trump administration to reduce gun regulations, U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nevada, and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pennsylvania, on Thursday introduced a bill to ban them again. A previous attempt to reinstate the ban failed last June. 'Nearly eight years after the Harvest Festival massacre we still do not have a federal law banning these deadly devices,' Titus said in a release Wednesday. 'Bump stocks continue to pose a threat to innocent lives and Congress must act. Without a federal law firmly banning them, federal regulations and court rulings could allow bump stocks on our streets and in our neighborhoods, raising the risk of more mass shootings.' Meanwhile, the Justice Department struck down regulations that targeted weapons sellers who intentionally violated federal law and announced it was reviewing the still-existing ban on stabilizing pistol braces. In Florida, dozens of firearms-related bills have been filed with varying degrees of success in the Florida Legislature to further restrict or relax the state's gun laws. In a February executive order, Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to examine "all orders, regulations, guidance, plans, international agreements, and other actions of executive departments and agencies" for "ongoing infringements of the Second Amendment rights of our citizens" put in place during former President Joe Biden's term. Bondi announced Wednesday the creation of a "2nd Amendment Task Force." "For too long, the Second Amendment, which establishes the fundamental individual right of Americans to keep and bear arms, has been treated as a second-class right," Bondi said in a memo. "No more. It is the policy of this Department of Justice to use its full might to protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. Bondi is chairing the task force, with representatives from her staff, the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, the Office of the Associate Attorney General, the Office of the Solicitor General, the Civil Division, the Civil Rights Division, the Criminal Division, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the FBI, and anyone else she may designate. The announcement came two days after the Department of Justice and the ATF issued a joint release repealing the Enhanced Regulatory Enforcement Policy established during Biden's term. Also called the Zero Tolerance Policy, it allowed the ATF to shut down gun dealers who willfully violated federal law by refusing inspections, transferring a firearm to a prohibited person, failing to conduct required background checks, falsifying records or failing to respond to a trace request. 'This Department of Justice believes that the 2nd Amendment is not a second-class right,' Bondi said. In data posted in an archived ATF page in January (now deleted), 147 federal firearms licensees (FFLs) nationwide had their licenses pulled in 2024 out of 394 inspections that found violations under the Zero Tolerance Policy, and 74 voluntarily stopped their operations. That was down slightly from 2023 but significantly more than in previous years. Bondi also said the task force would be reviewing a federal ban on stabilizing braces, which reclassified guns with pistol braces designed to be fired from the shoulder as short-barreled rifles regulated by the National Firearm Act, and a rule that defines what 'engaging in the business' of firearms dealing means. ATF changed the classification after a series of mass shootings by people using the devices that attach to the back of a gun and strap to the forearm, anchoring and lengthening the weapon and allowing the shooter to shoot one-handed more easily. A man using a stabilizing brace on an AR-15 pistol killed 10 people at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. Another used one at a school in Nashville, Tennessee and killed three 9-year-old children and three school staff members. Stabilizing pistol braces also were used in mass shootings in Colorado Springs and in Dayton, Ohio. On Wednesday, Marvin Richardson, the second-highest-ranking official and a 35-year ATF veteran, resigned after being given the option to leave or be removed, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. FBI Director Kash Patel was also removed as acting ATF director and replaced by Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll. No reasons have been given for the changes. No. "Bump-fire stocks" were banned here in 2018 when then-Gov. Rock Scott signed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act following the horrific shootings at a Parkland school. Bump stocks were not used in that shooting but were included along with several other gun control measures. Under Florida Statute 790.222, possession, import and sale of bump stocks — defined as "a conversion kit, a tool, an accessory, or a device used to alter the rate of fire of a firearm to mimic automatic weapon fire or which is used to increase the rate of fire to a faster rate than is possible for a person to fire such semiautomatic firearm unassisted by a kit, a tool, an accessory, or a device" — remains a third-degree felony. However, one part of the High School Public Safety Act may change. A bill to lower the minimum age from 21 down to 18 moved to the Senate floor Wednesday, one of more than a dozen bills currently moving — or not moving — through the legislature. The various bills would: Require background checks for the sale or transfer of ammunition Prohibit firearms in sensitive locations such as healthcare facilities, government buildings, schools, parks, shelters and more Prevent local governments from declaring emergencies that suspend gun and ammunition sales Prohibit private sales of firearms unless both parties get background checks Revise state law to define firearms with bump stocks as machine guns Allow corrections officers to carry their firearms while off duty Prohibit the use of AI to detect firearms in public areas Regulate firearms at school-sponsored events Reduce the sale of all firearms to people 18 and older and remove the requirement for a hunter safety course to avoid the mandatory waiting period for buying a rifle or shotgun Allow law enforcement officers to carry concealed weapons at school or athletic events Prohibit the sale of an assault weapon or large-capacity magazine Remove all age restrictions to buy a firearm Most have languished without moving very far, especially bills restricting gun ownership or use. Regulating guns: 7 years after the Parkland school massacre, is America any safer from guns? Gov. Ron DeSantis, who spoke out against bans on pistol braces and bump stocks when he was campaigning as a presidential candidate at the end of 2023, has been open about wanting to repeal age requirements and red-flag laws, and allowing open carry. "It's just a piece of plastic," DeSantis told people at an appearance at the Crossroads Shooting Sports range in Johnston, Iowa. "All of a sudden, people are going to be felons because they have a piece of plastic?" This echoed an earlier talk when he called for a repeal of both federal bans. In 2023, Florida passed a law to allow people to carry concealed weapons and firearms without background checks, training or a concealed license. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Trump DOJ, ATF repeal Biden-era gun laws. What about pistol braces?
