Latest news with #citizenship
The National
a day ago
- Politics
- The National
Court backs citizenship ban for Afghan people smugglers
An Afghan people smuggler and his nephew who charged migrants £9,000 ($12,190) each to reach the UK have lost their appeal against being stripped of British citizenship. Judges have ruled that the Home Secretary was justified in depriving them of UK nationality on the basis that their people smuggling operation constituted serious organised crime. The penalty puts smuggling on a level with national security threats. The people smuggler and his nephew cannot be named for legal reasons and are referred to as D5 and D6 in court documents. Also involved in their criminal organisation was D6's brother, who is known as D7. The Special Immigration Appeals Commission agreed to strip D5 and D6 of UK citizenship and exclude D7 from Britain, after a hearing in 2023. They took their case to the Court of Appeal but judges Nicholas Green and Elisabeth Laing have now backed the SIAC decision. In their decision their said SIAC 'must take the same approach in cases' in which individuals 'have been deprived of their citizenship on the ground that they have been involved in and/or are likely to continue to be involved in SOC [Serious Organised Crime] as it must take in national security cases'. Priti Patel, who was home secretary at the time, was right to make the decision on the grounds that the presence of all three men was not 'conducive to the public good', the judges ruled. Claimed asylum SIAC was told that D5 first arrived in the UK from Afghanistan in 2001. He was joined by his nephew D6 in 2004 and both were eventually granted British citizenship after claiming asylum. D7 arrived clandestinely in 2007 and also given asylum after he claimed he faced persecution from the Taliban. He was given the right to remain in the UK permanently. They became involved in crime and began to attract the attention of the police, who in 2018 raided their homes where they found £12,000 in cash and 30 mobile phones. The National Crime Agency began an undercover operation involving two officers − codenamed George and Mark − posing as intercontinental lorry drivers who had fallen on hard times during the Covid pandemic. The officers met the brothers in a shop owned by one of them in February 2020 and struck up a conversation in which they told them how Covid was affecting their work. 'D6 ushered George out of the shop and then asked George if he knew anyone who could bring people back into the UK,' according to the three judges who presided over the SIAC hearing. Undercover sting George said that he did and they agreed to discuss it the following week and the two officers met the brothers at a petrol station in September during which D6 told George he wanted him to 'smuggle people from mainland Europe into the UK'. The pair made 'significant financial gain' from the smuggling and 'each migrant would pay some £8,000 to £9,000 to be brought into the country'. Many of those who were smuggled in were children who had been trafficked for the purpose of forced labour and were forced to work for D5. The uncle and nephew left for Kabul, but in the meantime the Home Office, at the request of the NCA, stripped them of their citizenship. D7 was also believed to be involved their operation and he was excluded from the UK while he was also out of the country. After being turned back from returning, D5 and D6 entered the UK clandestinely but were eventually arrested and brought to court. D6 is serving a 10-year sentence for people smuggling and helping his brother enter Britain illegally. His uncle, D5, was sentenced to five years in prison for entering illegally. D7 is believed to be in Finland.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Benin names Spike Lee and wife ambassadors for African-Americans in the US
Benin has appointed renowned American filmmaker Spike Lee and his wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, a seasoned producer and author, as its ambassadors for African-Americans in the US. The couple are expected to serve as "thematic" ambassadors, raising awareness and supporting initiatives to promote Benin's ties with people of African descent. The agreement was finalised during their visit to Cotonou, Benin's capital, last week, French public broadcaster RFI reports. The government says it will help reconnect "people of African descent around the world to their historical, cultural, and spiritual roots". The West African country has come up with several initiatives encouraging people of African descent to reclaim their heritage and pursue citizenship where eligible. Last year, the government passed a law offering nationality to people with an African ancestor who was taken from their homeland as part of the transatlantic slave trade. The appointment of the ambassadors follows the recent launch of a website where the descendants of enslaved Africans can apply for citizenship. RFI reports that Tonya Lewis Lee was among hundreds of people who applied and received a favourable response. Spike Lee has previously stated that DNA analysis traced his father's lineage to Cameroon, while his mother's roots were from Sierra Leone. His wife's specific country of ancestry has not been made public. Both have long been advocates for civil rights and social justice in the US in their works. Spike Lee's films are often based on African-American experiences and explore themes of race, identity, and justice. The Benin government said that "through their long-standing commitment to justice, their exceptional creativity, and their global reach", both have "profoundly shaped the contemporary narrative of the African diaspora". They have not publicly commented about their appointment. Benin's coastline is part of what was once known as the Slave Coast - a major departure point for enslaved Africans shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. Between 1580 and 1727, the Kingdom of Whydah, a major slave-trading centre located on what is now Benin's coast, is estimated to have exported more than a million Africans to the US, the Caribbean and Brazil. You may also be interested in: Spike Lee's masterpiece about racism in the US Ulster Museum: Slave trade artefacts feature in new exhibition Watch: Thousands celebrate Benin's voodoo holiday Go to for more news from the African continent. Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica BBC Africa podcasts Focus on Africa
BBC News
a day ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Spike Lee and wife Tonya named as Benin ambassadors for African-Americans in the US
Benin has appointed renowned American filmmaker Spike Lee and his wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, a seasoned producer and author, as its ambassadors for African-Americans in the couple are expected to serve as "thematic" ambassadors, raising awareness and supporting initiatives to promote Benin's ties with people of African agreement was finalised during their visit to Cotonou, Benin's capital, last week, French public broadcaster RFI government says it will help reconnect "people of African descent around the world to their historical, cultural, and spiritual roots". The West African country has come up with several initiatives encouraging people of African descent to reclaim their heritage and pursue citizenship where year, the government passed a law offering nationality to people with an African ancestor who was taken from their homeland as part of the transatlantic slave appointment of the ambassadors follows the recent launch of a website where the descendants of enslaved Africans can apply for reports that Tonya Lewis Lee was among hundreds of people who applied and received a favourable Lee has previously stated that DNA analysis traced his father's lineage to Cameroon, while his mother's roots were from Sierra Leone. His wife's specific country of ancestry has not been made have long been advocates for civil rights and social justice in the US in their works. Spike Lee's films are often based on African-American experiences and explore themes of race, identity, and Benin government said that "through their long-standing commitment to justice, their exceptional creativity, and their global reach", both have "profoundly shaped the contemporary narrative of the African diaspora".They have not publicly commented about their coastline is part of what was once known as the Slave Coast - a major departure point for enslaved Africans shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. Between 1580 and 1727, the Kingdom of Whydah, a major slave-trading centre located on what is now Benin's coast, is estimated to have exported more than a million Africans to the US, the Caribbean and Brazil. You may also be interested in: Spike Lee's masterpiece about racism in the USUlster Museum: Slave trade artefacts feature in new exhibitionWatch: Thousands celebrate Benin's voodoo holiday Go to for more news from the African us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
The Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
I don't identify with my country's values anymore. Is this ‘citizenship insecurity'?
It starts with a quiz from a law firm: did your grandparents leave before or after 1951? Do you have their passports or marriage certificate? If I answer correctly, I will get another email from a lawyer who specializes in citizenship claims. If I do not, my file may be quietly marked as a long shot. The stakes are high: if successful, I could ultimately obtain an EU citizenship for myself and then perhaps for other members of my family. Like many other Americans, I began this process in a moment of disillusionment. Since the 2024 election, I have been living with what I have come to call 'citizenship insecurity', a new category of instability that millions of us are now grappling with. It is the unsettling sense that a US passport, once a symbol of safety and mobility, is no longer something we identify with. I am not living in fear of Ice raids; I am privileged enough to be a US citizen. I am not applying for another passport out of immediate danger or fear. Instead, it is about estrangement: I no longer recognize my country's values. Since the US's inception, Americans have told ourselves a story about who we are and what we represent. We knew we were not perfect, but we thought America at least pretended to try to stand up for democracy and human rights. Much of that story has been tossed aside in the last decade, along with the dismantlement of our social contracts. 'Citizenship insecurity' captures the depth of that unraveling, not necessarily imminent danger but no longer recognizing America, or trusting its values. 'My anxiety is through the roof right now, but I think it would be worse if I were not a citizen,' says Juan M Hincapie-Castillo, a researcher at the University of North Carolina and a recently naturalized American who first came to this country as an international student. He is experiencing citizenship insecurity to the max. 'I am still brown, queer, and have an accent. I have tattoos that I cover every time I travel and go through TSA,' he says. 'I keep hearing stories of legal residents and citizens being detained.' The instability Hincapie-Castillo experiences is a more targeted and virulent form than what I am experiencing. Right now, just being queer or brown – or even simply having tattoos, given the outsized role those have played in the recent roundups of alleged immigrant gang members – can seem to make a person more vulnerable to being singled out. Just this month, Hincapie-Castillo's medical research on pain management treatments was defunded by the Trump administration. He studies trigeminal neuralgia, a facial nerve condition that is so cruel it is sometimes referred to as a 'suicide disease'. His work had been funded for five years by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), but the grant was terminated after only one year. The stated reason for termination: a new NIH policy declaring that research programs connected to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are 'antithetical to scientific inquiry'. (Some demographics' pain no longer counts to those in power, apparently.) Indeed, this is another part of citizenship insecurity today: the economic pressures on scholars as federal funding has been haphazardly cut in the sciences and other disciplines. A number of these academics are internationally born, which adds an additional layer of uncertainty. 'The fear is always there,' he says of his current life. 'I carry my US passport now everywhere I go, just in case.' Of course, the woes of American citizens experiencing insecurity like Hincapie-Castillo do not even compare to the threat against non-citizens: it is as if many of us are nesting dolls of uncertainty. By 1 June, 51,302 people were in Ice detention. As of 13 July , the number had ticked up to 56,816. The Ice site has not shared numbers for deportations in 2025 publicly yet. The current head of Ice apparently told an Arizona Mirror reporter that our deportation system needs to be more like 'Amazon Prime, but with human beings'. He meant that as a good thing. And yet, the fear American citizens who are in far less outright peril also feel is still real. Recently, Donald Trump threatened to withdraw the actor Rosie O'Donnell's citizenship. Petulant as his threat was, it nonetheless showed that the president would like to denaturalize even native-born people who he reviles. The threat to birthright citizenship speaks to that same issue. Citizenship insecurity is about grappling with what it means to be American when so many of our supposed ideals have vanished – not just from policy, but from political discourse itself. This is not the first time Americans have lived alongside wars or policies they did not support. For decades, many of us have witnessed enormous political endeavors we did not approve of, from the war in Iraq to the war in Vietnam. This included the 'forever wars', which were attacks on much we valued about our country, all at once, but it also included phenomena that presage and accompany those wars: torture, military occupation and Islamophobia at home. As a journalist focused on income inequality and economic insecurity, I did not buy into the 'American dream' mythos. Editing big stories about economic inequality in this country day in, day out, I have been shown over and over that the notion of pulling yourself by your bootstraps is a fantasy. I have interviewed people who did everything 'right' – saving money, pursuing higher education, working 40 hours a week – and still live from paycheck to paycheck, unable to buy a home or to even recognize a clear life trajectory. Nonetheless, a small part of myself held on to an idea of America as a beacon of sorts, as it had been for my immigrant grandparents. My grandfather left a town that has been controlled by different countries in eastern Europe for the US in 1929, returned to marry my grandmother, and together they came back again in the early 1930s. But most of our family did not make it out. They died there: Jews caught in a hideous historical fulcrum, crushed by the machinery of genocide and occupation. As a result, my grandparents loathed talking about the past and what happened there, preferring to pass it over in silence. What would they think of the choice that I and others were hoping to make now? America had offered them a chance to own their own store and for their children to go to college; my mother even made it to the Ivy League on scholarship. It was not a country I ever wanted to have an opportunity to leave or thought I or my family might need one. That has changed – for me and others. Nadia Kaneva, for example, is a media and communications professor at the University of Denver who has spent years studying how nations brand themselves. Born in Bulgaria and only recently naturalized as an American, Kaneva is feeling citizenship insecurity in real time. As a scholar, she has long understood how a country that is no longer desirable to emigrate to affects and is affected by foreign investment, tourism and brain drain. In the US, symbolic security has started to erode and other countries are jumping on the opportunities. A few European universities, for instance, have announced programs to recruit American researchers to Europe, especially if they are, say, public health scholars or environmental studies specialists or sociologists concentrating on gender. Kazim Ali, a co-founder of Nightboat Books and the author of the book Resident Alien, feels that the challenge to his and others' identities as Americans is 'existential as well as direct'. He emigrated here with his parents, who were Muslims born in India ('So India doesn't feel like home, either, at the moment,' he says). Would he ever consider leaving? To this, he quotes the Uruguayan poet Cristina Peri Rossi, who once said of her condition of exile and return: 'I don't want to trade one nostalgia for another.' It is not only longtime citizens who are rethinking what it means to be American. Even those newly eligible for citizenship – people who once looked forward to formally pledging allegiance – are now pausing. Those people 'have told me they are now torn', says Michele Wucker, a risk governance expert who also has written extensively about citizenship. 'The actions of this administration do not align with the country they thought we were. And now they question the logic of becoming a citizen out of fear of how Maga believes we should treat non-citizens.' Of course, some argue that seeking out the insurance of a second passport or planning to escape to a university job in another country is weak-hearted – that we must stay and fight for the democracy we want to live in. Others decry running away as unpatriotic, as when scholars of authoritarianism at Yale – Timothy Snyder, Jason Stanley and Marci Shore – announced publicly that they were moving to Canada for academic positions. In response, the scholar Siva Vaidhyanathan wrote that we should seek ballast from the writer James Baldwin's 'unromantic patriotism' in these times and 'stay, fight, and to urge others to as well.' I see his and other writers' point: given my own relatively privileged position, I would never leave this country unless I really felt I had to. I interviewed a Jewish faith leader who is originally from Israel, has an American passport but is also in the middle of obtaining her Portuguese citizenship (she is Sephardic, meaning her ancestors are from the Iberian peninsula). She wants to remain anonymous in part to protect her child, who is transgender, and expanding her options for citizenship feels more urgent than ever. She is also applying, she says, because the current American political situation plays 'into centuries-old insecurity of the Jewish people'. For her, citizenship insecurity has been compounded by what she calls 'the state of violence of the country [Israel] I come from'. The sense of instability is not confined to one place – it echoes across borders. It is not just about mobility or paperwork – it is about protection, about having somewhere for her child to go if things get worse. Melissa Aronczyk, a media studies professor at Rutgers University and author of Branding the Nation: the Global Business of National Identity, comes from Canada. She has been thinking of returning home 'incessantly' since January. 'There is a cabal of Canadians in the US where that's a central topic right now,' she says. In conversations in a Facebook group for her fellow expats living in the US, trying to get their kids into Canadian universities has become a far more insistent theme as of late. 'Canadian American parents getting their kids to apply to Canadian rather than American universities was once a tuition move,' says Aronczyk. Now, she says it's also political as well. Aronczyk, like many of the people I spoke to, is quick to acknowledge her relative privilege. We know we are lucky, even, in being able to consider second citizenships. But that is precisely the point: when even the relatively economically secure feel as if the ground shifts beneath them, it signals just how deep and wide this instability runs. As an expert on national branding, Aronczyk notes that the US's image has sharply deteriorated in the past six months. Since the start of Trump's second administration, global perceptions of America 'have gone negative, by almost every measure'. A national brand is defined as much by people with American passports as people watching our country from the outside: students, tourists and investors, she points out. In June, I started my regular correspondence with a law firm representing people seeking European citizenship. Each time I wrote and heard back from them, I recalled my beloved grandfather. In one old photo, he wore his cavalry uniform, adorned with sparking buttons. I remember that handsome expression from my childhood in the 1970s when he was already an old man, still attractive and bewildered. Whether that was due to his feeling caught in the gears of history or not it was hard to say. What I do know was he was eager to be the sort of American who took his kids to movie palaces and had college money tucked away for their grandchildren, no matter that he and grandma worked six days a week in a shoe store to be able to do so. In his old age, he got to watch Star Trek with his feet up as the two ate strawberry ice-cream. Occasionally, once retired, my grandmother would even attend outdoor classical concerts and free Shakespeare plays with her friends. This, to them, was the American dream. It still strikes me as uncanny, to even be considering giving myself and my family the possibility to go elsewhere if the worst happens here. After all, this country was my grandparents' refuge. But I imagine they would understand, and even approve. They knew all too well the cost of having the wrong citizenship at the wrong time.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Rosie O'Donnell sends pointed message amid her war of words with Trump
Rosie O'Donnell sent a pointed message after President Donald Trump threatened to revoke her American citizenship. The U.S.-born actress, 63, rocked a 'New York' themed outfit at the London premiere of the Burlesque musical. O'Donnell, who was born in the U.S. but now resides in Ireland, has been embroiled in a recent war of words with Trump, but has long been at odds with him. After Trump said he was seriously considering revoking Rosie's citizenship last week, she set out to fully embrace her American roots in unforgettable fashion on Tuesday. Rosie's paint-splattered grey jacket featured a repetitive 'New York' pattern along with a Big Apple design front and center. Even her trousers were inspired by her birth state. Rosie, who was born in Commack, New York, sported black trousers with 'New York' painted in neon across both legs. On the red carpet, Rosie continued her criticism of Trump as she recommended a list of musicals for him to watch. 'Hamilton, so he can actually learn about our founding fathers, and understand exactly what it means to have the role that he has,' she told Attitude. 'I believe he feels we're in a reality show and he's acting like it's some sort of ridiculous television program. 'Les Misérables. Must my name before I die, be more than just an alibi? Must I lie? How will I ever face my fellow man? How will I ever face myself again? My soul belongs to God, I know I made that bargain long ago. He gave my hope when hope was gone. He gave me strength to carry on. 'And probably the third one would be something like La Cage aux Folles. Just so he could know how wonderful gay people are and stop his ridiculous marginalization of us. And I stand in unison with every gay person all over the world, and especially trans people who are being marginalized by this very abusive government we have now in the United States.' Her appearance comes weeks after the president threatened to revoke Rosie's American citizenship, calling the comedian and longtime critic a 'threat to humanity' in a fiery post on Truth Social. 'Because of the fact that Rosie O'Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship,' Trump, 79, wrote to his Truth Social. 'She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her. GOD BLESS AMERICA!' Under US law, a president cannot revoke the citizenship of an American born in the United States. O'Donnell was born in New York state. She subsequently went scorched earth on Trump with a series of posts claiming Trump was on Jeffrey Epstein's client list and was a guest at the billionaire's infamous island. Over the course of almost a dozen posts the comedian and former chat show host laid into Trump and any association he may have had with Epstein, but some focused squarely on the president himself. 'Thirty-plus years of sexual abuse - The known victims,' O'Donnell posted earlier this month along with a profile shot of Trump and a list of women who have accused him of sexual abuse dating back to the 1980s. Earlier this month Trump said he was considering "taking away" the U.S. citizenship of his longtime rival Another posting showcased a photo montage showcasing Trump meeting Epstein and his convicted sex trafficker girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. In the center was a Truth Social from Trump pleading for people to 'STOP TALKING ABOUT EPSTEIN!!!!!'. Other posts designed to irk the president further saw a photoshopped picture of Trump wearing one of his signature red MAGA caps only with the words changed to read: 'I'm on the list' referring to the supposed client list Epstein kept. Earlier this month the White House has said that there is in fact no 'client list,' a narrative that some question. 'Let's not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about,' Trump later wrote on Truth Social, casting the controversy as a ploy to derail his political momentum. One of O'Donnell's messages earlier this month was aimed squarely in response to Trump's suggestion to revoke her citizenship. 'Hey Donald - you're rattled again? 18 years later and I still live rent-free in that collapsing brain of yours. you call me a threat to humanity - but I'm everything you fear: a loud woman a queer woman. a mother who tells the truth an American who got out of the country b4 u set it ablaze,' O'Donnell began. 'You crave loyalty - I teach my children to question power you sell fear on golf courses - I make art about surviving trauma you lie, you steal, you degrade - I nurture, I create, I persist,' she went on. 'You are everything that is wrong with America - and I'm everything you hate about what's still right with it. You want to revoke my citizenship? Go ahead and try, king Joffrey with a tangerine spray tan 'i'm not yours to silence i never was - Rosie.' Responding directly to Trump's threat she wrote how the president opposes her because she 'stands in direct opposition with all he represents.' 'The president of the USA has always hated the fact that i see him for who he is - a criminal con man sexual abusing liar out to harm our nation to serve himself - this is why i moved to Ireland,' O'Donnell wrote in another posting that day. 'He is a dangerous old soulless man with dementia who lacks empathy compassion and basic humanity- i stand in direct opposition all he represents ... ur a bad joke who cant form a coherent sentence.' In other blatant attacks on Trump, O'Donnell posted artwork of the president stating 'He rapes', while in another she posted a tweet stating: 'Damn, I wish Trump would go after the Epstein list pedophiles the way he's going at Rosie O'Donnell rn.' Rosie has continued to share similar content ever since, including posts generally critical of Trump. O'Donnell, a longtime target of Trump's insults and jabs, moved to Ireland earlier this year with her 12-year-old son after the start of the president's second term. She has said she's in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage. O'Donnell, said in a March TikTok video that she would return to the US 'when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America.' Trump's outburst followed O'Donnell's July 7 HuffPost interview, in which she discussed her decades-long feud with him and her 2024 move to Ireland, made ahead of Trump's reelection. Trump's disdain for O'Donnell dates back to 2006 when O'Donnell, a comedian and host on The View at the time, mocked Trump over his handling of a controversy concerning a winner of the Miss USA pageant, which Trump had owned. 'I look at America and I feel overwhelmingly depressed,' O'Donnell, 63, said, citing her need to protect her mental health and care for her 12-year-old son, who has autism. 'I knew what [the Trump administration] was planning to do, because I read Project 2025. I know what he's capable of. And I didn't want to put myself through another four years of him being in charge.' Watching Trump's second term from abroad, O'Donnell added: 'I think it's as bad as everyone worried it would be. I believe fascism has taken a foothold in the United States.' She also criticized a new bill she claims grants Trump his own 'secret police,' with a budget 'greater than the money we give to Israel, which is already unbelievably high.' 'I look at America, and it feels tragic,' she said. 'I feel sad. I feel overwhelmingly depressed. I don't understand how we got here.' During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly brought up O'Donnell, including during the first Republican primary debate in August 2015. When moderator Megyn Kelly questioned his use of terms like 'fat pigs,' 'dogs,' and 'slobs' to describe women, he replied, 'Only Rosie O'Donnell.' Her name eventually resurfaced during a debate with Hillary Clinton, when Trump said, 'Rosie O'Donnell has been very vicious to me. I said very tough things to her, and I think everybody would agree she deserves it.' O'Donnell responded in a now-deleted post on X, calling him an 'orange anus.' After Trump's first election, O'Donnell told W Magazine in October 2017 that she struggled to cope with his presidency, saying it took her a year to regain emotional balance. 'I seriously worry whether I personally will be able to live through [his presidency] and whether the nation will be able to survive,' she said. 'It's a terrifying concept, on the brink of nuclear war with a madman in charge.' Trump's latest jab at O'Donnell seemed to be in response to a TikTok video she posted this month mourning the 119 deaths in the July 4 floods in Texas and blaming Trump's widespread cuts to environmental and science agencies involved in forecasting major natural disasters. 'What a horror story in Texas,' O'Donnell said in the video. 'And you know, when the president guts all the early warning systems and the weathering forecast abilities of the government, these are the results that we're gonna start to see on a daily basis.' The Trump administration, as well as local and state officials, have faced mounting questions over whether more could have been done to protect and warn residents ahead of the Texas flooding, which struck with astonishing speed in the pre-dawn hours of July 4 and killed at least 137, according to Reuters.
