Latest news with #immigrantrights
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Rep. Dexter: Trump policies ‘destabilizing, undermining' Oregon
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Just a day after the Trump Administration they say are defying federal law, US Rep. Maxine Dexter did not back down before a Saturday town hall at Mount Hood Community College. The list by the Department of Homeland Security along with numerous cities and counties in the Pacific Northwest. The Trump Administration said each jurisdiction identified will receive formal notification of not complying with federal statues and demand they review and revise their policies. Last living grandson of 10th U.S. President John Tyler, dies at 96 Federal funding being withheld 'is a concern, it's the threat. But we are not going to back down from protecting our neighbors. This is a sanctuary city, we are a sanctuary county, we are a sanctuary state,' Dexter told KOIN 6 News. 'We have tripled-down on making sure people feel as safe as possible in a really unsettling time.' She noted people often say immigration is not an issue that affects their daily lives, but she pushed back on that idea. 'I get a lot of criticism for fighting for immigrant rights and due process. If they can pick someone up with a Green Card without due process and put them away, it can happen to you. It can happen to me,' she said. 'We have to make sure that all of us have the rights that our Constitution gives us — and it's not just for citizens, which is to the contrary of what a lot of folks are circulating.' Oregon companies call for investigation into countries accused of 'dumping' exports Dexter, hosting her 10th town hall since taking office, said there has been one consistent topic brought up in all her events. 'Democracy has been a top of mind issue for constituents throughout,' she told KOIN 6 News. 'The detention centers, immigration, the economy, most likely we'll hear some things about the Middle East. We've got others who are concerned about other parts of our democracy, like the SAVE Act and the budget bill.' And she said the tariffs policies are not helping Oregonians. 'Oregon is the 10th-most trade dependent state in the nation. This is without question already impacting us. Our budget forecast that we just received was $750 million less than we estimated. Economists already believe tariffs are already having an impact. We are dependent on trade and exports in particular,' she told KOIN 6 News. She continued, 'What Trump is doing is not helping our economy, it's not fiscally stabilizing. It is destabilizing and undermining the people of this state.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBS News
5 days ago
- General
- CBS News
Protests held over ICE arrests at San Francisco, Sacramento immigration courthouses
Immigrant rights advocates rallied at immigration courthouses in San Francisco and Sacramento on Wednesday morning to show their outrage over the Trump administration's arrests of people seeking asylum. The organizations said at the dual protests that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents' arrests at immigration courts are an attempt to bypass the legal system and an attack on due process rights. Last week, rights groups were at immigration courts on Montgomery Street in San Francisco's downtown, at the Capitol Mall in Sacramento, and in Concord, warning immigrants that authorities were dismissing their cases to have ICE agents arrest them outside the courthouses. Immigration rights advocates rally at San Francisco Immigration Court at 100 Montgomery Street, May 28, 2025. KPIX The operation by ICE to place certain immigrants into an expedited removal process after their arrest began last week at immigration courthouses across the country. The process fast-tracks their deportation without a court hearing, bypassing the huge backlog of pending cases. Rights advocates said multiple people at the San Francisco and Concord immigration courts as recently as Tuesday. In addition, posters have been placed at courthouses encouraging people to "self-deport" with misleading information that can jeopardize people's legal situation. "I've been an immigration attorney for 10 years, and I have never seen an ICE arrest in immigration court," said Luis Angel Reyes Savalza from the San Francisco Public Defender's Office. "It is seen as something that is looked down upon by immigration judges who know that this chills the attendance of clients in court, witnesses who are then afraid to come to court. These are rights that people have under the law, under the constitution that this administration and ICE agents are trying to trample upon." Last week, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said in a statement that the Trump administration was acting because of Biden administration policies to release migrants with notices to appear in immigration court, instead of trying to deport them quickly through expedited removal.
New York Times
7 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Republican Crackdown on Aid to Immigrants Would Hit U.S. Citizens
President Trump has vowed to end what he calls the 'waste of hard-earned taxpayer resources' by cutting off federal benefits for undocumented immigrants and ensuring that funding goes to American citizens in need. Administration officials have said they would root out 'illegal aliens' who are living in federally-subsidized housing. The Agriculture Department has ordered states to enhance immigration verification practices used to determine eligibility for food stamps. And House Republicans just passed a tax bill that would limit certain immigrants from accessing Medicaid and Medicare, a popular tax credit for parents, and federal financial aid, among other benefits. The actions amount to an aggressive attempt to curb immigrant families' use of safety net programs. Although Republicans say they want to remove incentives for people to enter the country illegally, unauthorized immigrants generally do not receive federal benefits given efforts to chip away at their eligibility. Immigration experts and advocates for immigrant rights say the changes would instead largely be felt by children who are U.S. citizens but whose parents are undocumented or immigrants who are authorized to live in the United States, such as refugees and people granted asylum. Twelve percent of American children, or about nine million people, are citizens with at least one noncitizen parent. Children with at least one immigrant parent are twice as likely to live in poverty than those with native-born parents, according to a 2022 report by researchers at the Boston University School of Social Work. 'In the name of wanting to take a harsh policy stance against immigrants, in many different ways the reality is that they're going to be punishing citizens and other immigrants that have been eligible in the past,' said Shelby Gonzales, the vice president for immigration policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank. Some of the most substantial changes would come with the tax bill, a centerpiece of Mr. Trump's economic agenda that House Republicans narrowly passed on Thursday. If approved by the Senate, the package would boost the child tax credit to as much as $2,500, but limit its availability to parents with Social Security numbers. Current law allows children who have Social Security numbers to receive the benefit, even if their parents have only individual taxpayer identification numbers, which are issued to noncitizens for the purpose of paying taxes. The change would make roughly two million children with Social Security numbers no longer eligible for the benefit, according to an estimate from the Joint Committee on Taxation. Some proponents of the change argue that the child tax credit currently allows undocumented immigrants to benefit from taxpayer money, and that such funding should be shut off even if their children are citizens. 'In the real world, the money is going to the unlawful alien parents, and they're not obligated to spend that money on the children,' said George Fishman, a senior legal fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that favors restricting immigration. Others said the potential changes would undermine the well-being of children who are U.S. citizens in immigrant households. Families where someone doesn't have a Social Security number are already ineligible for the earned-income tax credit, which provides a significant boost to low-income households. Research has found that children who receive similar cash benefits go on to have better health, earn more and commit fewer crimes later in life. 'Going forward, they are the adults of this country,' said Dolores Acevedo-Garcia, a professor of social work at Boston University who studies immigrants. 'Do we want to disinvest in them now so that their education and health and everything deteriorates, and then we have to face that in a few years from now?' The tax bill would also tighten eligibility for federal health insurance programs. Immigrants who are authorized to live in the United States but are not legal permanent residents would no longer qualify for Medicare unless they fall under certain exceptions. The package would also bar those immigrants from receiving subsidized health insurance on marketplaces set up by the Affordable Care Act. Those changes could affect refugees, immigrants granted asylumand people with temporary protected status. It would also deny access to marketplace plans entirely for people brought to the United States as children who are currently protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy. Some of those immigrants have a path to obtaining a green card, but not all of them do, such as foreigners granted immigration parole or temporary protected status. The tax plan would also trim Medicaid expansion funding by 10 percentage points for states that use their own money to cover low-income undocumented immigrants, which could penalize 14 states that provide health coverage to children regardless of immigration status, according to KFF, a health policy research group. States could choose to stop covering undocumented immigrants, and preserve their federal matching funds. Or they could keep that coverage and take the hit to their federal reimbursement, which would mean less money to go around for U.S. citizens who depend on Medicaid. Research has also found that people who don't have health insurance are more likely to rely on emergency rooms for preventable care. Hospitals must provide emergency care regardless of a patient's immigration status, which they can receive reimbursements for through emergency Medicaid. 'So they're going to need to look to other programs, or just cut the funding for undocumented immigrants, which is going to have an impact on everyone in that family, including citizen family members,' said Wendy Cervantes, the director of immigration at the Center for Law and Social Policy. The bill would also end a requirement for states to provide Medicaid benefits to applicants during a grace period in which their immigration or citizenship status is being verified, which could deny coverage to those who don't have easy access to documents like a passport or birth certificate. And the tax bill would cut off federal tuition assistance and food stamps for nearly all immigrants who are not citizens or permanent residents. Alex Nowrasteh, the vice president for economic and social policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said he supported efforts to curtail immigrants' access to federal benefits. But he said the changes would not result in major budget savings, given that noncitizens receive just 3.5 percent of all welfare and entitlements. 'The budget deficit cannot be plugged by kicking noncitizens off welfare benefits,' Mr. Nowrasteh said. 'That being said, they should be removed because a dollar saved is a dollar saved, and that's good enough. I'd much rather they kick immigrants off welfare than kick immigrants out of the country.' Although the tax bill is still working its way through Congress, many federal agencies are already trying to restrict undocumented immigrants from accessing programs. In March, the Housing and Urban Development Department said it would partner with the Homeland Security Department to ensure that federal housing programs were not benefiting undocumented immigrants over citizens. The Small Business Administration has barred lending to companies with any amount of investment from people without Social Security numbers, constraining credit for American-born entrepreneurs. Many housing authority directors and housing policy experts expect the Trump administration to propose a rule that would ban families with any undocumented members from subsidized housing, even if their children are U.S. citizens and eligible for the benefit. The administration proposed a similar rule during Mr. Trump's first term but did not put it in place. The housing department found at the time that doing so could displace 55,000 children who were in the country legally, and that more than 108,000 people receiving assistance lived in a household with at least one undocumented member. 'Children in immigrant families, who are often U.S. citizens, would be harmed both by the threat of family separation and the risk that they may become homeless,' said Tanya Broder, a senior counsel at the National Immigration Law Center. Other agencies that run benefit programs have reiterated that undocumented immigrants are not permitted to receive funding. The Labor Department sent a letter to states last month warning that they could lose federal funds if they allowed unauthorized immigrants to receive unemployment benefits. The Social Security Administration also expressed its 'full support' for Mr. Trump's efforts to ensure that undocumented immigrants did not receive Social Security benefits. The Trump administration has also put pressure on Democratic states that aid undocumented immigrants, including starting an investigation into a California program that has provided cash assistance to some undocumented immigrants and revoking waivers to state colleges and universities that use federal money to provide some services to unauthorized immigrants. The effort to target immigrants could create a chilling effect, making people hesitant to enroll for benefits over fears that their family members could be deported if they share their information with the government, said Valerie Lacarte, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. 'Even if you're eligible and you can get those benefits, you're also letting the state or agency know that there's an unauthorized immigrant in your household,' Ms. Lacarte said. 'The rhetoric essentially discourages people from using public benefits.'
The Independent
23-05-2025
- The Independent
Private security at ICE jail in Texas accused of choking a handcuffed detainee
A private security officer stands accused of putting his hands around a handcuffed detainee's neck and slamming him against walls at an immigrant detention center in Conroe, Texas. The officer, Charles Siringi, was criminally charged last week. The detainee was taken to the medical unit at the Montgomery Processing Center. The 66-year-old Siringi was charged in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas with deprivation of rights while acting under the government's authority, resulting in bodily injury, The Washington Post noted. On Tuesday, Siringi posted $10,000 bail. The company that employed Siringi, the GEO Group, operates the detention center. The firm told The Post that Siringi no longer worked for the group. Following an internal review, the company referred the incident to Immigration and Customs Enforcement 's Office of Professional Responsibility. The Independent has contacted ICE for comment. 'We are committed to respecting the human rights and dignity of all individuals in our care, and we have a zero-tolerance policy with respect to staff misconduct,' the GEO Group told The Post. The detainee claimed that Siringi handcuffed him outside his housing unit and took him into a small room alongside other officers, according to the criminal complaint. In the room, Siringi is alleged to have told the officers, 'You better get him before I do.' The complaint added that Siringi subsequently grabbed the detainee by the neck and slammed his face into a wall. As the detainee turned around, Siringi is alleged to have put enough force on his throat that he 'tucked his chin down to his chest because he was gasping for air.' The detainee said Siringi 'did not remove his hands from his throat' and 'used the choke hold to move him across the room and slam him into the wall near the doorway,' court documents state. One of the two officers in the room, Elbert Griffin, backed up the detainee's version of events and took him to the medical unit for treatment. 'Griffin stated he did not believe it was an appropriate use of force, nor did he believe [the detainee] had been resisting in any manner,' the complaint notes. The Post noted that experts said the incident was a rare moment when an officer at a detention facility was being held criminally accountable for alleged abuse. It's more common for detainees to file civil lawsuits. American Civil Liberties Union 's National Prison Project senior staff attorney Eunice Hyunhye Cho told the paper that detainees don't have much power to reveal abuses. 'The power dynamic is so significant that people are either afraid to come forth [or] they are not believed when they raise complaints about abusive treatment,' she told The Post. 'And facilities have all sorts of incentives to keep those types of incidents under wraps.' A spokesperson for the nonprofit Freedom for Immigrants, Jeff Migliozzi, told the outlet that the allegations of abuse against Siringi were 'unfortunately characteristic' of similar altercations. 'A lot of people don't realize how common that actually is,' he said. 'But again, in the vast majority of those cases, nothing results, in terms of an oversight process or some sort of lawsuit or investigation.'
CBS News
20-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Maryland advocates argue "self-deport" posters attack immigrants' rights
Posters being put up in immigration courts in Maryland and across the country encouraging immigrants to "self-deport" have advocates calling it an attack on immigrants' right to due process. The Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, an immigrant legal services nonprofit with offices in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., says it's been hearing about the poster from clients since April. Amica's main concern is that the poster doesn't fully explain the consequences that could ultimately prompt people to leave the country forever. Concern for immigrants' legal rights Titled, "A Warning to Self-Deport," the top half of the post goes over the benefits of self-deportation, saying it's safe and there will be future opportunities for returning with legal status. The bottom half of the poster goes over consequences for staying, which include immediate deportation, fines and penalties, and possible imprisonment. CBS News Baltimore Michael Lukens, executive director for Amica, said the poster has been put up in immigration courts and detention facilities. He also said the poster doesn't have credible legal advice. "It talks about taking a self-deport, well, that's not really a thing," Lukens said. "If someone is in front of a judge, they have the right to fight their case. A person can ask for something called involuntary departure to the judge." Lukens said that the poster doesn't get into all of the negative impacts someone could run into if they take this option, which includes being barred from returning to the country and fighting their case in court. "There's a reason we have courts and there's a reason we have attorneys to help people," Lukens said. We don't use posters to try and get people to give up their legal rights," he said. WJZ reached out to the Executive Office for Immigration Review about the poster and concerns raised by Lukens. EOIR conducts removal proceedings in immigration courts. A press secretary for EOIR declined to comment via email. Migrants take Trump's offer to self-deport Meanwhile, the first group of undocumented migrants who took President Donald Trump's $1,000 offer to self-deport arrived in Honduras and Colombia on Monday. In total, 64 migrants took the voluntary charter flight from Houston, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. One of those migrants, 22-year-old Wilson Ariel Saenz, told reporters after arriving in Honduras that he took the offer because things are "ugly" in the U.S. The president said he's open to bringing certain undocumented migrants back into the country. "We're going to work with them so that maybe someday, with a little work, they can come back in if they're good people," Trump said. "If they're the kind of people that we want in our company." This all comes as the government has cut funding for immigrant legal support services, including a program Amica ran to provide legal support in detention centers. Lukens said Amica will continue to help as much as it can. "Is it efficient? No. Is it as effective? No. Are we doing it unfunded? Yes," Lukens said.
