“Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and top Justice Department officials moved forward with a “zero tolerance” immigration policy in 2018 aware that it would forcibly split up families and were unprepared for the impact, according to anew report by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General.
Sessions’ office was a ‘driving force’ in pushing for the Department of Homeland Security to begin referring adults who entered the U.S. illegally with children to be prosecuted by the Justice Department, according to the report. The Trump administration policy, which lasted from April to June 2018, resulted in the separation of more than 5,000 families — with hundreds that still have not been reunited.”
— “Jeff Sessions’ DOJ was ‘driving force’ behind family separation policy, IG report finds,” Sabrina Rodríguez, Politico
More:
“Justice Department Knew 2018 Border Policy Would Separate Children From Families,” Dustin Jones, NPR News
“Senior U.S. Justice officials pushed family separations, watchdog finds,” Mimi Dwyer, Reuters
“Justice officials respond to report on family separation by blaming Trump, expressing regret,” Julia Ainsley and Jacob Soboroff, NBC News
“‘I never imagined this’: Washington prepares for an inauguration under siege,” Lois Beckett and Julian Borger, The Guardian
“‘Wartime footing’: Capital draped in steel and concrete in unprecedented inauguration security operation,” Kevin Johnson, USA Today
— “Inside look at how 25,000 National Guardsmen are arriving in Washington, DC,” Luis Martinez, ABC News
“What It’s Like To Live Inside D.C.’s Militarized Security Zone,” Jenny Gathright, Carmel Delshad, Jacob Fenston, Natalie Delgadillo, and Tyrone Turner, DCist
“Sorry, Your Homeowners Insurance Might Not Cover Insurrection,” Rob Brunner, Washingtonian
“Trump prepares to offer clemency to more than 100 people in his final hours in office,” Carol D. Leonnig, Josh Dawsey and Rosalind S. Helderman, Washington Post
“Trump to issue more than 100 pardons before Biden sworn in – reports,” Martin Pengelly and Luke Harding, The Guardian
“Trump probably can’t pardon himself. He may still try,” Zachary B. Wolf, CNN
“Capitol Rioter Tries To Nab Herself A Pardon As Trump Plans To Announce Final Bunch,” Kate Riga, TalkingPointsMemo
“Joe Exotic Hires Pick-Up Limo in Expectation of Trump Pardon,” Jamie Ross, Daily Beast
Related:
“Prospect of Pardons in Final Days Fuels Market to Buy Access to Trump,” Michael S. Schmidt and Kenneth P. Vogel, New York Times
“White House Warns People Buying Pardons That Counterfeit Pardons Are Being Sold Online,” Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker
Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) planned a Poor People’s Campaign for May 1968 to demand jobs, unemployment insurance, a fair minimum wage, affordable housing, and education for poor adults and children, an Economic Bill of Rights. The effort was to involve poor people of all races from all parts of the country, urban and rural, but the historical roots of racial economic disparity could not be ignored:
“At the very same time that America refused to give the Negro any land, through an act of Congress our government was giving away millions of acres of land in the West and the Midwest, which meant that it was willing to undergird its white peasants from Europe with an economic floor.
But not only did they give the land, they built land grant colleges with government money to teach them how to farm. Not only that, they provided county agents to further their expertise in farming. Not only that, they provided low interest rates in order that they could mechanize their farms.
Not only that, today many of these people are receiving millions of dollars in federal subsidies not to farm, and they are the very people telling the black man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.”
— Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr., “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution,” delivered at the National Cathedral, Washington DC on March 31, 1968 (full text here).
Related:
“Four ways Martin Luther King Jr. wanted to battle inequality,” Ned Resnikoff, MSNBC
“MLK called out income inequality,” James C. Harrington, Houston Chronicle
“American Dream Deferred: Wealth of Richest 400 Equals that of Nation’s 44 Million African Americans,” David Harris-Gershon,Tikkun Daily
“For women, economic justice a civil rights issue,” Maya L. Harris,CNN
“Martin Luther King’s Case for a Guaranteed Basic Income,” Matthew Yglesias, Slate
“Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Solution to Poverty,” Jordan Weissmann, The Atlantic
“Martin Luther King Jr. Celebrations Overlook His Critiques of Capitalism and Militarism,” Zaid Jilani, The Intercept
“How the 1% profit off of racial economic inequality,” Dedrick Asante-Muhammad and Chuck Collins, Guardian
