Stephen Miller Wouldn’t Let His Own Great-Grandparents Into the US

After cutting the number of U.S. refugees in half last year, White House Senior Advisor Stephen Miller wants to slash it even more. The US resettled about 97,000 refugees in 2016, slightly under the 100,000 limit. In 2017 the country admitted 33,000 refugees, well under the 44,000 cap, an historic low. That’s not low enough for Stephen Miller; he wants 2018 refugee admissions limited to 15,000. Indications are that the Trump Administration will ultimately lower the refugee cap to 22,000. This is in the face of a global refugee crisis, the worst since World War II. Jennifer Arangio, a senior White House official, annoyed Mr. Miller and cronies by advocating honoring US international refugee agreements, and was fired late last month.

Stephen Miller’s maternal great-grandparents, Wolf and Bessie Glotzer, arrived in New York in 1903 as refugees from anti-Jewish rioting in Belarus. They were broke, didn’t speak English, and were “chain migrants,” joining Wolf’s brother-in-law, Schmuel Levine, a Russian army draft dodger, who had come to the US before them.

Think Stephen Miller would have let people like that enter the country? Even his own uncle doesn’t think so.

More:

“Stephen Miller Is an Immigration Hypocrite. I Know Because I’m His Uncle.” David S. Glosser, Politico

“White House Weighs Another Reduction in Refugees Admitted to U.S.,” Julie Hirschfeld Davis, New York Times

Related:

“Stephen Miller, meet your immigrant great-grandfather,” Rob Eshman, Jewish Journal

“Trump Administration Rejects Study Showing Positive Impact of Refugees,” Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Somini Sengupta, New York Times

“How Would Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Have Affected His Own Team?” Jennifer Mendelsohn, Politico

“There’s no [US] immigration crisis, and these charts prove it,” Christopher Ingraham, Washington Post

“Inside Stephen Miller’s hostile takeover of immigration policy,” Nahal Toosi, Politico

“’There Won’t Even Be a Paper Trail’: Has Stephen Miller Become a Shadow Master at the State Department?” Abigail Tracy, Vanity Fair

More:

“Trump aide Stephen Miller condemned by childhood rabbi,” Andrew Gumbel, The Guardian

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Judge Orders ICE: Pizza Guy To Go

A federal judge has ordered ICE to let imprisoned pizza deliveryman Pablo Villavicencio free. 54 days ago Mr. Villavicencio was delivering a lunch from Nonna Delia’s Pizzeria to Brooklyn’s Fort Hamilton army base as usual, presenting his municipal ID at the entrance. The guard asked him for additional ID and, when he couldn’t produce it, called ICE, and immigration agents arrested him and took him to an ICE detention facility in New Jersey. The Ecuador-born undocumented deliveryman has been in the U.S.for ten years, married a U.S. citizen five years ago, and has two American-born daughters. His green card application is pending.

The case of the detained pizza deliveryman gathered wide attention because Brooklyn is a borough of immigrants and New York is a place where they don’t like to see working families broken up. Also, New Yorkers take their pizza very seriously. There was also outrage that members of the military acted as agents of the immigration service. Furor mounted, and area restaurants refused to deliver to Fort Hamilton. Now that Pablo Villavicencio is back with his family, maybe Brooklyn’s soldiers can get pizzas delivered again.

More:

“Pizza Delivery Man Detained by ICE Is Freed by Judge,” Liz Robbins, New York Times

“New York pizza delivery man to be freed as judge questions motive to deport him,” Larry Neumeister, AP via The Guardian

“Judge frees pizza deliveryman seized by ICE while doing his job,” Meagan Flynn, Washington Post

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Son and Grandson of Immigrants Wants to Halt Immigration

Donald J. Trump, grandson of an unskilled Bavarian draft dodger and son of a Scottish domestic servant, wants Congress to pass laws that would have barred his own ancestors from moving to the United States. Mr. Trump’s thoughts on immigration are informed by White House resident troll Stephen Miller, whose immigrant great-grandfather, a refugee from Belarus, flunked the U.S. Citizenship Test.

Clearly, this is a case of pulling in the Ellis Island gangplank after your own folks have landed.

More:

“The story of Donald Trump’s grandfather, who came to the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor,” Kristine Phillips, Washington Post

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GOP Family Values

Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions recently authorized the separation of migrant mothers and children at the US border, and about 2000 children are now in detention centers. It seems cruel, but Mr. Sessions claims Biblical authority, the same passage used to justify slavery. Many disagree, including the United Methodist Church, to which Jeff Sessions belongs.

President Donald Trump authorized family separation but reversed course when Fox News started covering crying children separated from their parents. As of this moment there is only a vague plan to reunite 2000 detained migrant kids with their parents, and indications are that, moving forward, parents and children will be locked up together, a practice illegal under current law.

Most recently, President Trump has suggested abandoning the rule of law by denying due process to detained migrants, instituting summary deportations.

More:

“It’s Happening Here Because Americans Can’t Admit it’s Happening Here,” Umair Haque, The Independent

“Trump Says Illegal Immigrants Should Be Deported With ‘No Judges or Court Cases,'” Doina Chiacu and Sarah N. Lynch, Reuters via U.S. News & World Report

“Trump stokes immigration chaos with call for summary deportations,” John Swaine, The Guardian

“AP Fact Check: Trump’s take on immigrant crime off mark,” Colleen Long, Associated Press

“A Trump quote about evicting tenants greets detained migrant children,” Annalisa Merelli, Quartz

“The multibillion-dollar business of sheltering migrant children, explained,” Emily Stewart, Vox

“How to sleep at night when families are being separated at the border,” Alexandra Petri, Washington Post

“‘At Least During the Internment …’ Are Words I Thought I’d Never Utter,” George Takei, Foreign Policy

“The Shameless Fakery of Trump’s Retreat on Family Separations,” Frank Rich, New York Magazine

“There’s no migration crisis – the crisis is political opportunism,” Doug Sanders, Globe & Mail

“White House aide Miller targeted in backlash over family separations,” Nancy Cook, Politico

Updates:

“Trump will reunite separated families — but only if they agree to deportation,” Dara Lind, Vox

“Call A 1-800 Number And Wait: Migrant Parents Search For Their Children,” Mallory Falk, NPR

“How the Humanitarian Crisis on the Mexico Border Could Worsen,” Jonathan Blitzer, The New Yorker

“Do undocumented immigrants have the right to a day in court? The Supreme Court answered in 1896.” Annalisa Merelli, Quartz

“Summer Camp at the Nightmare Factory,” Patrick Blanchfield, The Revealer

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Inside a Border Internment Camp for Migrant Kids

Above: Video provided by authorities, not the media.

On Tuesday, MSNBC’s Jacob Soboroff toured Casa Padre, a former Walmart that houses nearly 1,500 migrant children in Brownsville. It’s got an inspirational mural of Donald Trump. Since it was established in March 2017, Casa Padre has been cited for 17 child welfare infractions by Texas inspectors. This is one of 26 shelters in Texas, Arizona and California, Georgia, New York, Wisconsin and Florida, holding a total of 14,000 immigrant children and youths, run by an outfit called Southwest Key.

More: 

“Child abuse is now part of America’s official immigration policy,” Michael Paarlberg, The Guardian

“Conservative Religious Leaders Are Denouncing Trump Immigration Policies,” Laurie Goodstein, New York Times

“Trump and Sessions have created prisons for Spanish-speaking children,” Eugene Robinson, Washington Post

“No, Jeff Sessions, Separating Kids From Their Parents Isn’t ‘Biblical,'” Ed Kilgore, New York Magazine

Trump Blames Dems for His Own Parent-Child Separation Policy

During the weekend, President and part-time parent Donald Trump blamed Democrats for a U.S. policy separating undocumented parents and children at the border. “Put pressure on the Democrats to end the horrible law that separates children from there [sic] parents once they cross the Border into the U.S.,” he tweeted on Saturday.

But there is no such law, and it wasn’t Democrats who instituted that policy, it was the Trump Administration. “If you are smuggling a child, then we will prosecute you and that child will be separated from you,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions on May 7th. “If you don’t like that, then don’t smuggle children over our border.”

Separating parents and children isn’t cruel, explained White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.“The children will be taken care of — put into foster care or whatever.”

More:

“Trump is blaming Democrats for separating migrant families at the border. Here’s why this isn’t a surprise.” Seung Min Kim, Washington Post

“Hidden Horrors of ‘Zero Tolerance’ — Mass Trials and Children Taken From Their Parents,” Debbie Nathan, The Intercept

“Trump’s ‘zero tolerance’ at the border is causing child shelters to fill up fast,” Nick Miroff, Washington Post

“Trump administration preparing to hold immigrant children on military bases,” Nick Miroff and Paul Sonne, Washington Post

“Ivanka Trump photo with son sparks backlash over border separations,” Tom McCarthy, The Guardian 

“How the Trump Administration Got Comfortable Separating Immigrant Kids from Their Parents,” Jonathan Blitzer, The New Yorker

“Blowback over border separations amps up tensions inside Trump administration,” Nancy Cook and Ted Hesson, Politico

“A moral crisis grips the US border. Yet the religious right is shamefully silent,” Marilynne Robinson, The Guardian

“U.S. Border Stations Are Now Overflowing With Migrant Children,”Ashley Hackett, Pacific Standard

Updates:

“UN says US must stop separating migrant children from parents,” AFP via The Guardian

“I work with children separated from caregivers at the border. What happens is unforgivable.” Katie Annand, Vox

“Federal judge advances ACLU lawsuit challenging separation of parents, children at border,” Brooke Seipel, The Hill

“Trump quadruples down on false claim that ‘Democrat rules’ are forcing his administration to separate immigrant families,” Summer Meza, The Week

“Honduran Man Killed Himself After Being Separated From Family at Border,” Benjamin Hart, New York Magazine

“‘They just took them?’ Frantic parents separated from their kids fill courts on the border,” Michael E. Miller, Washington Post

“Separating Children From Their Parents Is a New Low for Our Immigration System,” Michelle Chen, The Nation

“‘Children are being used as a tool’ in Trump’s effort to stop border crossings,” Liz Goodwin, Boston Globe

“‘Mothers could not stop crying’: Lawmaker blasts Trump policy after visiting detained immigrants,” Amy B. Wang, Washington Post

“Report: Trump administration looks to build tent villages for migrant children,” Stef W. Kight, Axios

“Hugh Hewitt to Jeff Sessions: Why Is It Necessary To Separate Parents From Children When Detained At Border?” Tim Hains, RCP Livewire

“Immigrant moms in SeaTac prison ‘could hear their children screaming,'” Casey Martin, KUOW

“President of Catholic bishops group calls policy separating migrant families ‘immoral,’” Luis Sanchez, The Hill

“CNN: Jailed Immigrant Mother Says Child Was Taken During Breastfeeding,” Matt Shuham, TPM Livewire

Related:

“Dr. Ruth, Dr. Kissinger, and Trump’s Cruelty to Families,” George Packer, The New Yorker

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Illustration by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geissel), from the PM newspaper, October 1, 1941.  See more here.

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Rebuilding Little Pakistan in Post-9/11 America

In 2002, Mohammad Razvi started the Council of Peoples Organization (COPO) in Brooklyn. A video from The New Yorker.

More:

“Fighting for the Immigrants of Little Pakistan,” Jennifer Gonnerman, The New Yorker

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Mar-a-Lago Must Be a Sh*thole

In an anti-immigrant rant during a meeting with members of Congress, serial bankrupt, racist isolationist, and U.S. President Donald Trump referred to Haiti and African nations as “sh*thole countries.” Mr. Trump then left Washington for his private Palm Beach resort (membership fee: $200,000). This season that Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, hired 70 foreign workers through the H-2B visa program. Where are many of those Mar-a-Lago workers from?

Oui, Haiti.

More:

“Trump asked why the US needs more Haitians. Mar-a-Lago may hold the answer,” Christina Wilkie, CNBC

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Trump Immigration Policy

Yesterday President Donald Trump announced his new immigration policy, which would restrict legal entry to the United States to highly-skilled, rich people who already speak English. If that policy had been in place in the past, Friedrich Trump, the president’s German-speaking grandfather, would never have landed in America, and his Scottish immigrant mother, a domestic servant, would have been denied entry. They were “legal” immigrants for the simple fact that they arrived at a time when there was no “illegal immigration” (for white people, anyway).

More recently, while Donald Trump’s two immigrant wives spoke some functional English when they arrived in the US, they were relatively unskilled, unless pouting and walking on a runway counts.

Even Trump policy advisor Stephen Miller, the anti-immigrant zealot and poetry-hating pest, is descended from low-skilled, impoverished  immigrant great-grandparents fleeing anti-semitic violence in Belarus. They arrived in New York Harbor aboard the German ship S.S. Moltke in 1903, the same year the plaque bearing the Emma Lazarus poem describing their plight was installed on the base of the Statue of Liberty, which welcomed them to the United States.

Trump Travel Ban Protects US From Terrorist Grannies

The U.S. Supreme Court, now with Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch on board, has ruled that a modified version of Donald Trump’s travel ban can go into effect for 90 days, as of yesterday evening. Travelers from six majority-muslim countries, none of whose citizens have committed terrorist acts on United States soil, must now document “bona fide relationships” with U.S. persons, companies, or institutions in order to travel to the USA.

The Trump administration has issued directives defining “bona fide relationships,” and the weirdest ones involve families of of U.S. citizens and legal residents. Some relatives may travel to the USA: Spouses, children and stepchildren, siblings and stepsiblings, parents and step-parents, father-in-laws and mother-in-laws, fiancées and fiancés. Who may not travel: Grandparents, grandchildren, sister-in-laws and brother-in-laws, uncles and aunts, nieces and nephews, or cousins.

This is a pretty strange definition of “family” by any standards. Remember, little Donnie Trump grew up across the street from his own immigrant grandmother in Queens, NY.

Update:

At the last moment, fiancées/fiancés were added to the good-to-go list, perhaps after lobbying from the mail order bride industry or because the president likes to marry foreign models?), and text above has been updated. But how can these relationships be documented? The Bridal Registry at Crate & Barrel? Engagement ring receipts from Kay Jewelers?

More:

“Stepsister, Yes; Grandma, No: U.S. Sets Guidelines for Revised Travel Ban,” Gardiner Harris and Ron Nixon, New York Times

“Travel ban’s ‘bona fide relationship’ test could open legal floodgates,” Lauren Pearle and Connor Finnegan, ABC News

“The Supreme Court Partially Allowed Trump’s Travel Ban. Who Is Still Barred?” Alicia Parlapiano and Anjali Singhvi, New York Times

“The travel ban going into effect would have saved zero lives from terrorist attacks in the last 20 years,” Philip Bump, Washington Post

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Image: If Granny Clampett is Muslim, she can kiss Beverly Hills goodbye.

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