Holidaze: Deportation Nation, Con't

Starting to think I picked the wrong Christmas to take it easy on posting, as the Trump regime just keeps openly saying how awful they are in abusing power, doing end runs around Congress, and apparently using migrant kids as deportation traps for family members.

The White House sought this month to embed immigration enforcement agents within the U.S. refugee agency that cares for unaccompanied migrant children, part of a long-standing effort to use information from their parents and relatives to target them for deportation, according to six current and former administration officials.

Though senior officials at the Department of Health and Human Services rejected the attempt, they agreed to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to collect fingerprints and other biometric information from adults seeking to claim migrant children at government shelters. If those adults are deemed ineligible to take custody of children, ICE could then use their information to target them for arrest and deportation.

The arrangement appears to circumvent laws that restrict the use of the refu­gee program for deportation enforcement; Congress has made clear that it does not want those who come forward as potential sponsors of minors in U.S. custody to be frightened away by possible deportation. But, in the reasoning of senior Trump administration officials, adults denied custody of children lose their status as “potential sponsors” and are fair game for arrest.

The plan has not been announced publicly. It was developed by Stephen Miller, President Trump’s top immigration adviser, who has long argued that HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement is being exploited by parents who hire smugglers to bring their children into the United States illegally. The agency manages shelters that care for underage migrants who cross the border without a parent and tries to identify sponsors — typically family members — eligible to take custody of the minors. 

Previous Trump administration attempts to give ICE more access to the refu­gee program have generated significant opposition, because it potentially forces migrant parents to choose between reclaiming their children and risking arrest. Administration officials acknowledge the arrangement will instill fear among migrant parents, but they say it will deter families from having their children cross into the United States illegally.

Officials at ICE and HHS said that the information shared with enforcement agents primarily would be used to screen adults for criminal violations and other “red flags,” and that it would not be focused on capturing parents and relatives who come forward to claim what the government calls “unaccompanied alien children.”

Bryan Cox, an ICE spokesman, said his agency will help HHS ensure that children are not placed with sponsors until the sponsors have been thoroughly vetted, a review process that includes using biometric data. Cox said his agency has more-powerful screening tools at its disposal than HHS has, “including better capabilities to identify fraudulent documents or documents obtained by fraud.” 

After the Trump administration began a similar information-sharing initiative last year, which predictably led to fewer sponsors coming forward and created a massive backlog of children in U.S. custody, Democrats fought to put a firewall between ICE and ORR. Language in the 2019 funding bill specifically prohibited the Department of Homeland Security from using child sponsor data — addresses, names, phone numbers — to generate ICE target lists.

According to those provisions, no federal funds “may be used by the Secretary of Homeland Security to place in detention, remove, refer for a decision whether to initiate removal proceedings, or initiate removal proceedings against a sponsor, potential sponsor, or member of a household of a sponsor or potential sponsor of an unaccompanied alien child.”

HHS officials have generally tried to keep ICE at a distance, insisting that their agency’s mission is to safeguard children and not to facilitate the arrest of their relatives. 

So, let's go through this. 

First, we have Stephen Miller, America's Secretary of White Purity, using refugee data to round up the undocumented.  I honestly don't know how the man can function with the soul-sucking singularity in his chest where his heart should be, and I'm forced to admit he may be some sort of necromantic construct powered by the aforementioned portal to the netherworld inside his humanoid husk.

Second, Congress stuck this provision in there blocking this specific action because Miller and his merry band of Klansmen were already doing this.  The response from Miller and the White House is "We're going to do it anyway, please enjoy the court battles that won't stop us."  The main reason Mitch McConnell has turned the Senate into a federal judiciary packing factory is to tip the scales and get away with as much as they can.

Third, Miller's goal is not to "end illegal immigration" but to completely reverse America's demographic destiny by driving out non-white people and increasing the percentage of white people in the country. As soon as you realize this fact, the rest of Miller's actions make total sense by placing them in the context of his white supremacist policy goals.

We have to get rid of Trump in November, if only to get rid of Stephen Miller.

Holidaze: It's About Suppression, Con't

Republicans continue to disenfranchise millions of voters, the vast majority black, Hispanic, the elderly, and/or college students, groups that vote for Democrats.  When Republicans are winning states by fractions of percentage points and thousands of votes out of millions cast, those efforts are directly responsible for keeping the GOP in power.  They must cheat to win, and if you ask them about it, of course they admit to doing it, as they gladly did last month at a Wisconsin GOP event.

Justin Clark, a senior political adviser and senior counsel to Trump’s reelection campaign, made the remarks on Nov. 21 as part of a wide-ranging discussion about strategies in the 2020 campaign, including more aggressive use of Election Day monitoring of polling places.

“Traditionally it’s always been Republicans suppressing votes in places,” Clark said at the event. “Let’s start protecting our voters. We know where they are. ... Let’s start playing offense a little bit. That’s what you’re going to see in 2020. It’s going to be a much bigger program, a much more aggressive program, a much better-funded program.”

Asked about the remarks by AP, Clark said he was referring to false accusations that the GOP engages in voter suppression.

“As should be clear from the context of my remarks, my point was that Republicans historically have been falsely accused of voter suppression and that it is time we stood up to defend our own voters,” Clark said. “Neither I nor anyone I know or work with would condone anyone’s vote being threatened or diluted and our efforts will be focused on preventing just that.”

Clark made the comments Nov. 21 in a meeting of the Republican National Lawyers Association’s Wisconsin chapter. Attendees included the state Senate’s top Republican, Scott Fitzgerald, along with the executive director of the Wisconsin Republican Party.

Audio of the event at a country club in Madison obtained by the liberal group American Bridge was provided to AP by One Wisconsin Now, a Madison-based liberal advocacy group.

The roughly 20-minute audio offers an insider’s glimpse of Trump’s reelection strategy, showing the campaign focusing on voting locations in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, which form the the so-called “blue wall” of traditional Democratic strength that Trump broke through to win in 2016. Both parties are pouring millions of dollars into the states, anticipating they’ll be just as critical in the 2020 presidential contest.

Republican officials publicly signaled plans to step up their Election Day monitoring after a judge in 2018 lifted a consent decree in place since 1982 that barred the Republican National Committee from voter verification and other “ballot security” efforts. Critics have argued the tactics amount to voter intimidation.

The consent decree was put in place after the Democratic National Committee sued its Republican counterpart, alleging the RNC helped intimidate black voters in New Jersey’s election for governor. The federal lawsuit claimed the RNC and the state GOP had off-duty police stand at polling places in urban areas wearing armbands that read “National Ballot Security Task Force,” with guns visible on some.

Without acknowledging any wrongdoing, the RNC agreed to the consent decree, which restricted its ability to engage in activities related to ballot security. Lifting of the consent decree allows the RNC to “play by the same rules” as Democrats, said RNC communications director Michael Ahrens.

“Now the RNC can work more closely with state parties and campaigns to do what we do best, ensure that more people vote through our unmatched field program,” Ahrens said.

Although the consent decree forced the Trump campaign to conduct its own poll monitoring in 2016, the new rules will allow the RNC to use its multi-million dollar budget to handle those tasks and coordinate with other Republican groups on Election Day, Clark said.State directors of election day operations will be in place in Wisconsin and every battleground state by early 2020, he said.

In 2016, Wisconsin had 62 paid Trump staff working to get out the vote; in 2020, it will increase to around 100, Clark said.

We're going from voter suppression to armed voter intimidation.  Expect "voter task forces" and armed police at polls harassing voters of color, all while saying it's necessary because of "New Black Panthers" and "Antifa terrorists".  Hell, I expect open violence at polling places.  It'll only take one story of "liberals gunning for Republican voters" and that'll be it.

Don't be surprised if this happens in an early voting state, and the Barr Justice Department will call for "voter protection police squads" all over the country.

Watch very closely.  This is how we get to elections being "monitored" or canceled altogether.

Happy Holidays From ZVTS!

We're taking a bit of a Christmas break until the New Year, so we'll have some posts for you, the usual end of year predictions and scorecard, and whatever news breaks over the next week and change.  We'll be back on a normal schedule January 2nd is the plan, worst case scenario it's Monday, January 6th.

I'll recharge the batteries as we get ready for the Senate trial fight, and as always, if you want to donate, use the PayPal link.

I appreciate you guys sticking with me all these years, as we head into our third decade.