"Inflicting Maximum Punishment" On Immigrants

 

The cruelty is the point, part infinity:

Liset Fernandez spent most of the summer worried about her dad, Luis, but a few weeks ago she got some good news. After being held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) custody for weeks, an immigration judge in Texas granted him release on a $5,000 bond.

Luis, came to the US from Ecuador in 1994, had been held in detention at a facility in Livingston, Texas, thousands of miles away from his home in Queens. Liset, 17, had taken on extra shifts working a retail job to support her mom and nine-year-old brother. Luis’s co-workers at the Square diner, a railcar-style greasy spoon in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood for over 100 years, had raised more than $20,000 to support him and his family.

But when Liset logged on to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) website to pay the bond, she got a message telling her that her dad was ineligible for release. It fell to her to tell her dad that instead of coming home that day, he would remain detained. “It was upsetting for everyone,” Liset said. “His voice sounded completely disappointed.”

Luis was being detained because of a new DHS policy arguing that all people who enter the US illegally are ineligible for bond, regardless of how long they have been here and whether or not they pose a flight risk. In Fernandez’s case, DHS went even further, deploying a rarely used maneuver to pause the immigration judge’s bond ruling while it appealed his ruling. Federal regulations allow the agency to automatically stay an immigration judge’s bond decision while they appeal the case to the board of immigration appeals.

The maneuver means Fernandez will remain detained while his case is pending before the board of immigration appeals. Since the board is being bogged down with appeals, it’s unclear how long it could take to resolve the case, said Craig Relles, an immigration attorney representing Fernandez.

Fernandez’s case shows how the Trump administration is “ratcheting up every aspect of the immigration system” for people who have been in the US no matter how long they’ve been in the US, said Suchita Mathur, a lawyer at the American Immigration Council.

“At every step of the way, they’re inflicting the maximum punishment on people,” she said. “It’s all part and parcel of the administration’s effort to make this process so punitive and unbearable that people give up.”...  (our emphasis)

What makes all of this so eternally galling to us, beyond the abject cruelty and injustice, is that any one of these hard- working, family- oriented immigrants like Mr. Fernandez is worth infinitely more to his community and this country than the sociopathic convicted felon/ sexual abuser and his hypocritical gang of cross- wearing fascists ever could.  These afflicted people have more of what's left of the soul of America in them than all of those fascist fuckers rounding them up and the malevolent regime behind it.

(Image:  screenshot via MSNBC)

"He's A Twisted Guy"

Facing a national firestorm of outrage, neo-fascist bigot and liar Donald "Rump" Trump appears ready to buckle on his "zero tolerance" child separation policy, which he repeatedly lied about and blamed "Democrat" laws for tying his tiny hands. One can be certain that whatever executive order he signs will be minimalist, time-limited and harsh, given the vindictive monster that he is.

As this story develops, it's worth remembering that he's had a truly loathsome alter ego guiding immigration policy: Stephen "Dead Eyes" Miller.  Dead Eyes was responsible for Rump's about-turn on the DACA "compromise" earlier this year, where one day he was for it, and the next day against it. Here's an excerpt from Gabe Sherman's piece in Vanity Fair describing the self-inflicted catastrophe that zealot Dead Eyes has created:

"Meanwhile, as the border crisis spirals, the absence of a coordinated policy process has allowed the most extreme administration voices to fill the vacuum. White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller has all but become the face of the issue, a development that even supporters of Trump’s “zero-tolerance” position say is damaging the White House. 'Stephen actually enjoys seeing those pictures at the border,' an outside White House adviser said. 'He’s a twisted guy, the way he was raised and picked on. There’s always been a way he’s gone about this. He’s Waffen-SS.'” (our emphasis)

It's no surprise that Rump would have a xenophobic, sadistic white nationalist as his advisor on immigration policy, since it reflects his own sick personal beliefs. Despite what appears to be a temporary band-aid on child separation, Dead Eyes isn't going anywhere, and you can be certain that he'll do what he can to fashion the most cruel, inhumane, and "twisted" immigration policy possible going forward.

(photo via The Wrap)

Quote Of The Day - "A Person To Be Shunned"

“I can remember him doing an impression, behind a podium, of a reporter for the New York Times who has a congenital disorder, and then I thought, if this was somebody else — if this was a member of your family or a next-door neighbor, a guy at work — you would immediately distance yourself from that person. And that’s what I thought would happen. Because if you can do that in a national forum, that says to me that you are a damaged human being. If you can do that, and not apologize, you’re a person to be shunned ... I don’t know anything about politics. I don’t know anything about trade agreements. I don’t know anything about China devaluing the yuan. But if you see somebody who’s not behaving like any other human you’ve known, that means something. They need an appointment with a psychiatrist. They need a diagnosis and they need a prescription.”  -- David Letterman on neo-fascist sociopath Donald "Rump" Trump, in an interview with the New York Times.

The Cruel And Unusual Trump

[Ed. note: We often hear that progressives recycle the same manner of arguments against neo- fascist pig Donald "Rump" Trump over and over (bo-ring!):  that he's a sexist, racist, homophobic, Islamophobic, know- nothing, tax evading, lying, cheating (in more ways than one) sociopath -- and that's the short list.  We're no doubt guilty of that on this blog.  While we know most of you who visit here share in our revulsion of this orange sh*tgibbon, there's a large segment of the population that will always put party above country and vote for this monster (let's call them "deplorables"). There's also a segment that is unsure or wavering or that plans to throw away their vote on a third party. Our hope is that if any of you who come here know someone in the latter category, please talk to them and make sure they understand what's at stake, and that their vote is either for Rump or Secretary Clinton.  Staying home or voting third party is a vote for Rump.  We all need to do our part to save this country from a catastrophe. Thirty- nine days until the election.]

Here's some food for thought this morning:

-- Keep in mind, this was written before the "fat- shaming," misogynist example of Rump's treatment of former Miss Universe Alicia Machado during and after last Monday's presidential debate (nor does it include a recent statement by former Miss Australia that Rump "fat shamed" her as well, or this).  There are enough examples of Rump's cruelty to make any normal person gag, and Conor Friedersdorf has compiled a few.  Here's his conclusion:

People disagree about the ideal traits to have in a leader. But almost no one wants a president who has proven himself an addict to being cruel, mean-spirited, and spiteful. For decades, Trump has been deliberately cruel to others, often in the most public ways. 

He behaves this way flagrantly, showing no sign of shame or reflection. 

What kind of person still acts that way at 70? A bad person. 

It is that simple. 

Giving a cruel man power and expecting that he won’t use it to inflict cruelty is madness. To vote for Trump, knowing all of this, is to knowingly empower cruelty. 

Better to recoil in disgust.

-- Rump also got the Steven Colbert treatment on his "fat- shaming" (view the clip here).  Raw Story has some highlights:

Trump explained to his supporters that he’d gone easy on Clinton during Monday’s debate because he didn’t want to embarrass her. 

“Yes, and it’s true — he did nothing to embarrass her,” Colbert said, pausing ever-so-slightly before the last word. “Trump is always acting like such a gentleman. He holds doors for women, gives them the seat on the bus, does no debate preparation. You might call it the addled ramblings of a delusional demagogue, Trump calls it chivalry.” 

Clinton reminded voters that Trump had called a former Miss Universe fat when he owned the beauty pageant, and the Republican doubled down on his insults — which Colbert said might hurt him with the “small special interest group of Americans who gain weight.” 

He suggested Trump’s new campaign slogan could be: “Seriously ladies, you could lose a few pounds.” 

“That kind of brutal honesty takes courage, because Trump weighs 236 pounds, which at his height is technically obese,” Colbert said.

-- Rump does have his deplorable followers, though, who certainly aren't offended by his cruelty:

Not since Southern segregationist George Wallace’s failed presidential bids in 1968 and 1972 have white nationalists been so motivated to participate in a presidential election. 

Andrew Anglin, editor of the Daily Stormer website and an emerging leader of a new generation of millennial extremists, said he had “zero interest” in the 2012 general election and viewed presidential politics as “pointless.” That is, until he heard Trump. 

“Trump had me at ‘build a wall,’” Anglin said. “Virtually every alt-right Nazi I know is volunteering for the Trump campaign.”   (our emphasis)

Thirty- nine days.