Reuters – February 2, 2017
Trump to focus counter-extremism program solely on Islam
By Julia Edwards Ainsley, Dustin Volz and Kristina Cooke
The Trump administration wants to revamp and rename a U.S. government program designed to counter all violent ideologies so that it focuses solely on Islamist extremism, five people briefed on the matter told Reuters.
The program, "Countering Violent Extremism," or CVE, would be changed to "Countering Islamic Extremism" or "Countering Radical Islamic Extremism," the sources said, and would no longer target groups such as white supremacists who have also carried out bombings and shootings in the United States.
Such a change would reflect Trump's election campaign rhetoric and criticism of former President Barrack Obama for being weak in the fight against Islamic State and for refusing to use the phrase "radical Islam" in describing it. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for attacks on civilians in several countries.
The CVE program aims to deter groups or potential lone attackers through community partnerships and educational programs or counter-messaging campaigns in cooperation with companies such as Google (GOOGL.O) and Facebook (FB.O).
Some proponents of the program fear that rebranding it could make it more difficult for the government to work with Muslims already hesitant to trust the new administration, particularly after Trump issued an executive order last Friday temporarily blocking travel to the United States from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
Still, the CVE program, which focuses on U.S. residents and is separate from a military effort to fight extremism online, has been criticized even by some supporters as ineffective.
A source who has worked closely with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on the program said Trump transition team members first met with a CVE task force in December and floated the idea of changing the name and focus.
In a meeting last Thursday attended by senior staff for DHS Secretary John Kelly, government employees were asked to defend why they chose certain community organizations as recipients of CVE program grants, said the source, who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the discussions.
Although CVE funding has been appropriated by Congress and the grant recipients were notified in the final days of the Obama administration, the money still may not go out the door, the source said, adding that Kelly is reviewing the matter.
PROGRAM CRITICIZED
Some Republicans in Congress have long assailed the program as politically correct and ineffective, asserting that singling out and using the term "radical Islam" as the trigger for many violent attacks would help focus deterrence efforts.
Others counter that branding the problem as "radical Islam" would only serve to alienate more than three million Americans [*] who practice Islam peacefully.
Many community groups, meanwhile, had already been cautious about the program, partly over concerns that it could double as a surveillance tool for law enforcement.
Hoda Hawa, director of policy for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said she was told last week by people within DHS that there was a push to refocus the CVE effort from tackling all violent ideology to only Islamist extremism. "That is concerning for us because they are targeting a faith group and casting it under a net of suspicion," she said.
Another source familiar with the matter was told last week by a DHS official that a name change would take place. Three other sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said such plans had been discussed but were unable to attest whether they had been finalized…..
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-extremists-program-exclusiv-idUSKBN15G5VO
[*] The American Muslim population is approximately seven million. The 3.3 million figure is perhaps updated quote from the PEW Institute survey of 2007 which arbitrarily estimated the American Muslim population at 2.35 million which is closer to the estimates announced by the American Jewish Committee in October 2001. Tellingly, the AJC study – titled Estimating the Muslim Population in the United States – claimed that the best estimate of Muslims in the United States is 2.8 million at most, compared to the 6 or 7 million figure used by many researchers and Muslim organizations. Read more http://www.amp-oneb.ghazali.net/html/pew_surveys.html
Trump's Immigration Policy Leads to War
By Bob Burnett
In the wake of Donald Trump's abrasive January 27th immigration order, some critics have described a White House in chaos and characterized Trump's policy czar, Steve Bannon, as "in his over his head." Wrong. Trump and Bannon know exactly what they are doing. Trump's immigration orders portend a devastating campaign against immigrants, one that will lead to war in the Middle East.
::::::::
In the wake of Donald Trump's abrasive January 27th immigration order, some critics have described a White House in chaos and characterized Trump's policy czar, Steve Bannon, as "in his over his head." Wrong. Trump and Bannon know exactly what they are doing. Trump's immigration orders portend a devastating campaign against immigrants, one that will lead to war in the Middle East.
It's useful to remember why Red voters turned to Trump; he promised to create jobs, stifle immigration, and cut taxes. So far Trump hasn't presented any semblance of a jobs plan. House Republicans have been busy with plans to cut taxes; the beneficiaries appear to be corporations and the rich.
Meanwhile, the focus of the Trump White House has been on immigration. It's an issue that meets three of their objectives: it's red meat for their base; by claiming that immigrants are lawbreakers, it plays to Trump's "law and order" theme; and this issue paves the way for major policy changes in the Middle East.
Trump's immigration orders are based upon lies. Not surprisingly, the justifications for Trump's immigration policIes are lies. In his January 25th "Border Security" order, Trump claimed, "The recent surge of illegal immigration at the southern border with Mexico has placed a significant strain on Federal resources..." There is no "recent surge;" illegal immigration declined under Obama and, recently there has been a net exodus to Mexico.
In his January 27th order, "to protect the American people from terrorist attacks by foreign nationals admitted to the United States," Trump claimed, "While the visa-issuance process was reviewed and amended after the September 11 attacks... these measures did not stop attacks by foreign nationals who were admitted to the United States." Wrong again; the recent attacks -- such as Orlando -- were committed by native-born Americans. Trump's order names Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen but immigrants from these nations have nothing to do with recent domestic attacks.
Even thought these lies were noted by the mainstream media, they are accepted by Trump's base -- who get their news from Fox News. (Meanwhile, the Trump White House demonizes the mainstream media.)
Trump's immigration orders are popular with his base. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found: "49 percent of American adults said they either "strongly" or "somewhat" agreed with Trump's order, while 41 percent "strongly" or "somewhat" disagreed and another 10 percent said they don't know." The findings were strongly influenced by party preference.
The 538 website reported research about characteristics that make someone "truly American:" one third of poll respondents said it was, "Having been born in the United States" and "Being a Christian." No doubt this was Trump's base; folks who agree with his policy of keeping non-Christians out.
(The news is not all bleak: a more recent Gallup Poll found that 57 percent of respondents disapproved of Trump's order.)
Trump's immigration order is a convoluted Muslim ban. The January 27th ban calls for suspension of the US refugee program for 120 days (and totally suspends the admission of Syrian nationals). It includes this wording: "[prioritize] refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution, provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country of nationality." Since all 7 named countries are Muslim majority, this (potentially) gives preference to Christian refugees from these countries.
To be noted is that one of the 7 countries, Iraq, is a strong US ally in the war on terror.
Trump's order is a portend of things to come. The Los Angeles Times reported: "Trump's top advisors on immigration, including chief strategist Steve Bannon and senior advisor Stephen Miller, see themselves as launching a radical experiment to fundamentally transform how the U.S. decides who is allowed into the country and to block a generation of people who, in their view, won't assimilate into American society." Thus the Trump ban would eventually impact ALL Muslim-majority countries -- not just Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan Syria, and Yemen but also countries such as Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia.
Trump and his top advisers (particularly Steve Bannon, Mike Flynn, and Stephen Miller) believe the US is at war with Islam. (Foreign Policy magazine reported that Bannon "predicted 'a major shooting war in the Middle East' in the coming years. 'To be brutally frank, I mean Christianity is dying in Europe, and Islam is on the rise,' he said in January 2016.")
Writing in the New Yorker, Steve Coll observed that last year then retired Marine General James Mattis (now Secretary of Defense) described Trump's proposed Muslim ban as ill-advised: "An initiative so reviled and so easily caricatured across the Islamic world will inspire terrorists to action and invite various forms of retaliation against Americans. It will make shaky governments in Muslim-majority countries that coöperate with the United States--from Morocco to Indonesia--vulnerable to domestic protests and political pressure to break ties with American counterterrorism programs."
But Trump doesn't care. The other elements of his domestic agenda may be ill-defined but he knows where he wants to go with immigration: He wants to keep out all Muslims. And, by the way, he wants to wage war on Islam.
Bob Burnett is a Berkeley writer. In a previous life he was one of the executive founders of Cisco Systems.
New York Times - February 7, 2017
White house weighs terrorist designation for Muslim Brotherhood
By PETER BAKER
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s advisers are debating an order intended to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization, targeting the oldest and perhaps most influential Islamist group in the Middle East.
A political and social organization with millions of followers, the Brotherhood officially renounced violence decades ago and won elections in Egypt after the fall of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Affiliated groups have joined the political systems in places like Tunisia and Turkey, and President Barack Obama long resisted pressure to declare it a terrorist organization..........
Critics said they feared that Mr. Trump’s team wanted to create a legal justification to crack down on Muslim charities, mosques and other groups in the United States. A terrorist designation would freeze assets, block visas and ban financial interactions.
“This would signal they are more interested in provoking conflict with an imaginary fifth column of Muslims in the U.S. than in preserving our relationships with counterterrorism partners like Turkey, Jordan, Tunisia and Morocco, or with fighting actual terrorism,” said Tom Malinowski, an assistant secretary of state under Mr. Obama.
The Brotherhood has long been a source of alarm on the right, especially at Breitbart News, whose chairman, Stephen K. Bannon, is now Mr. Trump’s chief White House strategist. A 2007 summary for a film Mr. Bannon proposed making on radical Islam in America, obtained by The Washington Post, called the Brotherhood “the foundation of modern terrorism.” Sebastian Gorka and Katharine Gorka, two Breitbart contributors who have long warned of Muslim extremists in the United States, also joined the new administration. Mr. Gorka is a deputy national security assistant, while Ms. Gorka is working at the Department of Homeland Security.
Frank Gaffney Jr., founder of the Center for Security Policy, who once asserted that Mr. Obama might secretly be a Muslim, urged Mr. Trump on Breitbart’s radio show last week to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. He has argued that the Brotherhood’s philosophy mirrors that of groups that are already on the list.
“The goals of the Muslim Brotherhood,” Mr. Gaffney said in a recent interview with The New York Times, are “exactly the same as the Islamic State, exactly the same as the Taliban, exactly the same as, you know, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Al Nusra Front, on and on, Al Shabab. It’s about Islamic supremacism. It’s about achieving the end state that is their due.”
Some congressional Republicans reintroduced legislation last month calling on the State Department to designate the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization or explain why it would not. “It’s time to call the enemy by its name,” Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who sponsored the measure with Representative Mario DiazBalart of Florida, wrote on Twitter.
Among those objecting is the Council on American Islamic Relations, which describes itself as the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the United States. Mr. Gaffney and others have accused it of being a front for the Brotherhood, which the council denies. It said such an order by Mr. Trump would be a brazen attempt to repress Muslims.
“We believe it is just a smoke screen for a witch hunt targeting the civil rights of American Muslims,” said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the council. He said that, given what he called false attempts to link Muslim Americans to the Brotherhood, a terrorist designation would “inevitably be used in a political
campaign to attack those same groups and individuals, to marginalize the American Muslim community and to demonize Islam.” .......
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/world/middleeast/muslim-brotherhood-terrorism-trump.html
The Huffington Post – February 18, 2017
GOP congressional candidate will ‘End Muslim Immigration,’ fundraising email says
It’s a clear echo of Donald Trump’s campaign pledge.
By Sam Levine
A fundraising email on behalf of Karen Handel, a Republican running for office in Georgia, promises that she will end Muslim immigration if elected. “If elected to Congress, she will work to build a wall on the border and end Muslim immigration,” says the email, which the Save The American Way PAC sent Friday.
Handel is one of several candidates running to replace Tom Price, who gave up his seat in Congress to become President Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary.
The email is an echo of Trump’s campaign pledge to ban all Muslims from entering the United States. In his first weeks as president, Trump issued an executive order banning travel and refugees from seven majority-Muslim nations. The federal courts blocked the move, but Trump has said the White House would issue a new order.
Handel served as Georgia’s secretary of state from 2006 until 2010. She also ran for Georgia governor in 2010 and the U.S. Senate in 2014. In 2012, Handel resigned as an executive at the Susan G. Komen foundation after she pushed the group to end financial support of Planned Parenthood. There was widespread outcry over the decision and the foundation eventually reversed.
Even though Price represented Georgia’s sixth district for over a decade, some believe that Democrats have a chance to flip it in April’s special election because Trump only carried it by one point in November.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/karen-handel-immigration_us_58a86899e4b037d17d2852ed
Information Clearing House – February 23, 2017
Fallacies of the Anti-Islam Crowd
By Jacob G. Hornberger
Ever since the 9/11 attacks, there has been a fringe element in American society that has claimed that the attacks were part of a centuries-old religious war between Islam and Christianity. They’ve claimed that Muslims constitute a grave threat against everyone in the United States and the Western world because Muslims are supposedly determined to establish a world-wide caliphate, which would necessarily entail conquering the United States, taking over the federal government, and running the IRS, DEA, Federal Reserve, Social Security administration, CIA, NSA, Pentagon, and all the other parts of the federal government.
This fringe element has now surged to national notoriety owing to the fact that there are now people within the Trump administration who appear to subscribe to that philosophy.
However, there have always been big problems with the anti-Islam mindset. Let’s review three of them.
1. During the entire Cold War, the people who subscribe to the anti-Islam paradigm never — repeat never — brought up anything about this so-called religious war between Islam and Christianity or anything about the purported quest by Muslims to establish a worldwide caliphate, one that would include the United States.
Doesn’t that seem rather odd? Here the Muslims have supposedly been coming to get us for centuries and not one single person in the anti-Islam crowd expressed even a tiny iota of concern during the entire 44-year history of the Cold War.
That’s because during the Cold War, the official bugaboo for the American people, as set forth by the Cold War-era national security establishment, was not Islam or terrorism but rather communism (or as conservatives used to say, “godless communism”). Throughout those four decades, it wasn’t the Muslims who were coming to get us, it was the communists. Or it was the Soviet Union, which was led by Russia (which has now been restored to semi-official bugaboo status, in conjunction with the Muslims) that was hell-bent on conquering the United States. It was in Moscow, Americans were told, that the international communist conspiracy to take over the world was based.
From the first grade in the public (i.e., government) schools to which state law forced their parents to send them, American schoolchildren had their minds indoctrinated and molded about how the Russians were coming to get us and force America to become a communist state. And it worked. By the time American children reached 18 years of age, most of them were absolutely convinced that America was in grave danger of falling to the communists. That’s what propelled them to blindly support the Cold War, the conversion of the federal government to a national-security state, the Korean War and the Vietnam War (both of which were waged without the constitutionally required congressional declaration of war), ever-growing support of foreign dictators, ever-growing interventions in foreign countries, ever-growing assassinations, ever-growing expenditures for the Pentagon, CIA, and NSA, and ever-growing infringements on the rights, liberties, and privacy of the American people.
Through it all, not a peep — not a single peep — about the supposed quest by the Muslims to establish a worldwide caliphate or about their supposed war to enslave Americans and force them to study the Koran and to establish Sharia law in the United States.
In fact, it was the exact opposite. When it was the Soviet Union, rather than the United States, doing the invading and occupying of Afghanistan, U.S. officials actually partnered with and supported some of the most extreme and fanatical Muslims who were fighting to oust the Soviets from Afghanistan.
When that happened, there wasn’t a peep of protest from anyone who is a part of the anti-Muslim crowd today. On the contrary, they cheered the partnership with radical and fanatical Muslims because, again, communism, not Islam, and the Soviet Union (Russia) were the official bugaboos.
2. Those in the anti-Muslim crowd today were among the most ardent supporters of the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, notwithstanding the fact that Bush had not secured the constitutionally required congressional declaration of war against either country.
The anti-Muslim crowd cheered and celebrated the many years of deadly and destructive occupations that followed the invasions of both countries. By this time, their mindsets had shifted from communism as the official bugaboo to Islam as the official bugaboo. So, every time that U.S. soldiers bombed, shot, killed, maimed, or tortured people in Iraq or Afghanistan, the anti-Muslim crowd made it a point to thank the troops for “their service” in both countries, notwithstanding the fact that neither the Afghan government nor the Iraqi government had ever attacked the United States or even threatened to do so.
To this day, the anti-Muslim crowd continues to support the U.S. interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
All that support for the Pentagon’s and CIA’s interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, however, poses a big problem for the anti-Islam crowd, one that they have never addressed and maybe not even considered.
That problem is this: The U.S. invasions and occupations succeeded in installing official Islamic regimes in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
Don’t believe me? Then take a look at the following two websites, which feature the official constitutions of Afghanistan and Iraq. You will immediately notice something important: Pursuant to the constitutions of both countries, the regimes are both official Islamic regimes.
Needless to say, this remarkable “achievement” by U.S. troops places the anti-Islam crowd in a very unenviable and quite awkward position. Do they renounce their longtime support for the invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, given the fact that the interventions gave rise to two official Islamic regimes, ones that, according to the anti-Islam crowd, are coming to get us as part of the supposed quest by Muslims to establish a caliphate on the United States and the rest of the world?
So far, there have been no renunciations or denunciations of the U.S. invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan on the part of the anti-Muslim crowd. In fact, they continue to thank the troops for their service in both countries.
Indeed, it’s still not too late for the U.S. government to effect new regime-change operations in both Afghanistan and Iraq, where U.S. troops continue to intervene. Have any of the anti-Muslim crowd called on the Pentagon and the CIA to oust these two official Islamic regimes, either with bombs or assassination, and replace them with Christian or Jewish or pro-Western regimes?
Nope. Not one call for a new regime-change operation. The anti-Muslim crowd continues to support the troops, who continue to fight to preserve the existence of these two official Islamic regimes. The anti-Muslim crowd continues to thank the troops for their service in Iraq and Afghanistan, which succeeded in bringing into existence two official Islamic regimes.
3. Very few in the anti-Muslim crowd are going out and killing Muslims here in the United States. They are wise not to do so, even if they are behaving contrary to their own “we are at war with the Muslims” paradigm. The reason is that if they were to start killing Muslims, they would be arrested, indicted, prosecuted, and punished for murder. During their trial, if they tried to tell the jury, “But we are at war with the Muslims, who are coming to get us part of their centuries-old quest to establish a worldwide caliphate,” the judge would silence them and refuse to permit that to be considered a legitimate defense to the murder charge. The killers would ultimately end up spending many years of their lives in the penitentiary as convicted murderers or even possibly be executed by the state under the death penalty. One thing is for sure: They would not be celebrated by the judicial system as courageous heroes who were defending their homeland from the billions of Muslims who were supposedly coming to get them, force them to study the Koran, and live according to Sharia law.
So, what’s really going on here?
After the Cold War suddenly and unexpectedly ended, the U.S. national-security establishment lost its official bugaboos — communism and the Soviet Union, which caused some Americans to question why it was necessary to continue devoting so much taxpayer money to fight a Cold War that was no longer in existence. To solve the problem, the Pentagon and the CIA intervened in the Middle East and began killing lots of people, many of whom were Muslims and many of whom were innocent children of Muslims (through the U.S.-enforced sanctions on Iraq).
When the inevitable “blowback” came in the form of anti-American terrorist attacks, including, but certainly not limited to, the 9/11 attacks, those people whose minds had been indoctrinated and molded into looking at communism and the Soviet Union as official bugaboos could not bring themselves to even consider the possibility that the U.S. national-security establishment was the root cause of the anti-American terrorism. By this time, the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA were their gods — their everything. At the same time, given that so many of them looked upon the federal government as their provider (e.g., Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other dole programs), the last thing they wanted to do is question or antagonize their welfare provider, their sustainer, their daddy, their god.
So, while U.S. officials were claiming that the terrorists just hated America for its “freedom and values,” the mindsets of some the people who, as children, had been indoctrinated and molded into seeing communism and the Soviet Union as the official bugaboos simply replaced those official bugaboos with Islam and Muslims as new official bugaboos. (Of course, Russia has now returned as a semi-official bugaboo, along with communist China, Iran, and North Korea. Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua are probably not far behind.) The obvious contradiction between their new anti-Islam mindsets and the gratitude they express to the troops for establishing official Islamic regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq doesn’t even occur to them — or the fact that they’re obviously not out killing Muslims here in the United States who are supposedly waging a centuries-old war against them.
Once a critical mass of Americans recognizes that these official bugaboos are nothing but bunk and just a way to keep the old Cold War apparatus known as the national-security establishment (or military industrial complex) in existence and in high cotton, that will bring us ever closer to the restoration of a constitutionally limited government republic, a free-market economy, and a free, peaceful, harmonious, and prosperous society.
Jacob G. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. He was born and raised in Laredo, Texas, and received his B.A. in economics from Virginia Military Institute and his law degree from the University of Texas. He was a trial attorney for twelve years in Texas. He also was an adjunct professor at the University of Dallas, where he taught law and economics. In 1987, Mr. Hornberger left the practice of law to become director of programs at the Foundation for Economic Education. http://www.fff.org
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46514.htm
Kansas shooting raises fears with local Indian-Americans
By Alex Dobuzinskis
The shooting death of an Indian engineer and the wounding of another man in a possible hate crime at a Kansas bar has raised fears among members of the area's fast-growing Indian-American community.
The suspected gunman, US Navy veteran Adam Purinton, 51, has been charged with the premeditated murder in Olathe, just outside Kansas City, of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, and the attempted murder of Alok Madasani, also 32, as well as an American who tried to intervene.
Before opening fire, Purinton is accused of shouting "get out of my country," a bystander told the Kansas City Star.
Several members of the Kansas City area's Indian-American community said the attack had forced them to think about their safety.
The shooting comes as some members of US minority groups have expressed unease with the political and social climate in the United States. The Southern Poverty Law Center said in a report this month hate groups proliferated in 2016 as Donald Trump's bid for the US presidency energized the radical right.
A number of Jewish leaders called on Trump to speak out against anti-Semitism following a spate of bomb threats to Jewish community centers. Trump this week called the threats horrible and he has said he rejects violence and harassment.
The greater Kansas City area, which straddles the border between the states of Missouri and Kansas, is home to about 2 million people with an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 Indian-Americans, although exact figures are not available, said Vijay Ainapurapu, 45, the former president of the India Association of Kansas City……
http://in.reuters.com/article/kansas-india-community-idINKBN164030
Counter Current – February 23, 2017
Trump administration adopts ruthless new immigrationﾠprotocol
The Trump administration officially adopted new immigration enforcement policies on February 22, 2017 that place all undocumented immigrants living in the US at risk of deportation.
The new policies were outlined in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memos leaked over the weekend. These memos were subjected to only minor changes before DHS Secretary John Kelly made them official on Monday.
Press Secretary Sean Spicer addressed the White House press corps Tuesday: “Everyone who is here illegally is subject to removal at any time,” he said. Spicer explained that the DHS memos establish guidelines for those undocumented immigrants who are the first priority for deportation, a staggering one million people.
These immigrants have already been found removable in court and are subject to final orders of removal. The government will also target immigrants with any criminal record, as well as those who have supposedly “abused” public services (a very broad category that includes anyone who filed a false Social Security number or gave a false answer on an official document about their immigration status) and those who have been charged with or are suspected of committing a crime.
But Spicer explained that after the government expels the first million immigrants, agents will move in stages against the remaining population: “The president has made clear that when you have 12, 14, or 15 million [immigrants] here illegally, there has to be a system of priority.” He added, “We are doing this one step at a time in a very methodical way.”
The language of the memos confirms this. “Department personnel have full authority to arrest or apprehend an alien whom an immigration officer has probable cause to believe is in violation of the immigration laws,” one memo said. “They also have full authority to initiate removal proceedings against any alien who is subject to removal under any provision of the [Immigration and Nationality Act].”
Spicer’s estimate that the Trump administration plans on ultimately deporting as many as 15 million immigrants nearly doubles an earlier estimate by the Los Angeles Times that 8 million were at risk. This much higher figure raises the specter that Trump will also seek to deport green-card holders, revoking their status as legal permanent residents.
Though the memos do not repeal Obama’s executive order establishing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, covering 750,000 immigrants who were brought to the US as children, the DHS notes that the issue will be addressed in the future. However, DACA enrollees who have been convicted or charged with a crime or who immigration officials believe may have committed a chargeable offense can be slated for removal. One DACA enrollee was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Washington State last week.
“We will have more [orders],” Spicer said. “Immigration is one of those issues [Trump] was clear and consistent on throughout the campaign.”
The World Socialist Web Site outlined the DHS memos ﾠin detail yesterday. The construction of new detention centers and a border wall, the hiring of 15,000 immigration and deportation officials, and the deputizing of local police agencies to detain and deport migrants will result in a significant police-state build-up in cities across the country.
“These memos lay out a detailed blueprint for the mass deportation of 11 million undocumented immigrants in America,” Lynn Tramonte, deputy director of America’s Voice Education Fund, told USA Today. “They fulfill the wish lists of the white nationalist and anti-immigrant movements and bring to life the worst of Donald Trump’s campaign rhetoric.”
The Trump administration is fearful that the memos will set off a wave of mass social protest. A DHS official told the press yesterday, “We do not need a sense of panic in the communities.”
Both Spicer and the DHS have sought to downplay risks that the government is going to immediately round up and incarcerate millions and millions of undocumented workers. At his press briefing Tuesday, Spicer explicitly disavowed a suggestion that the goal of the new Trump initiative was “mass deportation.” The DHS official said: “We do not have the personnel, time or resources to go into communities and round up people and do all kinds of mass throwing folks on buses.”
In other words, the Trump administration does plan on deporting millions, but to do so at once would be physically impossible and to announce it as a goal would be politically dangerous. The deportations will likely speed up, however, once sufficient police manpower has been mobilized and once a large network of detention centers has been constructed.
The DHS official also said, “We’re not creating anything out of the whole cloth.” The Trump administration’s attempts to hide the qualitatively different scale and depth of their anti-immigrant attacks are disingenuous and false. However, Trump’s immigrant program is an extension of the anti-immigrant policies of the Obama administration, which deported 2.7 million immigrants—more than all his predecessors combined.
The statutory framework used by Trump to deport over ten million undocumented people was established in a bipartisan effort. The Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 would not have passed without the support of Democratic members of Congress and was signed into law by Democrat Bill Clinton. The Secure Fences Act of 2006, which Trump cites to justify his wall construction program, was supported by Senators Hillary Clinton, Obama, Biden, and Schumer.
Thirty seven of 48 Senate Democrats, including Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders, voted to confirm Secretary John Kelly—the signatory of the DHS memos—to head the DHS earlier this month. Sanders said he hoped Kelly would “have a moderating influence on some of the racist and xenophobic views that President Trump advocated throughout the campaign.”
Adopting the fraudulent “public safety” narrative of the Trump administration, Sanders told NBC News last week, “I think the vetting mechanisms are very, very strong. If there’s any way to make them stronger, let’s go forward. I don’t think there is any debate that we want to keep the United States safe and we want to be 100 percent clear that anybody who comes into this country should not be coming into this country to do us harm.”
The claims by both parties that immigrants represent a threat to “public safety” or “national security” are fraudulent. The Trump administration seeks to scapegoat immigrants for a social crisis caused by the capitalist system, in an attempt to pit workers against one another and prevent them from fighting their real enemy: the ruling class.
No significant opposition to these measures will come from the Democratic Party. The phase-in of Trump’s deportation program will devastate the lives of millions of immigrants and their families, the overwhelming majority of whom are working class, and it is from the working class that opposition to these reactionary and xenophobic measures is emerging.
Immigrant and US-born workers must unite to mobilize against efforts by the Trump administration to deport their co-workers. Immigrants will receive no protection from the Democratic Party, from the trade unions who support Trump’s economic nationalism, or from hollow appeals to “change the minds” of the politicians. The right to live and work with full citizenship rights must be available to all workers, regardless of immigration status.
The working class must rely on its own social strength to defend these rights through the establishment of committees in workplaces, neighborhoods, and schools aimed at developing a political strategy for blocking deportations and prohibiting the government from removing immigrant workers from the country.
Executive Editor: Abdus Sattar Ghazali
www.amperspective.com Online Magazine
