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Eugene's JournalNYT Editorial Board: ICE Tried to Deport an Immigration Activist. That May Have Been Unconstitutiona
Source: New York Times
ICE Tried to Deport an Immigration Activist. That May Have Been Unconstitutional.
An appeals court has ruled that the Constitution bars the government from targeting immigrants like Ravi Ragbir for their advocacy.
By The Editorial Board
The editorial board represents the opinions of the board, its editor and the publisher. It is separate from the newsroom and the Op-Ed section.
April 27, 2019
Ravi Ragbir became an immigrant rights activist from his own experience. After coming to the United States from Trinidad and Tobago and becoming a legal resident, he was convicted of wire fraud in 2000 and, after completing his prison sentence, was ordered deported. Since then, he had been allowed to remain in the country only at the discretion of immigration officials. Last year, it seems, their patience ran out.
Mr. Ragbir, during a routine check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Lower Manhattan, was told that he was being detained and would be deported. Under the Trump administration, this experience is alarmingly common, even for those like Mr. Ragbir with strong family ties in the United States and with an American spouse. One thing stood out in this case: Mr. Ragbir was the executive director of the New Sanctuary Coalition a group dedicated to assisting immigrants and he was one of a number of immigration activists ordered detained or deported within a matter of weeks.
On Thursday, a federal appeals court ruled that in seeking to deport Mr. Ragbir, ICE may have exceeded its authority and violated his constitutional rights as a critic of the governments immigration policies.
The court ruled that Mr. Ragbir had made a plausible case that the public expression of his criticism, and its prominence, played a significant role in the recent attempts to remove him a type of retaliation forbidden by the First Amendment.
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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/27/opinion/sunday/ice-deportation-activists.html
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Related: 18‐1597 Ragbir v. Homan (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit)
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey called Rep. Ilhan Omar after Trump's tweet sparked a flood of death threats
Source: Washington Post
Twitter did not take down the tweet, despite Omars request, a source said.
By Tony Romm April 25 at 5:34 PM
Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey phoned Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar on Tuesday and stood by the companys decision to permit a tweet from President Trump that later resulted in a flood of death threats targeting the congresswoman.
The previously unreported call focused on an incendiary video that Trump shared on April 12, which depicts Omar discussing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks interspersed with footage of the Twin Towers burning. The clip did not include the full context of Omars remarks, which were taken from a public event on the broader issue of Islamophobia.
Omar pressed Dorsey to explain why Twitter didnt remove Trumps tweet outright, according to a person familiar with the conversation who spoke on condition of anonymity because the call was private. Dorsey said that the presidents tweet didnt violate the companys rules, a second person from Twitter confirmed.
Dorsey also pointed to the fact that the tweet and video already had been viewed and shared far beyond the site, one of the sources said. But the Twitter executive did tell Omar that the tech giant needed to do a better job generally in removing hate and harassment from the site, according to the two people familiar with the call.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/04/25/twitter-ceo-jack-dorsey-called-rep-ilhan-omar-after-trumps-tweet-sparked-flood-death-threats/
Austria broadcaster defends journalist who compared far-right poster to Nazis
Source: Reuters
Austria broadcaster defends journalist who compared far-right poster to Nazis
VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrias public broadcaster ORF defended its top news anchor on Friday after a far right politician threatened the journalist with consequences for comparing an anti-immigrant poster to Nazi propaganda.
The far-right Freedom Party (FPO) is the junior partner in a coalition government with the conservatives. It says it wants to restructure the ORF which it accuses of left-wing bias.
During an interview with Harald Vilimsky, the FPOs top candidate for the European Parliament, the host of flagship news program ZiB 2, Armin Wolf, asked Vilimsky to explain a poster created by a branch of the far-right partys youth wing.
The poster depicted a blonde couple in traditional Austrian dress, surrounded by sneering gray figures with oversized noses accompanied by the slogan tradition beats migration. Wolf asked how this depiction of migrants differed from the anti-Semitic depiction of Jews in a Nazi newspaper.
To draw this parallel, Mr Wolf, is the last straw, Vilimsky responded. That is something that cannot go without consequences.
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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-austria-politics-media/austria-broadcaster-defends-journalist-who-compared-far-right-poster-to-nazis-idUSKCN1S21AX
Recently freed Honduran transgender woman detained again by Ice
Source: The Guardian
Nicole Garcia Aguilar fled Honduras after being subjected to sexual assault and attempted murder linked to her gender identity
Nina Lakhani
Fri 26 Apr 2019 09.00 BST Last modified on Fri 26 Apr 2019 09.02 BST
A Honduran transgender asylum seeker who was released last week after a year incarcerated in immigration centres has been re-detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).
The move was condemned by her legal team as punitive and damaging to the young womans physical and mental health.
Nicole Garcia Aguilar, 24, fled southern Honduras after being subjected to death threats, sexual assault and attempted murder linked to her gender identity. She sought help from the police in Honduras, but was told by one officer that the violence against her was because of the way [she is] and would not stop until she was dead.
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Before being released, Garcia was transferred to an Ice custody in El Paso, Texas, where she had a pending criminal charge. The charge was dismissed and Garcia finally released from Ice detention on 17 April but given no release paperwork a document that is essential in order to travel freely and avoid detention at immigration checkpoints.
On 24 April, Garcia, accompanied by advocates from the Detained Migrants Solidarity Committee, went to the Ice office in El Paso to obtain her release paperwork where she was taken into custody.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/26/transgender-asylum-seeker-nicole-garcia-aguilar-detained
Canada watchdog to seek court order to force Facebook to follow privacy laws
Source: Reuters
Canada watchdog to seek court order to force Facebook to follow privacy laws
Steve Scherer, David Ljunggren
3 MIN READ
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Facebook Inc broke Canadian privacy laws when it collected the information of some 600,000 citizens, a top watchdog said on Thursday, pledging to seek a court order to force the social media giant to change its practices.
Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien made his comments while releasing the results of an investigation, opened a year ago, into a data sharing scandal involving Facebook and the now-defunct British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.
Though Facebook has acknowledged a major breach of trust, the company disputed the results of the probe, Therrien said.
Facebooks refusal to act responsibly is deeply troubling given the vast amount of sensitive personal information users have entrusted to this company, said Therrien.
He said the company refused to voluntarily submit to audits of its privacy policies and practices over the next five years.
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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-facebook/canada-watchdog-to-seek-court-order-to-force-facebook-to-follow-privacy-laws-idUSKCN1S11VZ
Nearly 170m under-10s unvaccinated against measles worldwide
Source: The Guardian
Nearly 170m under-10s unvaccinated against measles worldwide
Figure includes half a million in UK, as Unicef warns the disease could spread like wildfire
Sarah Boseley Health editor
Thu 25 Apr 2019 00.01 BST Last modified on Thu 25 Apr 2019 00.45 BST
Nearly 170 million children in the world under the age of 10, including half a million in the UK and 2.5 million in the US, are unprotected from measles in the face of growing outbreaks of the disease, Unicef is warning.
More than 21 million children a year are not vaccinated against one of the most infectious organisms in existence, says the UN body. Between 2010 and 2017, an estimated 169 million children missed the first of the recommended two-dose regime.
The ground for the global measles outbreaks we are witnessing today was laid years ago, said Henrietta Fore, Unicef executive director. The measles virus will always find unvaccinated children. If we are serious about averting the spread of this dangerous but preventable disease, we need to vaccinate every child, in rich and poor countries alike.
Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, warned the situation was serious. Getting yourself and your children vaccinated against killer diseases is essential to staying healthy, and vaccine rejection is a serious and growing public health timebomb, he said.
He called for Facebook and Twitter to take action against the posting of anti-vaccine propaganda and conspiracy theories. ...
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/apr/25/nearly-170m-under-10s-unvaccinated-against-measles-worldwide
From Sudan's protesters, a warning to Saudi Arabia and the UAE: Don't meddle
Source: Washington Post
By Max Bearak and Kareem Fahim April 24 at 3:30 PM
KHARTOUM, Sudan Amid the chants praising the revolution of the people, a new slogan appeared this week at a massive sit-in protest in Sudans capital: We do not want Saudi aid even if we have to eat beans and falafel!
The chant underscored the suspicion in the protest camp about the motives of Saudi Arabia and its close ally, the United Arab Emirates, after they jointly pledged $3 billion in aid to Sudans transitional military government, which deposed Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir this month after 30 years in power.
The protests, which have spread across the country to become the biggest in a generation, have continued to swell after his ouster, putting pressure on the military to swiftly transfer power to a civilian council until elections can be held.
But many within the protests fear that the powerful monarchies in Saudi Arabia and the UAE are using their immense wealth to suppress democracy and support a counterrevolution, as they have been accused of doing elsewhere in the region.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/for-sudans-protesters-another-threat-looms-meddling-by-saudi-arabia-and-the-uae/2019/04/24/b2986416-667f-11e9-a1b6-b29b90efa879_story.html
Videos appear to show armed militia detaining migrants at US-Mexico border
Source: The Guardian
The American Civil Liberties Union is calling the actions a kidnapping and a flagrant violation of the law
Sam Levin in San Francisco
Fri 19 Apr 2019 00.14 BST Last modified on Fri 19 Apr 2019 01.03 BST
Armed rightwing militia members detained a large group of migrants at the US-Mexico border and coordinated with US border patrol agents to have them arrested, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, in a series of actions the civil liberties organization called a kidnapping and a flagrant violation of the law.
Several videos taken at the border in New Mexico this week appeared to show men belonging to a group that calls itself the United Constitutional Patriots approaching migrant families and children, ordering them to sit down, calling federal agents on them, and at one point potentially misrepresenting themselves by saying border patrol as they approached.
The Trump administrations vile racism has emboldened white nationalists and fascists to flagrantly violate the law, the ACLU of New Mexico said in a letter to the states governor and attorney general, urging them to immediately investigate this atrocious and unlawful conduct.
The ACLU described the group as an armed fascist militia organization made up of vigilantes working to kidnap and detain people seeking asylum and accused the group of directly making illegal arrests.
The group has repeatedly appeared in local news stories in recent weeks, expressing support for Donald Trumps proposed border wall and presenting themselves as volunteers aiding border patrol efforts.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/18/new-mexico-migrants-armed-militia-detained
Dispute flares among U.S. officials over Trump administration Iran arms control report
Source: Reuters
Exclusive: Dispute flares among U.S. officials over Trump administration Iran arms control report
Jonathan Landay, Arshad Mohammed
7 MIN READ
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new Trump administration report on international compliance with arms control accords provoked a dispute with U.S. intelligence agencies and some State Department officials concerned that the document politicizes and slants assessments about Iran, five sources with knowledge of the matter said.
U.S. President Donald Trump is intensifying a drive to contain Irans power in the Middle East, which has raised fears that his administration wants to topple the Tehran government or lay the groundwork to justify military action.
The administration says it is trying to halt Iranian malign behavior in its support for Islamist militants in the region and denies seeking the overthrow of the Islamic republics government.
The clash among U.S. officials emerged on Tuesday when the State Department posted on its website, and then removed, an unclassified version of an annual report to Congress assessing compliance with arms control agreements that the sources saw as skewed Iran.
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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-arms-armscontrol-exclusive/exclusive-dispute-flares-among-u-s-officials-over-trump-administration-iran-arms-control-report-idUSKCN1RT2R2
Hong Kong pro-democracy 'Occupy' activists defiant after guilty verdicts
Source: Reuters
Hong Kong pro-democracy 'Occupy' activists defiant after guilty verdicts
James Pomfret, Jessie Pang
5 MIN READ
HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Hong Kong court on Tuesday found nine leaders of the 2014 pro-democracy Occupy movement guilty of public nuisance during the mass protests, in a landmark verdict as freedoms in the city ruled by mainland China come under strain.
Scores of supporters applauded the defendants, who included a law professor, two legislators and former student activists, after a trial that critics said highlighted the decline of political freedoms in the former British colony.
Law professor Benny Tai, 54, retired sociologist Chan Kin-man, 60, and retired pastor Chu Yiu-ming, 75 were found guilty of conspiracy to commit public nuisance over their leading role in planning and mobilizing supporters during the 79-day protest.
The trio had pleaded not guilty to all charges, which carry a maximum jail term of seven years each. The judge did not immediately hand down sentences, and the defendants have not said if they planned to appeal.
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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hongkong-politics/hong-kong-pro-democracy-occupy-activists-defiant-after-guilty-verdicts-idUSKCN1RL04V
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Source: BBC
9 April 2019
Nine pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong have been found guilty of public nuisance charges for their role in a civil disobedience movement that called for free elections in the city.
Among them are three prominent activists, seen as figureheads of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement.
They could be jailed for up to seven years for their part in the "Umbrella Movement" protests of 2014.
Thousands marched demanding the right for Hong Kong to choose its own leader.
Those convicted include the so-called "Occupy trio" - sociology professor Chan Kin-man, 60, law professor Benny Tai, 54, and Baptist minister Chu Yiu-ming, 75.
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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-47863061
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