Category Archives: racism

‘The US can’t dump people in Mexico’: Trump asylum policy in doubt | World news | The Guardian

Several of the asylum seekers who had heard of the potential policy said they would simply wait it out in Mexico. “Going back, I may as well just tie a noose for myself and hang it from a tree,” said Francisco M, who left Guatemala with his wife and three children due to extortion threats from gangs. “We are here alone and it hurt to leave our roots, but I’d have to have a death wish to go back there. No, we will stay as long as it takes.” Meanwhile, human rights groups warn that Mexico, one of the most violent countries in the world, is not safe for asylum seeker. Last month two Honduran teenagers who had traveled with the caravan were murdered in Tijuana. Advocates warn the plan would add formidable new challenges to the already-tortuous asylum process. “The policy essentially dispossesses people of their right to trial. It takes me months to prepare one asylum case. I’ll maybe meet with a person six times. People cannot build cases in the US if they can’t meet with their lawyers. How will they get to their hearings?” said Erika Pinheiro of Al Otro Lado, a legal aid organization in Tijuana.

Source: ‘The US can’t dump people in Mexico’: Trump asylum policy in doubt | World news | The Guardian

Brazil′s Bolsonaro begins firing ′left-wing′ public servants | News | DW | 03.01.2019

President Jair Bolsonaro has authorized the dismissal of civil servants who don’t share his government’s far-right ideology. The sweep will target officials deemed sympathetic to Brazil’s centrist and left-wing parties.

Source: Brazil′s Bolsonaro begins firing ′left-wing′ public servants | News | DW | 03.01.2019

Kirstjen Nielsen Doesn’t Know How Many People Have Died in DHS Custody

When Rep. David Cicilline, a Democrat from Rhode Island, asked Nielsen how many people have died under DHS’s custody, she said didn’t know. “Did I understand you correctly to say that, as you sit here today, you do not know how many human beings have died while in custody of the department that you lead, and in preparation for today’s hearing, you didn’t ascertain that number?” “I don’t have an exact figure for you,” she said. “I’m talking about people who have died in your custody. You don’t have the number?” “I will get back to you with the number,” she said.

Source: Kirstjen Nielsen Doesn’t Know How Many People Have Died in DHS Custody

Opinion | Stumbling Upon Police Abuse – The New York Times

The impolite reality is that stories like this explain why frustrated residents in many communities see the police as an occupying force. This shows what a growing cross-section of Americans in both political parties mean when they speak of a two-tiered justice system. This is why the police, in neighborhoods and editorial pages across the country, often don’t get the respect they demand — or the trust they feel they deserve.

How McKinsey Has Helped Raise the Stature of Authoritarian Governments – The New York Times

About four miles from where the McKinsey consultants discussed their work, which includes advising some of China’s most important state-owned companies, a sprawling internment camp had sprung up to hold thousands of ethnic Uighurs — part of a vast archipelago of indoctrination camps where the Chinese government has locked up as many as one million people. One week before the McKinsey event, a United Nations committee had denounced the mass detentions and urged China to stop.

President Trump, hostage taker? – Los Angeles Times

Trump’s statement that he may intervene in the case against Meng could be one of his most dangerous “break the norms” moments since he won the White House. By putting her arrest in play as a bargaining chip in trade talks, Trump has told the world that hostage-taking is now a part of his approach to international negotiations too.  It also is a further erosion of the independence of the Justice Department. Trump has already demanded that it investigate his political foes, including Hillary Clinton, though so far the department has refused to follow his lead. It’s unclear how much it could resist him in the Meng case, but to swap her prosecution for a trade deal tells the world that U.S. arrest warrants can be made to go away if Trump gets a trade concession. While Trump may have the legal authority to intervene in a specific case, that he is willing to do so not for reasons of justice, but for political gain, is an appalling blurring of policy goals and our concept of an independent and professional Justice Department.

Source: President Trump, hostage taker? – Los Angeles Times

‘They don’t care’: Facebook factchecking in disarray as journalists push to cut ties | Technology | The Guardian

Current and former Facebook factcheckers told the Guardian that the tech platform’s collaboration with outside reporters has produced minimal results and that they’ve lost trust in Facebook, which has repeatedly refused to release meaningful data about the impacts of their work. Some said Facebook’s hiring of a PR firm that used an antisemitic narrative to discredit critics – fueling the same kind of propaganda factcheckers regularly debunk – should be a deal-breaker. “They’ve essentially used us for crisis PR,” said Brooke Binkowski, former managing editor of Snopes, a factchecking site that has partnered with Facebook for two years. “They’re not taking anything seriously. They are more interested in making themselves look good and passing the buck … They clearly don’t care.”

Source: ‘They don’t care’: Facebook factchecking in disarray as journalists push to cut ties | Technology | The Guardian