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HeadlinesJune 25, 2018

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Trump Says Immigrants Should Be Deported Without Seeing Judges

Jun 25, 2018

President Trump has announced immigrants should be deported “immediately”—without seeing judges and without due process. In a series of xenophobic tweets, Trump wrote, “We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country. When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came.” Trump also lashed out at immigrants in an address Saturday.

President Donald Trump: “Unfortunately, open-border Democrats support the loopholes that prevent families from being detained and removed together. They just want everyone to be released into our country, no matter how dangerous they are. They can be killers. They can be thieves. They can be horrible people. The Democrats say it’s OK for them to be in our country. I don’t think so. Congress, and Congress alone, can solve the problem. And the only solution that will work is being able to detain, prosecute and promptly remove anyone who illegally crosses the border.”

This comes after Trump was forced, under enormous pressure, to sign an executive order last week reversing his administration’s practice of separating children from their parents at the border in violation of international law.

Nationwide Protests Demand Reunification of Migrant Families, Abolition of ICE

Jun 25, 2018

President Trump’s latest attack on immigrants—demanding they be deported without seeing judges—comes as protests continue nationwide, demanding the reunification of families separated at the border, an end to the crackdown on immigrants and the abolition of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, known as ICE.

Hundreds of protesters have launched ongoing “Occupy ICE” encampments blockading ICE facilities in New York City; Los Angeles; Portland, Oregon; and Tacoma, Washington. In McAllen, Texas, protesters temporarily blocked a bus carrying migrant children from leaving a migrant detention center Saturday, chanting, “Set the children free.”

Also in McAllen, Dolores Huerta; Kerry Kennedy, the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy; and other activists and celebrities gathered near the federal courthouse to launch a 24-day hunger strike to call attention to the 2,400 children forcibly separated from their parents at the border over the last two months.

Meanwhile, over 5,000 people marched in San Diego, California, while in Emeryville, California, artists scaled a billboard on Interstate 80, altering a billboard that originally read “We make junk disappear” to instead read “We make kids disappear—ICE.”

Hundreds more protesters rallied Sunday in Tornillo, Texas, to demand children be freed from the newly constructed “tent city,” where the migrant children are currently being imprisoned. This is Julián Castro, the former secretary of housing and urban development, speaking at Sunday’s protest in Tornillo.

Julián Castro: “And whether it was the Muslim travel ban or the failure in Puerto Rico or this, on family separations, the problem is that this president and his administration, they use cruelty as a hobby. Incompetence is their standard operating procedure. Division is their tool. And we cannot leave it to chance. We need to verify that these children are being reunited with their parents.”

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was also thrown out of the small Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, after the restaurant’s workers voted to kick her out. She’s the latest Trump administration official to face protests over the last week, including Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who faced protests at a Mexican restaurant in Washington, D.C., and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whose United Methodist Church members have filed hundreds of formal church complaints accusing him of child abuse. After Sarah Huckabee Sanders was thrown out, she tweeted out the name of the restaurant from her official Twitter account.

All this comes as hundreds of migrants are still camped out on the Mexico side of the U.S. border, waiting to be allowed to apply for political asylum, per international law. Despite Trump’s executive order last week ended family separation, many say they still fear being forcibly separated from their children. This is one Honduran mother who has been waiting with her children in Reynosa, Mexico, just across the border from McAllen, Texas, for over two weeks to apply for asylum.

Honduran migrant: “That’s the biggest fear, that I’d be separated from my children. I fled from the danger in Honduras. And to be taken away from them here in the United States, I don’t know what I’d do. I think about this day and night, when I see my children, when I’m getting them ready, when they’re awake, when they ask for food, when they go to the bathroom. That the U.S. authorities would take them away from me, I don’t know what I’d do. I don’t know what would happen to me.”

Yemen: Tens of Thousands Flee U.S.-Backed Offensive Against Port City Hodeidah

Jun 25, 2018

In Yemen, tens of thousands of civilians have fled the key port city of Hodeidah, as the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led offensive continues. The United Nations has warned the offensive will severely exacerbate the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen, which is already experiencing the world’s worst cholera epidemic, with more than 1 million people afflicted and with millions more on the brink of famine.

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Kushner Says U.S. to Unveil Israeli-Palestinian Peace Plan Soon

Jun 25, 2018

President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who is also Trump’s top adviser on the Middle East, says the Trump administration will soon roll out its plan for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Kushner made the comments during an interview with the newspaper Al-Quds during his multi-nation trip to the Middle East. In the interview, he also blamed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for the situation in Gaza, where the Israeli military has launched a bloody crackdown on Gaza’s nonviolent protests, killing at least 124 Palestinians and wounding 14,000 more. This is chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat responding to Kushner’s comments.

Saeb Erekat: “Mr. Kushner’s interview today in Al-Quds newspaper further clarified that the United States administration of President Trump has actually moved from the squares of negotiations to the squares of dictations. They are determined to dictate a solution. They walked away from the negotiating table.”

Turkish President Erdogan Declares Victory in Presidential Election

Jun 25, 2018

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared victory in Sunday’s election, lengthening his 15 years in office and allowing him to further consolidate power. Sunday’s presidential and parliamentary elections were the first since Turkish voters narrowly approved a referendum last year to give the president sweeping powers, which critics have warned could turn Turkey into a dictatorship. Erdogan’s government has presided over a far-reaching crackdown on civil society, including the arrest of tens of thousands of activists, lawyers, academics, journalists, political dissidents and Kurds. Erdogan’s party also won the majority in the parliamentary elections, although the progressive, pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party did win enough votes to enter Parliament.

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Saudi Arabia Lifts Ban on Women Drivers; Feminist Activists Remain Jailed

Jun 25, 2018

Women in Saudi Arabia took to the streets—behind the wheel—Sunday to celebrate the end of the ban on women drivers, which comes after a decades-long campaign by Saudi women activists. Yet, even as Saudi women celebrated Sunday, six of the country’s most high-profile feminist activists remain in prison, after being arrested in mid-May in a targeted crackdown against feminist activists in Saudi Arabia.

Supreme Court Rules Gov’t Needs Warrant to Collect Location Data from Cell Companies

Jun 25, 2018

Back in the United States, the Supreme Court has ruled 5 to 4 the government generally needs a warrant to collect people’s location data from their cellphone companies. The decision is being heralded as a major statement on privacy in the digital age. While the ruling does make exceptions for some emergencies, it states authorities otherwise must secure a warrant to obtain cell tower location information. The ruling also appears to have implications for other types of personal information held by third parties, including email, text messages and internet searches.

Ex-Trump Campaign Staffer Tells Black Democrat, “You’re Out of Your Cotton-Picking Mind”

Jun 25, 2018

Fox News commentator David Bossie, a former deputy Trump campaign manager who also served as part of Trump’s transition team, has been forced to apologize, after he told African-American Democratic strategist Joel Payne, “You’re out of your cotton-picking mind.” This is Bossie, speaking on “Fox & Friends” Sunday.

David Bossie: “Michael Hayden posted a picture of Auschwitz. Don Deutsch is talking—”

Joel Payne: “Yeah, that liberal–that liberal, Michael Hayden.”

David Bossie: “Well, look, you’re out of your—”

Joel Payne: “Yeah, that screaming liberal, Michael Hayden”

David Bossie: “You’re out of your cotton-picking mind. You don’t—”

Joel Payne: “Cotton-picking mind? Brother, let me tell you something.”

David Bossie: “Listen, you guys—you guys—you guys are—”

Joel Payne: “Let me tell you something. I’ve got some—I’ve got some—”

David Bossie: “You guys are out of your minds.”

Ed Henry: “All right.”

Joel Payne: “I’ve got some relatives who picked cotton.”

David Bossie: “This is—this is ridiculous.

Ed Henry: “OK.”

David Bossie: “This is ridiculous. You guys want to—”

Joel Payne: “And I’m not going to sit here and allow you to attack me like that on TV.”

After widespread outrage, both Fox News and Bossie were forced to apologize. Bossie is the author of “Let Trump Be Trump: The Inside Story of His Rise to the Presidency.”

Millions Participate in Pride Marches Nationwide

Jun 25, 2018

And millions of people poured into the streets of cities across the United States for annual Pride marches on Sunday. This is Clarice Oliver-Hill, speaking at the Pride March in New York City.

Clarice Oliver-Hill: “As a woman of color growing up in a very, very religious, structured household, it lets me know that I’m OK, that I’m accepted and I’m loved and I’m great for who I am. … I think events like this show us that we’re not afraid, that we’re coming out, we’re loud, we’re here, we’re not going anywhere.”

It’s estimated that 2.5 million people participated in the Pride March in New York City.

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