Month: April 2018

Editor’s note:

With four people working on (im)migration stories every day, we still struggle to keep up with all of the relevant news. So, we wanted a way to keep you updated with the top immigration stories every week — the ones that will affect you, our international readers, viewers and listeners — most. We want you to know what’s happening, why, and how it could impact your life, family or business.

Travel ban 3.0

We didn’t mean to, but we made a new mother cry outside the Supreme Court when we asked her what it was like to be pregnant, then have her first baby — while her own mother is 10,000 km away in Iran and unable to be by her side. Dela is now 8 months old, plump-cheeked, quick to smile, and teething — and her grandmother dispenses advice over text and Skype to help her growing family. Read and watch our story. 

What’s next? The Supreme Court is expected to decide in June whether the Trump administration’s third travel ban is constitutional. Opponents of the policy tell VOA that no matter what the outcome of the lawsuit, the president has already made clear his view on immigrants — and it’s not positive.

Bonus: Meet the two Immigration Team reporters who were at the Supreme Court on Wednesday. One was inside, dry and warm. The other was outside, water-logged.

​Trump’s TPS tally

Nepalese nationals living in the United States are the latest to learn that thousands of their citizens will lose legal status next year, after the Trump administration canceled Temporary Protected Status for a fifth country since taking office.

​Caravan to El Norte: ‘The ones that killed him now don’t trust me’

Meet some of the Central American travelers headed to the U.S. border to ask for asylum from violence, in Ramon Taylor’s story from Mexicali. The top official for Homeland Security referred to the travelers as a security risk, and insisted that the department “is doing everything within our authorities to secure our borders and enforce the law.” 

Now what? U.S. law allows people to seek asylum in the U.S., or at its border, if they have a “well-founded fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.” So, in theory, the caravan members should be able to claim asylum and have their cases reviewed. Expect more border reporting next week from Ramon Taylor and Arturo Martinez.

​Tennessee trauma

A town that largely helped Donald Trump get elected to the presidency also raised $60,000 for the families of undocumented workers caught up in a workplace immigration raid. “Relationships change everything.” 

Legal limbo: Some of the detainees were released and will have hearings in immigration court. Dozens more remain in custody.

‘Crusades 2.0’

Three men were convicted of plotting violence against Somali-Americans in “Crusades 2.0,” by planning explosions at a housing complex in Kansas. An advocacy group identified a 15 percent increase in hate crimes against Muslims in 2017, according to data they released this week. 

​From South Sudanese ‘Lost Boy’ to Barista

Sip on this story about Manyang Kher, who named his company after the geographic coordinates of the refugee camp where he sought safety. 

A judge has given the federal government 90 days to defend its decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy. If they don’t, the program could begin functioning again.

What we’re keeping an eye on

Following several immigration raids, New York’s governor this week accused the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of “blatant disrespect” for the state’s laws. ICE Director Thomas Homan responded that the governor was “grandstanding” and criticized his support for sanctuary policies. Will their feud escalate as tensions mount between federal law enforcement, and the outspoken leaders of some states like New York and California, over immigration issues?

VOA’s Ramon Taylor and Aline Barros contributed to this report.
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An organization established by an exiled Russian tycoon says it has obtained emails showing collaboration between Russian government officials and the Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr. in 2016.

The emails the Dossier organization said it was sent suggest Natalia Veselnitskaya worked closely with a top official in Russia’s Prosecutor-General’s Office to fend off a U.S. fraud case against one of her clients.

Veselnitskaya has denied having connections to the Kremlin since her meeting with then-candidate Donald Trump’s son, son-in-law and campaign chairman. 

The encounter took place after Donald Trump Jr. was told she had potentially incriminating information about Trump’s election opponent, Hillary Clinton. 

Veselnitskaya is a well-connected Moscow lawyer, but the extent of her government ties has been unclear. 

Dossier is an arm of tycoon and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky. 

 
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Hundreds of people lined up in the rain to get a first look at a lynching memorial and museum that opened Thursday in Montgomery. 

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice commemorates 4,400 black people who were slain in lynchings and other racial killings between 1877 and 1950. Their names, where known, are engraved on 800 dark, rectangular steel columns, one for each U.S. county where lynchings occurred.

A related museum is also opening in Montgomery, called The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration.

Many visitors shed tears and stared intently at the commemorative columns, many of which are suspended in the air from above.

Toni Battle drove from San Francisco to attend. “I’m a descendant of three lynching victims,” Battle said, her face wet with tears. “I wanted to come and honor them and also those in my family that couldn’t be here.” 

Angel Smith Dixon, who is biracial, came from Lawrenceville, Georgia, to see the memorial.

“We’re publicly grieving this atrocity for the first time as a nation. … You can’t grieve something you can’t see, something you don’t acknowledge,” she said. “Part of the healing process, the first step is to acknowledge it.”

Shame, fear

The Reverend Jesse Jackson, a longtime civil rights activist, told reporters after visiting the memorial that it would help to dispel America’s silence on lynching.

“Whites wouldn’t talk about it because of shame. Blacks wouldn’t talk about it because of fear,” he said.

The crowd included white and black visitors. Mary Ann Braubach, who is white, came from Los Angeles to attend. “As an American, I feel this is a past we have to confront,” she said as she choked back tears.

Launch events include a “Peace and Justice Summit” featuring celebrities and activists, including Ava DuVernay, Marian Wright Edelman and Gloria Steinem.

The summit, museum and memorial are projects of the Equal Justice Initiative, a Montgomery-based legal advocacy group founded by attorney Bryan Stevenson. Stevenson won a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, known popularly as a “genius” grant, for his human rights work.

The group bills the project as “the nation’s first memorial dedicated to the legacy of enslaved black people, people terrorized by lynching, African-Americans humiliated by racial segregation and Jim Crow, and people of color burdened with contemporary presumptions of guilt and police violence.”
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A judge ruled Thursday that an independent official called a special master should be the first to examine documents seized by FBI agents from U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.

Barbara Jones, a former federal judge in the Southern District of New York who has overseen cases ranging from organized crime to corporate compliance, will decide which of the documents should be handed over to prosecutors.

Jones will review the documents and determine which may be shielded by attorney-client privilege.

The FBI raided Cohen’s office and home on April 9, an action that infuriated Trump. Prosecutors said they have been investigating the lawyer for months, largely over his business dealings rather than his legal work.

Trump on Thursday in an interview with Fox News said Cohen had handled only “a tiny, tiny little fraction” of his overall legal work.

But Trump and Cohen have sought to limit what documents prosecutors could see, citing attorney-client privilege.

The prosecutors initially said the documents should be reviewed by lawyers within their own office, who would be walled off from the main prosecution team. Cohen argued that his lawyers should get a first look.

In the end, U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood decided at a hearing Thursday to opt for a special master, something that both sides had indicated they would be open to.

Prosecutors have said they do not believe the papers are likely to contain many privileged documents related to Trump. In a court filing Thursday morning, they cited Trump’s comment that Cohen handled only a small part of his legal work.

“The letters I received from counsel for Mr. Cohen and the intervenors has convinced me that this process can go quickly with the special master,” Wood said.

Cohen sat in court to hear the decision, wearing a dark suit, white shirt, and pale yellow tie.

Stephen Ryan, a lawyer for Cohen, called Jones “a wonderful choice” to be special master.

Jones was not among the seven proposed candidates for special master recommended by prosecutors and Cohen’s lawyers.

​’Crazy deal’

In the Fox News interview, Trump said that he had nothing to do with the criminal investigation into Cohen.

The probe “doesn’t have to do with me,” Trump said. “They’re looking at something having to do with his business. I have nothing to do with his business.”

Trump also confirmed for the first time that Cohen had represented him in “this crazy Stormy Daniels deal,” referring to an adult-film star who says she had a one-night stand with Trump in 2006.

Prosecutors are investigating Cohen for possible bank and tax fraud, possible campaign law violations in connection with a payment to Daniels, and perhaps other matters related to Trump’s presidential campaign, a person familiar with the probe has said.

The investigation stemmed in part from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible collusion between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia, something that Trump has repeatedly denied.

Cohen has admitted paying $130,000 to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, before the 2016 election to secure her silence about the one-night stand she said she had with Trump. Cohen said the payment was legal, and Daniels has sued to end her nondisclosure agreement.

Trump, who has denied having an affair with Daniels, said Cohen did nothing wrong in representing him in the Daniels case.
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The Trump administration has decided to end special protections for an estimated 9,000 Nepalese immigrants in the United States.

Immigrants will have until June 24, 2019, to leave or find another way to stay in the country to allow for an orderly transition.

They were granted special protections under President Barack Obama after an earthquake in Nepal in April 2015 killed more than 8,000 people. The Obama administration extended the protections for 18 months in October 2016.

But the Department of Homeland Security says Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has concluded the disruptions from the earthquake “have decreased to a degree that they should no longer be regarded as substantial.”

The U.S. created Temporary Protected Status in 1990 to provide a safe haven for countries affected by war and natural disasters.
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French President Emmanuel Macron wrapped up his three-day state visit to Washington on Wednesday with an address to a joint meeting of Congress, citing the strong historical bonds and common interests shared by U.S. and France, as well as some significant differences. As VOA’s Jeff Custer reports from Washington, Macron argued against scrapping the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement.
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U.S. lawmakers who back a program shielding young undocumented immigrants from deportation hailed a lower court’s order cementing Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals in place.

“Beyond what the judges say, it’s what the [American] people say. People want the Dreamers to be able to live in this country,” Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota told VOA. “Over 90 percent of them work or are in school.”

Last year, Trump set a March 5 expiration date for DACA, a program that has provided temporary work and study permits to 700,000 immigrants brought illegally to America as children, sometimes referred to as Dreamers.

On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to keep DACA in place and to accept new applicants. Two other federal judges had previously ruled to preserve the program for those already enrolled.

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa, objected to a lower court judge single-handedly determining a nationwide policy.

“There’s too much of a trend of a district judge, one of 93 districts, saying something is going to be applicable throughout the entire country. That seems a little far-fetched,” Grassley said, adding that nothing is final until the Supreme Court weighs in.

In his decision, Judge John Bates called the Trump administration’s termination of DACA “arbitrary and capricious” and said the administration “failed to adequately explain its conclusion that the program is unlawful.”

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, “We believe the judge’s ruling is overly broad and wrong.”

Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch supports the DACA program but noted it was established by former President Barack Obama through an executive order, not as a law passed by Congress.

“If President Obama had a right to implement it, then certainly a subsequent president might very well have a right to reverse it. But I would prefer he didn’t,” Hatch said.

A DACA opponent, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican, echoed Hatch’s legal reasoning.

“For a federal judge to rule that the current administration cannot change a memo from the previous administration is absurd,” Goodlatte said. “The DACA program was unilaterally created by the Obama Administration in a memo penned by former Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano. Just as easily as it was issued, it can be rescinded – presidential policy is not set in stone and often changes from one administration to the next.”

Months of negotiations between the White House and lawmakers of both parties failed to yield a permanent solution for DACA beneficiaries or agreement on other thorny immigration topics. With Trump’s plan to end DACA thwarted, Democrats called for a resumption of talks.

“It’s possible these court decisions will help him [Trump] get to a place where he wants to work with us again on an agreement,” Klobuchar said.

Neither Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky nor House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin have given any indication that they are eager for either chamber to take up immigration reform between now and the November midterm elections.

Trump has put the blame on Democrats, accusing them of refusing to negotiate and using DACA recipients as political pawns.

“DACA was abandoned by the Democrats. Very unfair to them [Dreamers]!” the president tweeted last month.

“That’s factually inaccurate,” Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden said of Trump’s assertions, noting that Democrats were open to some of the president’s immigration priorities during marathon negotiations earlier this year.

“Many of us who loathe the idea of a [U.S. border] wall were willing to go forward with a wall in order to get justice for the Dreamers,” Wyden said.

Another Democrat, Tim Kaine of Virginia, conceded that court orders preserving DACA may lessen the impetus for Congress to take action on immigration at all.

“That can be a concern,” Kaine said. “But the issue is more about the anxiety of all the affected people [DACA beneficiaries]. And I think anybody who is a Dreamer is going to view this [court order] as a positive. It’s going to reduce their anxiety.”
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The U.S. government is conducting an intensive investigation into allegations of heinous crimes against Rohingya Muslims in the Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar.

According to a Reuters report, two U.S. officials said more than 1,000 Rohingya men and women in refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh have been interviewed, detailing allegations of killings, rape, beatings and other possible crimes against humanity by Myanmar’s military.

About 20 investigators with expertise in areas of international law and criminal justice conducted the interviews in March and April.

When asked to confirm details of the investigation, a State Department official told VOA “the program details are accurate.”

“We strongly believe that Burma’s [Myanmar’s] government and security forces must respect the human rights of all persons within its borders, and hold accountable those who fail to do so,” he added.

Reuters says the findings will be reviewed and included in a report that will be sent to the State Department’s leadership in May or early June, the officials said. It is not known if the Trump administration will publicly disclose the results or whether it will use the information to push for sanctions against the Myanmar government or a recommendation for international prosecution.

Almost 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh after the Myanmar government’s crackdown last year in its northwestern Rakhine State. The Myanmar government has said its Rakhine operations were lawful responses to attacks on security forces by Rohingya rebels.

The Rohingya are a small Muslim minority in Myanmar, a predominately Buddhist country. Although the Rohingya have been in Myanmar for generations, much of the country’s population considers them intruders.

Violence against the Rohingya has escalated in recent years as the country has made a partial transition to democratic governance.

Then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson followed the U.N. in November by declaring the Myanmar government’s actions constituted “ethnic cleansing.” Both declarations have increased the prospects of more sanctions against the government’s military commanders and increased pressure civilian leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Myanmar government has denied the the allegations.

State Department correspondent Nike Ching contributed to this report
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Senate lawmakers have indefinitely delayed the confirmation hearing for President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the sprawling Veterans Affairs agency, Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson, the White House physician, after serious allegations surfaced accusing him of professional and personal misconduct.

Jackson had been scheduled to testify Wednesday before the Senate Veteran Affairs Committee, but the hearing was called off as lawmakers considered as yet unsubstantiated allegations made by whistleblowers accusing him of overseeing a toxic work environment at the White House and excessive drinking.

Both Republican and Democratic senators agreed to postpone the hearing so a more thorough investigation of his background could be conducted.

“We take very seriously our constitutional duty to thoroughly and carefully vet each nominee sent to the Senate for confirmation,” the committee chairman, Republican Senator Johnny Isakson, and the panel’s top Democrat, Senator Jon Tester, said in a statement. “We will continue looking into these serious allegations and have requested additional information from the White House to enable the committee to conduct a full review.”

Another senator, Democrat Ed Markey, told CNN, “Clearly, there was no comprehensive vetting of this nominee” by the White House before Trump nominated him to the Cabinet position. “Let’s stop, let’s learn more of his background both professionally and personally.”

Jackson, who currently serves as Trump’s physician, already was facing scrutiny over his lack of experience managing an agency as large as the VA. With 377,000 employees, it’s the U.S. government’s second-largest agency.

Jackson gained a degree of fame unusual for White House physicians earlier this year when he took questions from the White House press corps on national television, gushing at length about Trump’s health after conducting the president’s physical exam.

Trump, the oldest first-term president in American history, was plagued at the time by questions about his physical health, weight and mental stability. But Jackson gave the president a top rating. “The president’s overall health is excellent,” Jackson declared at the time.

Trump picked Jackson to replace David Shulkin, a holdover from the administration of former president Barack Obama, whom Trump fired.

Amidst the allegations surfacing against Jackson, the White House has continued to stick by his nomination.

On Tuesday, a White House spokesman said, “Admiral Jackson has been on the front lines of deadly combat and saved the lives of many others in service to this country. He has served as the physician to three presidents – Republican and Democrat – and been praised by them all. Admiral Jackson’s record of strong, decisive leadership is exactly what’s needed at the VA to ensure our veterans receive the benefits they deserve.”
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U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron to the White House on Tuesday with military pageantry, just ahead of talks on world issues where the two leaders disagree.

On a gray Washington morning, Trump celebrated two centuries of friendship and military alliances between the two countries, thanking Macron for joining the U.S. and Britain in a recent missile attack on Syria in response to Damascus’s suspected use of chemical weapons.

“Now is the time for strength, so let us be strong, let us be united, let us honor our past and face our future with confidence and with pride,” Trump said. “And let the United States and France stand forever in solidarity for the noble cause of liberty and peace.”

Macron, unlike Trump, mentioned several global issues they planned to discuss in their private talks, the threat of global terrorism, North Korea’s nuclear weapons development and the 2015 international pact restraining Iran’s nuclear program.

“It is together that the United States and France will defeat terrorism,” Macron said. “It is together we will build a new form of prosperity.”

Later, as they gathered for talks at the White House, Trump referred to the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement as “terrible deal” while Macron said the pact was “important” and will be a focus of talks.

Trump said, “Iran seems to be behind everything [in the Middle East] where there is a problem.The Iran deal is a disaster. What kind of a deal is it where they’re allowed to test missiles.”

He said if Iran restarts nuclear testing, “They will have a bigger problem than they’ve ever had before.”

Trump has constantly called the nuclear pact a bad agreement. He faces a May 12 deadline to again waive economic sanctions against Iran as part of the deal.Macron supports the pact and is trying to convince Trump to not abrogate next month.

The two leaders are also discussing other thorny issues where they differ: Trump’s stated plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria at a time Macron wants a continued U.S. presence, the U.S. leader’s intention to withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement and Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on aluminum and steel imports that could curtail European exports of the metals.

Trump takes great pride in his friendship with Macron, which is one of the reasons he invited the French president to be his guest for the first state visit of a foreign leader in his administration.

“This visit is very important in our current context, with so many uncertainties, troubles, and at times, threats,” Macron said upon arriving in Washington.

Earlier Tuesday, a 21-gun salute echoed across the South Lawn of the White House in a welcoming ceremony that included nearly 500 service members from all five branches of the U.S. military, including a drum and fife corps.

In the evening, Trump and first lady Melania Trump are hosting the first state dinner of the Trump presidency in honor of Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, with entertainment by the Washington National Opera.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told supporters Tuesday there would be severe consequences if the United States withdraws from the nuclear agreement.

Benham Ben Taliblu, an Iran analyst with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told VOA if the United States pulled out, the Iranian reaction would depend on the way in which that happens.

“If the U.S. pulls out with a statement that says the U.S. is abrogating all its commitments under the deal, then I think the Iranians would look to try to try to create some sort of leverage, restart part of their nuclear program, but most importantly the Iranians would sic the Europeans and the international community on America and try to isolate America,” he said.

Macron has said he knows the deal with Iran is not perfect but said there is no “Plan B.”

Trump also has until May 1 to waive tariffs on European steel and aluminum imports or face a possible trade war.

The French president will also likely talk to Trump about what Macron said is the importance of U.S. forces remaining in Syria. Trump has talked about withdrawing Americans from northern Syria. Macron said that would increase the risk of giving up Syria to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iran.

Macron will address Congress on Wednesday before heading back to Paris.

Victor Beattie contributed.
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