NEVER AGAIN?
TRUMP ORDERS INSTANT DEPORTATION OF THOUSANDS OF FAMILIES,
TEARING CHILDREN FROM THEIR MOTHERS' ARMS.
DEMOCRACY NOW!
Excerpts:
LEE GELERNT, ACLU, IS INTERVIEWED.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: I want to go to another case that you've been working on, which is related, which has to do - earlier this week, you presented arguments in a case involving 1,400 Iraqis who are slated for deportation from the U.S. Could you explain what the case is and who these Iraqis are?
LEE GELERNT: Yeah. So these Iraqis are primarily Christian or minority sect Muslims. They have been living in the country for decades.
AMY GOODMAN: The U.S.
LEE GELERNT: Sorry, in the United States, for decades. They all have final orders of removal based—some of them no conviction or minor convictions, but there is a range of convictions. But they have been living here forever because Iraq would not take them back. So they've all settled into life here. They have raised children. They've raised families.
And they've been reporting every year, and they've been living peacefully in the country. And every prior administration has allowed them to stay.
Well, the Trump administration now convinced Iraq to take them back. So so be it, they are going to send them back. We don't think they should be sent back. But the really horrendous part is that they said, "We're going to round them up all immediately and deport them right away" without giving them a chance to go back to court to show that if they are sent back to Iraq now as Christians, as minority sect Muslims, they are in danger of being tortured or killed by ISIS or other groups.
And all we said to the federal court is, "Give them some time to show they are going to be tortured." The Trump administration said, "No, we're going to remove them in two days. So be it." So a federal district court said, "Look, I'm going to slow the process down so each one of them can go in and show that they are in serious danger if they are going to be removed." The federal court did that. Just simply slowed down the process. Didn't say anybody has the right to remain here permanently. Slowed the process down.
The Trump administration decided to appeal that order to the Court of Appeals. So I argued that case yesterday in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, and the government said the district court did not have authority even to slow the process down to allow these individuals to show that they would be tortured.
Unfortunately, the Trump Administration is rounding up lots of groups en masse around the country—Christian Indonesians, Cambodians, Somalis, and I think there's going to be more - and not giving them any time to show that they're going to be tortured or killed if sent back. These are individuals who have been living in the country for decades, and yet now they are given no time. And when federal judges have said, "Why do it so quickly? They've been here for decades, At least give them a little time," the administration has said, "Our mission is to remove people." And so it just looks like they are trying to get the numbers of deportations up regardless of the circumstances.
AMY GOODMAN: Lee, before we wrap up, can you talk about the family separation case you've been working on?
LEE GELERNT: I have been doing this work for over 25 years. The family separation practice is as horrific as anything I've ever seen. They are separating asylum seeking mothers and fathers at the border from their little children. Children 18 months, two years, three years. And they actually don't have any rationale that they can present in court. The true reason is they want to deter legitimate asylum-seekers from coming to this country, and so they're using the most draconian measure possible, taking a little kid away.
The lead plaintiff in this case is a Congolese mom and her seven-year-old daughter who made it to this country. They passed their initial asylum screening, so they are legitimate asylum-seekers. The mother, after four days, was put in another room and handcuffed and said, "You're going to be detained here in San Diego." She heard her little girl, then six, in the other room screaming "Please don't take me away from my mommy. Please." The girl was taken away to Chicago. The mother wasn't even told where the little girl was going for four days. There were separated for four months.
After the ACLU brought a lawsuit, the government said, "Well, we weren't really sure it was the true mom." The judge said, "Why not just give her a DNA test?" They gave her a DNA test. Of course it was the mom. And anybody could have seen by the way she was screaming for her mother that it was the mom. The New York Times has now just reported that there are 700 kids who have been separated from their families. We have a class action case going in, where there's a hearing in San Diego, May 4th. We are hoping the judge will order that all of these kids be reunited with their parents and the process be stopped going forward.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Lee, what is your sense though—this is, as you've said, it's quite a widespread practice of the Trump administration.
LEE GELERNT: Right.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Is there any way to stop them? Will the courts come forward? We just reported on the Supreme Court. It seems likely that they're going to uphold the travel ban. Is there any reason to think that these other courts will act in a way to prevent these kinds of mass deportations?
LEE GELERNT: All I can say is we are hopeful. And what we have been heartened by is that sometimes a practice is so draconian that it doesn't just split along normal ideological lines. Even people who do not necessarily agree with us on the macro immigration policy issues are coming forward, Republicans and Democrats, and saying, "Look, enough is enough.
You cannot be separating an 18-month-old child." We're hoping that maybe even the administration says, "Hey, maybe we need to relook at this."
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we want to thank you both for being with us. Of course we will continue to follow this, and the ban decision will come down from the Supreme Court in June. Lee Gelernt is - ACLU's national Immigrants' Rights Project - he's with it. And Diala Shamas is with the Center for Constitutional Rights. Special thanks to Al Jazeera English and Sharif Abdel Kouddous for that report.
This is Democracy Now.
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/4/26/travel_ban_blocks_us_citizen_from
This is Democracy Now.
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/4/26/travel_ban_blocks_us_citizen_from
PASTOR MARTIN NIEMOLLER WARNED THE WORLD
DONALD TRUMP IS FOLLOWING MEIN KAMPF TO THE LETTER
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