The Supreme Court has sided with the Trump administration in a major blow to the rights of immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers. The court ruled 6 to 3 along partisan lines to sanction so-called metering at the southern border, which allows immigration officers at ports of entry to block asylum seekers from setting foot on U.S. soil.
“In a time of increasing conflict and climate catastrophe, this will result in many more deaths,” warns Erika Pinheiro of Al Otro Lado, the lead plaintiff in the case. When the turnback policy was first introduced, recounts Melissa Crow of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, who served as co-counsel for the plaintiffs’ case, many asylum seekers became “so desperate that they ended up trying to enter between ports of entry, either by swimming across the Rio Grande or by traversing the desert under harrowing conditions, and many, many of them didn’t make it to the other side.”
A 25-year-old American was killed, along with the former Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier, as part of Operation Condor, a secret U.S.-backed campaign of terror against Latin American leftists, Brett Wilkins reports. Brett Wilkins for Common Dreams The Institute for Policy Studies this week welcomed a judge’s homicide convictions and prison sentences for three agents […]
“[This is] a devastating blow to the rights of people seeking asylum, to the rule of law, and to this country’s legacy as a beacon of hope for people fleeing persecution and torture,” Melissa Crow, a co-counsel in the case, told Jezebel in a statement.
The sentences, ranging from 30-100 years, are part of an increasingly disturbing pattern of the Trump administration criminalizing speech and assembly.
The Supreme Court made one thing plain this week: It is an anti-immigrant court. There were hints before—big ones, to be honest. But in three rulings this week, the Republican-appointed justices voted to green light Trump administration policies against immigrants that both defy federal law and carry a massive humanitarian toll. This week’s decisions display, […]