#GOP says no need for new #immigration laws. That’s not what it used to say.
#Republicans are sandwiched between what many of their #Senate GOP colleagues say is a critical opportunity to pass #conservative#border#legislation & the #political wishes of a former president who seems to view the crisis as a boon to his 2024 campaign.
& increasingly, they’ve landed on a talking point: We don’t really even need new #laws.
#Trump, too, saw #legislation as a necessity back then — his own powers apparently insufficient to stem the tide.
“The only long-term solution to the #crisis, & the only way to ensure the endurance of our nation as a sovereign country, is for #Congress to overcome open-borders obstruction,” TFG Nov 2018.
In July 2019, Trump pointed to some of the specific legislation #Senate negotiators are working on now: changing #asylum laws, which Trump labeled “archaic.”
… #MikeJohnson has also said repeatedly in the past that #Congress has a major role to play — even a singular one.
In 2018 & 2019, he responded to the #border “crisis” during #Trump’s presidency by calling for Congress to close “loopholes.” He introduced #legislation to reform the #asylum process, which he labeled a “critical step.”
In Feb 2023, Johnson stated flatly that “our #immigration system is broken. Reforming that system is a job for Congress.”
‘We all have an oath to the Constitution & we have a commitment to say we’re going to do whatever we can to be able to secure the border,’ the Republican senator from Oklahoma says.
“This bill focuses on getting us to zero illegal crossings a day. There’s no #amnesty. It increases the number of #Border Patrol agents, increases #asylum officers, it increases detention beds so we can quickly detain & then deport individuals,” #Lankford said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“It focuses on additional deportation flights out. It changes our asylum process so that people get a fast asylum screening at a higher standard & then get returned back to their home country,” Lankford added.
While the UK government was saying that Rwanda was safe to send #asylum seekers to, it was also, wait for it, accepting asylum seekers who were in danger in #Rwanda.
Rwanda safe? So why do we think it appropriate to grant refugee status to Rwandans? 🤔
“Four Rwandans were granted refugee status in the UK over ‘well-founded’ fears of persecution at the same time as the government was arguing in court and parliament that the east African country was a safe place to send asylum seekers.”
I’m interested in memoirs, blogs etcetera telling stories of resilience, surviving psychiatry, trauma (developmental). Please share them if you know any. #MadLiterature
Lisa Wallace on why she left psychiatric care and why she may return one day
#POTUS#Biden said Fri he would use new emergency authorities to “shut down the #border when it becomes overwhelmed” if #Congress passes a bipartisan #immigration plan the #Senate has been negotiating.
The comments signified a remarkable shift in tone for a Democratic president & underscored the urgency of the issue for his reelection campaign as immigration remains one of his most vexing #political & #policy challenges.
#Biden is referencing a new #expulsion authority senators have negotiated that would kick in on days unauthorized #border crossings reach 5k over a 5-day avg….That authority would shut down most #asylum screenings for #migrants crossing illegally. Migrants could still apply at ports of entry, where a set amt of asylum claims would need to be granted, they said. Migrants would be expelled indefinitely until crossings dipped below 3,750 / day, which would end the expulsion authority period. #law
The deal also changes the US #asylum process w/the goal of reducing the avg time for an asylum claim to be resolved from several years to 6 months…. It also raises the standard for #migrants to be able to make an asylum claim in the first place. Some #Republicans’ goal to dramatically curtail #Biden’s use of his #humanitarian parole powers for certain categories of migrants is not in the final deal, they said.
#LGBTQrights#asylum
"LGBTQ people escaping persecution will be denied safe haven at our very doorstep, and left to fight for their lives abroad—a fight many will lose."
Proposed funding deal is deadly for LGBTQ+ asylum seekers
The Soteria model relies on personal relationships, interactive activities, and minimal use of psychiatric medication within a comfortable “living community” as opposed to a conventional psychiatric setting.
#MadLiterature
How Does the Soteria House Heal?
The alternative treatment model of Soteria helps individuals suffering from schizophrenia without relying on medication or coercion.
I spent last night and this morning at the border fence and migrant support camp east of Sasabe, Arizona. No one came through last night, maybe because the cartels don't like to work in the rain? This morning once the rain quit for a while, 23 people came through, including lots of families with kids. Border Patrol didn't show up all day to take people to the station and process their asylum claims, so they're spending the night at the support camp.
Without that camp, entirely run by local humanitarian volunteers, those people would be out in the rain without shelter or walking the 25KM up and down insanely steep hills to the Sasabe station on their own.
The effort being put in by volunteers is amazing. People come out pretty much every day to provide food, water, first aid and shelter for migrants seeking asylum.
The tweet he put out about this was very swiftly community noted. Downing Street has since complained that the community noting system may be biased 🙄
GPLB: "Sunak reprimanded by UK's statistics watchdog over misleading claim about asylum claims backlog being cleared"
It's hard to find the words to describe someone who would issue an order that directly results in the death of multiple individuals for no other reason than to stoke a political issue.
I'm not President, but if I were, I'd want to hear some really good reasons why I shouldn't federalize the Texas National Guard and order them to ensure full access to the Texas - Mexico border by US Border Patrol agents.
"I was detained and tortured for seven months in Libya. I came to the UK for a safe future, and when I arrived the government sent me to a prison camp"
I see #JamesCleverly, following his 'joke' about #daterape drugs, has now been caught lying to the HoC about the backlog of #asylum applications....
How does this idiot keep his job?
I can only assume that he has something in his back pockets that is even more embarrassing for #RishiSunak than keeping him in post.
If you wanted an indication of how shallow the 'talent pool' in #Tory Westminster is, one scan across the front bench will tell you all you need to know!
File under "40 new hospitals", "tackling the cost of living" or any other flat-out lie of your choice.
What's that you say? They're still sitting in hotels and abandoned army barracks with no idea when they might receive an asylum decision? That's not a backlog. Those are just "legacy cases" 🙄 🤬
One bit is true though: the grant has been lowered. From £3 a day to £1.25. #UKPolitics#Asylum#RefugeesWelcome
Yesterday morning I lucked onto a Border Patrol repair crew welding up cuts in the border fence. This crew does 5-10 quick fixes/day, then a contractor comes back and does more "permanent" fixes. If a fix is too good, the human traffickers who cut the fence will just cut the bollard next to it.
New photojournal story about the border and asylum seekers. This one from my day there December 23rd when another photographer and I timed it right to see a "coyote" bring a large group of people through the U.S.-Mexico border fence.
On Christmas morning, I went to the U.S.-Mexico border fence before dawn to take some photos and write a story about the asylum seekers just south of me at the Lukeville, AZ crossing. I hope you like it. I have several more in the works.