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This week, the Biden administration announced that it would take steps to allow additional asylum seekers to come back to the U.S. to safety after they were subjected to the Trump administration's Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP). This decision will help thousands of immigrants who were forced to remain in Mexico while waiting for their U.S. asylum cases to be heard.
This week, the Biden administration announced that it would take steps to allow additional asylum seekers to come back to the U.S. to safety after they were subjected to the Trump administration's Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP). This decision will help thousands of immigrants who were forced to remain in Mexico while waiting for their U.S. asylum cases to be heard.
Members of the Welcome With Dignity Campaign applaud this step to unwind the Trump administration's 'Remain in Mexico' policy but are advocating for the Biden administration to swiftly end other cruel policies of the former administration, including mass expulsions of asylum seekers to danger under Title 42.
"This is an important step in addressing the harms of this unlawful policy that deprived tens of thousands of people an opportunity to seek safety,'' said Denise Bell, Researcher for Refugee and Migrant Rights at Amnesty International USA. "We urge the administration to continue to restore access to asylum at the border by rescinding the public health quarantine under Title 42, which is not grounded in science, unlawful, and endangers people seeking safety, just as the Migrant Protection Protocols did, by sending them back into harm's way."
"This is an important step by the Biden administration to provide access to asylum for MPP victims who were unable to attend hearings in this flawed process, in many cases due to acute dangers, kidnappings or other impediments," said Eleanor Acer, Senior Director of Refugee Protection at Human Rights First. "The administration must also quickly move ahead to provide access to safety for MPP victims who were denied asylum under this rigged program. MPP proceedings were plagued by due process violations, barriers to legal representation and wrongful denials due to now rescinded Trump administration policies."
"At issue is our collective humanity as a nation and whether we are going to do right by the children and families the Trump administration has wronged. Providing asylum for MPP victims denied justice at our border is a step in the right direction," said Paola Luisi, Director of Families Belong Together. "But, we cannot stop here. We need the Biden administration to move forward with ending Title 42 - a racist, dangerous, and cruel Trump-era policy - which has been weaponized to send people seeking safety back to danger. We urge the Biden administration to end Title 42 for all and restore asylum fully to create an immigration system that welcomes people with dignity and respect."
"Allowing those subject to the unlawful and cruel MPP program to have a second chance at seeking asylum, especially if they never got their first chance because they were in a kidnapper's den, is the right thing to do," said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, Policy Counsel at the American Immigration Council. "Fixing the previous administration's cruelty at the border means more than just rolling back anti-asylum policies, it also requires giving people a second chance."
"We welcome the decision by the Biden-Harris administration to do the right thing and provide access for the men, women and children who were previously denied access by the cruel and racist Trump's MPP policy," said Guerline Jozef, Executive Director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance. "We also urge the Administration to immediately end the use of Title 42, a draconian rule and a death trap for asylum seekers fleeing extreme danger. Furthermore we urge the Administration to provide protection for extremely vulnerable black asylum seekers and others not in MPP who have been waiting at the U.S-Mexico border and welcome all people with dignity"
"On asylum, it is so important that we get it right because asylum can be a matter of life and death," said Douglas Rivlin, Director of Communication for America's Voice. "While not everyone will or should be granted asylum, every asylum seeker should have a full and fair opportunity to make their case. MPP - or Remain in Mexico - was designed to ensure that people could not have access to a fair hearing and was the essential component of Stephen Miller's plan to gut asylum. As he infamously stated in 2019, 'My mantra has persistently been presenting aliens with multiple unsolvable dilemmas to impact their calculus for choosing to make the arduous journey to begin with.' Yet clearly, no matter how cruel or draconian the strategy, deterrence did not work."
"So many asylum seekers in the Remain in Mexico program who have been waiting in danger for a true chance to seek protection will finally get to do so," said Yael Schacher, Senior U.S. Advocate at Refugees International. "We urge the administration to ensure that those who register are allowed to enter the United States and have support pursuing their cases. The administration must also create pathways to protection for others denied due process in the MPP program and must stop expelling asylum seekers via Title 42 to the very same dangers those in MPP faced. This is a great step towards restoring welcome at the border and Refugees International calls on the administration to continue building a better asylum system."
"This move marks important progress towards rebuilding our asylum system and redressing the profound harm caused by MPP. This Trump-era program was a human rights and due process disaster, and it flew in the face of our legal and moral obligations to refugees," said Karen Musalo, Director of the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS). "In the legal challenges CGRS brought against MPP, multiple federal courts ruled the policy unlawful. All who suffered under this cruel and illegal policy should have a fair chance to seek refuge in the United States."
"For over two years our clients have been trapped in limbo holding on to hope that this day would come. These clients have faced incredible obstacles, including surviving a pandemic and on-going threats to their safety while in Mexico. Finally welcoming asylum seekers who were in the Remain in Mexico program into the U.S. while they continue their cases will save lives," said Joyce Noche, Director of Legal Services at Immigrant Defenders Law Center. "We call for due process to be restored for individuals and families whose cases were fast tracked through a system designed for them to fail, whose cases were kidnapped or sick, and unaccompanied kids previously in MPP who still face deportation because of this cruel program. Additionally, we urge the Biden administration to continue the momentum of restoring the asylum system by ending the implementation of Title 42 in order to truly welcome asylum seekers and refugees with dignity."
"We are relieved and very thankful that the Biden Administration continues to take important steps towards processing more people and families into the U.S. who have been inhumanely trapped in MPP. The U.S. must never forget the horrors done in its name through the Trump Administration's Remain in Mexico policy, and today is a stride to heal the injustices it caused to more than 70,000 people and their families," said Todd Schulte, President and Executive Director of FWD.us. "The notice to Congress finally gives an estimated 34,000 more people seeking asylum and children fleeing violence and persecution the opportunity to access legal humanitarian relief from within the U.S., leaving behind the horrors of conflict, natural disasters and famine. Efforts to protect the populations most harmed by the Trump Administration's immigration policies should not be confined to those impacted by MPP. If the Biden Administration wants to remain true to their promise of building a safe, orderly, and humane asylum system for all who are impacted, it must urgently end Title 42. The impacts of Title 42 amount to the same harm and lack of access to justice as MPP, and both have acutely impacted Black people seeking asylum from Haiti, Brazil, and elsewhere."
"This is an important step toward welcoming more people and families into the United States who have been inhumanely and immorally trapped by MPP," said Meredith Owen, Director of Policy and Advocacy for Church World Service. "We commend the Biden administration for moving into the next phase in winding down the unlawful Remain in Mexico policy and giving approximately 34,000 more asylum seekers a chance to reach safety. As we confront the worst displacement crisis on record with more than 82 million people forced from their homes worldwide, the United States has a moral and legal obligation to redress the harm caused by anti-asylum policies. We call on the administration to significantly expand eligibility for everyone impacted by MPP--including those who crossed into the United States in-between ports of entry-- to provide a remedy for all asylum seekers, unaccompanied children, and immigrants impacted by MPP, and to urgently terminate Title 42 expulsions to prevent the fatal consequences of returning people to harm. We are ready to work with the administration and our member communities to serve asylum seekers and immigrants in need of humanitarian assistance."
"MPP was a shameful, inhumane, and unlawful policy that created a process so stacked against asylum seekers that the only fair way for the Biden administration to unwind it is to give everyone subjected to it a fair opportunity to pursue their claims safely from within the United States," said Ursela Ojeda, policy advisor for the Migrant Rights and Justice Program at the Women's Refugee Commission. "We welcome today's announcement to wind down MPP. We call on the Biden administration to continue expanding access to protection and ensure that every last person subjected to MPP is afforded an opportunity to enter the United States and safely apply for asylum. We further call on the administration to stop blocking and expelling people seeking protection at the border under the false pretense of protecting public health and immediately and fully restore access to asylum."
"We are thrilled by the news that the Biden administration is expanding eligibility for more than 30,000 families and individuals who were previously forced to wait in dangerous Mexican cities under the unconscionable Trump-era "Remain in Mexico" policy," said Santiago Mueckay, Manager Federal Government Relations, Save the Children Action Network. "This is an important step in the fight for justice. The administration must now focus on rescinding inhumane and unnecessary pandemic-related border restrictions, ensuring everyone has the ability to seek asylum in the US. We look forward to continuing to work with the Biden administration and relevant international aid agencies to ensure this is a smooth process during which the rights of children and families are protected."
"This is big news for the immigrants forced to live a life of fear and uncertainty as they navigate complicated U.S. asylum policies. The previous U.S. administration tried to block asylum cases with various hardline policies, and it didn't work - it also made the lives of these vulnerable immigrants seeking safety at our border worse," said Basma Alawee, We Are All America campaign manager. "This new decision is a sign that the Biden administration is more willing to base U.S. asylum policies in compassion and reality, and this change will make a difference in the lives of the many immigrants unfairly forced from attending the hearings that could decide their fate in this country. This is a welcome move, and we hope it is the first in many changes to U.S. immigration policies to come."
"Righting the terribly wrong asylum and immigration policies the Trump administration imposed is a high priority for America's moms," said Donna Norton, Executive Vice President of MomsRising. "We applaud the Biden-Harris administration's decision to give migrants who were detained and endangered in Mexico a fair day in court. But more is needed. We also need to end Title 42 and reconsider all asylum cases that were unfairly denied. America's moms want every asylum-seeker and every immigrant to be treated with compassion, dignity and respect."
"Despite its Orwellian name, this policy's purpose was never to protect migrants. It was to deport everyone, regardless of whether they qualified for protection under asylum law," said Stephen Manning, Executive Director of Innovation Law Lab. "Remain in Mexico was very effective at undermining due process, depriving asylum seekers of access to basic human needs, and confining people to extreme danger zones, where many were kidnapped, tortured, and even murdered. Phase II processing is a step in the right direction, but the government has still failed to provide justice for the over 71,000 individuals subjected to the policy."
"This is a positive step towards bringing justice to the tens of thousands who were wrongly denied access to asylum. Asylum seekers who weren't able to be present for their hearings because they were forced to wait in danger in Mexico-- or worse, returned to the same dangers they were fleeing--deserve another chance to make their claim," said Daniella Burgi-Palomino, Co-director of the Latin America Working Group. "We urge the Biden administration to work closely with civil society organizations on both sides of the border to make sure people in Mexico and in their home countries wrongly denied their rights have the information necessary to pursue their claims. The White House should also end the harmful Title 42 policy to ensure access to asylum is restored at our border and that we truly welcome those fleeing for their lives."
Amnesty International is a global movement of millions of people demanding human rights for all people - no matter who they are or where they are. We are the world's largest grassroots human rights organization.
(212) 807-8400"During the 20 years since our first study, the amount of plastic in our oceans has increased by around 50%, only further emphasizing the pressing need for action," said one leading researcher.
Some of the key scientists who first informed the world of the potential damage being done to natural systems by microplastics are now calling for world leaders to take decisive action to curb the introduction of these polluting materials into the environment—and they hope the looming United Nations treaty process on plastics can be a key vehicle for progress.
Alongside a new scientific review published cataloging the growing body of research on microplastics—defined as plastic particles smaller than 5 millimeters and "composed of polymers together with functional additives as well as other intentionally and unintentionally added chemicals"—the international group of scientists says concerted actions must be taken, including bans on certain materials and a focus on plastic pollution mitigation that puts less emphasis on consumer habits and recycling efforts by keeping microplastics out of the supply chain "in the first place."
According to the abstract of the review, published Thursday in the journal Science:
Twenty years after the first publication using the term microplastics, we review current understanding, refine definitions and consider future prospects. Microplastics arise from multiple sources including tires, textiles, cosmetics, paint and the fragmentation of larger items. They are widely distributed throughout the natural environment with evidence of harm at multiple levels of biological organization. They are pervasive in food and drink and have been detected throughout the human body, with emerging evidence of negative effects. Environmental contamination could double by 2040 and widescale harm has been predicted. Public concern is increasing and diverse measures to address microplastics pollution are being considered in international negotiations. Clear evidence on the efficacy of potential solutions is now needed to address the issue and to minimize the risks of unintended consequences.
Professor Richard Thompson of Plymouth University, who co-authored that first scientific study and coined the term microplastics just two decades years ago, says researchers now have more than enough evidence to show world leaders that serious action must be taken to curb the use of plastics, with special attention to the minuscule and microscopic forms of the material that are increasingly being found polluting ecosystems—both on land as well as in the sea—and embedded within living organisms, including humans.
"There are still unknowns, but during the 20 years since our first study, the amount of plastic in our oceans has increased by around 50%, only further emphasizing the pressing need for action," Thompson said in a statement put out by Plymouth.
In the statement, the university noted:
Since the publication of the first study in 2004, an estimated 7,000 research studies have been conducted on microplastics, providing considerable evidence in their sources and impacts as well as potential solutions.
Microplastics have been found on every corner of the planet, in more than 1,300 aquatic and terrestrial species, in the food and drink we consume, and in multiple tissues and organs of the human body.
With emissions of microplastics to the environment estimated to be up to 40 megatons per year, a number that could double by 2040, predictions indicate the potential for widescale environmental harm moving into the next century.
The research details how microplastics demand an international response due to their transitory nature. While they enter the environment in various ways—whether from direct release as fibers into the air from textiles or dust, discharged through water systems via runoff or sewage drains, or via breakdown or fragmentation—once discarded, the study says, "microplastics can travel far from their point of entry and are not constrained by national boundaries highlighting the importance of actions at a global level."
Professor Sabine Pahl, who teaches Urban and Environmental Psychology at the University of Vienna and is an honorary professor at the University of Plymouth, said, "Plastic pollution is completely caused by human actions. That's why we need research on perceptions of risks and benefits of plastic as well as other drivers of policy support and change, integrating a social science perspective."
With the next round of talks in the UN's Plastic Pollution Treaty set for November, the researchers said the negotiations offer a "tangible opportunity" for nations to act on this issue. "In our view," they wrote, "science will be just as important guiding the way toward solutions as it has been in identifying the problems."
"This election is too important for our union not to do its duty," said the former labor leader of his successor.
The former longtime president of the International Brother of Teamsters, James P. Hoffa, called out his successor Sean O'Brien late Thursday over the powerful union's announcement earlier in the week that it would effectively sit on the sidelines of this year's presidential election by refusing to endorse either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump.
"This is a critical error and frankly, a failure of leadership by Sean O'Brien," Hoffa said in a statement. "This election is too important for our union not to do its duty. We must take a stand for working Americans. There is only one candidate in this race that has supported working families and unions throughout their career, and that is Vice President Kamala Harris."
Before retiring as leader of the Teamsters in 2022, Hoffa—whose father was the high-profile union leader Jimmy Hoffa who went mysteriously missing in 1975—served as president for over two decades. O'Brien, known for his brash style and was roundly criticized for speaking at this year's Republican National Convention, took over as Teamsters president the same year Hoffa left.
"In the Teamsters' messy handling of a presidential endorsement, O’Brien has appeared weak, short-sighted, and feckless."
On Wednesday, as Common Dreams reported, the Teamsters announced they would withhold an endorsement after polling of its members showed that neither Harris nor Trump had overwhelming support.
Due to Trump's pronounced and consistent hostility to organized labor and fealty to the corporate class, however, most major unions have treated his potential return to the White House as an existential threat to working people and their families.
As veteran labor reporter Steven Greenhouse wrote this week for Slate:
Trump is an unarguably anti-union candidate. He once said he'd sign a national right-to-work law, he's denounced prominent labor leaders like UAW president Shawn Fain, and he's embraced extremely anti-union business leaders including Elon Musk. Trump recently launched a missile at organized labor's heart by praising the idea of firing striking workers (even though that is illegal under federal law). Three days after O'Brien—in an unusual step for a union leader—spoke at the Republican National Convention to urge the GOP to be nicer to labor, Trump kicked unions in the teeth in his acceptance speech by mocking the United Auto Workers.
Following the announcement by the Teamsters' national leadership, a slew of Teamster locals across the nation, including in key battleground states, rushed their endorsements of Harris out the door.
"Teamsters regional councils—representing hundreds of thousands of members and retirees—in Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and western Pennsylvania—endorsed Harris" just hours after O'Brien's announcement, reported the Washington Post's labor correspondent Lauren Kaori Gurley.
"Separately," Gurley added, "powerful local Teamsters unions in Philadelphia; New York City; Long Beach, Calif.; and Miami—as well as the union's National Black Caucus and a group of retirees—have endorsed Harris and urged members to vote for her."
In his statement endorsing the Democratic ticket, William Hamilton, president of the Pennsylvania Conference of Teamsters, said: "In the 45 years the PA Conference of Teamsters has been in existence, it is extremely rare to have a pro-labor candidate for president and a pro-labor candidate for vice president running together. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are exactly that team."
What stood out to Greenhouse about the nature of the Teamsters' internal polling, which did show broad support for Trump, comes back around to what Hoffa termed a "failure of leadership" when it comes to O'Brien. He wrote:
That internal survey showing so many Teamsters backing Trump highlighted something else: The union’s leadership must have done a dreadful job informing and educating rank-and-file members about how hugely anti-union Trump is and how aggressively anti-union and anti-worker Trump's first administration was (and appointees were). Also, Teamster leaders evidently also failed to explain to rank-and-file members that Harris has fought for policy after policy strongly backed by the Teamsters and other unions, including the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which is the labor movement’s No. 1 legislative priority and would make it considerably easier for the Teamsters and other unions to organize. Trump opposes the PRO Act. Harris also supported the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, the CHIPS Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, which together will create hundreds of thousands of good-paying union jobs for Teamsters and other union members. Harris, unlike Trump, also supports increasing the pathetically low $7.25-an-hour federal minimum wage to at least $15.
"When Sean O’Brien ran to be president of the mighty Teamsters union, he promised to be a strong leader," concluded Greenhouse. "But in the Teamsters' messy handling of a presidential endorsement, O'Brien has appeared weak, short-sighted, and feckless."
Crucially, he added, O'Brien "failed to provide strong leadership on one of his most important tests: to get his union’s rank-and-file and board to reject anti-union Trump" and embrace the Harris, the clear pro-worker candidate in the race.
If Trump ultimately wins, Greenhouse said, the snub of Harris may be something O'Brien and the Teamsters "end up regretting because a second Trump administration will probably be even more of a danger to unions (and democracy) than the first one."
The witness—who claims he falsely identified Owens as the killer because he feared for his life—said that barring a stay, the condemned man "will die for a crime that he did not commit."
Barring an unlikely 11th-hour reprieve from South Carolina's governor or U.S. Supreme Court, correctional officials are set to carry out the state's first execution in 13 years after its attorney general brushed off a key prosecution witness' bombshell claim that the convicted man did not commit the murder for which he is condemned to die.
Freddie Owens—who legally changed his name to Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah while imprisoned—was convicted and sentenced to die by lethal injection for the shooting death of convenience store cashier Irene Graves, a 41-year-old mother of three, during a 1997 robbery.
Although there was no forensic evidence linking the then-19-year-old man to the murder, state prosecutors relied upon the testimony of co-defendant Steven Golden, who pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against Owens as part of a plea deal to spare his own life.
On Wednesday Golden filed an affidavit in the South Carolina Supreme Court in which he declared that he lied about the identity of Graves' killer.
"If this court does not grant a stay, Freddie will die for a crime he did not commit," he wrote.
However, on Thursday the state's highest court rejected Owens' bid.
"Freddie Owens is not the person who shot Irene Graves at the Speedway on November 1, 1997," Golden's filing stated. "Freddie was not present when I robbed the Speedway that day."
"The detectives told me they knew Freddie was with me when I robbed the Speedway," wrote Golden, who was 18 years old at the time of the crime. "They told me I might as well make a statement against Freddie because he already told his side to everyone and they were just trying to get my side of the story."
"I was scared that I would get the death penalty if I didn't make a statement," he continued. "I signed a waiver of rights form and then signed a statement on November 11, 1997."
"In that statement, I substituted Freddie for the person who was really with me in the Speedway that night," Golden claimed. "I did that because I knew that's what the police wanted me to say, and also because I thought the real shooter or his associates might kill me if I named him to the police. I am still afraid of that. But Freddie was actually not there."
Golden—who said he did not name the person who he says killed Graves for fear of his life—added: "I'm coming forward now because I know Freddie's execution date is September 20 and I don't want Freddie to be executed for something he didn't do. This has weighed heavily on my mind and I want to have a clear conscience."
The office of Republican South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson responded to Golden's affidavit on Thursday, calling his claim "inherently suspect" and stating that he "has now made a sworn statement that is contrary to his multiple other sworn statements over 20 years."
The attorney general's statement came after a federal judge on Wednesday declined to halt Owens' execution over his legal team's concerns about the provenance of South Carolina's supply of pentobarbital, which is used in lethal injections.
South Carolina unofficially paused executions in 2011 as lethal injection drugs became increasingly difficult to obtain because pharmaceutical companies enacted bans on their use for capital punishment. The state subsequently passed a law protecting the identity of drug suppliers, resulting in renewed stocks.
Additionally, the state Supreme Court ruled in July that executions by firing squad and electrocution do not violate the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment, validating a law signed in 2021 by Republican Gov. Henry McMaster that forces condemned inmates to choose between the two methods of execution at a time when lethal injection drugs were still scarce.
Anti-death penalty campaigners on Wednesday submitted a petition with more than 10,000 signatures asking McMaster to grant Owen clemency.
Although the number of U.S. executions has been steadily decreasing from 85 in 2000 to 24 last year, a flurry of impending state killings has raised alarm among human rights activists. Amnesty International says that in addition to Owens, seven men are scheduled to be put to death in the coming month.
"No government should give itself the power to execute people," Amnesty said Thursday on social media. "It is past time for the U.S. to align with other countries that no longer carry out this cruel and inhuman punishment."
A 2014 study determined that at least 4% of people on U.S. death rows were likely innocent.