All posts tagged "Asylum"

The Supreme Court's conservative super majority on Thursday sided with the Trump administration in a 6-3 ruling, and in a sharp dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor described the consequences of turning away asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Following the ruling in Markwayne Mullin, Secretary of Homeland Security v. Al Otro Lado, Sotomayor spoke from the bench and reminded the high court of a historical moment in 1939 when more than 900 Jewish refugees who were attempting to flee persecution in Nazi Germany boarded the M.S. St. Louis in Hamburg, Germany, and were turned away from Cuba and the United States during the Holocaust. Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson also joined the dissent.

"The ship docked in the Havana harbor for days, but the Cuban Government refused to allow the fleeing passengers offboard," Sotomayor wrote. "The ship then sailed near the Miami coastline, but the U.S. Government also turned them away in part because the immigration laws at the time had strict country quotas and the relevant quota was already filled for that year. The ship sailed to Canada and was again turned away. It eventually returned to Europe. Tragically, over 500 of the refugees that had attempted to flee were trapped in Western Europe under German control, and over 250 of them died during the Holocaust. Most of them were 'murdered in the killing centers of Auschwitz and Sobibór' and 'the rest died in internment camps, in hiding, or attempting to evade the Nazis.'"...

29 year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal was arrested Wednesday and accused of shooting two National Guardsmen in downtown Washington D.C., who both are currently hospitalized in critical condition. The alleged gunman's motive has not yet been revealed, but President Donald Trump insinuated in a video address posted to Truth Social that the shooting could be attributed to former President Joe Biden's immigration and refugee policy.

"The suspect in custody is a foreigner who entered out country from Afghanistan — a hellhole on earth. He was flown in by the Biden administration in September 2021," Trump said. "... His status was extended under legislation signed by President Biden ... This attack underscores the single greatest national security threat facing our nation."

However, CNN law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller said Wednesday that new information about Lakanwal suggests that the Trump administration may be more to blame for Lakanwal's residency than Biden. He pointed out that the alleged shooter may have had his visa sponsored by U.S. military personnel as part of programs in place meant to help Afghanis fleeing the Taliban who helped the United States....

MAGA adherents have taken to social media to proclaim that the federal judge who ruled against the Trump administration's attempts to stifle asylum-seekers should simply be ignored.

U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss ruled in favor of 13 individuals seeking asylum, as well as three immigrant rights groups that challenged Trump's executive order suspending U.S. asylum law.

"In his decision, Moss ruled that neither the Immigration and Nationality Act nor the Constitution give the president and administration officials 'the sweeping authority' asserted in his proclamation," CBS News reported....

WASHINGTON — The United States is prepared to welcome a Libyan woman who accused soldiers loyal to Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi of raping her as long as she goes through the normal refugee process, a senior US official said Tuesday.