Month: July 2018

US Aims to Slash Iran’s Oil Revenues to Zero

Posted on by SeeEA

The United States has announced plans to reimpose tough sanctions on Iran’s energy and banking sectors, saying the Iranian government needs to change its behavior and act like a “normal country.”

“Our goal is to increase pressure on the Iranian regime by reducing to zero its revenue on crude oil sales,” said Director of Policy Planning Brian Hook. “We are working to minimize disruptions to the global market, but we are confident there is sufficient global spare oil capacity.”

During Monday’s press briefing at the State Department, Hook called on Iran to meet demands in order to deem it a “normal country.”

“Normal countries don’t terrorize other nations, proliferate missiles, and impoverish their own people,” Hook said. “As Secretary [of State Mike] Pompeo has said, this new strategy is not about changing the regime, it is about changing the behavior of the leadership in Iran to comport with what the Iranian people really want them to do.”

The State Department’s director of policy planning noted the first part of U.S. sanctions will snap back in August 6. These sanctions will include targeting Iran’s automotive sector, trade and gold, and other key metals. He said the remaining U.S. sanctions will snap back in November 4. These sanctions will include targeting Iran’s energy sector and petroleum-related transactions, and transactions with the central bank of Iran.

U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear agreement in May, and has warned other countries that they will also face sanctions if they continue to trade with sanctioned sectors of the Iranian economy. All the other parties to the nuclear deal — the European Union, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany — say they remain committed to the agreement and have expressed strong disappointment at Washington’s withdrawal. Hook said State Department and Treasury officials are traveling around the world meeting with U.S. allies to try to persuade them to cooperate with the sanctions.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is traveling to Switzerland and Austria this week on a diplomatic tour of his own to try to preserve the Iran nuclear deal after the U.S. withdrawal. He said he expects European countries to unveil a package of measures in the coming days designed to keep the deal alive.

Rouhani’s trip comes amid ongoing street protests in Iran due to deteriorating economic conditions. Demonstrators protesting drinking water shortages in southwestern Iran clashed with police for a second night Sunday.
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Al-Qaida Affiliate Claims Responsibility for Mali Attack

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Terrorist group al-Qaida’s affiliate in Mali claimed responsibility Monday for an attack that left four civilians dead a day earlier, according to U.S.-based intelligence group SITE.

Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen, known by the acronym JNIM, said it carried out the attack Sunday in Gao, declaring it a message to French President Emmanuel Macron ahead of the African Union summit in Mauritania.

Sunday’s attack targeted a French and Malian patrol in Gao, leaving four civilians dead and over a dozen others, including four French soldiers, wounded.

A spokesman for the French military said there were no deaths among French troops when a car bomb was detonated in the northern city of Gao.

“I confirm that it was a car bomb that drove into a joint Barkhane/Malian army patrol,” Mali Defense Ministry spokesman Boubacar Diallo said, referring to Operation Barkhane, the nearly 4,000 French troops stationed in its former colonies in the Sahel region.

JNIM has claimed responsibility for three other attacks in Mali since Friday, ahead of national elections scheduled for July 29.
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US Cuts Aid to Zimbabwe Action Groups Ahead of Election

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The United States said Monday it had cut funding to three Zimbabwean civil action groups citing “possible misuse” of money ahead of July 30 elections, the first vote since Robert Mugabe was ousted.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) reduced its support for the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights), the Election Resource Center (ERC) and the Counseling Services Unit (CSU).

“We did have to cut some funding. We have regular safeguards and checks on how the money is used,” U.S. Embassy spokesman David McGuire told AFP.

McGuire said USAID provided about $250 million aid to Zimbabwe annually.

Okay Machisa, director of ZimRights, confirmed the cut in funds, but vowed to continue work.

“It has dented our programs, but it does not mean we are closing shop. We have other work that is supported by other partners,” Machisa told AFP.

Zimbabwe is holding presidential, parliamentary and local elections at the end of this month under international scrutiny after previous elections during Mugabe’s 37-year rule were marred by graft and violence.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, 75, who took over from Mugabe, has promised a free, fair and credible poll.

Mnangagwa, of the ruling ZANU-PF party, is facing off against main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa, 40, from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, in a presidential race that has 23 candidates.

The U.S. Embassy said on Twitter that “as a result of regular internal oversight, USAID became aware of the possible misuse of U.S. assistance funding.”

 

 
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Merkel Faces Off With Rebellious Allies Over Migration

Posted on by SeeEU

Chancellor Angela Merkel and her rebellious Bavarian allies searched Monday for a way to resolve a standoff over migration after Germany’s interior minister offered to resign, but a compromise looked elusive in the dispute that has rocked her government.

The crisis that has raised questions over the future of Merkel’s 3½-month-old government pits Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and his Bavaria-only Christian Social Union against Merkel, head of its longtime sister party, the Christian Democratic Union.

 

Ahead of a difficult Bavarian state election in October, the CSU is determined to show that it is tough on migration. Seehofer wants to turn back at the border asylum-seekers who have already registered in another European Union country but Merkel is adamant that Germany shouldn’t take unilateral actions that affect other EU nations.

 

Seehofer and Merkel, who have long had a difficult relationship, have sparred over migrant policy on and off since 2015. However, the current dispute has erupted even as Germany is seeing far fewer newcomers than in 2015.

 

Seehofer reportedly argues that measures to tackle migration agreed at a European Union summit last week aren’t enough. He offered his resignation at a meeting with leaders of his party Sunday night — though he put it on hold ahead of a meeting Monday in Berlin with the CDU leadership.

 

The leadership of Merkel’s party approved a resolution Sunday stating that “turning people back unilaterally would be the wrong signal to our European partners.”

 

It is unclear what effect Seehofer’s resignation as interior minister and CSU leader, if he goes through with it, would have on the alliance between the two conservative parties and their governing coalition with the center-left Social Democrats.

 

Over recent days, speculation had focused on the possibility that Merkel would fire Seehofer if he went ahead unilaterally with his plan. That would likely end the seven-decade partnership of the CDU and CSU, which have a joint parliamentary group, and would leave the government just short of a majority.

 

In comments to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, Seehofer complained he was in an “inconceivable” situation.

 

“I won’t let myself be fired by a chancellor who is only chancellor because of me,” he was quoted as saying in an apparent reference to the CSU’s traditionally strong election results in Bavaria.

 

CDU leaders and lawmakers earlier Monday stressed the importance of maintaining the conservative alliance, Germany’s strongest political force for much of its post-war history.

 

Merkel says a plan to regulate immigration that EU leaders approved Friday and bilateral agreements in principle that she hashed out with some EU countries for them to take back migrants would accomplish what Seehofer seeks.

 

However, the more conservative CSU believes its credibility is at stake as it tries to curb support for the rival anti-migration Alternative for Germany party, known as the AfD, in the Bavarian election.

 

So far, however, the gambit has played poorly in polls and Germans seem to be losing their patience.

 

“I think it’s caused by the atmosphere with the AfD,” said Joerg Hauvede, 47, as he left Berlin’s main train station. “I hope that the CSU will receive their just deserts for their actions.”

 

Hard-line Bavarian governor Markus Soeder said “action in Germany to strengthen European interests is absolutely necessary.”

 

But he also struck a conciliatory tone, saying “there is an abundance of possibilities… for compromises” and insisting the CSU doesn’t want to break up the conservative partnership.

 

“We can achieve a lot in a government, but not outside,” Soeder said.

 

The Social Democrats, who have largely been bystanders so far, demanded that their coalition partners get their act together, and called for a meeting later Monday with the conservative leaders. Party leader Andrea Nahles said  “the CSU is on a dangerous ego trip that is paralyzing Germany and Europe.”

 

“The blame game between CDU and CSU must end, because it is irresponsible,” she said.
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Uganda’s Social Media Tax Challenged in Constitutional Court

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A group of Ugandan lawyers have challenged the legality of a controversial social media tax that took effect on July 1. The government introduced a tax for all social media users in the country to curb what President Yoweri Museveni called “rumor mongering” on social media. But opponents of the new tax say it is designed to silence online critics of his government.

A group of Ugandan lawyers, led by Kiiza Eron, asked the Constitutional Court Monday to throw out the government’s new tax for accessing social media. They argue that it limits freedom of expression and assembly online.

“This tax is not meant to generate revenue. This tax is meant to clamp down on free expression. It is meant to inhibit political organization online. And it is going to stifle business startups who are using the social media. Of course we are we are seeking for a nullification of the law which we think is both unreasonable, unnecessary and illegal,” said Eron.

 

The new tax will cost each social media user about $2 per month.

 

It targets social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Twitter, Viber, Facebook and Instagram among others.

 

Early this year President Yoweri Museveni explained that the tax is needed to cope with the consequences of gossip.

 

The president’s phrasing raised concerns the tax could be used to crack down on criticism of the government online.

Uganda’s Minister for Information Technology and Communications, Frank Tumwebaze, defended the new tax, known as Over the Top Tax Services (OTTS).

“We are targeting the OTTS, because people are preferring them because there is no much cost. So we are saying, that money you are donating to the intellectual property owners of Whatsapp and Skype, let government also pick a shilling. It’s a tax on specific value added services,” said Tumwebaze.

 

A couple of young people thought a protest was in order and took to the street – only to be detained as they approached the parliament.

 

Like most social media users, Christine Nabatanzi opposes the new tax.

 

“Paying that 200 shillings, its unjustifiable daily. First of all me I need social media according to the work I do,” said Nabatanzi. “Secondly where do all the taxes that the government collects go? We are paying so many taxes, local government taxes, pay as you earn, but the services are very poor. We have no roads foremost, we have no drugs in hospitals. We have no good schools, where do the taxes go?”

 

The Ugandan government hopes to collect over $400 million annually from the social media tax.

 

However, many Ugandans are using virtual private networks, VPNs, to evade paying the new tax, despite the risk of being prosecuted for tax evasion.
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Nigeria’s Fulani Say They Are Being Vilified for Violence

Posted on by SeeAF

At the small mosque in Luggere, nestled in an ethnic Fulani village surrounded by rolling green hills, an unusually large crowd has gathered for Friday prayers.

Luggere’s population has doubled in recent days to accommodate people who fled two neighboring villages that were attacked by armed men early last week.

The attacks on the Fulani appeared to be reprisals for the June 23 massacre, where more than 200 ethnic Berom people, mostly Christian farmers, were killed.

“On Monday we were at home when people came and started shooting and burning our houses, food stores and shelters,” said Harira Ibrahim, 35, who fled with her husband and 10 children.

“We have nothing there, our brothers gave us some mattresses and clothes. We can’t even go back home because the militias are still around.”

Over the past week, nearly 500 people have arrived in Luggere and have been sleeping in the classrooms of the school.

Police confirmed the attack although they did not give a death toll but the influx has been largely ignored by Nigeria’s media, which instead has focused on the weekend massacre.

The attack is part of an increasingly bloody cycle of violence between two communities over access to resources throughout Nigeria’s central belt: Christian farmers, who claim indigenous privilege, accuse Muslim herders of ransacking their crops with their cattle and trying to grab land.

Meanwhile, the herders say that the farms are encroaching on their traditional grazing routes that they need to access in order to survive.

In the Pleateau region, many of the cattle herders are semi-nomadic, raising livestock as well as farming, and claim years of service on the fertile land where corn, yams and all kinds of fruit and vegetables grow.

Out of control

Adam Musa, 52, was born in Luggere, just like his father and grandfather before him.

“I don’t understand what is going on. When I was young, the Berom gave us their children for rearing because of unemployment,” said Musa.

On the potholed road leading to Luggere, several Berom villages were abandoned in a hurry.

In the yards of burnt-out houses, strewn with broken glass and plastic, the only occupants are a handful of chickens and frightened dogs.

Fulani faces drop at the mention of the attacks against Christians. No-one says they know the identity of the assailants.

The attack was brutal: the perpetrators torched homes with families inside and killed very young children, according to multiple witnesses interviewed by AFP.

According to one local official of the main Nigerian livestock union, the attack happened after a series of assaults on the Fulani since April.

“Not less than 500 cattle were rustled by the Berom and from the ambushes and killings of our herdsmen in the bush […] we are looking for almost 70 people dead, all of them have been killed,” said Abubakar Gambo, of the Miyetti Allah Breeders Cattle Association of Nigeria (MACBAN).

“This is how the situation started and how it went out of control.”

The Fulani are often described as invaders who come to “Islamize” the Christian areas of Nigeria, especially by newspaper columnists with reference to Usman dan Fodio, a Fulani jihadist who founded the Sokoto empire in the 19th century.

Discrimination

With the election of President Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim Fulani, in 2015, the stigmatization has worsened.

Detractors blame northerners and the Fulani of pursuing a secret program to eclipse the predominantly Christian south.

Buhari’s slow response to condemn the killings, which have steadily been increasing across the country for the last year, as well as the inability of security forces to protect lives, has fueled frustration and resentment.

He has been criticized for having appointed mainly Hausa and Fulani people to key positions in the army and police, which has encouraged impunity.

“In fact the herders are being seriously discriminated [against],” said Gambo, adding that the community feels marginalized and children have difficulty accessing education.

At the end of the 1980s, the government set up “nomadic schools” in rural areas to combat illiteracy.

Yet all that progress is under threat as a result of the latest outbreak of violence, Gambo said.

“Luggere school, it is the community that gathered and built it, not the government,” he said.

“We need good, fully qualified teachers but with the crisis, they stopped coming years ago.”
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Jordan, Russia to Hold Talks as Syria Fighting Displaces 270,000

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Jordan’s foreign minister said on Monday he will hold talks with his Russian counterpart over the conflict in Syria, where the latest government offensive in the country’s south has displaced 270,000 people, according to a U.N. official.

The Jordanian diplomat, Ayman Safadi, said he will head to Moscow on Tuesday and added that he was confident his meeting with Sergey Lavrov would produce more understandings and lead to “more steps forward to contain this crisis and prevent more destruction.”

Russia backs a Syrian government offensive in the southern province of Daraa, which has displaced tens of thousands of Syrians, sending most of them toward the closed Jordanian border or the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Khetam Malkawi, a spokeswoman for the U.N. agencies in the Jordanian capital of Amman, said the ongoing fighting in Daraa has displaced 270,000 people — a sharp rise in the displacement numbers since the offensive began on June. 19.

 

 U.N. organizations have sent a convoy of food and medical supplies across the border from Jordan earlier on Monday, she noted.

Jordan has maintained the closure of its border, insisting it can no longer endure more influx of refugees. Instead, Safadi said Jordan is delivering aid to the displaced and has deployed field hospitals near the border.

Safadi said Amman keeps open channels with Damascus and Moscow and that his talks with Lavrov will focus on reaching a cease-fire and halting the displacement.

“Our goal is to work on three specific targets,” he said. “The first is reaching a cease-fire as soon as possible because this means stopping the Syrian bloodshed and saving Syrians more destruction.”

Opposition activists reported more violence in the southern province of Daraa on Tuesday, saying that government forces bombarded towns and villages in the province.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday’s fighting was concentrated near the villages of Tafas and Nawa. It added that two weeks of fighting have killed 123 civilians.

The Nabaa Media, an opposition activist collective, also said that fighting is taking place in Tafas, adding that thousands of people have fled toward the fence along the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
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EU Warns US Against Car Tariffs

Posted on by SeeUS

The European Union has warned the United States that placing tariffs on automobiles would end up hurting the U.S. economy and would probably result in retaliatory measures from its trading partners.

In a letter sent to U.S. Commerce Department Friday, the European Union said tariffs on European cars and car parts were unjustifiable.

U.S. President Donald Trump has proposed imposing a 20 percent duty on EU car imports, citing security concerns. It was not immediately clear what those concerns are.

The EU letter said, “In 2017, U.S.-based EU companies, produced close to 2.9 million automobiles, which accounted for 26 percent of total U.S. production.” The submission said European car companies are “well established” in the United States.

The European car industry in the United States supports some 120,000 jobs in its factories that are mainly in the southern region of the country. A tariffs war could adversely affect those jobs in a region known for its support of the U.S. president.

 

 
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US Congressmen Meet Russian Officials in St. Petersburg

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A U.S. congressional delegation is meeting with senior Russian officials in St. Petersburg amid preparations for a summit between the nations’ presidents.

U.S.-Russian ties have hit the lowest point in decades due to sanctions over Russian interference in the U.S. 2016 election and disagreement over Syria, Ukraine and other topics.

 

St. Petersburg governor Georgy Poltavchenko told U.S. congressmen on Monday that he hopes for a warming of ties. “We look into the future with optimism and are ready for cooperation on all fronts,” he said.

 

Richard Shelby, a Republican senator from Alabama who heads the delegation, also called for dialogue, according to a statement from the governor’s office.

 

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, would not say whether the congressmen would later meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

 

 
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China Downplays Exclusion from US-Led Naval Exercises

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China, though barred from the world’s largest multi-country naval exercises this year, will shrug off the slight because it has accumulated enough power in Asia’s disputed seas to cause it little concern about the U.S.-led maneuvers, experts believe.

 

The United States uninvited China from attending the Rim of the Pacific Exercise in view of Beijing’s naval expansion, the U.S. Department of Defense said in a statement June 2. The exercises better known as RIMPAC bring together 25 countries, 45 vessels and 25,000 people.

 

Beijing need not worry because it has already militarized its key islets in the South China Sea over the protests of Southeast Asian states and cultivated a blue-water navy that plies the open Pacific Ocean despite objections from Japan and Taiwan, analysts say.

 

“They’ll shrug it off,” said Jeffrey Kingston, author and history instructor at Temple University Japan. “I think they know there’s displeasure about their actions, but they’re not going to lose sleep over it.”

 

RIMPAC 2018 exercises

 

RIMPAC exercises for 2018 began last week. The series of maneuvers coordinated from Honolulu were highlighted by amphibious assault vehicle training by U.S., Canadian and Mexican forces.

The exercises, set to last through July 16, will also cover live-fire drills, urban tactics and “scenario-based small-unit leadership exercises,” the U.S. Navy’s website said.

 

Exercises help the military personnel of participating countries — all fundamentally U.S. allies — get to know one another for future cooperation and emergency responses, said Jay Batongbacal, a University of the Philippines international maritime affairs professor. The event poses no threat to China, he said.

 

The U.S. government “disinvited” the People’s Liberation Army Navy from the 2018 exercises “as initial response to China’s continued militarization of the South China Sea,” Defense Secretary James Mattis was quoted saying on his department’s website.

 

“China’s behavior is inconsistent with the principles and the purposes of the RIMPAC exercise, an exercise in which transparency and cooperation are hallmarks,” he said.

 

Beijing sealed itself off from RIMPAC by placing missiles and fighter jets in the disputed South China Sea and passing naval vessels and military aircraft near Taiwan since 2016, analysts say.

 

“Beijing’s militarization of the South China Sea, as well as its continued encirclement and harassment of Taiwan, clearly places it outside our circle of like-minded partners,” said Sean King, vice president of the Park Strategies political consultancy in New York.

 

China undaunted

 

China attended the 2016 RIMPAC exercises with five warships, 1,200 officers and soldiers as well as combat divers. It was invited back to the event last year. RIMPAC was first held in 1971.

 

This year its Communist Party-run newspaper Global Times called “the provocative involvement of the U.S…. now the biggest source of risk” in the region.

 

Beijing need not fret over its exclusion because it has built military infrastructure on its main holdings in the South China Sea with unimpeded access for aircraft, radar systems and in one case reported earlier this year, missiles, scholars in Asia say.

 

“China’s policies over the South China Sea are pretty much set in stone, as far as it’s concerned, so even if it did participate in RIMPAC it would not have changed anything,” Batongbacal said.

 

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam contest Chinese sovereignty over all or parts of the South China Sea. China has the strongest armed forces in the region. It has offered economic aid to much of Southeast Asia, effectively keeping some of the disputants there quiet, scholars have said previously.

 

All claimants prize the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea for its fisheries and fossil fuel reserves. Washington does not have a claim to the waterway, which extends from Hong Kong south to the island of Borneo, but it periodically sends vessels to the sea to counter Chinese influence.

 

China has rattled Taiwan over the past three years with military aircraft flybys near the self-ruled island’s air defense identification zone and tested Japanese control over the uninhabited Senkaku islands in the East China Sea. China claims the same islands, which it calls the Diaoyu.

Japan and the four Southeast Asian states that dispute Beijing’s South China Sea claims joined RIMPAC this year. Japan will be glad China’s not there, Kingston said. The Philippines can “practice and learn” from RIMPAC’s joint operations, Batongbacal said.

 

China might retaliate against its un-invitation by spiking a future military exchange with the United States, said Huang Kwei-bo, vice dean of the international affairs college at National Chengchi University in Taipei. But in the long term, he said, “military exchanges will be normal.”

 

“I don’t know how [China] would react if it wanted to,” Huang said. “To react, for example, if a U.S. general were to visit, they could say ‘no need to come.’”
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Border Patrol Arrests Drop Sharply in June

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Border Patrol arrests fell sharply in June to the lowest level since February, according to a U.S. official, ending a streak of four straight monthly increases.

The drop may reflect seasonal trends or it could signal that President Donald Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy to criminally prosecute every adult who enters the country illegally is having a deterrent effect.

The agency made 34,057 arrests on the border with Mexico during June, down 16 percent from 40,344 in May, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the numbers are not yet intended for public release. The June tally is preliminary and subject to change.

Arrests were still more than double from 16,077 in June 2017, but the sharp decline from spring could undercut the Trump administration’s narrative of a border in crisis. 

Customs and Border Protection, which includes the Border Patrol, declined to comment on the numbers, saying it doesn’t discuss them as a matter of policy until public release “to ensure consistency and accuracy.” 

The administration announced in early May that it was prosecuting every illegal entry, including adults who came with their children. The separation of more than 2,000 children from their parent sparked an international outcry and Trump reversed course on June 20, ordering that families should stay together.

Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan told agents to temporarily stop referring illegal entry arrests to the Justice Department for prosecution if they involve parents unless they had a criminal history or the child’s welfare was in question. His edict came “within hours” of Trump’s directive to avoid splitting families.

McAleenan told reporters last week that border arrests were trending lower in June but said he wouldn’t provide numbers until their public release in early July.

“I believe the focus on border enforcement has had an impact on the crossings,” McAleenan said.

Rising temperatures could also be a major influence, discouraging people from walking in the scorching and potentially lethal heat in much of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Arrests fell from May to June in four of the previous five years, last year being the exception.

Still, the month-to-month percentage decline is notable. It fell in the low single digits in 2014 amid a major surge in illegal crossings and in 2015. Declines approached 20 percent in 2016 and 2013.

Border arrests – an imperfect gauge of illegal crossings – surged during much of last year after falling dramatically in the early months of the Trump administration.

The numbers do not reflect activity at official crossings. The Border Patrol polices between ports of entry, not at them.
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US Hotel Vouchers Extended for Puerto Rico Hurricane Victims

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A U.S. federal judge has ordered emergency officials to extend hotel vouchers for about 1,700 Puerto Ricans on the U.S. mainland whose homes were destroyed by Hurricane Maria last year.

The vouchers were to have run out early Sunday.

Judge Leo Sorokin ruled the hotel vouchers will be good at least until Wednesday. He will hold another hearing Monday to determine if the vouchers should be extended even further.

“The irreparable harm to the plaintiffs is obvious and overwhelming,” Sorokin wrote hours before the deadline. “Tomorrow morning, they will be evicted and homeless since by definition, each plaintiff’s home was rendered uninhabitable by the hurricane in Puerto Rico.”

Sorokin also wrote that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has neglected to provide proper aid for the hurricane victims from the U.S. territory. 

The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by a group of Puerto Ricans against FEMA, saying the agency was ending its Transitional Shelter Assistance (TSA) without a plan for moving the evacuees into longer-term housing. The lawsuit says for many who fled storm-damaged Puerto Rico, returning is not an option.

“By discontinuing the TSA program, FEMA is knowingly withholding desperately needed support to these marginalized American citizens, putting TSA evacuees at risk of homelessness and other irreparable injury,” the suit says.

Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico last September, destroying hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings, and causing more than $100 billion in damage. The territory is still struggling to recover.
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UN Chief Marks 50 Years Since NPT Signing

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The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday hailed the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

Marking the date, Guterres in a statement said, “The NPT is an essential pillar of international peace and security, and the heart of the nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime. Its unique status is based on its near universal membership, legally-binding obligations on disarmament, verifiable non-proliferation safeguards regime, and commitment to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.”

What is the NPT?

The objective of the international treaty is to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons-making technology, allow its signatories to pursue nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and phase out the nuclear arsenal of the five original nuclear powers – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the U.S.

When did the NPT take effect?

The treaty was signed July 1, 1968. It came into force in 1970 and it was extended indefinitely in May of 1995.

Who are the treaty’s signatories?

Most of the world, as 191 countries have signed the NPT. The holdouts are India, Pakistan, Israel and South Sudan. North Korea withdrew from the treaty in 2003. North Korea, India and Pakistan have publicly disclosed their weapons program and Israel has long maintained a policy of deliberate ambiguity.

How does it work?

The treaty establishes a safeguards system that is overseen by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The agency uses inspections as a means to verify compliance of the treaty by member states.

 
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French Gangster Escapes Prison in Helicopter

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A notorious French gangster is on the run after three heavily armed accomplices landed a helicopter in the prison where he was being held and flew out with him.

Redoine Faid, 46, was serving a 25-year sentence for the murder of a police officer during a failed robbery in 2010.

“This was a spectacular escape. It was an extremely well-prepared commando unit that may have used drones to survey the area beforehand,” Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet said.

Faid was being visited by his brother in Reau prison near Paris when the helicopter landed in the prison courtyard. Two men dressed in black left the helicopter and using smoke bombs and power tools broke into the visiting room where Faid was meeting with his brother.

A third man waited in the helicopter to watch over the pilot, a flight instructor who was taken hostage earlier in the day from a nearby airport. He was later released, in shock but with no physical injuries.

The helicopter was found in the town of Garges-les-Gonesse, in the northern suburbs of Paris.

Faid’s brother is being questioned by investigators.

Faid has broken out of jail before. In 2013 he used dynamite to blast his way out of a prison in northern France. He was captured six weeks later.

Faid led a gang involved in armed robbery and extortion in the French capital during the 1990s. He has previously said his lifestyle was inspired by Hollywood gangster films, including Scarface starring Al Pacino.

 
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Turkish Police Disperse LGBTI Activists Holding Banned March

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Turkey’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex activists gathered Sunday for an LGBTI pride march in Istanbul, moving from street to street for an hour as police tried to end an event the local government had banned for the fourth year in a row.

Hundreds of people chanted slogans and waved rainbow flags on side streets along Istiklal Avenue, Istanbul’s main pedestrian thoroughfare. The organizers released a statement saying the city’s ban would not deter them from marching peacefully.

Despite the ban, police allowed the organizers to read a press statement. “We do not recognize this ban,” the group said in the statement read out loud by a volunteer, calling the prohibition imposed by Istanbul’s governor “comical.”

Police told the crowd to disperse after the statement, warning “otherwise, we will intervene.” Officers patrolled with dogs and had water cannons stationed nearby.

They fired tear gas on groups in some areas and were seen elsewhere pushing and shouting at participants who were too slow to scatter.

March organizers said Friday that the governor had prohibited the march in violation of the right to freedom of assembly.

The governor has cited security reasons and public “sensitivities” as grounds for barring LGBTI marches since 2015. Prior to that, Turkish authorities had allowed pride marches since the first one took place in 2003. As many as 100,000 people attended Istanbul Pride in 2014.

While police tried to disperse Sunday’s march, participants kept reassembling in clusters different parts of the city’s Taksim district, chanting “Don’t be silent, shout out, homosexuals exist.”

Another activist read from the statement that the march organizers also circulated online and said, “We miss the marches attended by thousands where we celebrate our visibility.”

On Thursday, the governor in Turkey’s capital city of Ankara, citing the need to protect “public order,” banned a screening of “Pride,” a Golden Globe-nominated film about gay activists in the United Kingdom. The prohibition on the movie followed a blanket ban issued in November on LGBTI events in Ankara.

Although homosexuality and being transgender are not illegal in Turkey, LGBTI people face discrimination and hate crimes.

Yasemin Oz, an activist and lawyer, told The Associated Press that transgender and gay people were “ostracized and discriminated against” in accessing education, health care and employment.

LGBTI individuals need to “go out to the streets, show themselves, say `We are here, we are among you,”’ if they are to be accepted by society, Oz Said.

The Turkish government denies that individuals are discriminated against based on gender identity or sexual orientation and says current laws are sufficient to protect the rights of every citizen. The government says perpetrators of anti-LGBTI hate crimes are prosecuted.

Turkey has been under a state of emergency for nearly two years following a failed coup attempt, which allows authorities to curtail some freedoms.

 
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Senators Discuss Abortion Rights as Trump Mulls Supreme Court Pick

Posted on by SeeUS

Abortion rights emerged as a major topic of discussion on Sunday among U.S. senators who will vote on President Donald Trump’s eventual Supreme Court nominee to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is retiring at the end of the month.

“My colleagues on both sides of the aisle [Democrats and Republicans] know that this could be one of the key votes of their entire career,” Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington state said on NBC’s Meet the Press program. “If they vote for somebody who is going to change [legal] precedent, it could be a career-ending move.”

Abortion has been legal nationwide in America since a landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision, Roe versus Wade. Subsequent court decisions have reinforced the rights of women to terminate pregnancies.

As a candidate in 2016, Trump signaled a clear intention to pave the way for overturning Roe versus Wade by nominating socially conservative jurists likely to believe the high court erred in its 1973 decision.

Watch related video by VOA’s Michael Bowman:

“That will happen, and that’ll happen automatically, in my opinion, because I am putting pro-life [anti-abortion] justices on the court,” Trump said at a presidential debate against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

But in an interview broadcast on Sunday, Trump told Fox News that he “probably” will not ask his nominee how he or she would vote on Roe versus Wade, adding that he is putting “conservative people on” the court.

No guarantees

Some senators who oppose abortion rights said, regardless of whom Trump nominates and how far rightward the ultimate ideological composition of the Supreme Court shifts, there are no guarantees about future decisions on abortion or any other divisive topic.

“I’m pro-life,” South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on Meet the Press. “[But] you don’t overturn precedent unless there is a good reason. And I would tell my pro-life friends, you can be pro-life and conservative, but you can also believe in stare decisis [letting legal precedent stand]. Roe versus Wade, in many ways, has been affirmed over the years.”

Democrats won’t be able to block Trump’s nominee on their own, but could be joined by moderate Republicans who back abortion rights and oppose some of the names on Trump’s list of potential nominees.

“I’m not going to go into which ones those are, but there are people on that list whom I could not vote for,” Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine said on ABC’s This Week program.

Senate Republicans are promising a confirmation vote before the November midterm elections.

“The Senate will vote to confirm Justice Kennedy’s successor this fall,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said. “The president’s nominee should be considered fairly.”

Last year, three Senate Democrats joined Republicans to confirm Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, a staunch judicial conservative. Trump could have even more high court vacancies to fill, as Kennedy is one of four justices over the age of 70.

 
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Trump Promises Supreme Court Nominee Next Week

Posted on by SeeUS

Washington is gearing up for a protracted battle over a looming U.S. Supreme Court vacancy as President Donald Trump considers a replacement for Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is retiring at the end of the month. VOA’s Michael Bowman has this report.
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Merkel Spars With Key Ally Over Migrant Policy

Posted on by SeeEU

Germany’s interior minister and head of the Christian Social Union party reportedly offered his resignation from both posts Sunday night rather than back down from his stance against Chancellor Angela Merkel’s migration policies, as the crisis within her governing coalition came to a head.

 

The dpa news agency, citing information from unidentified participants, reported that a nearly eight-hour meeting of the CSU in Munich was put on hold after Interior Minister Horst Seehofer made his offer. Dpa reported that Alexander Dobrindt, the leader of the CSU in parliament, told others Seehofer could not be allowed to resign.

 

If Seehofer does step down, it was not immediately clear what effect the move would have on a three-week impasse between Merkel and her Bavarian-only CSU partners, which has centered around his resolve to turn away some types of asylum-seekers at Germany’s borders.

 

Merkel has insisted on Europe-wide solutions to handling the waves of desperate foreigners trying to reach the continent and the standoff could spell the end of her fourth government.

 

Merkel insisted earlier Sunday that a plan to regulate immigration European Union leaders approved Friday and agreements she hashed out with several key countries would accomplish what Seehofer seeks.

 

“The sum total of everything we have agreed upon has the same effect” as what Seehofer has demanded, Merkel said in an interview with ZDF television. “That is my personal opinion. The CSU must naturally decide that for itself.”

But dpa reported that Seehofer told the forum he thinks the measures do not adequately accomplish his goals.

 

As the CSU met in Munich, Merkel’s Christian Democrats met in Berlin to discuss what comes next.

 

Seehofer, whose party faces a state election in the fall, has threatened to turn away at the borders migrants whose asylum requests Germany already rejected or who already sought asylum elsewhere in Europe.

 

Merkel has rejected that approach, saying Germany needs to address migration more broadly to preserve EU unity. If Seehofer goes ahead with his policies, the dispute could end the decades-old conservative alliance between the CSU and Merkel’s CDU.

 

Merkel and Seehofer met Saturday night for two hours. The German leader would not comment Sunday on the outcome of the talks. She also would not speculate on whether she might fire him or if the issue could lead to a government confidence vote in parliament.

 

She said she would wait and see what the leadership of the two parties decides “and then we will see what comes next, step for step.”

 

Merkel reiterated her position that if countries start turning migrants away at national borders unilaterally, it would cause neighboring countries to close their borders and jeopardize the border-free movement the Europe’s so-called Schengen-zone.

 

She said the decision by leaders of European Union countries Friday to strengthen the 28-nation bloc’s exterior borders and her proposal for “anchor centers” to process migrants at Germany’s borders would work better.

 

“I want Europe to remain together,’” she said. “That is why the unified action of Europe is so important to me.”

 

Merkel also secured agreement from Greece and Spain to take back from Germany migrants who previously registered in those countries. She said 14 other nations had given verbal assent to work toward similar deals.

 
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Undocumented Mother Begins Quest to Reunite With Children

Posted on by SeeUS

Guatemalan Yeni Gonzalez crossed the border into the United States illegally and was separated from her children. VOA is following her quest to overcome legal barriers and get her kids back from distant detention centers. This is one case among the 2,000 children of illegal migrants separated from their families.

After 43 days in the custody of the U.S. immigration authorities and having been separated on the southern border of the United States from her three children when trying to enter the country as an illegal immigrant, Yeni Gonzalez was released on bail.

The undocumented mother spoke with the Voice of America,

“I’m going to look for my children,” she said. … “It has been very difficult, very hard for me, I felt that my heart broke into a thousand pieces, they snatch my children from my arms.”

For five weeks Yeni Gonzalez was detained in this immigration center in Eloy Arizona, 3,800 kilometers from New York where her three children were taken, after they were separated when they tried to cross the border illegally

Yeni Gonzalez was distraught.

“I asked them to please give me a call, and they said no, there were no calls,” she said. “And I told them, please, I want to know from my children, that I already have days of not knowing about them and he said, ‘do you know something? You will be deported to Guatemala and your children,’ he told me, ‘will remain in the hands of this government.'”

In a VOA interview, Yeni says she was unaware of the “Zero Tolerance” policy that separated her from her children. She says if she had known, she would never have brought her children this way.

They are in New York, under the care of the Cayuga center. Donations made it possible for her to be released on bail.

“The bail was paid by some families, mothers who are in New York City. And thank God they sent me by text message, confirmation that was paid, that the bail of $7,500 dollars was paid,” said Yeni’s lawyer, Jose Orechena.

The departure of Yeni coincided with the visit to a migration processing center in Tucson Arizona, of the first lady of the United States, Melania Trump, who is closely following the situation of these undocumented families and the work of the authorities.

“I’m here to support you and give my help, whatever I can on behalf of children and the families,” she said.

The Trump administration says it will reunify families, according to the head of the Department of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar.

“They would be unified with either parents or other relatives under our policies, so of course if the parent remains in detention, unfortunately under rules that are set by Congress and the courts, they can’t be reunified while they’re in detention,” he said.

Yeni Gonzalez is looking forward to hugging her kids very soon.

 
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Trump Defends Embattled Immigration Control Agency

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday defended the country’s embattled immigration control agency against calls by some opposition Democrats to abolish it.

“The Liberal Left, also known as the Democrats, want to get rid of ICE, who do a fantastic job, and want Open Borders.Crime would be rampant and uncontrollable!” Trump said on Twitter, one of several tweets he made over the weekend supporting the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

In an interview on Fox News, Trump said that from a political standpoint, “I love that issue.” He contended that if Democrats continue their call for abolishing the agency, “I think they’ll never win another election.”

Tens of thousands of protesters demonstrated Saturday across the United States against his “zero tolerance” policy calling for the apprehension of anyone illegally crossing the Mexican border into the United States and for the immediate reunification of more than 2,000 immigrant children with their parents they were separated from when they entered the United States.

The government detained the parents to wait for legal proceedings on their claims for asylum in the U.S. and sent the children to shelters. A federal judge has ordered the government to reunite the families over the next three weeks, but U.S. officials have made little progress in carrying out the edict.On June 20, Trump issued an executive order that promised to end family separations when possible.

Trump did not comment directly on the protests that took place in major cities and small towns. But he said, “When people come into our Country illegally, we must IMMEDIATELY escort them back out without going through years of legal maneuvering. Our laws are the dumbest anywhere in the world.”

Some key Democratic lawmakers who are possibly eyeing a 2020 presidential campaign against Trump’s re-election bid have called for closing ICE, which is part of the government’s Homeland Security agency.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York told CNN last week that ICE has “become a deportation force” and that “you should get rid of it, start over, reimagine it and build something that actually works.”

Senator Kamla Harris of California told several news outlets that “maybe” or “probably” the government should “start from scratch” on a new immigration enforcement agency.

Trump, however, in repeated tweets has defended the agency, saying Saturday, “To the great and brave men and women of ICE, do not worry or lose your spirit. You are doing a fantastic job of keeping us safe by eradicating the worst criminal elements.”

He also contended, inaccurately, that he “never pushed Republicans in the House” last week to vote for an immigration overhaul that would have put into law his executive order to end separating children from their parents when they are apprehended at the U.S.-Mexican border. He had told fellow Republicans last week that they “should pass the strong, but fair immigration bill.”

But the measure was overwhelmingly rejected, with solid Democratic opposition and a splintered Republican vote. It would have provided $25 billion in funding for a wall along the border, a Trump priority. But the most conservative Republican lawmakers opposed the legislation because it also created a path to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants who years ago were brought illegally into the country by their parents, a provision they say amounts to “amnesty” for law breakers.

Trump said he knew the bill, even if it passed the House of Representatives, would not clear the Senate in the face of Democratic opposition. Republicans hold a narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate, where the immigration legislation would need a 60-vote super-majority to win approval.

Trump said he “released many” House Republicans so they could vote against the immigration bill last week. Trump branded the filibuster rule in the Senate requiring most significant legislation to need 60 votes for passage “ridiculous” and called for its abolition, but both Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike have rejected calls to do so.
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Undocumented Mother Begins Quest to Reunite With Her Children

Posted on by SeeUS

Guatemalan Yeni Gonzalez crossed the border into the United States illegally and was separated from her children. VOA is following her quest to overcome legal barriers and get her kids back from distant detention centers. As VOA’s Celia Mendoza reports from Arizona, this is one case among the 2,000 children of illegal migrants separated from their families.
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France Honors Holocaust Survivor Simone Veil at Pantheon

Posted on by SeeEU

Holocaust survivor Simone Veil, one of France’s most revered politicians, is getting the rare honor of being buried at the Pantheon, where French heroes are interred, one year after her death.

 

Veil was being inhumed Sunday at the Paris monument with her husband Antoine, who died in 2013, in a symbolic ceremony with her family and dozens of dignitaries, including French President Emmanuel Macron and former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande.

 

Veil repeatedly broke barriers for women in French politics. She was a firm believer in European unification and well known in France for spearheading the legalization of abortion.

 

Republican Guard pallbearers carried the caskets Sunday to the Pantheon over a blue carpet symbolizing the color of peace, the United Nations and of Europe, as a crowd of thousands applauded.

 

They paused several times to mark the big steps of Veil’s life with the soundtrack of her voice and music, including Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” — the European Union’s anthem — and the “Song of the Deported.”

 

“France loves Simone Veil,” Macron said in a speech. “She lived through the worst of the 20th century and yet fought for make it better.”

Confident that “humanity wins over barbarity,” Veil became a fighter for women’s rights, peace and Europe, he noted.

 

The Marseillaise national anthem was then sung by the American soprano Barbara Hendricks and the Choir of the French Army, followed by a minute of silence.

 

The caskets were carried inside the Pantheon, where they will be buried into the crypt.

 

Veil is the fourth woman to be honored at the Pantheon, which also holds 72 men. The other women are two who fought with the French Resistance during World War II — Germaine Tillion and Genevieve de Gaulle-Anthonioz — and Nobel Prize-winning chemist Marie Curie.

 

Veil was 16 when she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz in March 1944. She lost her parents and her brother in Nazi camps and spoke frequently about the need to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive.

 

In 1974, as France’s health minister, she led the battle to get parliament to legalize abortion. The law is still known as the “Loi Veil.”

 

Veil also became the first elected president of the European parliament from 1979 to 1982. She died at age 89.

 

 
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African Banks Consider Chinese Yuan, But Risks Loom

Posted on by SeeAF

More than a dozen African countries have been weighing the merits of adding the Chinese yuan to their mix of foreign reserves, discussing the idea at a gathering of officials last month in Harare, Zimbabwe. 

Adopting the yuan, also known as the renminbi, or RMB, would make it easier for African countries to pay back loans to China.

But it could also increase reliance on an economic and development partner that’s come under increasing scrutiny for the conditions it places on deals with African partners.

Reviewing financial ties

China’s currency has been gaining global traction since 2015, when the International Monetary Fund announced plans to add the yuan to its Special Drawing Rights (SDR) fund, a currency “basket” that supplements the reserves in member countries’ central banks.

The SDR also contains the U.S. dollar, euro, yen and British pound.

Patrick Mutimba is the director of the Financial Sector Management Program at the Macroeconomic and Financial Management Institute of Eastern and Southern Africa (MEFMI), a group that provides economic and financial consulting to 14 countries in southern and eastern Africa.

MEFMI hosted the meeting in Harare, and Mutimba told VOA that all MEFMI member countries are considering adopting the yuan.

“The most compelling cases would be countries that are entering new debt arrangements, as previous loan agreements may have been denominated in USD already,” Mutimba said in an email.

​Benefits and risks

Holding foreign reserves helps countries manage their own currencies’ values by influencing exchange rates. It also improves their creditworthiness for foreign debt.

Some African countries have an additional incentive to boost their yuan reserves. If they can repay large, Chinese-financed infrastructure projects in RMB, they can avoid what Mutimba called an “intermediate currency risk.”

If the dollar loses value, for example, the cost to repay a loan could effectively increase.

Almost all MEFMI members have Chinese loans or grants, MEFMI spokeswoman Gladys Siwela-Jadagu said.

But a move toward the yuan could carry both practical and intangible risks for African countries.

China’s economy is the world’s second largest and continues to show signs of strength. But its stock market has fallen sharply in recent weeks, and some analysts predict the value of its currency will soon hit 10-year lows. Domestic debt remains high, and a new report by The New York Times suggests the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s sprawling international development project, is slowing down.

Increasing their RMB reserves would make countries more sensitive to the overall health of China’s economy. For African countries, there’s an additional concern: Adopting the yuan could add to perceptions that Africa’s emerging economies have become too reliant on China.

Multibillion-dollar loans to fund Chinese infrastructure projects tied to the Belt and Road Initiative represent sizable portions of some African economies. In Djibouti, for instance, infrastructure loans from China equal 75 percent of GDP, according to the Center for Global Development.

Repaying those loans might not be straightforward.

Peter Fabricius is a freelance journalist who consults with the Institute for Security Studies, an Africa-focused research organization. He told VOA that concerns are growing about deals that require African countries to, in effect, mortgage their natural resources to China. 

“The scales are beginning to fall off from the eyes a bit in realizing that China’s not just a completely altruistic country,” Fabricius said.

By proceeding with caution, Mutimba said, African countries can keep risks in check. 

“The parties concerned are aware of the need to examine the possible emergence of unforeseen risks and remain vigilant to deal with them,” he said.

US dollar still dominates

As more countries adopt the yuan or increase their reserves, China gains economic clout, especially relative to the United States.

Globally, the U.S. dollar dominates foreign reserves, making up 63 percent of countries’ foreign holdings, according to the IMF. In emerging and developing economies, the U.S. dollar makes up slightly more — about 66 percent of foreign reserves. In contrast, the yuan makes up less than 2 percent of foreign reserves globally.

Countries’ specific holdings are confidential, but MEFMI members hold a mix of reserves that tracks closely to global trends, according to Mutimba.

Decisions to increase or change the mix of foreign reserves fall to countries’ central banks, institutions that set national financial policies. No timeline was set for adopting the yuan at the MEFMI meeting in May. But some countries are ready to move ahead immediately, Mutimba said.
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Some Democrats With Eye on 2020 Say, ‘Abolish ICE’

Posted on by SeeUS

Several prominent Democrats who are mulling a bid for the White House in 2020 have sought to bolster their progressive credentials by calling for major changes to immigration enforcement, with some pressing for the outright abolition of the federal government’s chief immigration enforcement agency. 

President Donald Trump responded on Twitter Saturday that it will “never happen!” 

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, has “become a deportation force,” telling CNN late Thursday “you should get rid of it, start over, re-imagine it and build something that actually works.”

Her comments follow similar sentiments expressed by Sen. Kamala Harris of California over the past week. In interviews with multiple outlets, she has said the government “maybe” or “probably” should “start from scratch” on an immigration enforcement agency.

 

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who sought the Democratic nomination in 2016 and is mulling another run, has stopped short of his colleagues’ calls to dismantle ICE. But he has also been quick to note his vote opposing the 2002 law that paved the way for ICE to replace the old Immigration and Naturalization Service following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

 

Trump tweeted Saturday morning from New Jersey that Democrats “are making a strong push to abolish ICE, one of the smartest, toughest and most spirited law enforcement groups of men and women that I have ever seen.” He noted the agency’s work to counter MS-13 gang members.

 

He urged ICE agents to “not worry or lose your spirit,” adding: “The radical left Dems want you out. Next it will be all police. Zero chance, It will never happen!”

Balancing act

 

Housed within the Department of Homeland Security, ICE is in charge of executing hundreds of federal immigration statutes. The debate over the agency’s future follows the widespread outcry in recent weeks after the Trump administration separated more than 2,000 migrant children from their parents. Marches took place across the country Saturday to protest the policy, which Trump later reversed.

 

The Democratic calls to scrap the agency underscore the balancing act the party is facing on immigration issues. Such rhetoric could prove unhelpful to the 10 Democratic senators seeking re-election this fall in states Trump carried in 2016, where conservative views on immigration prevail. But calling for an end to ICE could be a winner for Democrats seeking to rally the party’s base in the 2020 presidential primaries.

 

Trump seems to relish the prospect of Democrats making the abolishment of ICE a campaign issue. 

“Well I hope they keep thinking about it. Because they’re going to get beaten so badly,” he said in an interview with Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo,” according to an excerpt released Saturday. He added: “get rid of ICE you’re going to have a country that you’re going to be afraid to walk out of your house. I love that issue if they’re going to actually do that.”

Many anti-Trump activists, who are driving the Twitter hashtag #abolishICE, have celebrated the moves by Gillibrand, Harris and others.

Nelini Stamp, the national organizing director for the Working Families Party, one of many progressive groups that ratcheted up its activity after Trump’s election, called it a “critical moment” in the early maneuverings for 2020.

“Any Democrats who want to be the nominee need to stand on the right side of this,” Stamp said. “Even if they don’t say ‘abolish ICE,’ they can’t not address it.”

Angel Padilla, policy director at the grassroots group Indivisible, said ICE “terrorizes communities” and that Gillibrand’s move “demonstrates where the progressive base is.”

 

Still, not every immigrant advocacy group takes the same view.

No litmus test

 

Cristobal Alex, president of the Latino Victory Project, a political action group that backs pro-immigration candidates, rejected ICE as a “litmus test.” But he said it’s “heartening” that immigration policy in general “is at the forefront of the conversation ahead of 2020.”

Alex said his group has met privately with several potential presidential candidates.

Their focus, Alex said, should be on “stopping the long-standing culture of corruption” in U.S. immigration policy and “the appalling practices” of the Trump administration, not on a move that by itself “amounts to rebranding.”

Indeed, the would-be presidential candidates haven’t yet detailed what they propose in ICE’s place. Before the border separation crisis, Harris had introduced legislation that would curb the expansion of immigration detention centers. She and Gillibrand and others have at least hinted that they would want the Justice Department’s prosecutorial power less involved in border security.

 

Whatever the details, the focus on ICE could cause problems for some potential candidates with more conservative records on immigration.

 

Former Vice President Joe Biden voted as a senator from Delaware for the 2002 law, the Homeland Security Act, that paved the way for ICE to replace the Immigration and Naturalization Service. He also voted in 2006 for a Bush administration-backed border security measure. Biden, however, has been critical of Trump’s immigration policy as he considers a 2020 run. Earlier this year, Biden headlined a private event with the Latino Victory Project in Miami.

 

The activists pushing for ICE abolition, meanwhile, said they aren’t worried about potential blowback or any difficulties for Democrats facing more conservative voters, including those potentially swayed by Trump’s repeated charges that Democrats favor “open borders.”

At the Working Families Party, Stamp said she sees the activists taking a position that “offers space” to other Democrats activists who won’t agree with them.

“We give them room to talk about better immigration policy,” she said, comparing the circumstances to the civil rights movement, when Martin Luther King Jr., was viewed more favorably by white power brokers than more strident leaders like Malcolm X.

 

“Martin Luther King never said, ‘Black power,’” Stamp said. “But having the left flank that did made the right folks willing to at least talk to King.”
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