Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Conway slams Democrats' vow to filibuster Trump Supreme Court pick
Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway said Monday that Democratic senators who have vowed to filibuster President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee are in the business of "permanent protest."
"They don’t even know the person’s name yet," Conway told Fox News' Martha MacCallum on "The First 100 Days." "They haven’t even met him or her and they’ve already committed themselves to obstructing, blocking and filibustering that person."
Trump is expected to announce his choice to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia Tuesday evening. The seat has been vacant since Scalia's death this past February. Former President Barack Obama nominated federal judge Merrick Garland for the Court, but Senate Republicans prevented his nomination from being heard.
Conway declined to say whether she supported Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., using the so-called "nuclear option" to change filibuster rules and force Trump's nominee through the Senate with a simple 51-vote majority.
"We should take a look at all of our options and I think [former Democratic Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid probably regrets the day that he went so nuclear with the nuclear option because now his party is no longer in power," Conway said. "That’s up to Leader McConnell and his colleagues. I’m supportive of a fair and full process."
Conway also fired back at Obama's criticism of Trump's controversial executive order suspending refugee processing and immigration from certain countries.
"He’s welcome to say what he wants. It’s a free country, including for ex-Presidents," Conway said. "[But] this is temporary, it is 90 days and it is very narrowly restricted to seven countries that none other than President Obama’s administration identified as high risk for harboring, training, and exporting terrorists.
Trump names Thomas Homan acting director of ICE, replacing Obama holdover
President Donald Trump appointed Thomas Homan to be acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Homeland Security announced late Monday.
Homan replaces Daniel Ragsdale, who had been the acting director of ICE since 2013. DHS did not provide an immediate explanation for the change.
DHS Secretary John Kelly said he was confident that Homan "will continue to serve as a strong, effective leader for the men and women of ICE. I look forward to working alongside him to ensure that we enforce our immigration laws in the interior of the United States consistent with the national interest."
A former NYPD officer and Border Patrol agent, Homan has served as ICE's executive associate director of enforcement and removal operations since 2013.
An April 2016 Washington Post profile of Homan lead with these two sentences: "Thomas Homan deports people. And he's really good at it."
Homan's appointment was announced shortly after Trump dismissed acting Attorney General Sally Yates, another Obama administration holdover, for telling Justice Department attorneys not to defend the president's refugee and travel ban.
Former AG Lynch once praised Trump's pick Boente as 'consummate utility' player
Dana J. Boente, a longtime federal prosecutor who was thrust into the middle of President Trump’s controversial immigration order when he was named new acting attorney general Monday night, was once praised by former Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch as the department’s “consummate utility” player.
“He is that reliable middle child, Lynch said of the Eagle Scout, according to The Washington Post, “the one you could always count on to be there for you.”
Boente was nominated in 2015 by President Obama and confirmed as the 60th U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. He has spent his entire 31-year career working in public service.
One of his most high-profile cases was the corruption trial of Virginia’s former Gov. Bob McDonnell. The former governor was given a two-year prison sentence for an alleged public corruption scheme, but the conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court.
Newsweek reported that he was born in the Midwest and raised by a single mother. He is a graduate of St. Louis University and its School of Law and has lived in Northern Virginia for 29 years.
Boente was named to the job Monday night after Trump fired Sally Yates, a Democratic appointee who had publicly questioned the constitutionality of the executive order and directed Justice Department attorneys not to defend it in court. Yates said she was not convinced it was lawful or consistent with the agency's obligation "to stand for what is right."
He's expected to serve only a few days, until Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump's pick for the position, is confirmed.
Boente says in a statement issued by the Justice Department that Trump's executive order is "both lawful on its face and properly drafted."
Sessions once asked Yates about AG's responsibility to say 'no' to a president
Sally Yates |
“If the views the president wants to execute is unlawful, should the attorney general or deputy attorney general say no?” Sessions asked.
“Senator, I believe the attorney general or the deputy attorney general has the obligation to follow the law and the Consitution and to give their independent legal advice to the president,” she responded.
Trump relieved acting Attorney General Yates of her duties Monday night after she directed Justice Department attorneys not to defend Trump's controversial executive refugee and immigration ban.
Yates, a holdover from the Obama administration, was replaced by Dana Boente, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Boente, 62, was sworn in Monday evening. He will lead the Justice Department pending the confirmation of Sessions, Trump's nominee for attorney general, by the Senate.
Yates said in a memo earlier Monday that she was "not convinced" that Trump's order was lawful, nor that its defense was consistent with what she described as the department's obligation to "always seek justice and stand for what is right."
An unsigned White House statement said Yates had "betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States." The executive order, which Trump signed Friday, temporarily halted the entire U.S. refugee program and banned all entries from seven Muslim-majority nations for 90 days.
The March 24, 2015 confirmation hearing video was posted on C-SPAN. It contained footage from the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing to consider Yates for deputy attorney general, the department’s second-highest position.
Monday, January 30, 2017
Rob O'Neill: We Must Be Smart About Who We Let Immigrate to US
Rob O'Neill, the former Navy SEAL who killed Usama bin Laden |
"[Authorities] need to look at certain things: a diabetic grandma probably isn't a threat, [but] the military-aged male could be a threat," he said, "It's when you get a bunch of the males that are coming in, that's where you... profile a little bit as far as the way they are acting."
O'Neill said key questions of prospective immigrants should be their view on Sharia Law versus the U.S. Constitution.
"This is a different war," he said, "we're not fighting Nazis."
He said that Trump's order is not a flat "Muslim ban" as some critics have characterized, but rather an order encompassing several countries on the "watch" for terrorism and violent ideologies.
"My ancestors are from Ireland: If we have a lot of problems with the Irish, I would expect the same thing," O'Neill said.
Canadian PM Trudeau calls Quebec City mosque shooting 'terrorist attack on Muslims'
Two gunmen stormed an Islamic center in Quebec City and opened fire killing at least six people and wounded eight others Sunday, police said
Two suspects in the shooting were arrested, Quebec City police spokesman Constable Pierre Poirier said. Their identities haven’t been released.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the shooting, calling it a “terrorist attack on Muslims.”
“It was with tremendous shock, sadness and anger that I heard of this evening’s tragic and fatal shooting at the Centre culturel islamique de Quebec located in the Ste-Foy neighborhood of the city of Quebec,” he said in a statement.
“Muslim-Canadians are an important part of our national fabric, and these senseless acts have no place in our communities, cities and country.”
Jan. 29, 2017: Police survey the scene after deadly shooting at a mosque in Quebec City, Canada.
(Francis Vachon/The Canadian Press via AP)
According to the Le Soleil newspaper, one of the arrested suspects was 27 years old and had a “Quebecois name.” The paper also reported that one of the suspects was armed with an AK-47.
One witness, who wanted to remain anonymous, told Radio Canada, a Canadian Broadcasting Company French-speaking outlet, that the two gunmen were masked.
“It seemed to me that they had a Quebecois accent. They started to fire, and as they shot they yelled, 'Allahu akbar!' The bullets hit people that were praying. People who were praying lost their lives. A bullet passed right over my head,” the person said.
An unidentified man looking for his friends, who were regular attendees of evening prayers, told Le Journal de Quebec, "I've tried to reach them, but I cannot. It's terrible."
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard called the shooting a "terrorist act." later Sunday. He expressed solidarity with the victims' families.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said on Twitter Sunday that he was deeply saddened by the loss of life. His office says no motive had been confirmed.
The CBC reported that someone left a pig's head on the mosque's doorstep this past June, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Islam's holy book, the Koran, forbids them from consuming pork.
"We were told that it was an isolated act, but today we have deaths," Yangui told reporters. "It is minutes and hours of terror and anguish."
In the U.S., the NYPD said in a statement that officers have been told to give “special attention” to mosques in the area. Police said they were monitoring the situation in Quebec.
Trump says top priority is to 'protect and serve' America amid backlash over extreme vetting
President Trump’s order to suspend the country’s refugee program and temporarily ban immigration from seven mostly-Muslim nations erupted Sunday into a full-scale political battle -- with Trump and top aides defending the move amid nationwide protests and congressional Democrats vowing a relentless Capitol Hill fight to undo the order.
“America is a proud nation of immigrants, and we will continue to show compassion to those fleeing oppression. But we will do so while protecting our own citizens and border,” Trump said Sunday afternoon. “This is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting. … My first priority will always be to protect and serve our country, but as president I will find ways to help all those who are suffering.”
Trump issued the statement as hundreds of protesters marched in Washington and in other cities across the country to protest the president's self-described “extreme vetting” -- which resulted this weekend in dozens of foreign visitors and some legal permanent U.S. residents being detained at domestic airports.
Earlier in the day, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., staged a press conference with some immigrant children and adults impacted by the bans and vowed to fight them on Capitol Hill “with every fiber of my being.”
Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., said that she would introduce two bills Monday. One of the bills would rescind Trump's order, while the other would give Congress greater oversight of the president's immigration authority.
And California Democratic Rep. Lou Correa said the executive orders on illegal immigration “directly challenge the right to due process under the Constitution” and that he’ll introduce legislation to fund legal aid to those who are “targeted.”
Congressional Democrats led by Schumer, who said he’s already appealed to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, will have a difficult task getting any kind of measure through the Republican-control Congress that would reverse the executive order.
“I doubt many Arkansans or Americans more broadly object to taking a harder look at foreigners coming into our country from war-torn nations with known terror networks. I think they’re wondering why we don’t do that already,” said Arkansas GOP Sen. Tom Cotton, who as an Army officer served combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.
However, Trump is facing opposition for some congressional Republicans, including Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, of Florida, and Barbara Comstock, of Virginia, along with Sens. Ben Sasse, of Nebraska, Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, and John McCain, of Arizona.
"It is clear from the confusion at our airports across the nation that President Trump's executive order was not properly vetted,” Graham and McCain said in a joint statement. "Ultimately, we fear this executive order will become a self-inflicted wound in the fight against terrorism.”
Trump, a Republican, tweeted in response that the statement was “wrong” and that the senators were “sadly weak on immigration.”
The executive order Trump issued Friday imposes a 120-day suspension of the U.S. refugee program and a 90-day ban on travel to the United States by citizens of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.
On Saturday afternoon -- as reports surfaced about foreign visitors being detained at New York’s Kennedy airport and elsewhere -- Trump said his plan to prevent Islamic terrorists and others for attacking the United States was “working out very nicely.”
But by Saturday evening, a federal judge in Brooklyn issued a temporary halt on the part of the executive order that allows the Trump administration to deport people from the largely-Muslim countries.
“Our country needs strong borders and extreme vetting, NOW. Look what is happening all over Europe and, indeed, the world - a horrible mess!,” Trump tweeted Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, told “Fox News Sunday”: “These are countries that have a history of training, harboring, exporting terrorists.”
And White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus argued that as many as 80 percent of Americans agree with the policy change, while dismissing media reports about chaotic scenes Saturday at U.S. airports.
“I do not think there was any chaos,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press,” while predicting more people will be detained and offering “no apologies.”
Priebus also seemed to suggest that foreign arrivals who have so-called “green cards” that allows them to permanently live and work in the United States will not be subject to the additional screenings.
“As far as green-card holders going forward, it doesn’t affect them,” he told NBC.
Kelly said later that allowed green card holders into the country was "in the national interest” of the country.
And Tennessee GOP Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also said Trump's order had been "poorly implemented, especially with respect to green card holders."
Trump, Conway and Priebus argued Sunday that the seven countries were in fact identified by President Obama in 2015 and pointed out that roughly 40 other such nations included Afghanistan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia were not part of the travel ban.
Trump is also facing opposition from attorneys general in 15 states and the District of Columbia, who issued a statement Sunday condemning his order as “unconstitutional, un-American and unlawful.”
House Dems demand meeting with DHS chief over Trump travel ban
Top House Democrats have demanded an emergency meeting with Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to get clarification over President Donald Trump’s immigration restrictions, which have been a source of controversy since they were put into action late last week.
Democrats on the judiciary, homeland security and foreign affairs oversight committees wrote a joint letter to Kelly “to discuss the implementation and guidance concerning the Executive Order."
John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, Bennie Thompson, D-Mass., ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, Eliot Engle, D-N.Y., ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the Judiciary’s immigration panel, all signed off on the letter to Kelly.
The lawmakers hope to get a meeting with Kelly by Wednesday or sooner. The lawmaker said the order has already led to panic and chaos and they pin the blame on the lack of “clarity and guidance” provided after Trump signed the order.
“We look forward to meeting with you in short order so that we can have an open and candid discussion about how the Trump administration arrived at this chaotic place, what you understand the meaning of the Executive Order to be, and what guidance you have offered to your employees and other stakeholders.”
Democrats, as well as a small number of Republicans have lashed out against Trump’s order since it was signed Friday. Several Democrats in Congress said they would be introducing legislation to stop the ban.
"You have an extreme vetting proposal that didn't get the vetting it should have had," said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who urged the new president to "slow down" and work with lawmakers on how best to tighten screening for foreigners who enter the United States.
"In my view, we ought to all take a deep breath and come up with something that makes sense for our national security" and reflects the fact that "America's always been a welcoming home for refugees and immigrants," he said.
Earlier in the day, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., staged a press conference with some immigrant children and adults impacted by the bans and vowed to fight them on Capitol Hill “with every fiber of my being.”
Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., said that she would introduce two bills Monday. One of the bills would rescind Trump's order, while the other would give Congress greater oversight of the president's immigration authority.
The executive order Trump issued Friday imposes a 120-day suspension of the U.S. refugee program and a 90-day ban on travel to the United States by citizens of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.
But by Saturday evening, a federal judge in Brooklyn issued a temporary halt on the part of the executive order that allows the Trump administration to deport people from the largely-Muslim countries.
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Trump signs memorandum to defeat ISIS, executive order to curtail ex-officials from lobbying
Trump's targeting of sanctuary cities sparks debate |
President
Trump on Saturday signed one executive order and two memoranda -- to
lengthen the ban on administration officials working as lobbyists and
two related to national security, particularly strengthening efforts to
defeat the Islamic State terror group.
The order on the lobbying ban extends the existing one from two years to five years and puts in place a lifetime ban on ex-officials lobbying for foreign countries.
Trump vowed on the campaign trail to make such changes and others, to voters’ chants of “drain the swamp.”
One memorandum attempts to strengthen the country’s National Security Council and Homeland Security Council. The second memorandum instructs the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of staff to come up with a plan in 30 days to defeat ISIS.
“Lots of additional safety,” Trump said in signing the actions at his desk. “We’ve been talking about doing this for a long time, many years.”
In Trump’s first nine days in office, he has now issued 15 executive orders.
The others include: multi-pronged orders on border security and immigration enforcement; two on reviving the Keystone XL pipeline and Dakota Access pipeline; withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, a start to dismantling ObamaCare and imposing an immigration ban on refugees and residents of seven Muslim countries.
The order on the lobbying ban extends the existing one from two years to five years and puts in place a lifetime ban on ex-officials lobbying for foreign countries.
Trump vowed on the campaign trail to make such changes and others, to voters’ chants of “drain the swamp.”
One memorandum attempts to strengthen the country’s National Security Council and Homeland Security Council. The second memorandum instructs the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of staff to come up with a plan in 30 days to defeat ISIS.
“Lots of additional safety,” Trump said in signing the actions at his desk. “We’ve been talking about doing this for a long time, many years.”
In Trump’s first nine days in office, he has now issued 15 executive orders.
The others include: multi-pronged orders on border security and immigration enforcement; two on reviving the Keystone XL pipeline and Dakota Access pipeline; withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, a start to dismantling ObamaCare and imposing an immigration ban on refugees and residents of seven Muslim countries.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada welcomes refugees
Go for it Idiot :-) |
Trudeau also plans to discuss the success of Canada's refugee policy with Trump.
Trudeau reacted to Trump's visa ban for people from certain Muslim-majority countries by tweeting, "To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength. #WelcomeToCanada."
Trump signed an executive order on Friday that he billed as a necessary step to stop "radical Islamic terrorists" from coming to the U.S. A 90-day ban on travel to the U.S. by citizens of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia or Yemen and a 120-day suspension of the U.S. refugee program was also issued.
Trudeau posted a picture on Twitter where he is greeting a Syrian child back in 2015 at the Toronto airport.
Trudeau oversaw the arrival of over 39,000 Syrian refugees soon after he was elected.
"The Prime Minister is looking forward to discussing the successes of Canada's immigration and refugee policy with the President when they next speak," spokeswoman for Trudeau, Kate Purchase said.
Toronto Mayor John Tory weighed in, calling the city the most diverse in the world. "We understand that as Canadians we are almost all immigrants, and that no one should be excluded on the basis of their ethnicity or nationality," Tory said in a statement.
Trump's order singled out Syrians for the most aggressive ban, ordering that anyone from that country, including those fleeing civil war, are indefinitely blocked from coming to the United States.
"We have been assured that Canadian citizens traveling on Canadian passports will be dealt with in the usual process," Purchase said.
Earlier the U.S. State Department said that Canadians with dual citizenship from Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and Libya would be denied entry for the next three months.
Trudeau also posted a statement on Twitter with the hashtag, "ACanadianIsACanadian."
Federal judge grants stay to allow those with visas to remain, 10 still detained at JFK
The order barred U.S. border agents from removing anyone who arrived in the U.S. with a valid visa from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. It also covered anyone with an approved refugee application. The Department of Homeland Security said that more than 170 people were denied entry to the U.S. as of Saturday night, according to Reuters.
The ruling by Judge Ann Donnelly of the U.S. District Courtfor the Eastern District of New York came during a hearing called after President Donald Trump issued an executive order blocking people from seven Muslim-majority from entering the United States and putting a temporary halt to refugee admissions
Twelve refugees were detained at JFK Airport within hours of Trump's order restricting immigration from seven majority-Muslim nations -- but two were released later in the day -- as hundreds of protesters continued to amass at the busy airport throughout the day and into the evening.
One of the Iraqis, Hameed Jhalid Darweesh, 53, was released by midday Saturday. “I suffered to move here, to get my family here …. I can’t go back,” Darweesh said shortly after his release, according to the New York Post. Asked if he’d be killed in Iraq, he answered: “Yes, yes.”
Hameed Khalid Darweesh, an Army interpreter in Iraq, had been stopped as he traveled with his wife and three kids when agents pulled him aside, according to the New York Times.
The other Iraqi detainee, Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, 33, was released at about 6:30 p.m. The fate of 10 other refugees, whose nationalities were not immediately known, is unclear.
Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan) and Nydia Velazquez (D-Brooklyn) announced the number of refugees held at the airport. “This should not happen in America. We shouldn’t have to demand the release of refugees one by one,” the two members of Congress said in a statement.
"They have been detained illegally. I am begging you to go and revisit this. It's ill-advised, it's mean spirited," said Velazquez, during a press conference.
Meanwhile, the National Immigration Law Center and other civil liberties organizations have filed a suit in federal court in New York on behalf of the two Iraqi men that seeks to certify the case as a class-action on behalf of other who organizers claim have been detained illegally. Karen Tumlin, legal director at the NILC, issued the following statement:
“Trump’s order keeps some of the world’s most vulnerable people in life threatening danger. ... Many refugees like our client risked their lives to help the United States government. The fact that the government has now decided to turn its back on those who served and protected us isn’t just unconscionable. It’s unconstitutional.”
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe (D) held an afternoon press conference in response to Trump's actions to say that we "cannot tolerate this type of activity."
The White House moved Saturday to defend the president’s refugee order, saying Muslims are not being targeted.
“The notion that this is a ‘Muslim ban’ is ludicrous,” a senior administration official confirmed to Fox News.
Other travelers were being stopped from boarding U.S.-bound flights at overseas airports as the Trump refugee ban went into effect Friday night.
Trump on Friday suspended refugee admissions for four months and indefinitely banned those from war-torn Syria, pending program changes that are to ensure refugees won't harm national security.
A U.S. federal law enforcement official says any non-U.S. citizen from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia or Yemen is now barred from entering the United States.
That covers legal permanent residents -- green card holders -- and visa-holders from those seven countries who are out of the United States after Friday, when President Donald Trump signed an executive order with the temporary ban. They cannot return to the U.S. for 90 days.
The official says there's an exemption for immigrants and legal permanent residents whose entry is in the U.S. national interest, but it's unclear how that exemption will be applied.
The official says visa and green card holders already in the U.S. will be allowed to stay. The official wasn't authorized to publicly discuss the details of how Trump's order is being put in place and spoke only on condition of anonymity.
Customs and Border Protection is notifying airlines about passengers whose visas had been canceled or legal residents scheduled to fly back to the U.S., and the airlines are being told to keep them off those flights.
The order also imposes a temporary ban on travelers from Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Sudan and Yemen.
The lawyers said custom agents wouldn’t let them meet with their clients who they said had valid visas to enter the U.S.
“Who is the person we need to talk to?” asked Mark Doss, a lawyer with the International Refugee Assistance Project.
“Mr. President,” the paper quoted a customs agent as responding. “Call Mr. Trump.”
“President Trump's war on equality is already taking a terrible human toll. This ban cannot be allowed to continue,” the group's Omar Jadwat said.
In Cairo, airport officials prevented seven U.S.-bound migrants -- six from Iraq and one from Yemen -- from boarding an EgyptAir flight to New York.
The officials said the seven migrants, escorted by officials from the U.N. refugee agency, were stopped from boarding the plane after authorities at Cairo airport contacted their counterparts at JFK.
Qatar Airways told passengers bound for the U.S. from the seven newly banned majority Muslim countries that they need to have either a U.S. green card or diplomatic visa to travel.
A statement on the company's website says: "Nationals of the following countries: Sudan, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Yemen ... may travel to the U.S. only if they are in possession of a permanent resident card (Green card) or any of the below visas."
It listed foreign government, United Nations, international organization and NATO visas.
Late Friday, the International Rescue Committee called Trump's suspension of the U.S. refugee resettlement program a "harmful and hasty" decision.
The group’s president David Miliband said, "America must remain true to its core values. America must remain a beacon of hope."
He said the U.S. vetting process for prospective refugees is already robust -- involving biometric screening and up to 36 months of vetting by "12 to 15 government agencies."
“This is no time for America to turn its back on people ready to become patriotic Americans,” he said.
DHS will continue to enforce Trump's travel ban
The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement early Sunday saying that they plan on continuing to “enforce all of the president’s executive orders in a manner that ensures the safety and security of the American people.”
The DHS said the court order would not affect the overall implementation of the White House order and the court order affected a small number of travelers who were inconvenienced by security procedures upon their return.
“The president’s executive orders remain in place—prohibited travel will remain prohibited, and the U.S. government retains its right to revoke visas at any time if required for national security or public safety,” the statement said.
A federal judge issued an emergency order Saturday night temporarily barring the U.S. from deporting people from nations subject to President Donald Trump's travel ban, saying travelers who had been detained had a strong argument that their legal rights had been violated.
Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to the White House, said, "Nothing in the Brooklyn judge's order in anyway impedes or prevents the implementation of the president's executive order which remains in full, complete and total effect."
U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly in New York issued the emergency order after lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union filed a court petition on behalf of people from seven predominantly Muslim nations who were detained at airports across the country as the ban took effect.
The order barred U.S. border agents from removing anyone who arrived in the U.S. with a valid visa from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. It also covered anyone with an approved refugee application.
Homeland Security said the order affects a small amount of people traveling internationally.
The DHS said the order was the “first step towards reestablishing control over America's borders and national security.”
Trump’s travel ban sparked protests around the country at several international airports. Demonstrators ranged from a few dozen people to thousands.
Under Trump's order, it had appeared that an untold number of foreign-born U.S. residents now traveling outside the U.S. could be stuck overseas for at least 90 days even though they held permanent residency "green cards" or other visas. However, an official with the DHS said Saturday night that no green-card holders from the seven countries cited in Trump's order had been prevented from entering the U.S.
Trump billed his sweeping executive order as a necessary step to stop "radical Islamic terrorists" from coming to the U.S. It included a 90-day ban on travel to the U.S. by citizens of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia or Yemen and a 120-day suspension of the U.S. refugee program.
Trump's order also drew support from some Republican lawmakers who have urged more security measures for the refugee vetting program.
The DHS said in the statement that they “will faithfully execute the immigration laws, and we will treat all of those we encounter humanely and with professionalism.” They also added that they plan to ensure the safety of the American people by making sure those entering the U.S. pose no threat.
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Trump's hard-nosed executive order asks what U.N. money is going for-and is it worth it?
Trump set to decrease US funding of United Nations |
The Administration’s tough strategy is specifically aimed at reducing, rather than eliminating, U.S. support for the world organization and will not affect, at least in the short term, Washington’s current dues-paying commitment to pay 22 per cent of the U.N.’s so-called “regular” budget ($5.6 billion for 2016-2017) and 28.5 percent of its peacekeeping obligations ($7.9 billion) this year.
But at the same time, the intent is clearly to hold the U.N.’s feet close to the fire on its value to U.S. goals and interests, as well as take special aim at organizations that offer full membership to the Palestinian Authority or the Palestinian Liberation Organization, or are heavily influenced by states that sponsor or support terrorism and/or systematically violate human rights.
The methods for doing that include seeing what the organization has done with the money it has already received, finding ways to turn as much spending as feasible into voluntary rather than mandatory contributions—which the Administration would like to cut by 40 per cent—better sharing the international cost burden in the future, and making sure that U.S. contributions are “used in a manner consistent with their designated purpose.”
Greater voluntary funding rather than automatic dues-paying has long been advocated by conservative reformers such as former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton (who is also a Fox News Contributor) as helping to bring the world organization into greater conformity with U.S. values and objectives.
The new approach is laid out in a draft presidential executive order obtained by Fox News that aims straightforwardly to “ensure better alignment between United States national interests and U.S. monetary support to the United Nations and other international organizations.”
Parts of the draft order are evidently still in flux, but that topic has long been a focus of concern among conservatives and U.S. activists suspicious of the runaway implications of the U.N.’s expanding global bureaucracy, but also among reformers frustrated at unsuccessful U.S. and Western efforts to rein in U.N. spending and make it more transparent and accountable, even while the U.S. remains far and away the world body’s biggest single financial supporter.
Those frustrations were especially aggravated by the Obama Administration’s stealth approach to U.S. funding: no aggregated figures on U.S. support for the U.N. and its sprawling array of funds, programs and agencies since 2010, when the overall tally, which could well have been low-balled, was about $7.7 billion.
The Administration has not yet given an indication of when the executive order will be published, but the intention in the draft version is to have the process in gear to start taking effect by Jan. 1, 2018.
Indeed, notes Brett Schaefer, an expert on U.N. financing at the conservative Heritage Foundation, any changes as a result of the process are unlikely to be made until President Trump presents his budget for fiscal 2019. “It’s going to be a very deliberate process,” notes Schaefer. “Moreover, it’s incredibly overdue. The U.S. should be doing this as a matter of course.”
The title of the draft executive order—“Auditing and Reducing U.S. Funding of International Organizations”—makes clear that the Administration sees the challenge of transparency in the U.S. government itself as a necessary first step in dealing with semi-eternal complaints that the U.S. spends too much and gets too little for its U.N. financial support .
To deal with that, the draft order calls for:
- Creation of an “International Funding Accountability Committee” in the executive branch, including the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Director of National Intelligence and the Counsel to the President, or their delegates, to take stock of spending on the U.N. and other international organizations (the U.N. got about 90 per cent of that total, according to the Obama Administration’s 2010 tally)
- Preparation of a committee report by Jan. 1 of next year on the full tally of “current and expected” U.S. funding over the past eight years for any international organization, how much of that was voluntary or mandated, “how the organization expects to use [the funds] going forward”—and whether the organization provides enough information to make that possible;
- The committee to ”identify a compelling national interest…directly advanced by continued funding,” as well as any organization where that condition wouldn’t be met;
- Recommendations on “appropriate strategies” for reform that would emphasize “transition” from dues paying to voluntary contributions, as well as “legislative, regulatory and administrative mechanisms” to “selectively fund the specific parts of an international organization that align with U.S. interests.”
- Recommendations on “appropriate strategies” to reduce any “disproportionate” U.S. share of support for specific U.N. and other budgets.
- Iinternational peacekeeping operations, where U.N. spending has steeply spiraled over a decade, though it is now slowly declining, and where sexual abuse and other scandals have proliferated;
- Pay scales for U.N. and other international staffers, which have eluded serious U.S. attempts at analysis
- “Resolutions or sanctions that single out the State of Israel.”
Moreover, the process is clearly seen as ongoing—the draft order calls for the Accountability Committee to “perform future reviews as directed by the President”—and, to prevent another black hole from developing over U.N. funding, to keep its accounting results on a public website.
Google calls staffers back to US after Trump order on immigration, report says
Google called on its employees who may be affected by President Trump’s immigration order to get back to the U.S. as soon as possible, according to a report published Saturday.
Bloomberg obtained a copy of a memo from the company’s CEO, Sundar Pichai.
"It’s painful to see the personal cost of this executive order on our colleagues," Pichai wrote. "We’ve always made our view on immigration issues known publicly and will continue to do so."
An unidentified source told Bloomberg that the concern is that employees from one of the seven countries that Trump identified may not be allowed back in to the U.S., even if that person has a valid visa.
"We are advising our clients from those seven countries who have green cards or any type of H-1B visa not to travel outside the U.S." Ava Benach, a partner at immigration law firm Benach Collopy LLP, said in the report. “No one is really sure whether a green card holder from these seven countries can return to the U.S. now. It’s fairly clear that an H-1B visa holder can’t," Benach said.
Trump's executive order suspends all immigration from countries with terrorism concerns for 90 days.
The State Department said the three-month ban in the directive applied to Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen - all Muslim-majority nations.
The order also calls for Homeland Security and State Department officials, along with the director of national intelligence, to review what information the government needs to fully vet would-be visitors and come up with a list of countries that don't provide it.
The order says the government will give countries 60 days to start providing the information or citizens from those countries will be barred from traveling to the United States.
The temporary halt to refugee processing does include exceptions for people claiming religious persecution, so long as their religion is a minority faith in their country. That could apply to Christians from Muslim-majority countries.
Trump-Putin call will be positive says top Russian official
The first official contact between President Donald Trump and his Russia counterpart Vladimir Putin is expected to be “positive”, Russian officials say.
Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted influential security chief Nikolai Patrushey on Saturday. He is the secretary of Russia’s Security Council.
The telephone call between expected to take place later Saturday will be the first official contact between the two leaders since Trump was sworn in as president last week.
TRUMP, MEXICAN LEADER TALK -- BY PHONE -- AS TENSIONS RISE
Trump senior advisor Kellyanne Conway told “Fox & Friends” on Friday that the two leaders may speak about U.S. sanctions against Russia and how to improve relations between the two nations.
Recent polls show that anti-American sentiment in Russia has dropped to 56 percent. Pollsters say it’s due to Trump’s indication he wants to improve relations.
The Kremlin has welcomed Trump's promises to mend ties with Moscow, which have been badly strained by the Ukrainian crisis, the war in Syria and allegations of Russian meddling in the U.S. elections.
According to Denis Volkav of the Levada Center, Russia’s independent pollster, the Russian government has been gradually ending state television propaganda to get the public ready for possible reconciliation.
Ahead of the call planned for Saturday, Trump was noncommittal about whether he was considering lifting the economic penalties. He told reporters: "We'll see what happens. As far as the sanctions, very early to be talking about that."
Trump made those remarks Friday alongside British Prime Minister Theresa May, whose country — as part of the European Union — also levied sanctions on Russia following its provocations in Ukraine. Voicing the view of many in Europe, May said, "We believe the sanctions should continue."
On Saturday, Trump is also set to speak with the prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel. In the afternoon the president is scheduled to speak with the president of France, François Hollande, and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Vice President Mike Pence was expected to be on the Putin call with Trump. He wasn't expected to join other diplomatic calls the president planned for Saturday.
McConnell refuses to say whether 'nuclear option' in Supreme Court nomination is on table
The top Republican Senator Friday refused to say whether or not his colleagues would take the so-called “nuclear option” during the confirmation process for President Trump’s Supreme Court pick, but promised that the nominee will be “confirmed.”
“My answer’s going to be ... [Democrats] have set the standard,” Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told Politico.
If Republicans are unable to secure enough Democratic votes for Trump’s pick, they can change the rules and curb the filibuster. Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., did that for lower court nominees and other nominations in 2013.
Trump has called on McConnell to kill the filibuster if Democrats resist his pick, but McConnell said the decision is not up to Trump.
"That’s not a presidential decision. That’s a Senate decision," McConnell told Politico.
Senate Republicans prevented former President Obama from filling Justice Antonin Scalia's seat, a political gamble that paid off when Trump was elected.
Trump has promised to seek someone in the mold of the conservative icon, who died nearly a year ago after serving on the Supreme Court for more than 29 years.
Trump said that his nominee is someone who will get approved, but Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Democrats will vigorously fight any nominee not “mainstream.”
As minority leader, Schumer won't have the same power as McConnell to block a nominee. But his words signal that Democrats could filibuster and force Republicans to round up 60 votes to move ahead.
That will be a challenge for the GOP since they only hold 52 seats. McConnell suggested to the magazine that Senate democrats should not even require 60 votes.
GREGG JARRETT: THE FIRST (AND FRIVOLOUS) LAWSUIT AGAINST PRESIDENT TRUMP
“The view was that you don’t filibuster judges ,” McConnell told the magazine. “It’s ironic that Professor Schumer was actually the one that said let’s open up the toolbox and use all of the tools. And so he’s the guy you ought to be talking to on that issue: He invited, in effect, where we are today.”
A spokesman from Schumer’s office, in response to McConnell, said, “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”
Friday, January 27, 2017
2 arrested in flag burning protest in Iowa
Officials arrest two people on Thursday after a group of protesters set several American flags on fire during a rally at an Iowa pedestrian mall.
Iowa City Press Citizen reported that the group was protesting “racial and social injustice” in Iowa City.
During the rally, a FedEx worker rushed to the scene, grabbing the flags and putting out the blaze with a fire extinguisher.
The delivery man told the Press Citizen that his actions were not connected to his FedEx employer.
Many took to Twitter to applaud the man’s actions, some referring to him as a “hero.”
Police arrested and charged 21-year-old Kelli Ebensberger and 23-year-old Paul Osgerby with violating the city’s public burn ordinance, which is considered a misdemeanor.
"When I see the flag, I see racial injustice," Paul Osgerby told the Press Citizen. "I see social injustice from Native American genocide to African-American slavery to failing to recognize women as citizens until the 20th century.”
The group reportedly did not have permits for the fire.
"It’s not for the content of what they were burning but rather for violating the city ordinance of open burning," Iowa City Police Sgt. Scott Gaarde said.
WQAD reported that protesters said their actions were protected under First Amendment rights.
Ebensberger and Osgerby are scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 23.
Carlos Slim calls for rare press conference days after border wall announcement
Mexican president doubles down on refusing to pay for wall |
The focus of the press conference was not immediately clear, but a spokesman for Slim told Fortune that the billionaire will take reporters’ questions.
In November, Forbes called Slim the world’s “biggest billionaire loser” after Trump’s election, after his fortune plunged from 451.7 billion to an estimated $45.2 billion.
During the presidential campaign, Trump accused Slim—who supported Hillary Clinton-- of orchestrating negative coverage of him in the Times. At one point, the real estate mogul said Times reporters were "not journalists" but were "corporate lobbyists for Carlos Slim and Hillary Clinton."
The telecommunications magnate, who is one of the world's richest people, said that if Trump achieves his promises to expand the U.S. economy, create millions of jobs and lower middle-class taxes, it will be "fantastic" for Mexico by increasing U.S. consumption.
And Trump's promise for big spending on infrastructure projects would mean more jobs for Mexicans because there are not enough Americans to fill them, Slim said.
He added that Trump's tough talk toward Mexico should spur the country to refocus on investing in its own economy.
O'Reilly: Sanctuary Cities 'Promote Anarchy' & Trump Should Cut Their Funding
In his Talking Points Memo tonight, Bill O'Reilly slammed the pro-illegal immigration lobby's objections to President Donald Trump's executive actions.
On Wednesday, Trump signed two executive orders that cover a range of immigration enforcement measures, including starting the wall on the southern border and threatening sanctuary cities with a cut-off of funding.
O'Reilly said that "all hell is breaking loose," as many on the left simply do not want U.S. immigration laws enforced.
He pointed out that whether they oppose immigration laws for humanitarian, personal or political reasons, the fact is that it's up to Congress to change existing laws.
"You apply to come to the U.S.A., and your application is either accepted or rejected. If you simply show up with no papers, you're violating U.S. law," O'Reilly said. "So, there really isn't any legal argument here. It's all about theory and politics."
He said that "irresponsible" politicians like Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio are ignoring federal law by operating sanctuary cities.
"So if these protesters and these loony mayors think that open borders and lax immigration enforcement are good things, they're idiots and deserve to be scorned," O'Reilly said.
"Breaking it down, sanctuary cities and counties promote anarchy. If the left doesn't like immigration law, petition Congress to change it. If the mayors refuse to obey federal law, President Trump should cut off federal funds immediately."
Trump spokesman says 20-percent tax on Mexican goods could fund wall
President Trump’s plan to make Mexico pay for the wall he intends to build on the southern border may have taken shape Thursday, when his spokesman suggested imposing a 20-percent import tax on Mexican goods.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer mentioned the possibility to reporters on Air Force One Thursday, as relations between Trump and his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto spiraled.
In this Nov. 10, 2016 file photo, workers raise a
taller fence along the Mexico-US border between the towns of Anapra,
Mexico and Sunland Park, New Mexico
(The Associated Press)
"If you tax that $50 billion at 20 percent of imports – which is by the way a practice that 160 other countries do – right now our country's policy is to tax exports and let imports flow freely in, which is ridiculous," he said. "By doing it that we can do $10 billion a year and easily pay for the wall just through that mechanism alone. That's really going to provide the funding."
The comments came on another packed day for the Trump administration, and a tumultuous one regarding immigration and Mexico policy. Sources confirmed that Mark Morgan has been removed as head of Border Patrol, in the wake of Trump's executive actions a day earlier boosting the agency and directing the construction of a wall.
In the wake of those orders, Nieto also canceled a scheduled meeting with Trump later this month.
Trump insisted throughout his successful campaign that not only would he build a wall to secure the border from illegal immigration and drugs, but that Mexico would pay for it. The oft-repeated pledge prompted speculation and even derision in the U.S., and outrage in Mexico. Nieto, while canceling the meeting, also insisted his nation will not fund the project, which could cost $12 billion or more.
Trump responded to Nieto by saying the meeting would be a waste of time, anyway, and tweeting that the U.S. is on the short end of the trading stick with Mexico.
Spicer raised the possibility of a tax after Trump told congressional Republicans that trade revenue from Mexico could finance the wall. That revenue would apparently be a component of a border tax plan that would be part of larger tax reforms.
Talk of a possible tax on U.S. imports from Mexico raised some eyebrows in Asia, where exports to the U.S. drive growth in many economies.
Japanese officials said on Friday they hoped to soon hold talks on trade with U.S. officials. Finance Minister Taro Aso said he hoped to explain the "reality of Japanese employment" in the U.S.
The Japanese government spokesman refused comment on the spat, but said Tokyo would watch for any impact on Japanese companies.
Mexico and the U.S. trade about $531 billion in goods and services each year, with the U.S. running a $58 million trade deficit with its third-biggest partner. Cars, heavy machinery and agricultural products form the bulk of U.S. imports from Mexico.
Imposing the tax would likely require renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump has said he intends to do.
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