San Francisco to pay $190G to undocumented immigrant over sanctuary law violation, lawyer says

Frigging Unbelievable!

A man from El Salvador in the U.S. illegally who sued San Francisco after police turned him over to immigration authorities in violation of the city's sanctuary law is set to be awarded $190,000, his attorney said Thursday.
Pedro Figueroa-Zarceno, 33, reached the settlement agreement with the city attorney's office, said Saira Hussain, a staff attorney at the Asian Law Caucus who represented Zarceno. The agreement must be approved by the Board of Supervisors.
“It’s really important for San Francisco to remain a sanctuary city not in name only but also in practice,” Hussain told The San Francisco Examiner. “Our hope is that the department is going to look into this further and really examine the way that the department can do more."
Figueroa-Zarceno sued San Francisco in January for violating its sanctuary city law.
The construction worker said he went to police in December 2015 after getting a call from authorities that his stolen car had been found. Instead of helping him, he said, officers detained him and called immigration authorities.
He was taken into custody by federal authorities outside the police station and was in jail for two months. He has been fighting his deportation since his release.
"What happened to me was very unfair and it was an injustice," Figueroa-Zerceno said. "I went into the police station to seek help and they didn't tell me what was happening and they arrested me and treated me badly."
City law prohibits law enforcement officers from cooperating with federal immigration officials except when violent criminals are involved.
Part of the law's purpose was to encourage immigrants to report crimes they may be afraid of disclosing because of fear that investigating officers would turn them over to immigration authorities.
San Francisco's sanctuary law was thrust into the national debate on immigration after the July 2015 slaying of 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle.
The man charged with murder in Steinle's slaying, Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, had been released by San Francisco sheriff's officials months earlier despite a request by immigration officials to keep him behind bars.
House Republicans took action Thursday to crack down on illegal immigrants and the cities that shelter them.
One bill passed by the House would deny federal grants to sanctuary cities and another, Kate’s Law, would increase the penalties for deported aliens who try to return to the United States.

U.S. Sets New Visa Requirements for Applicants From Six Countries, DHS Announces New Security for International Flights

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The U.S. is setting new requirements for visa applicants from refugees and citizens of six nations.
The move comes as the Supreme Court partially restores President Trump’s executive order to protect the nation.
Visa applicants from Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen will now require close family or business ties to be exempted from the order.
It goes into affect starting Thursday night at 8:00 P.M. Eastern time.
To apply for U.S. entry applicants will need to prove a relationship with a parent, child, spouse, son or daughter in-law, or sibling.
The State Department does not plan to cancel any previously scheduled visa appointments for residents from the six affected countries.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security announces new security measures for international flights bound for the U.S.
Secretary John Kelly presented the changes during the Center for New American Security’s annual conference earlier Wednesday, saying its time to raise the global baseline of aviation security.
He said his department will issue safety guidelines to airlines with direct flights to the U.S.
The measures will be a requirement for countries looking to avoid a ban on laptops or other electronics.
The changes will include better vetting of airline employees, and thorough interviewing of passengers.

Pres. Trump Says the U.S. is ‘Freeing Up Towns’ From MS-13 Gang

President Trump says his immigration actions are liberating towns from gangs, specifically the notorious MS-13 gang.
The Trump administration says the president’s strict immigration policies already discouraged potential gang members from crossing the border into the United States.
Republicans also pushed to stop foreign aid to MS-13 home countries, including El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.
President Trump said his administration’s efforts toward finding a solution for the country’s problem with illegal immigration and violent crime have already begun to make an impact.
This comes as the House is voting on Kate’s Law and the No Sanctuary for Criminals Act on Thursday.

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Barrasso: 'ObamaCare is a Bus Going Over a Cliff - The Dems Say Stay Onboard'

A top Republican characterized ObamaCare as a "bus going over a cliff," urging his colleagues to rid the American people of the "government's control" of health care.
Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyoming) said the current senate bill eliminates government mandates and taxes, and stabilizes health insurance markets.
The former orthopaedic surgeon said that premiums will decrease by 30 percent in the short-term, and said Medicaid's solvency will be stabilized.
The latest Fox News Poll showed that 27 percent of voters support the bill, while 54 percent oppose.
Barrasso said he is willing to hear ideas from his colleagues, including notable bill opponent Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), on how to make the bill better and get it through the Senate.
"ObamaCare is a bus going over a cliff. The Democrats are saying 'stay onboard' and I'm saying we're just trying to rescue people from this collapsing ObamaCare debacle," Barrasso said.

Military option for North Korea being prepared for Trump, McMaster says

President Trump's national security adviser said Wednesday that the administration is considering a wider range of strategies on how to deal with North Korea, including the military option.
“The threat is much more immediate now and so it’s clear that we can’t repeat the same approach – failed approach of the past,” H.R. McMaster, the adviser, said during a security conference with Homeland Security Chief John Kelly.
He said it would be insanity to continue to do the same thing the U.S. has done for years and expect a different result.
McMaster’s comments come a day before Trump is scheduled to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. South Korea’s new leader vowed to stand firmly with Trump against North Korea, downplaying his past advocacy for a softer approach toward the isolated regime.
"Together we will achieve the dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear program, peace on the Korean Peninsula and eventually peace in Northeast Asia," Moon said.
The talks between Moon and Trump, which begin with dinner on Thursday night and then formal talks on Friday, come amid intense wrangling over North Korea.
China is pushing the United States to start negotiations with the North. That prospect appears unlikely as Trump grows frustrated over Beijing's level of economic pressure on the North, its wayward ally.
North Korea shows no sign of wanting to restart talks on abandoning its nuclear weapons program.
Moon told The Washington Post that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is "unreasonable" and "very dangerous" and that pressure was necessary. But Moon said sanctions alone would not solve the problem, and dialogue was needed "under the right conditions."
The THAAD missile defense is also expected to be talked about. Seoul delayed the full deployment of the U.S. system that is intended to protect South Korea and the 28,000 U.S. forces on the peninsula.
Moon's government has ordered an environmental review before allowing additional launchers for the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system. South Korean officials say that does not mean they are placating China or reversing the decision, which risks angering Washington.
The U.S. has stepped up shows of military force near the Korean Peninsula under Trump, and outrage in Washington over North Korea has only grown since the death last week of U.S. university student Otto Warmbier. He had spent 17 months in detention in the totalitarian nation for stealing a propaganda poster and returned home this month in a coma. Three other Americans and six South Koreans are still being held in the North.

U.S. lays out criteria for visa applicants from six Muslim nations

Visa applicants from six Muslim-majority countries must have a close U.S. family relationship or formal ties to a U.S. entity to be admitted to the United States under guidance distributed by the U.S. State Department on Wednesday.
The guidance defined a close familial relationship as being a parent, spouse, child, adult son or daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or sibling, including step siblings and other step family relations, according to a copy of a cable distributed to all U.S. diplomatic posts and seen by Reuters.
The cable, first reported by the Associated Press, said close family “does not include grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-laws and sisters-in-law, fiancés, and any other ‘extended’ family members.”
It also specified that any relationship with a U.S. entity “must be formal, documented, and formed in the ordinary course, rather than for the purpose of evading the E.O.,” a reference to U.S. President Donald Trump’s March 6 executive order barring most U.S. travel by citizens of the six nations for 90 days.
The cable provides advice to U.S. consular officers on how to interpret Monday’s Supreme Court ruling that allowed parts of the executive order, which had been blocked by the courts, to be implemented while the highest U.S. court considers the matter.
The six nations whose citizens are covered by the executive order are Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.
Asked about the guidance issued on Wednesday night, the State Department declined to comment on internal communications.
The cable’s language closely mirrored the Supreme Court’s order on the travel ban, though it appeared to interpret it in a narrow manner, notably in its definition of close family.
It was unclear on Wednesday evening whether the State Department’s interpretation of the court’s order would spark further legal action by opponents of the ban.
The guidance gave several examples of what might constitute a bona fide relationship with a U.S. entity, and said broad categories would be exempt from the travel ban, such as those eligible for student visas, “as their bona fide relationship to a person or entity is inherent in the visa classification.”
Similarly, those eligible for family or employment based immigrant visa applications are exempt from the travel ban, the cable said.
The cable said “a worker who accepted an offer of employment from a company in the United States or a lecturer invited to address an audience in the United States would be exempt” from the travel ban, but someone who simply made a hotel reservation would not count as someone with a bona fide relationship.
Trump’s executive order also imposed a 120-day ban on entry to the United States by refugees. Monday’s Supreme Court order, however, said the ban did not cover those refugees “who can credibly claim a bona fide relationship with a person or entity” in the United States.
The State Department guidance was unclear on what U.S. refugee agencies regard as a key question: whether their own dealings with refugees applying to come to the United States constituted a bona fide relationship.
The cable said that consulates should continue to interview applicants for so-called diversity visas, which are granted to individuals from countries that typically do not send many immigrants to the United States. In 2015, around 10,500 citizens from the six banned countries were selected for the diversity visa lottery, according to State Department figures.
The travel ban will likely bar such visas for citizens of the six countries, the cable acknowledged, stating that “we anticipate that very few DV applicants are likely to be exempt from the E.O.’s suspension of entry or to qualify for a waiver.”

Campaign Research Group Sued for Exposing Voter Data

An analytics firm specializing in voter information is being hit with a lawsuit.
Two Florida residents say Deep Root Analytics left the personal information of 198 Americans exposed online without any kind of online security protection.
The lawsuit claims the firm was negligent in protecting information about the general public, specifically Florida residents.
The company uses data to determine how to target voter demographics.
Last week the Upguard Security firm discovered the group set up the data to be available to anyone who visited Amazon’s cloud storage account without a password.
A spokesperson for Deep Root says the lawsuit is without merit.